Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core

Crisis Core takes place some years before the events of Final Fantasy VII, and as such, many characters from the game and other related works appear in Crisis Core. However, the primary characters in the game are from either Shinra Electric Power Company's private armed forces dubbed SOLDIER, or from their covert branch of operatives called the Turks.

The main protagonist and playable character of Crisis Core is Zack Fair, a young and friendly man. At the start of the game, he is a 2nd class SOLDIER operative. Angeal is a 1st class SOLDIER and acts as a mentor for Zack and father-like figure.

Both are friends with fellow SOLDIER members Sephiroth and Genesis, the latter serving as the game's primary antagonist who takes special interest in an unfinished play called "LOVELESS". The SOLDIER operatives work under Director Lazard, the illegitimate son of President Shinra. Zack is also friends with the Turks, particularly their leader Tseng and one of their female operatives Cissnei. During the course of the game, Zack encounters and befriends Aerith, a young woman tending flowers from a ruined church in the Midgar slums, and also befriends Cloud, a Shinra infantryman, and like Zack, raised in a country town. Zack also encounters Dr. Hollander, a former Shinra scientist that is performing unethical experiments in secret. Luxiere and Kunsel are two SOLDIER operatives that befriend Zack, as well as informing him on events and actions while offering help in his time of need.

Genesis and several other SOLDIER forces desert Shinra after an operation in Wutai. As SOLDIER further investigates the situation, Angeal also goes missing. Zack eventually tracks both Angeal and Genesis to their hometown of Banora. Zack sees Genesis mutate a single black wing from the left side of his back, while Angeal obtains a big white wing and one smaller wing from the right side his back. Due to his mothers shame, she kills herself. Genesis flies away while Zack helps to evacuate Angeal before the village is destroyed by Shinra bomb. Genesis then learns he has the ability to pass along his cells to others, mutating them in the same way, and creates an army of "Genesis copies" to attack Shinra headquarters. Though the forces are defeated, Angeal goes missing again. Zack and Sephiroth track down Genesis' mutation to a secret lab deep in a Midgar mako reactor, and learn that Dr. Hollander, a genetic researcher, had used both Genesis and Angeal as part of Project G, an attempt to clone human beings. Zack attempts to chase down Hollander but is stopped by Angeal, now with one white wing, intent on keeping Hollander alive. Angeal knocks Zack through the floor of the reactor into the slums of Midgar.

Zack recovers to find Aerith tending over him. Zack returns to SOLDIER headquarters and is ordered to investigate a mako excavation site near Modeoheim where Genesis has been spotted; en route, Zack meets Shinra infantry soldier Cloud Strife, and due to their similar background, quickly becomes friends with him. Zack encounters Genesis at the facility and beats him in battle, but instead of being captured, Genesis appears to commit suicide by throwing himself into the depths of the facility. Zack travels to the Modeoheim and finds both Angeal and Hollander. It turns out that Project G was named after Angeal's mother, Gillian, not Genesis. Angeal's mother was so ashamed of having been the root of Project G that she killed herself (Angeal did not kill her). Angeal struggles to hold back his mutation but is unable to do so, and Zack is forced to kill him. Before he dies, Angeal gives Zack his buster sword, stating that "My honor, my dreams, they are yours now." Hollander is captured by arriving Shinra forces, but later escapes during an attack by Genesis clones, while Zack, distraught over the death of his friend and mentor, goes back to the Sector 5 church, where he is comforted by Aerith.

Sometime later Zack, now promoted to 1st class SOLDIER, travels with Sephiroth and Cloud to investigate a mako reactor near Nibelheim. Sephiroth discovers he himself was an experiment, implanted with cells of the extraterrestrial Jenova. In his anger, Sephiroth sets Nibelheim's town ablaze. Zack attempts to defeat Sephiroth but fails, but Cloud arrives and despite being impaled by Sephiroth's sword, is able to throw Sephiroth into the Lifestream. Zack and Cloud fall unconscious. Zack awakes to find he and Cloud part of Dr. Hojo's experiments on Jenova cells and Mako exposure; while Zack is unaffected by the Jenova cells, thanks to the genetic modifications already present in him thanks to SOLDIER, Cloud has reacted badly to the introduction of Jenova cells into his body and is unable to move on his own. Zack helps Cloud to escape and they quickly become high priority targets for the Shinra forces. Zack encounters Cissnei during their escape, but she does not capture them, instead allowing them use of a Turk motorcycle. While fleeing, Genesis intercepts Zack and Cloud, and makes one of his clones eat a lock of Zack's hair. When this causes the mutation to go awry, Genesis flies away. Zack, realizing that Genesis is trying to stabilize his mutation, vows to defeat Genesis before being captured again.

Zack and Cloud travel to Gongaga, Zack's hometown, to try to hide but learn from Cissnei the Shinra forces are not far behind. After defeating Hollander, who himself has started to become a Genesis clone, Zack encounters Director Lazard, now inflicted as an Angeal clone. Lazard directs Zack to the remains of Banora, noting that Genesis always carries one of the dumapples which only grow near that village. At Banora, Lazard watches over Cloud as Zack descends into a cavern exposed to the Lifestream as the result of the Shinra destruction. Inside, he encounters Genesis, who reveals that Cloud has been infused with Sephiroth cells and plans to use him to stabilize his mutation. Genesis attempts to defeat Zack by calling forth on the Lifestream to transform him into a giant beast, but Zack manages to destroy Genesis' power source. As the Lifestream leaves him, the mutation is also removed, leaving Genesis human but near death. Zack returns to the surface with Genesis, and finds that Shinra tried to attack Lazard and Cloud but Lazard was able to hold them back at the cost of his life. After Lazard dies, Zack discovers a note he carried from Aerith to Zack, and learns that he has been gone from Midgar for more than four years, and Aerith has given up hope on his return. Zack takes Cloud and makes the return to Midgar immediately. After they leave Banora, Genesis is collected by Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate.

The Turks attempt to find Zack and Cloud before the Shinra forces do, knowing that Shinra will likely kill them if captured. Unfortunately, Shinra discovers the two first on the barren terrain outside Midgar. Leaving Cloud hidden away, Zack goes off to defend his honor as a SOLDIER against a large number of Shinra troops, and is ultimately fatally wounded. Cloud manages to crawl to Zack's body after Shinra has left, and Zack, in his dying breath, bequeaths the buster sword to Cloud as Angeal did before. Cloud begins to walk back to Midgar, while Zack's body is taken to the Lifestream by Angeal.

The epilogue recreates the opening scenes of Final Fantasy VII, with the promise of the story being continued in that game.