Image Gallery
After extensive searches throughout the web, over 2300 snapshots from the Multiplayer have been amassed. Obviously these are far too many images to be displayed in an article gallery, so the snapshots have been compiled into two zip files for the reader to download.
Click the links below to download the zip files.
– DCFFVIIOnline-Player-Galleries.zip 173MB
*Time of last gallery update: 2017-02-22
– DCFFVIIOnline-Misc-Galleries.zip 98.1MB
*Time of last gallery update: 2017-02-22
Continue scrolling to read about the technical details behind the screenshots taken by the players, followed by a viewable gallery of all available concept art for the Multiplayer.
– About Multiplayer Screenshots
– Concept Art
About Multiplayer Screenshots
The game’s own snapshot feature removed game menus and added a copyright note to the lower right corner. For the retail version the copyright note reads:
©2006 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.
CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA
Snapshots taken by players during beta testing naturally read “2005”, doing a great favor for those who wish to keep their “beta screenshots” and “retail version screenshots” apart.
After the 2006-04-20 version update, two artefacts stop appearing in these screenshots. Firstly, the timer/countdown used for many missions and team battles. Secondly, the imprint of the stream in the upper right corner of the screen that indicate the activity of the network. If a screenshot includes either of these two artefacts, you can be sure they date from before the April 20 update. The “timer” artefact is not present in beta/2005-era screenshots because a different type of timer was used back then.
Many screenshots can be beautiful thanks to the high clarity and the lack of obstructing menus such as HP- and weapon indicators. The snapshot feature could not be adjusted to include the game’s menus however, which is why footage that show the menus are considerably more rare. Only when players went the extra mile of photographing their screen or use an external recording device could they share game content like maps, chat boxes, NPC dialogue, equipment, option configurations etc. No doubt this limitation has contributed to why the quest giver manuscript remain one of the least preserved aspects of the Multiplayer.
Concept Art
Concept art from the FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania. See page 193 in the Revised Edition.
By unlocking the installation screen for the Multiplayer via the retail version of Dirge of Cerberus, one will see plenty of artwork both for the Multiplayer and Single Player which is not found elsewhere.
This artwork can be extracted straight from the game disc. Here is the ripped artwork that is immediately relevant to the Multiplayer. The first two character concept pieces are never shown during the installation screen and might not have been seen even by players of the online mode.
A mostly identical installation screen existed for the beta version as well. Here are a few photographs of the installation screen, as taken by the beta testers.
As the viewer can observe by themselves, there are some differences between the artwork in the β version versus the screens of the retail edition.
The standby message in one of the screens actually reads “Fight against players from all over the world” which is quite frankly a lie since the Multiplayer was limited to Japan. Translation by hito.
Sources:
– FFVIIExcavation
– Teramachi Magistrate’s Game Diary
– Sayaka’s blog entries
– kupoa’s Blog
– krHACKen’s work at the Assembler Games forum
