Sector 7 is one of the eight sectors of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake. It also appears in some form in On the Way to a Smile, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. Only the undercity was ever shown until Final Fantasy VII Remake.
The sector's undercity, is the home of Tifa Lockhart, who runs the Seventh Heaven bar, a hideout for the Avalanche cell led by Barret Wallace and their source of income. It is the first town visited by the party after the attack on the Mako Reactor 1. Topside, the Upper Sector 7 town on the plate is the home of Shinra Electric Power Company employee residential areas, and the location of the family home of Jessie Rasberry. It is also the birthplace of Denzel.
History[]
Before Final Fantasy VII[]
The first construction in the area that would become Sector 7 was the switchyard in the area built between around 1974-75 to facilitate travel between the surface and upper parts of Midgar. Both the Sector 7 plate's construction, and the beginnings of lodgings for Midgar's construction workers in the area that would become the Sector 7 undercity, took place around 1976. Midgar's construction was complete in 1976, presumably the time when the plate would welcome new residents.[1] At some point, Shinra constructed the Shinra Underground Test Site beneath Sector 7.
Topside, the Sector 7 plate became a residential district specifically for Shinra employees, including Rowan Rasberry, the father of Jessie. After complaints from those in Shinra's military about their poor conditions in comparison to the white-collar employees, Shinra opened up a lottery system to allow soldiers to apply for housing in Sector 7, though it was severely limited.[2] Meanwhile, the Sector 7 undercity, one of the newer towns in the undercity, began drawing in residents largely comprising immigrants coming to Midgar with specific aspirations, including white-collar workers who commuted from the undercity to the plate.[3]
Around 0007, the undercity of the sector was also notable for being home to Barret Wallace' Avalanche cell, in the Seventh Heaven bar that came under ownership by Tifa Lockhart. Barret's cell worked with the rest of the organization at first, but cut ties with them after an argument.[4][note 1]
Original continuity[]
In December of 0007, Barret's Avalanche cell, along with the hired mercenary Cloud, retreated to their hideout in the slums after bombing Mako Reactor 1 during "At the Hideout in the Slums". Following an argument with Barret, Tifa convinced Cloud to join the cell for another mission by reminding him of a promise he had made to her.[7] Following this, the three set off to Mako Reactor 5.
The fall of the Plate.
With the help of Don Corneo, Shinra identified Sector 7 as Avalanche's base and chose to crush the plate.[8] In "Prevent the Fall of the Plate", Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith returned to the base to help Avalanche fight Shinra. Shinra successfully dropped the plate, crushing the town and killing Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret escaped using a zipline, and Aerith was able to rescue Marlene, but was captured by the Turks.
Vincent stands before the fallen plate.
Denzel, a resident of Sector 7's upper plate, survived the fall, but was orphaned. He joined a band called the Sector Seven Scavengers, and made a living by selling scrap metal from the ruins of Sector 7 to the builders of the new city of Edge.
Three years later, in 0010, Vincent Valentine went through the ruins of Sector 7 during the Battle of Midgar.
Remake continuity[]
Shinra interrogating Johnny.
After bombing Mako Reactor 1, Barret's Avalanche cell, along with Cloud, returned to their hideout in the Sector 7 Undercity. In "Home Sweet Slum", Cloud met with Tifa after the mission, who was able to give him a home at Marle's complex, but could only fund a quarter of his payment, promising to pay him after collecting money from filters.[9] Cloud agreed to help her, and at her suggestion, the two helped many of the residents of the undercity in odd jobs to make a name for Cloud. They later rescued Johnny from Shinra, to prevent him from revealing more about Avalanche.
At the end of the day, the Avalanche cell planned to bomb Mako Reactor 5 with Barret, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Barret did not want to rehire Cloud for fear of becoming too dependent on him, and Tifa was opposed to the bombing. Don Corneo sent henchmen to look for Barret, though Cloud refused to share more and fought them off.[10]
Cloud battle Roche in Upper Sector 7.
In "Mad Dash", Cloud helped Jessie with a mission the same night on the upper plate of Sector 7. Biggs and Wedge went with them, worrying for Jessie, helped them, and the group used motorcycles to travel to the Shinra employee residential area on the upper plate through the Corkscrew Tunnel. Once there, Cloud grabbed an employee ID to access the Sector 7-6 Annex warehouse to investigate it. To buy her time, the group fought Shinra's defenses as well as a SOLDIER Roche, though another Avalanche cell attacked and allowed the four to flee to the slums using a parachute.
The next morning, the undercity was attacked by Whispers, hurting Jessie. As Wedge had been hurt from the mission the night before, Barret hired Cloud to replace Jessie, while Tifa replaced Wedge.[11] As depicted in "Wutai's Finest", Biggs, Barret, and Tifa returned from a successful mission, though Cloud had been separated from them. Tifa also went to Wall Market to interrogate Don Corneo, as his informants had continued snooping around for Barret. Meanwhile, Wutai ninjas Yuffie Kisaragi and Sonon Kusakabe worked with the Avalanche group still affiliated with the organization and infiltrated Sector 7 themselves, aiming to steal materia from Shinra.[12] Avalanche member Zhijie had uncovered Shinra's plot to collapse the Sector 7 plate and was pursued through the Shipping Facility up to the Central Pillar Maintenance Facility where Yuffie and Sonon fought the Gigantipede mecha. After having rescued Zhijie, he informed the rest of Avalanche, including Barret's cell, of the oncoming Shinra plot so they could defend the pillar and make plans for evacuation.
The Sector 7 Pillar separates and falls.
Shinra identified Sector 7 as the home of Barret's Avalanche cell, and sent the Turks to separate the plate from the pillar, causing the plate to drop. Avalanche fought Shinra at the pillar. In "Fight for Survival", Cloud and Tifa, having learned of the plan from Corneo, returned to the undercity with their new friend Aerith from the sewers. Aerith, with the help of Marle and Wedge, evacuated residents but was intercepted by Tseng, and agreed to go with them in exchange for letting Marlene stay at her house in Sector 5. Meanwhile, Cloud and Tifa fought Shinra at the plate, finding Biggs severely injured and Jessie critically injured on the way. At the top, they met with Barret, but were unable to stop Reno and Rude from separating the plate, and fled with a zipline.
As the plate collapsed, the undercity was almost entirely crushed. The death toll was over 50,000,[13] while any survivors lost their homes. The ground had also become unstable, and by Wedge's house, caved in and created a hole to the Shinra Underground Test Site, a secret facility constructed below. In "A Broken World", after confirming at Aerith's house that Marlene survived, Barret, Cloud, and Tifa returned to Sector 7's collapsed plate area to look for survivors, and found themselves there when led by one of Wedge's cats.[14]
Marveling at the damage.
With the help of Leslie Kyle in "In Search of Hope", the three procured powerful grappling guns allowing them to climb a wall by Wall Market to the collapsed Sector 7 plate. In "The Day Midgar Stood Still", the group traveled atop the plate toward the Shinra Building, and marveled at the extent of the damage. They fought through Shinra soldiers along the way, including the Valkyrie weapon, before finally reaching the building.
The survivors of Sector 7 rebuilt and cleared the wreckage after Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith left Midgar.[15]
Geography[]
Plate[]
The plate from below (top) and above (bottom).
The Sector 7 plate is a residential district for Shinra employees, including Jessie's father. The town is home to large, concrete houses alongside clean streets. Close by the employee housing area is the S7-6 Annex, a large Shinra warehouse just south of the residential area.
Upper Sector 7 is joined to a winding overhead tunnel with a road that leads into the employee housing area, a depot beneath it that connects to the Corkscrew Tunnel, and the nearby plate partition that joins Sector 7 with Sector 6.
There was a developed Business District and refinery that Cloud, Tifa, and Barret would scale the ruins of following Sector 7's collapse in order to reach the upper plates.
Undercity[]
Sector 7 Slums.
The Sector 7 undercity, home to over 50,000 residents,[16] comprises run-down shanty homes across dirt floors and in-between crags, with very little vegetation growing and no natural light. Although its living conditions are poor compared to those topside, among the undercity it is one of the safest towns, due to the local neighborhood watch and the stationed presence of Shinra's Public Security Division (rare for the slums).[3]
The slums' main areas are the Residential Area close to the support pillar holding up the plate. It is surrounded by high concrete walls, with unpaved dirt roads and piles of trash and scrap lining the sides of roads and buildings. A municipal storage area contains several warehouses between the residential area and the abandoned Talagger factory, which is now home to several dangerous monsters. Pillar Plaza is directly in front of the Sector 7 Support Pillar, and acts as a crossroads between the residential area, the Talagger factory, the train yard, and a gate that stands in front of a road to the Sector 6 undercity. Sector 7 Undercity Station acts as the main transportation link to the plate, and has cobblestone paving and streetlights to illuminate it. Nearby is the train graveyard, which is haunted and avoided by both Shinra and the undercity residents. There is also a massive shipping center close to the Undercity Station recessed deep into the ground nearby extending over a waste-disposal plant, and up to a Pillar Maintenance Facility close to the central support structure of Midgar.
The main attraction of the undercity is Seventh Heaven, a bar and restaurant owned by Tifa Lockhart, which also houses one Avalanche cell's secret headquarters beneath it. Aside from this, the town is home to the Beginner's Hall, which houses a weapon store in its bottom floor, as well as many other stores for residents. Among the town's notable residents are Tifa, Avalanche, and Johnny. Several open stalls sell various everyday goods such as clothes on the streets around Seventh Heaven, several residents attempt to salvage the junk in the Slums to make a living, and there are several street-food merchants selling 'slum food' that even attracts the business of plate-dwellers. There is a small elementary school attended by Marlene Wallace and Betty. Etoile is a girls' dorm building where Jessie Raspberry lives; it has a no men policy either as tenants or guests.
In Final Fantasy VII Remake, the town is also home to an apartment block named Stargazer Heights, where Cloud and Tifa live, as well as an abandoned Talagger factory nearby, and the Scrap Boulevard where monsters reside to the west of the residential area.
In Episode INTERmission, Yuffie infiltrates the Sector 7 undercity outskirts, traveling through a set of undeveloped land, an abandoned warehouse, and a scrapyard amongst a set of canyons. These are connected to Scrap Boulevard, from which she enters the residential district and meets with the mainstream branch of Avalanche based out of the Sector 7 Clinic.
Underground[]
Located underneath the Sector 7 Undercity are tunnels, the sewer system, and also an underground lab. The S7-6 Service Tunnel is a metal tunnel with wires running through it, serving as a power substation for the undercity. It can be accessed from Sector 6's Evergreen Park. Both the S7-6 Service Tunnel and the Trunk Line at the sewer system provide a path to the Sector 7 Undercity from Sector 6.
More notably beneath Sector 7 is a vast Shinra laboratory with monsters experimented on behind cages, the Shinra Underground Test Site. This is an abandoned laboratory located underground, with several cages across its floors that house specimens from type B to E. Many of the monsters held within have escaped, and the bars on the cages are often bent out of shape.
Gameplay[]
Final Fantasy VII[]
Sector 7 Slums map.
In Final Fantasy VII, only the Sector 7 Undercity is explored in a map named Sector 7 Slums. This map is explored during the chapters "At the Hideout in the Slums," "To the No. 5 Reactor," and "Prevent the Fall of the Plate." The first two are non-combat quests as Cloud explores the area, while "Prevent the Fall of the Plate" is a combat quest involving a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Barret as they fight through the support pillar, eventually fighting Turks:Reno.
Beyond this, the Train Graveyard is explored by a party of Cloud, Tifa, and Aeris as they make their way from the Sewer toward the slums in "Prevent the Fall of the Plate."
Final Fantasy VII Remake[]
Battles in Sector 7 Slums (top) and Upper Sector 7 (bottom).
In Final Fantasy VII Remake, several field maps take place in Sector 7: the Sector 7 Slums map located in the Undercity, the Sector 7 map located on the plate, the Train Graveyard, the Collapsed Plate Area comprising tunnels beneath, and finally the Collapsed Sector 7 Plate.
The Sector 7 Slums map is visited during the chapters "Home Sweet Slum," "Mad Dash," and "Fight for Survival," events similar to those in the original game. The field map also greatly resembles the original in terms of layout, though the area is greatly expanded with more non-player characters, and two dungeon areas are added in the form of Scrap Boulevard and the Abandoned Talagger Factory. In "Home Sweet Slum," a party of Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart explore the slums helping other characters, and a series of sidequests is available. Later, in "Fight for Survival," Cloud, Tifa, and Barret Wallace fight atop the plate and battle Reno as in the original game, though a new segment involves Aerith Gainsborough helping evacuate civilians.
The Upper Sector 7 map is a new area visited in "Mad Dash" by a party of Cloud. Here, Cloud helps Jessie Rasberry as she returns to her house and then robs a Shinra warehouse at the S7-6 Annex, along with Biggs and Wedge. A battle occurs against Shinra soldiers, and Roche.
In "Haunted," the Train Graveyard is explored by Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith. Like the original, several ghosts and monsters are fought along the way as the party must navigate abandoned trains, though two bosses are also fought in the form of Ghoul and Eligor (the latter of whom was a normal encounter in the original). The area is also expanded, with a vast maintenance facility seen in between.
The Sector 7 Collapsed Plate Area is visited in "A Broken World" and "Fight for Survival", as Cloud, Barret, and Tifa explore the area following the plate crash. Eventually, the three land in the Underground Test Site, a dungeon primarily involving Barret.
The Collapsed Sector 7 Plate is visited in chapter 15, "The Day Midgar Stood Still", as Cloud, Barret, and Tifa climb the rubble of the plate to reach the Shinra Building. Along the way, the group fight The Valkyrie, a Shinra weapon.
The Sector 7 Undercity is the setting for the INTERmission Chapter 1 "Wutai's Finest", with Yuffie entering through the outskirts, meeting up with Avalanche, partnering with Sonon, and playing Fort Condor with the local denizens.
Behind the scenes[]
Sector 7 is among the most significant allusions to the number 7 in the Final Fantasy VII series. Seven is long believed to be a lucky number with various significance throughout the world. It is likely Sector 7 has its significance in being the "safe zone" for Cloud and Avalanche. In Japanese hanakotoba, the original pronunciation for seven is shichi, and is often avoided and preferred to use the pronunciation nana as the former is a homophone for the phrase "place of death". Being a place of resistance, this may refer to the Japanese idiom "as soon as one steps out the door/gate, he already has made seven enemies."
Notes[]
Annotations[]
- ↑ Though the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania timeline states the cell was formed in October of 0007,[5] Tifa states in Final Fantasy VII Remake that the cell had been independent for a year.[6]
Citations[]
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania, p. 258-259
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake Trace of Two Pasts, p. 335-336
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania, p. 254-256
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake Trace of Two Pasts, p. 187-189
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition, p. 32
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Talking Strategy"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "At the Hideout in the Slums"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII script § "To Corneo Hall"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Ominous Shadows"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Sudden Attack"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "The Handoff"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania, p. 257
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Home Is Where the Heart Is"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "The Turning Point"
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII Remake script § "Escape to the Surface"
References[]
- Video games
- Square Co., Ltd. (1997). Final Fantasy VII [Game]. Square Co., Ltd.. PlayStation.
- Square Enix, Monolith Soft (2006). Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII- [Game]. Square Enix. PlayStation 2.
- Square Enix (2020). Final Fantasy VII Remake [Game]. Square Enix. PlayStation 4.
- Movies
- Tetsuya Nomura, Takeshi Nozue (Director) (2005). Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children [Film]. Square Enix.
- Books
- Kazushige Nojima, Melissa Tanaka (translator) (2018). Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile [Book]. Yen Press. ISBN 978-1-9753-8235-3.
- Studio BentStuff (2020). Final Fantasy VII Remake Material Ultimania [Book]. Square Enix. ISBN 978-4-7575-6869-3.