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Part Twenty-Nine: Ultimate Weapon and the Ancient Forest

You’ve almost seen all there is to see in Final Fantasy VII, but you’re not there yet. There are still plenty of things you can do - and some of them can eat up a lot of time. This article will explore, at least briefly, some additional activities worth your time before you take on the North Cave… and Sephiroth.

Zack

If you return to the laboratory in the Shinra Mansion of Nibelheim you’ll see a cut scene involving Zack, the forgotten SOLDIER of five years past. You won’t get anything from viewing the scene, but it’s neat nevertheless. (It also ties somewhat neatly into Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, if you plan to play that game.)


Key to Midgar

Even though you jumped into Midgar on the third disc, you still don’t have access to the surviving bits of the great city. Approaching it from the ground will only take you to a locked door. That said, there is a key to get you inside.

Head to Bone Village and play the excavation game, looking for ‘normal treasure’. Play until you find the Key to Sector 5. It appears fairly often, and it shouldn’t take too many tries to find the thing. This article on the Final Fantasy Wiki is helpful in trying to track down the proper spot.

You can find the following by reentering Midgar in Sector 5:
  • Visit the Church in the Slums for a bit of a spooky surprise.
  • Head to Wall Market and visit the ‘item’ shop. No longer broken, the machine inside will give you the Premium Heart, Tifa’s ultimate weapon. It will then promptly break down again.
  • Speak to the weapon shop owner in the north of Wall Market. He’ll offer you an unidentified item for 129,000 gil. Buy it and you’ll receive a Sneak Glove.


The Piano

Return to Nibelheim with Tifa in the party and check out her house. On the second floor is a piano you can play, similar to how you may have played it in the Nibelheim flashback earlier in the game. You can replay the tune you found on the sheet music during the flashback here; the proper sequence is x, square, triangle, L1 and triangle, L1 and square, x, square, triangle, L1 and x, circle, x, square, and x. (Sound familiar?) Do this correctly and you’ll find 1 gil… as well as Final Heaven, Tifa’s final Limit Break.

Bugenhagen

Put Red XIII in your party and visit Bugenhagen’s home in Cosmo Canyon. After a cut scene you’ll receive the Limited Moon, Red XIII’s ultimate weapon. Sniff.


Lucrecia

Hop in the submarine, likely near Junon Harbor, and sail to the western continent. You’ll looking for a path to the northeast of the Gold Saucer, not far from the path that leads to the Crashed Gelnika. A small underwater cave leads to a circular waterfall area. Hop off the submarine, put Vincent in the party, and look behind the waterfall. You’ll hit a cut scene detailing Vincent’s rather tragic past. Once the cut scene is done, get into a handful of battles (ten or more will do it) and check the light in the cave. You’ll find the Death Penalty, Vincent’s ultimate weapon, and Chaos, Vincent’s final Limit Break.

Emerald Weapon

You’ve probably seen it already, but now you may be ready to take it on. Emerald Weapon is one of the optional superbosses in Final Fantasy VII, and it spends its time roaming the underwater areas accessible only via the submarine. You can fight it any time after finding the sub in the second disc, though you need to be at the top of your game to bring it down. Defeating the Emerald Weapon will earn you a special item that allows you to access yet more items. We’ll discuss Emerald Weapon more thoroughly in a future article.


Ruby Weapon

Another optional superboss, Ruby Weapon appears in the desert surrounding the Gold Saucer after you’ve defeated Ultimate Weapon. It is, potentially, the most powerful - and most dangerous - boss in the entirety of Final Fantasy VII, and should not be challenged lightly. We’ll address it in another article.

Chocobo Breeding

You’ve already had the opportunity to engage in raising and breeding chocobos, and if you’re really into it you’ve probably raced your chocobos at the Gold Saucer. This is a good way to get items and money. That said, the coloured chocobos you can get through breeding serve another purpose as well, allowing you to access parts of the world map you wouldn’t normally be able to reach. In these areas you’ll find caves that contain some of the game’s most powerful materia:
  • Once you have a green chocobo you can reach a cave in the mountains southwest of Wutai. This cave contains the Mime materia.
  • Once you have a blue chocobo you can reach a cave north of Mideel. It contains the Quadra Magic materia.
  • Once you have a black chocobo you can reach a cave north of the Costa Del Sol entrance to Mt. Corel. It contains the HP<->MP materia.
  • Once you have a gold chocobo you can reach, and land on, a remote island in the far northeast corner of the world map. The cave on this island contains the Knights of Round summon, which is by far the most powerful (and overall cheapest) piece of materia in the entire game.

Because chocobo breeding is such a long and involved process, we’ll take a look at it in another article. (If you want to bypass chocobo breeding you can fight the Ruby Weapon to get a gold chocobo, but this is by no means an easier way to collect the materia listed above.)


Battle Square

You’ve visited the Battle Square of the Gold Saucer before - it’s a staple of making it this far - but there’s a lot more to do in this place. The Battle Square, put simply, allows you to accumulate Battle Points - BP - by successfully defeating enemies in the Battle Square while under a mounting number of handicaps. Accumulate enough BP and you can use it on a variety of prizes. The prizes are of so-so quality, but there’s at least one item you’ll want: Omnislash, Cloud’s final Limit Break. It’s possibly the best Limit Break in the game, though at 32,000 BP it requires a lot of fighting to get. We’ll explore getting the Omnislash, as well as some other items, in another article.

All done? Or are you just impatient to see the ending? Then there’s only one place left to go: The North Cave, Sephiroth’s domain.

Part Thirty-One: Northern Cave