Dirge of Cerberus

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus is a third-person shooter game developed for the Playstation 2 by Square-Enix as a part of the Final Fantasy VII Compilation. The game, a sequel to FFVII, centers around the originally hidden character Vincent Valentine, a former Turk, an unanswered lovefool and one of Hojo's vengeful experiments.

Profile
The story of Dirge of Cerberus focuses on Vincent Valentine all the way through. Yuffie Kisaragi, fellow hidden character from the original game, serves as a humorous but strong sidekick to the protagonist in his quests in-game. The playable part of the game begins three years after Meteor struck the Planet and the people of the world are somewhat calm again. However, the Planet's peace and harmony is once again brought to danger as it seems that Deepground SOLDIERs & the Tsviets wish to call upon Omega WEAPON to destruct the Planet to the very core.

Soon, Vincent finds himself amidst a group of people that focus on restoring the Planet to what it once was before the powerhungry company Shin-Ra came along. This is done through the World Regenesis Organization, or simply known as the WRO. Vincent comes across a familiar face - Reeve Tuesti, former head of Shin-Ra's Urban Development Department and controller of previous party-member stuffed toy cat Cait Sith (now the head of WRO).

Vincent's previous lovestory involving Lucrecia Crescent initially serves as a backstory, showing flashbacks and updates about his past from time to time. To sum it up, when Vincent was a Turk, he fell hopelessly in love with Lucrecia Crescent, one of the main scientists working for the Shin-Ra in the JENOVA Project. However, his love was left unanswered as Lucrecia was devotionally interested in her husband, the ultramad scientist Hojo, who will do anything and sacrifice anyone to get through his experiments.

Hojo sees Lucrecia as a mere pawn in his experiment and uses her to impregnate her with a hopefully successful candidate outcome of the JENOVA Project. Hearing his Lucrecia's love for Hojo being answered by cold cruelty angers Vincent, and he ends up confronting him. The scientist answers his confrontation with a scientifically altering experiment on Vincent himself - putting him to a thirty year sleep and mutating him forever. Till this date, Vincent seeks revenge on Hojo for what he has done to him, and more importantly, how he has used his true love Lucrecia for a mere experiment.

It gets personal once you know that Hojo is once again involved in the plans to disturb the Planet's peace. Along with Tsviet member Weiss, Hojo wishes to summon Omega Weapon and eventually succeeds in doing so: Omega WEAPON is the game's very last boss. Once the player beats the game, Vincent Valentine's story of the Final Fantasy VII saga has come to an end.

Yuffie's Profile
A young ninja from the distant land of Wutai. Three years ago she became entangled with Cloud and his companions during her search for materia. She is away from her homeland and has been (somewhat) forced into joining the World Regenesis Organization (WRO). She is in charge of espionage and intelligence gathering.

Role In-game As stated previously, Yuffie character in Dirge of Cerberus as usual serves the purpose of Vincent's trustworthy sidekick that brings some energy and optimism in the game's somewhat caliginous storyline. She is not a playable character in the game, nor does she have major impact on the main storyline, but she helps Vincent out a great deal in saving the Planet and his quest for closure.

Continuity
Though the game is a sequel to the original Final Fantasy VII and has been developed by Square-Enix, it lacks continuity in the beginning. As the game starts off (at the end of the original game) with Vincent Valentine and Yuffie Kisaragi aiding and evacuating those in Midgar before Meteor falls upon the Planet, it is made clear that this is being done while the rest of the party is down in Northern Cave fighting the almighty Sephiroth. This pretty much makes the player think "Uhm... what if either Yuffie or Vincent was in my party during the final battle of FFVII?". Hmm...

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