Cloud Strife: The spikey-haired leader of AVALANCHE (a rebel band fighting against the ShinRa, an evil corporation), former member of SOLIDER (think of USA's army)Cloud Strife: The spikey-haired leader of AVALANCHE (a rebel band fighting against the ShinRa, an evil corporation), former member of SOLIDER (think of USA's army)
Barrett Wallace: Leader of AVALANCHE untill Cloud took over. His only daughter is Marlene. He has a gun grafted to his arm to get revenge on the ShinRa for destorying his home, and stealing Makou energy (Makou is the Planet's life energy. If it's gone, so's the planet)
Tifa Lockhart: Cloud's childhood friend. She's one heck of a martial artist, and wants to be a guide when she grows up. She wants to beat up the ShinRa because of what Sephiroth did to her father.
Aeris (or Aerith) Gainsborough: A flower girl who has a crush on Cloud (because he reminds her of her old boyfriend, Zack). She was killed by Sephiroth when AVALANCHE was looking for her.
Red XII (AKA Nanaki): Red XIII used to be a ShinRa experiment untill Cloud and company saved him...and then they all tossed red paint on the ShinRa! No, but seriously though...According to the game, Red's a child (even though he IS 64 years old...)
Vincent Valentine: Former member of the Turks. Why he joined AVALANCHE, nobody knows...
Cid Highwind: A pilot with an attitude, and my personal favorite FF7 charcter period. Cid used to be a former ShinRa employee working for their Glactic Research and Developement team untill he found out that they were cutting the program. He joined AVALANCHE so that the ShinRa wouldn't get their grubby little mits on his plane, the Little Bronco. Later on, the party'll be able to use his airship, the Highwind (which's a real bust when you finally raise a gold chocobo and be able to ride anywhere..)
Rufus ShinRa: The arrogant, self-centered, slicked up son of a Midgar Zolom (a HUGE snake that lives in the waters near Midgar). Rufus took over after Sephiroth killed his father. He died after the Diamond Weapon destoyed his office with him in it.
The Turks were the ShinRa's special task forces. They left ShinRa after the company was destroyed. It's unknown weather they'll join AVALANCHE or not.
Tseng Kisaragi: The leader of the Turks. He takes on the really important jobs.
Elena: The only female Turks, and a total spazmeister. She's also responsible, and has a thing for Tseng.
Reno: The coolest Turks around. He loves to talk about other people's love lifes, and is rarely seen without Rude. He carries with him a nightstick, and an electromag that zaps and/or freezes his victims.
Rude: The quiet one in the group. He uses his fists during fights, and he's probably the muscles of the four.
Yuffie Kisaragi: A 16 year old ninja with a thing for materia (colored crystals that have the power to give it's users different powers). She left Wutai to terrorize passerbys and steal their materia. AVALANCHE found her as she ambushes them in the Junon forests.
Sephiroth: Sephiroth...What can I say about Sephiroth? Well...He's the former leader of SOLIDER until he and Cloud went to Nibelhiem 10 years before the whole FF7 mess started. He found out that he wasn't really human, that the ShinRa had mixed his charcteristics with a Cetra's : Jenova. The Cetra are kinda like the watchers of the planet. Sephiroth believes that the Cetra that betrayed the planet are mankind's ancestors, and vows to take back what is rightfully his and his mother's (whom he believes is Jenova). So basically, he goes beserk and burns up the entire village and kills the resedents (one of them was Tifa's father)
Jenova: A Cetra who exsisted 5,000 years ago. She had three childen by Zemus (who were destoryed, transformed into crystals, and transported throughout time,) and now she wants them back. She was the one who started the whole War of the Magi mess by calling a faction of Espers (Cetra, Espers, and Lunarians ,eans the same thing) to help her. She looks like a silver-haired version of Queen Beryl in human form.
Zemus/ Zeromus: Master of Darkness. Any questions?
Limit Breaks: Special attacks that happen when the fighter gets hurt.
Materia: Crystals that give charcters special abilities. There's four different kinds purple, green, blue, red, and yellow.
Purple Materia: Materia that makes characers stonger, faster, etc.
Yellow Materia: gives characters special abilities: Stealing, throwing, etc.
Red Materia: summons someone/ something
Green Materia: Lets characters cast magic (for example, Fire Materia lets you cast Fire spells)
Blue Materia: linking Materia. When paired with other, different Materia, it gives the characters special powers (linking a henshin materia to a Fire materia allows a Final Scout to use Fire-Based Limit Breaks)
I hope that this has helped...^^;;;;;;