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The Great Glacier is a location in Final Fantasy VII. It is a large frozen waste north of Icicle Inn in the northern continent. The glacier is a maze of wilderness trails around several landmarks, such as trees, icy water, and caves. Cloud Strife and their party crossed the glacier to reach Gaea's Cliff and later the Whirlwind Maze of the North Crater, in the last leg of their world-wide pursuit of Sephiroth.
History[]
Outside Holzoff's cabin.
Mr. Holzoff, a mountain climber from Icicle Inn known by its villagers, wished to climb climbing Gaea's Cliff chasing a legend of something that had fallen from the sky "a long time ago".[1][note 1] He and a friend named Yamski first tried to climb the mountain 30 years before Final Fantasy VII, but were unprepared. 20 years before Final Fantasy VII,[note 2] the two attempted to climb again, but underestimated the biting cold wind. Yamski cut his own rope without Holzoff noticing, and as such, Holzoff settled in a hut in the glacier, providing warning and shelter to my fellow climbers while continuing to challenge the cliff.[1] His wife remained in his house in the inn, waiting for him to return.[2]
A legend went around about a snow woman who disliked hot springs. Though the snow woman was real, villagers of Icicle Inn believed this to be a myth to scare off visitors.[2]
During "Beyond the Snow Fields" in Final Fantasy VII, Cloud Strife and the party arrived in the Great Glacier, after snowboarding from Icicle Inn, on their way to pursue Sephiroth. At the end of their journey, they ended up in the hut of Mr. Holzoff, who had been living out there since his travels, and gave them a place to stay.
Geography[]
Glacier map.
The Great Glacier is a frozen waste comprising a maze of trails. The glacier covers a wide area with a lake running through to the middle and then continuing up north. Around the lake are forests scattered forests with trails running through them, and to the east are caves inside mountains. A few hot springs are also found around the glacier, and icebergs can be seen in one of the lakes that form a path across.
The year-round cold temperatures of the glacier are not due to the polar location of the glacier, but due to its proximity to the North Crater, where the planet uses a large amount of spirit energy to try to heal itself.[2]
Gameplay[]
Party arrives at Great Glacier.
The party will land in different areas in the glacier depending on which route was taken on in the snowboarding minigame. Due to the cold, Cloud passes out after every 544 steps, and will wake up in Mr. Holzoff's hut.
The Great Glacier is made significantly easier to navigate by using the Glacier Map key item found in Holzoff's house in Icicle Inn, but is still very challenging. The maze-like area has a number of rare items, including the Alexander Summon Materia and the Added Cut Materia. If a player intends to collect all items, it's common, if not almost certain, for Cloud to pass out two or three times before everything has been collected.
Though the Great Glacier can be returned to, it is unavailable during the times where Tifa and Cid are party leaders, as the player cannot snowboard or enter the glacier from the world map.
Musical themes[]
"Buried in the Snow" plays in the Great Glacier.
Behind the scenes[]
The recurring stone face Easter egg is used in the Great Glacier in the snow area.
Aeris has lines pf dialogue in the scene where the party arrives at the Great Glacier for the first time, which cannot be viewed in a normal playthrough (she needs to be hacked in or in the party through a glitch such as the "Yuffie warping glitch"). Her field model exists in all Great Glacier fields, but disappears in Holzoff's cabin and in Gaea's Cliff onward
In Holzoff's cabin the game forces the party to sleep, which will restore everyone's HP and MP. An unused option for this event is found in the game data, giving the player the option to choose whether to rest or not. If this event is activated the option outcomes are reversed: choosing "Rest" will lead the party not resting and vice versa.
The Great Glacier Cola freezer.
Final Fantasy XV has old freezers at shops that store "Great Glacier Cola".
Gallery[]
Etymology[]
A glacier is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries.
Notes[]
Annotations[]
- ↑ It is likely that Mr. Holzoff is referring to Jenova, the Calamity from the Skies, that hit the planet and wiped out the Cetra population. It is possible that he learned this from Ifalna's stories, as she was based in Icicle Inn.[2]
- ↑ Final Fantasy VII begins 0007, and the events of "Beyond the Snow Fields" took place in December. As such, Mr. Holzoff's date of leaving according to him[1] and his husband[2] would be 1987, while his first attempt at climbing would be in 1977.