Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

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Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
Developer(s)	Square Enix
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Designer(s)	Takayoshi Nakazato
Artist(s)	Tetsuya Nomura Yukio Nakatani Yusuke Naora
Composer(s)	Masashi Hamauzu
Series	Final Fantasy Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Native resolution	480i (SDTV)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	JP January 26, 2006 NA August 15, 2006 PAL November 17, 2006 INT September 4, 2008
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer (Japanese version only)
Rating(s)	BBFC: 15 CERO: B ESRB: T OFLC: M PEGI: 16+
Media	DVD-ROM
Input methods	DualShock 2 controller

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII​ (ダージュ オブ ケルベロス -ファイナルファンタジーVII, -Dāju obu Keruberosu -Fainaru Fantajī Sebun-^?) is a third person shooter game developed and published by Square Enix in 2006. It is part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII metaseries, a multimedia collection set within the universe of the popular 1997 video game Final Fantasy VII.

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Miscellaneous 2 Plot 2.1 Story 2.2 Characters 2.2.1 Supporting characters 2.2.2 Tsviets 2.2.3 Online mode characters 3 Development 3.1 International version 4 Audio 5 Reception 6 Mobile phone tie-in 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Dirge of Cerberus is a third-person shooter (the first game of this genre developed by Square Enix) with RPG elements. Battles occur in real-time, with the HUD displaying information including Vincent's HP and MP, the currently selected item and the quantity thereof, and a cross-hair to aid in targeting enemies. Defeating enemies yields EXP, which is totaled at the end of each stage and can either be used to level up Vincent, increasing his statistics, or converted to gil, which can be used to purchase items and equipment upgrades at jukebox-shaped shops scattered throughout each stage, or the shop at the end of a stage, which also allows the purchase of additional equipment.

Unlike Final Fantasy VII, where a character could equip three types of equipment (weapon, armor and accessory), Vincent's equipment consists solely of his weapon, which has amalgamated the effects of armor and accessories through customization. Players can customize three weapons through the frame: a three barrel handgun he names Cerberus, as well as a rifle, Hydra, and a machine gun, Griffon, which are two new weapon types (also named after Greek mythological creatures) and the size of the barrel (short-, regular or long-barrel, with longer barrels affording targeting of enemies that are further away at the cost of weight). Accessories include a sniper scope, charms (such as the Cerberus charm) which can increase Vincent's defense and decrease the weight of the gun (which affects the speed of Vincent's actions) among other things, and materia, which returns from Final Fantasy VII and enables magic shots with special properties that use up MP. All weapons have limited ammunition, which is dropped by defeated enemies, but can also be bought at shops. Ammunition capacity can be increased through upgrades.

Limit Breaks also return from the original game. Two of Vincent's Limit Breaks are available in Dirge of Cerberus: the Galian Beast, Vincent's first Limit Break, can be activated in two different ways: in the Japanese version of the game, it can be activated when the MP gauge is full. Upon transformation, the gauge slowly decreases and, once the gauge becomes empty, Vincent returns to human form. In the American and European versions of the game, the Galian Beast transformation can be activated through the use of an item called the "Limit Breaker". The effect lasts for around 30 seconds, upon which time the transformation reverses automatically. In all versions of the game, the transformation can be reverted by the player by pressing the L1 and R1 buttons at the same time. The other Limit Break is Chaos, Vincent's final and most powerful form, who serves as a major plot device and is playable only in the final stage of the game, when it is permanently enabled. Also, in specific areas of the game, such as in Training Mode, when Vincent's Limit Break is activated, instead of transforming into the Galian Beast, Vincent's body would pulse a color; his firing rate would increase, and all his attacks would be more powerful.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Being modeled after many first-person and third-person shooters, the game takes a few liberties and implements minor features that are featured in many games that are similar in genre. A blinking disc icon appears whenever the game loads data from the disc, something akin to many console shooter games. The game can also be controlled using either the DualShock 2 controller or a USB mouse and keyboard.

Bonus material is available in the game, and the method of unlocking bonus material consists of shooting Memory Capsules, which are well hidden and found during the course of the game. Memory Capsules found during the story mode unlock the game's cut scenes, while a variety of Memory Capsules found in the Extra Missions mode unlock various other features, such as a music player, an artwork viewer, a character model viewer and additional extra missions.

[edit] Plot

[edit] Story

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2009)

The game begins with a flashback to the ending of Final Fantasy VII. As Meteor looms overhead, Yuffie and Vincent are in Midgar helping with the evacuation. Vincent tells Yuffie to check the Mako Cannon. She does so, and the device she is using finds a single person still alive there. Despite Yuffie's protests, Vincent ascends the Cannon to the firing controls to find the slumped body of Hojo. Vincent trains his triple-barreled handgun, Cerberus, on him but, just as he is about to fire, an explosion blows Hojo's body away and causes the tower to start crumbling. Vincent is narrowly rescued by Yuffie on a hovercraft, after which they rendez-vous with Cloud and the others.

Three years later, in the Waterfall Cavern, Vincent sits with his lost love Lucrecia Crescent, her body encased in Mako Crystal. She speaks to him telepathically, apologizing, though Vincent doesn't know why, claiming he is the one who should apologize. This exchange is revealed to be a brief flashback, and Vincent is actually sitting alone in a hotel room in Kalm, where a celebration is taking place to commemorate the three-year anniversary of Meteorfall. A nearby television shows a news report about a recently uncovered entrance to an unknown part of the Shinra complex deep underground, where it is rumored a force of soldiers more powerful than SOLDIER were created.

Suddenly, an explosion in a nearby building heralds the appearance of multiple airships in the sky, each one containing a number of mysterious soldiers who drop to the ground and open fire on the civilians. Not all are killed however: people free of Geostigma are herded into carriers; those infected are attacked on sight. Vincent springs into action, making his way through the town, dispatching the mysterious soldiers and aiding civilians, to meet with Reeve Tuesti. Along the way he helps members of the World Regenesis Organization (WRO), an organization created by Reeve to help heal Gaia and protect it from further damage. At one point, Vincent is met by a small girl and a hulking man who demand of him the "Protomateria", of which Vincent knows nothing. After sending a wave of soldiers at him, the man accepts Vincent's "challenge", gives his name, Azul the Cerulean, and says that "[they] will meet again" before leaving with the girl. After this, Vincent meets up with Reeve, who asks Vincent to help the WRO in their cause, though Vincent is reluctant. Reeve gets shot from behind by one of the soldiers, but he is revealed to be a costume of sorts for Cait Sith, who plans with Vincent to launch an offensive against the attack.

After clearing out the town and forcing the soldiers to retreat with the help of the "real" Reeve and fresh WRO reinforcements, Vincent travels to Edge with Reeve, who reveals the collective name of the soldiers: Deepground. A new breed of supersoldiers even more powerful than SOLDIER, the project was initially ordered by President Shinra and very few others knew about it. What little information the WRO have on them was gleaned from Scarlet's files. Suddenly a transmission comes in, where a seated man with long, messy white hair claims that "the time has come to cleanse this world". Suddenly the vehicle is attacked by a pack of Deepground wolves that, despite Vincent's efforts to vanquish them, still cause the vehicle to crash. Vincent continues the journey to Edge on foot, battling more Deepground soldiers and wolves along the way.

Reaching Edge, Vincent meets Shalua Rui, a WRO scientist, who tells Vincent that the city is deserted before leaving, saying that she is searching for "[her] reason to live". Meanwhile a red-headed woman sits surrounded by countless corpses of WRO soldiers, lauding "Weiss" on his earlier speech. Making his way through the abandoned city, Vincent comes across a young boy who helps him get a keycard to access a warehouse where he meets the woman from before, who introduces herself as Rosso the Crimson before throwing Vincent into a wall. Chaos emerges from the rubble and launches an energy attack of such power that Rosso is forced to flee.

Having lost consciousness, Vincent awakens in a tube in the WRO headquarters being watched over by Shalua, who Vincent briefly mistakes for Lucrecia. After recovering fully, Vincent is given a new task by Reeve: go to the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim to find as much of Lucrecia's thesis on Chaos as possible. As well as the possibility of Vincent's Chaos form giving the WRO a fighting chance against Deepground, Shalua has a suspicion of Deepground's ultimate goal having something to do with the final WEAPON, Omega. Suddenly, WRO security is breached by Deepground soldiers led by Azul. Fighting his way through the complex and aiding WRO soldiers, Vincent finds Shalua, who sees that Vincent has been followed by the girl who was accompanying Azul earlier. After shedding her camouflage, the girl is revealed to be Shelke, Shalua's long-lost younger sister and the "reason to live" she had told Vincent of during their first meeting. Shelke reveals that she remembers being captured by Deepground, and that the Mako infusions they used to keep her in a 10-year old body (she is actually 19) are now required to keep her alive. Despite this, she still tries to complete her objective, and tries to attack Shalua. Fortunately, Reeve intervenes. Using special tranquilizer bullets, Vincent is able to best Shelke in battle and sedate her. However, upon leaving, Azul ambushes Vincent, showing that Shelke's attack was merely a foil for his own. By using nearby explosive barrels, Vincent is able to defeat Azul despite his shielding. After dealing with the problem, Vincent makes for Nibelheim to find Lucrecia's reports on Omega WEAPON and Chaos. Reeve advises him to go through the sewers, as the path above ground is crawling with Deepground soldiers.

Reaching the mansion through the sewers, Vincent is surprised to find a hologram of Lucrecia waiting for him, apologizing again. After finding the remaining data, Vincent runs into Rosso again. Preparing to battle her, Rosso instead flees and sends a spider-like mecha, the Black Widow, after him, which Vincent destroys in the mansion foyer. Preparing to leave, Rosso ambushes Vincent and plunges her hand into his chest, retrieving the Protomateria, which is revealed to be what allows Vincent to control Chaos. Without it, it is possible for Chaos to overwhelm him. Finally, Rosso makes to kill Vincent, but a sudden flash covers Vincent's rescue by a mysterious figure.

Vincent awakens in a WRO vehicle en-route to the WRO headquarters, being watched over by the person who saved him, who reveals herself to be none other than Yuffie Kisaragi. The truck crashes, forcing Vincent to make his way back on foot. On the way, Vincent finds a Deepground camp close by, and, sure enough, when he reaches the headquarters, it is under another attack by Deepground, this one even grander in scale. After dispatching the heavily fortified attack force outside the building, the entrance opens, revealing the inner building to be practically in ruins.

Once again, Vincent fights his way though the remains and helps the few remaining WRO soldiers before finding Shalua and Shelke under attack by a huge blue behemoth. Fending it off, Shelke pulls out a shield materia to reveal the creature as a transformed Azul, whose body had been held at the WRO before reviving. Asking Shelke why she stopped him, she replies that he had attacked her too. With this Azul attacks her again, saying that the Tsviets had only been using her because of her Synaptic Net Dive (SND) ability (creating a residual image of herself in the worldwide network to obtain information), and that Azul had never considered her a true member of the Tsviets. Reactivating the shield materia to hold him off while Shalua opens an escape route, Shelke is unable to do so long enough to stop the door from automatically closing. Holding a small space open with her mechanical arm, which begins to malfunction under the pressure from the door, Shalua ushers Shelke through it into Vincent's care. Shalua expresses regret that she couldn't rescue her younger sister from Deepground's clutches just before the door closes, crushing Shalua's mechanical arm and leaving her defenceless to an (unseen) attack by Azul, which renders her comatose.

Vincent, Yuffie, Reeve and Shelke manage to escape from the complex just in time for Cid to arrive with the Shera. With help from Cloud and co., the remnants of the WRO plan to lauch a simultaneous land-air attack on the remains of Midgar and the home of Deepground. What they don't know is that the Tsviets are waiting for them with an army of their own. On the Shera, Shelke struggles to deal with her sister's sacrifice and her abandonment by Deepground, and Vincent is seen to be gradually losing control over Chaos (though Lucrecia appears to help him regain composure). Eventually, Shelke decides to help Vincent and the WRO, though she insists that it is in her own best interests: while in Deepground, her main mission was to collect the fragments of Lucrecia's research on Omega and Chaos from the worldwide computer network and arrange them in her own mind to help find the Protomateria. However, this had an unintended side-effect: Lucrecia's thoughts and emotions began to mix with her own. On the WRO's side, as well as providing them with detailed information on Deepground, she can use the data collected by Vincent to complete the collection, remove it from her mind, and regain control of herself.

Using an SND, Shelke explains Lucrecia's findings on Omega WEAPON and Chaos:

Soul wrought of terra corrupt
Quelling impurity, purging the stream
To beckon forth an ultimate fate

Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens.

Omega WEAPON activates when Gaia senses that it is in fatal peril, gathers the entirety of the Lifestream using itself as the container, and ascends into space to find a new planet on which to deposit it and begin life anew. Without the Lifestream, the remains of Gaia would wither and die, crumbling into dust. As found by Cait Sith earlier, Deepground have been collecting people with pure Lifestream currents (i.e. not infected with Geostigma) to slaughter them en masse and dupe Gaia into activating Omega WEAPON early. The appearance of Chaos heralds that of Omega.

The attack soon begins with Vincent as part of the ground squad, but a stray bullet hitting his hoverboard lands him far from the others. Vincent fights through the Depground hordes, eventually reaching the remains of the Shinra building where, after fighting Rosso and Azul each for the last time, he reaches Mako Reactor 0, the home of Deepground. Meanwhile, on the Shera, Nero the Sable,another Tsviet and second-in-command, sabotages the engine and kills the engine room crew. Shelke tries to defeat him, but fails, falling into his darkness. Vincent travels deeper into Mako Reactor 0, successfully fighting off Nero, after which Yuffie appears again and accompanies Vincent to the throne of Weiss the Immaculate, the highest member of the Tsviets and leader of Deepground. In the meantime, Shelke, surviving in Nero's darkness using her shield materia, has a final conversation with the spirit of her sister, who asks if it would be alright for her to enter the Lifestream, reminding Shelke of the time their mother died.

Nero makes one final attempt to stop Vincent from approaching Weiss, who is revealed to be Nero's older brother, absorbing Vincent into his darkness, but Vincent is able to escape, with Shelke in tow, because his own darkness (Chaos) is much deeper. Despite Nero's best attempts, Vincent defeats him. After getting Shelke to a Mako tank, Vincent and Yuffie approach Weiss' throne, only to find him slumped on his throne, lifeless. Nero appears and tells them of Weiss' resurrection through absorbing the powers of Omega. Suddenly the Lifestream around the room surges and Weiss rises, reborn. Nero attempts to embrace his brother, but Weiss impales him and throws his body across the room. After a monologue referring to the events of Final Fantasy VII, Weiss is revealed to be possessed by the spirit of Hojo, who had used his remaining strength after being defeated at the Mako Cannon to upload his consciousness into the worldwide network. Hojo was able to usurp Weiss' body because of Weiss being in the middle of an SND to find a cure for a virus he was infected with by the Restrictors, leaving his mind wide open. Vincent attempts to defeat Weiss, but with the power of Omega he is practically invincible and Vincent is easily defeated. In his weakened state, Vincent starts losing control of Chaos again, but Lucrecia appears again and pleads for Vincent not to let Chaos control him. Weiss attempts to finish Vincent off, but Vincent deflects his attack, "utilizing the Protomateria to call forth Chaos while retaining [his] human form", as Hojo puts it. Enhanced by the powers of Chaos, Vincent is able to fight Weiss to a standstill. At this point, the spirit of Nero appears, silences Hojo's flaunts about the power of Omega, and finally embraces his brother, infusing him with his spirit and exorcising Hojo's spirit from Weiss' body. Finally, Weiss enters the surrounding Lifestream, which activates the appearance of Omega.

Omega WEAPON begins forming over the remains of Midgar by drawing Mako directly from the Reactors. Vincent is swept up in one of the currents, and loses control over Chaos in the process, transforming into the demon to escape from inside Omega. Shelke senses what's happening, and enters SND, which also allows her to communicate with living beings on the subconscious level. Entering Omega, Shelke finds the spirit of Lucrecia with the Protomateria, and evades Omega's attacks to return it to Vincent, allowing him complete control over Chaos' form.

At this point, a series of flashbacks expand upon the backstories of Vincent and, to a greater degree, Lucrecia. Lucrecia was a Shinra scientist and assistant to Professor Grimoire Valentine, Vincent's father. Studying Chaos and Omega WEAPON with only an ancient Cetra text to go on, Lucrecia completes a thesis on the subject which is heavily mocked. However, rather than dampening her spirits, their criticism just drives her to prove them wrong. Later, Lucrecia and Grimoire find the Waterfall Cavern which, according to the Cetra text, is the place where Chaos will appear on Gaia. Finding a dark, mist-like substance, they take it back to the Shinra Mansion where a violent reaction when studying it almost claims Lucrecia's life, with Grimoire pushing her out of harm's way at the last second, sacrificing himself instead. This tragedy strikes Lucrecia hard, affecting her future actions. Shortly afterward, Vincent is assigned her protection. Flustered that she would have to interact with the son of her deceased mentor, and worried that he would find out the truth, Lucrecia hides these feelings and introduces herself.

In time, Vincent and Lucrecia form an informal friendship where Vincent's feelings begin to grow, until Vincent happens upon a confidential file Lucrecia left unattended and finds out about what happened to his father. When he asks Lucrecia about it, she assumes he will react harshly and, after apologizing to Vincent, flees the situation and enters a relationship with Hojo, which would lead her into the Jenova Project, and bring Sephiroth into the world. Rather than trying to stop things, Vincent merely stands back, believing that whatever makes Lucrecia happy is best. However, upon seeing her continued and increasingly severe suffering, Vincent confronts Hojo, who shoots him in the stomach. Lucrecia enters at this point and what she sees only makes her already fragile mental state even worse. Not wanting a repeat of what happened with Grimoire, Lucrecia resolves to save Vincent no matter what the cost. Unable to stop tissue decay, a mocking remark from Hojo gives her the idea to use her research on Chaos to find a solution. By injecting Vincent with G Substance (the dark substance that killed Grimoire), Lucrecia stabilizes Vincent's body, but at a cost: Vincent becomes Chaos. Crying out in despair at her repeated failures, the Protomateria appears before Lucrecia, which she uses to calm the beast and return Vincent to human form. With her mind practically broken as a result of all that has happened, Lucrecia tries to commit suicide, but the Jenova cells inside her thwart her attempts. Consequently, she seals herself away from the world inside the Waterfall Cavern. In the meantime, Hojo takes Vincent's body and uses it in his experiments where it turns out that, with the power of Chaos inside him, Vincent has become immortal, which enables him to survive Hojo's tests. After regaining consciousness and reacting in horror at his new form (the Galiant Beast), he is sealed in a coffin in the basement of the Shinra Mansion, where he would sleep for 30 years before meeting Cloud and his party.

Finally, Lucrecia appears to Vincent in a dream sequence where she laments how much she hurt him and makes one last plea for his forgiveness, but is "happy that [he] survived". With this, Vincent activates his Chaos form, takes Shelke to safety, materializes the Death Penalty and faces down Omega WEAPON, obliterating its defenses in order to get close enough to find that it is protected from direct assault by a barrier. Fortunately, the WRO, together with Cloud and co., work on taking down the remains of Deepground and cheer Vincent on as he charges straight through the barrier and enters the inside of Omega, where he takes down more of the WEAPON's defenses before coming face-to-face with it. Vincent enters a portal in Omega's head into an ethereal-looking white space. After taking out some Crystal Feelers, Omega's Cocoon is forced to the surface and quickly destroyed. Afterwards Vincent encounters Weiss, now fully integrated with the powers of Omega, and he and Vincent promptly fight to a standstill. Weiss summons a biomechanical creature similar to Omega WEAPON but smaller in stature and connects himself to it, forming the final boss: Omega Weiss. Vincent defeats Weiss and escapes Omega who, rather than deactivating, actually sprouts wings and prepares to ascend into space. Seeing this, Vincent amasses all the power Chaos can afford him and charges headlong into Omega WEAPON, destroying it, and supposedly Vincent as well. As the credits roll the camera pans deep into an abyss, where Shalua's life support tank is embedded in the ground, heavily damaged. Shalua lies there, lifeless, as wisps of Lifestream begin to emanate from her body.

In the epilogue, Shelke, sitting inside Seventh Heaven, narrates that life has begun to return to normal, and that she seems to be beginning to age again. Yuffie bursts in, asking Tifa if she's heard from Cloud regarding "him"; Tifa replies that she hasn't. Shelke is seen to be speaking into a cassette recorder. Meanwhile, Vincent is inside the Waterfall Cavern speaking to Lucrecia. He tells her that both Omega and Chaos have returned to the Lifestream until they are actually needed. Before leaving, he thanks her, saying that "[she was] the reason [he] survived". Unseen by Vincent, a tear rolls down Lucrecia's cheek. Exiting the cavern, Vincent is surprised to find Shelke looking in the distance. Without looking round, she tells him that everyone is waiting for him, and that they made her come and get him, "not that [she minds], though". They look to the sky together, where fragments of Omega remain, floating in space.

If the player collected all three G Reports, a secret ending sequence shows the emergence of Genesis Rhapsodos in a cave where he finds the body of Weiss, carries it into his arms and, saying that "it is not yet time for slumber" and that "[they] still have much work to do", as well as calling Weiss "[his] brother", unfurls his lone black wing and flies away.

[edit] Characters

Dirge of Cerberus centers around Vincent Valentine and a new cast of characters. Vincent's father Grimoire Valentine is mentioned several times throughout the game as the one who devised a thesis on Chaos but died in an experiment. The playable characters of Final Fantasy VII make cameo appearances, notably Cait Sith, who is controllable for a brief sequence. A new WEAPON is also introduced, Omega Weapon, which serves as an "ark" for the planet's Lifestream when a calamity arises.

[edit] Supporting characters

• Shalua Rui (シャルア・ルーイ, Sharua Rūi^?) is a female scientist, who first appeared in a small role in Before Crisis. She is a WRO scientist with a prosthetic left arm, that serves as her life-support system, and a missing left eye. Shalua is a workaholic who is actually searching for her sister, Shelke. Upon meeting her, she was heart-broken over how little of her sister there was left and blamed herself for it. In order to make up, she helped Shelke escape the clutches of Azul, who had turned on her, in exchange for her life. Research shows that Shalua was a workaholic and often spent many of her hours at the WRO Headquarters; given the time she used to search for her "reason to live" which was assumed to be Shelke.

• Reeve Tuesti, the former head of Shinra's Urban Development Department, leads the World Regenesis Organization (WRO; called World Restoration Organization in the Japanese version of the game), an operation dedicated to restoring the world and undoing the mistakes made by Shinra. Prominent members of WRO include Yuffie Kisaragi, in charge of espionage and intelligence gathering; Shalua Rui, WRO's chief scientist; and Cid Highwind, head of the WRO's airship division. Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, and Tifa Lockhart also lend their support to the WRO during the second half of the game.

• Grimoire Valentine (グリモア・ヴァレンタイン, Gurimoa Varentain^?) is Vincent Valentine's father. He appears in flashbacks as Lucrecia's mentor, and later dies protecting her from Chaos.

• Omega WEAPON appears as the game's final boss and is the result of Professor Hojo's plans to merge with Weiss and bring destruction upon the earth.

• Genesis Rhapsodos, here known only as "G", appears in an FMV sequence appended to the game's ending if the three "G Reports" are gathered. He appears much more prominently in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

• Other characters that were featured prominently or otherwise in Final Fantasy VII also return. Lucrecia Crescent is shown mainly in flashbacks, further fleshing out her story. Hojo returns as well in flashbacks, and he then reappears in the penultimate moments of the game. Red XIII also makes a brief cameo in the game's ending, though he does not speak.

[edit] Tsviets

The Tsviets (ツヴィエート, Tsuviēto^?) are the highest ranking elite squad within Deepground and its chain of command. All of the members of the group are named after colors from different languages, hence the group's name, which is derived from "цвет", the Russian word for color. Five members appear in the single player mode of the game, and at least one more member appears in the online mode.

• Weiss the Immaculate (純白の帝王ヴァイス, Junpaku no Teiō Vaisu^?, lit. "Weiss the Immaculate White Emperor") The leader of the elite Tsviets of Deepground. All of the other Tsviets owe his or her loyalty to Weiss. He fights with two gunblades, and possesses all the abilities of the other Tsviets, the only exceptions being Nero's darkness and Azul's metamorphosis. He is controlled by Hojo's digitized mind, who invaded his body when Weiss was in "Synaptic Net Dive" mode, trying to find a cure to the Restrictors' virus that infected him after he overthrew them. Weiss's first appearance in the game is during a planet wide speech in which he declairs his intention to kill as many people as he and Deepground can. He is eventually defeated by Vincent; however, in the game's ending sequence, his body is seen carried off by an awakened Genesis, who addresses Weiss as his "brother" and tells him that "it is not yet time for slumber" and that they "still have much work to do". In the online version, Weiss is shown fighting both Azul and Rosso at the same time and winning while Restrictors watch. The Restrictors permanently kept Weiss chained to his throne in Mako Reactor Zero rather than risk the chance that Weiss find a way to kill them all in a moment of weakness. This proved to be futile since he was the mastermind behind the death of Restrictors. Weiss means "white" in German. He is voiced by Dave Boat in English, and Joji Nakata in Japanese.

• Nero the Sable (漆黒の闇ネロ, Shikkoku no Yami Nero^?, lit. "Nero the Jet-black Darkness") is a 23 year-old man and second member of the Tsviets, whose face is always obscured. He is Weiss' younger brother and can control darkness as the only fully successful experiment from stagnant mako injection into a fetus. The power that resulted from this is a primordial darkness that is capable of swallowing and designating anyone that is forced into it. Only being born from that darkness like Chaos can permanently survive in Nero’s darkness. He secretly leads Deepground under Weiss' name after the unification of the organization, when Weiss' state becomes unclear to the remaining Deepground soldiers. Nero deeply loves his brother and acts on Weiss/Hojo's desire to awaken Omega and destroy the planet. Nero has two wing-like blades on his back that are used as slashing weapons and four handguns, two for his hands and two built into the blades to allow for an impressive balance of long and short range attacks He can transform into the spider-like Arachnero (ネロ・ラフレア, Nero Rafurea^?, Nero Raw Flayer). He eventually merges with Weiss to free the latter from Hojo's control. Nero means "black" in Italian and Sable is the tincture black in heraldry. He is voiced by Mike Rock in English, and Ryotaro Okiayu in Japanese.

• Rosso the Crimson (朱のロッソ, Aka no Rosso^?) is a red-clothed, psychotic 25 year-old woman and third recruit of the Tsviets. She fights with a double-bladed weapon capable of bursts of gunfire. Rosso moves with elegance and speed and does not care if she kills friend or foe to win. Even though there are several meetings with her over the course of the game, Vincent only fights her once, but she fights Cloud in a cut scene. Overconfident and egomaniacal, she kills herself after being beaten by Vincent: she collapses a part of the building with her on top of it so that she "shall not grant him the pleasure of killing Rosso the Crimson". Rosso means "red" in Italian, and she is given a Romanian accent in the English version, voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Atsuko Tanaka in Japanese.

• Shelke the Transparent (無色のシェルク, Mushoku no Sheruku^?) is a blue-eyed, 19 year-old girl trapped by mako in her 10 year old body and fourth recruit of the Tsviets. She fights with two electromagnetic sabers, and has a special ability named SND ("Synaptic Net Dive"), which allows her to project a residual image of herself within a computer network. She is initially emotionless, but becomes connected to Lucrecia's personality as the game progresses. She is also revealed to be Shalua's younger sister, and is referred to as Shelke Rui in the ending credits of the game. Shelke's job within the Tsviets was to locate Vincent Valentine. However, Shelke's body does not allow her to fight for very long and without the Mako stations in Deepground to support her, Shelke tires quickly. She is also the only member of the Tsviets who does not possess cells from Genesis. She later abandons the Tsviets in favor of aiding Vincent. Shelke means "orange" in Urdu. She is voiced by Kari Wahlgren in English and Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese. Her birthday is October 22, 1989.

• Azul the Cerulean (蒼きアスール, Aoki Asūru^?) is the blue-haired, 33 year-old final recruit of the Tsviets. He first appeared in Before Crisis as an ordinary man who wanted to be a SOLDIER. As the largest of the Tsviets, Azul uses a large cannon with disturbing ease. He is one of three Tsviets subjected to the Metamorphose experiment, allowing him to transform into the monstrous Arch Azul (真・アスール, Shin Asūru^?, True Azul). He fights against Vincent three times during the game and is finally killed when Vincent, in Chaos form, impales him with his own cannon, and blasts him. He falls down into the abyss by the elevator. His greatest love is battle. Azul means "blue" in both Portuguese and Spanish. He is voiced by Brad Abrell in English and Tessho Genda in Japanese.

[edit] Online mode characters

The Restrictors are members of the 14th SOLDIER force, "Lost Force", and the former leaders of the Deepground before Weiss took over. The Restrictors destroyed "Ragnarok", the 13th and previously strongest force of SOLDIER, in a single night. Their weapons are two short gunblades. The Restrictors' leader governed over Deepground, implanting chips into the brain stems of all DGS recruits so they cannot turn against the group. The player character in the multiplayer mode is the exception to this, who was part of Weiss' plan to take control of the Deepground. At the end of the multiplayer mode, the entire Tsviet group managed to defeat Restrictor and take his place as the ruling force of the DGS. Though they succeeded, Restrictor's leader attempted to kill Weiss with the virus implanted within him.

• Argento (アルジェント, Arujento^?) is a member of the Tsviets seen only in the Japanese multiplayer mode. She has an eye-patch over her right eye. Although she wields a large sword as her weapon, her role is to observe others as an instructor. She conspired with Weiss to overthrow the Restrictors. Argento means "silver" in Italian, and it is revealed in the Compilation Ultimania, that Argento was the one who made all the weapons of the colored Tsviets.

• Usher is a mysterious orange-haired SOLDIER who assists the player several times throughout the multiplayer mode. In the mode's ending sequence, Shelke deactivates her Synaptic Net Dive with the player's character and Usher disappears, thus revealing that he was only a simulation created by Shelke to guide the player into helping with their plan to overthrow the Restrictors.

[edit] Development

Director Takayoshi Nakazato said that he was a big fan of the PC game Half-Life and wanted to turn it into an RPG, and he has done so, in the form of Dirge of Cerberus.^{[citation needed]} This is the last game in chronological order in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and is often referred to by the staff of the game as "the ending finale to Final Fantasy VII". However, producer Yoshinori Kitase has recently stated in an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly that it is not necessarily the end of Final Fantasy VII's story, but will provide resolution to Vincent's personal story, just as Advent Children resolves Cloud's. The game's secret epilogue also leaves the door open, introducing a mysterious character named Genesis, or "G", who speaks in a cryptic fashion that suggests the story is not yet over. Genesis is introduced in the PSP title Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII as the main antagonist and central plot device.

The North American and European releases of Dirge of Cerberus received a major overhaul in its globalization due to the fact that the developers were not satisfied with the final Japanese version; the developers also wanted to make the game more single player oriented.

• Vincent's running speed is 1.2 times faster, and he can perform a double-jump and do ranged and melee attacks in midair. Also, his dive-roll dodge move is supplanted with a dash move.
• Vincent's weapon can be customized to make it lighter, so there is no sluggishness when drawing his weapon.
• Limit Breaks no longer detract from the magic bar; instead, a single-use item can be used to perform the attack.
• "Easy Mode" has been removed, replaced with an "Extra Hard" mode. This new mode includes unlockables such as 40 special missions, a character-model viewer, and artwork and sound galleries.
• Online Multiplayer support was removed due to the poor popularity of PlayOnline in America, and lack of PS2 HDD support in the U.S. Missions from the Multiplayer Mode were reworked into some of the missions that can be unlocked in "Extra Hard" mode, however, this contains none of the additional storyline presented in the Japanese Multiplayer Mode.
• The game retains support for mouse and keyboard peripherals for PC First-person shooter-style gameplay.

[edit] International version

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII International (ダージュ オブ ケルベロス -ファイナルファンタジーVII- インターナショナル, Dāju obu Keruberosu -Fainaru Fantajī Sebun- Intānashonaru^?) was released by Square Enix in Japan on September 4, 2008 as part of their Ultimate Hits lineup. This version retains all of the new features incorporated into the North American and European releases, and also includes the cutscenes that were originally only available in the Japanese online Multiplayer Mode. Audio is in English, with Japanese text and subtitles.

[edit] Audio

The soundtrack for the game was composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Vocal tracks were performed and composed by J-Rock singer, Gackt Camui for the theme songs, 'Longing' and 'Redemption'. The soundtrack was released on February 15, 2006 in Japan with a price of ¥ 3,300 and the limited edition of the soundtrack will be released on the same day with a price of ¥ 3,900. The CD consists of 2 CDs with 53 tracks. The limited edition of the soundtrack includes a 'Cerberus Complete Case' deluxe box which is designed to hold the soundtrack along with the 'Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII' PS2 game and the limited edition of Gackt's single for the game, 'Redemption'.

The CD single for Gackt's single for the game, 'Redemption' was released on January 25, 2006, with a price of ¥1,200 (roughly USD 10.17). A limited edition was also released featuring two 'Redemption' video clips, one being Gackt's promotional music video and one being set to animation from the game, with a price of ¥1,950 (roughly USD 16.53).

A supplemental soundtrack was released through the Japanese iTunes service and the Square-Enix Music Download page on August 22, 2006, for the price of ¥1,500. Titled "Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Multiplayer Mode Original Sound Collections", this album consists of 27 tracks, including a handful of songs from the single player game which weren't included in the official sound track, as well as all of the original music composed for the multiplayer mode and two new songs composed by Ryo Yamazaki for the North American release of the game.

[edit] Reception

Upon its release in Japan, the game received mixed reviews. Gaming magazine Dengeki PS2^[1] rewarded the game with a 313/400 while Famitsu scored it a lower 28/40.^[2] The Famitsu review was not made available until three weeks after Dirge of Cerberus was released, contrary to the Dengeki PS2 score. The game managed to ship 392,000 units in its first week.^[3] As of November 2008, over 513,000 copies of the game have been sold in Japan alone.^[4] As of August 31, 2007, 460,000 units were sold in North America and 270,000 units were sold in Europe.^[5]

Dirge of Cerberus received similarly mixed reviews from American critics. Gaming review sites IGN and Gamespot scored the game 7.0^[6] and 6.0^[7] respectively, 1UP.com gave the game a D+^[8] while Electronic Gaming Monthly collectively scored the game with a 4.6/10 average from three reviews.^[9] G4's game review show, X-Play, gave the game a 2 out of 5 due to poor level design, weak gunplay, a tremendous amount of cutscenes and bad AI.^[10] Similar reviews also cited poor gameplay as a major criticism. At Game Rankings, the combined reviews for the game are currently 60%.^[11] The combined score from Metacritic is currently 57 out of 100 based on 51 reviews.^[12]

[edit] Mobile phone tie-in

Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII (ダージュ オブ ケルベロス ロスト エピソード -ファイナルファンタジーVII-, Dāju obu Keruberosu Rosuto Episōdo -Fainaru Fantajī Sebun-^?) is a Japanese third person shooter role-playing game was co-developed by Square Enix and Ideaworks3D, and published by Square Enix. Unveiled at E3 '06, the game was released on August 22, 2006 in North America^[13] and July 26, 2007 in Japan.^[14] First only available on Amp'd mobile phones, the game was eventually also made available on Verizon's V Cast network. It was also unveiled as a flagship title for NTT DoCoMo’s Foma 903i handset at the 2006 Tokyo Game Show. The title initially released a single player mode, with a multiplayer function launching at a later date.

Lost Episode reveals a missing chapter of Dirge of Cerberus taking place between two events of the latter. It involves the adventures of Vincent Valentine struggling to save the world from the evil Deepground Soldiers, a mysterious army of soldiers. Three years after Meteorfall from the original Final Fantasy VII, the world is threatened by the Deepground soldiers, a mysterious army of bloodthirsty warriors. Vincent learns that the soldiers are searching for him in the hopes of harvesting the Protomateria from his body. He decides to investigate the Shinra Mansion in an effort to uncover the truth about his own past—and the mystery behind the Protomateria as well. Reeve Tuesti's goal is to find information on the DG written by Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. On his way to the mansion, his chopper is attacked by the Deepground. He survives and makes his way to the Shinra Manor, fighting countless Deepground Soldiers and destroying a DG battle bot.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• IGN Preview
• Press release
• Billy Young. "Details Arise From Tetsuya Nomura Interview." RPGamer. December 1, 2004. Accessed on January 9, 2005.

[edit] External links

• Dirge Of Cerberus on IMDB
• Official European site
• Official US site
• Official Japanese site
• Official Japanese PlayOnline site
• Dirge Of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII E³ 2006 page at SQUARE ENIX
• Dirge of Cerberus at the Open Directory Project

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