Battle Square



The Battle Square is a location in the Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy VII. In the Battle Square, 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. The player earns no BP from the battles, but if they win all eight battles, Dio awards the player with Protect Vest and a Choco Feather.

If the player wins all eight battles at least once, a woman outside the Battle Square gives the player Sprint Shoes.

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: either "Off course!!" [sic] or "No, way!" 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, Omnislash.

Enemy Formations
The monsters in the Battle Square are largely random and change depending on which point in the game the player is. Some of the enemies that appear 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.

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.

Prizes
The player wins Battle Points for the second and successive matches, i.e. every time they take a handicap and win a match; 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 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 and one W-Summon materia.

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Disc 1 Before Acquiring Tiny Bronco

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Disc 1 After Acquiring Tiny Bronco

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Disc 2/3 After Acquiring Highwind

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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 - if they receive the "All Broken" handicap 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.

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 highly recommended the player come equipped with their character's strongest weapon and a powerful armor, and a Ribbon. The Ribbon prevents negative Status Effects, 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 status effect Resist doesn't protect against statuses gained from the handicap reels, which can lead to a rather 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 should have an Enemy Skill Materia, as Big Guard and Magic Hammer help greatly. HP and MP Plus Materia are also useful, as is a mastered Restore Materia. If the player's Materia breaks, they should have several useful items to compensate.

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) and Adaman Bangle (stolen from Adamantaimai) are good armors for Battle Square because of high defense, despite having few Materia slots. It might also be useful to place the fighter in second row to take less damage and use the Long Reach Materia (or a character with a long range weapon). The player can easily replenish MP with the Magic Hammer enemy skill.

Buffs carry on to consecutive battles, so if the player casts Haste (or Big Guard) in the first battle, it'll carry through the entire match. Regen is a useful way to keep HP up without having to repeatedly heal.

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 and the player must be wary of not getting the All Break handicap.

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 Bombs.

It should be noted that however the player enters the Battle Square, is how they leave the Battle Square. An example would be 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.

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 a Protect Vest and a Chocobo Feather.

Special Match
Once the player has bought Omnislash and W-Summon, 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. The enemy line-up is as follows (the HP for all of these enemies is double what it is elsewhere in the game).

Musical Themes
Like in the rest of the Gold Saucer, the eponymous theme "Gold Saucer" (ゴールドソーサー Gōrudo Sōsā) plays in the Battle Square.

Trivia

 * In the arena of the Battle Square, a phrase is written on the circle surrounding the arena: "The brave do not fear the grave".
 * A commonly referenced typo 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."
 * The consolation prize "Tissue" has no value in the game. The only conceivable reason the Tissue exists is to keep track of how many times one has participated in the Battle Arena.