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Cid Pollendina: Oh, shut up and help me remodel the Temple of the Ancients page!
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Template:Location The Temple of the Ancients is a location in Final Fantasy VII, built by the Cetra thousands of years ago to house the Black Materia. The outside of the temple is similar in architecture to the Mayan pyramid of Kukulkan. The interior is a large maze-like cavern of staircases, and includes a passage where the party must avoid falling boulders, and a large clock the party must operate, walking across its hands to access the rooms its hands can point to. The mural room where the source of the Black Materia is stored shows paintings similar to the ancient Egypt, depicting the summoning of Ultimate Magic, Meteor.

The Keystone is required to open the temple's door. The temple lies on an island, and can only be reached via the Tiny Bronco. It can only be visited once, and is replaced by a crater on the world map.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)
Temple of the ancients interior

Cid Highwind cursing the complex interior of the Temple of the Ancients. "Shit" is censored with "@#$%" for the PC version.

Cloud Strife and his party obtain the Keystone from Dio. Cait Sith turns out to be a double-agent for Shinra Electric Power Company and hands the Keystone to the Turks to grab the Black Materia before Sephiroth can.

Tseng, the leader of the Turks, enters the temple, but is attacked by Sephiroth who wounds Tseng and leaves him for dead. Cloud's party finds the temple surrounded by Sephiroth Clones and fights their way through until coming upon the room where the device to turn the temple into the Black Materia is kept.

Sephiroth appears in a ghostly form, telling the party about his plan to use the Black Materia to summon Meteor, and inflict an injury so deep to the Planet the Lifestream would concentrate its energy to heal it and he would merge with it to become a god. Sephiroth disappears, but the encounter triggers the Jenova cells inside Cloud to awaken him for the Reunion, and bring the Black Materia to Sephiroth.

FFVII Sephiroth Temple of Ancients

Sephiroth appears before the party.

The temple itself is the Black Materia, but the only way to shrink the temple is from the inside, so anybody shrinking is crushed. This was designed so nobody would get the Black Materia. Since Sephiroth is followed by fanatical clones, any of them could get the Black Materia for him. Cait Sith volunteers to do it, and as he goes to turn the temple to its Materia form, he bids farewell to the party.

Cloud's party escapes the temple as it turns into the Black Materia. Another Cait Sith, calling himself Cait Sith Number 2, comes up to rejoin the party. Cloud grabs the Black Materia, but Sephiroth returns and takes control of him, forcing Cloud to give up the Materia and attack Aeris, but he is knocked unconscious by the remaining party member. In a dream vision Aeris tells Cloud she is going to the Forgotten Capital to save the Planet from Sephiroth, and as Cloud comes to in Gongaga she has left.

Spoilers end here.

Locations

TempleoftheAncientsLoc

Location of the Temple of the Ancients, indicated by crosshair.

The Temple of the Ancients is located to the South on Gaia's Eastern continent.

The Temple on the World Map.


Outside

Altar

Labyrinth

Item Store

Well of Knowledge

Then name in the menu of the area is simply Temple of the Ancients. The debug room references the area as "The Rock" (岩転がり, Iwa Korogari?, lit. Rolling Rock). The Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega titles the room 廊下 (Rōka?, lit. Corridor), though it labels the well of water as 知識の井戸 (Chishiki no Ido?, lit. Well of Knowledge).[1]

Bottom of the Hole

Void of Time

  • I: Trap Room (Toxic Frog x2, Jemnezmy)
  • II: Blocked Passage
  • III: Trap Room (8 eye x2)
  • IIII: Treasure Room (Princess Guard)
  • V: Ribbon
  • VI: Gate Room
  • VII: Treasure Room (Trumpet Shell)
  • VIII: Treasure Room (Megalixir)
  • IX: Blocked Passage
  • X: Well of Knowledge
  • XI: Blocked Passage
  • XII: Exit
  • #Bottom of the Hole

Mural Room

Gate Room

Exit

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Items found

  • Keystone (from Tseng at the entrance of the Temple)
  • Trident
  • Turbo Ether
  • Mind Source
  • Silver Rifle
  • Rocket Punch
  • Luck Plus Materia (receipt message says "Lucky Plus" in PlayStation version)
  • Morph Materia
  • Princess Guard
  • Ribbon
  • Trumpet Shell
  • Megalixir
  • Nail Bat
  • Work Glove
  • Bahamut Materia

Quests

Navigating the maze

The maze is the start of the Temple, where the player must follow the "spirit bodies" of the Cetra, that were left in the temple aeons ago solely to protect it. All the Ancients found here can heal HP/MP completely and prompt save. The first Ancient found also sells basic items.

Rolling boulders

A long room where "U" shaped boulders roll towards Cloud. To proceed, Cloud must position himself to safety under the hollow part of the boulders. If he is crushed, the boulder will push him to the start of the room, where the player must start over; small HP damage will also be inflicted to all party members. Once the player reaches the end of the room, the boulders will stop. The Morph Materia can be collected here.

Clock puzzle

Once getting past the room with the Rolling Boulders, the player will enter a circular room shaped like a huge clock, and the end of each number leads to a room. It is possible to move the hands of the clock, but only one at time. The hand moved is respective to where the player starts; if Cloud came from a room connected through the minute hand, he'll be only able to move the second hand, and vice-versa. By completing a full cycle, either clockwise or counterclockwise, the player can move the other hand as well.

  • I = Enemy Encounter (Toxic Frog x2, Jemnezmy)
  • II = Dead End
  • III = Enemy Encounter (8 eye x2)
  • IIII = Princess Guard
  • V = Ribbon
  • VI = Puzzle with doorways
  • VII = Trumpet Shell
  • VIII = Megalixir
  • IX = Dead End
  • X = Rolling Boulder Room
  • XI = Dead End
  • XII = Demons Gate/Temple Exit

The riddle of the clock is harder in the original Japanese version, because the player can't initially wind the clock. After being knocked off the clock three times, a flag is turned on which changes it to the version of the puzzle the player can control. This flag is always on in other versions of the game, so if the flag was turned off via hacking, the original version of the puzzle can be played on other versions of the game.

Shops

About half-way through the temple, there is a room with a little man who can help the party out by restoring their health, and serving as a Save point. He also has a small item shop.

Item Shop

Name Cost
Potion 50 gil
Hi-Potion 300 gil
Phoenix Down 300 gil
Ether 1500 gil
Hyper 100 gil
Tranquilizer 100 gil
Maiden's Kiss 150 gil
Tent 500 gil

Enemies

Battlebg-ffvii-temple-maze

Battle background.

Labyrinth

Battlebg-ffvii-temple-muralroom

Battle background.

Mural Room

It is just available after examine the device that turn the temple into the Black Materia.

Under the Clock

  • Ancient Dragon x2 (Ambush) (appears each time player is pushed off the clock)
Battlebg-ffvii-temple-clockpassage

Battle background.

Room I

Room III

Room VI

Room XII

Woodlands Area

Grassland

Dirt

Jungle

Beach

Creation and development

How summons came to be is never explained within the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII releases or media, except for some dummied lines from the original Final Fantasy VII explained by Sephiroth after obtaining the Bahamut Materia in the Temple of the Ancients. The majority of the lines of explanation were not translated for the English version of Final Fantasy VII and can only be found in the original Japanese version.

Sephiroth explains that during the times of the Ancients there were beings created by the Planet that sealed their life energy in Materia. It is suggested the creatures that protect the Temple were created by the Planet, and it could be assumed the Red Dragon turns itself into the Bahamut Materia upon defeat.[2]

The spirits protecting the temple have forgotten how to speak, but in an earlier version, the spirit in the room where the player can first buy items from it spoke with an accent that sounded like it was from a rural Japanese area, saying "welcome" and "come again".[2] It is also suggested Cid's Mop would have been obtainable from here, but in the final game it is dug up from Bone Village instead.[2]

The clock puzzle was harder in the original Japanese version, as instead of moving the minute hand the player had to "leave it up to the guard" and choose whether to move time backwards or forwards, then choose how much time should pass/revert. The challenge lied in memorizing the time interval each option corresponded to, as they did not point out the exact amount of time that would move. If the player stands on the hour or minute hand when the second hand moves across the one Cloud is standing on, the player will fall down the hole. In the original Japanese version falling three times would give the ability to move time precisely. In all later released, including Final Fantasy VII International, this second method is activated by default rendering the more difficult puzzle unused in these versions.

Musical themes

Template:Listen The theme of the Temple of the Ancients is the "Forested Temple".

A remixed version of the theme is also heard as Cloud and Tifa's dungeon theme in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

"Forested Temple" is included on the third disc of Final Fantasy VII Vinyl Limited Edition compilation album.

Other appearances

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade

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FFAB Temple of the Ancients FFVII
Castle Cornelia PSThis section about a location in Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Final Fantasy Record Keeper

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FFRK Temple of the Ancients FFVII
Castle Cornelia PSThis section about a location in Final Fantasy Record Keeper is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Gallery

Trivia

References

  1. Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega, p.288
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://thelifestream.net/ffvii-the-unused-text-part-8/

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