Battle Square



The Battle Square, also known as battle arena, or the Colosseum, is a location in the Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy VII. The Battle Square is a battle arena where the player selects a single character and fights in a gauntlet-style match, fighting eight enemies in a row for prizes.

The Battle Square becomes available after the player acquires the buggy. The player must participate the arena battles only once during the game, when Dio tells the party he'll give them the Keystone if Cloud agrees to "entertain" him.

Starting a battle at the Battle Square earns the player the Battle Square achievement in the PC version re-release of Final Fantasy VII.

Story
During the party's first visit to the Gold Saucer, the Battle Square is under renovation. When the party come here after being joined by Cait Sith they discover that someone has shot a number of people within the area. Dio finds the party and believes they are the criminals. As the party try to both explain and flee they are circled by security robots who take the party and drop them into Corel Prison.

Later in the game the Battle Square is up and running, and the party discover that the gunman killed the infantryman instantly, but the two staff who were shot survived.

Cloud goes back to the Battle Square to find the Keystone in Dio's Museum. Dio finds Cloud observing the Keystone and offers it to him if Cloud will entertain him by battling in the arena. Cloud does and Dio gives him the Keystone.

When Meteor is summoned two of the staff members at the Battle Square elope together.

Location
The Battle Square is one of the eight zones in the Gold Saucer, and the fifth from the left from the Gold Saucer's entrance. Like all areas of the Gold Saucer it is accessible from all the zones. The player always enters the Battle Square from its entrance.

The Battle Square is divided into various locations. The main attraction is the arena only accessed during battles and the player will otherwise spend their time in the arena lobby. The Battle Square houses Dio's museum, a showroom off to the side of the lobby. A secluded area beyond the lobby is a room where prisoners can be trapped and thrown into the Corel Prison.

Entrance
The Entrance ("Battle Square" in the menu) is the first location of Battle Square and the only way to access it. The entrance to the Square has eight doorways leading to the other areas, each titled above their doors with the Square's name in a unique color. A doorway to the Gold Saucer entrance appears on either side.

A purple-carpeted stairway leads to the Square's attraction. From the outside it appears like a castle, a drape on purple cloth depicting a sword and shield on either side. Beneath the drapes lights shine a ray of yellow and purple into the sky. The door leads into the arena lobby. In the center above the entrance is a shield symbol with two-crossed swords.

On the player's first visit to the Battle Square a male staff will prevent them from climbing the stairs, citing renovations. When the player returns after recruiting Cait Sith from the Wonder Square they will find a falling guard and the player character will run on into the lobby. When the player returns later a man will tell of the curator's collection displayed at the arena, but he will no longer be here after the Northern Cave events at the start of Part 2. A woman standing next to the long stairs can be found here on the player's return. After talking to her, if you choose "That's the idea", and went on to win a round of 8 consecutive battles in Battle Square, she'll give you the Sprint Shoes item and will stay there. However, if you choose "Not interested", even after you've won 8 consecutive battles, she'll disappear permanently and you won't get the accessory (she will be absent even if you exit and re-enter the Gold Saucer).

Whenever the player enters the entrance their BP will become 0 meaning every time the player exits the lobby they will lose their accumulated points.

Arena Lobby
The Arena Lobby is where the player can sign up for battles and earn rewards. To the left and right of the entrance are machines where the player can spend accumulated BP on prizes. A man standing by the machine on the right will explain the Battle Square to the player, but only once. At the back of the room in the corners are two help desks whose staff allow players to sign-up for matches.

In the center at the back and up some stairs is a door into the arena. Above the door is a sign with a skull and the word "CHALLENGER". On the left and right are blue drapes with the symbol of the sword and shield like the ones at the entrance. A purple carpet runs down the middle of the room. On the right hand side of the room is a doorway with the sign "DIOs SHOW ROOM" leading to Dio's Museum.

The first time the player is here a number of gunned-down Shinra infantrymen will lie on the floor, and Dio and security apprehend the player party. The party will then run on into the arena.

Dio's Museum
Dio's Museum, also known as Dio's Show Room, can be entered from the arena lobby. The area is bordered with Dio's prized possessions. At the back of the room is a portrait of Dio, while the center-piece remains empty for a portion of the game, otherwise containing the Keystone.

The player must enter this area after obtaining the Tiny Bronco to take the Keystone. Dio asks the player to enter the arena, but the player earns the Keystone regardless if they escape, are defeated, or if they succeed in all eight battles. The player earns no BP from the battles, but if they win all eight, Dio awards the player with a Protect Vest and a Choco Feather.

Arena
The Arena is an area visited only briefly. In the center of the location is where the fights occur. The arena is down a flight of stairs, and has a walkway around it. The arena has a moat of purple water. In the center a phrase is written on the circle surrounding the arena: "The brave do not fear the grave". At the back of the arena is an entrance to the Gateway to Heaven room.

The arena is entered when the player chooses to fight a battle at the Battle Square, and starts with the player running into the arena and preparing for battle before the actual battle begins. The player is chased into the area during the storyline where they are surrounded by security robots that take the characters into the Gateway to Heaven.

Although the player can never control the character in this room, exits are still programmed. This is evidence that the Gateway to Heaven room is behind the arena, which is otherwise only transitioned do by fading to black from the arena.

Gateway to Heaven
The Gateway to Heaven is a goo-covered stone room behind the arena. In the center is a circular trapdoor with the text "GATEWAY TO HEAVEN" around it. The door is operated by a machine in the corner. This gate is use to bring monsters for battle. The chains on the wall are used to restrain the monster until the battle.

The area is only visited once when Cloud and his active party are arrested by Dio. The security robots grab prisoners and jump down the gate and into Corel Prison.

Rules


The player pays 10 GP to participate. The player must first select which party member to fight with, who is then sent into the arena. They fight a battle, after which they see how many Battle Points they have currently won, and are allowed to choose to continue or quit at this stage. If they continue on, a slot reel appears and spins, giving the player a certain handicap based on the result. The player continues fighting until they either quit, win all eight matches, or are defeated.

If the player loses, they receive a worthless consolation prize. If they quit or win, they receive Battle Points, or BP. BP can be exchanged for rare items (see below) at the Battle Square, including Cloud Strife's ultimate Limit Break manual, Omnislash. All BP is reset when the player leaves the Battle Square, so players should attempt to expend all points for prizes before exiting.

However the player enters the Battle Square, is how they leave the Battle Square. HP and MP would be returned to the same values as before entering the competition. If one were to go in with a full Limit Break bar, one would leave the Battle Square with a full Limit Break bar, regardless of whether they used a Limit in the battle. As well as all status effects that one went into the Battle Square with would still be intact, such as Fury or Sadness. Because no Battle Results are shown even after winning all battles the player will not earn Experience Points or Ability Points from the battles, and the enemies killed in Battle Square do not count toward learning new Limit Breaks.

Because the player's status returns to moment they were in before entering Battle Square battles, the player cannot learn Enemy Skills from the monsters there; even if it appears the skill was learned, it will be gone from the Materia when the player is transported back to the field. Any used items, however, will be lost from the player's inventory, and the player is still able to morph opponents into items and steal from them.

Enemies
The monsters in the Battle Square change depending on which point in the game the player is. There are two "pools" of enemies where the encounters are drawn at random, and the chances of ending with Group A or Group B are equal. The enemies in both pools include same enemies, and the enemies in the final rounds are always the same in both pools. Some of the enemies encountered in the Battle Square are highly rare and dangerous, including the Stilva, Malboro, Blue Dragon, Ghost Ship, and the Serpent.

All arena enemies have twice as many hit points as they normally do, and their Attack and Magic Attack receive a 25% boost, making them stronger than regular encounters.

Two enemies, the Ho-chu and Tonberry, are fought exclusively in the Battle Square. Both enemies were originally intended to be fought elsewhere, however, the formations cannot be fought by ordinary means in the final game. Ho-chu was planned to be an inescapable encounter in the Ancient Forest, and Tonberry an encounter in the Whirlwind Maze. Its counterpart, the Master Tonberry, can still be found within the final dungeon areas of the Northern Cave.

Battle Points and Prizes
The player always starts with 10 points and goes on to win more Battle Points for the second and successive matches, i.e. every time they take a handicap. The handicap decides the amount of points awarded and worse handicaps give better BP, but this is only noticeable for the final rounds. If the player wins all matches or if they choose to quit between battles they get to take away the BP they had accumulated during their battles; no points are awarded if the player is killed in battle. BP are awarded even if the player uses Escape magic or Smoke Bombs, but not if the player uses the Escape battle menu command. The maximum BP one can obtain in one run is 12,576.

The Battle Points can be redeemed for items at the terminals, but if at any time the player leaves the Battle Square, their Battle Points reset to zero. Multiples of other prizes may be purchased, but the player can never purchase more than one Omnislash manual and one W-Summon Materia.

Handicaps
After each battle, the player will be forced to spin a slot reel; depending on what they stop the reel on, they receive a certain handicap. Some handicaps can be avoided or their effects minimized with equipment. The player receives more BP the worse handicaps they have and the later the round they have fought to - if they receive the "All Materia is broken" handicap on the eighth fight they will surely win over 10,000 BP. So while taking larger handicaps on purpose is risky, it can be rewarding. The player can slow the reels slightly by tapping button. Another trick is to hold the button, which would stop spinning reel; however, it also hides the graphics of the spinning reel. To apply this trick, you want to stop the reel at the handicap before the one you want shows up. Once the reel is stopped, quickly let go of the button and tap  button. With some practice on the timing, the player should be able to stop the reel at the desired handicap.

The results on the first reel determine the results on all subsequent reels, as getting all the same handicaps on the first reel will cause all subsequent reels to roll the same handicap, with a different handicap each time up until around match 6. If the player gets this unfortunate pattern the reels will never spin a handicap the player would be immune to. The player may also get a pattern where they find a positive handicap in every reel. Another common pattern is for the reels to contain a specific handicap once on each reel, usually a status. This may still occur when a player has an immunity to that status so a player can potentially get the same result for every reel and have no effect, however the status handicaps do not offer significant BP.

The seventh and eighth matches earn much more BP than the earlier ones; the amount awarded for taking handicaps is multiplied by successively higher numbers as the matches progress, with the last two being markedly higher.

Strategy
It is recommended the player come equipped with their character's strongest weapon and a powerful armor, and a Ribbon. The Ribbon prevents status ailments, giving the player a handful of "safe" handicaps, as Mini, Frog, and Poison will not affect them if they come up on the reel. The player can also pair an Added Effect Materia with a Hades Materia to protect against many status effects. The status effect Resist doesn't protect against statuses gained from the handicap reels, which can lead to a serious handicap, as once applied, the Resist status will prevent the player from removing the status with normal Esuna spells and healing items.

The player can make use of a Enemy Skill Materia with Big Guard (for Haste, Barrier and MBarrier), Magic Hammer (for replenishing MP) and Dragon Force (for boosted defense) learned. HP Plus, MP Plus and Luck Plus (for higher critical hit chance) Materia are also useful, as is a high-leveled Restore Materia. If the player's Materia breaks, or they lose all their MP due to a handicap, they should have several useful items to compensate. In endgame Elixirs and X-Potions can be easily obtained through the W-Item duplication bug or stolen/dropped from enemies in the Northern Cave.

Should the player choose a more physical-aggressive strategy, the use of Materia, such as Double Cut or Slash-All is recommended. If Slash-All is upgraded to Flash, the player can instantly dispatch most enemies in a single turn.

In battle arena the battles won't reward the player with EXP, AP or item drops, so it is good to prioritize defense against the number of Materia slots when choosing armor. E.g. the Gigas Armlet (stolen from Gigas), Adaman Bangle (stolen from Adamantaimai), or even Ziedrich (stolen from Rude) are good for Battle Square because of high defense, despite having few Materia slots. One of the best possible armor to use is the Mystile (found in Midgar during the Part 2 visit and in the Northern Cave), as its defense and magic defense evade rates are high. It is also useful to place the fighter in the back row to take less damage and use the Long Range Materia (or a character with a long range weapon).

Most status effects, both positive and negative, carry on to consecutive battles, so if the player casts Haste or Big Guard in the first battle, Haste will carry through the entire match. Regen is a useful way to keep HP up without having to repeatedly heal. Death-sentence does not carry through to subsequent battles (even though fellow countdown status Slow-numb does).

If the player comes up against a Tonberry, one can easily become invulnerable by casting Death Force from the Enemy Skill Materia, which makes Tonberry's Instant Death move miss.

If the player ends up breaking their weapon, they can use Goblin Punch from the Enemy Skill Materia to bypass the effect, although it will do only 75% of the normal attack (however it can cause critical hits) and the player must be wary of not getting the All Break handicap, at least not in the early stages.

Since the handicap timing that earns the most BP is at the seventh and eighth matches, and the handicap types that earn the most BP are "Magic Materia Breaks" and "All Materia Breaks", the highest BP combination cannot be won with Escape magic, only Smoke Bomb items.

A sensible strategy to being successful in the Gold Saucer is to go in with a full LIMIT gauge and the Mime command. The player can mimic their Limit Break through every round so long as the Command Materia does not break and a counter is not set-up.

Another effective method of completing the Battle Square is to equip the following Materia and combinations: Magic Counter linked with Odin. Since enemies can attack first so often, the Magic Counter-Odin combination allows the player to eliminate entire rounds of enemies without ever taking an action. The regular Counter Attack Materia and the Command Counter Materia can also be used for great effect.

After obtaining the Highwind in Part 2, there is a quarter chance of facing the Ghost Ship enemy in the final round, who can use the Goannai ability. Should he use it before being dispatched, the player will be ejected from battle. Using L4 Suicide or throwing healing items at it can easily dispatch Ghost Ship.

Since the exhibition match for Dio's amusement gains no BP, there is no downside to using Escape magic for the entire eight matches, assuming the player can avoid hitting the handicaps that would disable it, or has Smoke Bomb backup. This gains not only the Keystone key item, but the Protect Vest and Choco Feather accessories.

Special Match
If the player has bought Omnislash and W-Summon, had Cloud learn Omnislash, and they have acquired Cloud's Ultima Weapon, they can enter a special match only Cloud can participate in. The special match is harder than the normal battles, and the prize is the Final Attack Materia. This can be won only once.

If the player participates and wins multiple special battles they will win worthless trophy items, such as books written by Dio, Dio's autograph and the Masamune Blade (not actually a weapon, just a trophy item). After winning the special battles for ten times the prize will be a Ribbon, but there are easier ways to obtain one at this point.

The enemy line-up is as follows:

Final Fantasy VII demo
The Battle Square has appeared in a demo version of the PC port of Final Fantasy VII. The player must battle monsters as Cloud to win the demo. The enemies fought on the rounds is an assortment of the same enemies that are fought in the full game after obtaining Highwind.

Musical themes
Like in the rest of the Gold Saucer, the eponymous theme "Gold Saucer" plays in the Battle Square. However, during the battles, "Hurry Up!" is played.

Trivia

 * A commonly referred to mistranslation is used in the Battle Square. When the player is prompted whether or not they want to continue, they are given the options "Off course!" and "No, way!". This was corrected for the PC version to "Of course!" and "No way!".
 * The consolation prize "Tissue" has no value in the game. The only conceivable purpose is to keep track of how many times one has participated in the battle arena. Tissues awarded as a 'prize' may be a reference to advertising strategies in Japan (as well as China and Taiwan), as locals consider it crass to hand out ads, so they advertise by handing out items of marginal value instead. The artwork for the Tissue in Final Fantasy VII has an advertisement of the Honey Bee Inn on it.
 * "D Type Equipment" is a reference to an episode of  where Asuka Langley fights an angel in magma and her armor is type D.