Universal popularity really is impossible. However beloved and critically-acclaimed a game may be, there are always going to be downsides. Flaws. Snags. Issues. There are also going to be gamers who insist on fixating on these very problems. As Kanye West will probably tell you, given half a chance, the haters are everywhere.
However, there’s a difference between calling out a legitimate flaw and snarking on something popular for the sake of snarking on something popular. In its time, Final Fantasy VII has seen a whole lot of both.
For many fans, this was the game that introduced them to the Final Fantasy series, as well as to the JRPG genre as a whole. It holds a special place in their crusty old hearts as a result, but is the game beyond reproach? Oh, heck no.
Still, Final Fantasy VII is one of those games that many like to make a habit of replaying every year or so. We like to change up our approaches each time (you can make Cloud exclusively a Summoner or something, and it's ridiculous), go for different collectibles and subquests, that sort of thing.
It feels so fresh each time, because (like any good RPG) there’s a whole lot to discover in the game. Familiar areas like the Gold Saucer and Midgar (as well as hidden ones like the Ancient Forest and sunken Gelnika) hold secrets that casual players may have no idea about. Let’s dive into some of them and take a look at some of the treasures you might have missed.
The Ancient Forest
We’ll start with an area that’s quite easily visible on the world map (on the mountains just above Cosmo Canyon), but a pain to get to. There are two ways to get into the Ancient Forest. You can either ride a mountain chocobo straight up the cliff, or wait until you can battle Ultima Weapon, which is very late in the game (the beast explodes and destroys a section of the mountain on its defeat, allowing you to walk straight to the forest).
Once inside, you’ll find a small, curious area unlike any other in the game. It consists of a series of strange puzzles that see you collecting insects and frogs, depositing them into plants to create paths to progress. There’s some excellent loot in here, including a valuable Minerva Band, the ‘Typoon’ summon materia (a brilliant translation of Typhoon), the Slash-All materia and Cloud’s Apocalypse, one of only two weapons in the game with triple materia growth.
The Great Glacier
The Great Glacier is another area that you’ll visit over the course of the main story. It was also the one that (as a result of its super-unhelpful map) utterly confounded many of us as children. It was like trying to navigate with a paper map during a road trip, in the bad old days before sat navs and Google Maps.
Somewhere in this vast and confusing area is the Alexander Summon Materia, the only source of Holy magic damage available to the player in the whole game. To get it, you have to go on an awkward little sidequest involving touching the Hot Springs (near the Great Glacier exit) and then high-tailing it to the cave where the mysterious NPC sits huddled.
Here’s a handy-dandy video guide from YouTuber judgementTaG, if you want to know how to go about that.
The Shinra Building
Here's a location that players in the know will revisit later in the game. The Key To Sector 5 Key Item is available to excavate in Bone Village on disk two (a guard in Midgar hints that they lost it while on an archaeological tour), and allows you to enter familiar areas from the early stages of the game.
Did you examine that locker in the Shinra Building, only for Cloud to say that the party have no use for a megaphone and leave it where it was? That was Cait Sith’s ultimate weapon, HP Shout, and you can now pick it up. Tifa’s ultimate weapon is also in Wall Market now, in the item tent that shot at you much earlier. The more you know.
The Sunken Gelnika
If you’re one of those players who likes to skip through the dialogue and dodge all but the essential NPCs, you probably didn’t hear about the Gelnika. This Shinra plane was carrying all kinds of secret military tech, but was attacked by Weapon and sunk into the ocean.
First-time players probably wouldn’t know that you can actually go and find this plane (just hop into the submarine, submerge near Junon, and travel straight forward towards Costa del Sol) and take a look inside. It’s a small area, but there’s a lot of fantastic and unique loot in here. Cid’s strongest limit break, Highwind, is found in here, as is Yuffie’s ultimate weapon, the Hades materia, the Double Cut materia, and the sword Heaven’s Cloud.
The Sunken Gelnika (Continued)
So, there you go. The Sunken Gelnika is found quite easily, you can access it as soon as you acquire the submarine, and there are some fantastic items in here. It’s really a no-brainer to head on in there.
One warning, though. The enemies in here are very tough (as is the boss battle with the Turks that takes place in one of the hallways), so do not miss the chance to hit that save point. The odd, mutated enemies in here can inflict all manner of ghastly status effects on you (not to mention just huge damage in general), so an unprepared and under-leveled party is not going to have a good time.
Here’s a tip, though: You’ll want to use Yuffie in here. It’s no coincidence that this is where you find her ultimate weapon. It has the unique effect of dealing full damage when using Morph, and the enemies in here all morph into a particular source (Power Source, Luck Source and so forth).
Bone Village
Bone Village is another place that can be super-tough for first-time players to grasp. The whole digging for treasure thing is a neat concept, but it can be very hard to figure out how to correctly place the diggers. How many of them and "where" is a real trial-and-error thing if you don't know how.
The trouble is, though, it’s mandatory. You’re not going anywhere without the Lunar Harp, friends, you really aren’t. There is one thing you can pick up in the forest just before the Ancient Forest itself, though. On the screen immediately after passing through Bone Village, take a walk around the trees and you’ll notice a small flash of red. This is the secret Summon Materia Kjata, a huge bull-like summon that attacks with a combination of Ice, Fire and Lightning magic.
Round Island
Now, some of us just aren't fans of wordplay. We like people to say what they mean and mean what they say. If you're one of these people, you'll surely have a deep respect for whoever it was that named our next Final Fantasy VII location ‘Round Island.’
Appropriately enough, Round Island is… a small, round island. It doesn’t look like much at all, and you’d be forgiven for traveling straight on past it. That is, you would, if it wasn’t for that the fact that it’s completely invisible on the map and only accessible via a gold chocobo. Why all this secrecy? Because it’s the home of the most powerful summon in the game (by a darn long way, too).
Wutai Island (Materia Cave)
Speaking of secret Materia you can only access from chocobo breeding, there are various other Materia Caves in the game. Over on the Wutai continent (Wutai itself being a secret area we’re going to take a look at soon), there’s another one, and it’s home to a Command Materia that can be incredibly overpowered: Mime.
Simply put, Mime will repeat the last action the party performed. This won’t work with other characters’ Limit Breaks, of course, but the ability to instantly repeat something as devastating as Knight of The Round’s Ultimate End attack is frightening indeed. Accessing Wutai Island’s Materia Cave requires a green chocobo.
The Junon Cave
Many players don’t trouble to use Aerith in the party much, or learn all of her limit breaks. Nevertheless, there’s a fun little sidequest to earn the manual for her ultimate limit, Great Gospel, which you may have never tried.
The sidequest involves two secret areas. The first is a small cave in the north of the Junon Area. You’ll need the buggy to access it, and will find a sleeping man inside. He’ll give you the Mythril item if the total number of battles you’ve fought ends in two matching odd numbers or zeroes (100, 211, 333, or 655, for instance).
It’s very convoluted and obscure, but once you’ve got the Mythril, you can move on to the next entry in our rundown.
The Blacksmith’s Cabin
So, there you are with your spangly new Mythril. If you’re new to Final Fantasy VII, you’re probably wondering just what you’re supposed to do with this item.
If you’ve happened upon the blacksmith’s cabin between the Gold Saucer and Gongaga, you’re probably also wondering what that’s all about. It’s empty, right? The two mysteries are connected, though, and here’s how: if you go to the cabin after receiving the Tiny Bronco, the blacksmith will be home, and you can give him the Mythril. Do so, then open the small box in his cabin. Inside is the Great Gospel limit manual.
A pain to get, perhaps, but this is a fantastic ‘attack,’ restoring the HP and MP of the party to full and making them temporarily immune to damage.
Wutai Itself
If you’re a veteran of Final Fantasy VII, you’ll know that Wutai is among the game’s most controversial areas. Many players tend to skip it entirely, as it’s completely optional. Others (big fans of Yuffie, presumably) like to head on over there as soon as they can.
Speaking of the Tiny Bronco, you’ll need the sad little plane-boat to access Wutai for the first time. It’s at the top of the long, thin continent on the left of the map, and is so mountainous that the only shore is on the very bottom.
Landing here will kick off a long and fairly irritating sidequest in Yuffie’s hometown.
Junon Underwater Reactor
As an area you visit during the course of the main story, there’s nothing particularly secretive about the Junon Underwater Reactor. It’s quite linear, boasting only the famous Carry Armor boss to make it noteworthy.
Or so you might think. Speaking of Wutai, there’s one item you find in the reactor (just before hopping in the submarine) that can make a visit to the mountain town worth your while: the Leviathan Scales.
If you climbed the mountain Da-Chao in Wutai, you’ll probably have found that cavern with flames blocking your path. Return here with the Leviathan Scales, and their watery properties will allow you to extinguish the flames. Doing so will allow you to collect the Steal As Well Materia and Yuffie’s Oritsuru weapon.
The Battle Square
The Gold Saucer is one of the most loved areas in the whole game. The silly little minigames (more of which unlock as you progress, such as skiing and the motorcycle one), the relentlessly happy and jingly looping music, the fact that this is where you meet the most ridiculous party member of all… what’s not to like?
This theme park is also the only place to find some of the game’s best items.
At a certain point in the story, you’re forced into a series of battles in the Battle Square, and if it goes horribly, you may never return. What you might not know, however, is that the Battle Square is home to Cloud’s most powerful limit break, Ominslash, as well as the invaluable Final Attack materia (which allows you to, say, automatically cast the Phoenix summon as your party is wiped out, a crucial tactic against those super bosses).
Cactus Island
Long-time Final Fantasy fans will be familiar with the cactaur, a finicky little cactus-like enemy that gets its kicks from pelting the party with needles (which tend to do fixed damage). These little guys have appeared throughout the series, and they’re present and correct in Final Fantasy VII (though their name is spelled Cactuer here).
They’re mostly found on Cactus Island, another little island that’s invisible on the map. It’s a little way out just south from Cosmo Canyon, and has distinctive terrain (mostly desert, with a little grass). While you’re on the desert part, you’ll only encounter Cactuers, and they’re useful for a couple of reasons. Not only do they give generous amounts of AP and EXP, but they can be morphed into the rare Tetra Elemental.
The Chocobo Sage’s House
This is another one of those insignificant little locations that you could easily pass over without ever noticing it.
As the story draws to a close, you’ll head up to the smaller northern continent for your final encounter with the dastardly Sephiroth. There are other places and settlements on this continent, but that’s really what it’s all leading up to.
Somewhere in the Icicle Area, you’ll notice a small shack nestled in the mountains. This isn’t marked on the map either, but it’s the home of the Chocobo Sage. He sells valuable nuts and greens (for chocobo care and breeding), as well as giving cryptic hints about the nature of different chocobo species and how to breed them.
The chocobo in his home will also give you an Enemy Skill Materia if you speak to it.
The Shinra Mansion
The super-strange Shinra Mansion (try saying THAT with a mouthful of Materia) is another key location that you visit during the course of the story. It’s located in Nibelheim, and a focal point of both the flashback to Cloud’s past and the party’s own journey.
While you can’t miss the mansion itself, it holds some incredible secrets that the casual player could easily bypass. Most importantly, the sidequest that involves finding the combination to open the safe.
That combination is now permanently engraved on the inside of some of our skulls (right 36, left 10, right 59, right 97), and it yields some fantastic treasure. Inside the safe is the Odin Summon Materia, Red XIII’s Cosmo Memory limit break manual and the basement key, which unlocks the ability to recruit Vincent Valentine.
The Shinra Mansion… Again
Maybe you know all of this, though. Maybe you read up on the game prior to your first couple of playthroughs (there’s an almighty wealth of information about Final Fantasy VII around the web, after all), and were fully aware of how to recruit Vincent and nab those other goodies.
The mansion holds another secret, though, and it’s one that even experienced players often miss. It’s easy to simply forget that it’s a thing, but it certainly is.
Much later in the game, when Cloud rejoins the party, you can return to the mansion’s basement (the library where you encounter ‘Sephiroth’). In doing so, as a result of Cloud’s newly-restored memories, you’ll see a hidden scene that explains a little more about his friend Zack Fair.
The Gold Saucer
As we saw earlier in this rundown, the Gold Saucer may look like a humble theme park (and throwaway minigame extravaganza), but it’s so much more than that. It houses some of the game’s best items.
But we know all of that. One thing you may not know is that it offers something else. While the game tends to default towards a scene where Cloud ‘dates’ Aeris, there are all kinds of parameters in place that can change that. Depending on your actions throughout the game, you can instead go on the brief ‘date’ with Tifa, Yuffie, or Barret!
The mechanics behind determining which character it’ll be are surprisingly complex, as the FAQ on the Wiki details.
Northern Cave
The Northern Cave, as we’ve already mentioned, is where Sephiroth (yep, the real one) happens to be resting. Being the last area in the game, it’s one that you can’t miss. One thing you could quite easily miss (and probably will, at least the first time around) is Pandora’s Box.
Ah, yes. Pandora’s Box, the scourge of completionists everywhere. This Enemy Skill is learned from the Dragon Zombie, and was programmed so that only the very first Dragon Zombie the player defeats will cast it (as a final attack on defeat). This being around the point of no return, you’re left out of luck if you miss it (if you want to collect every Enemy Skill on every character, that is).
Midgar
Midgar is yet another location in the game that you can’t possibly miss. You’re dropped right in the thick of AVALANCHE’s operations in Midgar as the game begins, after all, and won’t leave the city for some hours afterward.
When you return here much later during the Midgar raid, there’s one very important item you won’t want to miss: the W-Item Materia. You find this on your way to the cannon for the battle with Hojo, by intentionally running several screens in the wrong direction.
These screens all look largely the same, but you ARE progressing. Once you see that tell-tale shimmer of yellow Materia, you’ll know you’re in the right place.