Things left to try in Final Fantasy VII

List of interesting things to do with a chain of save games right from the beginning to the end,
where you originally ran through the game without paying notice to the hidden stuff at all. Some
of this stuff was derived from FAQs in GameFAQs. Don't worry - I remembered the credits.

UPDATE: All the progress from these extra tasks were saved in "Save6" with a quicksave in top.


 o  Getting Yuffie
    
    Do the following when you have the Highwind chopper, so that the trip to Wutai later is a
    lot easier. Fetch that save game and don't have a "no random encounters" cheat enabled.

    Run around in one of the forests around Fort Condor or Gongaga Town for a while.

    "You will sometimes encounter a Ninja.  When you beat her, an event will take
     place.   Do EXACTLY what I say now or you are going to have some serious money
     stolen from you.

     First, do NOT bring up the menu at ANY point during this.  Walk to the ninja
     and talk to her.
     Choose "Not interested"
     Walk to her again,
     Choose "......petrified"
     Choose "Wait a second!"
     Choose "......That is right."
     Choose "......Let us hurry on." - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs

    Now you should have her in your party. UPDATE: Easy - the very first encounter was her.


 o  Yuffie's Materia Quest
    
    Go to Wutai with Yuffie on the team and the quest should initiate.
    This is a long and complicated sequence. Consult GameFAQs if/when you need guidance.

    UPDATE: Slightly annoying quest - she runs all around town with *YOUR* materia.


 o  Yuffie's Pagoda Quest
    
    The following takes place after crossing a bridge in Wutai.

    "If you elected to do the quest, head to the upper left exit of this screen and
     head to the tall building.  Yuffie must be in your party.  Equip her with the
     best items you have because she is going to have to do five solo fights." - A. A., GameFAQs

    UPDATE: And good luck with the fifth boss as he heals himself all the time.


 o  Getting Vincent
    
    This part I remember; I deliberately skipped it. In contrast to what some of the FAQs
    at GameFAQs claim, you *CAN* open the safe without having found the notes first. Just do
    the numbers suggested below within the timelimit and the safe should open up.

    "Head to the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim.

     Go up the stairs to the second floor.  Take a left when you get up them.  Enter
     the room to the north end of this screen.  There is a safe.  I warn you now, if
     you have not saved in a while, you may want to, there is a boss inside and he
     can really give a beating.  You will have twenty seconds to open the safe.

     The combination is
     Right - 36
     Left  - 10
     Right - 59
     Right - 97" - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs

    Fight the boss. UPDATE: I killed him with just one summon - made me wonder what all the
    fuss was about. Maybe the boss just had a bad (hair) day?

    "Once you have beaten him, grab the Odin Materia on the ground.  Also, reach
     INTO the safe to get the key to the basement.  Once you have all of this leave
     the room and head right.  Keep heading right until you can not.  Head up and
     get the chest in the room for a Magic Source.  Head down and enter the hidden
     stairwell.  Go down the stairs.  Run down and exit this screen.  On the next
     screen rather than going left and into the lab area again, head up and use the
     key you just got on the door.  Open the casket in the middle of the room.  Tell
     him about Sephiroth.  He will close his casket, open it again and ask who he
     is.  Once the chatting is done, exit this room and try to leave the basement,
     Vincent will now join you." - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs


 o  Lucrecia's Cave
    
    You must have Vincent in your party.

    "This event may be done at any time after getting the Sub [or a chocobo; skipped].

     Dive the Sub at Junon.  Head over to the north end of the ocean.  There will be
     two tunnels.  One goes to the Key to the Ancients, the other to a waterfall. Go
     towards the waterfall [through a large tunnel] and surface the sub to get out.
     Put Vincent in your party and head inside.  A lot of events will happen. Once
     done, you will be back on the world map.

     Once you fight ten battles you can return here to get Chaos and the Death
     Penalty for Vincent." - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs

    UPDATE: What none of the walkthroughs will tell you at GameFAQs is that you have to park
    your sub in a VERY precise spot just at the corner of the brown cliff in the lake, or you
    will just dive when you try to get off. Also, I didn't have the patience to return later.


 o  Sunken Gelnika
    
    "Ride you sub on the surface of the water to the submarine dock right beside
     the Gold Saucer desert.  Dive down and look Southeast-ish.  You should bee a
     broken ship laying in the corner.  Ride your sub up to it to enter." - A l e x, GameFAQs

    UPDATE: Saw it in a PS1 walkthrough, but it is also available in the PC version. You will
    meet the Turks in here, so be prepared for a good battle.


 o  Wonder Square in Goldsaucer
    
    Some of these I have already tried out:

      Arm Wrestling
      Super Dunk
      G-Bike
      Wonder Catcher
      Mog's House
      Snowboarding
      Submarine Game
      3D Battler

    Hmm, didn't it also contain a fortune teller?

    UPDATE: Indeed, Crystal Fortune. I have now seen them all.


 o  Underwater Materia
    
    "Go to the underwater reactor under Junon with the sub and morph the enemy that looks
     like a ghost ship and you will get the guide book, take it to the travler in Kalm to receive
     the Underwater materia which stops the timer when fighting Emerald Weapon." - Snap, GameFAQs

    UPDATE: I skipped this one.


 o  Knights of the Round
    
    "To get this awesome summon spell you will need to breed a gold chocobo and go to a island
     that is not on the map but if in the top right corner. In the cave on the island you will
     find the ultimate summon spell that does 70,000+ damage when used once!" - Snap, GameFAQs

    Breeding is boring. If a save game editor or a trainer can't help (gold chocobo and then go
    check out the cave might be best, else the summon spell directly) then forget about it.

    UPDATE: I just used a save game editor to give me all the summons I had yet to see, including
    but not limited to Knights of the Round.


 o  Beating Ultima Weapon
    
    Another boss to fight. Not to be confused with the Diamond Weapon, which you fought as it
    entered the beach close to Midgar.

    "Want more of that great exp?  Head over to the crater in the ground between
     Junon and Fort Condor and Ram the Highwind into him.  You will get in a battle
     with him.

     After you fight him for a while, he will fly away, try to keep him on your
     screen or you will have to find him which takes forever.  Anyway, after several
     fights he will park himself outside of Cosmo Canyon, this is the final
     encounter spot.  Put all of your enemy skill matera on the same person and load
     him up with some HP Plus's on him as well." - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs

    UPDATE: Beat him down easily in the first encounter with Knights of the Round, but as he
    took off I decided not to follow him. I had seen enough.


 o  Beating Ruby Weapon
    
    "After beating Ultimate Weapon, Ruby Weapon will appear as a red speck in the
     desert near the Gold Saucer, ram him with the highwind." - Apathetic Aardvark, GameFAQs

    "Before this fight kill off 2 of your party members so that he buries his claws straight
     away (he is invincible until his claws are buried)." - Snap, GameFAQs

    But even if you do the right things it will still take 30 minutes. Yaaaawn. Consider skipping
    or at least only engage the boss to check him/her/it out.

    Knights of the Round is a must or it will take forever to kill this boss (if possible at all).

    UPDATE: I skipped this one.


 o  Beating Emerald Weapon
    
    "Floating freely in the sea.  Run into him and your life will change forever." - A. A., GameFAQs

    As with Ruby Weapon you have to kill off 2 of your party members.

    Knights of the Round is a must or it will take forever to kill this boss (if possible at all).

    UPDATE: Ran into him between two continents and merely engaged battle, then quit the game.


Skipped: Battle Square in Goldsaucer (saw plenty of that in the first run), Chocobo breeding (boring),
more digging in Bone Village (yawn), the GP dude in Goldsaucer (insignificant), Ancient Forest (does
not seem like skipping it will make me lose sleep), Fort Condor (did one battle by myself and then the
later one in the storyline that is required - that's enough for me).

JCH, 24 June 2006 (initial document) and 25 June 2006 (updates after actual play)
