Midgar



Midgar is the capital city of the world of Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs. It is the most technologically advanced location ever constructed on The Planet. Built by the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, it is home to the corporation's main headquarters, the Shin-Ra Building. Thanks to its eight Mako Reactors, the city's massive power demands are easily met, but at a cost: the surrounding countryside has become a wasteland of perpetual night, lacking any vegetation. Being ruled with an iron fist by the police-state Shin-Ra and with its dark atmosphere, Midgar easily fits the vision of a dystopian future. It was largely destroyed by Meteor after the defeat of Sephiroth.

Design


Midgar is a large circular structure divided up between two main layers, the paradise above the Plate, and the miserable slums below. The city itself is "floating" above the ground, supported by giant concrete pillars in each section. Above the plate, the richest and most powerful men in the world run most of the world's affairs. These include the Shin-Ra executives, along with the de facto world leader, President Shin-Ra. The upper layer has fine architecture, cobblestone streets, and theatrical performances of LOVELESS. The city is divided up into 9 Sectors. Sectors 1 through 8 all refer to the eight areas around Sector 0, which holds the main headquarters of Shin-Ra.

Being surrounded by walls that block access from the outside and divided up into sectors and layers, Midgar is difficult if not impossible to travel through on foot. The two layers are completely cut-off from each other outside of hidden paths made of various wreckage and junk. Instead, commuters have to use the extensive rail system to go to other parts of the city, all run on Midgar Standard Time, the only known Time Zone. The center of the lower layer is made up of a giant circular rail track, that spirals up to the top of the city. These rail systems are heavily monitored by the city's security system. Those without proper ID will be instantly arrested by the Shin-Ra Security forces. The upper layer has highways that lead to and from Sector 0.

Midgar was built over eight tiny villages, the names of which have now been lost. These eight towns make up the eight sectors of the Slums.

Miles underground the city, Shin-Ra's darkest secrets lurk. There is an entire hidden city that is home to their Deepground program. After Meteor hit, the subterranean soldiers would be trapped beneath the surface for three years.

The Slums


Unlike the metropolitan and cosmopolitan top, the Slums are home to bitter poverty. Due to the "pizza" plate hundreds of feet above their head, the people of the Slums can go their entire lives without ever once seeing the sky above. While the top is designed with cobble-stone paths and fine architecture, the Slums' buildings represent the severe desperation of its population. Buildings range from permanent structures like houses and cottages, to crude edifices such as mobile-homes and huts. The homeless have to make do with whatever shelter they can find. The Slums are filled with junk of all sorts, ruins of the days when they once were separate towns. Monsters roam the abandoned areas between the sectors. Crime flourishes in this rough environment, especially due to the lack of law and order. Criminal Syndicates, like that under Don Corneo serve vices of all kinds - and of all preferences. The Wall Market especially is home to nearly every perversion imaginable. Shin-Ra allows such practices to go unregulated thanks to the Don being a valuable informant for terrorist activities based in the Slums.

AVALANCHE, led by Barret Wallace and made up of eco-terrorists and mercenaries like Cloud Strife, is the organization out to save the Planet from Shin-Ra's draining of the world's lifeforce are a dangerous presence in the city. Largely ignored before, the organization managed to blow up the Sector 1 Reactor, causing one billion gil worth of damage and many deaths. Later attempts on the Sector 5 Reactor were less successful.



Despite the crime and perversion, not all is misery in the Slums. Aeris Gainborough, being a Cetra, was actually able to grow flowers in the almost impossible climate underneath the plate. Her Church in Sector 5 was a sign of hope for the citizens, even beyond her death. Her ghost can still be seen by children who continue to visit the place long after Aeris left Midgar with Cloud and his party.

Tifa Lockhart was also able to scratch out a life with her bar, the 7th Heaven. It functioned as the main base for AVALANCHE until Shin-Ra destroyed it and the rest of Sector 7 by dropping a section of plate upon it.

Shin-Ra Headquarters


The Shin-Ra Building dominates the Midgar skyline, easily being much taller than any other structure in the entire city. Being in the center, it is the heart and soul of the metropolis. Mayor Domino works in the upper floors of the building. Although supposedly in control of the city, he is little more than a librarian; President Shin-Ra himself rules the city on the top floor. Executive Reeve Tuesti is in charge of the urban development of the city. Only the shell of the building remains after the punishment it receives from both the Weapons and Meteor.

Neo Midgar
"Neo Midgar" was an idea thought up by President Shin-Ra. It would be built in the legendary Promised Land, and would be an improved model based upon the current design of the present Midgar. Because the Promised Land was so full of mako that it would not even need to processed beforehand, it would clearly be a better location for the Shin-Ra Company's headquarters. Because of plans to move to Neo Midgar, Sector 7 was not rebuilt after it was destroyed. After Shin-Ra was destroyed and the Promised Land proven to be nothing like the company imagined, Neo Midgar was never built.

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-


In Crisis Core, multiple steel griders around the city and the lack of the fortress-like walls around the city perimeter suggest that Midgar is still being constructed at this time. It is conceivable that Midgar was completed within the five years that Zack Fair went missing in Nibelheim.

Midgar serves as the headquarters for Zack Fair and other SOLDIER members. SOLDIER members spend their stand-by time on the 49th floor—the SOLDIER Floor—of the Shin-Ra building. There, they can train, make materia from discovered Mako Stones, or pick up official Shin-Ra equipment. Zack takes orders from Director Lazard two floors above.

During their off-time, Shin-Ra employees go out into the city, seeing sights such as LOVELESS Avenue in Sector 8, or visit friends by using the rail system to travel down to the Slums. The Sector 8 square is a short walk away from the Sector 1 train station, which is directly connected to Sector 5.

Zack meets Aerith in the slums after being knocked off the upper plate and falling into her church. He continues to visit the slums to meet with her. Several missions, minigames, and fanclubs for several high ranking SOLDIER members are found in the city as well.

Genesis Rhapsodos sends his army to attack the city to rescue Doctor Hollander. The attack is defeated by SOLDIER easily, but Hollander is taken by the Genesis Army. When Zack leaves for Nibelheim, the player can no longer return to Midgar other than in brief, completely linear missions.

Final Fantasy VII
Midgar is the the first area visited in Final Fantasy VII and is the location of much of the first part of the game. Cloud Strife, working with AVALANCHE, fights Shin-Ra to protect the Planet during this time. It is here that half of the party meets. Shin-Ra uses extreme measures to defeat the terrorists: they drop the Plate down onto Sector 7. Aeris is kidnapped, and AVALANCHE is forced to attack the Shin-Ra building to save her. The invasion fails, and all are kidnapped. Sephiroth appears to returns from the dead. It is generally accepted that Jenova's Body takes the appearnce of Sephiroth, and massacres all those on the top floor, including President Shinra. After this, the party begins to trail him around the entire world.

Midgar once again becomes part of the plot when the Sister Ray is moved to the city. The Diamond WEAPON ascends out of the sea, and moves down towards Midgar to destroy the threat to the Planet. Now President, Rufus Shinra orders the cannon fired. It destroys the WEAPON, but the monster fires back. The top floors of the Shin-Ra Building are destroyed, bringing chaos to the city. Professor Hojo takes control of the Sister Ray, and prepares to fire it again to help Sephiroth, who is in the Northern Crater. Cloud and his team parachute down into Midgar to defeat him. Along the way, they fight the Shin-Ra Executives Scarlet and Heidegger, who are controlling a giant robot known as the Proud Clod. They destroy the machine and possibly kill both of the Executives inside. Finally, the party makes their way up to the cannon, where they kill Hojo and all of his hideous mutant forms.



The city can be accessed in Disc 3 by finding the Key in Bone Village. However, only the Sector 5 Slums and the Wall Market can be explored. Here, Tifa's ultimate weapon, the Premium Heart, can be found inside the "fake" Item Shop at the Wall Market. As an Easter Egg, Aeris's ghost can be seen in the Sector 5 Church.

At the end of Final Fantasy VII, despite the best attempts of Cloud and his party to stop the cataclysm, Meteor fell on the city. Reeve had prepared for the disaster by moving the entire population into the Slums, but Meteor still managed to destroy the plate dividing the two sections. Aeris's Holy spell also failed to stop the falling rock, and it took the intervention of the Lifestream itself to save what remained of the city and the people living within.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children


After the fall of Meteor, Midgar is nothing but a sad ruin, completely uninhabitable. Now just a crumbling monument to its own former glory, and to the folly of man's abuse of the Planet. Most of the citizens have moved to the areas directly around the former capital, constructing a new city called Edge.

The city of Edge is built around the ruins of Midgar, and the citizens of the ruined city have largely recovered from the crisis. However, Cloud has not, and leaves Tifa to live in the Sector 5 Church, suffering from Geostigma in solitude. Tifa and Marlene come to investigate Cloud's whereabouts and find that he has been living here. One of Sephiroth's remnants, Loz, attacks. Tifa and Loz fight through the Church, and Tifa seems to have the upper hand. However, thanks to Loz's super-speed, he wins the battle.

Later on, once Loz and his brother Yazoo have both been defeated, only Kadaj remains. He grabs the head of his "mother" Jenova and runs with it into Midgar. Cloud chases him on his motorcycle, and they find themselves once again at Aerith's Church. Thanks to the purified spring beneath the flowers, Cloud's Geostigma is healed. Kadaj flees, and fuses with Jenova to become Sephiroth reborn.

Cloud and Sephiroth fight through the city. Their massive battle causes even more damage to the rusted steel of a dead Midgar, and a large chunk of the Shin-Ra Building collapses. Cloud eventually defeats Sephiroth with a Limit Break. Afterwards, healing rain sent from Aerith falls from the sky, curing the world of Geostigma.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-


Midgar once again is home to a battle in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. This time, it is between the forces of Deepground and the World Regenesis Organization, the latter of which launched a two-pronged attack from land and air for the protection of the Planet. The secretive Reactor 0 acts as Deepground's base of operations. Vincent Valentine must infiltrate the remains of the Shin-Ra building to enter Reactor 0 from its only entrance, the President's secret elevator. Eventually, Deepground manages to summon the ultimate WEAPON, the Omega WEAPON. Vincent Valentine, using the power of Chaos, is able to defeat it before the world is drained of all life.

Future


Five hundred years after the end of Final Fantasy VII, Red XIII and his cubs are seen running on the cliffs. They overlook the ruins of Midgar, now overgrown with vegetation. The once-source of pollution and abuse of the natural world now serves an ecosystem for all sorts of life. Whether or not mankind is still alive at this point is never revealed. However, the laughter of many children can be heard as the screen fades out.

This scene is shown at the end of Final Fantasy VII and was remade with much more advanced visuals for Advent Children.