Final Fantasy VII - Part 7

                    Walkthrough by Keeks

@~Continued from last issue

18. The Inventor

Head southwest, then turn north (you're making a big C around the
mountains).  Keep walking and you'll see Rocket Town up ahead.  In
the Accessory Shop, you'll receive a message if you go to the left
end of the counter and examine it (anyone know what it means?) If
you go into the house farthest to the right, you can find a chest
with a Power Up inside of it in next to the stove.  Then talk to
the old man standing near the house that's just left of the
rocket's launch pad. Talk to him again, and he'll ask you a
question.  Pick the top answer and the view will pan up to show
the rocket.  Then the old geezer will give you the Riku x
syukichikou; it's a weapon for Cloud.

Go into the house to the right of the old man.  This is the home
of Shiera and Cid, although neither of them are around at the
moment. There's a chest here with a Drill Arm inside it.  If you
go out the back entrance, you'll find a light airplane in the
backyard--it's one of Cid's inventions, the 'Tiny Bronco'.  After
looking at the airplane, Shiera will show up.  When she leaves, go
outside and head north to arrive at the rocket - climb inside it
to find Cid.  After chatting with him, name him.  You can then ask
him several questions; you have to at least ask the first one (top
choice) in order to proceed with the game. Then leave the rocket
and return to Cid's house.  Shiera will show up, then Cid, too.
After Cid goes out back, Shiera will explain how Cid was going to
pilot his rocket into outer space some time ago, but aborted the
launch when he discovered that Shiera was still making last-minute
checks and hadn't left the launch pad yet; she would be burned to
ashes since the launch could only be aborted, not delayed.  By
saving her life, Cid's dreams were shattered, since he did not
have the resources to repair the rocket, which tipped over after
falling back onto the launch pad.

Cid comes back into the house, then Palmer shows up - an employee
of Shinra.  Go outside and you'll run into Rufus and a Shinra
guard, who have come to 'borrow' the Tiny Bronco.  After Shiera
brings you back inside the house, go out the back entrance to find
Palmer standing atop the Tiny Bronco.  Talk to him and he'll
attack you.

Palmer LV: 38 HP: 6000 MP: 240

His gun causes a fair amount of damage since it has the effects of
Fire, Ice and Lightning so make sure Aeris is in your party or
that you have some Recovery Materia.  Use Haste and Affect All on
your party as well as Slow magic and/or Summon Chocobo on him to
even the odds a bit. You'll want to have Cloud's B2/2 by now - it
comes in handy.  Your prize for beating Palmer is an Edincoat.

After the boss gets wasted (heh, heh), your party and Cid will
escape on the Tiny Bronco.  Although it gets damaged during your
escape it can still be used to skim across shallow water and
traverse rivers (although you can't go up or down waterfalls).
You now have several options that are available to you: you can
get Aeris's Level 4 Limit Break manual (more details later) or go
on Yuffie's sub-quest (if you have her in your party, see section
6 for further information).  Even if you don't have Yuffie, you
can purchase some pretty good weapons and find some treasure
chests lying around in Wutai, so you may want to stop there
anyways.  You can even go back and kill the big snake you had to
flee from in section 11, if you've been itching to do so (you'll
now have enough HPs to learn the enemy skill 'Beta' from it
without dying). In any case, it would be a good idea to explore
other areas and pick up items you missed/buy stuff you couldn't
afford before instead of continuing on your quest just yet.  I
would suggest checking out the excavators' site to the north,
since you can pick up the powerful 'Summon Kujata' materia there
as well as buying some useful bracelets and items

19. Betrayal

Pilot the Tiny Bronco back to the Gold Saucer area.  Go to the
weaponsmith's house on the peninsula near the dirt pit and talk to
him--he'll explain that you need the Keystone, which he no longer
has.  Get back in Cid's airplane, and leave it on the shore by the
dirt pit.  You need to get to the Golden Saucer, so either walk or
find a wild Chocobo and ride it back to North Corel.  Then take
the sky lift up to the Gold Saucer.  Go to the Battle Square and
look for an opening on the right side of the room labelled 'Dio's
Show Room'. Inside, examine the glittering object on top of the
large stand; it's the Keystone.  Dio, the big lug who threw you
out of the Gold Saucer before, will show up and offer you a
challenge: fight in the Battle Square and he'll give you the
Keystone.  When you have a choice, pick the top option to accept
or the bottom option to temporarily decline.  You'll now have to
fight in the Battle Square using only Cloud.  Keep in mind that
even if you lose the very first battle, Dio will still give you
the Keystone.

If you want to try and see if you can win all the battles, then
keep fighting.  After each battle, the message 'GREAT!' will
appear, followed by two options.  Choose the right option to stop
fighting, or the left option to continue fighting.  If you choose
to continue, a jackpot-like device will appear.  You can stop it
from spinning by pressing the Ok button, and whatever comes up
when you press Ok will take affect prior to the start of the next
battle.  Depending on what you get, different things will happen
to you, although certain accessories can render you immune to some
of the more debilitating effects.

Furthermore, the status ailments that you are afflicted with as a
result of the jackpot stay with you from battle to battle, and
you're forced to stop the jackpot after each battle, so you could
end up being a poisoned, petrified frog in a few rounds, if you're
not careful.  If you last through seven battles, then the fighting
ends.

There's nothing else you need to do at the Gold Saucer now, but
when you try to leave, you'll discover that the ropeway that the
sky lift travels up and down is broken, leaving you stranded in
the Saucer. Cait Sith will either show up (or leave your party, if
he's already with you guys) and suggest that you all meet him at
the Ghost Hotel. At the Hotel, you and your allies will chat for
awhile.  In the next scene, you'll find yourself in your room.
At this point in the game, a character will come into your room
and ask to go on a date with you.  While it's usually Aeris, it's
been confirmed that you can go on a date with Tifa instead, if you
were nice to her and mean to Aeris throughout the course of the
game.  It's much harder to do, but if you have had Yuffie in your
party for a while, she may wish to date Cloud as well.  If you're
really mean to all the women in your party, Barett will date you
(so be nice!) It's not what you think - just a friendly outing (he
had a wife, so what are you thinking ^_^;) Both times that I've
played through this part, it's always been Aeris who comes to ask
Cloud to go on a date, so I'll write the next section with her in
mind, although you may end up with someone else.

First, you'll go to the Event Square.  Since you're the 100th
person to come here that day, you and Aeris will be offered a role
in the upcoming play.  What you do here doesn't affect the game in
any way, so just pick whatever options you'd like and watch one of
the many humorous endings.  If I wrote it out, it would ruin the
fun, so.... Next, you'll ride the gondola in the Round Square.
When Aeris looks out the window, you can press left to look out,
too, and see various FMV sequences showcasing the events at the
Gold Saucer.

After the date is over, Cloud and Aeris will return to the Station
Square only to find Cait Sith sneaking around with the Keystone.
He'll run away when Cloud yells at him, and you have to chase him
around various sections of the Gold Saucer.  (If you don't want to
waste time doing that, then go to the Chocobo Square, enter it,
and chase Cait Sith back outside).  Eventually, Cait will stop at
the steps outside of the Chocobo Square.  The Shinra helicopter
shows up, and Cait will toss the Keystone up to Tseng.  When
confronted by Cloud and Aeris, Cait reveals that he is in fact a
spy for the Shinra.  He insists that he continues to travel with
Cloud and his friends because he has taken Marlene as a hostage
back in Midgar (Right?  That's what he seems to say).

Once Cait Sith leaves, you'll find yourself back in the Ghost
Hotel. Check the iron maiden for an Elixir (notice the sound it
makes; it sounds just like Norstein Bekkler's laugh [the guy from
Chrono Trigger!]).  Leave the room to meet up with your allies
again.  After a brief talk, Aeris will join your party, becoming a
permanent member. Pick another ally and then leave the Saucer,
since the ropeway is now repaired.

Now that you're back at North Corel, leave and return where you
parked the Tiny Bronco.  Look at the World Map.  See the tiny
chain of islands near the bottom of the map?  Just to the right of
them and to the left of Midgar and the Condor Fort is a large
island.  If you go there, you'll see a large temple surrounded by
a forest.  This is your next destination, so land the Tiny Bronco
at the shore and head to the temple.

@~To be continued next issue





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