Final Fantasy VII/Walkthrough/Gold Saucer Dream Date

The sky's the limit, but the airplane is busted
Did you notice something? The game didn't throw you a Really Big Clue on how to proceed. Your next goal is to find your way to the Temple of the Ancients. Of course, you don't know where it is, or if you happen to find your way there, you'll eventually notice that you can't get in!

But the Tiny Bronco will be your first really big thing that makes the game a bit less linear. Now you can, and should, explore stuff! Time to head to the firm land again. Just about every random NPC you find will babble something about Sephiroth's whereabouts anyway.

So, here's some things that you might want to do:


 * You can do Wutai sidequests. I recommend to have at least average party level 32 to do the first quest - and have Yuffie at that same level if you also intend to do the second Wutai quest. Personally, my characters are usually barely tough enough to do the first Wutai quest, and I normally don't keep Yuffie in party so she's behind the rest, so I usually do the first Wutai quest.
 * You can try your luck at Fort Condor. This is not necessary though, and you gain no real benefits from this.
 * If you didn't do this earlier, grab two fairly essential enemy skills: Go to Junon and find a Zemzelett, manipulate it to get the White Wind. Remember that scary snake guarding the swamps near the chocobo farm? It's a level 23 creature, so it should be pretty simple to bash by now, and if you don't just insta-kill it or something, it may teach you Beta enemy skill.
 * If you want to learn or see Aerith's Level 4 limit break, this is about your only chance. See Aerith's limit breaks for more details.


 * Todo: What else to do?

Hints, hints, hints...
You may, for example, end up in Bone Village (a village on the northern continent, a big dinosaur skeleton sticking out of the woods). The guys working there have seen Sephiroth looking for the "Keystone", except that apparently some rich guy has it.

The guy at the weapon shop on the peninsula south of Golden Saucer and east of Gongaga was the previous owner - and he tells that the stone was sold to Dio, owner of the Gold Saucer.

Oh yes, that guy.

Annoying Carnival Music, take 2
Onward to Gold Saucer! Dio was the Manly Man and logically keeps all of this stuff in the only location you didn't scour throughoutly on your first visit to Gold Saucer - the Battle Square.

You'll find out, of course, that Dio has a showroom - wow, free entry, too - full of really weird things. Really big alarm clocks, genuine klein bottles presumably for sale (inquire within!), and this Keystone thing.

Dio shows up, and won't let Cloud to borrow it unless he fights on the arena. Basically, this is one-on-one fighting against all sorts of weird critters, with random handicap between the fights. (See also the Battle Square guide, though you won't need the guide much in this fight - after all, there's only one possible prize this time.) The goal here is to survive at least one fight. Just keep thwacking monsters as long as you can stand up. If you get wiped out in the first fight, Dio will let you try again.

After a successful fight, Dio gives you the stone. Hooray! Time to start looking for the temple! ... except it turns out the cable car is busted.

Luckily, Cait Sith knows the hotel owner. There's a brief cutscene where Cloud and the rest try to recap exactly what you're trying to accomplish next and what strange mystical things we've learned of the Cetra.

Dream date!
Prepare for the moment most people had been waiting for. ("Ooh, you can date party members! This is so much cooler than Ocarina of Time!" Meh...)

In the middle of the night, one of your party members shows up.

Which party member, well, that depends a lot on who you've been treating best over the game. If you've constantly worried about Aerith, she shows up, if Tifa, she shows up. With a little bit of trickery, it's possible Yuffie or Barret will show up - both reportedly have amusing dialogue in the following scenes. I always seem to get Tifa. (...yeah, I dump the flower girl and go for the old friend...)

Now, it's time for a little bit of romantic and silly fun. The first stop is the Event Square - here, you'll end up acting in a play. It really doesn't matter what dialogue choices you make - just pick the ones that seem like good ideas at the time.

Next up is Round Square. If you didn't try this before, here's the big point: you can make Cloud look in different directions with the keypad. That's all. Your companion will tell a lot of interesting things here.

...and then, the... Cait Sith station? What's Cait Sith doing with the Keystone?! After him!

After a little bit of chasing him around the place, a few things become apparent: He just handed the Keystone to the Turks and he has Marlene as a hostage. Not good at all!

After a bit of dialogue, you end up back in your hotel room. Be sure to check the wardrobe for an elixir.