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 Shinra. Cait Sith joins the player party during the first visit here.

The games in the Gold Saucer does not use Gil, instead it uses GP as a currency to pay. It is divided up into seven Squares, most of which consist of minigames. GP must be gained by playing the mini-games inside.

During the second visit, one of four characters can become the date of Cloud Strife, this is 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 entrance fee of the park is 3,000 gil, but a Lifetime pass can be bought for 30,000 gil. A man outside of the park will exchange 1 GP for 100 Gil, to a maximum of 100 GP for 10,000 gil, but he appears very rarely.

Station
This 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 consists the player controlling a moving turret which fires at a variety of objects to earn points with a strong UFO at the end. Different prizes are awarded depending on how many points you accumulate throughout the Speed Run. The prizes also differ, depending on which disc you are currently playing. The prizes go as follow, but note that each weapon can only be won once:

Battle Square
During the game's storyline, this location was where Dyne went on a rampage and murdered 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 your three characters to fight in the Battle Arena. This game 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. It doesn't matter if the player loses, for the game will just let you try over and over again until you finally win. The player can then bet on Chocobos, but it is very unlikely they'll win.

Later in the game, the player can bring their own Chocobos to the races and race. There are 4 ranks: C, B, A, and S Rank, and each rank has stronger Chocobos. Racing is a vital part of Chocobo Breeding, however. If they win, the player may win an item, which they can take or exchange for GP. The items they can win at S rank include Megalixirs, rare Materia, Hero Drinks, and some items that can only be acquired at the Gold Saucer like the Cat's Bell. This is the best place to quickly and easily earn GP, provided the player's Chocobo is fast enough.

Ghost Square
There is very little here except for a Hotel that serves as an Inn that costs 5 GP a night, and 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, on date night, Cloud and his chosen date go first. Since they are the 100th couple that night they are chosen to take part in the play on 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 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 Cloud 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 Valvado'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. 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 here.

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 fortelling doom to something he cherishes. Later in the game the party can play various minigames here to win GP.

Music
The music that plays here is simply called "Gold Saucer"