DCFFVII Research Thread

I discovered that not all of the official PlayOnline pages about the updates made to the Dirge Multiplayer have been lost.

First let me list some of the links you may find online which worked long ago but no longer do:


With these non-functional links out of the way, where are the functional ones? Simply take the last url branch I mentioned, and replace "dcff7" with "home".

http://www.playonline.com/home/polnews/news6806.shtml

Woila, there we have the official PlayOnline site's page about the update made to the Multiplayer on February 16. The official report above confirms that it was on this date that the "Vanish" materia was added to the Multiplayer. I am very happy to see this, since I had only read this claim before on the playshinra site.

In order to confirm just which Dirge PlayOnline reports had been saved, I had to manually type in different numbers to the functional url that I had finally found.

The February 16 version update page is "news6806". The Dirge reports occurs inbetween the range of "news5078" and "news8513".

In total, I checked the numbers 5050 -> 8700. That's 3651 adresses that I MANUALLY typed in and checked. One by one.

Yes. I am crazy. Thanks to my craziness however, I have archived every available official PlayOnline report about version updates, bug fixes etc that were made to the Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer.

Sadly, many of the version update pages are gone. For example there is no post for the February 27 update, apart from a server maintenance note from February 23 that changes will be made on the upcoming date.

Incomplete as the PlayOnline news archive may be, it is very satisfying to have saved some official pages about the Multiplayer updates instead of having ONLY fan-written blogs to rely on.

Finally, for the first time, found a screenshot of Multiplayer NPC dialogue (not counting the Argento scene).



- Source


An overabundance of Dirge Multiplayer screenshots have the copyright notice to their bottom right. For a long time I was wondering why this was so, until I realized that this is just a preset from the Multiplayer's screenshot feature. Looking back at screenshots from the short time that I played FFXIV also helped enlighten me, as the copyright note is automatically stuck to those screenshots as well when you use the in-game screenshot key.

It then dawned on me that the Multiplayer snapshots also don't include player HP, weapon setups, or really any menus at all. Even the very resourceful Dirge Multiplayer blogs out there end up resorting to handheld cameras or alternate recording devices if they want to have screenshots that include any menu stuff at all.

This helps explain the lack of screenshots that include NPC dialogue, because that is precisely the menu stuff that the Multiplayer's screenshot feature didn't include. You could choose a preset size for the screenshot to be taken in, but that seems to have been about it.

Shademp said:

Click to expand...

i tried searching for some of that dialogue to see if someone had made a script, but all i found was a forum post from 2ch with a partial quote


maybe videos showing the missions will include more of the text dialogue

While browsing the cobweb filled parts of the web for Japanese Dirge of Cerberus sources, I found that there is no shortage of blogs from people who tried the Multiplayer Beta back in autumn 2005. Archiving all this Beta content has taken up a surprising amount of my time when documenting Dirge Multiplayer media.

I wish to share the following gems I found in two of these Multiplayer β blogs.

Expected Start Menu background


Unexpected Start Menu background!



Installation Screen 1


Installation Screen 2


- Source 1
- Source 2

These installation screens show Multiplayer artwork that I have not seen anywhere else! They exist in no guidebook that I know of. I wonder if these same installation screens would appear when you installed the 2006 versions of the Multiplayer? It certainly makes you wonder how much Dirge Multiplayer artwork has never been released.

I'm definitely going to get myself a copy of the Beta Version someday. Even if all I can access is the Start Menu, that'd be very exciting to see with my own eyes. Maybe I might learn what's up with the unexpected background for the Start Menu from teramatibugyoo's blog. Did the disc randomly select a background or was something else at work?

the one installation image saying 'fight against players from all over the world'

- One observation that I didn't make before a few weeks ago: The Multiplayer doesn't employ the killchain mechanic. Or maybe I should say that there is nothing on the screen to indicate that the Single Player killchain mechanic is present.

In the Single Player, your attack power will increase with your killchain. I still wonder if Vincent's DC killchain mechanic was inspired by how his Death Penalty in the original game becomes stronger the more enemies Vincent has killed, or if this is just a beautiful coincidence.



- In the Single Player you have a default magic level of Lv1 (when materia is equipped), which can then be moved up to Lv2 or Lv3 by equpping the Materia Floater, Materia Floater γ, Materia Booster or Materia Booster γ.

The Multiplayer does not have magic power increase by level this way and does not include the Materia Floater nor the Materia Booster. Instead you have to increase your magic power by choosing the right equipment, such as the Magic Suit. The equivalent feature does exist in the post-JORG versions, where the Manamind and Manasoul (not the Manaheart) will increase your magic power but without increasing the level.

In the Single Player upping your magic level will clearly make each magic spell/shot more powerful, cause bigger explosions and consume more MP. Whether this same mechanic is true in any way for the Multiplayer, with its non-level based magic, I cannot say as of yet.


- Gradual MP replenishment is a thing in the Multiplayer, as various video recordings confirmed. Here is what the February 16 update to the Multiplayer had to say about MP replenishment (and MP consumption).


The implication from the google translation is that before February 16, not all suits included the gradual MP replenishment. After the update all suits now have this feature, but to different degrees depending on the suit/armor.


- Watching gameplay footage from the Multiplayer is so much more fun now that I've become so familiar with this mode after all my research. Gameplay videos are no longer a chore to watch.

I have thus come to notice just how much of a decrease in video quality happens in Grimoire Valentine's reuploads. Previously I assumed that he had been granted the original video files before making his uploads, but clearly this is not so. I recommend Grimoire's playlist for the translations to the story mode, but for everything else I recommend you track down the original video sources, such as binnsennto's/nekomimi's channel.

The two most extensive Multiplayer diaries out there are Cloze's blog and the already mentioned diary by Michui/Mitsutchi. They actually reference each other in some blog entries and were apparently friendly rivals in the Multiplayer.


The Multiplayer had a total of 24 medals. By the end of September, when the online mode was cancelled, Cloze had acquired 18 of these medals and posted a snapshot of these.

As we can see, nothing stopped you from getting the same medal more than once.

It is super-awesome to have an image of at least 18 of the 24 medals. Apart from the medal marked* in this screenshot however, we can't know for sure which medal icon correspond to which medal in the FFCheats list.

Here are the medal names, google translated:

- BT Domination Medal*
- BT Medal of Honor
- BT Disgrace Medal
- Team Order of Merit
- Slayer Medal
- Base Attack Medal
- Base Savior Medal
- Assault Medal
- Capsule Seeker Medal
- Last Capsule Medal
- Survivor Medal
- Flag Carrier Medal
- First Flag Medal
- Flag Savior Medal
- Medal Collector Medal
- Emblem of Blue Beast**
- Coat of Arms of the Black Wing
- Mechanical Limited Medium-Sized Two
- Certificate of MALC-OEE
- Coat of Arms of the Red Blade
- Shelke dedicated Mako Capsule
- Emblem of White Emperor**
- Ragnarok Troops Chapter
- Minagirion Z Seal
**Corrected by Hito

The "Certificate of MALC-OEE" has a description that seems to read something like this: Mako Addict Emergency Lifesaving Centre OEE Certificate for severe addicts. The fact that it's a certificate makes speculation easier for which of the medal icons in the snapshot this matches up with.

The description to the "Shelke dedicated Mako Capsule" is neat. It seems to say that it's a high-concentration Mako Capsule that Shelke would carry with her for long-term missions, when Shelke would have to go a long time without mako baths. A cutscene in the Single Player where Shelke uses such a mako capsule would have been a natural inclusion.

I hope that those who can actually read the text will correct me if my assessments are wrong.

I have no idea if the medals were actually ever used for anything outside of being trophies.

- Emblem of Aojuu

Click to expand...

= blue beast

- Emblem of Shirotei

Click to expand...

= white emperor

- A short look again at the medals.


Given the dark design on the medal to the most right on the upper row, I would guess this is the "Coat of Arms of the Black Wing" which you gain by defeating Nero. Or, as the medal description says, "causing Nero to flee".

The medal on the lower row, third from the right, might be the "Mako Capsule" medal you gain by defeating Shelke. Although it doesn't look like your standard mako capsule, it's still pretty close in appearance to the medal that is shown at the end of this video when Shelke is beaten.


It's difficult to tell whether the medal in Cloze's snapshot and the one from binnsennto's video is the same. The video is particularly compressed on the X-axis, causing some symbols not to show correctly. My own gut tells me that without this compression/distortion, the match I've detected between the two snapshots would be unmistakable.


- The FFCheats page doesn't seem to list SPECIAL battles. There is no inclusion of the battles against Vincent Valentine, Galian Beast or Chaos.

Despite this I was able to find what your reward was for beating Galian Beast.


木彫りのモーグリ人形 = Wood carving of Moogle doll

Though the SPECIAL battle isn't in the FFCheat pages, this "Wooden Moogle Doll" is among the list of Quest items.


- You could choose to use a Cure spell either on yourself OR on your team mates! I was wondering what was up with the flying green orbs in the Weiss mission video, until I noticed at 1:07 how the player, Jill, heals their co-player, Elric, by shooting a Cure orb on them. I wonder how the button assignment worked to differentiate between self-cure and other-cure?
EDIT: Just now I vaguelly recalled reading somewhere that the Cure spell works by shooting the ground with a Cure orb, then stepping on where the Cure orb landed. This way different button arrangements wouldn't be needed depending on whether Cure is used on yourself or on your co-player. The difference would be that to cure yourself, you simply shoot the immediate ground you stand on. This is definitely consistent with what I've seen in the Multiplayer recordings.

Looking at that medal screenshot it doesn't seem that the Shelke medal refers to a capsule but an ampoule (アンプ&#12523. Googling "シェルク専用魔晄" brings up two results, one the capsule one from the site you referenced and two for ampoule.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Hito, you just helped me find a blog that has an image that includes all the 24 medals!!!



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

*super-hugs the hito*



EDIT: I MEAN JUST LOOK AT IT THE IMAGE IS EVEN HIGHER QUALITY THAN WHAT CLOZE HAD!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

the medals in that image aren't ordered in the same order as the previous list according to what's posted on that blog, the medals are:

1st row, left to right:
BT Domination Medal
BT Medal of Honour
BT Disgrace Medal (Medal of Dishonour?)
Team Order of Merit
Survivor Medal
Slayer Medal
Base Attack Medal
Assault Medal
Base Saver Medal
Capsule Seeker Medal
Last Capsule Medal
Flag Carrier Medal

2nd row, left to right:
First Flag Medal
Flag Saver Medal
Medal Collector Medal [don't think this applies to these achievements since it's two different words for medal]
Emblem of the Blue Beast
Emblem of the Black Wings
Mech Limited Mid-Sized 2-Type
MALC-OEE Certification
Emblem of the Red Blade
Shelke dedicated Mako ampoule
Emblem of the White Emperor
Ragnarok Unit Patch
Minagilion Z Seal

- Thanks again for all your help hito. About the ampoule thing, this is probably the name that was correct all along. Though for my research notes I'll still have to include that "capsule" variation from the FFCheats page. I also have to say that I prefer the visual of Shelke using the mako from a capsule to rejuvenate herself, rather than just shining a mako ampoule on herself to up her energy. That is, if my interpretation of the medal description is correct.


Am I getting this correctly?


- A curious detail about the starting date of the Online Mode. Michui's blog writes that January 27 was the starting date for the Multiplayer. But the official PlayOnline report says that the service began on January 26, the same day that the game came out. (Michui's earliest blog entry is from February 11, but I don't know if that's when he actually started playing). I'm going to assume that the Multiplayer began on January 26, but I'll keep Michui's date in the back of my head.


- Let's remind ourselves what the ranks and classes are in Deepground.


The data list provided by S&G, when compared with the Japanese sources, appear wrong on multiple accounts.

There are no classes in the Tsviet to progress through. Once you are Tsviet, you are Tsviet. Simple as that. The only higher class is to be a Tsviet assigned with a color, but the player could never achieve that.

The Commander and General are also still divided into the numerical classes, they are not using the terms "Commander Trooper", "General Drone" etc like in the data list.

As for the requirements to get the promotion exams, they seem to rely more on the player getting a set amount of Ranking Points. Cloze brings up that when the final weeks of the Multiplayer approached, the Ranking Point requirements to do the promotion exams was severely lowered. This must have been so that players who signed up during the final month could progress and experience all areas of the game at lightning speed.

This is the "Ranking Point Requirements" list provided by Cloze, comparing the old requirements with the new, lenient ones.


One particular thing (among the many things) that I'm still unsure of is whether the game technically allowed the player to reach Tsviet (and thus the end of the story campaign) from day one or if limits were set to prevent players from reaching top rank too early. This blog entry by Cloze mentions a "ranking points topped 28000", but that could just be Google Translate messing with me.

IF the online story cutscenes were not finished when the Multiplayer first launched, then it'd certainly make sense for the game to have temporary caps for the Ranking Points so to prevent the player from progressing through the story. But I'm merely speculating at this point without having the full picture in my head yet. I'm very curious to know when you could reach the end of the Multiplayer's story at the very earliest.

- If you want to know the frustration of so many links to DoC content no longer working, look no further than this forum page. Tons of official sites, fansites, screenshots and scans that can no longer be viewed. There's even download links to two videos from the Beta Version of Dirge's Multiplayer, but alas there's no data to collect.


- Stumbled upon this interview from early 2007 with Shelke's English VA, Kari Wahlgren.

Haven: In Dirge of Cerberus you voiced perhaps the most interesting character in the game. While she is certainly cold and withdrawn, Shelke has more of an arc than anyone else in the story, as she comes to trust the good guys and help them out. Were there any qualities you wished to endow her with, or places you might have taken her were the story further developed?

Kari: Shelke was an incredibly difficult character to play, because the clients wanted her very expressionless. They kept saying "Do less! Do less! Less emotion!!!" when we were recording. So it was hard to find a balance between showing Shelke's cold, detached side, while still getting across all of the conflicting emotions goin on inside of her. Luckily, we had an amazing director, Bob Buchholz, who really helped me develop Shelke into a cold, but sympathetic character.

Click to expand...

I'd say they achieved their goal.

These are the Deepground Rank icons/insignia that I have found thus far.


Drone 2nd Class
Source: DC Complete Guide Page 248

Drone 1st Class
Source: Japanese Game Manual, Page 36

Commander 1st Class
Source: Video uploaded by doonkonishi

General 3rd Class
Source: Video uploaded by Neapolitan-kingdom

Tsviet
Multiple Sources, image above is from Shera's blog


The "Drone 1st Class" image is from scans I found online of Dirge's Japanese game manual. Turns out that my copy of JORG did not include the manuals, so I can't create any higher quality scans. Not only that but plenty of screenshots in the game manual represent the Beta version, so those pics aren't trustworthy for cataloguing the post-Beta multiplayer anyway.

Due to the low quality image of the Drone 1st Class icon, we can't say with certainty if it is different from the Drone 2nd Class icon. Did all Drone classes use the same icon, or was the insignia different for every class? These questions extend to the Scout, Trooper, Commander and General ranks/categories.

We currently completely lack images of any Scout and Trooper insignia.


An additional mystery is why, in the menu, a rank is sometimes accompanied by a plus sign or a minus sign.


Surely it must be related to performance of some sort, but I can't begin to make a guess that makes sense in my head.

One of S&G's documents mentioned that for the February 27 update, voice acting was added to the opening cinematic. There was no way to give this claim more credit due to the lack of a Japanese source. The official PlayOnline pages for this update are gone.

I did however just now manage to find a Japanese source that speaks of voice acting being added to the opening cinematic.


While finding this source is really cool, I am still unsure if the entire Scene1 was without voice acting before or if it was only the opening narration that lacked any voice acting.

By reading Michui's blog more carefully, entry for entry, I'm gaining an even better understanding of the Multiplayer.

- Rank Promotion Exams came with Version Updates! Here are the exams as they were introduced per the date of each version upgrade.
March 24 - Commander 2nd Class promotion exam.
April 20 - Commander 1st Class promotion exam.
(Presumably the General 3rd Class promotion came with the April 27 update, but there's a gap in Michui's blog between April 24 and May 6 because he went travelling, so that might be why he never writes about when this promotion exam was introduced)
June 26 - General 2nd Class promotion exam.
July 18 - General 1st Class promotion exam.
August 17 - Tsviet promotion exam.

According to Michui, the story of the Multiplayer was completed with the upgrade on August 17. This makes sense, since it is only when you become a Tsviet that the final cutscenes can occur. Ergo, your only window to unlock the end of the online mode's story was from August 17 to September 29.

It is clear then that your progression through the story wasn't limited by caps in the Ranking Points. Story progression was limited by the availability of the promotion exams.


- Well this is curious. >___> According to this blog entry, you could BUY the "Emblem of the Black Wings" medal for 42000 gil. Maybe the medal became available for purchase once you had defeated Nero. Wouldn't make much sense if the medal was available in the shop before you had completed the mission.

The same blog entry also mentions a server called "Red XIII".

I find this interesting because the FFCheats site mentions only three servers:


- Michui focuses a lot on Team Battles (TBT). When setting up a battle, the team can set up a Ranking Points restriction. For example in this TBT battle they set the limit so that only players with RP ranging from 15000-30000 can join. With this limitation they make it so that (mostly) players of an intermediate skill level could join the TBT.

To think it took me this long to revisit FFVIIExcavation and look at all the wonderful Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer treasures Grimoire got stocked there. They have done wonderful archiving work here. Now that I've saved all the content myself, the files are doubly archived.

What stands out the most to me in the gallery?


From FFVIIExcavation's character profile for Argento.

When DC PlayOnline was first launched, Argento's head was
covered by a helmet and she did not have voiced dialogue.

Click to expand...

That is wonderfully interesting. My first guess would have been that the snapshots were from a Beta Version of the cutscene, but it could be that this is just what Argento looked like in the early days of the Multiplayer.

The upgrade made to the Multiplayer on February 27 only speak of voice acting being added to the opening cutscene, but I wonder if this is also when Argento was given a voice for Scene 2?


The site's page on Usher repeats the idea that this hologram is based on a soldier who is now dead.

A deceased Deepground soldier whose
appearance was used by Shelke as a part of
the Tsviets' plan to overthrow the Restrictors,
though nothing is actually known about the
real Usher.

Click to expand...

I will always remain annoyed that they didn't at least rework the Multiplayer Mode's campaign into a single-player feature for at least the International version rerelease in Japan. Had they done that, we could then uncover the NPC dialogue that's now presumably lost forever.

The Twilight Mexican said:

I will always remain annoyed that they didn't at least rework the Multiplayer Mode's campaign into a single-player feature for at least the International version rerelease in Japan. Had they done that, we could then uncover the NPC dialogue that's now presumably lost forever.

Click to expand...

Indeed. The lack of such a feature looks even more incompetent given when the Japanese International release came: September 4, 2008. Two whopping years after the US release and the end of the Multiplayer.

One part of the online mode canon I'm especially curious about is the HJ Virus. Our ONLY mention of it is in the final cutscene. What is the origin of this virus? Are the letters HJ meant to hint that the virus is related to Hojo? Did Shelke create the virus? I am convinced that exposition about the computer virus was made in NPC dialogue that we no longer have available.

I'm still most interested in additional information about when the Deepground facility was built -- especially whether any of modern Midgar had been built first.

The story of how the 13th SOLDIER Unit, Ragnarok, was annihilated by the 14th Unit, Lost Force (aka the Restrictors), is not present in the online mode's cutscenes.

When S&G wrote his Deepground History article, I assume that his primary source was the Word document "Ragnarok" that he gave to me.

I will now copy-paste the contents of this document. It appears to be a translation of what was once a transcription of Japanese NPC dialogue. The identity of the NPC is unknown.


Thankfully, this translation of an unnamed source isn't all we have to go on. In one of Michui's blog entries, he writes profiles for eight Multiplayer NPCs. This is what he says about the Restrictors.



While I never really doubted the canonicity of the Ragnarok story, it is still important that we find more sources to confirm the legitimacy of these esoteric parts of FFVII canon.

I had no idea you were wondering about the veracity of the whole Ragnarok and Lost Force thing. I've seen that referenced on Japanese sites a few times.

I can never get over the US version didn't include the multiplayer story. They made all those freaking challenge missions, what, 40 of them? Which I have no problem with, but you couldn't at least string them together with some cutscenes or something?

My PS2 is booted up again, but not to play Dirge of Cerberus. Halloween is approaching, which means... CASTLEVANIA TIME! Last year I played Curse of Darkness. This year I'll be playing Lament of Innocence for the first time.

I did boot up DC:International briefly though to do some research. I compared the MP replenishment time for the Manaheart, Manamind and Manasoul.

At maximum MP, I fire three Lv3 Thunder shots so that Vincent's MP is reduced to 1 or 0. I then measured how long it took for Vincent's MP gauge to reach maximum again. Keep in mind that these restoration times are still approximate even though I've done my best to get an accurate result.

The Twilight Mexican said:

I've seen that referenced on Japanese sites a few times.

Click to expand...

Do you still find these sites if you look for them today?

If I do Japanese google searches for "Restrictor", "Lost Force" and/or "Ragnarok", the only Japanese result I find that includes the story is Michui's blog. I can find sites that mention the Restrictors, but never anything about Ragnarok apart from that one blog entry.