Final Fantasy VII owned by Square Enix.
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Part Twenty-One: Forgotten Capital

Corral Valley

- A new disc! On your way out of the Forgotten Capital you’ll receive a vision regarding your next destination. Follow the path out of the northeast of the Capital to get on track.

- Old enemies ahead, nothing special. There’s a big conch shell you can hop up by investigating the spines at the base. First, though, go around the bottom to the right side of the screen, where you’ll find a Viper Halberd in a chest. Whirl around inside the conch shell to find a path to a new screen at the top.

- There are cliffs to climb ahead. Sidle up the second crack on the left and hop off to the left. Crawl up another crack to the left, hop off near the top, hop back on to go up, then hop to the left at the very top to find a Bolt Armlet. Shimmy back down and go right.


- Another crack waits on the right. Slide down to find a HypnoCrown, go up and right to find a Megalixir, and head left. There’s a long ladder ahead. Descend to find a Magic Plus magicite, then climb back up and beyond. There’s one more tunnel ahead, this containing a Power Source, and beyond… the world.

- The enemies out here are pretty weak, and nothing much to speak of. Follow the path through the mountains to the west and, soon enough, you’ll wind up at a new town.


Icicle Inn

- What a pleasant little place. On the left from the entrance is a weapon store; on the right is an inn. You’ll find an X-Potion on the inn’s second floor. Near the inn is another building containing a Hero Drink and a Vaccine, as well as a Glacier Map on the wall. Make sure you take the Map - it’ll come in handy in the next major area.

- There’s one final building here, in the top-left corner of town. It’s not obligatory, but you’ll learn a lot by checking the machinery on the top floor. Poor Aeris. Look downstairs to find a Turbo Ether by the bed.

- All done? Head towards the woods in the rear of Icicle Inn. Insist on continuing and you’ll have an encounter with one of the usual troublemakers. Slip out of the way of her punch for hilarity; don’t dodge for equal hilarity. 


- The path ahead is open, at any rate, though now you need a Snowboard. You can find one by speaking to the boy in the foremost house in town. Learn how to use it by speaking to the guy in the far north, by the trees.

- Snowboarding! Follow the instructions given by the man and muddle your way down the course. Grab balloons if you want, but they’re not much use right now. Later in the game you can replay this game back at the Gold Saucer, at which point it’s worth it to try for balloons. Eventually you’ll land in a new area, one that’s quite… interesting… to navigate. 


Great Glacier

Welcome to one of the most frustrating areas in Final Fantasy VII. Chock-full of icy enemies (fire is your obvious go-to weapon) and quite massive, Great Glacier is no picnic. The possibility of getting lost aside, you have a time limit (544 steps, if the Final Fantasy Wiki is to be trusted) to your explorations. Hit that limit and you’ll collapse… though, fortunately, you’ll wind up where you’re supposed to go as a result.

Depending on the turns you made to get to Great Glacier while snowboarding, you’ll land in different areas. I recommend taking two lefts, as you’ll land in a forest that’s in a convenient spot for exploration and gathering items. The explanations for reaching the items and locations of this area will proceed from that forest landing. Assuming you picked up the Glacier Map, you can hit square to see the map. It's not great, but...


  • Escape - Simply head two screens south of the forest. You’ll wind up on the route back to Icicle Inn.
  • Mind Source - Check the trees where you landed, two screens north of the entrance.
  • Safety Bit - Head two screens east from the trees, look on the ground for a Potion, then head north. You’ll find a series of floating hunks of ice. You need to cross them with great deliberation to get to the other side. Run out of places to go as you cross and you’ll have to start over. Go up once, left once, down once, left once, up once, right once, up three times, left once, down once, right twice, and up from there. To get back out after fetching the Safety Bit go left once, down once, right twice, down once, left once, down once, right once, and down once.
  • Elixir - Head west one screen from the forest, then north until you hit a wide screen with a cave in the middle. The Elixir is in the cave.
  • Alexander -  Go east from the trees until you hit a northern route. Follow it to a cliff area, then take the upper-right path. Along this one-way route you’ll find the Added Cut materia on the side of the path, which is a must-get. Beyond this path you’ll find hot springs. Touch them, then head north to a massive snow field. You can find an All materia in the midst of this area, but you’ll want to head to the east in general. Several more screens will take you to a cave. Touch the Snow inside to trigger a fairly easy ‘boss’ fight, and defeat her to earn the Alexander materia. You can also Steal from her for a Circlet, a rather awesome stat-boosting accessory.


Having trouble? I highly recommend consulting this map to guide your way around Great Glacier. It’s better than anything I could draw.

- Eventually, eventually, you’ll either pass out (likely) or stumble onto Holzoff’s cabin to the north of the snow field (unlikely). Your team will gather here, and you’ll be prepped for the next major leg of your journey, up a snowy, very perilous set of cliffs.

Part Twenty-Three: Gaea Cliffs