Fort Condor is a field map in Final Fantasy VII that contains a minigame that allows the player to participate in real-time strategy battles to defend the fort from invaders. Doing so is an investment in gil, but can reward the player with useful items, including acquiring weapons early for free.
Layout[]
Overview[]
Fort Condor is located to the south on the eastern continent, in the middle of a patch of badlands. It is just southwest of the Mythril Mine, on the eastern side of the continent. It is accessed after the player has ventured through the mines.
Base[]
Upon first visiting, the party will be greeted by a man at the entrance. The area is rocky with a single path leading into the mountainside and the exit to the world map at the opposite end.
Entrance[]
This room has exits back outside and up a rope into the Village, with no other notable features. Depending on game events, the rope may be removed, rendering the rest of the area inaccessible.
Village[]
Ascending the rope from the Entrance leads to five rooms. The room connecting to the entrance is empty other than some pipes and a rope ladder leading up. The large central room has an old man sitting at a table who tells of the town's situation. The room has more pipes, a well, an exit labeled with an up arrow leading up to another chamber with stairs, and stairs up to a raised platform. The upper room with the stairs exits to the Watch Room. The platform has rope ladders, one leading up between neon signs indicating the shops are above with an inactive machine nearby, the other down to a rest area. The rest area has multiple beds and can be used for free and a save point. The player can decline to sleep to move further into the room, but will also activate returning from that side and the sleep must be declined again to leave or use the save point.
The shops above include an item shop placed above the "ITEM" sign, while the Materia shop is above the yellow sign on the opposite side. Other than the central room, the rooms do not connect and the area has several windows showing the rope ladders. The overall impression is similar to an ant farm.
Watch Room[]
This room contains a man and a door leading to the Mountaintop, which is not always enabled as a valid exit, and is used when the player has failed the minigame and must fight a boss. The man stands in front of a window atop a box and can be interacted with to donate or initiate the minigame.
Mountaintop[]
The condor incubates its egg here. The Phoenix Materia is found here when the egg hatches and the condor leaves. The only exit is back to the Watch Room.
Quests[]
Strategy minigame[]
Fort Condor's battlefield.
Fort Condor's minigame is a basic real-time strategy game similar to Crystal Defenders, as the battlefield, combat, and other features are alike. After giving the lookout at the top of the fort some gil to pay the fighting mercenaries, he will allow the player to engage in a battle against a wave of attacking Shinra Electric Power Company forces.
The prize the player gets for successfully defending the mako reactor depends on how many times they have won. The four main prizes are Magic Comb (weapon for Red XIII), Peace Ring (accessory that prevents Berserk, Fury, Sadness, and Confuse), Megalixir (full heal item) and Superball (weapon for Yuffie).
The minigame can be played optionally fourteen times, with a mandatory minigame played as part of the Huge Materia quest. To be able to do all battles the player needs to return to the fort numerous times, often from a long way away and at inconvenient times, such as when Cloud is the lone party member during the Junon events, and avoid driving the buggy near Cosmo Canyon or it will break down, preventing the player's return to the eastern continent.
Main scenario[]
After Cid becomes the party leader during "Struggle for the Huge Materia", the player can choose to do the North Corel mission or the Fort Condor mission in either order. The quest has the player do the strategy minigame. If the minigame is failed, the player will face CMD.Grand Horn as a boss. If the player wins the minigame or defeats the boss, they are victorious. If the player loses to the boss, it counts as a loss.
Being victorious means being able to obtain the Phoenix Materia and the yellow Huge Materia. Defeat means being ejected from Fort Condor and never being able to return. However, losing the Huge Materia is likely one of the scenes most players never witness, as it is trivially easy to beat the boss. It may be worthwhile to intentionally lose the minigame to fight the boss, as it drops a unique item, the Imperial Guard armor.
Date mechanics[]
The game has a hidden affection value that determines whom Cloud will go on a date with in Gold Saucer later. The value is determined by the dialogue and party member choices made prior to the date.
The blanket choices affect everyone, even if the party have not recruited Yuffie yet.
When Cloud first talks to the old guy:
- "I guess so" (+5 Barret, +3 Aeris, +3 Tifa, +2 Yuffie)
- "Not interested" (-5 Barret, -3 Aeris, -3 Tifa, -1 Yuffie)
When the old guy tells Cloud about his problem:
- "All right" (+5 Barret, +3 Aeris, +3 Tifa, +2 Yuffie)
- "Not interested" (-5 Barret, -3 Aeris, -3 Tifa, -1 Yuffie)
Shops[]
Shops available after agree to help the old man at the table. If the party fails the Huge Materia quest and the fort falls it becomes inaccessible.
Before acquiring Highwind[]
Item Shop[]
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Materia Shop[]
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After acquiring Highwind[]
Item Shop[]
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Materia Shop[]
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Enemies[]
Battle background.
- Watch Room
- CMD.Grand Horn (boss)
- Skies above Fort Condor
- Ultimate Weapon (boss)
Behind the scenes[]
If the player hacks the game to include Cloud, Tifa, or Aeris in the Huge Materia quest battles, they will have unused spoken lines, but in the game these three can never be in the party for the Huge Materia scenario. These unused lines may exist because the original planned mechanic for the Fort Condor battles was for the player to be allowed a limited number of losses before the fort would fall, also suggesting the player would have been able to trigger the Huge Materia event in a different time than it does in the final game.[1] In the final game, it does not matter how many of the optional battles are lost; the fort will not be defeated, and the Huge Materia quest is triggered by the storyline.
Remnants of the abandoned mechanic are be present in the script for the final game, where the man says: "Let's get back to basics. If the enemy reaches this shed, you'll have to fight them off immediately. It's not the end of the world, but if you lose repeatedly, it could be dangerous." Furthermore, the man keeps count on the player's losses after losing, saying: "Up to now, you've lost {!}{Var:1} times. If you lose too many times, you won't be able to come back." Most players never see this message as losing the game completely requires for the player to lose both the minigame, and the boss battle, and if that were to happen the player would be more likely to reset and try again than keep playing.
Musical themes[]
The background music of Fort Condor is "Open Your Heart" (心開けば, Kokoro Akeba?). During the minigame battles the music is the eponymous track "Fort Condor" (鷺の砦, Sagi no Toride?).
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ (n.d.) . "Final Fantasy VII: The Unused Text - Part 6". From The Lifestream. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019.