Okay, when you're finished in the Junon Area, it's time to go to the city of Junon itself. There doesn't seem to be much happening down in the lower section, and nobody even wants to give you the time of day. Might as well go down to the beach and . . . wha!? Uh-oh! Hope you're ready for a nasty boss, because this one's really tough if your life is low! Bottom Swell is a flying boss that's just out of reach of normal weapons. Use that Long Range materia on Cloud and either have Barret and Yuffie with you, or have everybody equipped with some good magic. Bio, Ice, and Choco/Mog work well. Also have some magic on hand to burst the life-stealing bubbles Bottom Swell puts on your people. When you're finished, you'll have to revive young Priscilla in a stupid, pointless little mini-game that's impossible to lose, so don't bother trying to kill her. Sleep at the old lady's house by the entrance to town (what's up with Cloud anyway?), then visit Priscilla, who will give you the Shiva Summon materia and show you how to ride a dolphin. Did you ever wonder why Cloud always gets volunteered by everyone else for the really dangerous, life-threatening stuff? Anyhow, to get up to that beam, just hit Square twice. The first jump, you'll come up short, but you'll land in the perfect postion to jump up. Simple, huh?
First of all, after you get into your little soldier costume, make sure you save. You won't get a chance to again for a while yet. The first little mini-game puts you in a parade. Try your best, but you probably won't do too well. Just get into the back row as fast as you can, and try to march like everybody else. After 5 or 6 tries, I only managed to get the ratings up to 35% or so. It doesn't matter, because the prizes aren't all that good unless you get more than 50%, in which case you get 5000 gil. When the parade is over, you're free to explore the many shops and buildings of Junon. There's a bunch of stuff to buy, including the Revive materia, and whole lot to find laying around, too. Explore EVERYWHERE, because there is some preatty cool stuff lying around. For instance, in the little training hall (Respectable Inn), you can find a second Enemy Skills materia. Also, you can find the Turks relaxing in a little Coffee Shop. They won't recognize you, though.
When you're finished exploring Junon, go on to the second mini-game, the military review. This one's quite a bit harder than the last one, but the rewards are much greater. If you know the placement of the buttons on your controller, than this'll be a breeze. You don't have to be exact, either. I was a a little behind the group all the time, and I got my aprroval rating all the way up to 170! You don't get anything better for doing so well, though. The best item you can possibly get is “Force Stealer”, a double-AP weapon for Cloud that'll be available fairly soon, but is also pretty expensive. However, don't fret if you don't do as well as that--you get an HP Plus materia if you get anywhere from 60-89. A good deal either way!