Video Archive
This page lists and describes all currently available recordings from the DCFFVII online mode, complete with download links. For the cutscenes, we’ll be picking apart the different possible variations of each scene and highlighting differences. Each gameplay video is explained to help the viewer better grasp the various nuances of the online play and to become familiarized with the player community.
If you are in possession of any DCFFVII Multiplayer footage not currently present in this archive, or higher quality versions of existing video files, your contribution would be immensely appreciated!
CUTSCENES
— Scene 1 “A SOLDIER Wakes”
— Argento the Silver
— Scene 2 “The Transparent and the Silver”
— Scene 3 “Threat Level SSS”
— Scene 4 “Azul’s Meal”
— Scene 5 “Even a Tsviet”
— Scene 6 “At the Foot of Darkness”
— Scene 7 “Real Yet Fake”
— Scene 8 “Come Play Sometimes”
— Scene 9 “Power of the Transparent”
— Scene 10 “The Emperor Unchained”
— Scene 11 “Title of the Emperor”
— Scene 12 “When the Score is Settled”
— Scene 13 “The End of the Tragedy”
GAMEPLAY
— Nekomimi’s Gameplay Recordings
— Pierce’s Gameplay Recordings
— Northern Kingdom’s Channel
— doonkonishi’s Channels
— TSV-Jill’s Channel
— Miscellaneous
Recordings from the online mode are typically found on YouTube or on the Japanese video site NicoNico, the latter which requires you to have an account to view said videos. All the video files we have were downloaded from either video streaming service, meaning that we do not possess the original video files.
Most videos exist in re-uploaded form on Grimoire Valentine’s YouTube channel. The cutscenes in his playlist have embedded English translations and some of his gameplay re-uploads are no longer present anywhere else on the web. In the cases where the original source has been lost to us, the uploads on Grimoire’s channel will be referred to.
For the thirteen numbered cutscenes we are in luck because they can actually be unlocked in the second Japanese release of Dirge of Cerberus, DCFFVII:International. Sometimes these cutscenes will be compared with their counterparts from when the online mode was still active.
Another primary YouTuber to be aware of is binnsennto, aka Nekomimi-ch. The recordings of binnsennto are our primary sources for what cutscenes looked like in the Multiplayer.
Binnsennto is usually known as Nekomimi on Japanese forums, but their known player characters had the names “Nekomimi”, “Nekonini” and “Nekomimi2”. Nekomimi had a wide presence on Japanese blogs and sites dedicated to the Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer and they were also a member of Team_2ch, an active player Unit of the online mode all the way from its beta stage to its final hours.
Cutscenes
Scene 1 “A SOLDIER Wakes”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 1 – DCFFVII:International [English Subtitles]
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 1 video: 26.4MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The player has created a character and so the story begins. The cutscene implies that you are a wounded SOLDIER who was taken to Deepground, like so many others before you. In this and many subsequent cutscenes you will see flashbacks of a younger girl who appears to be attacked by Deepground and a Restrictor.
The choice of gender for the player character will influence whether the girl in the flashback yells “Big Brother” or “Big Sister”. In most of the cutscenes accessed via the International version the player character is male, in contrast to Nekomimi’s female player character, which means that for the most part we have a recorded difference between the girl yelling “Big Brother” and “Big Sister”.
Argento the Silver
bona’s NicoNico upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
– Download bona’s Argento video: 2.63MB, FLV
After speaking to Officer-East (see “Opening – Intermission 1” in the Online Mode Translations) the player speaks to Argento and learns of this Tsviet’s role in Deepground.
What we have here is a rare recording of a semi-cutscene which is not part of the numbered cutscenes available via the Event Viewer, neither in DCFFVII:International nor in the Japanese original when the Multiplayer was active.
Argento is voice-acted here but she lacks mouth animations. It is unknown how many of the NPCs had their lines voice acted when you interacted with them in gameplay.
The uploader on NicoNico is “bona”, and their account includes the above scene and all the numbered online mode cutscenes. It is unknown if bona is the same person as binnsennto/Nekomimi. The numbered cutscenes are the same recordings as the ones uploaded to Nekomimi’s YouTube channel.
Scene 2 “The Transparent and the Silver”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 2 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 2 video: 9.62MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
Shelke and Argento discuss the potential worth of the player character.
Of particular interest to this and the previous scene with Argento is that in the early days of the Multiplayer, Argento wore a mask helmet and did not have her lines voice acted.
Scene 3 “Threat Level SSS”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 3 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 3 video: 20.9MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The absolute threat of the Tsviets and the absolute authority of the Restrictor are exposited here.
Apart from Officer-East we also have Officer-South, Officer-West and Officer-North, each one occupying their respective cardinal lobby of the Deepground hub. In the existing cutscene recordings we only see Officer-East, but it was possible to trigger these cutscenes with any of the four officers. The cutscenes involving the officers are Scene 3, Scene 4 and Scenes 8 through 10. Ergo the variations of these events that take place in the other three lobbies are lost to us. We do have two screenshots from when Officer-South is the speaker, fortunately.
Scene 4 “Azul’s Meal”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 4 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 4 video: 13.4MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
Two new Tsviet recruits are revealed to be no match for the colored Tsviet Azul, cementing the fact further that the Tsviet of Color are on a whole other level.
The NPCs who become a “meal” for Azul, shown here and in Scene 3, are not the same as when you watch the scene in DCFFVII:International. For pretty much all the cutscenes where nameless NPCs are involved, different character models spawn when comparing Nekomimi’s recordings and the cutscenes in the International version. It is unknown whether different character models would spawn for each playthrough of the online mode, or if this is just a discrepancy between the online mode and the 2008 release of Dirge of Cerberus.
Scene 5 “Even a Tsviet”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 5 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 5 video: 27.1MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
Despite their immense power, not even a Tsviet of Color can stand up against the Restrictors and their control. Yet the player character is somehow able to act against the Restrictor…
“The name’s Usher. Pleased to meet you while you’re still alive.”
Scene 6 “At the Foot of Darkness”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 6 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 6 video: 23.8MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
After Usher exposits the origins of the colored Tsviets, Nero releases his darkness and causes the player character to fall into more nightmare flashbacks.
Scene 7 “Real Yet Fake”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 7 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 7 video: 18.7MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The researcher Este-D knocks the player character unconscious and conducts an experiment that makes the player see Shelke and Rosso through the eyes of a dead soldier. Somehow the player character’s brain remains intact afterwards, despite the experiment having destroyed the brains of most of Este-D’s previous subjects.
A curious discrepancy exists here between Nekomimi’s recording and how the scene looks in DCFFVII:International. From 2:17 – 2:21 the screen goes white and only for a few frames at the end do we see Shelke’s hand. When unlocking Scene 7 in the second Japanese release of Dirge of Cerberus, we clearly see Shelke from the perspective of the dead soldier, without any blinding brightness to obscure our view.
Scene 8 “Come Play Sometimes”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 8 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 8 video: 25.7MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
Scene 8 is the first scene to acknowledge the Deepground rank the player has progressed to: In this case, “Commander”.
Rosso the Crimson receives the spotlight here and challenges the Restrictor to a fight. Even without blocking Rosso’s movements like he did with Azul in Scene 5, we see that the Restrictor can put up a more than good enough fight.
For reasons unknown, the confident Officer-East of Scenes 3 & 4 is now replaced with an Officer-East who is quite nervous. The two characters are not just different in demeanor, but they don’t share the same voice at all. Blog entries about NPCs suggest that the original Officer-East went crazy and/or died, which is why for Scenes 8, 9 & 10 we are left with the nerve-wreck officer.
At 1:07 in Nekomimi’s upload there is a line of text that the player has to click past before progressing to the next scene. It is a notification that a new mission has been unlocked.
騒乱の顛末 がミッションに追加されました = ‘An Account of the Disturbance’ has been added to Missions
This notification and those like it in Scene 9, Scene 10 and Scene 12 have been edited away in Grimoire Valentine’s upload of these cutscenes. Naturally, “Mission Unlocked” notices do not pop up when viewing the cutscenes in DCFFVII:International.
Scene 9 “Power of the Transparent”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 9 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 9 video: 30MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
After Shelke conducts repairs to the Deepground computer “Patricia” she is ordered by the Restrictor to kill the player character. Shelke pretends to perform the deed and strikes the player in a way so that the wounds are non-lethal.
At 0:50 in Nekomimi’s recording there is the following notification:
アクティブ・ジャミング がミッションに追加されました = ‘Active Jamming’ has been added to Missions
The mission Active Jamming is a General-class mission. Scene 9 also happens to acknowledge the player’s rank as General, which is just one step below Tsviet.
With the release of “World of Final Fantasy” for the PS4 in 2016, Shelke’s special move “Technical Cancel” was at last officially localized into “Countertek“. Here in Scene 9 she uses Countertek to cancel the player character’s limit break, which she then follows up with a copy-strike move.
Nekomimi’s recording ends after Shelke strikes down the player character. But when the cutscene is viewed via DCFFVII:International there is a continuation where Este-D finds the player character and remarks how amazing it is that they are still alive. Presumably Nekomimi’s recording ended too early or the scene was lost in the editing process.
One statement by Este-D is quite curious:
Then there was a man that looked strange yet familiar who told me, “Here, take her/him, she’s/he’s still alive,” before he left.
In a saved online conversation between S&G and an online mode player named “shinra employee”, it is claimed that NPC dialogue hints at Usher being a dead soldier. This would mean that this SND projection of Usher is data of a man who once lived. If this is true, then that makes us interpret Este-D’s line “strange yet familiar” as a sign that she is subconsciously remembering the real Usher.
Scene 10 “The Emperor Unchained”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 10 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 10 video: 16.4MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The player character has now advanced from General to Tsviet and is allowed to challenge Weiss. In the throne room Weiss is released from his chains by the Restrictor.
The notification at 2:15 reads as follows:
ライトニング・トリック がミッションに追加されました = ‘Lightning Trick’ has been added to Missions
“Lightning Trick” is a mission against Weiss that the player can’t win, just like when Vincent Valentine first encounters Weiss in the Single Player. In a mission called “The King Unleashed”, the player could enter a winnable battle against Weiss which takes place in the Multiplayer-exclusive “City” area. In the description to that mission, it is said that Argento has designed new swords for Weiss. In Scene 10 Weiss comments on wanting to try out the new swords placed in front of him, so it’s reasonable to assume that these are the swords designed by Argento.
Scene 11 “Title of the Emperor”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 11 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 11 video: 32.7MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The player character inevitably loses the battle against Weiss in “Lightning Trick” but is kept alive. Shelke speaks to the player character and strengthens their desire to have revenge on the Restrictor for the death of his/her younger sister. Weiss engages in a handicap match against Azul and Rosso, but even when drawing only one of his two swords the red and blue are no match against the pure white.
Scene 12 “When the Score is Settled”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 12 – DCFFVII:International [English Subtitles]
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 12 video: 7.02MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The final act of rebellion against the Restrictor is set in motion. Weiss keeps the Restrictor distracted despite their control mechanism, giving the player character the chance to strike. The battle can be viewed on Grimoire Valentine’s channel.
Notification at 0:54, when the scene ends:
支配の代償 がミッションに追加されました = ‘The Price of Control’ has been added to Missions
This is the mission to engage in battle against the Restrictor and reach the end of the online mode’s storyline.
Scene 13 “The End of the Tragedy”
Nekomimi’s YouTube upload
Grimoire’s re-upload [Embedded English Subtitles]
Scene 13 – DCFFVII:International
– Download Nekomimi’s Scene 13 video: 68.8MB, MP4 (right-click and save link as)
The Restrictor is killed but not before dealing a lethal blow to the player character. The Tsviet plan their next move for taking down the rest of the Restrictors and leaves the throne room. It is revealed that the red-haired soldier Usher and the player character’s memories of a younger sister was nothing more than an illusion created from Shelke’s SND abilities manipulating the player’s mind. Shelke leaves the throne room and the dying husk of the player character who was manipulated all along.
Each of the four cardinal lobbies in the Deepground hub had their own Restrictor, just like each lobby had their own Officer. With the death of one Restrictor in Scene 13, we are aware of at least three remaining Restrictors. According to bloggers, there was no way to distinguish the four Restrictors. Thusly we have no idea if the Restrictor who dies here belonged to any of the four cardinal lobbies.
Scene 13 is the only known moment where the “HJ Virus” is mentioned. While it may have been referenced somewhere in the now lost NPC dialogue of the Multiplayer, so far any more data on the origin and exact nature of the HJ Virus appear out of our reach.
In the International version the cutscene ends when the camera pans away from Shelke, as you are not shown a staff roll.
It used to be that Nekomimi’s recording was our only way to watch the ending credits to the online story mode. However, with the help of cheat devices you can actually unlock the Multiplayer staff roll in both the European version and the second Japanese release (DCFFVII:International) of Dirge of Cerberus.
You can watch a recording of the unlocked staff roll, though be aware that there is a recording error from 3:14 – 3:42 that slows down the footage and makes it fall behind on the music.
Gameplay
Nekomimi’s Gameplay Recordings
Looking at the upload dates of Nekomimi’s videos is perhaps the most nostalgic, since all their videos were uploaded in 2006. All cutscene videos were uploaded in early October, immediately after the Multiplayer had ended, while the gameplay videos were uploaded between July to September. The date that the video was uploaded is thusly written down as it gives a good indication to when the actual recording was made.
Shelke Battle
YouTube
Date of upload: 2006-07-21
– Download Nekomimi’s Shelke Battle video: 25.1MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
We have not yet figured out if Pochi is a player character made by Nekomimi or somebody else. What is known is that both Nekomimi and Pochi are listed as members of the famous DCFFVII Multiplayer squad “Team_2ch”. In the chat box to this video we see the name of another Team_2ch member: mojaemon.
A maximum of three people could participate per battle here, which makes sense given the tight space of this boss arena. Defeating Shelke rewarded you with the medal “Shelke Personal Mako Ampoule”.
In the Multiplayer battle, Shelke could use her copy-strike limit break move, like the one she uses on the player character in Scene 9 after she employs Countertek. Neither of these moves are used on Vincent when you battle Shelke in Chapter 4 of the Single Player.
The Cure Materia, limited to the online mode, worked by firing a green orb into the ground which would create a temporary healing spot for the player to walk on. This is why you will often see the players fire straight into the ground when using Cure. It was also possible to shoot a green Cure orb straight at your comrades and heal them that way.
Dual Horn Battlefield
YouTube
Date of upload: 2006-08-06
– Download Nekomimi’s Dual Horn Battlefield video: 29.1MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
This Drone-class mission is essentially identical to Extra Mission #3 “Wastelings”, accessible in the post-JORG (meaning “after original Japanese version”) releases of Dirge of Cerberus. Defeat the Dual Horn in the wasteland area while simultaneously dealing with Guard Hounds. When playing as Vincent Valentine you do not have a time restriction. In both it is recommended to keep killing Guard Hounds so that you can pick up the ammo they leave behind.
The platform that Nekomimi descends onto at 5:38 in the video is not possible to land on when you play as Vincent Valentine in any of the Extra Missions that uses the wastelands map. Invisible walls now surround this platform which clearly acted as a good safe spot in the online mode.
Although the low resolution video in this makes it impossible to tell, later recordings which are of higher quality show that the player character is called “Nekonini” and not “Nekomimi”.
Tsviet Exam
YouTube: Part1
YouTube: Part2
Date of upload: 2006-08-19
– Download Nekomimi’s Tsviet Exam videos.
Part 1: 43.3MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
Part 2: 30.4MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
With the version update made on August 17, players could at last progress to the top rank of Tsviet and thusly unlock the online story mode’s final cutscenes. The exam to progress from General to Tsviet was no joke, as Nekomimi’s recording shows. After 16 minutes through the Temple area, never seen outside of Multiplayer gameplay, Nekomimi was finally rewarded with the Tsviet rank.
Here is a short list of observations you can make from watching this 16-minute recording:
– Grenades [ボムのかけら] are thrown aplenty by enemies in this stage and the player can pick up their own grenades for use. Throwing grenades in tight spaces can be tricky though, as seen at 2:14 in part 1, since it heightens the risk of the grenade bouncing back and harming the thrower instead.
– We get to see that firing a Cure orb at the wall can work just as well as firing it straight into the ground.
– The maximum number of potions you can carry are three, not four like in the Single Player.
– Midway through part 2 we see that one Ether restores the player’s MP from almost nothing to full. This is more than an Ether can restore in the Single Player, but it’s also possible that the value of Max MP is different for this player character than it is for Vincent Valentine.
– The item “Limit Breaker”, which did not exist in the Single Player of the original Japanese release, was actually already in use in the Multiplayer. In the final frenzy before Nekomimi clears the mission, they use a Limit Breaker to enter into a powered up state for twenty seconds.
Steel Wall
YouTube
Date of upload: 2006-08-23
– Download Nekomimi’s Steel Wall video: 35.5MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
A Drone-class mission with a maximum number of six participants at a time.
Within the time limit of five minutes, your goal is to destroy the enemy base station. Nekomimi spends several minutes with co-player Don_lv_02 shooting away at the stationary target, slowly eroding it until nothing remains. The Extra Missions available to Vincent Valentine never adopted this goal of having to destroy a station/tower such as this in order to clear the mission.
Special Mission: Galian Beast (Anger of the Phantom Beast)
YouTube
Date of upload: 2006-09-09
– Download Nekomimi’s Special Mission: Galian Beast video: 40.5MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
The September 7 version update granted you two special missions: One mission against the Galian Beast and one mission against Chaos. These missions were available until the end of the Multiplayer on midnight September 29.
Nekomimi demonstrates in the recording how important it is to take cover from the beast’s homing fire balls and to quickly jump afterwards to avoid damage from the beast’s ground slam. The boss is defeated and Nekomimi receives a “Wooden Moogle Doll”. This particular moogle doll is exclusive to the online mode and has not been found within the data of any copy of Dirge of Cerberus. The available dolls in the Single Player are “Gold Moogle Doll” across all versions, and then the “Silver Moogle Doll” which is found only in Ex Hard mode of the post-JORG releases.
Panic Matador
YouTube
Date of upload: 2006-09-25
– Download Nekomimi’s Panic Matador video: 50.5MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
This Scout-class mission pits you against three Dual Horns in a tight space while simultaneously dealing with bazooka-wielding foes and Bull Heads that ceaselessly pursue you.
In the chat box and as a player outside of the EM barricades, we see “Jeil” who is yet another member of Team_2ch. Because the mission randomly divides participants to be either inside or outside the electromagnetic fence, Jeil roams outside the fence and is able to distract the three Dual Horns so that Nekomimi can leisurely fire away at these giant bulls. Even if Nekomimi had fallen, Jeil would have cleared the mission easily on their own since they are beyond the reach of the Dual Horns.
The Multiplayer ended only four days after this recording was uploaded. Immediately afterwards Nekomimi would begin uploading the cutscenes from the online mode.
Pierce’s Gameplay Recordings
A blog that has now been almost entirely lost to time is “Daijinn’s Blog”. Thankfully, recordings showing her player character “Pierce” have been preserved on Grimoire Valentine’s YouTube channel. In these videos you see Pierce take part in multiple team battles and attempt a battle against Weiss in “The King Unleashed”.
Team Battle: Desert
YouTube
– Download Pierce’s Team Battle: Desert video: 10.7MB, FLV
Pierce is grouped into the blue team, “Team Shiva”, to fight against the red team, “Team Ifrit”. These were the two default groupings in team battles. In this particular setup, the team to first get 80 kills on the opposing team wins. At the end Team Shiva stands victorious, with Team Ifrit only having accumulated 39 kills by that point.
This particular play session we actually possess in higher quality, but from the perspective of Pierce’s co-player Futaba! We will get to that video among the uploads of YouTuber Northern Kingdom.
You’ll notice that the players are almost constantly jumping. This is to make it harder for the enemy to aim at you. Get used to seeing this strategy because there is a lot of jumping in the player(s) vs player(s) recordings.
One way to deduce when a recording was made is to look at the headgear members are wearing and see which caps/masks were not available from the start of the Multiplayer. One member is seen wearing the Chocobo Cap, which was only possible to acquire during the “Turk of Turks” event which lasted from June 5 – June 26.
At the start of the video Pierce picks up a Chocobo Coin [チョコボコイン]. When the battle is won, this one Chocobo Coin is converted into 1000 gil, thus revealing the purpose of the Multiplayer-exclusive Chocobo Coin.
Team Battle: Complex
YouTube
– Download Pierce’s Team Battle: Complex video: 17.5MB, FLV
You gotta ask the question… What did Pierce’s co-player “Poohandrock” intend with their name? Did they mean for it to read “Pooh and rock” or “Poo hand rock”?
In this bout Pierce is grouped into Team Ifrit and the team to first reach 60 kills wins the battle. Team Ifrit emerges victorious with a score of 60 – 54. The battle mostly takes place inside the corridors of the Complex, due to nobody wanting to be a sitting duck out into the open. Quite similar to how in the Extra Mission “Trick Arc” Vincent Valentine will be mostly helpless when he is out in the open.
When the video starts we get to see that Pierce is a Tsviet and that she has played the game for 1040 hours and 52 minutes! She briefly changes into the Soldier Suit [ソルジャースーツ] which changes her max HP to 270, but then quickly switches back to the Sniper Suit [スナイプスーツ] where her max HP is 210. Despite this choice she ends up doing even less sniping than she did in the Desert Team Battle. No sniping at all, in fact.
At 1:17, while the team is still waiting in the Briefing Room, we see the players humorously aiming their sights at their co-player “SQEX-Soldier01”. This player is an actual employee of Square Enix! These players are recognized both by their name “SQEX-Soldier” and by the mask they wear which was exclusive to Square employees.
Capture the Flag: Kalm Streets
YouTube: Part 1
YouTube: Part 2
YouTube: Part 3
– Download Pierce’s Capture the Flag: Kalm Streets videos.
Part 1: 21.8MB, FLV
Part 2: 21.8MB, FLV
Part 3: 21.7MB, FLV (NOTE: This file works on Windows Media Player but may crash PotPlayer)
Let’s have a look at our first “Capture the Flag” recording in this list. Just like in a team battle based on kills/frags, there is always the division of red vs blue: Team Ifrit versus Team Shiva. Pierce joins Team Ifrit and fights alongside names such as L-deathnote, Evange, Distortion, Syamon and others. Pierce wears the Soldier Suit this time around, ergo why her max HP is 270.
The team to first capture four flags is the winner. While a player carries a flag their actions become more limited, such as not being able to shoot. It was thusly important to have good cover by your comrades when the opposing team tried to shoot you down. After over 26 minutes of playtime, in a round that had a time limit of 40 minutes, Team Ifrit wins with a score of 4 – 3.
Apart from only being able to catch one flag at a time, the extended playtime of this session can be explained by the long streets of Kalm and the narrow gates which make it difficult to invade your opponent’s base. Pierce contributes four times by retrieving the Ifrit Flag from an enemy. When she touches the flag it is instantly teleported back to home base.
At 0:06 in part 3, Pierce picks up a Chocobo Coin. When she is defeated at 0:21 she drops the Chocobo Coin however, meaning that she didn’t get to convert the coin into 1000 gil at the end.
Notice in Part 1, at 0:41 and 0:44, how the screen temporarily freezes. This is because Pierce is taking a screenshot of the game using the Multiplayer’s own snapshot feature. This feature was set so that the game’s menus would not be captured. The player she takes a snapshot of is “Distortion”, whose comments can be read on some DCFFVII Multiplayer blog posts by Michui and Cloze. These two bloggers have contributed a huge deal to what now remains archived of the Multiplayer.
Capture the Flag: Ravine
YouTube
– Download Pierce’s Capture the Flag: Ravine video: 13.0MB, FLV
The team to first catch two flags is the winner. Pierce is once again on Team Ifrit and she is joined by co-player Shadowdark who also fought alongside her in the Team Desert Battle video.
Pierce is wearing the Solder Suit but this time it has a different color to what she had in the Kalm Streets video. By paying Regis in the South Lobby, you could have the color of your suit changed. She starts the battle with two grenades [ボムのかけら] in her inventory, just like in the other Team Battle recordings. Was this a default setup in the game or just Pierce’s own prepararations?
Early on we see Pierce’s co-player Balalaika taking the Shiva Flag and carrying it to home base. Pierce sticks around at the enemy base however, walking back and forth until at 1:31 she unveils an S-Mine planted by the enemy. She shoots the S-Mine and destroys it from a distance without being harmed. Placing an S-Mine where your flag is placed must have been a standard strategy in these team battles.
More screenshots are taken by Pierce at 2:49 and then at 5:17 when she is triumphantly carrying the second flag to home base. Pierce carries the flag almost all the way from enemy- to home base without interruption, jumping and rolling to avoid enemy fire. At the last second Pierce is shot and drops the flag, but a co-player quickly picks up the flag and carries it the last meter to home base! The station fires a flare into the air, marking their winning score of 2 – 0 with a victorious firework!
Weiss Battle: City
YouTube
– Download Pierce’s Weiss Battle: City video: 13.2MB, FLV
With a difficulty of seven stars, just one star below the highest seen difficulty level of the Multiplayer, “The King Unleashed” is at least a battle against Weiss that is winnable, unlike the mission “Lightning Trick” which is entered to trigger Scene 11.
Because this mission only allows you to respawn twice, Pierce ends up laying motionless on the ground for most of the video because she got KO’d a second time only two minutes into the challenge. The last combatant gets their final KO with 1min 18sec remaining of the time limit, leading to a lost mission. This is actually a constant with the recordings of the Weiss battle, as we are yet to see a video where the team actually bring down Weiss the Empowered.
“The King Unleashed” was added with the August 17 version update. We can safely say then that any recording from this mission was made between August 17 and September 29 of 2006.
Notice what’s happening with Pierce’s MP bar even though she lay defeated for several minutes? Her MP bar is recovering! Very slowly, but you’ll see that it does recover if you compare different intervals of the recording. The five available suits had different degrees of gradual MP recovery. You’ll spot this feature in pretty much all the gameplay recordings but here it is especially easy to notice since Pierce lay incapacitated for so long.
In the post-JORG releases of Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent can acquire the Manaheart accessory (upgrade to Manamind and finally Manasoul) which will gradually recover his MP in the same way.
Northern Kingdom’s Channel
From here on we organize the videos into their respective channels they were uploaded to. It is more difficult after this point to determine if the recordings were made by bloggers of the game or if the uploader is the one who made the original recording.
The YouTube channel we have here is called なぽりたん王国, which is google translated as “Northern Kingdom”.
Team Battle: Desert
YouTube
– Download Northern Kingdom’s Team Battle: Desert video: 48MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
Player character: Futaba. This is the recording from the exact same session as the one Pierce participated in! We get to see the battle unfold from a co-player’s perspective and in considerably higher video quality. While randomness may be at work here, it was also possible for players to choose the BGM of battles by using the Beginner’s Machine jukebox in the West Lobby. With it they could also choose to have no music playing at all.
Despite this being the same play session, the background music is different for the two players.
Pierce: Train Graveyard
Futaba: Counteroffensive
You can observe that the aiming scope consists of nothing more than a white dot. A scope this small is never available to Vincent Valentine in the Single Player.
The grey materia seen in this recording (see for example at 01:41) is the “Flash Materia” which could blind your foes and give you a chance of escaping to safety. We are yet to find a recording where the Flash Materia is actually used though.
Team Battle: Kalm Church
YouTube
– Download Northern Kingdom’s Team Battle: Kalm Church video: 46.5MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
The player character 000 joins Team Shiva. Though 000 spends most of the battle dying, their team ends up winning with a score of 58 – 80. On 000’s opposing team is Bowie, who was on the same team as Pierce in the Team Battle Complex video.
At 01:30, the player 000 is able to throw a grenade straight through a wall by simply jumping up against the wall while throwing! Haxx0rz! Yet again the scope used here is the smallest one we’ve ever seen, which must be quite a challenge to use.
The “SOLDIER Mask”, which is the same type of helmet that normal members of SOLDIER use, was made available with the July 18 version update. Having spotted the SOLDIER Mask in this recording, we know that it was made between July 18 and September 29.
Team Battle: Kalm Streets
YouTube
– Download Northern Kingdom’s Team Battle: Kalm Streets video: 45.4MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
Some familiar names in this video.
Team Ifrit: Poohandrock, Shefiroth (present in Pierce’s Team Battle Ravine recording), Distortion and Bowie.
Team Shiva: Pierce and Helena (present in numerous of Pierce’s recordings).
If player character 000 is on the same account as Futaba, then this is the second video where Pierce and 000/Futaba team up! Yet again 000 mostly ends up dying and running around, but their team wins with a score of 41 – 70.
Having spotted the SOLDIER Mask in this video as well, we can estimate that this recording was made at any point after the July 18 version update.
doonkonishi’s Channels
Their niconico channel is called ドーン小西 which can be translated as “Dawn Konishi”. Their YouTube channel is named “doonkonishi” however, which is the name we’ll be using. The NicoNico uploads are of the higher quality and so those are the versions provided in the download links.
Equipment, Menus & Defeat 100 Sahagin
YouTube
NicoNico
– Download link to doonkonishi’s Equipment, Menus & Defeat 100 Sahagin video: 38.9MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
We observe the player character Muimui in the South Lobby, with old man Regis in the background. Enter your Final Fantasy XV references here.
This recording is unusual and wonderful because Muimui takes the time to show us various masks, suits and menus before going into the actual mission.
Muimui shows us the following equipment.
Masks: DG Soldier Mask (standard), Tonberry Cap, Chocobo Cap & Nouvelle mask [ヌーベルマスク]. (“Nouvelle” being French for “new”)
Suits: Sniper Suit, Magic Suit & Armored Suit.
You can see for yourself how changing the suit affects the max HP of the character. Interestingly, none of the suits are restoring Muimui’s MP while they are still in the Deepground lobby.
At 0:53 Muimui activates the “falling down dead” stance/animation. It’s quite common to find screenshots from the Multiplayer where one or more players are laying on the ground like this.
In the “Defeat 100 Sahagin” mission we get to see some use of the Limit Breaker again, and confirm that the limit break effect still lasted for only 20 seconds. For Turk Vincent, in the tutorial, his limit break lasts for 44.5 seconds while the Galian Beast form has a duration of 43 seconds.
At the 8:33 mark, for some reason, 28 seconds of the mission are suddenly gone.
We can date this video to the evening of September 9, since the chat reveals that this is the time when the “Deepground Assault” event took place. In this event, selected Units battled each other to decide the strongest Unit of Deepground. In the next video, taking place right after this one, we see one of those battles.
Team Battle: Kalm Church
YouTube
NicoNico
– Download link to doonkonishi’s Team Battle: Kalm Church video: 38.9MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
After some initial difficulty registering and typing in the password, Muimui is finally allowed to enter in a battle against the legendary Team2ch during the Deepground Assault event.
Big names from Team2ch’s blog are seen in this video:
Rohan, Unicorn, Mojaemon, Nekomimi and Jeil.
Against the veterans of Team2ch, Muimui and her co-players are positively thrashed, with the final score being 50 – 18.
At 4:37, Muimui spots Unicorn laying an S-Mine. Muimui destroys the mine with a shot from afar and avoids damage, though not before alerting her co-players of the mine via the chat box.
5:43 demonstrates something that the observant will already have noticed in previous recordings, but which is seen more clearly here: The magic Fire shots follow an arc! In the Single Player, a magic Fire ball will follow a straight line into infinity, but in the Multiplayer the Fire spell acts as though under the influence of gravity.
TSV-Jill’s Channel
Teleporting Foe – WRO HQ
YouTube (Grimoire’s Re-upload)
NicoNico
– Download TSV-Jill’s Teleporting Foe – WRO HQ video: 3.69MB, FLV
We currently do not know exactly what is going on in this video which takes place in the WRO HQ area. The player character Jill is melee fighting a foe that keeps teleporting back and forth. The ending gives the impression that Jill just beat Kdub, yet the teleporting foe Jill just beat never showed to have the name Kdub. If somebody translated the chat box text and notifications in this video, we might get a better idea of what’s happening.
Numerous times the player character fails to pick up a Chocobo Coin [チョコボコイン] because they have already maxed out their Chocobo Coin inventory. Just like normal gil in the game, this coin type is represented by a gold ingot model.
The Chocobo Coin was exclusive to the Multiplayer but it’s present in the data of the actual game disc. You can unlock the coin to your inventory and it will have the description “A chocobo is engraved on this bronze tender“.
Weiss Battle: City
NicoNico Part 1
NicoNico Part 2
NicoNico Part 2 Excerpt, Higher Quality
– Download TSV-Jill’s Weiss Battle City videos.
Part 1: 38.8MB, FLV
Part 2: 58.1MB, FLV
Part 2 HQ Excerpt: 3.86MB, FLV
Short version? They lose. A LOT. Nine lost rounds are recorded and the tenth round is unresolved, but we see Jill go down yet again with no respawn left. The recording veritably oozes with the frustration of the players. Jill rarely lasts more than two minutes per round. In the seventh round Jill even resorts to melee attacks against Weiss, because why not try anything at that point?
The mission has a 7-minute time limit and the longest they last is with 1min 27sec remaining in the seventh round. The closest they got to actually beating Weiss is in the ninth round, where Weiss’s HP is decreased to 1/6 of his max HP! It is also in this round that Jill employs the despairing trick of trying to cause Weiss to freeze, by repeatedly entering and leaving the menu during the fight. Oddly enough, it actually seems to work. At 21:19 in part 2 this method even seems to cause co-player Zack-1st to stand suspended in mid-air for a second.
Jill’s recurring companion Kdub doesn’t join in the same fight, but we see Kdub in the chat menus and at the end of part 1 when Jill is in the East Lobby, inbetween missions. We can make out Argento in the background, revealing that we are in the southern section of the East Lobby. The Team2ch member Pochi decides to join when the Weiss battle resumes at the end of part 1, yet not even a legendary Team2ch member could save the day. Another co-player is called “Weiss”, which occassionally causes confusion both for the viewer and for Jill when they are trying to track the boss.
The mask worn by Jill at the beginning is the シールドバイザー [Shield Visor]. Eventually they switch to the 死霊の面当て, which might be translated to “Spite of the Departed” or “Bitterness of the Dead”. In the unused data of the Dirge of Cerberus game disc, this mask was translated as the “Phantasmask”.
In part 1, Jill uses the most minimalist, pixel-size scope that we saw Futaba/000 use. In part 2 they switch to the normal scope however, making targetting Weiss the Empowered a bit easier.
During this failed campaign Jill starts with the Soldier Suit, switches to the Speed Suit, then the Magic Suit and finally back again to the Soldier Suit. The Magic Suit is without a doubt the most revealing suit in the entire game and only so if the player character is female.
Cure orbs often fly around the stage, players healing themselves and their co-players. Thanks to this and Jill switching suits, we are able to compare the stats of the Cure spell between the Soldier Suit and the Magic Suit. The Soldier Suit consumes twice the MP per Cure spell compared to the Magic Suit. In the former you only have three spells available from max MP, but with the Magic Suit you could fire six spells, then have a seventh one available because the MP regeneration of the Magic Suit is so much faster. The Cure spell restores 118HP with both suits, but ultimately you can restore more HP with the Magic Suit thanks to the lowered MP consumption.
In the Multiplayer, a Potion restores 150HP. Compare this to the Single Player, where a Potion restores 200HP.
Restrictor Battle
YouTube (Grimoire Re-Upload, High Quality)
NicoNico
– Download the Restrictor Battle video: 52.5MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
Jill engages in the mission “The Price of Control” that ends the storyline of the Multiplayer, leading to Scene 13. If you look carefully you can see Weiss standing at the throne, which is not at all where he stood in Scene 12, but the connection to the scene is still there with Weiss being frozen in place because of the Restrictor. The difficulty level of eight stars is the highest ever observed and is not assigned to any known mission apart from this one.
Unlike the ruined throne room in the Single Player, this clean version also has an open area in the back, going around the backside of the throne. In the Single Player giant pipes are in the way to this open circular area.
Familiar names joining Jill are Elric, who has been seen in many Multiplayer recordings by this point, Pixy who helped in the Weiss battle and our good ol’ favorite Poohandrock! I think I’m developing an unexpected fondness for Poohandrock.
Jill falls and remains motionless for the final 1 1/2 minute of the video, but the recording ends before we learn if the campaign was successful for the team or not. They manage to deplete about half of the Restrictor’s HP at least.
The Restrictor is one tough foe, but at least his glowing gunblades provides an entertaining sort of disco/rave atmosphere to the battle. Not what you’d expect after seeing only his non-glowing self in the cutscenes. The Restrictor must be a fan of rave sticks.
Grimoire’s high quality upload of the Restrictor battle comes from a YouTube channel that disappeared almost as soon as its Restrictor battle video was discovered. The status of the NicoNico channel TSV-Jill is thus put into question, because while it has had the Restrictor video for many years it is of immensely lower quality compared to what Grimoire found. We simply do not know if TSV-Jill is the original recorder of these videos.
Grinding 01: Complex
YouTube (Grimoire’s Re-upload)
NicoNico
– Download TSV-Jill’s Grinding 01: Complex video: 16.7MB, FLV
The only conclusion I can draw from this and the next video is that the two co-players are exploiting the game to gain gil and/or medals. Here they have setup some type of Team Battle, but it is not clear what type. Jill and Kdub are on Team Shiva and they take turns shooting down the (mostly) motionless Team Ifrit member “Jill-2” every time that opponent respawns. Certainly this must be a character created on a duplicate account for the purpose of exploiting the game! Naughty players.
By the time the video starts, they have already slayed Jill-2 over a hundred times. All seven minutes of this video are nothing more than Jill and Kdub continuing this grind for whatever purposes.
Grinding 02: Complex
YouTube (Grimoire Re-Upload)
NicoNico
– Download TSV-Jill’s Grinding 02: Complex video: 4.36MB, FLV
The setup this time is a “Destroy Base” type of Team Battle, though nothing competitive is going on and there is clearly only a grinding process here to gain gil and/or medals. Just like before there is no time limit, allowing the grind to go on indefinitely. The player character Majesta on Team Shiva and the co-player Kimari on Team Ifrit take turns killing each other.
While Majesta is waiting for Kimari to respawn midway through the video, Majesta enters the item inventory and proceeds to discard the Handgun Bullets, Rifle Bullets and Machine Gun Bullets. However, when discarding these items they don’t disappear completely! The models are left behind on the field, and we see at 1:20 how there is a glowing, rotating disc where Majesta discarded the ammo. That’s the shape and color that comes from dropping these three types of ammo in one spot. Perhaps Majesta left behind the ammo for his co-player to pick up?
Some players would be creative by discarding ammo, coins and flags (we don’t know if this worked with capsules) to form patterns.
At the top of the item inventory we can observe three Multiplayer-exclusive items, each of which the player possesses zero of:
魔晄カプセル = Mako Capsule
イフリートフラッグ = Ifrit Flag
シヴァフラッグ = Shiva Flag
There were many missions involving the collecting of Mako Capsules and there were also Team Battles that involved trying to collect a given number of Mako Capsules faster than the opposing team. When playing as Vincent Valentine, you only ever destroy capsules and do so to unlock cutscenes for the Event Viewer and to unlock other extra content.
Capture the Flag: Kalm Streets
NicoNico
– Download TSV-Jill’s Capture the Flag: Kalm Streets video: 50.4MB, MP4 (right click and save link as)
Player character Obix is on Team Ifrit, the same team as veteran player Nekomimi/Nekonini. This session of Capture the Flag has no time limit and the team to first capture five flags is the winner. This 23-minute video starts with a score of 2 – 1 in Team Ifrit’s favor and ends with 2 – 2, without a known resolution to this Team Battle.
The voice to Obix is the female robotic voice, which I don’t believe we’ve heard in any other recording. You can listen to this and other voice clips in the Audio Library.
From 6:10 – 6:37 in the video, Obix tries something unprecedented in the Multiplayer recordings: They shoot Fire balls over the Kalm houses, in hopes that they will land on the enemies on the other side. Recall that in the Multiplayer the Fire spell follows an arc, not a straight line like in the Single Player. None of the shots make an obvious hit though and Obix resumes a more normal playstyle.
At 7:19 we see what looks like an S-Mine. It’s reasonable to assume that this mine was planted by a player on Obix’s team, since if it was planted by the enemy the S-Mine wouldn’t be visible from afar.
Obix ends up mostly dying and without contributing a great deal to this team battle. The frustration is noticed as Obix repeatedly presses a voice clip button after a KO. They start the recording with 12 deaths/KOs and end with 31 deaths, with three flags still needing to be captured by either team.
Miscellaneous
Traversing West Lobby: Mobile Recording
YouTube Upload by ゼク (Zeku)
– Download Zeku’s mobile recording: 467KB, MP4 (right click (right click and save link as)
By far the shortest and lowest-quality video on this list. The recording was made on somebody’s cellphone and shows a player character running straight from the western end of the West Lobby to its eastern end. The player is wearing a Chocobo Cap, which could only be acquired in conjunction with the “Turk of Turks” event that lasted from June 5 – June 26. We can thus conclude that this recording was made at any point between June 5 and September 29 of 2006.
