DCFFVII Research Thread

[Shademp]

Extracting the English KelStr 1.1 text (the text that is always present in memory, and in the same place, no matter where you are in Dirge of Cerberus) I found places where this text differs between versions. Specifically, the transition from US to PAL/INT.


First off, the only difference in the equipment text: The description to the P Griffon γ.

​

Improved accuracy is one of​

the benefits of the upgraded​

P Griffon.​

​

​

​

Spoiler: Snapshot

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​

​

​

​

Improved accuracy is one of​

the benefits of the upgraded​

P Griffon β.​

​

​

​

Spoiler: Snapshot

​

​

​

P Griffon γ is indeed the upgrade from P Griffon β, so it's more accurate to include the β symbol in the description.



The loading text when you click on "Game Start".

​

Currently checking the​

memory card (PS2)​

in MEMORY CARD slot 1.​

​

​

​

Spoiler: Snapshot

​

​

​

​

​

Loading data from the​

memory card (PS2)​

in MEMORY CARD slot 1.​

​

​

​

Spoiler: Snapshot

​

​

​

To my surprise, the text message "Tempsave successfully deleted." does not exist in the US version and so it never pops up! The tempsave loads without an intermediate text window like this one.

​

Spoiler: PAL/INT

​

​

​

​

Does this mean that the Japanese original doesn't have a "Tempsave successfully deleted." message either? Why yes! The message is there in JINT but NOT in JORG.

​

Spoiler: INT in Japanese

​

​

​

​

This final case where the text changed I have not tried to unlock.

Failed to create save data.

​

Overwrite the save data​

on the memory card (PS2)​

in MEMORY CARD slot 1?​

​

​

Failed to create save data.

Data has changed.​

Overwrite the save data​

on the memory card (PS2)​

in MEMORY CARD slot 1?​

​

​

​

 

[Shademp]

Today is the birthday of Dark Byte, creator of Cheat Engine. The program has an easter egg where, whenever you start up CE on Dark Byte's birthday, the message...

Let's sing Happy Birthday for Dark Byte today!​

...pops up. What a cute surprise!

May it indeed be a happy birthday, Dark Byte. Thank you so much for creating this program that has allowed me to dig into my favorite games and is sure to allow me many more discovery-filled adventures.

At cheatengine.org you can download Cheat Engine. I recommend the video tutorial by Stephen Chapman, in particular the first dozen or so videos, if you want to get started in a smooth way.

Finding health/HP values and changing and/or locking those to make you nigh-invincible in games is great fun. It might be the start on your journey to uncover even more in-depth stuff, such as item inventories or game text!



More on topic, I decided to record a few of the "online mode" sounds that I can unlock by replacing Vincent's melee grunt sound (in this case, sound bt_v007) with sound clips for the online game.

The recording still includes the atmospheric ambience of the stage and the sound of Vincent's claw swiping. But unlike the sound clips in the Audio Library, these clips unlocked in-game aren't sped up that much. If I bother finding the strings connected to the atmospheric ambience and the claw-swiping sound, thus being able to cancel these sounds, I could create some pretty clean recordings.

Download:
- on_a023 to on_a032
- on_a101 to on_a107


I actually discovered this many months ago. Just didn't bother mentioning it until now.


A disappointing result was that while I was able to change the sound effects for magic materia between those of Fire, Blizzard and Thunder, the sound clips that are meant to correspond to the online-exclusive Cure and Flash don't trigger any sounds at all. The result was the same when I changed the animations associated with the magic spells. Only Fire, Blizzard and Thunder are available. It is looking increasingly unlikely that the sfx and animations for Cure and Flash exist on the disc.

 

[Shademp]

Found the strings for the ambience and the swipe sound of Vincent's arm. In other words, I can now create clean recordings for sound clips that can be unlocked in-game via cheats. I estimate that the recordings represent the sound either at their intended speed or ever so slightly faster.

I'm currently in the process of recording the online voice clips. In the mean-time, here are Cait Sith's Game Over lines.

- Download link

se_0439 - I'm a goner, uh...
se_0440 - And this was my best, sir.
se_0441 - Sorry about that.
se_0442 - Don't think I can take him head on, ugh...
se_0443 - I'm just a fortune-telling machine, ugh...
se_0444 - Crikey... I should have tried to stay out of sight.
se_0445 - Crikey... Should have hidden in one of those boxes.
se_0446 - Crikey... I need to find a way over those...things.
se_0447 - Crikey... I probably could have used that drum can.
se_0448 - Crikey... Should have tried sneaking around them.

Plenty of these I had never heard before. I wonder if the "Should have hidden in one of those boxes" variation is unused. 'Twould make sense, since you never hide inside any box, you just hide behind them.


Naturally there are still complications with unlocking sound clips. Many clips still refuse to play and some will only play if you are at the right place in the game. Shelke's line "Not amusing" can be played in Chapter 1, but not in Chapter 10 (other chapters have not been tested). There is also a very low-volume loop that plays in Kalm/Chapter 1 that I can't determine the string for, meaning that any recordings from there are not perfectly clean because the aforementioned loop remains. Even so, here is Shelke's voice clip.

Download link: se_0171 - Not amusing

Shelke uses this line in Kalm if you try to attack her and Azul inside the office house with all the monitors, when you should be busy defeating the incoming stream of DG soldiers.

 

[ForceStealer]

Plenty of these I had never heard before. I wonder if the "Should have hidden in one of those boxes" variation is unused. 'Twould make sense, since you never hide inside any box, you just hide behind them.

Or is that a Metal Gear Solid reference?

 

[Shademp]

The only player character voice clips I have not yet unlocked are on_v081 - on_v104, which going by the descriptions in the jsnddb.text document are the sounds for when the player character gets shot.
(Example: オンライン用通常兵士被弾 = Normal soldier shot online)

All other available clips have been recorded and organized. Download link below:

- Online Soldier Voice Clips + Crowd

It is a joy to have these sound clips. Some I have heard many times in gameplay recordings of the online mode, some are new to me.

Because the recordings were made manually, the amount of silence recorded in each clip will differ. At worst, I may have cut off some recordings before the ending echoes reach zero decibel, but unless you are using headphones and analyzing the clips in a sound editor you are unlikely to notice.

Once the recordings are translated I will enter them into the Audio Library page, simultaneously removing the old, sped-up versions of these voice clips. I will also remove most of the audio players from the page so that the article no longer takes as long to load.

 

[Shademp]

If you had the gil for it, you could pay TSV Pullum to clear missions for you in the online multiplayer. This Moogle Cap-wearing NPC was added along with the April 20 version update in the 2006 era.

Thanks to DGYaco's blog, we have reports on the pay-to-clear cost for 41 missions. Michui's blog mentions the cost of clearing the Nero boss battle mission, so that gives us reports for 42 missions total. There are no saved screenshots showing the mission list that would pop up when you speak to TSV Pullum, so we can't cross-reference blog reports with actual evidence, sadly.

So here is what we got so far.

Mission - Gil to pay TSV Pullum

Drone Rank MS

DG Drone 2nd Promotion Exam - 7500
DG Drone 1st Promotion Exam - 7500
DG Scout 3rd Promotion Exam - 12000
Beginner Course Part 1 - 2000
Beginner Course Part 2 - 2000
Beginner Course Part 3 - 2000
Church map exercise - 2000
Jungle map exercise - 2000
Wastelands map exercise - 2000
Sewer map exercise - 2000
Kalm Streets map exercise - 2000
Train Graveyard map exercise - 2000
Shinra Building Map Exercise - 2000
Roof map exercise - 2000
Processing Plant map exercise - 2000
Collector's Mind - 2000
Dual Horn Battlefield - 5000
Sniper Threat - 2000
Steel Wall - 8000
Double Attack - 2000
Silent Killing - 12000


Scout Rank MS

DG Scout 2nd Promotion Exam - 12000
DG Scout 1st Promotion Exam - 12000
DG Trooper 3rd Promotion Exam - 18000
Assault Mission - 8000
The Jungle Elite Unit - 2000
Dual Horn Family - 8000
Panic Matador - 12000
Rains of Gehenna - 12000
The Giant Birds who Cry Death - 8000
Monster Box - 5000
The Stolen Secret - 8000
The Gravekeepers' Mako - 8000
Miraculous Servant - 12000
Light Bullet Oratorio - 8000
Treasure Retrieval Order! - 5000


Trooper Rank MS

DG Trooper 2nd Promotion Exam - 18000
Green Encounter - 2000
Forest of Grudge - 12000
Sahagin Dance - 8000
The Blue Roar - 32000


Commander Rank MS

Black · Wing · Mock · Battle - 42000​

Paying to have the Nero boss battle MS ("Black · Wing · Mock · Battle") cleared for you would still award you with the Emblem of the Black Wings medal. The same was almost certainly true for all other missions that awarded medals.

 

[Shademp]

As promised, the Audio Library has received a facelift. Much gratitude to mecorx for translating the voice clips on such short notice!

- I have only unlocked these voice clips in the International version of Dirge. Thusly, potential version differences have not been accounted for.

- on_v032.wav...
支援。止せ。 [Assist. Stop]
...is one sound file here. But in the sped-up versions of these clips found on the disc, "Assist" and "Stop" are separate sound files. I do not know if on_v032.wav was always played in full in-game, or if it was actually divided into two separate clips.

- The one clip mecorx isn't sure about is on_a031.wav.
無効無効。 [Error, error.]
If anybody has an alternate interpretation of this sound clip, let me know.

 

[Shademp]

Figured I'd have some amateur-fun with memory card saves and a hex editor. I was pleased at how easy it was to find the compare feature.

I took a Dirge save where the capsule of "Zephyr Heathlands" was intact and compared it with one where the capsule was destroyed. This particular capsule unlocks the "The WRO" section in the Character Viewer.

There were more flags (I have no idea if the term "flag" is inappropriate here, but the point gets across) changed than I expected. I can't yet spot which parts of the data one might edit to for example restore a destroyed capsule.

To make sense of at least one aspect of the comparison I looked at one piece of known data: The save time for the memory cards.


Memory Card A: 2017/07/13 22:14:57 (Capsule Intact)
Memory Card B: 2017/07/13 23:08:15 (Capsule Destroyed)

Knowing this data, I found two spots that pointed to the seconds of the minute. Perhaps one data spot saves the time while another is responsible for making the time appear when browsing your memory card in your PS2.

BIN = HEX
57 = 39
15 = 0F

- Spot 1
- Spot 2
Values are identical, but these are two different spots in the memory card data.

My conclusions as to where the seconds and year are shown may be completely wrong. I have not been able to make sense of the other values in the vicinity nor spotted any obvious place where the hours and day-of-month are stored (and in what way).

I am assuming here also that the hex editor shows address values "backwards", just like it does in Cheat Engine.

2017 in hex is 7E1, but when reading values in tables like the above it is printed "E1 07". No idea why this backwards-standard seems to apply.


A more easily accessible observation is the fact that the memory card refers to the production codes of both the Japanese original and the International release, despite the memory card only having a save file for the latter.

- Production Code References

SLPM-66271 → DCFFVII Japanese Original​

SLPM-66629 → DCFFVII International​

I am yet to try editing a memory save via a hex editor and then playing the game using that modified save. This was just my very first look into PS2 memory cards in a hex editor.


EDIT: Tried now to modify the year that the memory card was saved to but my changes did not appear in the PS2 browser. =/

 

[Shademp]

Extracted the Japanese KelStr 1.1 text from both JORG and JINT. When comparing the two I was met with a surprise: An item name in JINT but that seems to lack an item ID.

諸0 [Various 0]​

The string is placed right next to the final online headgear. The corresponding place in the English games have no text. Looking into the game's internal item list (and trying a few random values), I am not finding any item ID that could unlock this "Various 0". While it is placed right next to the headgear, the namesake makes me wonder if it was intended as an item group for miscellaneous items, separate from the masks.


Any other highlights from the comparison?



- Quantum Cerberus, P Cerberus, S Cerberus, S Cerberus γ, S Hydra γ, S Griffon, S Griffon β and Starry Griffon received edits to their Japanese descriptions.



- Changes to online mode text as well as many additions to multiplayer text exist in JINT. Tutorials were changed to fit the 2006 era instead of the β phase. The JORG text refers to the beta mechanic of using MP to trigger Limit Breaks. *EDIT: Actually I realize now I can't guarantee that this tutorial text refers to only the online mode, since Vincent Valentine uses MP to trigger his limit breaks in JORG.*


"Icon Chat" was changed to "Macro Chat" (I do not know if this represents a change from beta to 2006).


Error message for when trying to start the tutorial was changed to no longer reference the beta version.

βバージョンでは、
チュートリアルを起動できません。

(Google Translate)

With the beta version, you can not start the tutorial.

現在こちらのモードは起動できません。

(Google Translate)

Currently this mode can not be activated.

In what context the tutorial mode was not possible to activate (beyond the beta) is unknown.

​

MEMORY CARD差込口1の
PlayStation 2専用メモリーカード(8MB)に
現在のセーブデータを上書きします。
上書きを行うと、
以前のデータ（シングルプレイのデータも
含みます）は、失われてしまいますが、
よろしいですか？

​

(Google Translate)​

​

MEMORY CARD Inlet 1​

Overwrite the current saved data in the PlayStation 2 dedicated memory card (8 MB).​

If you overwrite it, the previous data (including Single Player data) will be lost, is this OK?​

​

​

Emote references added.

​

キャラクター名を常に表示
照準の表示
カメラ視点
オンラインのバトル中に、キャラクターの名前を常に表示するかどうかを設定します。
照準の表示方法を設定します。
武器構えを解除した状態のカメラ位置を設定します。
中心のみ
自動調整
手動調整のみ
中心以外
挨拶
賞賛
前進
YES
叫ぶ
NO
交戦
お礼
謝る
/entry よろしくお願いします
/team よくやった！<v12>
/team <pos>異常なし。 前進します<v1><m23>
了解！<v4><m26>
/entry <me>はここだ！ かかってこい！<v5><m27>
無理だ！<v6><m28>
/team <pos>にて<lt>と交戦中！<v7>
/team ありがとう！<v11>
/team 誤射しました。 <pt+>さんすみません<v10>
エイムサポート
【半自動】に設定すると、照準が自動でターゲットに吸い付くようになります。【全自動】に設定すると、ターゲットへの吸い付きがより強くなります。
手動
半自動
全自動
画面位置補正
画面の表示位置を設定します。
X:+%d Y:+%d
この設定でよろしいですか？
画面の表示位置をデフォルトに戻します。
よろしいですか？

​

(Google Translate)​

​

Always display character name​

Display aiming​

Camera viewpoint​

Sets whether to always display the name of the character during online battle.​

Set the display method of the aim.​

Set the camera position with the weapon hold released.​

Center only​

Automatic adjustment​

Manual adjustment only​

Outside the center​

Greeting​

praise​

Advance​

YES​

call out​

No​

Battle​

Thanks​

apologize​

/ Entry Thank you​

/ Team Good work! <v12>​

/ Team <pos> No abnormality. Advance <v1> <m23>​

roger that! <v4> <m26>​

/ Entry <me> is here! Come on! <v5> <m27>​

It impossible! <v6> <m28>​

/ Team <pos> in battle with <lt>! <v7>​

/ Team Thank you! <v11>​

/ Team Misunderstood. Sorry for <pt +> <v10>​

Aim support​

When set to [semiautomatic], the aim will automatically be sucked to the target. When set to [Fully automatic], the suction to the target becomes stronger.​

Manual​

Semi-automatic​

full automatic​

Screen position correction​

Sets the display position of the screen.​

X: +% d Y: +% d​

Is this appropriate?​

Reset the screen display position to the default.​

Is it OK?​

​

​

 

[JBedford]

2017 in hex is 7E1, but when reading values in tables like the above it is printed "E1 07". No idea why this backwards-standard seems to apply.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

I don't know the technical reasons for why big endian or little endian is used. I know I find it more visually pleasing to see something like "E1 07" (perhaps with 00s padded right) in amongst a billion other values rather than "07 E1" (perhaps with 0s padded left).

 

[Shademp]

Spoiler: Chaos is feeling particularly...posey

Spoiler: The last thing you see

Apart from being a weak boss that will go down in a few shots from Ultima Weapon, if you bring Cait Sith along then the Chaos AI will focus all its energy on your feline companion.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

How did you get all this to happen?

 

[Shademp]

Chaos appears at the very end of the 45th Extra Mission "Stronghold Impervious". I took many snapshots and because I used Cheat Engine to make Vincent invincible, it was easier for me to take close-up shots where normally Chaos's attacks would have knocked Vincent back or interrupted the first-person view.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Oh, okay. I thought that you had gained control of Chaos's model.

 

[Shademp]

I thought that you had gained control of Chaos's model.

I can do that. No problem.

All I need to do is find the string for Vincent's normal player character model (p000) and replace that with the Chaos player model string (p007).

Woila!

Not without imperfections, but perfectly playable. I have not figured out how to unlock Weapon Slot 4 and Death Penalty, which are exclusive to Chaos.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Showoff. =P

 

[Shademp]

 

[Shademp]

Just to show my stupid side yet again, I had another one of those moments where I only just now consciously (with internal, worded narration to accompany it) observed something that I should have seen years ago: When you did damage on enemies in the online mode, no digits popped up to indicate how much damage is being done.

This makes sense. In the online mode, enemies had HP bars right below their name tags. The digits would be superfluous junk.

The presence of name tags is another defining difference, as the offline content doesn't use name tags for enemies and targets or your player character for that matter. Of course I noticed the name tags years and years ago but I'm pointing it out now anyway.


Recently I created images of all the menu maps used for the Extra Missions and this helped me consciously notice something that I had already "felt" on a subconscious level: There are two versions of the "Kalm Streets" map.

Spoiler: Standard Version

Spoiler: Arch Azul Battle

See the online mission against Arch Azul or the Extra Mission "Cait Versus the Bull".

The latter version has removed all the boxes- and access to the central structure in the northwest square. Removing the boxes gives Arch Azul free space to walk about in and removing access to the central structure keeps the player from climbing to potential safety.

For some reason the standard version indicates that you can walk about inside the fountain to the southeast (J-13) but it doesn't matter because there's an invisible wall you can't get beyond anyhow.


Interestingly enough, the map used for the multiplayer (at the start of its service, at least) uses the "standard" map but without indicating traversable ground inside the fountain.
- Source

 

[Shademp]

An image from Cloze's modern-day blog had long teased me because it shows a screenshot of Scene 9 with a different player character than in any of the released recordings.

Spoiler: Power of the Transparent

Now that it's been a few months since I last spoke with Cloze and I had new content to share with them I finally had the conscience to send a new message. With Joel's translation aid, I now asked Cloze about this Scene 9 screenshot and I got a reply. The google translation gets the point across.

Shademp, thank you for your report!
I am glad to help you.

The screenshot in the article is an image of the event scene of unknown power (Scene 9 "Power of the Transparent"), as Shademp says, it is extracted from a video recorded individually.

Although it is a video of the event scene, I think that there is a problem with uploading a movie of the story on the Internet, so I will not upload it.

There are four reasons.

1. In Japan, there are very many people who play games for the purpose of seeing the story.
2. If you can see all the stories with the videos uploaded to the internet, there is a person who does not buy the game.
3. The multi-player mode has been terminated, but the event scene is included in the international version and there is a possibility that someone will purchase the item for the event scene.
4. Play movies will also be advertisements for games depending on how you show videos, but movies with only event scenes are disadvantageous to developers for the second and third reasons.​

I am sorry that I can not respond to your request.

I hope Shademp's website will be good, but please understand that it may be difficult to think about the rights of development companies.

The short of it: Cloze has their own recordings of the multiplayer cutscenes as they appeared in the online mode but will never share them for a multitude of reasons. It's a bummer but I am still thankful to Cloze for their replies, especially since none of the other former players of the online mode will respond to my messages.

 

[Shademp]

Cloze remains a patient person to deal with, thankfully. They went ahead and answered four questions I had about the online mode. I naturally have a few more questions but I didn't want to overwhelm Cloze. Here are the questions and answers paraphrased based on google translate and some help from Joel, who is also the one who translates my messages from English to Japanese so that they can be sent to Cloze.

Q: What does the "P.S." in "Hail P.S." stand for? Does it stand for "President Shinra"?

A: I think it was never made clear in the game. "President Shinra" is a reasonable guess though. Shinra was still in charge of Deepground at the time of the online mode. By the time of the single player, Deepground had broken free and changed the greeting to "Hail Weiss".​

​

So we're still stuck with guessing the meaning but it's quite interesting that not even Cloze knows for sure. Wouldn't surprise me if this detail indeed went unexplained in the actual game.

Q: Did NPCs like Soar, Regis, Iruka, Peliry etc have voice-acted lines or were they always silent when not in cutscenes?

A: Unless present in a story cutscene, NPCs were silent. Even Argento who had a voice in cutscenes did not have voiced lines in normal gameplay.​

​

Argento is actually an exception here, since there is at least one instance when Argento had voiced lines outside of the standard cutscenes.

A contributing reason for me asking this at all is because all the NPC lines on the Shera, in the single player, are voice acted.

Q: Are you okay with uploading screenshots that don't show cutscenes? [*requests for specific screenshots, such as this one but without the scribbles*]

A: I am, as long as the game's story isn't shown and player names get to be blurred out. Sadly, much has been lost since I've reformatted my computer many times since 2006. I logged in to PlayOnline but found no screenshots left in there.​

​

Very grateful to Cloze for taking a closer () look at what data they might have left. I knew from this old desktop dump of Cloze's that there were screenshots they never uploaded to the blog, which motivated me to ask the question above.

Given the style of Cloze's screenshots showing the battles against Chaos and Restrictor, I suspect those are shots from a video recording and that Cloze might still have these (and possibly more). Just like Cloze doesn't want to share the cutscene recordings, it would also be difficult to share gameplay recordings with lots of player names present. Blurring all the player names as they move around on the field would be a lot of effort and end up obscuring much of the video. The videos Cloze have shared only involve their own player character and small chat boxes, so those are easier to edit and share.

Or I'm wrong and Cloze hasn't kept anything under the rug. Either way, I don't feel right inquiring further than I already have. I must respect Cloze's choices.

Q: Who emerged the ultimate victor in the "Deepground Assault" event on September 9, when Units competed to determine who was the strongest in Deepground?

*ADDITIONAL:​

​

The following teams competed​

「CURIBO」
「TEAM JUDGEMENT」
「Bonsmiseth」
「JPCNRJ」
「Rabid」
「Team2ch」
「†風神†」
「SoulCandy」

​

In this video from earlier in the tournament we see that Rabid lost against Team2ch with the final score being 18-50.*​

​

A: Looking for answers online, †風神† [†Wind God†] appears to have won.​

In the following chat from the day of the competition, the 485th-507th comment reveals that the final match was between CURIBO and †Wind God†, with †Wind God† emerging as the winner.​

​

The following page congratulates †Wind God† on their victory.​

​

If we go by what Cloze reported in their own blog back in the day, the final match ended with a tight score of 46-50. This must then be referring to the deciding CURIBO vs †Wind God† match.


Here is Joel's translation of a piece of the aforementioned chat.

- Wow, Fuujin won! That's awful!

- Congratulations Fuujin!

- So they could win with those members, huh. Unbelievable.
Maybe they had lag armour?

- I guess not even Curibou could defeat connection issues, my condolences

- Seems like Curibou's sock puppets are being poor losers on here



- To think that Curibou went through all that trouble to get their members only to lose, though......
I'd love to see what happened in that game.

- Silvia was the only member I hadn't heard of, I think
I knew about everyone else but
I didn't know about Silvia

 

[Shademp]

Teioh was wonderful and informed me that the English FF Record Keeper is now holding the same Dirge of Cerberus event that was held in Japan back in early March.


'The Dirge Begins' EVENT

Spoiler: See the videos uploaded by M Margolin

- Multiplayer Dungeon Raid - Conquer the Pegasus Riders


- Battle in the Courtyard


- Riders on the Storm


- Armored Concerto


- Multiplayer Dungeon Raid - Conquer the Crimson Hound


- Swarming Beasts (Ultimate)


- Azul Menace


- Shelke the Transparent

The following battle names in FFRK match the chapter section names from Dirge of Cerberus:

-

Spoiler: Battle in the Courtyard

-

Spoiler: Swarming Beasts

-

Spoiler: Riders on the Storm

-

Spoiler: Armored Concerto

The RK battle names "Shelke the Transparent" and "Azul Menace" don't match the corresponding chapter segment names, no matter if you check Dirge of Cerberus in Japanese or English.

シェルクという少女 = A girl named Shelke
Official localization: Shelke (yup, just her name)

蒼きアスール = Azul the Cerulean
I don't know if a literal translation would be "Azul the Blue", but this phrase 蒼きアスール was officially localized as "Azul the Cerulean".

 

[Shademp]

Today's joy: Finding some familiar β screenshots but without any watermarks attached to them. The original source of these screenshots have been lost to time. I am not aware if they came from a normal beta tester or if these are promotional screenshots released by the developers.

*update while writing the post*

Holy mosey! A second joy now appeared! IT'S A MIRACLE!

While summarizing which Dirge online multiplayer videos that have been lost to time but that we know the existence of, I revisited an archived YouTube link...AND BY JENOVA IT ACTUALLY PLAYS!!!

It may not play for you, as it once did not play for me. There is no sound.

The video shows player character Pochi clearing the Silent Killing mission. The video was uploaded on March 27, 2006, making it the earliest confirmed recording that still exists from the online mode. For some reason, this playthrough of Silent Killing appears easier and more straightforward than the recording made by Cloze in September of the same year.

The YT account, Kadaaju, was terminated at some point.

Now to find a way to download this audioless flash video!


EDIT: Using the Firefox add-on DownloadHelper I was able to get an flv file for the whole flash video. Just like when you view the video on the internet archive, there is no audio and no way to adjust which part of the video you are watching.

- flv download

I converted the flv to an mp4 so you can adjust when in the video you are, though don't be surprised if there is a tiny drop in quality from the conversion.

- mp4 download

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, that's pretty damn sweet.

 

[Shademp]

Observe how the selection pointer is pointing northwest instead of east in our newly acquired recording.

For some reason even the "0/1 Commanders Defeated" menu window is selected above.

Screenshots of the menus during the early months of the multiplayer are in short supply, but so far it's consistent that early on the claw was pointing northwest and then it was changed to point east, just like in the Single Player.

Spoiler: Claw early on versus later

The northwest-pointing claw remained in use however for some menus, like in the battle-spoils screens after a mission/battle, where you presumably can't select anything.

Spoiler: Receiving the Wooden Moogle Doll

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Definite improvement.