No Doors Challenge — Part 27: Ultimate Weapon (mandatory) — Final Fantasy VII

I fought 20 Sea Worms on the beach outside Mideel for a quick 100k gil, then I sold a Wizard Bracelet, a Poison Ring, an Ether and all my materia. This allowed me to buy 99 S-Mines and fully stock up on Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs from the shop in Fort Condor.

I have to lose the minigame at Fort Condor as this sends me directly down to the bottom room without having to stop by the middle room on the way down, in other words it saves one screen transition.

In North Corel, I can't catch up to the enemy train as that involves optional screen transitions.

In the mandatory fight against Ultimate Weapon in Mideel you just have to survive three rounds. I decided to simply heal up Cid after the first attack and let the other two die.

Playlist:    • No Doors Challenge — Final Fantasy VII  

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No Doors Challenge explanation:

The main idea behind this challenge is to not go inside any optional buildings, which means you don't have access to most shops and inns. Hence the name of the challenge. However, that rule alone would have been too easy, so I expanded the challenge a bit. Here are the actual rules:

1. No optional screen transitions
2. Level 1 limit breaks only

The second rule is self-explanatory, and I just had to tack that on or the challenge would be way too easy.

The first rule is the main one and needs some explaining:

Q: What counts as a screen transition?
A: Any time the character you're controlling (i.e. Cloud most of the time) moves from one screen (any field map or the world map) to another in the present.

Q: What screen transitions do not count?
A: Any screen transitions that are just part of a cutscene where the character you're controlling doesn't actually move. For example, during the date sequence in Gold Saucer, you lose control of Cloud in the cable car area, then a bunch of cutscenes happen before you regain control of Cloud in the hub area (when chasing Cait Sith). I count all this as one screen transition (since the character you're controlling really just moved from the cable car area to the hub area). The screen transitions in the flashback in Kalm don't count, since all that is in the past and Cloud is actually staying inside the inn in Kalm the whole time.

Q: Why does the Kalm flashback matter, wouldn't you just skip Kalm anyway?
A: When there are two different paths to choose from, you always have to choose the shorter path (the path with the fewest screen transitions). Early on, you have to choose a path: Either you do the guard skip early (before going to Tifa's bar) or you do the Kalm skip. If the screen transitions in the flashback don't count, doing the guard skip early is the shorter path. This is also more in line with the original idea for this challenge as you'll only enter one optional building (the inn in Kalm) versus two (Tifa's bar and the chocobo stables) the other way.

Q: What's the guard skip?
A: See part 3 of this series.

Q: What's the Kalm skip?
A: A skip that lets you skip Kalm and the Mythril Mines with the help of a chocobo.

Q: Why can't you do both skips?
A: If you do the the guard skip before going to Tifa's bar you won't get the Materia system, which means you can't equip the Chocobo Lure Materia, which means you can't do the Kalm skip.

The fact that you'll never get the Materia system, combined with the fact that you can't access most shops, is what makes this challenge a challenge. If I could get the Materia system, this challenge would be absolutely trivial as you can pick up a lot of very useful Materia on the screens you have to go through to get to the end of the game. There can also be no backtracking and I have to do all the skips (other than Kalm skip).