Blatant Screw-ups

So i have some questions,
I am replaying this game for, oh say, the 19th time I think and everytime I replay I ask this question,
Can you just skip certain parts of the game?
Like, for one, when you get Locke and Celes escaping S. Figaro, what if you just go back to the Returners' hide out?
Or, when in that esper mountain/cave thing with Strago, what happens if you skip the part with the gold statues and Ultros, just walking by it and doing nothing.
Obviously the game designers put obvious things for you to grab (AKA waking up Shadow on floating continent) but what if you just skip it all together?

IDk for a long time people said that saying different things in ff7 when promoted to didn't do anything. Well it adds up to who you date. I'm sure if you want, you can try a playthrough skipping some things. I'm sure though not much would happen. A game tester or square would have spilled the beans by now.

If you walk past the gold statues when youre just about to exit the room a dialogue box comes up saying something like "what are those?" and the camera moves over to the gold statues and comes back so you cant leave

Well it was something like that, but all i know is you cant leave through the left exit without looking at the statues.

I also beleive there are gaurds from the empire blocking the entrance of mount koltz.

And skipping shadow makes no difference as he leaves the party after you fight Atma Weapon anyway so he can swoop in and save the day, i assume the same happens even if you dont talk to him.

This is all from vague memory though

Yeah, I'm like 99% sure there are guards blocking mount Koltz. :P And it definitely won't let you move on if you don't look at the statues.

I've tried pretty much everything like that before. :P Just seeing what happens when you go places you're not supposed to go. It's just something I like to do with games I've finished a few times.

I haven't done the Shadow thing, though. He's too useful there. :P

Only a small amount of the World of Ruin is mandatory. :p

I know that one time I took Locke out of my party when it was time to go to the Opera. My game locked up when the Impresario met me at the entrance.

In the GBA version, I could walk right by the statues and fall down the hole...weird

Its not mandatory to get Shadow in your party at the Floating Continent. I never noticed him until my third playthrough. Also, its not mandatory to take Celes, she will appear after the battle with Atma if she is not in your party at the time.

I wonder what happens if you have a party of Celes, shadow and two other people and after atma dies, only shadow is left alive.

The characters still go about their business. The status of your characters' health has no bearing on how the story elements of the game unfold.

The point being that if everyone but Shadow is dead, Shadow leaves, and now everyone is your party is KO. Game over at the start of the next fight?

Ahh, I see. I would assume everyone would be at near death, but you never know...

Now that I think about it Celes shows up right after he leaves so you still have a living party member, unless she was already in your party.

I vote Mullet trys this out

No, you cannot go past anything in the first part of the game. However, the second part is basically free roam.

Me too. Do it, Mullet.

You can't skip it. The only thing that's really free roam is the world of ruin.

I think I have a save state close to the Floating Continent...

EDIT: I have a save state at the beginning of Crescent Mountain, so I'll go from there.

EDIT 2: Strago was dead in my fight with Ultros and when Relm showed up he was back on his feet to speak with her in the battle, but once the battle resumed he collapsed back into his dead state.

Blarg, they revive the members of your party after the battle with Atma.

Picture one: Going in to fight Atma.
Picture two: Killing Atma with just Shadow alive.
Picture three: My status screen after Shadow leaves and before I walk up to Geshtal and the statues.

Well now we know. :P

I would like to point out "holy crap, 53 hours in the first half of the game"

And those are SNES FFVI hours which are screwed up anyway. :P

It's also the playthrough I'm using for screenshots and images for my website so it's not a "standard" playthrough. :p