Game Information | Final Fantasy VII Timeline

by Schala-Kitty

Note: Contains spoilers for Final Fantasy VII and Before Crisis.

This is a pre-game-centric timeline of the events that lead to the plot we see in Final Fantasy VII. The big thing that brought this all together was the page regarding the Inscription on Jenova's Helmet. In AC, the helmet gives two dates - October 10, 1959 for Jenova's discovery and July 2, 1967 for her being sealed in the Niblehiem reactor. This lines up with the events of the game then happening in 1997, the year of its release.* Going off of that information along with the dates given to us with the Before Crisis missions, I've planned out as much of this as possible. Obviously there are still holes because some events haven't been covered in detail. But whereever I could list a concrete date, I did. You'll also notice that with Before Crisis I tend to stick to plot points which have a relatively large effect.

Anyway, let's get to the timeline, which is lovingly color-coded for your convenience:

White - Not shown directly in any of the games thus far, but mentioned
Blue - Shown in Before Crisis
Green - Shown in flashback during the original game
Red - Shown in multiple media
Purple - Original game and afterwards

1867 - Bugenhagen is born.

October 13, 1946 - Vincent is born

1949 - Nanaki (Red XIII) is born.

Early 50-s - Founding of Shinra Inc. as a weapons manufacturer.

October 10, 1959 - Jenova is discovered by Prof Gast.

December 15, 1962 - Barret is born.

Early to Mid 60-s - First mako reactor is built in Nibelhiem marking the start of the Shinra Electric Company, the start of the Jenova Project, and the start of the Turks as well.

Early to Mid 60's - Shinra raids the village of Kalm with Veld (future leader of the Turks) as the commander. The survivors are taken to Niblehiem.

February 22, 1965 - Cid is born.

Circa 1966-1967 - Lucrecia's impregnation and Sephiroth's birth.

July 2, 1967 - Jenova is sealed at the Niblehiem reactor.

1973 - Prof. Gast leaves ShinRa with the Cetra woman, Ifalna, for Icicle Inn.

1973 - Turk Vincent Valentine is experimented on and locked in the basement of the Shinra mansion. His aging stops at this point in time. (age 27)

1974 - Zack is born.

February 7, 1975 - Aeris is born.

February 27, 1975 - Prof. Gast is killed by Hojo, who then abducts Ifalna and Aeris.

August 19, 1976 - Cloud is born.

May 3, 1977 - Tifa is born.

November 20, 1981 - Yuffie is born.

Circa 1982 - Start of the Wutai war. (Sephiroth age 15)

1982 - Aeris and Ifalna escape from Shinra. Ifalna dies shortly afterwards and Aeris is taken in by Elmyra. (age 7)

1985 - Tifa's mother dies. Tifa travels into Mt. Nibel and Cloud follows, both fall from a cliff and Tifa remains in a coma for seven days afterward.

1987 - Zack leaves for Midgar (age 13/14)

1988 - Time when Zack would enter SOLDIER (age 15)

1989 - Cloud and Tifa make the Promise on the well.

Spring 1990 - Cloud leaves for Midgar (age 14)

Late 1990/Early 1991 - End of the Wutai war. (Seph age 24, Zack age 17, Cloud age 14)

February 30, 1991 - AVALANCHE (under Elfe) makes their first attack on Shinra. Sephiroth stops them at Junon.

June 28, 1991 - AVALANCHE steals sensitive information from Dr. Laylee regarding the SOLDIER program despite resistance from both the Turks and Troops (Cloud Strife, age 14 in particular). This is also the first time the AVALANCHE Ravens are seen in battle.

January 16, 1992 - Zack is involved with infiltrating the AVALANCHE labs on the Northern Continent. SOLDIERs Essai and Sebastian are killed.

June 17, 1992 - AVALANCHE attempts to kidnap (a willing) Hojo and Sephiroth is called in to stop it.

September 21, 1992 - Two SOLDIERs (Sephiroth and Zack), two Troops (Cloud and one unnamed), and one Turk operative (According to Last Order, Close Combat [F]) arrive in Nibelheim for the mission.

September 22-29, 1992 - Day of the Misson, Sephiroth's time in the basement.

The night of September 29, 1992 - The Nibelheim Incident (Sephiroth age 25, Zack age 18, Cloud age 16)

October 1, 1992 - Clean up at Niblehiem. Hojo orders for the survivors, Zack and Cloud included, to be taken to his lab in the mansion for experimentation. Zangan is able to escape with Tifa and bring her to Midgar.

Early 1993 - Marlene is born to Dyne and Elanor

April 11, 1993 - The failed launch of Rocket Shinra 26. (Cid age 28)

May 8, 1993 - Corel Incident (Barret age 30)

1994 - Gongaga Reactor explosion

October 30, 1996 - Nanaki's capture (?) (age 46)

December 19, 1996 - Zack and Cloud escape from the Shinra Mansion (Zack age 23, Cloud age 21)

December 22-25, 1996 - Zack and Cloud travel towards Midgar persued by both Shinra Troops and the Turks. Zack is killed protecting Cloud on the outskirts of the city.

Late December 1996 - Tifa finds Cloud at the Sector 7 train station and takes him in. Shortly thereafter, he is hired for the mission to blow up the Sector 1 reactor.

Late 1996-1997 - Events of Final Fantasy 7 take place

October 1997 - Meteor's Descent on Midgar (?)

1999 - Events of Advent Children

2000 - Events of Dirge of Cerberus

2497 - Events of the FFVII final scene (and AC opening scene) take place.

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Estimated Birth years for minor characters:

1920-30 - President Shinra
1930-47 - Gast, Hojo and Lucrecia
1950's - Ifalna
Mid 1960-s - Tseng
Late 1960-s - Rude (possibly members of the first AVALANCE under Elfe)
Early 1970-s - Reno
Mid 1970-s - Rufus

The city of Midgar probably began construction over the cluster of towns that became the Sectors sometime in the 1970's-Early 1980's.

As to why I didn't outline the game... "Everything You Need to Know About FFVII" already did that right the first time. I'm just going through and assigning dates.

* - According to information from the game itself, these dates have since proven to be inaccurate. If we go by the year of 1997 as being the start of FFVII's present day story, then the discovery of Jenova should take place in 1967, or thirty years prior to the game's events. The dates on Jenova's helmet in AC were inspired by an early version of the opening FMV, in which they were included. Created very early in the game's development (circa 1995), this FMV also sported the 1997 "present day" date. —Reeve