So it was only natural that the two of us would geek out and combine our resources and compile a FAQ of the most commonly asked questions regarding the game that celebrates Final Fantasy’s 20th Anniversary. Below you’ll find this site exclusive FAQ, the fruit of our research and understanding. Enjoy, and hopefully it’ll allow you to further enjoy the game and it’s storyline!

*Q: What are the Crystals in Dissidia Final Fantasy?

The crystals are the embodiment of the harmonious power wielded by Cosmos, the Goddess of Harmony. They allowed the heroes to exist within the world of Dissidia, even when Cosmos herself was killed by Chaos.

Cosmos surrendered her power to the heroes, in order to fully put an end to the cycle of conflict. By giving them her power to fully defeat Chaos and give him a true death, she hoped to finally end the endless cycle of battle, and restore the universe’s order.

Each crystal could only manifest to a hero, when their strength and resolve was at its peak while facing off against their respective opponent. By obtaining a crystal, the hero proved themselves worthy of wielding a portion of Cosmos’s power.

The shape and appearance a crystal took for each character, referenced a particular type of crystal from their originating story.

*Q: What was Emperor Mateus’s plan in Dissidia?

The Emperor’s original plan was to use Jecht, who had been a warrior of Cosmos, as the means to ensure his own survival once Chaos eradicated everything.

Though he was brought over to Chaos’ side, Jecht still had a bond with Cosmos and the light, and, thus, when he fought Tidus, both of them received a crystal. However, the Emperor captured the light of Jecht’s crystal for himself.

Due to Jecht’s allegiance with Chaos and his unwilling connection to darkness, the Emperor was able to use the crystal he created from that light for the same purpose as the crystals Cosmos had left with the heroes — to preserve himself after the death of the god whose side he fought upon, Chaos. Basically, by using the dark crystal Jecht’s bond with Tidus created, he was able to ensure that should Chaos disappear, he would still exist and be able to re-shape the universe as he saw fit, becoming the new god himself.

*Q: What were Sephiroth’s intentions in Dissidia?

The villains of Dissidia each held a personal goal that allowed them to overcome their differences in order to enact their plan to ensure Cosmos’s demise. One schemed the world’s return to the Void, while another wished its ultimate destruction, while others intended to survive the conflict’s end and fashion a new world with themselves as its sole ruler. But one particular villain’s goal was opaque compared to the rest…what were Sephiroth’s intentions within Dissidia? Did they go beyond merely settling his grudge against Cloud?

In Destiny Odyssey scene 50, Emperor Mateus and Ultimecia approach Sephiroth, hopeful in persuading him to join their plan in fashioning the demise of the gods. Sephiroth rebuffs their invitation and walks off. However, as seen in Cloud’s Destiny Odyssey, he clearly participates in Cloud obtaining his crystal, and goes so far to state that he led him to it… as if he intended and desired for Cloud to achieve his goal in the first place. Why would Sephiroth purposefully go forward with the Emperor’s plan of guiding the heroes to their individual crystals, after clearly stating he was not interested?

Sephiroth’s true intentions lie within his desire to be free of the conflict of the gods and allowed back to his originating world, so that he can continue to be the master of his own destiny. As stated in Destiny Odyssey II-7, Sephiroth sees the members of the conflict as “Mere puppets who cannot see their own strings.” In the previous cycle of conflict between the gods, Sephiroth was not content merely playing his role as an emissary of discord. At the end of the previous cycle, Sephiroth ended his own life to see what truth lied in a world he felt was full of illusions.

At some point, he became aware of the cyclical nature of the conflict, and believed that despite his death, he would return again. As shown in Shade Impulse Chapter 3-2, Sephiroth did not fear his demise, believing that the spirit would live on as spirit energy, instead of merely vanishing. A metaphysical perspective that is consistent with the world he originated from.

In the end, he realized that for him to truly be free to control his own destiny (and the destiny of others in his originating world), the heroes had to succeed in eliminating Chaos. Sephiroth coyly discusses with Garland, what fate would befall each of the worlds should Chaos truly be defeated, hinting at his desire for reality to return to what it once was. For that reason, Sephiroth played his part in Emperor Mateus’s plan while simultaneously allowing Chaos’s own forces to deliberately sabotage themselves.

In Destiny Odyssey scene 32, Sephiroth is shown to be aware of Golbez’s betrayal to Mateus’s plan. However, he remained quiet on the subject so that Golbez could continue allying himself with the heroes and working against his fellow warriors of Chaos. All this was done, so that he could be allowed to return home. After all, Sephiroth had his own personal plan to ensure his immortality and godhood…Geostigma.

In his final confrontation with Cloud in Shade Impulse, upon his defeat, Sephiroth ominously references his intent to face Cloud once more. Explicit references are made to his plan to use Cloud as a way of ensuring his return once again, as expressed in the Lifestream Black novella, where he states:

As long as Cloud remembers me, I can continue to exist. Within the Lifestream, and on the surface. Even if my spirit disseminates, even if just one fragment of a memory courses around the planet, in the end I can count on Cloud’s consciousness to bring me back…

In the end, Sephiroth’s true intent and desire in Dissidia was the fulfillment of his own ambitions. This included Chaos’s defeat and the success of the heroes so that he could return to the Gaia of FFVII, and enact his own plan to ensure his resurrection and the completion of his original goal of godhood.

*Q: Why do some of the villains remember the previous turn of the cycle, but others do not? Also, none of the heroes do. Why?

Retaining one’s memories from a previous turn of the cycle to the next seems to be dependent on being “wrapped in some strong emotion” (per Chaos Report #6) and being alive at the time of the new turn’s beginning. Thus, the heroes — who lost the time before — would have never remembered the previous turns of the cycle before. Sephiroth — who killed himself at the end of the previous turn of the cycle — did not remember things until very late in Shade Impulse.

*Q:Why did Chaos have a dream about governing the world alongside Cosmos?

In the distant past, Chaos was a god who ruled along side Cosmos, and suppressed discord, destroying only when it was necessary. However, as shown in Chaos Report 1, the Lufenians wanted to fully utilize and control the power of discord for themselves, and thus, removed Chaos’s memories of his purpose, and made him the total destroyer we see him as in Dissidia and FF1. The creation of Garland was apparently the result of Chaos losing his memories. Given the Final Fantasy theme of memories as life and power, it is likely that the memories extracted from Chaos themselves became the being known as Garland.

*Q: Who is Garland really?

Garland is the manufactured being talked about in the Cosmos and Chaos Reports who had control over the ethereal discord and was used as a tool of war for the Lufenians. He’s likely the “new being” created by the Lufenians when they wiped Chaos’s memory — the “one of harmony that could subdue and control discord.”

*Q: Who is Warrior of Light really? And what is his past?

The past and identity of Warrior of Light is truly a mystery. Even to himself. As stated by himself, he has no memory of his past, his name, or where he even is supposed to go.

The Guiding Light accessory, which is necessary to create Warrior of Light’s final exclusive weapon, gives a telling message to presumably, Warrior of Light himself:

Lukahn prophesized: a nameless warrior guided by the light will purge the chaos from the world.

So whoever the Warrior of Light is, is a purposeful enduring mystery within the scenario of Final Fantasy and Dissidia Final Fantasy.

*Q: What is the sword the Warrior of Light uses in Dissidia?

The heroes of Dissidia each carry and wield their iconic weapons from their respective stories. Cloud wields the Buster Sword, Squall wields his Revolver gunblade, Zidane uses two Mage Mashers, Firion wields the Blood Sword, etc. But what of the Warrior of Light? He has no iconic weapon from his previous game in Dissidia.

…Or does he?

Here is a screenshot from the PSP 20th Anniversary edition of Final Fantasy, showing the Warrior of Light wielding the sword Excalibur.

The sword the Warrior of Light is wielding in Dissidia appears to be the Excalibur from Final Fantasy. The designs of the weapon in both games are extremely similar.

*Q: What are the weapons used by the Onion Knight in Dissidia?

As with the Warrior of Light, the Onion Knight of Final Fantasy III did not have an iconic weapon from his original game. The two swords the Onion Knight uses in Dissidia are from the Amano cover illustration from Japanese boxart for the game.

But do these swords appear anywhere in Final Fantasy III? I’d say yes… At least, in the DS remake.

Two swords that appear in Final Fantasy III for the DS resemble the yellow and red weapons from Amano’s artwork of the nameless Warrior of Light on FFIII’s cover.

The yellow sword held by Onion Knight Luneth is the Ragnarok. The red sword held by Ninja Arc is the Muramasa. And the staff held by Sage Ingus is the Elder Staff. The colors and blade shape of both swords strongly resemble the stylized weapons Onion Knight wields in Dissidia.

What’s also interesting is that the Muramasa is a Ninja and Dark Knight exclusive weapon. Furthermore, the Muramasa is only awarded by the Legendary Swordsmith in FFIII DS when the Ninja job class is mastered. The fact that Onion Knight only wields this sword when class changing to a Ninja seems to further cement that this is the sword’s true name.

In regard to the Sage’s staff in Dissidia, the staff held by Sage Ingus is the Elder Staff, and bears a slight resemblance in terms of its shape to said staff used by Onion Knight in Dissidia. However, the strongest matches in terms of weaponry lie with the Ragnarok and Muramasa weapons.

*Q: Who is the “Great Will?”

In a metatextual capacity, the player is identified as the Great Will at the end of Inward Chaos. As far as the story itself goes, however, Cid of the Lufaine is confirmed as the Great Will in the Chaos Reports, specifically Chaos Report #10. Earlier hints to this came from Garland telling Chaos that he had guided him “in accordance to the Great Will’s wish,” while Chaos Report #4 had Cid mention that he’d gotten Garland to agree to “stand at the right hand of discord.” As well, both Shinryu’s profile in the Museum and Shinryu’s brief dialogue with Chaos near the end of Shade Impulse makes it clear that he had been assigned a task by the Great Will. In Chaos Report #3, Cid mentions that he’d made a pact with “a certain dragon wandering through space and time” (Shinryu).

*Q: For what purpose was Cid trying to turn Chaos into the “ultimate weapon?”

To get revenge on the world for what happened to himself and his wife as revealed by her in the Cosmos Reports. The reason the cycle was necessary was because Cid wanted an absolute ending — the destruction of all reality. He needed Chaos — “the ultimate weapon” — to do this. But Chaos winning the war wouldn’t alone achieve this. Cid had to get rid of Cosmos for good so that Chaos would despair and destroy himself.

To deliver an absolute death to the gods, they had to choose to die. Cosmos had to kill herself by dividing her power into the 10 crystals. Once she was actually dead, Chaos would feel despair and decide to end his own life, along with the universe.

*Q:How is Cosmos alive during the Secret Ending?

The defeat of Chaos returned all that was lost from the discord he controlled. Presumably, this included Cosmos, and because of that, harmony was allowed to once again take control and restore all that was lost. As Cid said in the Secret Ending of the game, there will be conflict as long as the world exists, for harmony and discord are concepts born of the human mind — so as long as there are people, there will also be the embodiments of those concepts, Cosmos and Chaos. Since Chaos failed to destroy the universe prior to his death, there was still life — and with everything lost to the discord then restored, so too was Cosmos. Which would then tie into the plot of FF1 being allowed to finally resolve.

It’s with great pleasure we host the first segment of his FAQ here, that answers some of the frequently asked questions and plot points regarding FFVII and the Compilation. You’ll be able to read the entirety of his FAQ on Gamefaqs where he will host the entire FAQ, which will include this information and much more. So for now, enjoy the first post in this series!

*Q: The box that held JENOVA’s “head” in AC was a bit small for holding an
entire head. Was that what was actually in it?

*A: According to Takeshi Nozue, co-director of the film, the contents of the
box were referred to as the head, but what the box actually contains is just
random remains of JENOVA.

Of course, this might mean that some material from her head was within the
box, but Nozue doesn’t indicate it to necessarily be the case. They simply
refer to the box’s contents as “the head” for simplicity’s sake.

*Source: Advent Children prologue book (pg. 62)

*Q: Why does Kadaj scream out in anguish when he looks into the box holding
JENOVA’s remains?

*A: According to the script of the film packaged with the Advent Pieces
edition in Japan, as well as the script included with the Limited Edition
release in North America, Cloud damaged the box further than Rufus’ earlier
shot already had.

The contents of the box were damaged as a result of the attacks on it, and
Kadaj probably assumed that what should have been a healthy looking part of
JENOVA had been mangled, and that she had, thus, been hurt. So he was
grieving, basically.

*Q: What was that rain that Aerith brought which cleansed people of JENOVA’s
cells and disintegrated Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz?

*A: It was most likely a representation of Aerith’s Great Gospel Limit Break,
which would completely heal party members in Final Fantasy VII and fell from the sky as rain.

As far as what it was in plainer terms, it looked like Lifestream mixed with
water. When looking at the hole that Kadaj blasted into the floor of Aerith’s
old church, one can clearly see the Lifestream mixing with water.

Once Sephiroth was out of the picture, Aerith unleashed the city-
wide Great Gospel seen at the end of the film.

Q: What were those dark clouds Sephiroth called forth before his battle with
Cloud began? Some of them took the form of tendrils like the Lifestream.

*A: It was a Lifestream composed of the spirit energy of those who had died
of geostigma. Their spirit energy became contaminated by the influence of
JENOVA’s cells and was, thus, under Sephiroth’s control.

*Source:Staff commentary from Japanese Limited Edition of AC; FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania (pg. 32)

The silver-haired men, Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, also had limited control over
this “negative Lifestream,” as seen when they summoned the Shadow Creeper
monsters who were composed of it.

*Q: What is the black substance that permeates the water at the City of the
Ancients when Kadaj steps into it? Why do the silver-haired men have the
children drink the water?

*A: It was Kadaj’s will. He had them drink the water to activate the JENOVA
cells within them — specifically, the instinct for Reunion.

*Source: Staff commentary from Japanese Limited Edition of AC

The idea was that the children would then be drawn to the location of
JENOVA’s remains, allowing the silver-haired men to locate their
“mother.” They couldn’t track her themselves because they didn’t have any
JENOVA cells in their bodies.

*Q: Why didn’t Rufus die in Final Fantasy VII when Diamond WEAPON blasted
his office? He started to explain, but Cloud interrupted him.

*A: He got lucky, I guess. It wasn’t the first time a Final Fantasy
character survived a large explosion at close range. Final Fantasy IV has
more than one case of it.

*Q: Didn’t Tseng die in Final Fantasy VII? Elena said to Cloud “…you really
got guts doin’ my boss in like that!”.

*A: While the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy VII released in North
America certainly made it seem that Tseng had died due to Elena’s statement,
this was, in fact, a major mistranslation. It was corrected with the PC
release, in which Elena says “…you really got guts messin’ my boss up like
that!”

Also, if one speaks to the wounded Tseng in the Temple of the Ancients after
he has given Cloud and company the Keystone, he will say “I’m… still
alive….” Apparently, while Cloud and the others were inside the Temple of
the Ancients, Tseng was discovered and rescued.

That he was discovered before the Temple of the Ancients became the Black
Materia would actually go lengths toward explaining how the other Turks would
have known about him being injured in the first place.

Still, Tseng’s absence throughout the rest of the game suggested to many,
myself included, that he had probably died, even with Elena’s corrected line.
Certainly, though, the writers of the original game left themselves plausible
room to bring him back.

*Q: What is written on the plaque on the monument in Edge?

*A:

METEORFALL
v-Era 0008 0121
Keep on Rockin’ in
MIDGAR

In the original release of Advent Children, the second “1″ in the date was
obscured. In Advent Children Complete, the full date is visible. The “v,” by
the way, is the lowercase form of Nu, the thirteenth letter of the Greek
alphabet.

*Q: What was the name of the Bahamut that Kadaj summoned?

*A: Bahamut Sin (official romanization; technically, “Shin” is also accurate),
meaning “Bahamut Tremor.”

This name and those of the alternate forms of Bahamut seen in the original
game came from old Japanese fighter planes. For instance, Bahamut Zero is
Bahamut Reishiki in Japanese (“Bahamut Zero Style”), and Neo Bahamut is
Bahamut Kai (“Bahamut Remodeled”).

*Source:Staff commentary from Japanese Limited Edition of AC;
Advent Children: Prologue book (pg. 45); AC Reunion Files book (pg. 76)

*Q: What does the wolf that appears at Zack’s place of death, Aerith’s church,
and the City of the Ancients symbolize?

*A: It’s a symbol of the guilt and regret Cloud experienced as a result of
being unable to do anything to save Aerith and Zack, so it appears in
locations related to them.

*Source: Staff commentary from Japanese Limited Edition of AC; AC Reunion
Files book (pg. 86)

The symbolism of the wolf also brings to mind the expression “lone wolf,” as
Cloud has chosen to live away from others while he awaited death from
geostigma. Continuing this line of symbolism, Cloud wears the design of a
wolf’s head on his outfit, and his motorcycle is named Fenrir, the name bore
by Loki’s wolf-child in Norse Mythology.

*Q: What are the names of Cloud’s new swords?

*A: Takeyuki Takeya, the swords’ designer, has commented that he didn’t give
them or their united form proper names. The developers just called them the
Fusion Swords (Gattai Ken) during development.

*Source: AC Reunion Files book (pp. 77-78)

While it doesn’t seem that any of the swords have been otherwise given
official names, the base sword the others attach to has been called the First
Sword (Saisho no Ken in Japanese) by Nomura.

*Source: Staff commentary from Japanese Limited Edition of AC

This FAQ originally gave the sword’s name as First Tsurugi, which has
apparently been a common misunderstanding since the kanji for “sword” can be
read and pronounced both “ken” and “tsurugi.” The pronunciation Nomura
actually used was “ken.”

*Q: What were the names of Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz’s weapons? What kind of
weapons were they?

*A: -Kadaj’s weapon-
The Souba (a double-bladed katana)

-Yazoo’s weapon-
A Velvet Nightmare (a double-barreled gun that vaguely resembles a
sword)

-Loz’s weapons-
A Velvet Nightmare (a double-barreled gun designed to look like two
swords set side-by-side)
The Dual Hound (a pile bunker designed to function as a stun gun)

*Source: Official North American Advent Children website; Advent Children:
Prologue book (pg. 72); AC Reunion Files book (pg. 79)

*Q: Do the Velvet Nightmare weapons function as swords as well or only as
guns?

*A: They function only as guns. While Yazoo does use his Velvet Nightmare to
block Cloud’s sword during a fight, the weapons lack an actual blade. Both the
official North American and Japanese Advent Children websites state that the
Velvet Nightmares lack any sword function:

(Yazoo’s profile on the official North American Advent Children website)
“A youth who is unbound by worldly matters and thus a bit of an enigma. Yazoo
carries the ‘Velvet Nightmare,’ a firearm designed after two parallel swords,
but with gun functionality only.”

*Q: Can Cloud fly?

*A: Not anytime he wants to like Vincent apparently can, but he does fly
briefly when performing Omnislash Version 5/6 on Sephiroth at the end of the
film.

Presumably, anyone could do it via a surge in their spirit energy — what we
otherwise know as a Limit Break — and we do witness Aerith’s staff
levitating during battles in the original game while she performed Limit
Breaks or was casting spells.

*Q: What is the name of the planet of FFVII?

*A: Its name is Gaia. This became evident after the 2004 Electronics
Entertainment Expo (E3), when the Square Enix booth gave away pamphlets
concerning Advent Children that refer to the world by that name. Here
is a scan of one of those pamphlets:

With this in mind, recall that in Final Fantasy VII, the frozen area that must
be scaled to reach the Northern Crater is called Gaea’s Cliffs. “Gaea” and
“Gaia” are simply alternate romanizations of the same name, so the precedent
for this name had been in place since the original game’s release.

*Q: Is JENOVA male or female?

*A: While it typically appears as a female during the main events of the game,
in light of its ability to change its shape and in light of it — or parts of
it to be more specific — taking the form of Sephiroth during the course of
the game, it cannot be reasonably classified as male or female with any strong
measure of certainty. It may very well be without a biological sex.

In the years immediately following the release of the game, it was often
believed that JENOVA was considered a male by the Cetra based on a bad
translation of lines from Ifalna in the original U.S. release of the game:

Gast
“Who is the person that appeared at the North Cave? I haven’t any idea.”

Ifalna
“That’s when the one who injured the Planet… or the ‘crisis from the sky’,
as we call it, came.”
“He first approached as a friend, deceived them, and finally…… gave them
the virus.”
“The Cetra were attacked by the virus and went mad… transforming into
monsters.”
“Then, just as he had at the Knowlespole.”
“He approached other Cetra clans…… infecting them with… the virus…”

While this PlayStation Version of the game’s script had JENOVA referred to
as a male at this point, in the later PC Version of the script — in which
many errors were corrected — “it” was used in place of “he.”

*Q: Is Vincent immortal?

*A: Essentially. After being mortally wounded by Hojo approximately 23 years
before the original game began and then being brought back to life through
experimentation, Vincent has eternal youth. He’s now immortal, continuing to
retain the youth he had at 27 years old decades later.

*Source: FFVII Ultimania Omega guide (pg. 46); FFVII 10th Anniversary
Ultimania guide (pg. 68)

*Q: What is written on the plaque on the helmet JENOVA wears in the Nibelheim
flashback?
*A: It varies from one version of that scene to another. Thus far, there have
been three different versions of the writing on the plaque. In the FMV from
the original game, it said the following:

“JENOVA
MADE IN HONG KONG
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1996
SQUER COMPANY LIMITED”

In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, it said this:

“JENOVA
|µ|-Era 19591010 Hakken
|µ|-Era 19670702 Fuuin”

or

“JENOVA
Discovered Mu-Era October 10, 1959
Sealed Mu-Era July 2, 1967″

The alphabet character between the two vertical bars is the lowercase form of
Mu, the twelfth letter of the Greek alphabet. When I first wrote this FAQ, and
even when I last left it, I had believed that this use of the letter was
intended to identify the era in question as the “Middle-Era.”

I think I’d reached that conclusion because I’d read that this character was
historically used to denote “middle” — as it is the twelfth of the twenty-four
characters in the Greek alphabet — the same way alpha and omega were
used to denote “beginning” and “end.”

Not really sure why I thought that made so much sense, though. The Greek
letter on the monument in Edge is the lowercase form of the thirteenth letter
in the alphabet, Nu (v), which — as far as I know — wasn’t used for any such
purpose.

Even though we’re not counting Last Order in continuity, the
plaque bore this inscription there:

“JENOVA
STRICT SECRECY
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY SECTION
SHIN-RA COMPANY LIMITED”

In an interview with videogamer.com, Yoshinori Kitase gave a promising hint of news of an FFVII remake, stating fans should expect news on it at a later date.

Also, at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, Kitase was quoted saying regarding an FFVII remake through a translator..

There’s no official project that’s up and running for a remake of Final Fantasy VII at this point. Both Toriyama-san and Kitase-san were involved in the development of the game, however, and it holds a special place in their hearts. They do talk about it on a personal level, like, ‘If we did it it would be like this or like that.’

“So, they do talk about it, but there’s no official project yet. But there’s that PSN release that just came out, so if you could play that for the time being, it should be fun.”

So for now, fans will have to tide themselves over with the re-release of the original game on the PS Network. But it still seems the creators are toying with the idea and thinking on it fondly. Who knows where their discussion will lead.

Source: Videogamer.com and gamezine.co.uk

Yoshinori Kitase has set up a blog in honor of Dissidia’s Western release where it will talk about the development and creation of the game.

Check out his blog right here and read up on it.

Last week some of the Square-Enix staff, namely planning director Takashi Arakawa and Yoshinori Kitase (director, writer and producer) were present at a gaming event in Munich, Germany. Below is a translation (thanks to Tetsujin) regarding their writing of the scenario and possibly ideas for a sequel.

The German gaming site play3 interviewed them about the PSP game Dissidia.

- How do you make sure that no logical errors or plot holes find their way into the story and presentation of so many Final Fantasy games?

We have three measures that prevent that. First of all, a majority of the Square Enix staff already took part in the development of previous FF games. Secondly, we publish guide books in Japan that also serve us as reference archives. And thirdly, we have a couple of employees – like a young female colleague for example – who played through all of the FF games and really know all the details.

- How long does it take to  play through Dissidia?

- Arakawa-san: The Japanese version has a whole 40 hours of playtime. The US/European version allows to play through the game in a mere 10 hours by having branches in the game’s story mode. Apart from that, the balancing for the duels has been slightly readjusted. You can still play through the long version of the story mode if you feel like it, though.

- How do you develop for the PSP and how do you see the future of that portable system?

- Arakawa-san: Our development teams are in constant competition with each other. Every department has their own approach and tweaks the engine that fits their game the most.

Kitase-san: A majority of the Kingdom Hearts 2 staff has worked on Dissidia. The similarity between PS2 and PSP paid off for us. What else can be done with the PSP is something we will show with Final Fantasy Agito XIII. Apart from that, we still have lots of other PSP projects in the making.

Another article didn’t reveal anything new except for one interesting bit at the end:

“According to Kitase-san, a sequel would be ‘very interesting’. Maybe it’ll include Kingdom Hearts characters then?
‘Basically, yeah, that’d be possible. Although we’d have to discuss that with Disney, of course…’ ”

Source: VideoGamesZone, play3

Update: There’s now a huge gallery of 43 images from the press screening, including some new screenshots from ACC, and some more in-depth looks at what was shown off at the press screening. Click on “Read the rest of this entry” to check out all the images.

Source: FF7AC Reunion
Images: Dengeki
Images: Famitsu
Images: AV Watch
Images: Gpara

Nomura, Naora, Kitase, and Nojima

FFVII 10th Anniversary Discussion

In 2007 FFVII hit its 10th anniversary. To find out the secret of its appeal, we went to the 3 central members of the development staff behind FFVII and the Compilation. How does FFVII look through their eyes?

Cloud’s Animations determined the image of the scenario

- It’s been 10 years since FFVII was released. I think the reason fans have continued to support it for so long is because it left that much of an impression on them, but what scenes stand out most in your memories as the creators?

Nojima: For me, it’s the scene where Cloud first appears at the start of the story. That scene used the cool standing animation Toriyama (Motomu Toriyama: FFVII’s event planner) made. If I remember correctly, it was named “Cloud showing off” (laughs). But when I say that animation I thought to myself objectively, “wow, this is great.” It was when I’d just started writing the scenario, and Cloud’s false persona was kind of determined based on that pose, and after that the image of the scenario started to solidify. Back in those days, a lot of different tasks would be going on simultaneously during production, so there were a lot of cases like that where the other staff would influence each other. All the important stuff was usually decided by talking it over in the smoking room (laughs). Nowadays since you’ve got the voice acting to record the scenario needs to be done first, so it’s turned into quite a lonesome task.

Kitase: That Cloud ‘showing off’ standing animation appears in the Nibelheim flashback as well. When the Shinra soldier asked about doing “the usual”, he does that pose. The same scene is in CC too, so I instructed the staff to recreate that animation (laughs). You were in charge of the Nibelheim events in FFVII, weren’t you, Nojima?

Nojima: That’s right. Right up till the very end we couldn’t get the bugs out of it, so it was pretty rough. Like when Cloud was waiting outside of the screen for his part in the scene, his hair would be poking out from the edge of the screen (laughs). Story-wise, the scene at the Northern Cave where Cloud talks while upside-down left an impression on me. I worked on the direction for that scene, but getting the characters to run to match with the movie scene was tricky, and I remember having trouble with it. The part where Cloud addresses Tifa as “Mrs.” Tifa, I made that hoping that the people playing it would be taken aback by the change in Cloud and it would really hit the player.

Nomura: The scene that sticks out for me is the scene when Tifa going into Cloud’s mental realm and he remembers the truth about what happened in the past.

Nojima: It was Katou (Masato Katou: FFVII event planner) who made the events for that part, and the movies were made by Ikumori (Kazuyuki Ikumori: FFVII movie designer). Ikumori was originally graphic designer for the maps, and this was the first time he’d tried his hand at movies. He said, “I’ve never worked on the movies before,” but looking at him now…

Nomura: Now he’s the movie director on DC and CC.

Kitase: Katou also did the event on the airship, the night before the final battle.

Nojima: Oh, the scene with the risqué line of dialogue? It was Katou who wrote that as well, not me.

- The line “Words aren’t the only way to talk someone how you feel,” right? That was quite a mature conversation for a FF game.

Kitase: But I remember having to get another version that was too intense toned down.

Nojima: The original idea was more extreme. The plan was to have Cloud walk out of the Chocobo stable on board the Highwind, followed by Tifa leaving while checking around, but Kitase turned it down. But even with the line in question, maybe at that time none of us thought it would be something so important (laughs).

In the original scenario, Zack didn’t exist

- Mr. Kitase, which scene do you find most striking even now?

Kitase: Like Nomura, I’d have to say the climax in the mental realm. The scene where the mysteries regarding Sephiroth and Cloud all become clear. I didn’t know until we were in the latter stages of development that Cloud’s memories were Zack’s. First of all, when I originally checked the scenario, the character of Zack didn’t exist. Zack was a character who came up as Nojima was building up the mysteries. So until that part was complete I was left wondering just how he was planning to solve this, and all the while making the event scenes, still in the dark about the truth.

Nojima: But with Zack, I didn’t simply bring him in just because it was needed for solving the mysteries. When I joined the development team, the concept of Aerith seeing her first love again in Cloud was already there, so I brought him in to link that with solving the mysteries.

Nomura: About the concept of her seeing her first love again in Cloud, at first we were thinking of making that man Sephiroth. When I got the request for the illustration of Zack we were already near the end of development, so when you look at it now it’s not even coloured, and I can’t really deny that it feels like quite a sudden request.

- Had you thought about the truth of the mysteries regarding Cloud and Zack from the very beginning?

Nojima: No, I thought of it as I went on with my work. So at the beginning there wasn’t much foreshadowing. The foreshadowing scenes, I asked the staff in charge of the event scenes to add after development reached a point where an outcome for the mysteries came into sight.

Kitase: In those days it was easy to go back and change things around later on. Lately, with the workload involved in making the graphics, it’s hard to ask people to change something once it’s been finished.

Nojima: Well, even back then, there were some people you could easily ask to change an event later on, and people who were difficult to ask, so the locations of the foreshadowing might be biased. I only went to the people who were easy to ask, and the foreshadowing is focused at the scenes they were in charge of (laughs).

Red XIII: Four-Legged Bane of the Event Planners

- I think one of the things that have helped maintain FFVII’s popularity is the uniqueness of its characters. How did you go about creating the characters?

Nomura: At the very start of development the scenario wasn’t complete yet, but I went along like, “I guess first off you need a hero and a heroine,” and from there drew the designs while thinking up details about the characters. After I’d done the hero and heroine, I carried on drawing by thinking what kind of characters would be interesting to have. When I handed over the designs I’d tell people the character details I’d thought up, or write them down on a separate sheet of paper. At that time, I still wrote everything by hand as well.

- So in exactly what order did you draw the characters?

Nomura: The first ones I drew was Cloud and Aerith. Next was Barret.

Kitase: And then Nomura said he wanted to have a four-legged character, and drew Red XIII…

Nomura: After that I think things kind of stalled for a while (laughs).

Nojima: Because you said you wanted to have a four-legged character, it was a real struggle to make the cut-scenes. Like, ‘how is he supposed to climb a ladder?’ and ‘when he turns around his tail and his body end up going into the wall’ (laughs).

Nomura: The scene with Red XIII standing on two legs on the transport ship was funny.

Nojima: The scene where he says, “It’s hard standing on two legs” (laughs).

Kitase: You named Red XIII, didn’t you, Tetsu (Nomura)?

Nomura: I thought a name that didn’t sound like a name would be interesting, so I combined a color and a number. The reason I chose 13 was pretty much because it’s an unlucky number. The official details for the character and his real name ‘Nanaki’ was something one of the other staff did.

Kitase: It was probably Akiyama (Jun Akiyama: FFVII event planner) who thought of those.

- This is something I noticed before, but to type in ‘Seto’, Nanaki’s father, in Japanese with the keyboard set to kana input, you press the keys ‘PS’. I was wondering if this perhaps was where the name came from…?

Kitase: Did he think that deeply about it?

Nojima: If it was Akiyama who was in charge of that, I wouldn’t put some deep-rooted reason like that past him (laughs).

Yuffie and Vincent, who were almost cut at one point.

- Yuffie and Vincent are secret characters who you don’t have to get in your party, but I was surprised that they had so many cut-scenes prepared for them.

Nomura: There was even a time when some people thought we should cut them because we didn’t have enough time. But we somehow managed to veto cutting them, and as a result they became the secret characters they are today.

Kitase: The main reason for there being so many cut-scenes for Yuffie is down it the strong attachment that Akiyama, who was in charge of them, had. Her appearing in a battle and talking with her afterwards, all those were his ideas, and as development moved along the scope steadily got bigger and bigger.

Nojima: It’s really annoying when you try to save after the Yuffie battle and get tricked (laughs). For the story in Wutai, I made the parts related to the main story, but the events in the Pagoda of the Five Mighty Gods were the work of Tokita (Takashi Tokita: FFVII’s event planner).

Kitase: Those bits do have a Tokita-feel to them.

Nojima: Tokita is involved in the theatre, and the characters who appear there have the names of people involved with the theatre like playwrights.

- Who was in charge of Vincent’s cut-scenes?

Kitase: I remember making the event where he joins you in the Shinra Mansion, but his episodes themselves was Nojima, wasn’t it?

Nojima: I did write his episodes. The back story for Vincent and Lucrecia was around from the start, and I remember linking that with Shinra. In the end, Chiba (Hiroki Chiba: FFVII’s event planner) crammed the Vincent-related events in right at the last minute.

Kitase: Chiba is in charge of DC’s scenario, but thinking about it now maybe it turned out that way because he worked on the events with Vincent in FFVII.

Nojima: However, despite Vincent not having many scenes due to him appearing in the latter half of the story, he has a fair amount of dialogue, and when he does show up he talks a lot. Even though really he’s meant to be a quiet person (laughs). Even now I have a problem when creating scenarios, where even though the character is a cool and silent type, I end up making scenes where they just keep on talking and talking. Roles like Barret, who appear from the start and have a lot of lines, most of the time, basically don’t know anything. But characters like Vincent, or Auron in FFX, it tends to be the case that the quieter they are the more they know about things, and they just end up with more expositional dialogue. I still haven’t found a solution to this problem.

The reason FFVII’s characters have continued to be loved

- When thinking of the character’s stories or working on their designs, do you have any kind of tried and tested methods, Mr. Nomura?

Nomura: Maybe not a method in particular. For FFVII’s characters, they’re the result of wanting to make varied, and in a sense going for an orthodox balance. In the recent FF games, I now receive the profiles of the characters before handling the designs, so I don’t worry about the character building much now. I think FFVII was it as far as me thinking of the character’s stories first goes.

- The characters of FFVII seem to be especially popular even out of the entire series, but where do you think the reason for that lies?

Nomura: Hmmm, I wonder? Nothing really hits me. Well, I guess that each character has their own individual episodes which are well told. You might say their personalities are too strong (laughs).

Nojima: Yeah, they were made nearly excessively individual. For example, once you’ve decided Aerith speaks like this, it starts to escalate in that direction. And like Cloud’s cool standing animation we mentioned before, all the staff in charge of the events took in anything that seemed interesting. Even Cloud’s “not interested” catch phrase comes up so much you start to think, you won’t normally say it that much (laughs).

Kitase: Everyone used it, didn’t they?

Nojima: In that sense, their characters were definitely strong. In FFVIII onwards, the height of the characters increased, and we starting to be conscious of realism. And when that happens, there are times when you start comparing them to real life people. But with FFVII’s height, even in 3D, you still don’t really get that sense of reality. Maybe in that aspect they were like cartoon characters, which was a plus. I think, maybe they had a kind of easy to remember quality as symbols.

Kitase: When I first read Nojima’s scenario, I felt strongly that his image of a heroine was fresh. The hero didn’t have a typical personality, single-minded or righteous, and Aerith lived in the slums. Those things were really fresh. And having 2 heroines, Aerith and Tifa, and having the hero waver between them, at the time that was something new. And Sephiroth too, who appears from the start and is the final enemy, and is sort of a rival. For me personally, I think those things which weren’t in past FFs might be the secret to its popularity.

Nomura: In regards to Sephiroth, I wanted to avoid having the kind of plot development where you get to the end of the story and suddenly this boss you’ve never heard of yet just appears. With FFVII, I wanted to do a story where you’re chasing someone you’ve known was the enemy from the get-go. As for the heroines, during development some people were of the opinion that compared to Tifa, Aerith has fewer scenes and didn’t really stand out, so we also increased her appearances.

Nojima: As a motif for them, Tifa is “the childhood friend who’s been with you since nursery school”, and Aerith is “the girl who transfers school mid-term and quickly leaves for another school.” Since she doesn’t have many scenes, you’ve got to make it so that the transfer student has a big impact. That was what I thought.

Feelings about Aerith, the tragic heroine

- You can’t talk about FFVII’s heroines without talking about the tragedy that befalls Aerith at the Forgotten City. That event was a very memorable scene not only for the FF series, but all RPGs.

Kitase: In the past FFs as well, important characters died and went away. Like Galuf in FFV for example, they followed a pattern where the character would go down after giving it his all in a fight. In this case, often it went that the characters think something like, they’ve tired so hard, and just accept the death and overcome it. When creating stories I think that is an option, but in FFVII we were thinking, could we take this a step further? Bring out a sense of loss somehow? What I didn’t want to have was the kind of story development where even when a character dies there’s no sense of loss, on the contrary it just raises motivation and pushes you forward.

Nojima: Kitase’s loss talk has been consistent since back then.

Kitase: And with a lot of stories, before they die there’s a lot of dramatic preparations, aren’t there? Like a “pre-prepared excitement”, or “using this as a step to fight evil further”, those are the kinds of developments I wanted to avoid. In reality, death comes without warning, and you’re left feeling dazed at the gravity of the loss… Rather than wanting to fight evil, you’re just overcome by a great sense of loss, like you just want to give up everything. I was in charge of the direction of that scene, and I tried to bring out that sort of sense of realism.

Nomura: It’s related to ‘life’, one of the themes of FFVII, so it’s not portrayed as a “death for excitement’s sake” but expresses a realistic pain. Death comes suddenly, so I think the emotion there wasn’t excitement or anything, but sadness.

Nojima: Speaking from a scenario standpoint, FFVII is ‘a story of life cycling through the planet’, so someone needed to be part of that cycle. In other words, although what happened to Aerith isn’t really based on logic, as far as the story goes, maybe one of the team was destined to lose their life from the very start. But how that one became Aerith wasn’t decided through a notice as is popularly mentioned. It was decided after everyone, including myself, racked our brains about what to do.

Truth hidden in the abbreviations of the Compilation titles

- 7 years after the release of FFVII, the Compilation began, but it was a surprise that Advent Children, the sequel, was a film.

Kitase: Originally the AC project came about when the staff said they wanted to make a film.

Nomura: But having that film work being based on FFVII was decided from the beginning.

Kitase: They’ve made several of the movie scenes for games before, so they have the know-how. But an independent film was a big challenge for us, so we had to be ready for it being considerably difficult. When thinking of what subject material we work with while having that readiness, we came up with FFVII. At first it was only planned to be 20 minutes, but before I knew it there were fight scenes, and finally it grew to 100 minutes… (laughs).

Nomura: After we started the project, there was a period where it was put to one side for a while. At that rate, the project itself seemed like it would just go up in smoke, so I put my hand up and said I’d do it, and started again from there, adding in fight scenes and so on.

- Was the formula for the Compilation’s titles, AC, BC, CC and DC, planned from the start?

Kitase: In order of release BC comes first, Advent Children was the first title we decided on.

Nomura: For BC’s title, Taba (Hajime Tabata: BC’s director) and Itou (Yukimasa Itou: BC’s producer) came to me saying they had a good idea. “How about linking with AC, and Before Christ (B.C.), and going with Before Crisis?” I just gave an nonchalant “sure, why not,” but I never thought it would end up being a formula (laughs). So, next we skipped C and went for DC. Then planning for CC suddenly began. Kitase came to my office one day and told me, “think of something” (laughs).

Kitase: That was how it all began. At then, we were thinking of a PSP port of BC. At the time, you could only play BC on NTT DoCoMo mobile phones, so we wanted to let a wider spectrum of players to have a chance to play it. So personally, I was planning releasing it on the PSP with basically the same graphics as the mobile phone version, even if we did fill in the story a bit. However, when I told Tetsu about this, I hadn’t realized at that time that that wouldn’t be enough (laughs).

Nomura: Since at first I was told it’s BC on the PSP, I thought of calling it “Before Crisis Core”. But at that time we’d already decided on having Zack as the main character, so we said, “since it’s going to be different from BC, we don’t need ‘Before’ in the title, do we?” So we took off the “Before”, and by chance it fitted the CC which we had skipped.

Kitase: When I saw the cut-scenes of the completed CC, the quality was good enough to release on the PS2, and I never expected it would be this good. With CC, I had only read part of the scenario when I worked on it, so when played up to the ending myself, as a consumer, I was moved, like “aah, so this is what Zack’s story was like…” (laughs). When I saw the ending, I though to myself, “all the titles have come together nicely. I’m glad we did the Compilation.”

Dirge of Cerberus Interview Part 1 – The Birth of DC

Yoshinori Kitase – Producer
Takayoshi Nakazato – Director
Tetsuya Nomura – Illustrator/Character Designer
Hiroki Chiba – Scenario

Please tell us what is involved through the course of making Vincent the main character in this game.

Kitase: I really like the original characters of FF7, and his name always made a presence in my mind. And this time, since we were thinking about wanting to make a gun action game, we decided on Vincent, who uses guns as his weapon of choice.

Nomura: I heard it from Kitase that he wanted to make a FPS (First Person Shooting) game, and that he wanted to use characters from the past FF series. And though within those characters in the past FF series, there were many suitable candidates; I have in mind that Vincent is the most suitable out of all of them, so I suggested it as well. There were others like Yuna, Barret, Irvine, basically, we’ve thought about all the past FF characters who used guns as their weapon of choice. However, with the release timing of AC and BC, as well as the mass depth and mysteries that are being covered [in AC and BC], it would be great if we can use Vincent as a way to smoothen [elaborate] the plot; and that’s what we thought about and it came true.

The genre that is called FPS, is not a really common thing [system] to the Japanese gamers. So during the development of this game, are there any uncertainties that are in mind?

Nakazato: When we made our press conference during the Square-Enix party, people who got to come into contact with this product were shocked. We realized [have in mind] that there were people who mainly play KH type genre of RPG, and the way they finish off an enemy is by approaching them up front to attack. However, in FPS, you can’t just run up to the enemy and assault them. So bearing in mind this experience, we realized the concept of FPS is not very well instilled in most gamers’ mind. Since we have this issue, we figured that we should include a Easy mode for people who just play pure RPG to understand and manage through this game.

Kitase: And to balance it out with the issue mentioned [by Nakazato], there was a dispute in terms of where the focal point should be, until the very end [of the production]. We didn’t want to make it into a first person POV, so we decided that at least we have to see Vincent from waist above, and able to see somewhere from his shoulders when the camera rotates. Though it is better if we want to make it like a real FPS and have the camera set around the height of the shoulders, there are still people who are new to the whole FPS concept and it is better to give them a full character view so that they can control the character easier. Moreover, when and how characters should be seen, and how it must not be seen on the screen, in certain instances, is quite difficult to manipulate.

[Basically, he is saying how hard it is to go from one view to another view without making the players having confusions as to exactly which one they should stick to, so they spent a lot of time debating and disputing this issue.]

Nakazato: Yes, to obtain a balance in that area was hard. Especially we don’t even know who is standing next to Vincent, and with considerable trouble [effort] about Vincent moving around, we have to make him look fascinating. And because we wanted to see it, so we added visual effects along with the mantle.

[He is saying how it is hard to present Vincent when he is in full view on the screen.]

This is about Vincent’s mantle. It seems that it’s the same mantle that is seen on Grimoire. What is the origin/concept of this mantle?

Kitase: Oh right. So when I was talking to Nomura about the design, I said, “Make something that people could see on the first sight that they are father and son.” From then on, it became a discussion about whether or not using the mantle is a good idea. Grimoire’s scarf somehow became Vincent’s turban [the hairband], it’s basically the same thing, but it’s worn in a different way. And that’s why we think that if we put something that can relate those two together, when people see it, they will go, “Oh! This is the father!”

Nomura: When I was asked to make a conceptual drawing about Grimoire Valentine, I was only then told on the spot that he is the father of Vincent, which made me quite shocked and surprised *laughs*. However, I am not exactly the person who is responsible for the making of Grimore Valentine [/I don't have the final call]. Instead, it was Nakaaki, the sub character and mechanic designer who drew the general appearance of Grimoire; but since [we have different styles] the look [on the face] is far different than Vincent’s, so Grimoire’s facial detail had to be redrawn by me. About his clothing, it’s basically what Kitase have said [so I won’t repeat the same speech again].

The gun that Vincent uses is quite impressive and striking. Are there any specific designs or origins about Vincent’s gun, Cerberus?

Nakazato: Oh, there aren’t any bases. When Nomura who is responsible for character design brought me the conceptual drawings, Vincent is already seen with the gun. I saw it and said, “Oh, so this time it’s this type of gun.” *laughs*

Kitase: After all, since this is a Gun Action game, the gun he’s holding must be special in a way. Bearing that in mind, we decided that it should be somewhat different than the previous productions.

Nomura: If Cloud has his Buster Sword modified, and this time, it’s Vincent who is being the main character, I want to give him some sort of weapon to show this significance. Vincent used to be one of the Turks, and Turks are said to be Shinra’s dogs… However, Vincent is no longer [a personnel] working for Shinra, instead he is bound by his past, so it came to me that he has an image of being chained in some form. Also, with regards to Vincent’s diabolic image, while we are talking about the hell hound, Cerberus, we think that it is quite suitable for him. So when that image became concrete in my mind, I drew it out with 3 barrels to imply the idea of the 3 heads Cerberus has, and everything started to take its place. And what is left is the revolver [bullet chamber], there are three of them too. Even though it is said that in most occasion there can only a limited number of bullets coming out, in this game, I worked with an interesting idea, “If there are 3 barrels, there must be three revolvers.”

Dirge of Cerberus Interview Part 2 – Behind the Scene settings

Yoshinori Kitase – Producer
Takayoshi Nakazato – Director
Tetsuya Nomura – Illustrator/Character Designer
Hiroki Chiba – Scenario

Mr. Nomura, you are the one that is in charge of all the main character designs. Is there anything that you have to especially keep in mind?

Nomura: This time, I kept in mind that I have to draw a lot of people that represent the world of FF7. Therefore, I can’t just go and say, “I feel that this character should be like THIS!”, I have to consider the many factors these characters have on each other, whether or not they fit in together with each other. Though there are times that I work with Nakaaki and other new designers in this project, in terms of female clothing, they are given to female designers.

[It is said that the world of DC] seems to be much broader compared to the world of FF7.

Nomura: Yes, it seems so. Nakaaki and other members who were involved used to be the test players of FF7 a long time ago. A little input from them might be interesting. Since this is a spin off, I don’t think there is any way that we can do so.

[This is really confusing, but I think what Nomura is saying that, the way DC’s world seems to have a broader scope is that, he considered adding some new influence from the old testers of FF7, but at the same time, he put a control on the amount of new ideas that are being implemented in the story.]

So in a sense, can we say that Nomura is the one who does the design, while Nakaaki and the others put on the flesh and bones?

Nomura: Perhaps so. Take Shalua as an example, she was first drawn by Nakaaki, then it was given to female staff, and at the end of the process it was given to me and I added the finishing touch to it, so it’s basically a 3-step process.

Is there a certain expectation you want to see for characters who appeared in FF7 [but weren’t really clearly shown back then in conceptual art]?

Nomura: About Lucrecia, since the leftover [remaining] information for her in FF7 was not found, it was really hard to recreate her. So we relied on guidebooks’ tiny little portraits, and the many drawings that fans did of her. Then we look at Sephiroth, the son of Hojo and Lucrecia, of course he looks more like Lucrecia [than Hojo] *laughs*. Based on all these points, this is how we establish the current Lucrecia that you see in DC today.

The crystal object that Lucrecia has been sleeping throughout DC, is it possible that she could be alive?

Chiba: She is still alive. In FF7, she became an entity that possesses a body that won’t die [perish] “that easily,” so she was always inside the crystal. However, it is not to say that it is entirely impossible for her to come out of the crystal, as Lucrecia was just in a state of sealing herself inside. Furthermore, that crystal is a product of Lucrecia herself. However, those who have seen the ending will understand that words can be [properly] communicated to her.

Kitase: Though it is not certain whether or not it [Lucrecia’s feelings/words] can be transcended to Vincent, he constantly visits her place and talks to her. In DC, Lucrecia’s feelings can be passed through [understood] by Shelke [with SND], but the last tear that we see Lucrecia shedding is implying the undermined uncertainty, “Did it really get through?”

[Carried on from above] what exactly is the idea [strength] of this crystal? Was it based on the same principle for the coffin that Vincent slept in when he was in the Shinra mansion?

Chiba: It is being protected [guarded] by something that is much stronger. Since Vincent just wakes up and open the lid *laughs*.

[This question is asking about the strength of the crystal and how easy it could be broken open and accessed. Compared to Vincent’s coffin, it’s something that is much stronger and harder to break.]

About the character that “does not want to establish direct contact,” Reeve has this comment about this individual as “someone who wants to compensate for [the debt he owed to] the planet.” So is it possible that the person behind WRO’s funding is “him”?

Chiba: I think it must be him *laughs*.

Kitase: Since there is a similar dialogue that appeared in AC, please try to make a connection between that mysterious comment [and this one, the person (?)].

If there is really such a contributor as Reeve said, then Cid’s Airship units, after all are also funded by the same person?

Chiba: In the case of Cid, to say that he received the money directly from that person is a bit…well it wouldn’t really make sense because of his [Cid’s] personality, but I think it’s more of passing the money from Reeve to Cid. Whether or not Cid still has some [qualms (?)] about that person, it’s quite a delicate matter *laughs*.

What is the contributor doing as of now?

Kitase: Basically what he is doing in AC, and it’s going to extend for quite a while [meaning he will be doing the same thing in the future for quite a while]. For some reason or the other, since he still has this bad impression upon him, it is still not clear whether or not the reason of his support is [simply] just to help out.

Nomura: No matter what is going against the planet and how he wants to compensate, I think he is trying to establish some sort of profit as his primary goal. Even in DC, he says it’s for the sake of amending his debt to the planet and helped out financially, but I think I’m afraid [it’s just another way] he used to put his own goal forward.

Dirge of Cerberus Interview Part 3 – The Mysteries of Tsviet

Yoshinori Kitase – Producer
Takayoshi Nakazato – Director
Tetsuya Nomura – Illustrator/Character Designer
Hiroki Chiba – Scenario

Okay, the next question is, about the new characters, Tsviets, do they have a model that they are based on?

Chiba: I was thinking, since Vincent being the main character this time, along with characters like Yuffie, Cait Sith, Cloud, et al. from FF7, they needed some people to fight against. Keeping in mind that they are soldiers who are different from Sephiroth, and making a balance out of here and there, we came up with Vice, Nero, Rosso, Azul, and Shelke, while Nomura designed and shaped them.

Kitase: I told him and put this across – “Make it [this character] look [feel] like this.” For example, requests like: “Make Nero look like a psycho.”

Nomura: About Nero, I was being told, “Restrict him [for me]“. As I am not responsible for writing the scenario and background information for the characters, I was very loose [on the details] on the design of the characters. Though I have also received information about Nero, when I saw that it has “suppressing his own strength therefore binding his own hands,” I started to have funny ideas, because right after that, it says, “shoots things with his two hands” *laughs*. Moreover, the information also has “riding on a motorcycle” written on it. Does Nero really ride on the motorcycle without his hands on the steering control? *laughs* And that caused me quite some trouble, so I decided to give him a pair of wings with hands on it.

Why is it that Nero has to have his two arms restricted, not to mention that his face is being wrapped up with bandages?

Chiba: Throughout the years while he was in DG, he got used to not using his hands, got used to being in control, got used to being locked up, got used to being restricted. About his bandages, that person [Nero], seems to be the type that will leave [leak] something [here I assume it’s his darkness] wherever he goes, so the image of him needing something to keep it [his power] blocked came to place *laughs*. We also had this idea earlier that Nero’s mother got trapped into darkness when Nero was born. Basically everyone in Tsviet received some form of “adjustment” in DG one way or another, but what exactly is the thing that everyone was subjected to, when you enter the multiplayer mode, you shall find out.

In the Tsviet, everyone was given a name along with a color, why is it that Shelke is the only one labeled as “Colorless”? Is there some sort of meaning behind this?

Chiba: This will become clear once people have played the multiplayer mode. If people have gone through halfway of the multiplayer mode, Shelke’s secret will be understood.

Does Tsviet only consists of 5 people?

Chiba: “What if there are people who survived?” That is something that we do not know. Since Tsviet is a name given to those people in DG who are ranked as Elites, and those 5 people who survived through the last three years [FF7 to DC] are exceptionally stronger than normal warriors. In multiplayer mode, players can become Tsviets too.

It seems that Azul and Shalua made an appearance during BC. Is it possible that more DC characters are going to be seen in BC?

Kitase: As BC is heading towards its better state [in terms of the plot], I doubt that there will be any more links [with BC and DC]. However, since this whole project is a “living thing” under development, it is uncertain what will become of it.

This is about Weiss. Why is it that he was “sleeping” [throughout DC]?

Chiba: Actually, after the unification of DG, Weiss’s whereabouts became unknown. Nero, who kept this information from the rest of the DG and continued on ruling and controlling the rest of the DGs. And after that, it’s the background story… of how he met up with Hojo.

It seems that while Weiss is in a state of sleeping, it created a chance for Hojo, who is [supposed to be] dead to come into contact to him.

Chiba: Weiss is basically a character that contains all the special abilities [good stuff] of the DG soldiers. That is why he is able to use SND as Shelke used hers, and that is also how Hojo caught hold of him and used him in reverse.

Kitase: After the meteor disaster, the once broken network was being restored during the timeline of DC. The revival festival of Kalm is a celebration of the restoration of connection along with a chain of events. And with the successful hook up of the network, this leads to the incident of Hojo.

Nomura: In very early stages, we planned to have Weiss with cables stuck inside his body. And then draw him without wearing anything on his top half. We also planned to have these cables hooked up to a computer, which is used by Hojo.

You could take it [think] that the Omega that was created when Nero and Weiss become one is because of Hojo when Nero was being distracted. Omega is born from the pure Lifestream, so does that mean the Omega we see in DC is completely different form than the original Omega [that was described in Lucrecia’s reports]?

Chiba: It is a completely different object than the original Omega that was expected [to be born out of natural causes]. As a result of being a completely different object than its original form, you can also say that the way in which this artificial Omega was created [the reversal process] brings harm and devastation.

[This question is basically asking the difference between the real Omega and the artificial Omega that Hojo tried to replicate.]

Dirge of Cerberus Interview Part 4 – And then thereafter…

Yoshinori Kitase – Producer
Takayoshi Nakazato – Director
Tetsuya Nomura – Illustrator/Character Designer
Hiroki Chiba – Scenario

After the incident, we can see that Shelke is living with Tifa and people leading an ordinary life. It appears that she does not have to rely on Mako baths anymore. If that is true, could we please hear about the reason behind this?

Chiba: I was thinking if it could be her sister who might have been revived in the ending gave her the strength [to live on without Mako baths].

Kitase: When Omega was defeated, the thing [that resembles Mako-snow] that rained down was the Lifestream. It will be great if that person [Shalua] can wake up.

Chiba: We are going to elaborate more on that if there is a sequel. *laughs*

Nakazato: And I want to make her grow up a lot more [rapidly]. *laughs*

What kind of life is Shelke going to lead after the game [in the future]?

Nomura: I think she wants to be with Vincent. Though this is how it’s said, based on Vincent’s personality, I don’t think he will adhere [stay] with her. Even if she is unable to leave yet unable to stay, I feel that she will be in a relative distance around Vincent.

Her look in ordinary clothing [the one she wears at the ending] is quite shocking [astonishing].

Nomura: I was thinking, “Am I going to use that ?” Although I was being told to draw the ordinary clothing, since I was thinking if it will be good to get something out during the scene of reminisce. Lastly, while having tea at 7th Heaven, although she came out [shrewdly] looking as a Soldier and said “Hey” [meaning she didn’t feel comfortable to wear the DG uniform in front of Cloud and people], it seems that at the end she wants to reserve it [DG clothing].

[Here it’s basically saying how Shelke wants to save her DG clothing even though she doesn’t belong to DG anymore.]

It is said that her clothing is based on a concept of “something cute”, is this true?

Nomura: Nope, rather, I was aiming for the “ordinary girl” look, and I just followed that idea and drew. At the end, I just wanted to show that she returned to being someone who she really is.

Please tell us the character(s) that you are fond of in DC.

Nakazato: I like Azul [very much]. When Chiba was writing the scenario for me, to the stage where we decide on the voice actors, I felt that this is the way [the image] that Azul should be.

[He’s saying that everything matches Azul perfectly from head to toe.]

Chiba: Since I am the key [as in the most important/critical person] to the making of the scenario, I have to say I like Shelke after all. In terms of her expression, the way her face is portrayed is in tremendous detail. “Move towards this way a little bit” and “This time stay like this”, they really did a rather fine job of making her.

[He is saying how her movements are so delicate and the way that they made her expressions are done with a lot of details.]

Nomura: It’s probably Rosso. Though we are speak of characters that are not originally in FF7, and there are also quite a few members in coming from Tsviet, Rosso is probably [of all the Tsviet] on quite a different line [level] when I drew it. I think Rosso is definitely one of the unique creations that I have out of all the characters I have drawn.

Kitase: After all, I think Reeve was quite amusing *laughs*. In the first reunion [of Reeve and Vincent in DC], we didn’t think about making a human copy or anything interesting for him. Though we didn’t intend to have that scene in the script, I tried and said, “Let’s do it.” From then on, we have setup a character profile for him. Although it wasn’t an openhearted laugh [joke], we want to see a “Wow, this guy’s amusing” actions expressed by Reeve. And since in the previous production [FF7] we weren’t sure what kind of person Reeve is, we imagined that he’s someone that doesn’t have a lot of people following [in contact with] him. Therefore, this time around, we revamped his position in DC. During the production of DC, we were also in the middle of AC’s production. When I heard Nomura ask, “Is Reeve going to make an appearance in AC?” I said, “Only his voice, but not himself.” And since I liked the idea, I did what I like [I went ahead and made it come true in DC]. And since the overall story of DC is quite heavy [serious], we thought about Yuffie and pondered if she can become a character for some comical relief.

Dirge of Cerberus Interview Part 5 – Collaboration with Gackt

Yoshinori Kitase – Producer
Takayoshi Nakazato – Director
Tetsuya Nomura – Illustrator/Character Designer
Hiroki Chiba – Scenario

Please let us know what aims made you decide on collaborating with Gackt.

Nakazato: Though we have a lot of candidates when we were deciding who we should get [to sing the theme song], at the end we wanted to aim for someone who can make a huge impact. Then we thought, “It would be great to have the person who sings this theme song match and represent the image of Dirge of Cerberus.” At the end it became a favor that we asked from Gackt.

Nomura: Though that’s how it is for the songs, we have actually been thinking if he should do some voice acting on another compilation title. But since it couldn’t come true over there [the other compilation title], it became something like “Why don’t we try this on DC and have a theme song instead.” Although there are many female artists’ images that can represent the female characters of the FF series, after the talk about wanting to have a male artist, Gackt, who was one of the candidates, was being suggested. It became a thing which I feel is the most suitable towards the world setting of DC. Not only is he someone who [closely] sticks to my own world setting; to a certain extent in the world of FF7, it is also has a meaning of a thing that is being finished. Though it is not sure whether or not that side [Gackt] has experienced uncertainty, he accepted and agreed willingly [upon our request].

Not only responsible for singing the theme song, but also appearing in the FMV, are these all decided at the same time when [you made the decision to collaborate with Gackt]?

Kitase: While we were going ahead and [making sure that we go along as we have planned earlier in the talk] trying to get Gackt to sing the theme song, and since he is going to appear in the promotion video as a character, we were thinking about having Gackt do some voice acting, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if we can hear his voice too?” The atmosphere of Gackt and our image of the characters in the FF series are quite similar, so I felt why don’t we let him make an appearance in the state as it is? We also considered [about how we will be able to make] this piece interesting if Gackt didn’t only make a voice contribution, but also appear in person.

We heard Gackt also gave some suggestions on [G’s clothing] design. What kind of suggestions did he give?

Kitase: For example, when Nomura was in the middle of designing the clothes, we were wondering if the coloring should be white or black, we also have many other variations in mind. But at the end, Gackt chose red.

Nomura: In the beginning there were black, white, and red. Even though I say black, Kitase says white, we still decided that it’s better if we respect the wish of whatever the wearer’s choice is.

Upon the completion of the design, is there such a thing like “I want to create something [with an image] like this”?

Nomura: Since that costume was planned to have a theme of “One-wing,” according to the design, it will become a coat that has feathers wrapped around the patches [squares and tiles] section. It’s basically a design where the whole body is almost wrapped with feathers. [Could we say that] after we incorporated his [Gackt’s] ideas, it somehow became his design as well? And what is left is that, since it was not finished at the time, we just drew it as an unfinished design.

[He is saying how there were certain things that were decided before they consulted Gackt’s idea, and after they consulted Gackt, it was still a very basic concept which they were not really certain about. It only became a confirmed design when it was at the last stage of the production.]

Kitase: Though at the very beginning when the prototype of the clothing design was out, there were going to be black belts with the images of wing[s] hanging fully from the design, we listened to the ideas about the length and balance of the decorations given by Gackt, since he will be the one wearing this costume in action. There were many instances and things that happened when he tried to put the costume on but he couldn’t move. *laughs* And since this time, he will be appearing with a CG character at the same time, we’ve paid special attention to the design [overall impression] of how he looks afterward wearing the costume, so that we could make sure the head and body balance are the same for both Gackt and Vice [the CG character].

It feels that the theme song [Redemption] and [Longing] matches the theme [of DC] quite well. What kind of request was made to Gackt when he was composing these songs?

Kitase: About the ending song, our request in the beginning was to make it a ballad. We knew that Gackt has a lot of wonderful ballads [amongst his songs], so when we first got together and talked it over, we requested the same type of ballad that Gackt has been doing. In the middle of the production, Gackt was saying [suggesting] aside, “How about making it sound like this?”, and that’s how Redemption came to be.

Nomura: Since I have been thinking for a while to have a song as intensive as this, I passed it with no objection and accepted it.

Chiba: I wanted to see [and bring out] the game scenario and game play no matter what, and when I saw Gackt’s image, I said to myself “This is it!” and that essentially became how I feel.

Nakazato: Before Gackt [started on something], we sent him all the related information including the ending sequence to him, we asked him to compose a song that can express the things that happened in that scene. When we have to master-up [final touch up] this game, Gackt’s Live [the song] became extensively heavy [recording], and we didn’t have enough time to spare and play the scene all over again. However, as more staff personnel are moving over to the Hakata site, we [finally] get to have a chance to check over the whole video.