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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Parade Formation guide: Best Formation to win the Junon Award & Commendation

by Alex Donaldson on 02 March, 2024

All of the original game’s mini games are back in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and some - and that means the Junon Parade plays a major role in FF7 Rebirth, just as it did in the original FF7. The parade has been expanded from a minor distraction into a full-blown mini quest in its own right - complete with extra rewards if you can pick the correct Parade Formation, which this page will help you to do.

FF7 Rebirth Junon Presidential Parade Guide: Gathering Troops

Before you actually get to the presidential parade itself, you’ll actually have to recruit your troopers for the parade. These soldiers of the Midgar Seventh Infantry are scattered around the town of Junon having some R&R - and you'll need to recruit them to make up the Seventh Infantry that you’ll command for the parade.

While you don’t need to recruit them all, in order to unlock the maximum amount of options for choosing a parade formation you should recruit all ten units to your drill team.

“As Parade Captain, it falls to you to locate the Seventh Infantry’s disparate units and assemble your drill team. Note that certain units unlock different formations. Successfully performing more difficult formations will improve your rating.”

The drill team unit locations required for the parade formation choice are as follows:

  1. Follow Rude into the Glabrescent Bar - and though you can’t get served (No Scalp, No Service!) you’ll find soldiers to recruit inside.
  2. Enter the Le Sourire Club to find some upstairs. Check out the jazz band playing a cover of FF7’s iconic track ‘Crazy Motorcycle’, too!
  3. On an upstairs floor of the Barracks building, you’ll find a group being interviewed for TV. Interrupt the interview.
  4. On the top floor of the Barracks there’s another group of soldiers.
  5. In the basement of the Garrison there’s another unit hanging out.
  6. On the main street there’s a group taking a photo with a Rufus cut-out. Snap a nice photo for them and you’ll get a Rufus Cut Out to keep, which is a collectible for a later side activity.
  7. On the same street, a group of soldiers are admiring the cannon.
  8. Head into Cecelia’s Item Shop to find a group perusing its wares. This shop doesn’t have anything new.
  9. In the equipment shop, head downstairs to find another unit.
  10. Finally, recruit the group hanging out in the Accessory Shop.

The Best Parade Formation to win both Awards in FF7 Rebirth’s Presidential Inauguration

An screenshot showing the Best Parade Formation to use in FF7 Rebirth's Junon Presidential Inauguration minigame.

When you’re ready to rock and roll, all you need to do is speak to the Squad Commander at the far end of Junon’s main ocean-side street. At this point, you’ll be able to edit your Parade Formation on a special screen.

If you’ve unlocked all units, you’ll have access to a range of troops including Security Officers, Riot Troopers, Flametroopers, and Grenadiers. It’s now time to put these into a formation.

For best results, arrange your formation as follows (left to right):

  1. Grenadiers
  2. Grenadiers
  3. Riot Troopers
  4. Riot Troopers
  5. Flametroopers

This parade formation will result in a showing that can win the event. It has the Ramuh Formation as its first performance, the Shiva Formation as its second, and the Bahamut Formation as its third. With three more challenging three-star performances, this sets you up for an impressive showing that can win the presidential commendation and the audience vote for the best performance.

The parade kicks off a range of events that see you leave Junon, and the city of Junon is one of a few places you won’t be able to return to at all for the rest of the game (though you can return to Under Junon and the Junon Area open world zone), so make sure you’re ready and have seen everything you want to see before leaving.

How to get a high score and win both awards in the Junon Parade

With this Parade Formation, you'll be able to assure victory in this one-off Final Fantasy VII Rebirth event.

Once you’ve assigned your troops and picked your formations, the rest is up to you. The formations will only go so far - after this, the Junon Parade takes on a choreographed dance-like mini-game, where you must press buttons with a specific timing along with the visuals and music in order to pull off the performance.

The formations you’ve chosen above have the maximum potential for scoring, but that also means they’re more difficult. There’s three actions to remember:

  • Tap the shown button whenever the rhythm line connects with Red Diamonds
  • Hold the shown button when the rhythm line connects with the Blue Hexagon
  • Repeatedly & Rapidly Tap the button shown when the rhythm line connects with the Yellow Pentagon.

That’s it! Keep in mind that to win both awards your parade performance doesn’t need to be perfect, especially not with this formation - it just needs to be ‘good enough’. And remember, if you struggle, you can always restart and reload. Keep in mind also that this is your one shot at this event - so if you're not happy, quit and try again.

Junon Parade Rewards in FF7 Rebirth

We comfortably got 101,498 points in the public ratings - which the game ranked as “a performance for the ages”. In terms of rewards, this score maximized what you can get from the parade, and saw us win the “Stealing the Show” trophy/achievement. This score also allowed us to win the President’s Commendation in-game, which makes the cutscenes slightly differ following the parade.

Winning each of the awards Deepens your Relationship with Tifa and Aerith, which is handy on if you’re pursuing one of them for the FF7 Rebirth Romance and Gold Saucer Date subplot. This is really the most significant of the rewards.

After the parade is over, the main story resumes at a pace - you won’t be playing this mini game again, but the Seventh Infantry will never forget you. Onward!