Gold Saucer (Final Fantasy VII)

The Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy VII is a towering amusement park, built on Corel's ruins and operated by Dio. Cait Sith joins the player party during the first visit.

The games in the Gold Saucer do not use gil, but GP (Gold Point) as a currency. Gold Saucer is divided up into seven attractions, most of which consist of minigames.

During the second visit, one of four characters can become the date of Cloud Strife based upon a hidden "Affection Value" of Date Mechanics.

Entrance
Gold Saucer can only be reached via a free cable car from North Corel. There is a Save Point here, but it requires 5 GP to use (the player can avoid paying the fee with the Save Point Glitch). The entrance fee is 3,000 gil, but a lifetime pass can be bought for 30,000 gil. A man outside the park will exchange 1 GP for 100 Gil, to a maximum of 100 GP for 10,000 gil, but he appears rarely, however this is after you get the Highwind.

Station
The station is the main hub of locations in the center of Gold Saucer. From here, a map can be viewed that shows the location of each square in relation to the shape of Gold Saucer.

Speed Square
A minigame in the Gold Saucer. It costs 10 GP to play, and has the player controlling a moving turret which fires at a variety of objects to earn points. Prizes are awarded depending on how many points the player accumulates throughout the Speed Run. The prizes differ depending on which disc the player is currently on. Notably, none of the below 5,000 point prizes actually do anything in the game. The prizes go as follow, (note that weapons can only be won once):

* targets at the very end yield more points ** in the desert area, it is possible to hit the yellow boulder on the canyon wall *** shortly before the falling stars, there is a red water wheel on the boat, holding fire while moving away from it can sometimes cause a few hundred points to accumulate **** before the very last turn at the end, it is possible to shoot the lights at the bottom left, just under the railway itself

Battle Square
During the game's storyline Dyne goes on a rampage at the Battle Square and murders several Gold Saucer employees. Cloud and his party are captured and dropped into Corel Prison shortly afterward.

The Battle Square has one of the more useful minigames in the entirety of the theme park. In exchange for 10 GP the receptionist will allow one of the three characters to fight in the Battle Arena. The character has to fight through eight consecutive battles with steadily harder groups of monsters. After each turn the player turns a slot and receives one of the handicaps that are on the reels (though items such as Ribbons can prevent these effects). For each fight won, the player receives BP (Battle Points). These can be exchanged for prizes at the counter.

Chocobo Square


When leaving Corel Prison, Cloud must win a Chocobo Race. The player can then bet on chocobos.

Later in the game, the player can bring their own chocobos to race. There are four ranks: C, B, A, and S, and each rank has stronger opponents. The player will go up a rank each time they win three races in their current rank until reaching S rank. Racing is a vital part of Chocobo Breeding. Upon winning the race the player wins an item, which they can take or exchange for GP. The items available in higher ranks include Megalixirs, rare Materia, Hero Drinks, and some equipment which can only be acquired via racing like the Cat's Bell accessory. This is the best place to quickly earn GP, provided the player's chocobo is fast enough.

The player might encounter the famous chocobo jockey Joe and his black chocobo Teioh and race against them on the track. If you beat him multiple times in a row you will receive all of the special items (the items symbolized by the circles on the prize menu) from the S class races.

Ghost Square
Ghost Square serves as an Inn that costs 5 GP a night, and it has an item shop that uses Gil. It is here that Cloud's date (either Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie, or Barret) picks him up on date night. Turtle's Paradise flyer #3 is also found in the hotel. {|cellspacing="10" cellpadding="0" width="50%" align="left" border="0"
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Item Shop

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Event Square
There is nothing to do here during regular visits to Gold Saucer. However, during the storyline Cloud will take his chosen date to watch a play. Since they are the 100th couple that night they are chosen to take part on the stage (unless it's with Barret, in which case the play is skipped entirely). Depending upon the player's choices for Cloud's lines the play can either go well or be ruined.

In the play, Princess Rosa (the date) is kidnapped by the Evil Dragon King Valvados. The hero Alfred (Cloud) is found by a Knight, who has him speak to the King. The King in turn tells Alfred to speak to someone who can help him, and a Wizard appears. The player can speak to either the Wizard or the Knight. If they speak to the Wizard, they can ask for Valvados's weakness, or "the Princess' measurements". If the player speaks to the Knight, they can ask for help defeating Valvados, or help defeating the King. Then, Valvados carries the date onto the stage, and demands Cloud name his enemy - the player can either name the Knight, the King, or Valvados.

If the player goes along with the play, Cloud kisses his date's hand and the power of their love defeats Valvados. If the player messes up, the date becomes outraged and attacks Cloud and then the dragon. Depending on their actions, and their choice of date, the player can also get a variety of other outcomes, including one in which Valvados is revealed to be a princess afflicted by a curse.

Round Square
During date night Cloud and his date share a tender moment on the gondola ride. Cloud can also ride the gondola at any other time with any other party member.

Wonder Square


This is the place where the party originally meets Cait Sith. He is posing as a fortune teller and gives Cloud a fortune foretelling doom to something he cherishes. Later the party can play various minigames at Wonder Square to win GP.

Music
The music that plays here is simply called "Gold Saucer" (ゴールドソーサー). A piano arrangement of the theme is included on the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VII album.

Trivia

 * The ghosts playing chess in the Ghost Square appear to be playing a game of chess where the pieces are the summons from the game.

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