Corel Prison



Corel Prison is a location in Final Fantasy VII. Once it was the town of Corel, but after its destruction by Shinra Electric Power Company, it has become a prison in Gold Saucer's shadow. The townsfolk have since relocated to North Corel. The prison is loosely guarded, since security is not needed as the desert around makes escape by land impossible. Corel Prison is largely self-run by Mr. Coates and a mysterious leader. Despite being largely in ruins, the faint outline of a town can still be seen. Convicts in the Corel Prison are used in the Chocobo Races.

Old Corel
Several years before the start of Final Fantasy VII, the prison was a peaceful mining town. The town of Corel was the birthplace of Barret Wallace and his best friend, Dyne. They both worked in the coal mines to the north. Barret married his wife, Myrna, while Dyne raised a family with his wife, Eleanor. Dyne and Eleanor had a daughter, Marlene.

One day, the Shinra Executive Scarlet came to Corel to propose the building of a Mako Reactor to supply the town's electric needs, as the use of coal as energy source was quickly being pushed out by the advent of Mako energy. Dyne was not thrilled with the plan, but Barret supported it along with most of the miners. The reactor's construction went forward despite Dyne's objections.

The town seemed to be moving forward towards greater prosperity, until one day disaster struck. Final Fantasy VII states the reactor simply exploded, but Episode 16 of Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, expands the story: AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist organization occupied the incomplete reactor to fight Shinra. Rufus Shinra, the company's vice President and AVALANCHE's secret financier, is captured in the fighting and the reactor is destroyed.

Barret and Dyne went to the site, but could do nothing. As they began to head back to Corel, they saw the town in flames. Scarlet had sent the Shinra Army in to punish the townsfolk for the reactor's failure and Dyne and Barret were spotted by the troops. Though they tried to escape, Scarlet ordered the soldiers to open fire. Dyne fell off a cliff, and Barret held him up to save him from falling. Scarlet personally shot at their arms and Barret lost his right arm, while Dyne lost his left. Without a grip to hold him up, Dyne fell into the abyss below, seemingly to his death.

The Corel survivors relocated to the mountains to the north, starting the town of North Corel and Barret is blamed for the disaster. He decides to head to Midgar to get his revenge on Shinra by creating his own AVALANCHE. Eleanor and Myrna were killed in the fire, so Barret adopts the now orphaned Marlene as his own daughter.

Corel Prison
What remained of the town of Corel was converted into the Corel Prison. Dyne, who had in fact survived the fall, took control of the prison. Between his fall and the events of Final Fantasy VII, Dyne gets the same operation as Barret and his lost arm is replaced with a gun-arm. However, the loss of his family and life drives Dyne insane.

In Episode 21 of Before Crisis, AVALANCHE once attacks the former area of Corel, this time to find the Zirconiade Materia. The player Turk fights them along with an AVALANCHE defector named Shalua Rui. Though the player finds the Materia, the Turks' leader Veld is captured by Shinra, whom the Turks have split from. The player barely survives the Shinra attack.

During Final Fantasy VII, when Cloud Strife and his party, which includes Barret, pass through the Gold Saucer, Dyne slaughters many people in rage. Since the people were killed by a man with a gun-arm, Barret is thought to be the killer and Cloud and his team are dropped down into the prison.

The party tries to escape the prison by speaking with Mr. Coates, but he can do nothing, being only second-in-command to Dyne. Barret tells the others the tale of what happened in the town of Corel and decides to go speak to Dyne alone. Barret confronts the mad Dyne, and tries to reason with him. Dyne is far too deranged to listen to reason, and even plots to kill his daughter Marlene so she can reunite with her mother. Barret has to fight his old friend one-on-one, and wins. Barret still pleads Dyne to come with them, but Dyne, having realised the monster he has become, gives Barret Eleanor's pendant to be given to Marlene, and commits suicide. Before dying, Dyne gives the party permission to leave the prison.

There is only one way to leave the Corel Prison, that is, to win a Chocobo Race up in Gold Saucer. Cloud races and wins the party their freedom.

Corel Desert
After talking to Coates the player can leave the old town via the north gate, but unless they head east to find Dyne, they will enter an infinite desert where the same screen will repeat again and again. Very rarely, the player may encounter the Cactuar, which will drop 10,000 gil when defeated. Occasionally, the player may encounter a chocobo cart that will take the player back to the Corel Prison.

The Well
The well in Corel Prison has many interesting qualities, even if it only has an empty treasure chest in most game versions. The player can discover a skeleton resembling a Guard Hound part of the background. In the game's original Japanese version four Test 0 enemies could be fought here. These are believed to be test enemies left in the game, since the battle takes place in a jungle background, the enemies do not attack, and yield an extremely high HP count, but also EXP, gil, and AP. The Test 0 enemies were removed from any subsequent releases.

What more, the well's prerendered background ripped straight from the game data includes an unused animation of a little man in the corner that is not present in the playable version of the location.

Inconsistencies

 * In the scene where Barret and Dyne look down from the mountain trail and see the village in flames, the village is located in a valley, surrounded by trees and mountains. Later in the game, Corel is actually located below Gold Saucer in a vast open desert area, not enclosed by mountains. Also, Barret and Dyne are shown to be looking from North Corel to Old Corel, which is roughly one quarter the length of the continent.
 * When the party takes the gondola from North Corel to reach Gold Saucer, the gondola actually leads away from where it is supposedly going.
 * It is never explained how Dyne got up to Gold Saucer to perform his massacre, and then down back into Corel, without anyone noticing, leading to the massacre being blamed on Cloud's party.

Development
According to the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, Corel was the location where Shinra originally discovered mako energy. The townspeople were hired to build a reactor, but after Shinra discovered the mako energy's infinite potential, they decided to destroy the town so the top secret information on mako reactors' structure would not be leaked to rival companies. In the game, Corel is instead destroyed by Shinra in order to stifle rebel elements.

Items Found

 * Ramuh Materia - in the jockeys' lounge room

Shops
{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" align="left" width="50%"
 * valign="top" width="50%"|

General Store

 * }

The Prison

 * 2-Faced, Bandit x2
 * 2-Faced x2, Bandit
 * 2-Faced x3

The Well

 * 2-Faced x4

Desert Outskirts

 * Death Claw x2
 * Bullmotor x4
 * Death Claw x2, Bullmotor
 * 2-Faced, Bandit x2

Junkyard

 * Death Claw x2
 * Bullmotor x4
 * Death Claw x2, Bullmotor
 * 2-Faced, Bandit x2

Cliff

 * Dyne (Boss)

Corel Desert

 * Land Worm
 * Cactuar

Musical Themes
"Desert Wasteland" (砂の流刑地 Suna no Ryūkeichi) plays as the background theme in Corel Prison.

Trivia

 * Corel Prison has a Shinra Electric Company sign that appears to have the word "fuck" sprayed over it in black paint, and again painted over to censor it, into "pyck."
 * The chute down to Corel Prison from Gold Saucer reads "Gateway to Heaven."