User:Dominics Fire/sandbox

Square Co., Ltd.'s Final Fantasy VII was one of the first major computer role-playing games released for the Sony PlayStation and was Square's largest game at the time. Since then, Square has expanded the storyline by adding new games and other content, all set in the same fictional world. This work in progress is called the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and so far fills four video games, two animated movies and two books. This expanded Final Fantasy VII storyline has featured a cast of dozens of major and minor characters.

Cast creation and influence
Producer Yoshinori Kitase stated that voice acting was one of the topic to which the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII team paid close attention. The voice actors which debuted in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children were kept for all the other titles of the project. As Cloud and Vincent have similar personalities, care was taken to differentiate them and their lines.

Cloud Strife
Cloud Strife (クラウド・ストライフ) is the game's primary protagonist and a self-proclaimed ex-SOLDIER-turned mercenary employed by AVALANCHE. Initially, Cloud is confused and conflicted with an occasionally arrogant attitude and a cool disposition, until a traumatic experience in the Lifestream helps him discover lost memories of his true self. He wears a purple/dark blue SOLDIER uniform and is distinguished by his glowing blue eyes (a sign of having been exposed to a large amount of mako). He has spiky blond hair, a trait that is meant to clearly distinguish him from the game's primary antagonist, Sephiroth. He wields an over sized sword in combat.

Aerith Gainsborough
Aerith Gainsborough (エアリス・ゲインズブール) (romanized as Aeris Gainsborough in the original Final Fantasy VII game but retconned as Aerith in later publications) is a flower girl on the streets of Midgar, sought after by Shinra's research department because she is the last of the Cetra. She asks Cloud to be her bodyguard after a run-in with the Turks, and subsequently joins AVALANCHE. Aerith has long brown hair she keeps in a braid with pink bows and vivid green eyes, and wears a red mini-jacket with a pink dress.

Vincent Valentine
Vincent Valentine (ヴィンセント・ヴァレンタイン) is a dark, brooding, and sardonic man whose heart has been numbed by a tragic love (he loved Lucrescia Crescent, and she saved him after he was shot by Hojo when Vincent discovered that Lucrescia was part of an experiment (the Jenova project, from which Sephiroth was born) implanting in his body one of the weapons (the most lethal weapon: chaos) and the protomateria into Vincent to control chaos), Vincent is a former Turk gunman who was experimented on by Hojo approximately thirty years before the start of the game, and consequently failed to age and developed superhuman abilities and characteristics. After the numerous experiments and help of the protomateria, Vincent is able to transform into other demons while having nearly complete control. Cloud and the others eventually discover him sleeping inside a coffin in the basement of the Shinra Mansion, where he joins them in their quest. (Vincent also starred in his own game, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus for the Playstation 2.)

Sephiroth
Sephiroth (セフィロス): Sephiroth is known to be the most powerful member of SOLDIER ever, and rose to a prominent rank at an early age. After a traumatic incident in which he learned of what he assumed to be his true origins, he left SOLDIER and indeed civilization altogether with plans to become a god-like power by wounding the Planet with Meteor and absorbing the entirety of the Lifestream sent to heal the damage. He manipulates Cloud (and the party, by extension) over the course of the game, as well as killing Aerith.

Sephiroth is also a member of the party for a very short period (during a flashback sequence), however he is totally controlled by the computer during combat and the player cannot change his equipment and materia. Sephiroth is also personified by his primary weapon the powerful Masamune sword which he uses to inflict large amounts of damage.

Sephiroth is destroyed by Cloud at the end of the game, however, he returns for a short time in the sequel Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children where he takes over the body of Kadaj only to be defeated by Cloud again. However he warns Cloud that he will "Never be a memory" indicating that he will return once more to challenge Cloud.

Zack Fair
Zack Fair (ザックス・フェア) is a non-player character from the game Final Fantasy VII, and the protagonist of its prequel, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. He appears only in flashback sequences, which portray him as almost identical to Cloud Strife (the game's main playable character) in physical appearance except for his black hair. When strung together, the sequences explain a great deal about Cloud's past and his connection to Sephiroth, the game's arch-villain. He also wielded the Buster Sword before Cloud.

Zack was born in the town of Gongaga, where he lived until he left to join Shinra's militant force SOLDIER. Years later, he went to Nibelheim to investigate the nearby Mako reactor which had been malfunctioning. However, during the investigation Sephiroth discovered the truth behind his origins and went on a rampage destroying the Nibelheim village. Zack eventually confronted Sephiroth in a duel only to be defeated easily. Following the battle both he and Cloud were used by Hojo as test specimens. However Zack managed to escape after four years and carried the incapacitated Cloud with him to freedom. While on the run, Zack fights for both Cloud and himself for their freedom from ShinRa. They were spotted riding the back of a truck headed to Midgar, where Cloud was scooped to get sniped, but Zack was able to get Cloud out of the way before he was shot. Zack and Cloud get out of the truck, taking cover among the rocks in the desert. Zack sets Cloud down in a safe area, making sure he wouldn't get hurt, and he goes to confront ShinRa and the Turks. They make it out safely, but are later engaged in another battle, and Zack dies with the surviving Cloud at his side. It is after this that Cloud begins to adopt Zack's personality traits, memories, even habitual gestures, as his own. This was in the Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core game and Final Fantasy: Last Order

Zack met Aerith five years before the game began, and was her first crush. It's possible that they may have been dating for as many as two years, however, the specifics of their relationship are still unknown. It does however, state that in Final Fantasy 7, Aerith had an ex-boyfriend in SOLDIER.

Zack re-appears in Advent Children mostly in flashbacks but later as a part of the lifestream alongside Aerith.

Other major characters
thumb|right|250px|Tetsuya Nomura's designs of the main characters in the original Final Fantasy VII game.

Barret Wallace
Barret Wallace (バレット・ウォーレス)is a main character in Final Fantasy VII. He is voiced by Masahiro Kobayashi in the original Japanese publications of the Compilation and by Beau Billingslea in the English dubs. In the original game, Barret is the leader of the paramilitary organization known as AVALANCHE. He is opposed to the use of Shinra’s mako technology, which he believes to be killing the planet. Barret also has a gun-arm, which replaced the hand he lost after an attack by the Shinra Company.

Barret grew up in the small, coal mining village of Corel. He advocated cooperating with Shinra to build a mako reactor in Corel, as he believed that it would lead to an easier life for Corel's people. After the reactor was built — much to the dissatisfaction of Barret's best friend, Dyne, however — anti-Shinra terrorists (also known as "AVALANCHE") attacked the reactor, and — believing that they may have been operating within Corel — Shinra responded to the incident by indiscriminately burning down the town of Corel, killing many citizens, including Barret's wife Myrna. He and Dyne were not in the village as the attack began, and when they tried to return, they were attacked by Shinra troops led by Scarlet. Though Barret survived, his right forearm was hit by gunfire and rendered useless when he tried, in vain, to prevent Dyne from falling off a cliff. Assuming Dyne to have been killed, he adopted Marlene, Dyne's daughter, and then traveled to Midgar. He also had a gun prosthetic grafted to his arm and began seeking revenge on Shinra, eventually becoming the leader of the second incarnation of AVALANCHE. However, he remained ignorant of the full extremity of the former AVALANCHE.

At the beginning of the original Final Fantasy VII, Barret is the leader of a para-military organization known as AVALANCHE. However, the group soon breaks up and Barret chooses to continue his mission to save the planet by joining with Cloud in the battle against Sephiroth. As the game proceeds, Barret maintains his hate for Shinra and what it is doing to the planet, but he also begins to regret his actions as the leader of AVALANCHE and mourns the loss of its members in Midgar.

Following the defeat of Sephiroth and the end of Meteor's threat, Barret traveled the world aiming to rebuild the planet's infrastructure and find new power sources to replace Mako. In Advent Children it is revealed that these efforts led to the discovery of oil. Barret also joins in the fight against Bahamut SIN. He later plays a part in aiding the World Regenesis Organization as shown in the game Dirge of Cerberus.

Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart (ティファ・ロックハート) (originally romanized as Tifa Lockheart) is a childhood friend of Cloud and a skilled martial artist. She is one of the lead members of AVALANCHE and convinces Cloud to join them in their rebellion against Shinra. She also have deep feelings for Cloud throughout the course of the game but is too scared to tell him how she feels. She has long dark brown hair tied back in a loose pony-tail and reddish-brown eyes.

Red XIII
Red XIII (レッドXIII) (also known as Nanaki) is a large and powerful lion/dog-like creature, coated with fire red fur. His species possesses great longevity, which surprises the party when they learn that his 48 years only amounts to adolescence by his species' standards. Though his real name is Nanaki, he is given the name Red XIII by Hojo, and the name sticks when the party rescues him from Hojo's laboratory. Nanaki believes that his father, Seto, had been a coward who abandoned Cosmo Canyon during a war with the now-extinct Gi Tribe, leaving the tribes to fight on their own. As such, he was deeply ashamed of being Seto's son.

Nobuo Uematsu, music composer for the Final Fantasy series, stated in a 2004 interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly that he always envisioned veteran actor Sean Connery providing the voice work for Red XIII. In Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, he is voiced by Liam O'Brien in English releases and Masachika Ichimura in Japanese releases.

Red XIII joined Cloud's group while they were rescuing Aerith Gainsborough from the Shinra building, where Hojo was attempting to breed Aerith with Nanaki in order to preserve what he believed to be two endangered species of animal. When the group later visits Cosmo Canyon, they meet the village elder, Bugenhagen, whom Red XIII refers to as his "grandfather." Here, Red XIII learns the truth about his father, Seto, who had actually fought the Gi Tribe when they were attacking Cosmo Canyon by way of a secret path. He managed to fight and defeat the Gi Tribe by himself, protecting the people of Cosmo Canyon, even as they fired poison arrows into his body, which soon turned him into stone. Finally knowing the truth of his proud heritage, Red XIII, with some encouragement from Bugenhagen, gains the courage to rejoin Cloud's party for the rest of their journey, during which he proves himself to be a valuable asset and friend.

Shortly before the game's ending, the player can return to Cosmo Canyon, where Bugenhagen — having lived to the age of 130 — lies on his death bed. Before passing away, Bugenhagen suggests to Red XIII that he may yet discover a mate, indicating that Red XIII is not the last of his kind. In the epilogue to the game's ending, Red XIII is shown 500 years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, looking over the overgrown ruins of Midgar, now aged into adulthood and accompanied by cubs, confirming Bugenhagen's prediction. Nanaki's "official" mate is named Dinne. They were mated in a special ceremony seen in "Before Crisis" at Cosmo Canyon. She secluded herself in a spiritual 2-year meditation, which is why she was not seen in FFVII.

Red XIII's role in Advent Children is rather minor. He first appears in the opening cinematic of the film, which is a CG rendering of Final Fantasy VII's epilogue. He attacks Bahamut SIN with the other party members, while Cait Sith rides on his back, rather than an animatronic moogle, as he had in Final Fantasy VII. Red XIII has only one line in the film, in the church after the final battle is concluded. Red XIII also makes a very brief appearance in Dirge of Cerberus. Unlike the other party members, who appear earlier on to help Vincent, Red XIII only appears in a small scene after the credits where he is lying down next to Shelke outside of the Seventh Heaven bar. Square Enix confessed that the only reason they haven't given Red XIII more screen time is because his fur is hard to animate.

Cait Sith
Cait Sith (ケット・シー) is a talking toy cat who is friendly, but often unreliable. He rides on the back of a stuffed moogle, which does all of the pair's fighting. During Final Fantasy VII, Cait Sith is a cat that sits on top of a giant stuffed moogle, to which he gives orders by using a megaphone. In subsequent publications, he's usually been seen on his own two feet. As a somewhat cartoonish character, he quite noticeably stands out from the game's overall dark theme. His name is derived from Celtic folklore, meaning "Fairy Cat." Several models of Cait Sith exist. Known as "Stray" in the original English release of Final Fantasy VI (but changed back to "Cait Sith" in the GBA release), Cait Sith's current design initially appeared as an Esper in that title.

Cait Sith initially joins the party in the Gold Saucer. He joins after offering to use his abilities as a fortune teller to predict Cloud Strife's future. The prediction is a rather grim one, as he tells Cloud that he will find what he seeks but will also lose something dear, foreshadowing the ultimate fate of Aerith Gainsborough. He joins the party, arguing that he can't leave without knowing how this "rare fortune" will turn out. Later in the game, it is revealed that "Cait Sith" is actually an animatronic robot that is being controlled by remote by Reeve Tuesti, who is himself a reluctant member of the despotic Shinra's board of directors, where he serves as the head of the Department of Urban Development. Reeve's intent was to use Cait Sith to infiltrate AVALANCHE and sabotage their resistance efforts on behalf of his employers. When the team returns to the Gold Saucer to retrieve the Keystone required to gain entry to the Temple of the Ancients, Cait Sith's role as a spy becomes apparent, as he betrays the party by stealing the Keystone and handing it over to the Turks. However, Reeve has a change of heart, deciding that he wants to stay with the team and betray Shinra. Untrusting, Cloud refuses, but instead of getting kicked out of the team, he coerces them into letting him remain with them, revealing that Barret Wallace's adopted daughter, Marlene, is in his custody. Feeling that they have no choice, AVALANCHE agrees to allow Cait Sith to remain with them.

Later, in the Temple of the Ancients, it's revealed that to unlock its secret (the Black Materia), a mechanism inside the temple had to be activated. However, it's also discovered that activating it would cause the very structure to collapse upon itself, crushing anyone who attempted to retrieve the Black Materia. Cait Sith was willing to sacrifice himself, as he was just a stuffed toy and the most expendable member of the team. Cait Sith no.1's death is presented in a very dramatic fashion despite the fact that he was just a robot, but when looking further into the matter, it appears that Cait Sith does indeed have some sentience. Before he "dies," Aerith asks him to work his fortune-telling skills one more time to predict how compatible she and Cloud Strife were as a romantic couple. He comes to the conclusion that they are a perfect match, though it is never revealed what the fortune exactly read. He then leaves to solve the puzzle of the Ancients that unlocks the Black Materia, and eventually succeeds in unlocking the materia but is destroyed as the temple implodes. Before he dies, he asks everyone not to forget him, even if more Cait Siths come after he's gone. Moments later, however, another version of Cait Sith awkwardly arrives on the scene, hence completely negating any tragedy or sense of loss in the process.

Cait Sith appears in Episode 20 of Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII to assist the Turks, while Reeve Tuesti (Cait Sith's controller) plays an overall small role in the game as architect of Midgar and director of Shinra's Housing and Urban Development Department. He rides on a stuffed MOG. Cait Sith makes a brief appearance in the latter half of Advent Children, fighting along with AVALANCHE when Edge is overrun by Shadow Creepers and attacked by Bahamut SIN. Square Enix has explained that the toysaurus moogle was cut due to the extra amount of work that would have been required to animate it. The creators notably point out that they already disliked animating both Cait Sith and Red XIII due to the level of detail required for their fur. Although the script in Final Fantasy VII didn't attempt to localize any of the character's accents or speech patterns, Advent Children does, and Cait Sith was given a Scottish accent. In Dirge of Cerberus, Cait Sith is the only character other than Vincent Valentine to be playable in the game, but for a short period of time. While Cait Sith retains the Scottish accent of Advent Children, his use of language does not include any Scottish slang or speech patterns, unlike the film. A reference to his small part in the plot is made by Yuffie in after a small skirmish with Deep Ground. Noticeably, Reeve never mentions Cait Sith by name and constantly refers to him with phrases such as "you-know-who". However, Cid speaks his first name in Dirge Of Cerberus during a conversation with Vincent.

Cait Sith, appearing as a Mascot costume, is a Dressphere used by Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2. In the video game Kingdom Hearts II, there is a gummiship called Cait Sith. It looks like Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII. In the MMO Final Fantasy XI there is a world server known as Caitsith. In Final Fantasy XI's expansion pack, Wings of the Goddess, Cait Sith appears as a time-traveling entity who requests the player's aid in lessening the suffering of those involved in the Crystal War. In Final Fantasy X, Lulu can obtain several Cait Sith dolls to use as weapons, where they usually inflict status ailments on the enemies when attacking. In Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales Cait Sith appears on several cards used in the game's card battle system, as well as one of the main characters in one of the Storybooks of the game. In this game, his dialogue is written to match the Scottish accent he has been given in previous incarnations.

As a character archetype, Cait Sith is a "shapeshifter", or, a character who represents the "X" factor in a story. He betrays the the adventuring party and then immediately betrays the ones that the he betrayed the party for. Afterwards, he even redeems himself to the adventuring party with a sacrifice of his body, but since the body in his case is superficial and dispensable, sense of tragedy is lost. In a short time, he becomes a traitor, a savior and a comic relief.

Cid Highwind
Cid Highwind (シド・ハイウィンド), part of a long tradition of Final Fantasy Cids, is thirty-two years old and the most uncouth of the protagonists, constantly swearing, losing his temper and chain-smoking cigarettes. Despite this rough appearance, he has a good heart, and is voted temporary leader of AVALANCHE at one point when Cloud Strife is incapacitated with Mako Poisoning. The residents of Rocket Town all call him "the Captain," where he serves as something of an honorary mayor. Shinra's airship maintenance crew considers him a legend and were easily convinced to mutiny in stealing the Highwind for him. The party first meets Cid when in Rocket Town, where he waits, hoping that Rufus has agreed to restart the space mission. However, he is displeased to learn that Rufus has only turned up because he wants the Tiny Bronco, and jumps on board the plane when the party attempts to take off in it. Realizing that he is finished with Shinra, Cid joins the party.

Since childhood, Cid dreamed of becoming the first human in space. However, just as the rocket was about to launch, Cid realized that an engineer named Shera had defied orders and run a last-minute double-check of the rocket's oxygen tanks. Cid aborted the launch to save her life. In the wake of this disaster, Shinra concluded that space exploration was not financially viable and withdrew funding from the project altogether once they had discovered that Mako energy was a far more profitable venture. Shortly afterwards, Cid's beloved airship, the Highwind, was confiscated by Shinra. The hot-tempered Cid blamed Shera for destroying his dream. After the incident Shera devoted herself to doing whatever she could to atone for her "mistake," and Cid continued to treat her abominably, verbally abusing her. However, her concern over the oxygen tanks is eventually proven to have merit when an explosion of the oxygen tank she was checking during the original launch temporarily traps Cid in orbit during a later successful attempt to launch the rocket into space. After this, Cid finally forgives Shera, realizing that she probably saved his life by performing the investigation. As a result, he has a newfound respect for Shera and her work.

It was Cid who, along with his airship crew, saved Tifa Lockhart and the party from Shinra at Junon and took them on board the Highwind. Because of his role as captain of that ship, he is made temporary leader of AVALANCHE during the Huge Materia missions at Fort Condor and North Corel; Cloud, the leader up to that point, is incapacitated after falling into the Lifestream and contracting Mako Poisoning. Once Cloud returns, Cid continues to play an active role within the group and will often ask Cloud for a chance to play the snowboard game or ride the chocobos at the Gold Saucer (provided he is in Cloud's battle party). Aside from his ambitions as an astronaut, Cid designed a number of aircraft and is also a great pilot. Among his designs were the propeller plane, named the "Tiny Bronco", and the Highwind airship. Later, he became the pilot and captain of an unearthed airship of unknown ancient origin and christened it the "Shera" (the successor to the Highwind seen in both Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, named in honor of Shera&mdash;in the Japanese releases it is called the "Sierra", which is simply the Japanese phonetic equivalent of Shera.

By the time of Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, one year after the events of Advent Children, he is a legendary airship pilot. He has become the leader of an airship division with support from the World Regenesis Organization (he arrives in the game aboard the Shera, with other airships nearby). He leads the attack against the DeepGround Soldiers in Midgar from behind the controls of his airship. At the end of the game, he does his part in defeating Omega WEAPON by destroying a Shinra reactor, cutting off the monster's power. Other reactors are destroyed by fellow AVALANCHE members and the WRO. Cid is married to Shera at this time (he even mentions that she has been worried about Vincent ).

In Kingdom Hearts, Cid fled his hometown of Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden and ended up in Traverse Town where he worked as a store attendant. Together with Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon, he aided Sora in his battle against the Heartless. Cid later gave up his job as a store attendant and, true to his love of flying, started selling Gummi ship parts. In the ending credits of Kingdom Hearts, Cid is seen reuniting Cloud Strife with the other Final Fantasy characters, and mainly Aerith. In Kingdom Hearts II Cid operates from the wizard Merlin's House in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden as a member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, where a large computer has been customized for his use. While Sora and the other heroes are fighting the Heartless in the canyon it is Cid and Merlin who are left to defend the city of Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden. The two do not get along during the game, due to Cid favoring science over magic. Cid gains a speaking role in the sequel. In both games, Cid's infamous foul mouth is devoid of any kind of swearing, and his smoking is replaced by a long toothpick-like piece of wood that he chews on. His outfit is also different than the Final Fantasy versions. If anything, his costume is most similar to his "Final Fantasy VII" costume, but without the blue jacket.

Yuffie Kisaragi
Yuffie Kisaragi (ユフィ・キサラギ) is an optional playable character and self-proclaimed "Materia Hunter" who joins the party hoping to steal their Materia, with the intention of restoring her country, Wutai, to its former glory. Although a skillful ninja, Yuffie is prone to sea and air sickness and shows signs of kleptomania. She has grey eyes and black hair which is always tied back.

The player can encounter Yuffie during random battles in forests. If she is defeated, she may join the party depending on the player's dialogue choices. An incorrect answer causes her to steal some of the party's money and flee. Near the end of the game's first disc, it is possible for the player to set Cloud Strife up on a date with either her, Aerith, Barret, or Tifa. During the date with Yuffie, she kisses Cloud in an awkward sequence. If the Wutai continent is visited before the party's raid in Midgar, Yuffie steals the player's materia and flees to the town of Wutai, where she plays several tricks on the party to get rid of them. In the end, she gives the materia back after being saved from Don Corneo. In another sidequest, she must prove herself to her father Godo by beating the bosses of Wutai's five-story Pagoda, including her father himself. If successful, Godo asks Cloud to take Yuffie with him on his quest, and the party receives the Leviathan materia. Due to her nature as an optional character, Yuffie is absent from the game's FMV ending. However, her absence is later retconned in Dirge of Cerberus, where it shows that she was actually helping out in evacuating Midgar shortly before Meteor fell, during which she manages to rescue Vincent—having returned to the Sister Ray's controls in order to confirm Hojo's death—with a hover craft as Meteor begins to fall onto Midgar.

In Advent Children, she goes to Midgar in search of the kidnapped children and joins the other characters in their fight against Bahamut SIN. In "Reminiscence", an extra scene featured in the film's DVD edition, Yuffie attempts to contact Cloud to visit Barret and gives Cloud a gift: a "closed for business" sign to be used for his shop. The staff of the film admits in the DVD's audio commentary that the box of materia that Cloud keeps in the church is indeed Yuffie's. In the novella "Case of Barret", part of On the Way to a Smile, it is mentioned that Yuffie teaches wushu to the children in Wutai in the period between Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children. In Dirge of Cerberus, Yuffie joins the World Regenesis Organization and assist Vincent several times throughout the game, notably infiltrating the Mako Reactor Zero in the ruins of Midgar and shutting it off while Vincent defeats the members of Deepground. Yuffie also appears in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII during a sidequest.

Yuffie appears in the three games of the Kingdom Hearts series. In the first game, Yuffie is first seen in Traverse Town after the battle between Sora and Leon. Along with him, Cid and Aerith Gainsborough, she fights to defeat the Heartless who had destroyed their world. Yuffie also appeared in the Olympus Coliseum in an optional fight with Leon or alone. In Kingdom Hearts II, Yuffie aids Leon and the others as part of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, this time appearing in her Advent Children attire. During the ending credits, we see Yuffie giving a sea-salt ice cream to Cid, while Yuna, Paine and Rikku immediately stole hers, prompting the ninja to run after them.

Yuffie is a secret playable fighter in the PlayStation version of Ehrgeiz along with Tifa, Cloud, Sephiroth, Vincent and Zack. Yuffie also makes an appearance in Itadaki Street Portable along with Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Sephiroth.

Rufus Shinra
thumb|right|300px|[[Rufus Shinra and the Turks (left to right) Elena, Tseng, Rufus, Rude, Reno.]] Rufus Shinra (ルーファウス神羅) is a non-player character in Square's Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. He is voiced by Tōru Ōkawa in the original Japanese publications and Wally Wingert in the English dubs. His appearance is marked by neatly-groomed blonde hair, blue eyes and a white three-piece suit with a distinctive double-breasted jacket. In Final Fantasy VII, Rufus is depicted as callous, cold-hearted and ruthless. His views on how Shinra should conduct its rule over the world — through fear and intimidation rather than money — were considered dangerous by his father, and great care was taken to prevent them from influencing the company's inner workings. But by Advent Children it seems Rufus has reformed and is dedicated to helping the regeneration of the planet. He appears to enjoy subterfuge as much as he finds it useful, with his concealment of Jenova's head and use of deception in an attempt to overthrow his father.

At the beginning of Final Fantasy VII he is the Vice-President of the Shinra Electric Power Company, a monopoly corporation and "de facto" world government. After his father's death, he becomes the president of the company. He begins running his company through fear and intimidation whilst very sure that Shinra is capable of solving the various crisis facing Gaia. However, towards the close of the game he has a change of heart so he and Cloud's group put their differences aside to fight their common foes, Meteor and Sephiroth. Rufus' actions led to many positive things towards the end of the game, actions that benefited the world, such as removing Sephiroth's energy barrier and destroying two Weapons. However, Rufus is thought to have died when his office in Shinra Headquarters was hit by an energy blast from Diamond WEAPON.

In Advent Children, however, Rufus returns with the intention of repairing the damage his company had caused to the world, despite being in a wheelchair due to the disease Geostigma. However, it was revealed that the wheelchair was just a façade, as he was easily capable of standing to toss Jenova's head off the side of a building, then leaping off as Kadaj dove after it. He plays a significant role in the story, having come into possession of Jenova's remains. In his intent to repay the planet, Rufus is hinted as being the main, but anonymous, funder for the World Regenesis Organization.

Rufus also makes sporadic appearances in Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII where Rufus is seen supplying funding and information to AVALANCHE as an "anonymous benefactor," while suggesting to the Turks that there may be a leak in the company. He intended to use AVALANCHE to kill his father so that he could become President of the Shinra Company. The plan failed, though Rufus continued scheming. Another instance of Rufus in Before Crisis shows him in attendance at Rocket Town with his father, he and the President argue about Shinra's direction causing serious tension within the company.

Turks
The Turks (タークス) are a group that perform covert operations on behalf of Shinra, including espionage, kidnappings and assassinations. They also scout for potential candidates for Shinra's elite military unit, SOLDIER, and serve as bodyguards for the Shinra executives. The group's full name is the Department of Administrative Research. Within the game, the Turks Reno, Rude, Elena, and their leader Tseng serve as recurring antagonists throughout, although they are not above forming temporary alliances with AVALANCHE, the game's group of central protagonists.

Final Fantasy VII ' s prequel, Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, focuses exclusively on the Turks in the years leading up to the events of Final Fantasy VII. They also appear in Advent Children, set two years after the original. Here, they serve as allies of AVALANCHE, as well as bodyguards to Rufus Shinra and aid in his self-appointed mission to restore the world's vitality.

Elena
Elena (イリーナ) is a junior member of the Turks, and the only female member seen in the original Final Fantasy VII. She is a young woman with short, blonde hair and brown eyes. In Before Crisis, she was a high school student whose father was a teacher in the Shinra Military Academy and whose older sister was a member of the Turks. Though she resented her sister and the other Turks for outperforming her in their status, a later encounter with them convinced her to join the group. Elena obtained her position as the newest recruit after Reno sustained injuries battling AVALANCHE in Midgar during Final Fantasy VII.

Elena is shown as naive, impetuous and somewhat overeager, with a loose tongue that sometimes causes her to inadvertently reveal secret information. She takes her work much more seriously than Reno and Rude do, and also became quite frustrated with their laid-back attitudes. She also has a crush on Tseng and temporarily holds Cloud's party accountable for the injuries he suffered while investigating the Temple of the Ancients. Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Elena appears briefly in Advent Children, wherein she is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version and Bettina Bush in the English version. Her role is less prominent than that of her colleagues, Reno and Rude, spending most of the movie off-camera recovering along with Tseng after being tortured by Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. The first time she appears in the movies is on her bloodied I.D. card, which Kadaj drops in front of Rufus Shinra after Cloud's visit with Rufus, the second time she appears is when she and Tseng both save Rufus when he falls pursuing Kadaj and when she and the other Turks were witnesses the recovery of Rufus from Geostigma near the end of the movie.

Reno
Reno (レノ) is a prominent member of the Turks, ranking directly below Tseng. He sports a lanky physique, unkempt red hair terminating in a long ponytail and two symmetrical red tattoos on his cheekbones. He is always seen wearing goggles on his forehead. He is also much less attentive to dress code than his colleagues. He wears the Turks uniform but with his jacket unzipped and his shirt untucked and open-necked without a tie. He uses a retractable, metallic stun baton, called an Electro-Mag Rod, as a weapon. He is characterized as arrogant, cynical, and somewhat lazy, but is highly skilled and takes pride in his work. Reno also has a penchant for gossiping and is a competent helicopter pilot. In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, he is portrayed as being somewhat less cynical, clumsy and more of a comical character. His fighting skills are obviously far above the level of a normal human, but he is defeated with relative ease by Loz and Yazoo.

Reno is first encountered in Final Fantasy VII when he enters a derelict church in the slums of Midgar's Sector 5 in an attempt to capture Aerith (where he instructs his subordinates to be careful not to step on the flowers after stepping on them himself). Not long after, he activates the bombs that blow up the Sector 7 support pillar before having a brief battle with Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart and Barret Wallace. This fight leaves him temporarily incapacitated. He later reappears outside of Gongaga with his long-time partner, Rude, having been assigned to intercept AVALANCHE. Despite the rivalry between the two groups, he is not beyond teaming up with Cloud and his companions in Wutai, where both parties had to work together after each had a member kidnapped by Don Corneo. After this incident, Reno's group receives new orders to search for Cloud but Reno decides not to fight Cloud on the pretext of being off duty (Reno, Rude, & Elena). Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Reno has a prominent role in Advent Children. Consistent with his attitude at the end of the original Final Fantasy VII, Reno possesses no true hostility towards his former enemies. As of Advent Children, the Turks are on the same side as AVALANCHE and join the fight against the film's villains. Reno and Rude primarily serve as the film's comic relief. His comical role in Advent Children includes being locked out while Cloud and Rufus have an important talk, bringing out his weapon and accidentally hitting Rude in the head, being knocked back several hundred feet by Yazoo and landing on Rude, climbing a building to save Rufus and using Rude's head as support, stepping on and crushing Rude's trademark sunglasses, having a child stick his fingers up his nose while rescuing him from Bahamut SIN, and apologizing to Loz and Yazoo for insulting Jenova before realizing what he said.

He is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese version of "Advent Children" and Quinton Flynn in the English version.

Rude
Rude (ルード) is a tall, naturally bald man with a slight goatee. Many fans believe he is of African decent, when in fact, Tetsuya Nomura states his look is more South American than anything else. He always wears sunglasses and carries a number of spare pairs with him. Rude is rarely seen without his long-time partner, Reno, and is rather taciturn, tending to relegate the talking to Reno. He also becomes uncomfortable when brought into a conversation, as seen during the meeting with Cloud and later when meeting Yazoo and Loz in the Advent Children movie. Rude is a superb physical combatant and prefers to use his fists in battle (however, in his first scenes in Advent Children it is revealed that he carries an impact baton). In one of his rare lines of dialogue in Final Fantasy VII, he reveals to Reno that he has a crush on Tifa Lockhart, a skilled martial artist like himself, though no close relationship develops between them. Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle.

Rude has a prominent role in Advent Children always seen with his partner Reno. They are mainly used for comical effect, with Reno normally injuring Rude or when fighting Loz, a rather large road sign drops on him after Reno is kicked into it. During his confrontation with Loz he seems to put up a better fight than Reno against Yazoo, landing several punches. In the end, he and Reno use a massive explosion to take out Loz and Yazoo. Loz and Yazoo somehow survive the explosion and make appearance just after Cloud defeats Kadaj. Rude and Reno also survive the explosion and are shown standing around Rufus after Cloud's fight with Kadaj. Years ago, when there was war between AVALANCHE and Shinra, Rude fell in love with a woman named Chelsea. Unfortunately, she was an AVALANCHE spy who grew infatuated with Rude, but left him because they were on different sides. Rude did not take well to her departure, since he could not even say goodbye to her. Since then, he has been rather shy and refuses to develop any close relationships, aside from his friendship with Reno. He is voiced by Taiten Kusunoki in the Japanese version of Advent Children and Crispin Freeman in the English version.

Tseng
Tseng (ツォン) is the stern but polite and calm leader of the Turks. He has long, black hair and what appears to be a tilak in the middle of his forehead. Though he is young, he has been an active member of the Turks for more than 10 years, under the wing of the previous Turk leader Verdot. One of Tseng's first missions as team leader was aiding Zack, whom he befriended during the Genesis incident. Tseng attempted to retrieve Zack and Cloud in a nonviolent matter, but the presence of Shinra soldiers did not allow it. Prior to his promotion to leader, Tseng also met Aerith Gainsborough — for whom he seems to have had romantic feelings since she was a child.

Tseng is the only Turk not fought at any point during Final Fantasy VII. He is wounded by Sephiroth during an investigation of the Temple of the Ancients. It is in fact assumed that he dies there since Aerith starts crying and he is never seen in the game again; however, Elena remarks that he is alive, though hospitalised, later in the game. He re-appears in Advent Children, wherein he and Elena retrieve Jenova's remains from the Northern Crater before being attacked and captured by Kadaj's gang. After enduring torture at the villains' hands, he is rescued — along with Elena — by Vincent Valentine, and the two of them later show up in Edge to rescue Rufus. The only other time he appeared before that in Advent Children was on the picture of his I.D. Card, splattered with blood, which Kadaj dropped in front of Rufus and when he and the other Turks are witnessing the recovery of Rufus from Geostigma near the end of the movie. Tseng is voiced by Junichi Suwabe in the Japanese version of the film and Ryun Yu in the English version.

Professor Hojo
Hojo (宝条): Shinra's mad scientist with a God complex, Hojo undertook radical experiments without any regard for ethics or the potential consequences of his research on his test subjects. Hojo regards the subjects of his experiments as mere "specimens," though most are human or otherwise sentient. It is revealed later on that he is Sephiroth's father. Hojo is a major villain. He was voiced by Paul Eiding (US) & Nachi Nozawa (Japan) in Dirge of Cerberus.

Hojo's notoriety begins approximately thirty years prior to the start of the game in Nibelheim, where he was sent by Shinra to assist Professor Gast and Lucrecia with the Jenova Project, a project headed up by Gast and intended to produce modern day humans with the abilities of the Cetra, which Jenova - in actuality, a world-devouring alien entity - was mistakenly believed to be a member of. It was believed that this goal may be realized by testing the effects of Jenova cells on an unborn child. Thus, the three Shinra scientists — with Lucrecia and Hojo's complete cooperation — injected some of Jenova's cells into the womb of Lucrecia, who was pregnant with Hojo's child at the time. The child that would come of this experiment was Sephiroth. But prior to Sephiroth's birth, Hojo used Vincent's body for experiments. Hojo later managed to take Dr. Hollander's position as head of Shinra's Science Department during the events of Crisis Core, using its resources to set up his Jenova Reunion theory. Once Meteor began to descend toward the planet, Hojo grew bored of experimenting on others and injected himself with Jenova cells. However, Hojo succumbed to Jenova and mutated into a monster as he willingly attempted to give Sephiroth the power of the Planet so that he could witness his most esteemed experiment reach its ultimate stage of development. While attempting to carry out this process, he was mortally wounded by AVALANCHE and was left for dead.

However, as revealed in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Hojo managed to barely return into his body for a brief moment to upload his mind into the World Network as a backup before it was destroyed during Meteorfall. However, due to Meteor, his conscious mind was fragmented. It would be three years before Hojo's mind was able to have its "reunion" upon the World Network's restoration. Deciding to finish what he started, Hojo took over the body of the 'in-stasis' Deep Ground SOLDIER commander Weiss. However, upon Weiss' defeat, Nero appeared and merged into Weiss's body, "defiling" Hojo's host and forcing Hojo to leave Weiss' body as all traces of himself were eliminated.

Jenova
Jenova (ジェノバ) is a fictional video game character, and is one of the major antagonists in the PlayStation and computer role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII. The character also appears in a retelling of a section of the game in the original video animation Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, and in flashbacks in the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Jenova is indicated to be an extraterrestrial lifeform, composed of strange cells that carry her will and power even when separated.

Jenova has a major role in the continuity of Final Fantasy VII plot. In the game, many of the main characters, including Cloud Strife and Zack, have been injected with Jenova cells at some point in their lives. All members of SOLDIER were also given Jenova cells, as were the "Sephiroth clones" in Nibelheim. Additionally, all these individuals were infused with mako. This procedure leaves its subjects stronger and more resilient to physical attacks, but the cells and mako can also have various effects on one's mind, some beneficial (improved magical ability) and others detrimental (insanity). Sephiroth's case is more enhanced as he was injected with Jenova cells while in the fetal stage, becoming more powerful than any other subject as a result.

Many elements of Jenova's nature have been subject to debate amongst fans. There has been much debate in the past over the nature of Jenova's influence on Sephiroth and vice versa. However, this was prior to the publication of the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω Guide, a guide to the game's story published by Square Enix and endorsed as canonical. It states that Sephiroth's will and ambition were great enough that he was allowed to control Jenova's cells.

Throughout the game, Jenova is often referred to as a "she", although the character's gender is not definitively confirmed. Furthermore, through Ifalna's description of Jenova's approach to the Cetra and Sephiroth's statements concerning—and his use of—Jenova's abilities, it is known that Jenova's cells can change their form, even from male to female appearance. (Note: Ifalna calls Jenova "he" in the Playstation version of the game, yet refers to the creature as "it" in the PC version.) This concept is also confirmed by the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω guide.

Encounters
Jenova is seen twice before the characters actually fight her. In the Shinra building, the characters first see the headless main body of Jenova in a containment tank, with it later—under Sephiroth's control and his form—breaking free and slaughtering many Shinra personnel—as well as President Shinra himself—before heading to the roof and escaping.

Jenova's full form is first revealed in a flashback, seen preserved in liquid in a large glass tank in the Mt. Nibel mako reactor. Here, Jenova appears to be human-sized and is in the shape of a nude, blue skinned woman. Of note, when seen here, she is wearing a helmet that exposes her brain at the top and, in the front, bears a plaque inscribed with the word "JENOVA" and some English text underneath. For several years, fans debated over what the other words on the plaque may be, as discerning them in the original in-game imagery was difficult. Eventually, the high resolution version of the in-game cutscene from Reminiscence of Final Fantasy VII finally revealed that the plaque inscription reads "Made in Hong Kong; All rights reserved 1996; Squer Company Limited". Notably, the helmet has different inscriptions beneath "JENOVA" in both Advent Children—where the plaque is inscribed with the dates of Jenova's discovery and concealment to its container—and Last Order—where the plaque reads "Strict secrecy; Scientific inquiry section; Shinra Company Limited". The word "JENOVA" and its placement are the only consistent markings on the plaque across the various representations.

The first three forms of Jenova that the characters fight in the game are of identical shape and similar appearance, differentiated solely by color. These forms of Jenova have a somewhat humanoid shape, but lack distinguishable arms and legs, having wing-like appendages instead. Jenova-BIRTH is encountered in the Shinra cargo ship on the way from Junon to Costa del Sol, while Jenova-LIFE is battled in the Forgotten City of the Ancients, with Jenova-DEATH making its appearance in the Whirlwind Maze of the Northern Crater. Before each of these battles, Sephiroth is encountered before leaving part of Jenova's main body—which then transforms into one of the Jenova monsters—or transforming the form of Sephiroth itself into one of these creatures. The Ultimania explains that the Sephiroth that the party follows is Jenova taking Sephiroth's form being controlled by Sephiroth.

Music
Jenova has two signature soundtracks in Final Fantasy VII. One is J-E-N-O-V-A, heard during the fights with the following: Jenova-BIRTH, Jenova-DEATH, Professor Hojo (he is strongly tied to Jenova pluse he transforms into two other forms courtesy of Jenova's cells), and near the end of the game. J-E-N-O-V-A is not played during the battle with Jenova-LIFE — being instead replaced with Aerith's Theme due to Aerith's death. The second signature track of Jenova is Jenova Absolute, which is heard during the fight with Jenova-SYNTHESIS.

The soundtrack of Advent Children includes a heavy metal arrangement of the J-E-N-O-V-A track, which plays during the final battle between Cloud and Kadaj, and the Black Mages recorded another heavy-metal version of the song, featured on their first album. A piano arrangement was included on Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII.

AVALANCHE
Three minor AVALANCHE members assist Cloud, Barret, and Tifa in the game. Biggs (ビッグス) is a slightly cocky and arrogant member who gradually comes to respect Cloud. Wedge (ウェッジ), his close friend, is on the contrary very warm-hearted and kind to others, but he easily loses his composure when nervous. Jessie (ジェシー) is an explosives and fake IDs technician fascinated with gadgetry and other "flashy stuff". She gives Cloud a lesson on the Midgar rail system and the structure of the city itself. The player is given the option to have Cloud flirt with her a few times. All three characters are eventually killed by Shinra in the bombing of the Sector 7.

Bugenhagen
Bugenhagen (ブーゲンハーゲン), Red XIII/Nanaki's adoptive grandfather, is an eccentric old man who moves about, floating on a green ball. Formerly a Shinra worker, he retired to his home of Cosmo Canyon — where he is the elder of the Bugah Tribe — to pursue the Study of Planet Life, and where he finds a peaceful harmony between technology and nature. He has an observatory at the top of Cosmo Canyon, and provides vital information to AVALANCHE regarding how to stop Sephiroth and Meteor. Like Heidegger, Bugenhagen is also apparently named after a German philosopher, Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558).

Dio
Dio (ディオ): Manager of the Gold Saucer, well-known for his extremely buff, muscular physique and his tendency to show it off by only ever wearing what appears to be a thong, even in public. When he hears that reports of a man with a gun for an arm has murdered several Shinra soldiers in the Gold Saucer, he arrests Barret's group and places them in Corel Prison, but releases them after learning that Dyne was at fault instead. Later, he lends the Keystone to them that will open the Temple of the Ancients. His favorite attraction in the Gold Saucer is the Battle Arena, where he makes Cloud fight for the Keystone. The Battle Arena is also the location of Dio's his personal museum where he has his collection of unusual and bizarre possessions on display.

Don Corneo
Don Corneo (ドン・コルネオ) is a perverted crime-boss of lower Midgar who resides in Wall Market and has a penchant for asking multiple-choice questions. After being confronted by Cloud, Tifa and Aerith — who all threaten to castrate him — he reveals Shinra's plan to destroy Sector 7's support pillar. He then becomes a target of Shinra for having released this information. Later, after hiding out from the Turks who were ordered to kill him, Corneo kidnaps Yuffie and Elena in Wutai with the intentions of forcing one of them to be his bride. After a brief alliance between AVALANCHE and the Turks, he is killed by a long fall off a mountain. The Don had two "pets", Aps and Rapps, both of which he set against AVALANCHE. His name may be a parody of Don Corleone of The Godfather fame.

Don Corneo has two lackeys: Kotch & Skotch, known as Kocchi and Socchi (コッチとソッチ) in the original Japanese. Their Japanese names, taken together, essentially mean "Here & There."

Dyne
Dyne (ダイン) was Barret's best friend and the father of Marlene. He was believed dead after Shinra attacked his hometown of Corel, though he survived, and similarly to Barret, had his severed left forearm replaced with a gun prosthetic. Going insane, Dyne blamed Barret for the death of his wife and the destruction of his town, eventually becoming the "Boss" of Corel Prison beneath the Gold Saucer. He had become a twisted, self-loathing man with a lust for killing. Several years later, he was finally reunited with Barret in the prison and insisted upon a duel with him. Afterwards, he made Barret promise to take care of Marlene and — unable to live with what he had become — committed suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Elmyra Gainsborough
Aerith's adoptive mother, Elmyra Gainsborough, or Elmina Gainsborough (エルミナ・ゲインズブール), discovers Aerith and the dying Ifalna after their escape from Shinra headquarters. Ifalna asks Elmyra to care for her daughter before dying, and Elmyra adopts Aerith as her own, raising her and becoming aware of the young girl's developing Cetra abilities. Elmyra later takes care of Marlene while Barret is pursuing Sephiroth, but both are subsequently taken into custody by Reeve Tuesti and relocated to Kalm. Reeve, however, ensures their safety and they are later released. He later has the sad duty of informing them of Aerith's death at the hands of Sephiroth.

Professor Gast
Gast, known in Japan as Gasuto Faremisu (ガスト・ファレミス), is the former head of Shinra's Science Research Department and Aerith's father. Gast seems to be a noble man who pursues knowledge for its own sake, rather than for the power it can bring. Gast finds Jenova during an excavation in the Northern Crater. After Jenova is transported to Nibelheim for further study of her origin and nature, Gast comes to the incorrect conclusion that the creature is a Cetra, and Shinra sends Hojo and Lucrecia to assist him. Believing that they may be able to produce a modern-day Cetra, the scientists inject Jenova cells into the womb of the pregnant Lucrecia, who was carrying Hojo's child. At some undisclosed point in time, Gast leaves the project with a guilty conscience, although he doesn't officially leave Shinra. Gast continues his research on the Ancients alone and meets Ifalna — one of the last surviving members of the Ancients' race — at Icicle Lodge. There, Gast carries out a series of interviews with Ifalna, and in time, they fall in love and have a child together: Aerith. However, shortly after Aerith's birth (twenty days, to be exact), Hojo killed Gast during the attempt to capture both Ifalna and Aerith for further study.

Ifalna
Ifalna (イファルナ) is Aerith's birth mother and the last full-blooded Cetra. Found by Professor Gast in Icicle Lodge, they recorded a series of interviews together. The two fell in love, resulting in the birth of Aerith. Twenty days after Aerith's birth, Hojo had Gast shot and Aerith and Ifalna apprehended, and then taken to the Shinra headquarters in Midgar. Ifalna escaped seven years later with Aerith, and they managed to get as far as the Sector 7 train station in Midgar. Exhausted and wounded, Ifalna entrusted Aerith's care to Elmyra Gainsborough and died.

Johnny
Johnny (ジョニー): A young man from Sector 7 who has had a crush on Tifa since their childhoods in Nibelheim. He leaves Midgar and moves to Costa del Sol, turning up in several other locations along the way. In the short story "The Case of Denzel", a part of the novella On the Way to a Smile, Johnny decides to open his own cafe in Edge City, Johnny's Heaven, after being inspired by Tifa's decision to build a new Seventh Heaven pub in the city. He would often tell his customers about how Tifa inspired him and would unknowingly lose most of his potentially regular customers to Seventh Heaven by doing so.

Godo Kisaragi
Godo Kisaragi (ゴドー・キサラギ): Yuffie's father, and the leader of Wutai. Wutai was the enemy Shinra fought in a war that occurred around the time of Sephiroth's early life. As a condition of its surrender, Wutai was not allowed to possess any materia and was reduced to a tourist town. Like his daughter, Godo has a bit of an obsession with materia--he is just able to hide his obsession better than Yuffie.

Lucrecia Crescent
Lucrecia Crescent (ルクレツィア・クレシェント): Lucrecia is a female scientist who worked on the Jenova Project, alongside Professor Hojo and Professor Gast. She was Vincent’s love interest as well as Sephiroth's biological mother.

Lucrecia is estimated to have been born around 60 years before the events of the game. She worked as a Class A biotechnologist for the Shinra Electric Power Company under the direction of Grimoire Valentine, Vincent Valentine's father. Her thesis on Omega and Chaos had suffered much criticism and she was anxious to prove her colleagues wrong. During one of her investigations she happened upon the suspected location of the dormant Omega.

During the events before Final Fantasy VII Lucrecia was assigned as an assistant to Professor Faremis Gast alongside Professor Hojo in the town of Nibelheim. They were to investigate the excavated specimen (later known as Jenova) from the Northern Crater which was suspected to be an Ancient (Cetra). Upon analysis they falsely believed it to be a Cetra and attempted to extract its cellular DNA in order to artificially produce soldiers with the Cetra's abilities. She used her unborn child as the subject of the Jenova Project's first in vivo experiment despite objections from Vincent Valentine. During pregnancy, Lucrecia began receiving visions of the horrors her unborn son would commit, and in an untimely encounter, discovered Vincent shot by Hojo. Fearing for his life, Lucrecia exposed him to the stagnated mako, causing the being known as Chaos to be absorbed into his body. Though his life was saved, he was left in a feral madness. Disgusted with all that she had done to those she cared about and the changes Jenova's cells had wrought in her own body, she attempted to kill herself. However, she was unable to easily die because of the presence of Jenova's cells in her body, and, thus, she isolated herself in a cave and trapped herself within mako crystals. During the events of Final Fantasy VII, she is discovered by Vincent and the others, and she asks if Sephiroth had died yet. Vincent, hoping to help her rest in peace, falsely tells her that he had.

Marlene
Marlene (マリン) is the young daughter of Barret's friends, Dyne and Eleanor. Adopted by Barret after Eleanor's death during the burning of Corel and left with Elmyra during the game, she is kidnapped by Reeve. At the end of the game, she has been sent to Kalm by Reeve to keep her safe. She is voiced by Miyu Tsuzurahara in the Japanese version of Advent Children and Grace Rolek in the English version. In Advent Children, she appears to live with Cloud, Tifa and an orphan named Denzel, while Barret is away searching for new power sources. Her hair in Advent Children is styled similarly to Aerith's, it is assumed that the ribbon Marlene wears in her hair is in fact Aerith's.

Seto
Seto (セト): Red XIII's/Nanaki's father. Was believed to be a coward by Red XIII but later revealed to be a great hero who sacrificed his own life for the safety of Cosmo Canyon by keeping the Gi Tribe at bay. The poison arrows of the Gi Tribe turned Seto's body to stone. As Red XIII and Buganhagen visited his body, tears fell from Seto's stone eyes.

Shera
Shera, or Sierra (シエラ) in the original Japanese, is a soft-spoken and calm methodical scientist working on the Shinra No. 26 who ultimately caused Cid to cancel its launch: she feared one of the oxygen tanks was malfunctioning and refused to leave when Cid ordered her to. To save her life, Cid stopped the launch, but resented her for this, believing that she had cost him his dream of being the first man in space. Due to the guilt she felt for destroying his dreams, Shera subsequently devoted her life to Cid and pandered to his every whim, often while taking all kinds of verbal abuse and endless insults from him. However, he later came to have great respect for her after finding out that she had been right all along about the oxygen tank. Shera also saved his life on the later successful rocket launch by helping to remove debris trapping Cid on the rocket, as well as by repairing the emergency escape pod so that the party could escape the doomed rocket. In the novella On the Way to a Smile, Shera had began work drilling oil in some badlands just east of Rocket Town, hoping to use oil as an alternative to the now-feared Mako energy and the almost primitive coal power. It is also revealed that she has contracted Geostigma during this time, although mention of her in future titles seems to indicate that she was cured of Geostigma by the lifestream infused water called forth by Aerith before she could die. Cid named the airship seen in Advent Children after her and is revealed in Dirge of Cerberus to have also married her.

Shinra executives
President Shinra (プレジデント神羅) is the first *President of the Shinra Company. He built it from a simple weapons development company to a corporation that controlled the world in a single generation. He was a remarkably capable manager who excelled at the science of predicting human nature and guiding public opinion. It was his theory that one could control the world by grasping the masses' hearts with money. He found the opinions of his son, Rufus, dangerous and ensured that they were kept away from company affairs by assigning him duties in "far away" lands. The President dedicated a large amount of Shinra Inc's resources and money into research of the Cetra with the hope of finding "The Promised Land" and building a powerful Mako Reactor there. President Shinra listens to Franz Joseph Haydn's Oratorio, The Creation as the Sector Seven Plate collapses. When Shinra Inc finally managed to capture a living Cetra, President Shinra was murdered by Sephiroth.

Other executives of Shinra include Professor Hojo, as well as:
 * Heidegger (ハイデッガー): Head of Shinra's Public Safety Maintenance Department, which is simply a euphemism for Shinra's military, the elite SOLDIER unit and the Turks. Heidegger has a strong personality of his own but is generally seen as little more than a toadyish yes-man who sucks up to President Shinra and Rufus. It was he who masterminded the destruction of Sector 7 and the subsequent public relations exercise that implicated AVALANCHE with the crime. He attempted to assume control of the Shinra company after the WEAPON attack on Midgar that presumably kills Rufus but died shortly afterward when the Proud Clod (a mecha he and Scarlet were riding in) exploded after a battle with AVALANCHE. Nicknamed as "Gya ha ha" by Reeve, for his horse-like laugh. He often punches any unlucky soldier nearby whenever he is angered. Possibly named after the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), or after the protagonist of the same name in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment".
 * Scarlet (スカーレット): Head of Shinra's Weapons Development Department. Aspires to make the perfect weapon, but doesn't trust Heidegger to use it properly.  Scarlet is one of the more evil-minded Shinra executives and was directly responsible for the destruction of Barret Wallace's home town of Corel and for the loss of Barret's forearm.  She helps in creating a large mako cannon, Sister Ray, used to fight WEAPON.  Like Rufus, she is both cunning and ruthless. Nicknamed as "Kya ha ha" for her peculiar laugh by Reeve.  She died along with Heidegger in the explosion of the Proud Clod.
 * Reeve Tuesti (リーブ・トゥエスティ): Head of the Urban Development Department, a job which in his own words makes him responsible for both the building and running of Midgar, hence his concerns about damages and rebuilding costs after Shinra collapsed the Sector 7 plate (concerns his colleages did not share). He has the job of overseeing the construction of upper Midgar and recognising the greater architectural vision of the Shinra regime (It is unclear as to whether or not he actually designed the city). He used Cait Sith as a way for him to spy on — and later aid — AVALANCHE. Along with Mayor Domino, he is one of the few officials in Shinra who has a genuine concern for the common people.  He is briefly arrested by Heidegger's men after the apparent death of Rufus but is released in time to organise the evacuation of Midgar's population before the arrival of Meteor. Reeve later founded the World Regenesis Organization (WRO), an organization devoted to the environmental reclamation of the planet after the collapse of the Shinra Company. Reeve plays a significant role in Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and has a voice-over cameo in Advent Children provided by Jamieson Price (English) & Banjō Ginga (Japanese).
 * Palmer (パルマー): The incompetent head of Shinra's failed Space Exploration Department who has, nonetheless, managed to retain his place among the company's top ranking executives. Palmer is a bouncy, overweight man with some childlike behavior. He goes with Rufus to Rocket Town to steal Cid's plane, the Tiny Bronco.  Although  he is hit by a truck as he tries to escape Cloud and company, he — along with Reeve and Rufus — is one of the few Shinra executives to survive the events of Final Fantasy VII.  However, he has yet to make any further appearances in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.
 * Mayor Domino: The Mayor of upper Midgar in name only. In practice Domino is little more than a figurehead and a puppet of the Shinra, with the real responsibility of running the city being in the hands of Reeve and Heidegger. Due to his lack of power and responsibilities he does not have a place in Shinra's executive cabinet and spends the majority of his time in his office on the 62nd floor of the Shinra building and, in the words of Heidegger, "feeding his face". Domino's deputy and sidekick, Hart is often with him and stands guard outside his office. Despite his cushy job with the company, Domino has little respect or admiration for his superiors and, like Reeve, shows concern about the welfare or the people within Midgar.

Lastly, the Shinra Manager is a middle manager in the Shinra company, who is mistreated and trodden upon by higher-ups such as Heidegger and Rufus. He is dedicated to the company, but his life is miserable. He wears a burgundy business suit and is encountered in the two train rides in Midgar, then sleeping in a bed in Junon. Later he visits Costa Del Sol, and in the end, he is back at the bed in Junon. Near the end of the game, if the player speaks to him, he will reveal that if all of the corporate heads indeed died when AVALANCHE attacked the Sister Ray, essentially, he would now be the president.

WEAPON
The WEAPON (ウェポン) are immense, biomechanical entities created by the Planet as a defense mechanism against threats to its survival. Six of the eight WEAPONs serve to exterminate everything that threatens the Planet, including humans. . Chaos is thought to be a WEAPON as mentioned in Dirge of Cerberus even though its being is small enough to fit into a human body, Chaos is a counter measure for the complete summon of the final WEAPON, Omega WEAPON. Unlike the other WEAPON, Omega acts as a last resort that only activates should the Planet be beyond saving, sucking up the Lifestream, becoming an Ark and leaving for another world to repopulate. In Before Crisis, the Jade WEAPON was first to be evoked with the Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, and Ultima WEAPON awakened when Meteor was summoned. However, though they are unable to get Sephiroth, due to the barrier he erected around the Northern Cave, the combat-based WEAPON turn their attention on humanity. "WEAPON" is used as both a singular and plural term.

Zangan
Zangan (ザンガン) is Tifa's martial arts instructor, and rescued her after she was wounded by Sephiroth. In Final Fantasy VII, his letter to Tifa (found in her piano) shed light on the events following the burning of Nibelheim and the coverup that ensued. Zangan was quite active and possessed some ability with magic, using Cure spells on Tifa as he transported her to Midgar.

Before Crisis characters
The main characters of Before Crisis are all Turks. The player chooses from eleven unnamed characters (five young men, five young women and one "legendary" Turk), each with his or her own backstory, personality, strengths and weaknesses. Six of these Turks also appear in Last Order, where they act as support for Tseng, Reno, and Rude, but they are not given proper names and few have dialog. The female Turk with the short blond hair has been identified as Elena's older sister, however she has no canonical name and is only referred to as "Turk (Gun)" based on her weapon of choice. The female Turk identified as "Turk (Shuriken)" has been shown to appear in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and has been given the name "Cissnei". After barely surviving the pre-Final Fantasy VII events of Before Crisis, they make an appearance along with Verdot in Midgar during the coming of the Meteor disaster and assist the other Turks in evacuating civilians. Their whereabouts during the majority of Final Fantasy VII ' s events are currently unknown.

During most of Before Crisis, Verdot is the non-playable leader of the Turks. He is very particular on matters relating to succeeding in missions and very unforgiving when it comes to failure. Tseng considers him a role model and eventually succeeds him. Though many of his subordinates are intimidated by his severity, they all deeply respect him. When Heidegger usurps his position at one point during the story, Verdot blackmails President Shinra into returning it. Formerly a resident of the town of Kalm, he had a daughter and wife that he believed perished when the town was razed due to his own misinterpreted commands. In actuality, his daughter survived, and is eventually revealed to be the leader of AVALANCHE, Elfé. He cares very deeply for the Turks, and does not wish for them to suffer any events similar to what he has; he also cares very much for his daughter, defecting from Shinra when he discovers she is alive. Verdot appeared only in Before Crisis, but is mentioned in Last Order: Final Fantasy VII.

Advent Children characters
The main playable characters of Final Fantasy VII reappear in Advent Children, with a focus on Cloud. The Turks also make appearances; as does Rufus, who was thought to have died in the original game. The three antagonists of the film are the "Sephiroth Remnants", the silver-haired remains of Sephiroth's will and spirit in physical form, whose goal is to retrieve Jenova's cells to resurrect Sephiroth. They are able to summon monstrous embodiments of tainted Lifestream called "Shadow Creepers".

Kadaj (カダージュ) is the medium-haired, cruel and vengeful young leader. He fights with a double-bladed katana called "Souba", and has a materia embedded in his arm, with which he summons the Bahamut SIN. Kadaj serves as Sephiroth's avatar when he acquires and absorbs Jenova's cells into his body. Loz (ロッズ) is the short-haired, broad and violent Remnant who fights primarily with a pile bunker called "Dual Hound". He duels Tifa in Aerith's church. Lastly, Yazoo (ヤズー) is the long-haired, calm Remnant who specializes in firearms, wielding a "Velvet Nightmare" gun. He shoots Cloud, intending to bring him to the Promised Land with them, before he and Loz die in an explosion of excessive materia atop the Shinra headquarters.

The film also features Denzel (デンゼル), a young brown-haired boy. While his role in the film is minimal, he is the focus of a part of the tie-in series of novellas On the Way to a Smile. Denzel's parents, a Shinra worker named Abel and a woman named Chloe, are stated to have died during the Sector 7 destruction in Final Fantasy VII; before dying, Abel entrusted Denzel to an inhabitant of Sector 5 named Arkham, and was subsequently raised by Ruvie Tuesti, Reeve's mother. When Ruvie dies in the chaos resulting from the Lifestream burst at the end of Final Fantasy VII, Denzel settles in the Midgar ruins with Rix, a new friend, helping to collect material for the construction of the new town, Edge. Rix eventually leaves Denzel, who wanders and is eventually found by Cloud.

Dirge of Cerberus characters
Dirge of Cerberus centers around Vincent and a new cast of characters. Vincent's father Grimoire Valentine is mentioned several times throughout the game as the one who devised a thesis on Chaos but died in an experiment. The playable characters of Final Fantasy VII makes cameo appearances, notably Cait Sith, who is controllable for a brief sequence. A new WEAPON is also introduced, Omega Weapon, which serves as an "ark" for the planet's Lifestream when a calamity arises.

Shalua Rui
Shalua Rui (シャルア・ルーイ) is a female scientist, who first appeared in a small role in Before Crisis. She is a WRO scientist with a prosthetic left arm, that serves as her life-support system, and a missing left eye. Shalua is a workaholic who is actually searching for her sister, Shelke. Upon meeting her, she was heart-broken over how little of her sister there was left and blamed herself for it. In order to make up, she helped Shelke escape the clutches of Azul, who had turned on her, in exchange for her life. She is the one who made Barret's gun arm.

Tsviets
thumb|right|The Tsviets, without Weiss The Tsviets (ツヴィエート) are the highest ranking elite squad within Deepground and its chain of command. Weiss and Nero were originally members of the 13th unit of SOLDIER, Ragnarok. However, they were defeated and chained up when the Restrictors took over Deepground. All of the members of the group are named after colors from different languages, hence the group's name, which is based on цвет, the Russian word for color. Five members appear in the single player mode of the game, and at least one more member appears in the online mode.

Weiss the Immaculate (純白の帝王ヴァイス) The leader of the elite Tsviets of Deepground, originally a SOLDIER who found Genesis after his defeat. He fights with two pistol swords and possesses all the abilities of the other Tsviets, the only exceptions being Nero's darkness and Azul's metamorphosis. He is controlled by Hojo's digitized mind, who invaded his body after Weiss in "Synaptic Net Dive" mode tried to find a cure to the Restrictors' virus that infected him after he overthrew them. He is eventually defeated by Vincent; however, in the game's ending sequence, his body is seen carried off by an awakened Genesis, who addresses Weiss as his "brother" and tells him that "it is not yet time for slumber" and that they "still have much work to do". In the online version, Weiss is shown fighting both Azul and Rosso at the same time and winning while Restrictors watch. His name means "white" in German.

Nero the Sable (漆黒の闇ネロ) is a 23 year-old man and second member of the Tsviets, whose face is always obscured. He is Weiss' younger brother and can control darkness as the only fully successful experiment from stagnant mako injection into a fetus. He secretly leads Deepground under Weiss' name after the unification of the organization, when Weiss' state becomes unclear to the remaining Deepground soldiers. He can transform into the spider-like Arachnero (ネロ・ラフレア). He eventually merges with Weiss to free the latter from Hojo's control. His name means "black" in Italian.

Rosso the Crimson (朱のロッソ) is a red-clothed, psychotic 25 year-old woman and third recruit of the Tsviets. She fights with a double-bladed weapon capable of bursts of gunfire. Rosso moves with the elegance and speed of a panther and does not care if she kills friend or foe to win. Even though there are several meetings with her over the course of the game, Vincent only fights her once. Overconfident and egomaniacal, she kills herself after being beat by Vincent she collapses a part of the building with her on top of it so that she "shall not grant him the pleasure of killing Rosso the Crimson". Her name means "red" in Italian.

Shelke the Transparent (無式のシェルク) is an amber-eyed, 19 year-old girl trapped by mako in her 9 year old body and fourth recruit of the Tsviets. She fights with two electromagnetic sabers, and has a special ability named SND ("Synaptic Net Dive"), which allows her to project a residual image of herself within a computer network. She is initially emotionless, but becomes connected to Lucrecia's personality as the games progresses. She is also revealed to be Shalua's younger sister, and is referred to as Shelke Rui in the ending credits of the game. Shelke's job within the Tsviets was to locate Vincent Valentine. However, Shelke's body does not allow her to fight for very long and without the Mako stations in Deepground to support her, Shelke tires quickly. Her name means "orange" in Urdu.

Azul the Cerulean (蒼きアスール) is the blue-haired, 33 year-old final recruit of the Tsviets. He first appeared in Before Crisis as an ordinary man who wanted to be a SOLDIER. As the largest of the Tsviets, Azul uses a large cannon with disturbing ease. He is one of three Tsviets subjected to the Metamorphose experiment, allowing him to transform into the monstrous Arch Azul (真・アスール). He fights against Vincent three times during the game and is finally killed when Vincent, in Chaos form, impales him with his own cannon. His greatest love is battle. His name means "blue" in both Portuguese and Spanish.

Online mode characters
The Restrictors are members of the 14th SOLDIER force, "Lost Force", and the former leaders of the Deepground before Weiss took over. The Restrictors destroyed "Ragnarok", the 13th and previously strongest force of SOLDIER, in a single night. Their weapons are two short gunblades. The Restrictors' leader governed over Deepground, implanting chips into the brain stems of all DGS recruits so they cannot turn against the group. The player character in the multiplayer mode is the exception to this, who was part of Weiss' plan to take control of the Deepground. At the end of the multiplayer mode, the entire Tsviet group managed to defeat Restrictor and take his place as the ruling force of the DGS. Though they succeeded, Restrictor's leader attempted to kill Weiss with the virus implanted within him.

Argento the Silver (銀色のアルジェント) is a member of the Tsviets seen only in the Japanese multiplayer mode. She has an eye-patch over her right eye. Although she wields a large sword as her weapon, her role is to observe others as an instructor. She conspired with Weiss to overthrow the Restrictors. Argento means "silver" in Italian.

Usher is a mysterious orange haired SOLDIER who assists the player several times throughout the multiplayer mode. In the mode's ending sequence, Shelke deactivates her Synaptic Net Dive with the player's character and Usher disappears, thus revealing that he was only a simulation created by Shelke to guide the player into helping with their plan to overthrow the Restrictors.

Crisis Core characters
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII focuses on Zack, whose full name is given as Zack Fair. The game also introduces Angeal Hewley, Lazard, Dr. Hollander, and Cissnei, a woman who first appeared as a generic unnamed Turk in Before Crisis. Genesis, a character who appears briefly as "G" in the Dirge of Cerberus secret ending sequence, is involved more prominently in Crisis Core.

Angeal Hewley
Zack's mentor, helping him when he first became a SOLDIER. Angeal was the original holder of the Buster Sword, preferring not to use it. Though charged the task of finding Genesis, Angeal doesn't go on the mission, leading Sephiroth to question his loyalty. Angeal's loyalty comes under even more scrutiny, when Angeal decides to aid Genesis after his mother died. He holds many similarities with both Zack and Cloud. He is also shown lifting Zack into the afterlife at the end of the game.

Gillian Hewley
Angeal's mother, she met Zack before she took her life due to possessing the G-Cells.

Hollander Hewley
Angeal's father and former head of Shinra's science division until Hojo took it from him.

Cissnei
Cissnei (シスネ) is a young woman whose place of birth is unknown, wielding a crimson Shuriken called "Rekka" in battle as her weapon of choice. She is warm-hearted and has a mothering side which can border on bossy, which often manifests in how she looks after her colleagues. While still in an orphanage at a young age, the Turks expressed an interest in recruiting Cissnei, and she was brought up under harsh training techniques. In the history of the Turks, she is the youngest member to join. She was originally referred as Shuriken (Female) in Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII until her appearance in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

Genesis Rhapsodos
Genesis Rhapsodos is a mysterious first Class SOLDIER, said to have rebelled against Shinra and disappeared during the Wutai war. His birth is similar to Sephiroth, though he was infused with G-cells. He became best friends with Angeal when they were young, both joining SOLDIER together. It was only until after a sparring match with Sephiroth that Genesis started to show signs of having white hair and became weaker than he ever was. It was during the Wutai war that Genesis abandoned Shinra and kidnapped Dr. Hollander to help him stop his degeneration, creating copies of Genesis using his DNA on people. These people are suspected to be the Second- and Third-Class SOLDIERs who were disappearing in the beginning of Crisis Core. He carried a book on his person called Loveless, quoting lines of the Goddess Minerva. Eventually, Genesis saw his chance of survival in Jenova's cells to stop his degeneration. However, the Nibelheim incident removed any chance until he learned of Cloud and Zack being injected with Jenova's cells, recovering a few strands of Zack's hair. Though he might to stop the degeneration, Genesis was defeated by Zack, weaken to the point of being taken by Weiss. Soon after, records of Genesis' existence are erased and his fate unknown other that his genetic makeup was emulated in the creation of the Deepground organization seen in Dirge of Cerberus, led by Weiss himself. In the epilogue of Dirge of Cerberus, Genesis appears to carry Weiss away while saying "its not time for slumber, we still have much work to do, my brother". Genesis' appearance was modelled after that of the Japanese singer Gackt, who voiced him also in the Japanese versions of Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core, and sang 'Redemption', the theme song for Dirge of Cerberus. His weapon has been confirmed as rapier.

Minerva
Minerva is a mysterious armored being, referred to as the "goddess of the world". She is a secret boss at the Northern Cave. She might be in some relationship with Genesis, but it is unsure what. Her name comes from Roman mythology. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and war. (Also know as Athena to the Greeks.)

Reception and criticism
In late 2007, Dengeki PlayStation named Cloud Strife as the best character of all time in their retrospective awards feature about the original PlayStation. Aerith placed 5th and Tifa placed 8th and three other characters placed in the top fifty: Sephiroth at 14th, Reno at 15th, and Yuffie at 42nd.