WALKTHROUGH AND HIGHLIGHTS
     This game lasts an average of seventy to eighty hours, if you're fast, really good, and don't do any of the side areas.  With the side areas, the gold chocobo, and seeing the sights, it can last upwards of ninety hours.  Besides the length, while it is linear, it still does not lend itself to step-by-step handholding walkthroughs, because of the freedom the designers gave you in what order you do things.  Therefore, this will not be a step-by-step hand-holding walkthrough, but a description of the rougher parts and a guide to highlights and stuff easily missed.  I've covered general strategy so far.  I'll try and point out where I'm describing a side trek, instead of something you have to do.
     Because the instruction manual includes a step-by-step walkthrough of the first reactor, there's only one thing I want to point out there:  Cloud's first fit.  They've left it an open question as to who's warning him there.  I have a theory, and it isn't pleasant...
     DISC ONE-THE GAME IS AFOOT!(ONE LONG CHASE SCENE)
     MIDGAR CITY
     After you've left the Mako reactor, you can wander around Midgar a little.  You'll meet Aeris for the first time here, selling flowers.  Now, one thing I should mention:Your second major visit to Gold Saucer will be different depending on how you treat Tifa, Aeris, and Yuffie, and it starts right out of the gate.  After you head off that screen, you'll be cornered by Shinra soldiers.  Eventually, Cloud will get sick of beating up bucketheads, and do a neat little escape.  I find the next sequence, with AVALANCHE convincing themselves that Cloud didn't make it, rather humorous; while they're all getting depressed and thinking he got killed, he's battering on the door, trying to get them to let him in.
     After you get off the train, if you just wander a little, you'll find your way to 7th Heaven, Tifa's bar; you can wander around and hit Beginner's hall and all the shops here.  This is the first time you see Tifa in the game.  Whenever things slow down in 7th Heaven, try walking out; Barret will usually interrupt you.  After everybody's gone down to the base to plot, you get to chat with Tifa for a minute; then head where everybody else went.  This time, when you leave, Tifa will stop you.  You will see Cloud's only accurate memory for a LONG time, as well as the first time Sephiroth is even mentioned.  For those of us who read the manual: No, you can't skip the Materia tutorial.  It's a mandatory sequence.
     After you leave, you'll get your second chance to wander Midgar at large.  If you go upstairs of the weapons shop, there's a "beginner's hall" with tips for those of you who don't read the manual.  However, if you look around, you'll get an ether and an All materia there; I usually pop in just long enough to grab the materia.  I strongly suggest that you check to make sure your equipment is current whenever you see a shop in this game, especially early on, when you still haven't visited all of the towns.
     On the train, when the man walks past you and sniggers, turn and catch him; he'll give back the Gil he took, and it won't take that much off your time.  Inside the reactor, wander until you find a place almost identical to the first reactor.  The first really troublesome thing in the reactor is that !$^%@$^ button puzzle.  Try counting to three to help with the timing.  It's one of the most annoying timing "puzzles" in the game.  Luckily, there aren't many.  When you get outside, you might wonder why it's been so easy up until now.  After all, you haven't seen any guards, or any nasty security robots, or more than one lock.  If you're smart, you'll think of Murphy's 102nd Law: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  The Shinra troops that meet you are the least of your worries.  You might want to take note of what Prez Shinra says about Sephiroth; this is the second time he's mentioned in the game, and is a rather enlightening bit of foreshadowing. ("Ah, Sephiroth.  He was brilliant.  Perhaps too brilliant...") The Airbuster, once you get to fight it, might also seem pretty pitiful.  After all, you get an automatic side attack, and you can easily get it "stuck" so it can't attack two of your party members.  Once again, it seems too good to be true.  The Airbuster blows up, and Cloud reveals a teeny flaw:Gravity seems to like him.  Like him a lot, in fact.  So much that he's always falling from high places.  Lucky for him Aeris's flower bed (and the church cieling...and the church's upper floor...) break his fall.
     Aeris actually takes it in stride.  She starts her long trend of acting just a little odd.  Sometimes I wonder how much Aeris knows about what's going to happen; she's never surprised by anything, and she always acts like she expected things to happen all along.  Midway through the conversation, Reno comes in.  If you want to be real nice to Aeris, follow her advice and ignore him.  If you want to see Cloud spaz out again, start walking towards him.  Sooner or later, Reno interrupts anyway, leaving you to rescue Aeris.
     This is one of the harder puzzles in the game, actually.  If you can drop the barrels in the right order, Aeris won't have to fight at all.  However, you have to be real good at thinking in three dimensions to drop the right barrels in the right order; you also have to keep the layout of the church in mind.  The right order of barrels is the left barrel in the back, the right barrel in the back, then the right barrel in the front.
     Once you've gotten out of the church, you get your first clue that Aeris isn't what she seems-the Turks have been harrasing her for a long time.  You get to escort Aeris up to her house.  When you first enter an inhabited area of Sector 5, you'll pass by a pipe.  You can go inside it and talk to the man inside to get some nice foreshadowing-he's got a tattoo, of the roman numeral II.  You can't do anything to help him, no matter how hard you try.  Afterwards, you might want to reequip Cloud and Aeris.
     When you meet Aeris's mother, Elmyra, she asks Cloud to slip out quietly; she doesn't want Aeris getting into more trouble.  All you have to remember to sneak past Aeris (after you've picked up the Phoenix Down in the room) is to WALK, NOT RUN.  When you get to the hole in the wall between sectors 5 and 6, you find out how effective that was.  If you can't find your way out of the maze, look for the pipe propped on the next floor at the very top of the screen-it's a big pipe, in front of the construction machine-and walk up it.  Just keep going; you'll come to a playground, where you'll get some more foreshadowing-Aeris knew someone in SOLDIER, who Cloud really reminds her of.  You'll hear a lot more about him later.  (His name was Zack...)  Then, you get to see your first chocobo in this game, pulling a wagon with Tifa in it.  Tifa, however, is not looking herself, and she's headed for a real bad part of town.  (You'll see the wagon again if you get lost in the desert around Corel Prison; spend too much time wandering, and he'll come and offer you a lift.)
     When you get to Wall Market, talk to everybody-and I do mean everybody.  Do get equipment for Cloud, Tifa and Aeris; don't worry about Barret yet.  Once you've talked to everyone in the town, head up to the big mansion and talk to the doorman.  You get to see Cloud have a nice Moment of Dawning Recognition (Or ohnosecond for short), as he realizes what he's got to do to get Tifa out.  You need to get at least a dress from the dress shop; the owner of the shop will then point you towards a wig.  If you want to, run around the rest of the town, doing favors and checking into every opportunity to get a more convincing disguise.  (I bet Cloud never wants to show his face around Wall Market again!)  Once you feel satisfied with your costume, head to the dress shop to change, then back to the mansion.  From here on out, it's not that hard.  Well, not hard on the player; I bet Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris are just having a BALL.  (As in, they would be more than happy to see that mansion wiped off the face of the planet.)  Once Corneo gives you the drop, take the first chance you can to equip and prepare your party, then meet Aps, his pet.  Aps is not that tough, or smart; his strongest attack damages him as well, and it is entirely possible that he'll land the killing blow on himself.  Rest assured that, if you clear out all of the side quests, you will see Corneo again.
     Make sure to get all the goodies out of the sewers and the train graveyard.  Tip:Search the barrels in the train graveyard.  After you've cleaned the area, play with the lighted trains in the upper right corner; they'll clear the path to Sector 7, where the battle for the pillar is well under way. Run like heck for the top, where you get to see Reno AGAIN.  He's the first tough battle in the game.  If he entraps someone in a pyramid, have the next character who moves attack the victim; the poor trapped sod won't take any damage, and you'll get rid of the pyramid.  Don't let Reno get two members of your party in pyramids; if he gets all three trapped, you lose.  (After all, how can you run from the explosion when you're stuck in place?)  Ice works well on Reno.  Sooner or later, you'll get to see the first of many hasty Turk retreats.  Then, you'll get to see a certain helicopter for the first time.  By the end of the game, you will want to see that helicopter go through a fiery end.  In the helicopter are the highest ranking Turk, Tseng; and Aeris.  Aeris, in case you can't guess, is not along willingly.  There is no way to stop Tseng from leaving.  Once you confirm that there's no way to shut down the bomb, Barret will find an escape route, and you'll get to see one of the spectacular scenes of mass destruction.  If you think that's rough on Midgar, wait 'till you see the ending.
     After you get Tifa and Barret with you, head back to the playground and nab the Sense Materia.  Then, head for Aeris's house.  You finally find out why Aeris is so unusual, although you don't know the full implications yet.  After talking to Elmyra, head for Wall Market.  Make sure everybody's well equipped, BUY THE BATTERIES, and go to the graffiti covered wall by Don Corneo's mansion.  This isn't exactly a difficult sequence, just frustrating.  For the bar jump, wait until just after it squeaks to jump.  You'll come up in front of Shinra HQ.
     You'll get a save point and a choice: Barge in and do a lot of damage, or sneak in up the staircase.  There actually is incentive to run up sixty flights of stairs, in the form of no enemies an elixier most of the way up.  You also get to hear the trio argue the whole way up.  Either way you go, you will get to the fifty-ninth floor.  Heal up and walk across to the three guards, who'll attack; after you "explain your situation to them", as Lennier of Babylon 5 would say, and "convince" them to give you the keycard, hit the elevator.  The only reasonable destination, unless you want to run up that many stairs again, is the sixtieth floor.  This floor gets annoying, quick.  However, if you're an incompentent sneak, you can rest easy that sooner or later, they'll run out of guards to throw at you on this floor.  Run up the stairs to the sixty-first floor, where the door has been pushed open.  Talk to all the employees hanging around; when you get a choice, don't say a word.  You get to see another example of the Einsteins Shinra hires, as he mistakes three heavily armed people for maintenance and gives you the keycard.  From here on up, it's a little harder to get the keycards.  The first keycard is the sixty-third, which you have to get from the (ersatz) mayor of Midgar.  His aide will help you guess his password, for a lot of money.  It's an anagram code; note down the numbers on the misplaced files in the library, count forward that many letters into the alphabet, then arrange them into one of Domino's keywords.  If you get it right on the first try, he'll give you an Elemental materia as well as the keycard.
     The next floor gives you a nice opportunity to get cool stuff.  Here's a tip:Go through as few doors as you can; go by the upper-left route, open two doors, enter the farthest left room, then use the airducts to get to the farthest right room.  From there, you only need to open one door to get to the middle room.  After you've fetched the trinkets, just run right up the stairs.  To  get the next keycard, you need to fix a model of Midgar city; just investigate the boxes scattered around, and put the pieces in any old place.  Once you've got seven of the sectors fixed, hit the last box for the keycard.
 Now you come to Shinra's board room.  In the Playstation version, there was a glitch that allowed you to go into the boardroom proper if you moved fast.  However, they fixed it, and you'll just have to settle for slipping into the bathroom air duct.  Once they're done discussing nefarious plans, go out and follow Hojo.  Hojo leaves doors open behind himself, so you don't need to worry about keycards.  Keep following him, and you'll get your first look at two major characters: Red XIII, and Jenova.  You'll get your last look at the laboratory intact.  Hit the save point and chest, then take that nifty little elevator up.
     After a short discussion with Hojo, Barret opens the cage for Red and Aeris.  Red shows Hojo his appreciation, but is interrupted when something nasty starts coming up the elevator.  Pick your party-Red comes fully equipped, with his own Materia-then deal with the beastie.  Fire and Ice work well on this monster; Bolt doesn't work that well, and Bio heals it.  Don't even bother with its little rolly things; as soon as you kill one, H05 will only resurrect it.  Hojo takes the opportunity to slip away quietly.  Nab the Enemy  Skill materia from the cage, then run back to your meeting place and get in the elevator at the bottom of the screen, grabbing the potions on your way out.  This is actually the closest Tseng ever gets to Cloud alive.  Naturally, it's not a good thing; Rude comes in to back him up.
     You get a partial explanation of some of what's going on.  After you get taken back to your cell, check on everyone and go to sleep; don't worry about escaping.  Sephiroth handles that part for you.  When you wake up, the door's open, the guard is dead, and there's a trail of destruction leading up.  Boy, subtle, isn't he?  Check out the slashes in the wall; one of those scary little details.  Also, check out Jenova in the lab.  Oh, she isn't there?  Huh.
       When you get to the top, you get to see Sephiroth's sword for the first time, and President Shinra doing an impression of a bug mounted in one of those entymology boards.  Equip Barret, Red, and Aeris as best as you can, ignoring Tifa and Cloud for now.  Head on out to meet Rufus, the new President of Shinra.  Cloud sticks around to keep Rufus busy while the rest escape.  Tifa stays behind to wait for Cloud, leaving you with Aeris, Red, and Barret to get out.  Take the elevator down; because all your key-cards have been confiscated, it's the only way you can take.  The two robots aren't that difficult; just have Aeris and Red casting Bolts and Cures, and Barret attacking and Curing.  As soon as the battle's won, you'll get a chance to reequip Cloud.  Give him Poison, Restore, and some other attack materia.  When you get to fight Rufus, take out his pet first, then cast spells and use limit breaks on him.  If you start running low on HP, don't be afraid to stop and cure; Rufus is pretty fast with that Shotgun, and you rarely know how many times he'll hit you between your moves.  Once you've beaten Rufus, go down to meet Tifa, then take the elevator.  You'll get a nice, long mixed cut-scene, and make a nice, spectacular escape.  Fiddle with your party when they give you the chance.  Whatever three characters you pick, equip them well, and make sure someone has an All=Restore.  Follow this rule of thumb for party order: Put Tifa, Cloud, or Red in the BACK rank; put Aeris and Barret in the FRONT rank.  It will make a difference.
     It's hard to lose the mini-game, but trust me, you want to keep damage to a minimum.  When you hit the end of the road, you'll see a nice, big robot coming up the road behind you; unfortunately, Cloud can't whack the Motor Ball with his sword from the bike.  This boss will get a free attack from behind on the whole party.  This is why you reverse your ranks; you won't have to waste a turn hitting Change with the entire party.  Bolt, of course, works well.  Don't let anyone drop too low, or it will take them out.
 CHASING SEPHIROTH-ON FOOT AND CHOCOBO, KALM TO JUNON
     After you've beaten it, you get to leave Midgar.  It doesn't really matter who you pick to take with you, because you won't be away from the others that long.  Kalm is not far from Midgar; it's more north than east, so don't wander too far that way.  The only thing your party affects is everyone's opinion of you, which affects your second trip to Gold Saucer.
     When you arrive, go ahead and go straight into the inn.  Cloud will fill the party in on what happened in Nibelheim five years ago.  It's terribly linear, but still interesting, even if it is wrong.  Half of the cutscenes with Sephiroth in them are here.  Before you hit the reactor, you can even look over his stats in the menu, although you may not want to-he's scary enough as is.  Sadly, you cannot control him, not one iota.  Cloud is definitely the junior partner.  You don't have to go in Tifa's house, unless you want to irritate her; however, DO go talk to Cloud's mother.  You'll get to see the clearest picture of how reliable Cloud's memory is, as he skips and fuzzes out like a vinyl record that's been used as a frisbee for a few years.  Don't even bother checking out the safe or the door in the basement; there may as well be a big "Do not disturb for seven years" sign on the door.  You can't wake Vincent up in the flashback, or find the safe's combination, so don't bother trying.  Note yet another time gravity shows its affection for Cloud-and Tifa, and Sephiroth, and the two bucketheads.  After Cloud's sudden stop, everybody, including Cloud, heads downstairs.  Go back upstairs, and check out the cabinet in the corner, hiding behind the staircase.  Cloud will say he can't reach the item there.  Examine it enough times, and Cloud will get frustrated and kick the cabinet; the Megalixer (yes, a megalixer!) will fall right into his hands.
     Go with whatever party you want, and explore Kalm fully.  In the back tower-just look for a spiral staircase-you'll find a Peacemaker, for Vincent.  You won't actually get to use it until you reach Nibelheim, but it's a good idea to nab it now.  Talk to the guy by the entrance to town to get a little bit of "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear"; while Cloud was telling everybody about Sephiroth's psychotic fit in Nibelheim, Sephiroth was heading east.  Be sure to reequip everybody you plan on keeping with you, and head east.  Don't even try to go through the swamp; the Zolom will catch you, and he will trounce you like the insignificant bugs you are.  Instead, head for the Chocobo farm.  Talk to the chocobo by the fence to get your first summon Materia, the Choco-Mog, then go inside, buy the chocobo lure, some greens, and stay the night in the other building.  Talk to the grandfather to hear about a strange man in a black cape who got eaten by the Zolom, doubtless.  Gee, now who could that be?
     Go out and catch a chocobo, then head across the swamp.  If you're having a hard time catching a choco, there are some tips to make it easier: 1.  Set the ATB timer to Wait.  2.  Customize your item list with the greens at the very top.  Watch for the Zolom; if you run the chocobo right into its jaws, it will attack, so keep an eye on that sillhouette below the water's surface.  On the other side of the swamp, you get to see how successful one of the Zoloms was in eating that strange man with the black cape.  Frankly, I agree with Aeris: "Our enemy is someone who could do THIS?"  Yikes.  Explore the mythril mine's right hand passages before heading for the left passage.  Here's where you get to meet my favorite Turk, Elena, who just blurts out stuff you aren't supposed to know.  Check out the door on that level and get the goodies before you leave.  If you have the Enemy Skill materia, you can get Flamethrower from the dragonflies.  When you're done with the mines, follow the route Tseng and Rude took.
     If you need an inn, head south to Condor Fort, and agree to help them fight the Shinra; you don't have to, but it gives you access to the shops and room.  You also get a chance to find Yuffie; just wander around the forests around Junon, and sooner or later, she'll attack you.  Just string her along (or is that let her string you along?) and she'll come with you.  Head for Junon; there isn't much to do, besides go down to the coast.  Once there, you'll see a girl playing with a dolphin.  Aww, how sweet.  Then, a big, flying monster comes up and attacks.  Figures, doesn't it?  The Bottomswell is a prime chance to play with the Choco/Mog summon, since it does wind-based damage.  If it encases a character in a bubble, pick any offensive spell, move the target arrow to the afflicted character, then hit up once; you should select the bubble.  Once the spell takes effect, the bubble will pop.  Remember that only Yuffie and Barret can physically attack the Bottomswell.  Afterwards, get ready for a rather tedious sequence where you save Priscilla.  You'll be offered a room for a night, and all the stores will open to you.
     When Priscilla offers to show you how to get up to Port Junon proper, everybody besides Cloud suddenly has more important things to do.  The amulet she gives you is a summon Materia, Shiva, by the way.  About the dolphin: if you don't even move, just hit Switch twice, the dolphin will drop you nicely above the electrified area.  Once the Shinra officer shows his intelligence, go ahead and follow him.  After you go through the parade (and, most likely, futz it up!), you'll be given one more chance.  Don't bother practicing the drill; it's random, anyway.  When you go to the ship, notice how suspiciously familiar the band of soldiers and sailors ahead of you looks.  Go ahead and do your best drilling for Rufus; do well enough, and you'll get a real nice sword.  You'll also see one of Rufus's more hilarious flubs, as he tells Cloud to guard the ship from himself.  If you try and leave, Red gets your attention and calls you on board.
     CHASING SEPHIROTH-THE NEW CONTINENT-COSTA DEL SOL TO COSMO CANYON
     The ship leaves.  If you've got Yuffie, you won't be able to get to the All materia at first; just wait.  Explore the ship and talk to everybody.  Catch Red XIII, for sure; it's hilarious that noone notices him :) .  After you've talked to all the sailors and soldiers, head back down for a minute and talk to Aeris; then go up by the bridge.  Sephiroth saves you once again; when Barret goes to do something REAL stupid, he "interrupts" Barret by killing most of the crew.  Pick your group, then go downstairs and grab that Materia on your way to the engine room.  Get all the goodies before you talk to the Shinra officer.  If you thought that Sephiroth snuck on board wearing an officer's uniform, guess what?  You're dead wrong!  He didn't wear any kind of a disguise, and he managed to sneak on board anyway!  This is the first time you'll fight Jenova.  This is actually her most dangerous incarnation, because it is impossible to turn her into a pinata or destroy her ability to attack.  Once you've beaten Jenova*BIRTH, pick up the Ifrit summon left behind, and head out of the cargo chamber.
     You arrive in Costa Del Sol uneventfully.  After your party clears out, Rufus disembarks, absolutely overjoyed at the events of the trip.  Explore Costa Del Sol; everyone who isn't in your band will be relaxing.  Yuffie, if she isn't in your trio, will have found a part-time job at the Materia shop with surprising enthusiasm.  Reequip, then head for the beach, where you see the last person you'd expect to see on vacation.  Go over and pester him.  It takes Hojo a few minutes to realize you're there; he says some...*revealing*...things, if you listen hard.  You may want to note down what he says for later.  Once you're done harassing Hojo, go back up and get some sleep.  In the morning, if Yuffie is not in your trio, but is in your party, she'll have cleaned out the Materia store.  You may want to remember that for later.  Go ahead and go across the mountains to North Corel.  Once again, you'll hear of a strange man in a black cape who's doubtless been killed by the numerous natural hazards ahead.  It's kind of hard for a natural disaster to fall prey to other natural disasters, if you catch my meaning ;) .  When you get to North Corel, after Barret takes some abuse, go talk to everybody.  You get an interesting observation from one of the residents about Sephiroth-he has a tattoo of the roman numeral I.  Hmm, where have you seen tattoos like that before?  ( Hint: You've seen II and XIII.)  My, what fun implications!
     Go on up to Gold Saucer.  Barret will give a partial explanation of what happened to North Corel; once you get into the Station, you'll be able to choose one party member to take with you.  Take whoever you want with you; keep in mind that who you take will affect what happens next time you have to visit Gold Saucer.  Explore a little, if you want, and blow some Gil.  You can replay the motorbike mini-game in Wonder square.  You can talk to Dio in Speed Square; he's also noticed a certain tattoo, and demonstrates how truly clueless he is.  He is one of the few people who isn't the slightest bit creeped out by Sephiroth.  From the Werewolf:The Apocalypse main book, about people who are not frightened by a war-form werewolf: "They either have nerves of steel or a brain of jell-o."  Dio has one of those, and it ain't the first one.  When you're done goofing off, and before you get too frustrated about Dio losing track of Sephiroth,  go to Wonder Square and meet Cait Sith.  Cait Sith makes an...interesting(*ha, ha, ha*) prediction.  Cait will then insist on accompanying you.  Wander a little more, and wend your way over to Battle Square, where someone has taken the name a little too literally.  Shockingly, this time Sephiroth isn't the one responsible for the massacre; after all, he hates guns.  However, someone with a gun on his arm was.  Dio once again demonstrates how bright he is, by arresting you and dropping you down the hatch.
     When you wake up, head south, for the trailer, where Mr. Coates will tell you how to get out of the prison.  Once you've gotten that cheery bit of news, head for the house nearby-the one with the couches in it.  Barret will rescue you from a tail, and explain what's going on.  Explore the Prison a little more, and head back up to the path that was blocked off with a wire.  It will now be open.  In the junkyard, you can get the Matra Magic and Laser enemy skills.  Make sure Barret has a Restore materia, and go on up into Dyne's lair for one of the almost depressing sequences-Barret and Marlene's backstory.  After Dyne kills himself, head back to Mr. Coates, who'll  try and thwart you; you're saved by Esther, one of the more oddball sources of help you'll get.  You'll meet Joe for the first time; once you get into racing your own chocobos, you will learn to curse his name, and that of his chocobo, TEIO.  When you get the chance, grab the Ramuh summon materia, and     wait for Esther.  The first Chocobo she gives you will usually be impossible; don't worry if you lose the first race.  You should be able to win on the second race.  Once you've won, Dio will give you a little gift to make your life easier:the Dune Buggy.  Go south.  While it isn't mandatory, it's probably a good idea to hit the bombed-out town just south of Gold Saucer, in the woods. Elena once again demonstrates her brilliance, as she gripes about her partners to you before realizing who you are.  If you win this battle, you will once again get to see the Turks retreat.  This is the first of two times you can fight all three Turks.  If you avoid this battle by not going to Gongaga, you'll miss a nice part of the story.  Explore a bit; you'll get the Deathblow materia.  Head for the reactor, and you'll get a bit of foreshadowing, as Scarlett and Tseng are scouting out reactors.  Once they've left, you can get the Titan summon out of the reactor.
     Go in and talk to the people of Gongaga.  You'll hear once again about someone who was in SOLDIER and resembles Cloud; this time, you actually get his name, Zack.  Cloud, who says he should know everybody in SOLDIER, doesn't recognize the name.  Aeris and/or Tifa, if they're in your group, react strangely.  If you want to tick them off, just ignore them and leave.  You should reequip in Gongaga; keep in mind that you'll have to climb poles to reach some of it.  Once you're done with Gongaga, head west across the river.  You can get the Frog Song enemy skill from the  Touch Mes in the forest.  Go north.  You can try and drive right past Cosmo Canyon, if you like; it won't accomplish anything.  If you don't stop, the buggy will break down.
     Cosmo Canyon is Red XIII's hometown; here, everyone calls him Nanaki.  Explore and reequip, concentrating on Cloud, Red, and one other character.  Go up to Bugenhagen's place; he'll talk to you and Red.  Pick one other character to go with you, and head out to the caves.  Explore everything before you move past each section of the cave; there's lots of nifty stuff hidden around there.  Remember that most of the things in the cave are dead, and Dead Things can be hurt by Cure magic.  To verify this, use Sense to make sure a creature's Weak against Holy before you accidentally heal something you shouldn't.  When you hit the Stingers, be ready; the spiders are dangerous.  Keep lots of healing magic and items, and be prepared to hit Limit Break often.  (If the oil in the lava room is bugging you, think of this:Get past the oil the same way you snuck past Aeris earlier; it works better on the oil than it did on Aeris.)  Sooner or later, you'll hit the Gi Nattak boss.  So long as you exclude his little Soul Fires, the most damaging attack you can have is Cure 2, which makes the battle go a heck of a lot shorter and easier.  After killing the Gi Nattak, go see Red's father.  When you emerge from the cave, explore again to get interesting information from the Elders; some if it won't make a lot of sense, but keep it in mind as you go on.  When you're ready to go, just head out of down; Red will meet you on your way out.  The Buggy will be fixed.
     CHASING SEPHIROTH-WHAT CAME BEFORE-NIBELHEIM TO THE TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENTS
     Just keep going north.  You'll see a little town nestled in some creepy mountains.  Hop out of the buggy and head on in to see a familiar sight: Nibelheim, intact.  The people here contradict Cloud and Tifa about Nibelheim's history; you won't find out why until Disc 2 or 3.  You'll also see a bunch of strange creatures in black robes wandering around.  Talk to them to find more of those roman numeral tattoos and interesting items, as well as tangled bits of foreshadowing.  (Reunion!)  You can skip the mansion, although you shouldn't if you want a few more clues as to what the heck is going on in this game.  You also shouldn't skip the mansion if you want Vincent, and all the little tips on the story he gives.  You will find out next to NOTHING about Sephiroth's backstory if you do not get Vincent.  (He knows as much about Sephiroth as Hojo, and he's more accurate and more willing to talk.)  In the Shinra mansion, just play with the riddles to get the combination to the safe; the Lost Number boss is fairly tough.  When he loses enough HP, depending on how you do most of your damage, he'll adapt and morph into one of two forms.  One is strong against spells but not against physical attacks; the other is strong against physical attacks but not against magic.  (If it's red, attack it; if it's blue, cast spells at it.)  When you kill it, you get the basement key, the Odin Summon, and Red's Cosmo Memory Manual.   Head into the secret passage to the basement; if you have the basement key, the locked door is now open, and you can wake Vincent up.  Tell him about Sephiroth; you'll get his attention, but he'll decide to stay where he is.  Leave the basement, then come back and ask who he is; he'll blow you off AGAIN, but catches up to you in the hallway and decides to stay with you.  Here's where that Peacemaker you picked up in Kalm comes in handy.  Now, you can head for the lab and meet Sephiroth again!  He's a little more coherent this time, but not much; however, he gives you a useful materia before leaving.  You can walk around and read some of the books he's left open, most of which contain chilling clues about Cloud and someone else.  (Come back in late Disc 2 or Disc 3 to find out who Subjects A and B were...)
     Whenever you're done exploring the mansion, head for Mt. Nibel.  You can get some nifty materia and items in the caves and tunnels around the mountain, so explore fully.  In the room with the tubes, don't go down the tubes until you've let down the ladder; you can't let it down from below.  The big spidery thing in the mountain-the Materia Keeper-is one of the toughest battles so far.  He usually takes me between twenty and thirty minutes to kill, with copious use of Phoenix Downs and Cure spells.  However, you can get the nasty Trine enemy skill from him, so go in with the Enemy Skill Materia equipped!  You can even explore the old Jenova reactor, although there's nothing interesting there anymore.  Head straight through the mountain when you're done, and go north to Rocket Town.
     Talk to everybody in the Town, and reequip fully.  If you look at the rocket with the old man, he'll give you a sword for Cloud for indulging him.  I have one thing to say to the citizens of Rocket Town:  "May you live in exciting times" was an old Chinese CURSE.  When you're done talking to everybody, go to the empty house with the back door to check out the cool airplane; Shera will tell you to go talk to the captain about borrowing the Tiny Bronco.  The captain is in the rocket, and is none other than Cid.  After Cid has told you why he's waiting for Rufus and Palmer to show up, head back down to the town and go to his house; Shera will be waiting.  She'll explain why the space program was cut, then Cid will show up.  A few minutes after Cid arrives, Palmer comes in.  While Palmer is bugging Shera, poke your nose out the door.  Rufus, not knowing you're there, will tell you where to find Sephiroth, and really tick Cid off.  Follow Shera's advice, and save the Tiny Bronco from Palmer; he's weak, but annoying.  You get a short flight in the boat-to-be, before Shinra troops demolish the tail.  After you crash, you get your first chance to go to Wutai and go through Yuffie's subquest.  I suggest you wait to go up a few levels before you rescue her and Elena from Corneo.  This is also the first point where you can get Aeris's Great Gospel  manual.  A word of advice:Go all out with Aeris to get her Level 4 Limit break before going any further; you'll thank yourself later.
     When you're ready, go visit that house on the peninsula due south of Costa Del Sol, and just northeast of Gongaga.  He'll tell you about some silly old legend about a Keystone to get in the Temple of the Ancients.  He'll say he just sold it to someone who it looked like a bad idea to say "no" to. You get a chance to panic and think he sold it to Sephiroth, then you find out he's sold it to (Drumroll, please) Dio, of all people.  This compels you to troop back to Gold Saucer.  The Keystone is in Dio's show room in Battle Square; study it, and Dio will give you a chance to get it-Cloud has to enter the Battle Square games.  Dio will give you a special prize if you can win all eight battles; otherwise, you just get the Keystone.  When you go to leave, the Ropeway's broken, and Cait Sith tells you he can get a place to stay.  Before everyone goes to bed, you review the situation.  You finally get the admission from Red that his XIII tattoo is the same as the tattoos sported by Sephiroth, the man in Sector 5, and all the strange black robed creatures; a fact which greatly disturbs him.  Everyone else should be safe, since they don't have number tattoos...heh, heh, heh....
     This is where how you've treated Tifa, Aeris, and Yuffie comes into play.  The one you've treated the best (usually Aeris, unless you make a conscious effort to avoid encouraging her) will come in and drag Cloud off to see the sights.  With regards to how the rest of the game affects this sequence, Aeris is the easiest to get, Yuffie is the hardest; I've heard a rumour that it's possible to get Barret or even Red to show up.  I usually try to get Tifa, because the "play" is absolutely hilarious with her.  (Either you screw up and she knocks Cloud out, or you do it right, and she makes herself look like an idiot.  "Is that it?  That can't be the end.  Was that the end?")  As you're returning to the hotel via the station, you see Cait Sith, acting suspicious, carrying the Keystone.  Chase him.  If you lose him, go to Chocobo Square and flush him out of the building.  You'll get to see that helicopter, with Tseng, yet again, as Cait Sith tosses Tseng the Keystone. After Cait engages in a little hostage situation, you agree to take him with you.  Here, you are told to head straight for the Temple; however, if you choose, you can hit Yuffie's subquest or get Aeris's L4 Limit Manual.  Until the end of the Temple, Aeris is a mandatory member; you have to bring her.  If you don't get Aeris's L4 Limit Break before the Temple of the Ancients, you never will.  (Well, you can get it, but it won't be much use.)
     The Temple is on a forested island just south of Fort Condor and Junon.  You can't miss it; it's a big, Mayan-style step pyramid.  On the steps, one of your characters will spaz out; surprisingly, it isn't Cloud, but Aeris.  She says something about "You could return to the planet, but you're stopping it with force of will".  I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I'm pretty sure she's referring to Sephiroth.  When you get in, you see Tseng for the last time; he gives you the Keystone before he dies.  The first time I saw the next area, I thought I was in Escher's 3-d physics-defying maze, silly me.  It's still confusing; however, you can find your way around by following the little blue guy.  There's plenty of keen stuff hidden around there, so be sure to explore before you continue on.  You'll come to a pathway with boulders rolling along it; time your dashes so Cloud stands in the holes in the boulders.  When you manage to get all the way to the end, Aeris stops and dashes back.  Can't win, can't break even, can't quit the game.  When you meet her at the pool, she leans over and starts talking to things you can't hear again; then, she triggers a vision from the pool, of the Turks in a room with hieroglyphs on the wall.  After Elena leaves in the vision, Sephiroth walks by behind you-not in the vision,but in reality.  Of course, he starts messing with the vision.  After the vision is over, you can head on past the boulder pathway to the clock.  The clock's pretty simple, if you turn the hands yourself and follow the instructions.  Go through the number VI door last, to get all the goodies; if you're feeling adventurous, let the second hand knock you off, down into the room in the Escher maze that was blocked off by an energy barrier.  You'll be attacked by two BIG dragonflies; there's a sword for Cloud that, while powerful, has NO materia slots.  When you've cleaned the area out to your satisfaction, go through VI.  The pattern changes from game to game; number the doors, then  take notes on which door he goes through each time to predict where he'll come out.  Also, pause to pick up the glove for Tifa out of the chest at the bottom.  When you catch the guard, he'll open the door to the Hieroglyph room.  You'll meet Sephiroth in here, even more coherent yet still acting strangely; you won't get within seven feet of him, because he keeps swinging his sword in front of him.  The last time you see him in here, you find him sitting unconcerned in front of a pedestal; after a short conversation; he gets up.  Jamming his sword into the ground, he outlines a simple plan to become more powerful than you really want to think about; however, as a nasty side effect, all life currently on the planet will die.   Then, as soon as he leaves, Cloud will REALLY spaz out.  Once he comes around, you'll hear something behind you; someone in your party will ask if it's Sephiroth.  Although you won't see him, you'll hear Sephiroth say, "That's not me.", just before the Red Dragon attacks.  The dragon is fairly anticlimactic for a boss; if you think he's the boss of the Temple, just remember the rule about something being "too good to be true".  Be sure to grab the Summon Bahamut materia he leaves behind, then go look at the pedestal you last saw Sephiroth at. It's a model of the Black Materia-the entire Temple.  Cait Sith will prove his usefulness; head for the exit, out door XII of the clock.  Now you get to see the real boss of the Temple, the Demon Gate.  This is the last battle you have with Aeris in the group.  Once you've escaped, Cloud retrieves the Black Materia.  Sephiroth quickly shows up and takes over Cloud, who gives him the Black Materia, then attacks Aeris.  Your third character will stop Cloud, who'll black out and have an odd dream sequence with Aeris, acting almost as strange as Sephiroth; she'll tell him to leave it all up to her.  When she leaves, Sephiroth drops out of nowhere-the first time he does that around Aeris-and comments that she'll be trouble.  Once again, for Cloud's mortal nemesis, he seems awful relaxed around Cloud...
     CHASING AERIS-CLOUD'S "PROBLEM"-GONGAGA TO THE CITY OF THE ANCIENTS
     Cloud wakes up in Gongaga.  He doesn't want to stay on the quest, to keep Sephiroth from taking control of him again; the others convince to come, Barret commenting "If it happens again, I'll just go upside your spikey head and bring you back to normal!"  Gee, thanks, Barret.  You can explore a little, go through Yuffie's Subquest, or just head north to Bone Village.  If you walk into the Sleeping Forest, it will look awful familiar-it's the forest from the dream with Aeris and Sephiroth.  However, to get through the forest without simply repeating the same two screens over and over, you need to get the Lunar Harp from the archaeologists, who are more than happy to help-for Gil.  Once you've got it, you can go through the Forest, nab the Kujata summon, and get the Water Ring on your way to the City of the Ancients.  When you arrive, explore and find everything, among which is the Aurora armlet-very useful!  Then go spend the night in one of the intact buildings on the right side of the city.
     Cloud will wake up in the middle of the night; head for the crossroads, and follow Cloud's premonitions.  In the main building, go up to find the Comet materia (I thought this was a glitch at first, silly me; but it's Comet, not Meteor.) then go back down the steps to find an underwater temple, a'la Rebma. If you want to turn Jenova*LIFE into a pinata, this is a good time to set up your Healer with the Water Ring and the appropriate Materia.  You might also want to bring an Enemy Skill materia, to get the Aqualung skill.  Head for the series of pillars, where Cloud will hop across, alone, to see Aeris. If you try to talk to her, Cloud will just start spazing out again.  You can try and fight it, but every time you hit the OK button, he comes that much closer to doing something hideous.  Luckily, the others stop him.  Sephiroth, never one to give up easily, decides to follow the old rule about getting things done: "If you want something done right, do it yourself."  Yep, this is The Ambush, the one computer game cutscene that can scare the heck out of my parrot.  After you've seen this, you should agree with me about being afraid of Sephiroth-very afraid.
     After Aeris dies, Sephiroth will torment Cloud a little more, then leave; Jenova will attack you.  After you beat her, you'll see the first, last, and only time Jenova speaks.   There will be a short funeral for Aeris, then you'll go straight into Disc 2.
     DISC 2-WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!
     CHASING SEPHIROTH-WHERE I GET HOMESICK-CITY OF THE ANCIENTS TO THE GAIA CLIFF
     You'll be left in the City of the Ancients; spend the night again, and Cloud will see a vision of Sephiroth heading North, and remember Sephiroth's directions.  You'll head north, through a nifty little ice cavern.  The cave's pretty straightforward; however, make sure you get all the chests, and head to the bottom of the ladder to get the materia. You'll come out on a snowy plain. *Sigh* Home....Sorry, it's an Alaskan thing.  If you head north and west, you'll come around the mountains.  There's chocobo tracks here if you're lazy, but by this point you're so close to Icicle you may as well skip the chocobos until later.  Icicle will be your last chance to reequip for a while, so be thorough.  Until you're done reequiping and preparing, don't go out the back way! Talk to everybody in Icicle; you should hear something about an Ancient who used to live there.  The second door from the left in the whole town leads to an odd room filled with machinery, with a cozy library and living area downstairs-Gast and Ifalna's old lair.  There's a machine with several videos, which clear up a lot about Aeris and Jenova's background.  Whenever you feel ready, head out the back of town; you'll be warned off by one of the residents, then interrupted by Shinra troops, led by Elena.  Elena is firmly convinced that you killed Tseng, and decides to try and take you down herself.  It's easy enough to dodge her; if you do, she slips and goes tumbling right out of town, tailed by the two bucketheads she brought with her.  If she hits you, you'll wake up in Gast's old lair.  Either way, she gets a head start on you, intentional or no.  Once the  Turk has left, more bucketheads will set up a perimeter; while you can fight them to go back, it's really counter-productive.  Just gather the things you're told to get to go to Gaia's Cliff, and head down the path after Elena.
     As soon as you leave town, you're put into the snowboarding minigame.  There are four possible "exits" from the course, and each one drops you in a different place on the Great Glacier.  You'll want to go past the hot springs, and be sure to walk down to the edge and touch them.  This isn't necessary, but helps you snag a Summon materia a little later.  Also, explore the three mountain paths; one of them has an Added Cut materia hidden on it.  There's materia and items hidden all over the Great Glacier, in fact.  However, it is very cold out there, and if you wait too long, you'll pass out.  Lucky for you Gussiks some old Sourdough is willing to dig you out of the snow and thaw you out.  (Again, an Alaskan thing.  Is it not scary that we actually have a slang term for "foreign idiot who doesn't know what he's doing and almost freezes to death, except we saved him"?)  You'll wake up in Holzhoff's cabin at the base of Gaia's cliff, if you passed out.  If you didn't, and you head north off the map, you'll come to the Lost in the Snow section.  Walk straight up, placing three markers in a row with a fair distance between them-but be sure you can always see at least two on the screen!  That way, when the blizzard turns you around, you can keep your direction.  Keep going north until you hit a cave.  Here you have two choices:  You can head east and pick up the Alexander materia, or you can keep going north and reach Holzhoff's cabin without him dragging you there to thaw you out.  If you head east, you'll find a snow creature in a cave that hates hot springs, which is why you gotta touch the hot spring to get the Alexander summon from it.
     Holzhoff will give you some advice for going up the cliff.  Barret will prove to be a total Cheechako; while griping about the weather may be an Alaskan pastime, we never let it get so far that we stop griping about the government, much less say they may not be so bad.  Gaia's Cliff can get tedious,  but so long as you keep an eye on the path ahead, and keep your temperature up above 35, it isn't that hard.  (I must interject here-because they only do costume changes for the entire party ONCE, on the cargo ship, the only one who's actually somewhat dressed for the weather is Vincent.  Everybody else must be freezing, especially Tifa and Yuffie.  Only people who've lived in that kind of a climate for several years can get away with running around in shorts and a t-shirt.)  (Another interjection:From how fast your temperature drops, I'm guessing it's at least forty below (Fahrenheit) on that cliff.  Cait Sith's gears and parts would be freezing stiff and brittle at that temperature, and everybody else would be getting frostbite-except possibly Vincent.)  You'll get several chances to get inside caves, where your temperature won't drop.  If you see the icicles, be sure to drop them all before you jump back down; there's goodies up there.  Sooner or later, you'll see a room with a pool and a save point.  Hit the save point, and heal up.  In the next hallway, you'll see one of the black robes get tossed to the ground by something off screen; your party will look at it, look around paranoiacally, see something off screen, then ready for battle.  It's Schizo, one of the more annoying bosses.  One head breathes fire, and one head breathes ice.  You've gotta keep track of which is which, because if you cast the wrong kind of elemental spell, you'll heal one of the heads.  The Kujata summon heals both heads.  Try and kill only one head at a time; each head has a dying gasp that does a lot of damage, and if you kill both heads at once, it WILL kill you.  When you've found your way up Gaia's cliff, you'll get to see the one cutscene that I play over and over again when I get homesick.  That's a mild, small aurora display, by the by, but very accurate.  *Sigh* Aurora borealis...*sniff* Home....As soon as you get to see what makes me really homesick, you'll get down into the crater proper.  And, being an Alaskan, I must say that Sephiroth has impeccable taste in lairs.
     SEPHIROTH'S LAIR-WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN-NORTH CRATER AND WHIRLWIND MAZE
     As you head down the inside of the crater, you'll come across another of the black robed creatures.  At this point, Cloud's stopped keeping track of numbers.  When you get to the bottom of the crater, Tifa will join you, if she isn't with you already.  Heading into the crater, be sure to grab the Neo Bahamut summon, which is just laying right in your path.  It's the last Bahamut summon that's left out for you to find.  When you get to the top of that screen, Cloud will notice the Highwind passing overhead.  As soon as it gives you back control, go ahead off the screen.  This is the first of three shields you'll have to pass.  Inch as close to it as you can, then wait for the green to die down and run through.  If you run into it while the shield is up, you'll be attacked by a Wind Wing, a little dragonish monster.  There'll be a stretch of rock with a caravan of black robes, then another shield.  Before you go through the shield, set up a Healer-just like for Jenova*LIFE-save that the Healer should have the Dragon armlet instead of the Water Ring, and there are no interesting skills for the Enemy Skill materia.
     On the next screen, the first thing you should notice is Sephiroth killing two of the black robes before vanishing.  He messes with your head a little, makes a few threats, then vanishes and Jenova shows up again.  This is the third battle with Jenova, and the second time she has all magical attacks of one element and no physical attacks.  You can pull the pinata trick on Jenova*DEATH easily.  Once you've killed Jenova, the Black Materia will be left behind.  Cloud will pick it up, then have second thoughts, not wanting to pull what he did at the Temple of the Ancients.  Either Barret or Red will take the Black Materia.  Then, talk to Tifa, and continue on.  You'll have to get through the final, and toughest, shield; however, like the Bucketheads on the sixtieth floor of the Shinra building, if you get knocked back enough times, it will let up a little.  After you pass out of that screen, you'll get a nasty surprise:An exact replica of Nibelheim, following the sequence of the Kalm flashback.  This time, Cloud isn't there, but someone you won't recognize.  If the "flashback" ever stops, just talk to everybody (including Sephiroth!) until it starts going again.  Sephiroth will manipulate Cloud and everybody else, trying to convince Cloud that he's nothing more than a creature created from whatever Hojo could scrape up after Nibelheim.  Sooner or later, it'll skip to the Shinra board, who are standing in the center of the maze, watching Weapon stir in its sleep.  The scene will cut back to the rest of the crew; the area will wierd out, and when the background returns to normal, everyone except the person with the Black Materia will vanish.  While they're standing around wondering what the heck just happened, Tifa will run in and tell them to come, and hurry.  After they go trooping off to help Cloud, Tifa stands in the middle of the screen and starts snickering.  Her mannerisms become less and less Tifa and more and more Sephiroth, until he finally drops the disguise, although he tries to play the role up before dropping it.  After he vanishes, you'll see the rest of the group lying on the ledge unconscious to a man.  Sephiroth drops all of the illusions in the central chamber of the maze, finally allowing the Shinra band and Cloud's trio to see each other.  The person with the Black Materia enters, quite happily relinquishing the Black Materia to Cloud; Tifa yells at them to stop, but Sephiroth pretty much hits the Mute button. (You know, I wish I could do that with my parrot.) Sephiroth takes Cloud up to his "nest" above the crater; as soon as he's got the Black Materia, the crater starts collapsing.  The Shinra people are willing to forget their rivalry and let you on the Highwind; I think they only really care about GETTING THE HECK OUT OF THERE!!!  However, Cloud is not among those rescued, although some of the members are pretty beat up in the escape.  The five Weapon monsters will break loose and scatter.
     SEARCH FOR CLOUD-TIFA'S TURN-JUNON TOWN TO MIDEEL
     Tifa comes around after spending a week out; the group is in Port Junon, as Ummmguests of the Shinra.  Barret will point out Meteor hanging in the sky, then Rufus and Heidegger will enter. Nobody knows where Cloud is, but they're planning on executing Tifa and Barret for PR purposes.  You'll be given control of Barret for a while.  Two of the reporters in the "press room" should look familiar, if you look close-one's Cait Sith, and another's Yuffie.  I also think the Buckethead who escorts Tifa into the gas chamber is another member of your group; that act of dropping the key seems a little too intentional for anything else.  (Because everyone else is occupied, and you don't see a tail, that's either Cid or Vincent-unless the Highwind crew are going the extra mile to help out their Captain.)  Before the execution can get too far, Sapphire Weapon attacks; the reporters (except Cait Sith) and some of the bucketheads panic and leave the press room; Rufus and Heidegger try firing the big  cannon at it.  It keeps coming.  Cait Sith knocks Scarlett out, then helps Barret fight off the two remaining bucketheads.  You should at least try to rescue Tifa, then use the menu to equip Cait Sith, Barret, and Yuffie.  Whenever you're ready, leave.  As soon as you're out the door, Scarlett comes around and locks you out.  Head outside to the walkway; there will be a news crew, complete with camera and suspiciously familiar standup, filming the Weapon attack.  When you blunder into them, Yuffie gets rid of the disguise and joins you.  You should be able to make it to the Highwind without incident-um, except for the SOLDIER, 2nd Class running around.  Be careful when you see them; they're tougher than they look.
     The scene will cut back to Tifa, in the gas chamber.  You need to get the key off the floor, get it to where you can unlock one arm, then unlock your other arm.  Remember to try more than one thing at once.  Once you're loose, the button to the left of the chair will shut off the gas; then, try and open the door.  You'll cut to Rufus and Heidegger; they'll pour small arms fire into Weapon, who'll just get mad and put a hole in the front of the city.  Then, just as it's getting ready to blast again, the cannon fires-straight down its throat.  Chalk up one Weapon to the Shinra folks!  It'll cut back to Tifa; it turns out the hole Weapon made cuts right across the roof of the gas chamber.  Scarlett will start shrieking at Tifa to open the door; Tifa, naturally, tells her where to stick it, and climbs out on the outside of the building.  Run like heck for the end of the cannon, where you'll get into a catfight with Scarlett that just begs the question:Why doesn't Tifa just HIT Scarlett and knock her right over-and you know she could!  No matter if you beat Scarlett or not, you've still got several armed bucketheads pointing rifles at you.  Lucky for Tifa that Heidegger's been abusing the Highwind crew; the second Cid asks them to defect, they're more than happy to.  After the Highwind rescues Tifa, you'll be put on the bridge.
     Congrats-you've got the Highwind.  You can now wander the world pretty much at will.  At this point, you can head for the Chocobo ranch and set up your operation, you can get Yuffie's subquest over with if you haven't yet, or you can just roam around and cause trouble.  Whenever you feel like getting serious (seriously depressing...) head south to the second island in the chain where the Temple of the Ancients was.  See the little town in the woods?  That's Mideel.  Go there.  Reequip everyone except Tifa, and go into the center of town.  You'll find Cloud, all right-not that he'll be much use.  He's basically as comatose, and the prognosis is not good.  The doctor is surprised he's still living, much less think that he'll     recover.  Tifa decides to stay behind with him.
     THE HUGE MATERIA QUESTS-CID'S TURN-NORTH COREL AND FORT CONDOR
     On the Highwind, Cid settles in by the pilot's seat for a nap, while the rest of the group discusses who's going to lead now.  Barret rules himself out, Red never even offers, noone's quite willing to trust Cait Sith that much, and Yuffie and Vincent are out of the question.  (Too bad; if they could get Vincent convinced it was a good idea, he might not do a half-bad job.  Yuffie, on the other hand-{*Shudder*})  Someone pokes Cid awake, and they congratulate him on becoming the group's new leader.    Cait Sith becomes a double agent, and lets you know what Shinra's up to-gathering the Huge Materia so they can launch it into Meteor using Cid's old rocket.  The first one is being picked up at North Corel.  They'll be using the old train to bring it out.  Unfortunately for North Corel, what little is left is built on top of the train tracks, and they won't stop the train for the town.  Note that here, just as with Tifa earlier, you can wander as much as you want before hitting the North Corel reactor.  Head for the North Corel reactor via the train tracks; once you've disposed of the bucketheads, the train will rumble by.  Just as everybody starts thinking they've lost, Cid drags them inside and fetches another train.  It would probably be a good idea to have an Escape materia equipped somewhere here.
     The others marvel that Cid can drive a train; Cid lets them know that he has no idea what he's doing.  Fortunately, the train is fairly straightforward.  Catch up to the other train as fast as you can, and jump over to it.  The easiest thing here is to go through as many battles as you can by exiting; on the others, use all-out overkill on magic to kill the monsters as quickly as possible.  As soon as that's over, start trying to stop the train.  If you succeed,the train stops just short of North Corel; you become the heroes of the town, with a free stay at the inn and a gift from the grateful townsfolk-the Ultima materia.  If you fail, the town is demolished, and you'll just have to poke through the rubble for the Ultima.  Once you've saved (or destroyed) North Corel, wander if you want, then head for Fort Condor.  A tip: Do not give money to the war effort; it'll just vanish.  Go straight into the game and lay out twenty mixed units; especially fun is putting tristoners at the trail heads, pointing down.  Then, as the battle goes on, lay out new troops as you need them, but try and avoid letting your total drop below twenty for long.  As soon as the commander shows up, send all of your troops down after him.  If and when you win, the condor will die rather spectacularly, leaving its egg hatched.  Go on outside; you'll get the Phoenix summon, and the Condor chick will test its little wings and fly off.  When you're ready to go back inside, talk to the old man at the table; he'll reluctantly reveal that the Huge Materia wasn't in the reactor, and give it to you.   Cid is a little upset at being tricked, but is willing to forgive and forget.  When you've got the Huge Materia, Cid decides it'd be a good idea to go visit Cloud.  Make sure your party is well equipped and ready for battle, then head for Mideel.
     MIDEEL LIFESTREAM FLASHBACK-INSIDE CLOUD'S HEAD-HEY, HE FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT!
      When you arrive in Mideel, you'll get to see Cloud again, and he's not getting any better.  Worse, not only does an earthquake hit, but the Ultima Weapon attacks.  Cid and the rest of the trio chase it off, but can't do that much about Mideel sinking into the Lifestream.  There will be one of the wierder looking cutscenes, and then Tifa will be pulled into the Lifestream, along with Cloud.
     This is a very linear sequence; just follow the tips given by the game, and pay attention.  You finally get to see what really happened in Nibelheim, although you still don't find out what happened to Cloud's missing two years.  (The Truth is Out There!)  They also still don't explain how Cloud survived getting skewered by Sephiroth, much less how Tifa survived.  There will be yet another time Cloud gets to experience gravity from a high place; if you were paying attention, he refered to it unknowingly when he first dropped in on Aeris in the church(pun intended).  You also find out why Cloud's memory of his mother was so screwy; after all, it would completely screw up the rest of the "edited" memories.
     After Tifa helps Cloud get his head screwed on right, they go back to the world of the living, where Mideel is now REALLY a hot springs town.  Or is that a Lifestream town?  If you talked to the kid with the chocobo in every store, he'll now sell you all the items the others don't have anymore.  After Tifa comes around for a minute, she blacks out again; the next time the scene clears, they're in the operations room of the Highwind, where Cloud is just finishing explaining what happened to everyone else.  Just so you know, now that there are no messed up memories for him to play with, Sephiroth can't pull Cloud's strings anymore.  You'll get to put your party back together.  From here, you can play with your chocobos-and you can now race them to get them up ranks!; you can get Tifa's Final Heaven Manual from Nibelheim; you can fetch Vincent's Chaos Manual and Death Penalty  with a chocobo; You can finish Yuffie's subquest; you can take a green, black, or gold Chocobo and explore the Forest of the Ancients on the southern cliff near Cosmo Canyon; you can fetch the Natural Materia; or you can do the serious thing and head for Junon.  If you go to Nibelheim, the man in the back of the third building in on the left reveals why they don't tell the truth about Nibelheim's history.  (Having cut the space program, Shinra has plenty of money to spend to get people to move into a town and pretend they've always lived there-and nothing has ever happened there.)  Also in Nibelheim, if you go into the basement of the Shinra Mansion-all the way into the lab-you'll get a cut scene that explains Cloud's missing two years, where Zack fits in, and how Cloud survived being shish-ka-bobed by Sephiroth.
     HUGE MATERIA QUEST-CID GETS TO GO INTO SPACE-JUNON UNDERWATER REACTOR AND ROCKET TOWN
     Your next destination is the Junon underwater reactor.  Here the Shinra bucketheads start getting smart.  Remember those troops you might have seen drilling in the tunnel?  Well, you do have to get by them, but never fear.  When the commander tells them to charge, they charge.  I believe the saying is, "When the going gets tough, the smart get going-preferably in the opposite direction.".  The bucketheads are a lot smarter than the officer by that standard, as they take one look at you and run.  The officer stands waiting for the battle to start, then realizes that it won't start.  He looks back, and discovers that he's leading a bunch of Not Mes and Ida Knows into battle.  Naturally, he turns and runs after his troops, yelling at them to come back.  So much for Shinra bravery.  See that big red button on the wall?  Do you know the one rule in games about pressing big red buttons in enemy fortresses?  If you push it, you set off all the alarms in Junon, and you'll run into a lot more guards and robots.  Considering what's at the end of the trip, I advise not touching it.
     You'll get to go down into one of the more interesting settings, a glass-walled tunnel leading up to the reactor.  It only lasts for two screens, then you're in the reactor.  Go as fast as you want here; it won' t do any good.  You'll get bogged down by several pairs of bucketheads, and get to the Materia holder just in time to see the crane carry the materia away.  Cloud says you'll still have a chance.  When you get out to the dock, you walk right up behind Reno, who learns why you always look when you start telling someone to do something.  Before you can trounce him, he calls over a nice little loading robot, the Carry Armor.  This robot has a Lapis Lazer that does an obscene amount of damage, and can do an arm strike.  There is a good chance that, on any given arm strike, it picks up its hapless victim, who has no choice but to dangle there.  The only way to get it to drop them is to kill the arm (even if the character is dead, it still hangs on!); however, every time you attack the arm, the poor guy (or gal) hanging there takes damage too.  This is one of the harder bosses in the game, even if you do have Quadra=Neo Bahamut or =Ultima.  After you scrap the loading bot, the sub has already left.  You are left with only one choice-go take the other sub.  Be sure to pick up all the nifty goodies in the chests on the dock; they will be useful, especially the weapon for Cid and the Leviathan Scales. You'll have to fight through lots of bucketheads to get down into the sub, although some of them are having second thoughts before attacking you.  You then hit one of my favorite little spots of dialog in the bridge.  For someone so eager to fight to the death, you can sure take them prisoner easily.  I definitely reccomend reading the manual before you try the mini-game.
     The sub will disembark, leaving you with the submarine mini-game.  This is one of the easiest mini-games; just keep the red sub highlighted and in front of you, and tap Switch as fast as you can.  The mines are easy to avoid, and the enemy subs don't fire back.  After it sinks, Cloud will want to head straight back up, and retrieve the materia from the sub later; you can take it or leave it as you choose.
     When you decide to go back up to the Highwind, Cait Sith will inform you that there's one more huge Materia-in Rocket Town, about to be launched.  Hightail it over to Rocket Town, and head straight for the rocket.  If Cid isn't in your party, he'll insist on joining you.  You get to fight through more bucketheads, then just when you think you're home free, you bump into Rude.  Don't worry too much about his buckethead backup; concentrate on the Turk.  Once you've beaten Rude, watch as the Shinra officer in the rocket basically panics.  Cid will tell all the technicians to get lost, and then just as he moves to check on the rocket, Palmer hits the launch button.  Cid will argue with you about the merits of science over magic.  Soon after you get launched into space, you discover that whoever locked the autopilot did a good job:You're going to crash right into Meteor.  Cid relents in his views on magic, and comes to help you get the Huge Materia out of its holder.  However, there is a keycode lock on it; if you input the wrong code, it will give you a few minutes to total lockdown, after which no code will work.  Cid will give hints, although they won't help as much as you will want.  If you really get stuck, the code is OK-Cancel-Switch-Switch.  Once you've got the Huge Materia, Cid leads the way to the escape pod; however, oxygen tank 8 blows as you pass by, pinning Cid under the debris.  Cloud and your other character alone can't lift it off of him.  Just when it looks like you're going to have no choice but to crash into Meteor with the rocket, Shera shows up and helps free Cid.  The escape pod leaves, and Shinra's best plan to get rid of Meteor fails utterly; the Meteor reassembles itself immediately after being blown up.
     AERIS'S LEGACY-WEAPON ATTACK-COSMO CANYON, ANCIENT CAPITAL, MIDGAR AREA
     The scene reopens as Cloud, Cid, and the others are gathered on the bridge after fishing the escape pod out of the ocean.  They discuss the planet, the current crisis, and what they should do; eventually, they all decide to go pester Bugenhagen into giving them some direction.  Bugen calls everybody into the observatory to think on what has gone before.  Aeris comes up with just about everybody.  (Well, everybody who comes up with something; Yuffie, Cait, and Cid don't come up with much.)  Bugenhagen asks to hitch a ride up to the City of the Ancients, to see if he could find out what Aeris knew that the rest of the group didn't.  Before everybody leaves, Cloud asks to leave the Huge Materia there.  If you have both of the Bahamut summons up till now-not necessarily equipped-examine the lower right Materia.  Bahamut will roar, and the Huge Materia and the two Bahamuts will flare; when the light dies, you will have the Bahamut ZERO summon, the second most powerful summon in the game.   When you take him up there, explore the city; eventually, Bugen will find some writing left by the Ancients.  Scribbled nearby is a partial translation: "Sunlight cannot reach (space)  (space) key."  My father and I had a difference of opinion; he believed it meant the key was underground, and I thought the key was underwater.
     This is one of the nicest breaks you get.  You can wander Midgar as you please, handling anything you haven't gotten to yet.  I reccomend you do; you're almost to the end of Disc 2.  You can also pick up the Huge Materia from the downed red sub, take the underwater tunnel to Vincent's waterfall, or explore the crashed Gelnika airplane you'll find in the bay just east of Gold Saucer.  In the Gelnika is Yuffie's Conformer, Cid's Highwind Manual, the Hades Summon, and bunches of other nifty stuff.  There's also a save point, probably because it's the most hazardous place on Disc 2.  If you explore the airship at all, you'll bump into Reno and Rude on their little salvage operation.  As usual, they won't be happy to see you.  The monsters in the two cargo rooms are all on the level of bosses, and most are...well, on the "Heaven Knows" scale of ugliness, Heck Knows.  (From best to worst: Heaven Knows, Heaven Doesn't Want to Know, Heck Knows, Heck Doesn't Want to Know.)
     Explore enough, and somewhere in an underwater tunnel on Midgar, you'll find a mysterious shell suspiciously like those the Ancients built their city out of-the Key of the Ancients.  (Dad and I were both right-it was underground, and it was underwater.)  If you want to goof off some more, don't take it back to Bugenhagen immediately.  When you're ready, take it to the Forgotten Capital; Bugen will start up the device, where you'll find out just why Aeris stuck around for Sephiroth to kill her.  You'll also find out why you should stop worrying about Meteor and start worrying about Sephiroth again.   When you take off in the Highwind, something will interfere with it-Diamond Weapon has decided to get rid of Midgar.  Land near the city and stand on the northern beach; Weapon will walk right into you.  Ideally, you should be able to set up Quadra=Bahamut ZERO followed immediately by Mime, hitting it eight times.  After that kind of punishment, all you'll need to do is breathe on it; it'll start a countdown.  When it starts the Countdown, you're close to the end; when it hits one, the monster turns away from you.
    Rufus will power up the new Sister Ray to take out Sephiroth.  That's right, the cannon is mounted at Midgar City, and they fully expect it to destroy the North Crater, barrier and all.  As the Goblin Standard Bearers in Legend of the Five Rings say, "Scary, innit?"  Diamond Weapon will sense this and get very upset; instead of obliterating you, it fires at Midgar just as the Sister Ray fires.  What follows is like some old gunfight, when they both draw simultaneously and kill each other-the Sister Ray shell goes right through Diamond Weapon and keeps going, while Diamond Weapon takes out the upper floors of Shinra HQ, including President Rufus's observation deck.  Chalk another Weapon up to the Shinra folks!  (And chalk up another President to Sephiroth and his pals!)  The Sister Ray succeeds at destroying the barrier, but not the North Crater.  Because it draws such an enormous amount of power, Shinra decides to shut it down and recharge their reactors.  However, someone's taken control of it from the manual control area.  This will be your last chance to wander freely on Disc 2; just don't fly over Midgar City.  This will also be the first time you can hunt down the Ruby, Emerald, and Ultima Weapons.  Ruby is hiding in the sand near Gold Saucer.  It uses heat and Earth based attacks.  I haven't beaten it; it always stomps everybody before I can even blink.  Emerald is underwater; you need to ram into it with the sub.  There will be a timer, and if it runs out, you drown.  Again, Emerald usually wipes me out before I can blink.  Ultima starts out hovering over the crater lake near Fort Condor; the full description of how to kill it is discussed under Cloud's Ultima Weapon.  I recommend getting Cloud's Ultimate Weapon and Omnislash Manual before you go any further.
     SISTER RAY OVERLOAD-HOJO FINALLY SNAPS-MIDGAR CITY
     When you're ready, fly the Highwind over Midgar.  Guess what?  You're going to do an Airborne mission!  That's right, since security in Midgar is so tight, you parachute in and go through the underground tunnels.  Explore the first tunnel area fully; there's plenty of good stuff there.  Past it, in the subway tunnels, you'll be stopped by the Turks.  If you went through Yuffie's subquest and helped save Elena, you'll be given the option to skip the battle.  If you didn't, they'll try to kill you.  However, they still don't fight to their deaths, and they will leave when they take enough damage.  In Shinra HQ, up the staircase you took if you snuck in to save Aeris, there will be the Behemoth Horn, a weapon for Red.  In the gym, you can now retrieve the megaphone; it's Cait Sith's ultimate weapon, the HP Shout.   Head out up the electrical tower to the city above.  When you try and leave, Scarlett and Heiddeger stop you with their nice new toy, the Proud Clod.  It looks quite fearsome, but it's a pushover, and it takes Scarlett and Heidegger with it when it blows.  It'll start raining.  The staircase to the Sister Ray is nearby; just keep climbing, and try to avoid battles on your way up.  If Barret is in your party, his Ultimate Weapon will be on the steps.  At the top, you'll meet Hojo, who's gone utterly mad.  To top it off, he's been dinking around with some of the stuff in the lab.  He'll turn to confront you, looking a little green around the gills-literally.  Did I mention old H. Frankenstein's the boss of Disc 2?  He summons two creatures that you might recognize if you spent some time in the Gelnica.  Like the rollies of H05, he'll just ressurect them if you kill them.
     Do enough damage to Hojo, and he morphs into a very ugly monster.  How ugly?  On the Heaven Knows scale, he's a Heck Doesn't Want to Know.  He's got three pieces; if you kill one of the arms, it will grow back after a turn or two.  Keep hitting him, but hold back your nastiest spells and attacks.  After he takes more damage, he'll morph again, into a wierd little wasp-creature.  Now unload everything you've got into him.  He can wreak a lot of havoc in this form.  Once the good doctor's gone, the disc just ends.
   DISC 3-DESCENT INTO AVERNUS
     "It is easy, the descent into Avernus.  But to climb up again, to trace your footsteps back to the air above, There lies the task, the toil."  -Virgil, the Aeneid.
     SOME NOTES
     You'll automatically go blasting off to the North Crater.  If you want to do some more exploring, you're missing some Ultimate Weapons and Level 4 Limit Breaks for your party, or you're using Red, you'll definitely want to go back on to the bridge of the Highwind and take off again.  You can still do Yuffie's subquest, the Weapon hunts, and anything else that isn't too tied to a specific point in the storyline.  This is also the earliest you can get Red's Ultimate Weapon, the Limited Moon.
     CATCHING SEPHIROTH IN HIS LAIR-THE NORTH CRATER MAZE-THE FINAL BATTLE
     Sooner or later, you just have to go to North Crater.  Before you go charging off into Sephiroth's Sanctum Sanctorum, stock up on Megalixers, Elixers, and a Tent or two.  Grab as many Elixers and Megalixers as you can, but you'll only probably need one Tent.  Check out all the treasure chests on the first set of ledges; keep the save crystal until the end of the maze-it's the only one you'll get.  Explore the maze as much as you can to pick up the treasure, but try to avoid too many fights.  This is where that Enemy Away Materia from the Chocobo races comes in handy.  Eventually, you'll meet up with the rest of the group, in a place where you'll have to split up.  Take more than three characters with you; there'll be another branch, and you'll need to have someone to send down the other branch.  There's a chance you'll hit a dead end; if you do, just backtrack and try another branch.  In the end, you'll come to a second meeting place.  Backtrack from here until the Menu shows the location as North Cave again, and use the Save Crystal and the Tent.  Then go back to the second meeting place, and talk to everybody.  Most of your party will have items they've picked up along the way.  Tweak your equipment and party until you're absolutely satisfied, use all of your remaining Sources, and be sure to equip an Exit materia.  Also, try to have a Slash All, Mastered Life, Mastered All=Mastered Restore, Phoenix, Bahamut ZERO=Quadra, Knights of the Round, Ultima, Contain, and a few HP+MP Pluses, in addition to some good attack Materia.  Also useful would be an All=Mastered Barrier.  If you've got it, link the Final Attack to Phoenix, and give it to the character who's normally the last one standing when you're losing.
     Go down the row of rocks, using Exit to get out of as many of the battles as you can.  At the bottom, you'll come to a wide area with crystal spikes forming a platform.  Here, Jenova will attack you for the last time.  First thing in the battle, if you've taken any damage from monsters, use a Megalixer or Elixers to heal up.  If you take out Jenova's tentacles and keep them down, she can't attack you; this is where a Slash All materia comes in handy.  When you've thrashed Jenova for the last time, the floor will drop out from under you.  The entire group will be down in a strange area of ledges with Sephiroth.  Depending on how fast you got to and defeated Jenova, you can make one or two auxilliary teams, besides Cloud's.  You'll get into the first battle with a Bizarro Avatar sent by Sephiroth.  Go ahead and follow the game's advice about switching parties; however, if one party is doing tons of damage and the others are barely scratching it, feel free to favor that party.  Unload everything you've got, but be sure to save a handful of Megalixers and Elixers for the next battle.  One of the wings can cast healing spells, so try to take that wing out first.  The other wing uses offensive spells; hit it next.  After that, concentrate on the lower head-the one that doesn't ressurect itself every time you kill it.  Knights of the Round has a clear advantage over Omnislash in this battle, in that it does equal damage to all parts with each strike, whereas each strike of Omnislash only hits one part.  They made one little oversight that you can use to your advantage: The counters of how many times you've used a summon spell reset when you switch teams, so if you switch teams often, you can use a level 1 summon materia several times.
     Eventually, you'll defeat the Bizarro avatar.  Cloud's team, platform and all, will be pulled into the sky to face the winged Safer Avatar.  When he's hovering nearby, he can attack you, but you can attack him.  He'll usually fly back before pulling a Supernova.  This is the last real battle in the game, and I hope you saved four or five Megalixers and a handful of Elixers.  Put up Walls, Barriers, and Mbarriers in front of your whole party; this is why I say the Barrier should be linked to an All.  Then, go all out to take him down as quickly as possible.  Don't be afraid to ressurrect and Cure whenever you're hurting.  He has two real nasty attacks: Shadow Flare, which will usually kill whichever character it's  targetting; and Supernova, a Summon that knocks everybody down a large amount. It's a good idea to use a Megalixer after he hits Supernova.  He also has a few wing slash attacks.
 Once you've killed the second Avatar, the cavern will start collapsing, and everyone will head for the exit.  Part of the way out, Cloud stops, says Sephiroth is still there and laughing at them; Cloud leaps right back into the Lifestream.  This is where Cloud has his duel with Sephiroth.  If you don't worry, it'll be the second time Cloud overpowers Sephiroth ;)  .  Once Cloud takes out Sephiroth, you can just sit back and watch the ending.

     COMMENTARY ON THE BACKSTORY
    Now, about Sephiroth's plan:  Why are all these villains after destroying the world, wiping out all life, and becoming gods?  Isn't it counter-productive to become a nearly omnipotent being when all you have to rule over is a charred, lifeless ball of scorched rock?  Wouldn't that get kind of boring after a while?  If I were him, I'd be perfectly happy with wreaking havoc from my hidey-hole in the Lifestream, manipulating Cloud+Co. into destroying Shinra to ensure my continued existence, then using my powers to mess with life, maybe set myself up for worship, wreak some havoc now and then, nothing major.  You get to be immortal, mind-numbingly powerful, and you have plenty of interesting stuff to keep you busy! Another rant: After typing this up, I can confidently say that it will be a great day when someone disables the Caps Lock on the keyboard of whoever wrote this game.  SOLDIER, AVALANCHE,  Bahamut ZERO, TEIO, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.  Furthermore, Vincent is living proof that someone around Square's studio watches way too many late-night horror movies, and reads way too much Edgar Allan Poe.  Also, the designers seem to have taken out their frustration on two scape-goats: Zack and Vincent; I can't decide who got kicked around more.  And as for Cloud, he's nothing but a weak-willed wimp with an identity crisis and a problem with gravity, who only accomplishes things through sheer dumb luck and help from his friends.  Thank you for patiently listening to that rant.  And no, I'm not out of my mind.

     REALLY HIDDEN STUFF
  THE ANCIENT FOREST:  This is a hidden area.  It's on the jungle cliff just south of Gold Saucer.  There are two ways to get to it: You can ride a Green, Gold, or Black chocobo up the cliff to it; or you can kill the Ultimate Weapon and walk up the slope it creates when it dies.  This place can really give you headaches; it's one long string of puzzles involving using critters to get past obstacles.  There are three kinds of critters you can pick up: insects, frogs, and wasp's nests.  These basically correspond to two kinds of obstacles-pitcher plants and snapping plants-and one special thing, the frog hole.  Whenever you hear a frog croaking, drop an insect to get a frog.  Obstacle behavior: Pitcher plants will swallow either frogs or insects if you release them close to the plant.  They will actually digest insects, leaving nothing.  With frogs, they will spit the frog out after a minute.  If you're standing on the plant when it spits out the frog, it will catapult you somewhere else.  Snapping plants will snap shut on you if you get too close, taking a large number of HP.  If you drop a wasp's nest into them, they will close on the wasp nest and not reopen.  If you get stuck or run out of bugs, you have two choices: You can leave the screen and come back, in which case all the obstacles and critters will reset; or you can reset the entire sequence and return to the beginning by pressing Switch.
     This place deserves a walkthrough.  When you first enter, go right until you see your first snapping plant. This one isn't very sensitive; if carefully edge onto it, hitting OK the whole time, you can pick up the Supershot ST without getting hurt.  Next, you need three bugs and frogs in any combination.  Take two up to the ledge by the pitcher plants and release them at the base.  Pick up the third, walk to the edge of the ledge, and release it.  Then run down and grab the second one, hop onto the closed plant, and release it.  Repeat this quickly, and jump across.  On the other side, go straight right, cut up to pick up the Spring Gun Clip for Red, and leave the first screen.
     On the second screen, begin by picking up a bug.  Jump up using the pink bungee plant; when you land, you can release the bug to get a frog.  Let the frog or bug go into the first pitcher plant, and jump across.  Take the frog on that side, put him in the left pitcher plant, and wait for it to catapult you up to the wasp nest.  Pick up the wasp nest, jump back down, and let it go next to the left-most snapping plant.  When it closes, you can pick up the Slash All materia.  Pick the frog back up, let him go into the right pitcher plant, and wait for it to catapult you over the second snapping plant.  From here, you can go the third screen.
     Pick up two bugs, let the pitcher plants eat them, and hop across the plants to the bungee plant, which will sling you up into the canopy.  Head left and down the trunk to get the Minerva Band.  Sometimes, you can hop back up the trunk into the canopy; if you can't, just repeat the maneuver with the frog you used before to get out of the second screen.  When you get back into the canopy, head right to a broken branch, then jump across three bungee plants; head right and down to get the Typhon Summon, which is in an item bag instead of just floating free.  Go back across the bungee plants, and go a little up and right from the broken limb-there's a semi-hidden path that leads down to a snapping plant and two pitchers.  Pick up the bug, release it into the first pitcher plant, and grab the wasp's nest.  Drop the wasp's nest into the snapping plant, go back across, and grab a bug.  Release the bug by the hollow tree that croaks, and  pick up the frog that eats it.  Take the frog back past the snapping plant, release it into the pitcher plant, and wait for that pitcher plant to catapult you across to a cave entrance.  Go straight right and you'll find the Apocalypse sword for Cloud.  Go up and right, and fetch the Elixer out of the second chest.  Then leave, and you'll be back outside.
  DA-CHAO STATUE: If you try and explore the tunnels on the Da-Chao statue in Wutai, you'll be stopped by flame jets that block off most of the tunnel.  Ask around in the town, and sooner or later, someone will mention the Scales of the Water God.  If you think much on Wutai culture, and have finished Yuffie's side area at the Pagoda, you'll know that the Water God is Leviathan.  When you're in the Underwater Reactor in Junon headed for the Submarine sequence, open ALL of the chests on the sub docks.  There is one, on the dock by the submarine you steal, that is on the very end of the dock out of the way.  In that chest is something called Leviathan Scales.  Once you have the Leviathan scales, return to Wutai and go into that tunnel on Da-Chao.  There are several items in here: An Oritsuru for Yuffie, a Spirit Lance for Cid, and a Steal As Well materia.
  THE NIBELHEIM SECRET And I'm not talking about Vincent, either.  No, there's yet another secret hidden in Tifa and Cloud's home town.  Anytime after Cloud's Mideel Lifestream Flashback-when you find out what REALLY happened at Nibelheim-go back to the Shinra mansion and check out Hojo's lab in the basement.  They'll go into a long cut-scene explaining what happened to Cloud and Zack after the disaster, how they escaped Hojo, and why Zack isn't around anymore.  (So close, yet so far away...)  As for Zack, well, I'm thinking of setting up a vote.  (Please, watch this cut-scene before you enter.  It gives Zack a fighting chance in the final vote.)  Who did the writers abuse more in Final Fantasy VII, Vincent or Zack?  Just e-mail me at [email protected] with your opinion.  (I'll try to post most of them!)  I almost think Zack is the real hero of FFVII.  What does Cloud do?  Cloud surprises Sephiroth a couple times, and acts as a figurehead for the others to follow.  Zack and the rest of the group do all the work, and Cloud gets all the credit.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Cloud is a wimp.  (In case you haven't noticed, I really don't care for Cloud all that much.  Give me Chaz of Phantasy Star IV or Shining Force CD's DEANNA over Cloud anytime.)