Final Fantasy VII/Temple of the Ancients

Sound of jungle drums and fly-swatting
So it's time to head out of the park and to the Temple of the Ancients. Your team consists now of Cloud, Aerith, and one more lucky winner.

It's seriously recommended to be around levels 35 to 40 at this point. I also recommend finding Big Guard enemy skill if you don't know it yet.

A good spot to train at this moment would be the island with the Temple of the Ancients itself. You can't miss it, once you get going with Tiny Bronco - go southeast of Gold Saucer and follow the island chains. The only annoying thing is that the island is inhabited by Slaps, who are... mosquitos. They cause the party to get poisoned, saddened, and berserkified, and cause just about as much damage as normal mosquitos in general. If you see them, drop the controller and come back in two hours. Once you've done that a few times, equip Tifa with Peace Ring and Odin materia. Or maybe Ifrit if you want to save your anger for the upcoming bosses.

Also stock up on Tents, Elixirs, and stuff like that. (There's no need for Tents inside the temple, but they're very useful if you're training up.)

The Temple
Aerith will have a fit once you reach the temple, which is quite understandable because her ancestors are around. A black-caped guy comes out and collapses. Eep...

Sephiroth is somewhere in the temple and at the entrance, you find out he has tickled Tseng with his sword. Tseng gives the Keystone to his (as we learn) old friend Aerith. With the help of the Keystone, you get in the temple.

The courtyard will look complicated, but it's really not - there's one correct path to go, and the temple guardian - an old man in a blue robe - will show you the way. Basically, use stairs and the vines and doorways and such. You can pick up Trident, Rocket Punch (Barret's dull weapon), Luck Plus materia, and Silver Rifle. There's one chest you can't get to right now, and one doorway you can't access.

At the end, you reach a door that leads to a single corridor with big stone wheels rolling through it. The wheels have a gap in them; the idea is obviously to run to the center of the corridor right where the gap happens to be, then run to the next wheel's gap, and so on. You'll get flattened if you fail, but don't sweat it.

In the end of the corridor, the stones somehow disappear, and Aerith and the Ancients will lead you to the pool and show you a vision about what happened a bit earlier. Grab the Morph materia from the ground - it's highly useful. Continue along the corridor, and the guardian waits there, giving you the option to restore HP and MP for free, or save the game.

Time Guardian
Press on and you find yourself in the Time Guardian's room - the Obligatory Clock Face Puzzle. (Clock puzzles are just as fashionable among Japanese game designers as chessboard traps are among Western game designers.) You must use the clock hands to cross. The instructions on controlling the time are shown, they should be simple enough.

If you get knocked down from the hands, you end up in a small room where small dragons attack you. In that room there's a chest with the Nail Bat. The door leads back out.

Here's what happens in the various rooms.

Mural hall
Once you head through the six o'clock door, you find yourself in a room with a lot of caves and locked double door.

The idea is to catch the temple guardian. You need to memorize where each passage seems to lead, and try to get yourself into the same corridor with the temple guardian. Or, you can cheat and just go in the same corridor each time - you're bound to collide sooner or later. The guardian, once again, gives you option to heal up or save. Open the chest on the lower level to receive a Work Glove.

Once you head through the double doors, you find yourself in the mural hall. Sephiroth shows up, talks about his true plans, and makes Cloud seriously freak out too. Then, Sephiroth disappears. Time to reflect on the whole Sephiroth/Black Materia/etc thing here.

And just as you get yourself lulled to safety of Long Cutscene with Nice Music, there's time to fight a creature. A big creature.

You get a Dragon Armlet, a really nice armor, and after the fight, you see Bahamut materia floating right in front of you. A big summon materia. Grab it!

Now, go back to the end of the mural hall. There's a model floating about. Shake it. Eep. Cait Sith calls you and offers to grab it while you run outside.

Heroic deeds for nothing
Head out, and the guardian is still here. Heal up and save. This would also be a good time to make sure Aerith doesn't have any unique armor equipped on her. Feel free to give her tons of good materia and an accessory, though. That is obviously needed here.

Now, the Time Guardian room has locked so that the only way is through the 12 o'clock door, which leads out of the place.

But if you're wondering why this walkthrough took so long to write - well, suffice to say that I hate this following boss. I hate it. I hate hate hate hate hate...

(This boss may seem familiar to some.)

I actually beat this boss on the first try when I'm playing the game as I'm writing the guide, but the point is, this boss is scary. It flattens the unprepared. Be wary.) Phew! If you beat that - congratulations, that was the hardest mandatory boss in the game! Seriously! But there'll be a lot more bosses ahead that will probably inspire you to swear a little bit more loudly...

Next comes a long cutscene where you first see Cait Sith get flattened, you get a hard-earned Black Materia, and... um... see Sephiroth take it. Or, rather, Cloud giving it to him. Something strange is afoot.

Cloud freaks out, Cait Sith no. 2 shows up to replace his predecessor. Cloud faints, Aerith shows up in his dream, and as Cloud wakes from the nightmares (not for the first, or last, time in this game), Aerith... has... went... to... Forgotten Capital... in actuality... too. Oh, that silly flower girl!