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FFX and X2 are the prequels to FFVII!
In FFX-2 after Yuna goes down the Road to the Farplane, you go back to the airship and talk to Shinra. When you approach him he will say, “Wow!” Then Yuna will ask him “What is it?” Shinra will then explain that he was looking at all the data he was collecting from the Farplane and that the Farplane is an unlimited source of energy, and quite possibly the very life of the planet. After explaining this he says, “If only there was some way to extract some of that energy so we could use it!” where upon Yuna exclaims, “Then we could make a city full of lights that never sleeps, just like Zanarkand!” Then Shinra said, “It’d take generations to create though,”

The pieces were starting to fit into place in my mind and the thing that jumped out at me was the uncanny resemblance to FFVII with Midgar and Mako Reactors. Shinra having the same name as Shinra Inc. from FFVII wasn’t just a coincidence. Then I realized that the Farplane from FFX was the same thing as the promise land in FFVII. Think of the resemblances….

Farplane : Soul of the planet. Where all living things go after they die. An unlimited source of energy just waiting to be tapped into, but it is very unstable.

Promise Land: Soul of the planet. Where all living things go after they die. An unlimited source of energy just waiting to be tapped into, but it is very unstable.

So from what I can gather, FFX and FFX-2 are the prequels to FFVII. Shinra after figuring out a way to harness the power of the Farplane into a marketable resource called “Mako” creates a town that never sleeps, using Zanarkand as a blueprint. The Guado are the Cetra because they have the ability to control the Farplane and speak with the spirits, however their race dies out through elimination and cross-breeding with humans and the entrance to the Farplane is lost forever.