Cosmo Canyon

Cosmo Canyon is a location in Final Fantasy VII. It is also known as the "Valley of the Fallen Star". It is a pilgrimage site for those who wish to pursue the study of Planet life, and home to an observatory from which the Planet and its surroundings can be studied. The eco-terrorist group AVALANCHE was founded in Cosmo Canyon by an unspecified person at an unknown time. The members of Red XIII's tribe are the guardians of this land. Every fifty years a male and female of the species perform a rite to appease the Planet.

Cosmo Canyon has several notable features: there is an observatory created by Bugenhagen; the Cosmo Candle, the guardian fire which always burns; and the Shildra Inn, where they serve a popular drink named after the Cosmo Candle.

The Huge Materia are stored in the observatory. If the correct conditions are met, the player can obtain Master Materia, and if the player presents the Bahamut and Neo Bahamut Summon Materia to the blue Huge Materia, they will acquire a third Bahamut Materia, called Bahamut ZERO. There are two Turtle's Paradise flyers in the village: one at the inn and one at the weapon shop.

Gi Tribe
Cosmo Canyon is Red XIII's birthplace. For years, Cosmo Canyon was protected by a tribe of warriors of Red XIII's species. Nanaki (Red XIII) is the current guardian. Cosmo Canyon was once at war with the Gi Tribe, but they were defeated by Nanaki's father, Seto. Seto secretly sacrificed himself to save his home and family but continues to watch over Cosmo Canyon as a stone statue.

Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-
The organization of AVALANCHE is founded in Cosmo Canyon by a man who realizes the danger posed by the Mako Reactors after learning the Study of Planet Life. Despite this, Cosmo Canyon never turned into a main battlefield between AVALANCHE and the Shinra, as the movement placed their base of operations in Wutai.

The Turks are sent to Cosmo Canyon to find a specimen of Red XIII's species for Professor Hojo's research in Chapter 18. At the same time, Nanaki and the female Deneh are to perform the fifty-year ritual. Nanaki is frightened to take part in the ceremony, and tells this to his adoptive grandfather, Bugenhagen. Nanaki's fear makes Deneh consider him a coward. While Fuhito of AVALANCHE travels to confront his old master, Bugenhagen, the Turks fight through AVALANCHE forces to try to steal Deneh, but Nanaki jumps ahead to save her. Though Nanaki is taken into Shinra hands, Deneh escapes unharmed.

Final Fantasy VII
While traveling across the continent on a buggy, the vehicle breaks down and the party is forced to take refugee in Cosmo Canyon. Red XIII, who hails from Cosmo Canyon, goes with them. Bugenhagen tells Cloud and his companions about the Planet and the Lifestream. Aeris learns about Cetra and the Promised Land, and the townspeople will also tell Cloud about Professor Gast and how he visited the town thirty years prior talking of having made a grave mistake.

Bugenhagen senses Red XIII resents his father, thinking he ran off when fighting the Gi Tribe. In order to let Red XIII see the truth for himself, Bugenhagen opens the sealed door to the Cave of the Gi, filled with ghosts of the Gi Tribe. At the end of the cave they find a petrified Seto. Red XIII learns that his father defended the cave with his life and that his body turned to stone due to the Gi Tribe's poisonous arrows, but his petrified body still looks over the cave entrance. Red XIII forgives his father and howls at his memory, which sends tears falling from the stone Seto's eyes.

Later, Cloud and his allies bring the Huge Materia they've retrieved in Bugenhagen's planetarium. If the player has the Bahamut and Neo Bahamut Materia, they can receive the Bahamut ZERO Materia by examining the blue Huge Materia. The player can also receive Master Magic, Master Summon and Master Command Materia, but it requires the player to have mastered Materia for all the Materia of those three types (apart from Command Materia, which doesn't include the skills of all the Command Materia in the game). Examining one of the remaining three Huge Materia pieces will reward the player with the appropriate Master Materia once the requirements are met.

Nearing the end of the game, the greatest elder of Cosmo Canyon, Bugenhagen, dies at the age of 129. The two other elders are Elder Hargo and Elder Bughe. Both Elders continue to study the history of Planet life.

Locations
Cosmo Canyon is located to the South-West on Gaia's Western continent.

Town
Exterior of the town at the bottom of the canyon. Entrance. Cosmo Candle found here.

This location is split into three areas. There is the ground level area where most areas are accessible from. In the bottom left of the screen is the exit to the World Map. In the top left there is a staircase up into the Tiger Lily Arms Shop. The sign outside the entrance reads "Arms Shop", though interacting with it gives the player dialogue advertising Pub Starlet and Shildra Inn. Further to the right is a door next to a ladder. The ladder can be climbed although the hut it leads up to contains nothing. The door enters into Pub Starlet. In the top right is another ladder that leads up into the Item Store.

In the center of the area is the Cosmo Candle. At certain points of the game the cast will gather around the fire. This occurs when the player visits before heading through the Gate of Naught, after the player has visited before they leave Cosmo Canyon, and later in Part 3 during the scenes involved in obtaining Red XIII's Ultimate Weapon.

A higher level of the canyon exits from the Tiger Lily Arms Shop and leads up to a higher level into the Gate of Naught. A higher up area connects only to the Gate of Naught and allows the player to view the entire canyon.

Above the town is the clifftop. This is accessed through a ladder in Gate of Naught.

Unused dialogue for this area indicates that a save point may have existed in this area at one point, but one is not present.

Tiger Lily Arms Shop
The Tiger Lily Arms Shop is the first inside area that branches off into a number of other areas. The area has a Save Point on the lower level. On this same level is also the Weapon Shop that sells weapons an armor to the party. The letter to the player's left of the shop is the Turtle's Paradise Newsletter, Number 4.

The exit in the bottom left of the screen takes the player out onto the town onto the stairs leading down to the canyon floor. On the upper level, the exit on the left side is an exit into the ledge stairs of the canyon leading to higher up buildings. The exit at the top leads into Elder Hargo's Room.

This area is referred to as Cosmo Canyon in the menu, and as in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega. The shop name is never referred to in dialogue, though the shop's name is written in English on the sign. The Japanese name for the store does appear in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega.

Elder Hargo's Room
Referred to as Elder's Room in the menu, it is more fully titled as Elder Hargo's Room  in the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega.

Gate of Naught
Beyond the gate is the descent to the Cave of the Gi. The gate is only opened once in the plot and otherwise remains shut.

Starlet Pub
The counter for the Shildra Inn is on the upper level. If the player talks to the clerk when Tifa is the party leader, he will incorrect refer to the inn as the "Shindra Inn".

Cave
A small in-between Cave area linking the Starlet Pub to Nanaki's Room.

Dining Hall
An adult and child are found here.

Clifftop
The area outside the Observatory.

Seto's Wall
Beyond the exit of the Cave of the Gi.

Items Found

 * Elixir (in the couch in the inn)
 * Guard Source
 * Elixir (disc 2 in the Item Shop back room)
 * Magic Source (disc 2 in the Item Shop back room)
 * Full Cure Materia (disc 2 in the Item Shop back room)
 * Limited Moon (Given after bringing Red to Bugenhagen on disc 3)
 * Bahamut ZERO Materia (only if Huge Materia was saved from the rocket in Rocket Town and both Bahamut and Neo Bahamut Materia are held)

Shops
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Weapon Shop
Store that sells weapons in the Tiger Lily Arms Shop area. The character at the counter in the lower-right of the screen is the shop keeper.

Materia Shop

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Item Shop

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Turtle's Paradise
There are two Turtle's Paradise flyers in Cosmo Canyon; number 4 in Tiger Lily's Arms Shop on a post of the shop, and number 5 in Starlet Pub next to the counter for the inn. If the player finds all flyers scattered around the game they can win a prize in Turtle's Paradise bar in Wutai.

Hidden Elixir
If the player talks to a man near the bonfire, they will find out he is the one who will fix the player's broken buggy. If the player insists on paying him some gil, he will tell that there is a treasure in the couch in the inn, which turns out to be an Elixir. The player can get the Elixir without getting the hint, however.

Date Mechanics
Before the party's second storyline visit to Gold Saucer, various player choices in the game play toward choosing who will be Cloud's date that night.

Whenever the player enters for the first time, the party will split up. If the player had Barret in the party during this time, they can exchange dialogue about the formation of AVALANCHE in the room behind the weapon shop. Asking Barret to go on (+3 affection points) and tell more (+3 affection points) will give points toward getting Barret in Gold Saucer as a date.

The first question's affection points can be received an unlimited amount of times. After giving the first answer, respond with "Yeah, whatever..." and, due to a script error, the dialogue will reset when the player exits and reenters the room.

Hidden Items in Item Shop
If the player comes back in disc 2 after the Meteor has been summoned, they can get to the back room of the Item Shop to find a Full Cure, Elixir and a Magic Source.

Red XIII's Ultimate Weapon
If the player returns to Cosmo Canyon after the events in Midgar at the end of disc 2 Bugenhagen will give Red XIII his ultimate weapon, the Limited Moon.

Grassland

 * Grand Horn
 * Gagighandi x2
 * Grand Horn x2
 * Grand Horn (Back attack)
 * Gagighandi x3 (Ambush)

Canyon

 * Skeeskee x3
 * Griffin
 * Golem
 * Skeeskee x2, Griffin
 * Desert Sahagin x3
 * Desert Sahagin x2
 * Desert Sahagin x2 (Back attack)
 * Skeeskee x3 (Back attack)
 * Skeeskee x3 (Side attack)
 * Desert Sahagin x2 (Ambush)

Dirt

 * Bagrisk x3
 * Griffin
 * Desert Sahagin x2
 * Bagrisk x3 (Back attack)

Beach

 * Crown Lance x2
 * Crown Lance x3
 * Crown Lance
 * Crown Lance x2 (Ambush)

Musical Themes
The background music to Cosmo Canyon is the eponymous song "Cosmo Canyon", which is similar to "Red XIII's Theme".

Development
According to the Ultimania Omega guide, Jenova, or a form of her, rather, was originally supposed to be fought in Cosmo Canyon. Barret also mentions he had promised Jessie, Biggs and Wedge they would go to Cosmo Canyon to celebrate one day. The original script for Final Fantasy VII in fact did include a scene where Barret and the other members of AVALANCHE would talk about going to Cosmo Canyon. This scene, however, was cut from the game's final version.

In the original game manual for the first Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII, there is an "early" screenshot of Cosmo Canyon that differs from the finalized version seen in the retail game. Curiously, this early Cosmo Canyon scene exists as part of dummied content from the Honey Bee Inn, where TV screens would have displayed different locations from the game, the early Cosmo Canyon included. The differences between the two versions range from the presence of more rock formations in the foreground, to lamps, which were replaced with torches in the final game.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
Cosmo Canyon appears as the FMS for its eponymous theme.

Etymology
The word "Cosmo" likely derives from "cosmos".

The use of the term in Final Fantasy VII likely alludes to its "world" meaning, as Cosmo Canyon is the center of study on the Planet and its Lifestream.

Trivia

 * The screen on the Wonder Square in Gold Saucer entrance displays various scenes. One of the scenes is the early concept art for Cosmo Canyon (see Gallery).
 * During the party's first visit to Cosmo Canyon, Bugenhagen will show Cloud and two other party members (excluding Red XIII, who has already seen it) his Planetarium. During the Planetarium show, one of the non-Cloud members of the party will comment on it just before having a shooting star encircle him or her. This character depends on which members are in the party and who has priority over whom, and it can be Barret, Tifa, Aeris, or Yuffie, with only Cait Sith guaranteed not to be the one.
 * The shooting star will fly around Aeris regardless of who else is in the party with her.
 * The shooting star will fly around Tifa only if Aeris is not in the party with her.
 * The shooting star will fly around Yuffie only if neither Aeris nor Tifa is in the party with her.
 * The shooting star will fly around Barret only if none of the female characters are in the party with him, meaning only Cait Sith can be there with him.
 * When the party returns to Cosmo Canyon in Part 3 to get Limited Moon, all party members sit on the other side of the fire to Cloud, while Tifa sits directly next to Cloud.