Video Game / Dirge of Cerberus

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Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII is a sequel and spinoff of the whiplash-inducingly popular Final Fantasy VII, and was released for the Sony PlayStation 2. Unlike other games in the series, Dirge is a Third-Person Shooter with RPG Elements, starring broody ally Vincent Valentine as he fights to come to terms with his past. Although nearly all of the Final Fantasy VII characters make some appearance, focus is off the main characters and onto ones who didn't get much screentime in the original. It includes a Cutting Off the Branches of a scene late in the game which assumed that Vincent and Yuffie, who were optional Secret Characters, were not in your party.

DOC takes place one year after Advent Children and infamously creates a tie-in with Crisis Core, released afterwards but canonically taking place before the original game. Said tie-in involves J-Pop star GACKT in a rare (for video games) live-action cameo.

This game contains examples of:

• 100% Completion: There are small "memory capsules" hidden throughout every stage.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Chaos and Death Penalty.
• Adaptation Expansion: Shinra Manor gets an Absurdly Spacious Sewer, and the Shinra building gets an expansive basement leading to Mako Reactor 0.
• All Deserts Have Cacti: Or, in this case, Cactuars.
• All There in the Manual: The online game reveals a lot more history about Deepground and the Tsviets, including the reason Weiss died and later got possessed by Hojo. Unfortunately this was Japan-only.
• Ambiguously Gay: Nero is creepily obsessed with his brother Weiss, and has his moments with Vincent. In Lost Episode, he even stalks Vincent to get "a taste of his darkness".
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Arguably the whole point of the game, but there's also a segment where you control Cait Sith.
• Anime Hair: Weiss' spiky hair gives even Cloud a run for his money
• Anime Theme Song: Two, both by GACKT. "Longing" plays during the very last part of the final level on your way to fight the final boss, and "Redemption" is basically the game's theme song.
• Anti-Frustration Features
  • Every checkpoint is a separate autosave file. Did you enter a boss fight with insufficient ammunition to kill the boss? No worries; you can reload from the previous checkpoint, or even the checkpoint before that, and make sure you go in prepared next time.
  • At the end of every stage, you can either cash in your EXP so Vincent can level up or convert it to gil. The same option is provided if you get a Game Over, allowing you to go in with a little better stats next time.
• Apologizes a Lot: Lucrecia.
• Ascended Extra: Vincent, Lucrecia and Chaos were respectively an optional party member, a minor character and a Limit Break in the original game. In this game, Vincent is the protagonist, and Lucrecia and Chaos have major roles in the story.
• A-Team Firing: As an Anti-Frustration Feature, Deepground and the WRO will usually miss each other (and any hits that DO land will not deal damage) until Vincent gets close enough. Since protecting the WRO troopers is often an optional objective, and killing enemies in succession builds up a chain to boost Vincent's damage, this helps minimize the likelihood of either side dying before Vincent has the option to benefit.
• Attack of the Town Festival: The game opens on a festival in Kalm, which is when Deepground makes themselves known. Supplementary material reveals the celebration was the reactivation of the Worldwide Network, which was knocked out during Meteorfall.
• Auto-Revive: Since Vincent operates solo throughout the game, using a Phoenix Down gives him a Reraise status in advance, rather than being used on his body after he's KO'd.
• Ax-Crazy: Rosso loves to kill, and straight-up admits she threw away her "human weakness" to become a killing machine.
• Badass Army: The World Regenesis Organization, once they decided to go offensive.
• Badass Cape: Vincent, of course. One could make a case for Rosso and Azul as well.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Vincent, only being Hojo is enough to push him off the edge.
  • As rare as it is for the Tsviets to genuinely care about someone, you don't want to hurt the ones they do care about.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: When Rosso is defeated, rather than let Vincent kill her, she cuts her chunk of floor away from the building she's standing on and falls to her death.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: At the start of Chapter 8. Cloud rides Fenrir into the ruins of Midgar, accompanied by Barret and Tifa and several WRO trucks, while Vincent and the others dive down on hoverboards from the Shera. It's stopped from being The War Sequence by virtue of Vincent landing several klicks off his destination; he ends up accompanying a few WRO troopers.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Inverted with Nero, the younger brother, who is obsessed with protecting Weiss.
  • Shalua refers to Shelke as her reason to live.
• Bishōnen Line:
  • Gorgonero is virtually physically indistinguishable from his regular ol' Nero, unlike Arachnero.
  • Chaos also seems to have crossed it between games. Where before it was a Chernabog-esque demon, it now has much stronger Morphic Resonance with Vincent, sporting Cape Wings and a more human face.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While she herself is not overtly malicious, the amount of horrible things that have happened in Vincent's life on account of Lucrecia is positively maddening. At least she's apologetic.
• Blood Knight: Azul. When Vincent finally smashes his barrier, he admits that it's been a long time since he faced a Worthy Opponent, and he relishes in it.
• Bloodlust: Rosso. After she snapped, Rosso became obsessed with drawing blood from her foes, hence her title, "the Crimson".
• Bookends: If you play the tutorial. Back when Vincent was a Turk, using a Limit Breaker just gave him a glowing effect, heightened defense, and unlimited ammo. In the present day, it's instead triggers the Galian Beast, a humanoid Behemoth with brutal melee attacks and fireball magic for a ranged attack. During the last chapter, when Vincent has full control of Chaos, using a Limit Breaker once again just gives him a glowing effect, heightened defense, and unlimited ammo.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The Tsviets and Deepground, as a result of the Super-Soldier program. The heroes go through some mild angsting over whether Deepground can really be blamed for their actions.
• Call-Back: Vincent got a new phone...
• Character Filibuster: Weiss... er... Hojo goes on a long ramble about his plans when Vincent finally confronts him. Vincent tries to shut him up twice.
• Child Soldiers: Shelke was kidnapped and turned into a Tsviet at age 9. It's also implied that many of the other Deepground soldiers were also children when they were first experimented on; Weiss, Nero and Rosso were all born in Deepground.
• Cliffhanger Wall: The secret ending of Dirge of Cerberus has not been picked up by any Final Fantasy media since. Genesis flies away with Weiss promising some mysterious new plan... which has never been followed up as the next game Crisis Core is a prequel to the first game and all subsequent tie-in media chronologically take place before Dirge of Cerberus.
• Colorful Theme Naming: The Tsviets. Nero means black, Azul means blue, Rosso means red, Shelke means amber, Weiss means white, and Argento means silver. Most of them even wear the appropriate colors. Even their group name refers to it, as "Tsviet" means "color" in Russian (and also is an archaic word for "flower").
• Combos: Vincent can do kicks and punches in close quarters.
• Continuity Cameo: Rufus is seen being loaded into an ambulance during the evacuation of Midgar as Meteor is starting to fall. It's explained in the novellas as having something to do with a trap door.
• Critical Hit: In addition to random crits, landing a headshot is a guaranteed critical hit.
• Crystal Prison: Lucrecia is revealed to be in one, apparently of her own free will.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: A large complaint with the game was how Vincent could pull off incredible acrobatics and take down enemies with gravity-defying combos in cutscenes, and even takes down a helicopter with a handful of bullets in the opening, but during gameplay he could do no more than double jump, and even that was something that was added to the US/PAL version of the game, and it still doesn't let him combo enemies or surpass the smallest of obstacles.
• Cutting Off the Branches: While they can be chosen to participate in the final battle in the main game, Vincent and Yuffie are shown to remain at Midgar evacuating the civilians in the opening prologue instead of joining Cloud and the others. This would explain why these two, who are optional recruitable characters, are absent in the final FMV.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Deepground is a walking source of these. All the Tsviets were born in Deepground (with the exception of Shelke, who was kidnapped at age 9), experimented on even further than happens to SOLDIERs
• Dark Is Not Evil: Vincent is still clad in black, sporting Lovecraftian Superpowers, and prone to dark places. And he is actively trying to save people.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • For Vincent, the Optional Party Member who received the least screentime in the original Final Fantasy VII.
  • Notably, the returning cast members who receive the most screentime here are Cid, Reeve/Cait Sith, and Yuffie, whilst the characters introduced before leaving Midgar (Cloud, Barrett, Tifa and Red XIII) are all Demoted to Extra.
• Dead to Begin With: Weiss, in a manner of speaking. But "not for long", according to Nero. It turns out that he succumbed to a virus implanted in his body that would be activated if he killed his superiors, which he did.
• Death Glare: Vincent's default expression whenever Hojo is on-screen.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Not even a slap on the wrist. If Vincent gets killed, you get to keep all of the experience you earned and convert it to levels or Gil just like you would if you cleared the chapter, essentially restarting before the problem point with more resources at your disposal. Death can be downright beneficial.
• Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: Shalua to Shelke, once Shelke's been captured by the WRO.
• Degraded Boss: Several of them. The helicopter from the first level, the heavy armored soldier from the third level, and the Black Widow robot from the fifth level all reappear as Elite Mooks or Mini-Bosses later in the game.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The Tsviets' names are all foreign words for different colours, and three of them are given titles that are less-common terms for those same colours; Rosso the Crimson (red), Azul the Cerulean (blue), and Nero the Sable (black). Weiss the Immaculate could arguably count, as "immaculate" refers to purity and cleanliness, both of which are often signified by white. Only Argento from the Japan-only multiplayer campaign and Shelke fully avert this; Argento isn't given a title, and Shelke's name references 'orange', but her title is "Transparent".
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Sort of; you customize your weapon's base, barrel, and attachment.
• Difficulty by Region: The US release removed the Easy setting, changed the Limit Breaks to items, reduced the number of max slots per item and the money that can be obtained by selling them, and tweaked the enemy AI. On the other hand, it did improve the camera controls, lets Vincent double-jump, and increased Vincent's speed by 20% (American audiences can only boggle at how the original version must have played).
• Difficulty Levels: On Extra Hard, opening the menu doesn't stop the action. Yet, you're allowed to keep all your weapons and items from a previous Normal or Hard mode game.
• Disney Death: Implied to be what Weiss received in the Genesis ending.
• Double Jump: This ability was added to the US/PAL version. While it doesn't add anything for level exploration, the added airtime is an AntiFrustrationFeature for certain fights where the best way to avoid an attack is by jumping - most notably, Azul's Ground Pound shockwave.
• Double Weapon: Rosso's sword is a double-bladed mechanism with a small machinegun built in the handle, giving it the figure of a bow.
• Downer Ending: The Online mode ends up very awfully for the Player Tsviet. After Restrictor kills them, Weiss and his fellow Tsviets reveal that they manipulated the Player Tsviet all along. They let them die and go to find the next one, implying there are more Restrictors to deal with and another person will be a victim of their schemes. Shelke also reveals to the Player that 'they never had any sister' and their memories had been hijacked to be used.
• Dual Wielding: Shelke uses a pair of electrified batons. Nero goes Guns Akimbo with both his hands and the claws mounted on his wings. Weiss uses a pair of katana gunblades, then swaps them out for a pair of nodachi as the Final Boss.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Nero the Sable.
• Emotionless Girl: Shelke the Transparent, though she gradually defrosts as the game progresses.
• Escort Mission: Many chapters have missions where the player can keep allies safe, whether civilians or WRO troops. Fortunately, they are not mandatory to clear, only providing a gil bonus at the end of the chapter.
• Ethereal White Dress: Lucrecia, after she goes The Atoner route and seals herself away for all of the horrible things that happened to Vincent because of her, ditches her scientist garb for a white Pimped-Out Dress.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • The best trope is Nero. Despite his dark and creepy nature at times, he really does love Weiss and would do anything to protect him or being with him. Weiss also seems to feel the same toward him.
  • Even though Shelke was with Deepground, Shalua still cared for her and always tried to search for her.
• Everything Fades: Dead enemies will vanish after some time.
• Evil Brit: Nero the Sable has a slight British accent
• Evil Laugh: Weiss and Hojo. At first, you might think that Hojo is affecting the way that Weiss laughs, but the group laughter at the end of the Online Mode reveals that no, he just laughs like that naturally. Most of the Tsviets are also guilty of this — they may be evil, but they have a very healthy sense of humor.
• Extended Gameplay: The NA/PAL version removed the multiplayer mode and retooled it into a bunch of optional missions unlocked after the Final Boss.
• Eyepatch of Power: Argento, one of the Tsviets from the Japan-only multiplayer mode, sports an eyepatch.
• Faceless Mooks: All Deepground soldiers wear face-covering helmets.
• Fate Worse than Death: When Weiss and Nero merge into one, Hojo lost control of it and he's erased from existence as Weiss walks into Omega.
• Femme Fatale: Rosso the Crimson.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Vincent can hang materia off the butt of his gun to give him Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder magic. There are no elemental weaknesses/resistances, and each spell instead has different projectile properties; Fire is a projectile that explodes on contact, Blizzard is a homing projectile, and Thunder serves as a Short-Range Shotgun.
• Four Is Death: The fourth weapon slot is only unlocked for the final chapter, when Vincent manages to reclaim control of Chaos, and the only weapon allowed in that slot is the Death Penalty.
• Full-Name Basis: Shelke always calls Vincent by his full name. Once or twice she just calls him Vincent, but she plays it straight the overwhelming majority of the time.
• Gag Sub: This trailer.
• Gender-Blender Name: Not intentionally, but seeing as Rosso and Argento are women, their names should really be Rossa and Argentea (the feminine Italian equivalents).
• Gun Accessories: Vincent can hang accessories off the butt of his gun - either stat-boosters, or materia to give him a magical option.
• Hammerspace: Cerberus gets holstered at Vincent's hip, but the only time you're going to see his rifles or machine guns is when he's holding them.
• Hand Cannon: Customizing Cerberus with the Long Barrel can have this effect. To say nothing of the redesigned Death Penalty that Vincent brings out when he takes full control of Chaos.
• Heel–Face Turn: [[spoiler:Shelke ends up turning on the Tsviets after Rosso gets the Protomateria and Azul tries to kill her for being "no longer required"
• The Hero Doesn't Kill the Villainess: Both of the female members of the Tsviets, Shelke and Rosso, are not killed by Vincent. Shelke has a High-Heel–Face Turn and Rosso commits suicide rather than be defeated by Vincent.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shalua gets herself possibly-fatal head trauma to buy Shelke enough time to escape from Azul.
• Hide Your Children: Viciously averted; the opening cutscene alone shows several children being captured by Deepground, one of the missions in the first chapter is to save a little girl who gets ripped away from her mother, and Vincent's trip to Edge has a little boy who needs to be protected help him find a keycard. One scene where Deepground's kidnapees get swallowed by Omega also has an Empathy Doll Shot on a stuffed moogle.
• Highly Visible Ninja: Yuffie shows up in a bright white moogle poncho.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Hojo performed Brain Uploading sometime before/after his boss fight in the original game. When the Worldwide Network was reactivated shortly before Dirge began, he manipulated Deepground into reviving Weiss so that Hojo could pull a Grand Theft Me on the Immaculate One.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Azul manages to draw out Chaos after his boss and gets his own cannon hurled through his chest. And no, there's not a bayonet on the end of that thing.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Vincent's titular Cerberus, a triple-barreled revolver that can be easily modified on a dime. Firing three bullets at a time also gives it deadly damage output for such a mobile weapon.
• Improbable Weapon User: Shelke, who uses two electrified batons with extendable blades that connect to a power supply on her back with seemingly-autonomous cords
• Infinity +1 Sword: Vincent gets his own Ultima Weapon, available by upgrading the Model Gun found in Edge three times. Also, the Death Penalty he wields as Chaos is an 11th-Hour Superpower par excellence, to the point where not using it in the final chapter is a Self-Imposed Challenge.
• Invisible Wall: In abundance. Anything larger than a single jump, and not destructible, cannot be passed over, nor can the player pass over ledges that are not meant to be reached from one side. The laser fences that must be unlocked with keycards also have these to avoid jumping over them from nearby ledges.
• Invulnerable Civilians: Averted, one of your bonus objectives in the first chapter even revolves around rescuing them before they get gunned down. Thankfully you can still get an S rank even despite one of them near-inevitably getting mowed down in a scripted sequence.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Shelke ends up diving into Omega's mind after she realizes that the "pure Lifestream" that Hojo had made to fuel it is a network of souls - and therefore, something she can tap into with her Synaptic Net Dive. It lets her get the Protomateria back and deliver it to Vincent, giving him full control of Chaos even with Omega awake and demanding its squire's servitude.
• Just Between You and Me: Weiss/Hojo really can't resist explaining every last detail of his evil plan, even after Vincent interrupts him twice to say he's heard enough.
• Large Ham: Yuffie goes all-out on her introduction when Vincent asks who she is, as she's wearing a cloak, for some unknown reason. Weiss also has one of the hammiest Evil Laughs in Final Fantasy, and no, that's not Hojo's fault; the Japan-only multiplayer showed he was just as hammy pre-Grand Theft Me.
• Katanas Are Just Better: After Weiss combines with Omega, his gun-swords are upgraded to a pair of katanas.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Weiss' Elites in Deepground are invulnerable to normal bullets thanks to a Beehive Barrier. You can still dispose of them with elemental attacks or kick their ass manually in hand-to-hand combat.
• Lethal Joke Item: The Toy Gun is completely useless, but if you upgrade it to its final version, you get the Infinity Plus One Gun, Ultima Weapon.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In the online mode. It is very difficult to guess who is the nicest between Restrictor and Weiss as the two of them committed very horrible and amoral actions to reach their goals, and in any case there would be victims because of them. Nevertheless, the online mode made the Tsviets as somehow the "good guys" because of their background which makes them somewhat sympathetic. Furthermore, Weiss's care for his brother is his only one redeemable trait.
• Light Is Not Good: Weiss the Immaculate. Bright pants. Fair skin on full display. Voluminous, spiky white hair. Introduced on a throne in a pool of glowing mako. But his introductory scene is a long list of The Many Deaths of You if you're not pure enough to be "spared" for his cause. And even after he breaks free of Hojo's Grand Theft Me, he's got no qualms about waking up Omega and causing The End of the World as We Know It so he can be alone with his brother.
• Limit Break: Vincent's Galian Beast returns as his go-to limit break. In the original version, it runs off his magic meter; in the NA/PAL version, he instead has "Limit Breaker" items that the player can pop to trigger the transformation. During his training with the Turks in the tutorial, and when he has full control of Chaos at the end of the game, the Limit Breaker instead gives him invulnerability and Bottomless Magazines.
• Little Miss Badass: Double subverted by Shelke. She really is a nineteen-year old teenager, but given that she is Not Allowed to Grow Up, she has the body of a nine-year old, yet is more than capable of kicking ass.
• Lost Technology: Cid reveals he found the Shera buried in a cave underground, already constructed and more-or-less operational. This may be a Shout-Out to Final Fantasy VI and how Setzer recovers the Falcon, as well as the Final Fantasy tradition of having the heroes find relic airships from another age.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Two cases actually happened. The first one is definitely Lucrecia. Whether or not her and Hojo's relationship could be viewed as love, it's because she followed Hojo that she used her own child Sephiroth as an experiment to the point she doesn't even care about Vincent's warnings, while the latter was genuinely in love with her. She is remorseful but it comes too late. The second example is Nero who is ready to commit genocide and awakening Omega only out of love for his brother who was actually Hojo. In this case it comes out as a Love Makes You Evil trope too.
• Mad Scientist: Hojo, of course, and Lucrecia, to some extent.
• Male Gaze: Yuffie Kisaragi (at least in the opening) and Shalua Rui are subject to this. Rosso the Crimson and Shelke have their moments as well.
• Mana Meter: Vincent's MP gauge is situated above his HP gauge in bright blue.
• Matricide: Nero the Sable, one of the Tsviets, inadvertently sent his own birthmother into another dimension while she was giving birth to him due to his powers, which also acted as the reason why Shinra bound his arms as well as presumably limited his overall power.
• Mood Whiplash: Cait Sith gets a Stealth-Based Mission complete with an Unexpected Gameplay Change that is one massive homage to Metal Gear, complete with a cardboard box gag involving Deepground troops. Then the end of the mission has him witnessing mass human sacrifices as people die screaming in terror, including children, to a mysterious Eldritch Abomination inside the Planet, and the respective Cait Sith doll then gets ambushed and destroyed by Nero right afterwards.
• Moral Myopia: During their meeting, Nero doesn't seem to understand Shelke's motives to protect people who count on her, despite Nero doing exactly the same for his brother Weiss and is ready to kill anyone who would dare come close to him. Although there is a slight moment where he seems to think about it, he ends up saying it is just nonsense.
• Muggles: Reeve and the WRO mooks. Every other character is some sort of special... Well, they're special, let's just leave it at that.
• Multi-Mook Melee: There's one room in Deepground that will spawn 100 enemies. If the player leaves early, the challenge is cut short.
• My Suit Is Also Super: No matter how much damage he takes or how many times he uses a Limit Breaker, Vincent's cape will never suffer Clothing Damage.
• No Accounting for Taste: Anyone wondering what Lucrecia ever saw in Hojo will still be left wondering after playing this game. If anything, he seems even more Obviously Evil than ever before.
• No Cutscene Inventory Inertia: Vincent is restricted to the Vanilla pistol in cutscenes, no matter how pimped out the player has it, or if you were using an SMG or Rifle a second ago.
• Oddball in the Series: Even in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus stands out as being a Third-Person Shooter with RPG Elements, rather than a proper turn-based RPG like the original FFVII or even an Action RPG like Crisis Core.
• Oh, Crap!: Hojo/Weiss got a huge one when Vincent-Chaos parried his Razor Wind with a finger.
• Older Than They Look: Shelke, a nineteen-year-old woman with the body of a nine-year-old girl.
• One-Winged Angel: On both sides.
  • Vincent's Limit Break letting him turn into the Galian Beast is retained. In the original release, this runs off his MP gauge; in the NA/PAL version, it is instead a timed transformation triggered by the use of a Limit Breaker item.
  • Azul turns into the giant behemoth-esque Arch Azul after being defeated in his human form the second time.
  • Nero turns into Arachnero, a giant shadowy spider, as a prelude to his second form. It's not his strongest; after defeating Arachnero, he crosses the Bishōnen Line and becomes Gorgonero.
  • Weiss merges with Omega after being defeated the first time, although the FinalBoss fight that follows is a Battle in the Center of the Mind within Omega.
  • After Omega awakens, Vincent fully transforms into Chaos. Once Shelke is able to return the Protomateria, he uses Chaos against Omega for the final chapter.
• Orcus on His Throne: After Weiss makes his massive mission statement of the Deepground's intended genocide at the start of the game, he seemingly stays off the grid for almost the entire rest of the game for reasons initially unknown, never accompanying the Tsviets into the field. This is because shortly after the intro, he was killed; defeating the Restrictors in the Japan-only Online Mode also triggered a poison that would've inevitably killed him, but he still went through with it, and the rest of the story has had Nero working to revive Weiss at the same time Hojo was hoping to hijack the seemingly-emptied body. In the end, Weiss is Back from the Dead thanks to a Fusion Dance with Nero, just in time for the final showdown with Vincent.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • After Azul is defeated by Vincent, this latter turns into Chaos and ends up by impaling him in a brutal way. And Chaos smiles to this.
  • Nero pulls a Fusion Dance with Weiss after the latter's first boss fight, completely undoing Hojo's Grand Theft Me and causing his Brain Uploading self to be wiped out.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Despite everything she did and mostly is the cause of Vincent's sorrow, Lucrecia seemed to really care about him. There is even a moment where the two shared a picnic together even though Vincent's duty was to protect her. She also seems very remorseful for having made him suffer.
  • Tsviets are monsters, however Weiss's and Nero's relationship are the few moments of humanity between them. Some of interactions with the player in Online eventually turned to be a Bait the Dog, as they even didn't care if the player died.
• Playing with Syringes: Deepground is a branch of Shinra's SOLDIER project, and most of its members are established to have received similar Jenova infusions.
• Razor Wind: Rosso again, who can cut through solid concrete just by swinging her hand.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Azul revives himself in WRO headquarters, he turns on Shelke, giving her one of these with a helping of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Redshirt Army: The WRO troopers end up being this whenever they fight alongside Vincent.
• The Remnant: The organization named Deepground appears and wreaks havoc on the world. It soon turns out they are a little known experimental group from within Shinra's SOLDIER project and were kept hidden underground. It's stated that in the handover between President Shinra and his son Rufus that Rufus was never informed about the group. Subverted as things progress and it becomes clear that they are not exactly continuing anything Shinra has done, and Hojo - who was always operating on his own plans - is pulling their strings.
• Retcon: Some, like the game's opening scene, explain why Vincent and Yuffie didn't show up in the ending of Final Fantasy VII. Others are just to make this game work a little better, such as Chaos's new form.
• Satellite Character: Nero is fully and completely devoted to his brother Weiss, and doesn't show any interest of his own - unlike Rosso and Azul, who are at least given characterization as an Axe-Crazy Sadist and a Blood Knight who loves a Worthy Opponent, respectively.
• See You in Hell: Azul works it into his Final Speech, though they're not his last words.
• Ship Tease:
  • Between Vincent and Yuffie, especially counting every time they saved each other during the story, and how Yuffie was worried when she thought that Vincent was hurt during the final battle against Omega.
  • Also between Vincent and Shelke, as they each become a Morality Pet to the other (Vincent showing Shelke what it means to fight for others, and Shelke's ability to adapt to becoming a member of WRO shows Vincent that he can find peace). Most notably, at the end Shelke is the one waiting for Vincent when he emerges from bidding Lucrezia goodbye for the last time, and she jokingly grumbles she has no idea why Cloud, Yuffie and the others forced her to go get him while smiling warmly.
  • In the online mode, there is very subtle but present ship tease between Weiss and Rosso during their fight.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Number Five is alive!"
  • In chapter 10, a Mook can be found hidden inside a box.
  • The chapter featuring Cait Sith sneaking into a mako reactor's named "Solid Cait".
  • The Tsviets themselves may be another Metal Gear Shout-Out, this time to the FOXHOUND antagonists from Metal Gear Solid.
    • Rosso has a Sniper Wolf-esque inappropriate Lzherusskie accent.
    • Azul is a pretty clear Vulcan Raven, Genius Brute with a Chainsaw-Grip BFG.
    • Nero has a Psycho Mantis bondage look.
    • Weiss is similar to Liquid Snake as the Big Bad, though Nero has the accent. Though he turns out to be more like MGS2 Revolver Ocelot, with Hojo possessing him to act as the real Liquid Snake analogue.
• Slasher Smile: Weiss pulls off a couple in the main game, as well as in the Online Mode.
• Slouch of Villainy: Weiss is introduced slouching on a throne. Subverted when Vincent actually makes it to the throne; he's slouched on it because he's dead, and Nero is working to bring him back.
• Social Darwinist: Weiss' introductory monologue paints him as this, declaring his intention to "spare" those pure enough to serve his cause while "hunting down and exterminating" those who are tainted. It gets subverted when we learn the truth; Hojo is trying to create a pure torrent of Lifestream in order to awaken Omega, and wants it to be free of Jenova's influence. Those who have been infected by Jenova - such as Geostigma infectees - are worthless to him.
• The Spartan Way: Shelke describes Deepground as "a hell far deeper than any you could imagine". The backstory is pretty hellish for many of the characters.
• Story-Breaker Power: Nero. He can instantly absorb anyone into his darkness with no defense against it, save for Vincent's connection to Chaos if he has control over it (Shelke is able to protect herself while inside the darkness, but she can't stop herself from being dragged in and it only lasts her so long). Thankfully he doesn't often venture away from Weiss.
• Stripperiffic:
  • Shalua's left arm is a prosthetic that doesn't seem to function most of the time, so she wears a labcoat open over some pretty skimpy threads that (presumably) are easy enough to put on one-handed.
  • Yuffie has gotten another wardrobe change since Advent Children, which includes a tank top that she has actively strung up to expose her midriff.
• Super-Soldier: Deepground is a branch of Shinra's SOLDIER project. Every single one of those Mooks is a SOLDIER we never got to fight in the original game.
• Talk to Everyone: When aboard the Shera in Chapter 7, you're required to talk to Yuffie, Reeve, and Shelke to trigger a sequence of cutscenes that set the stage for the Big Badass Battle Sequence. The rest of the crew has a few worldbuilding tidbits to share, as well. Afterwards, you need to talk to each of them again, as well as visit the engine room for a brief episode of Vincent's Power Incontinence before Chapter 8 can begin.
• Three Approach System: Vincent's weapon loadout for the majority of the game is a fractal of three-approach systems. He has three base weapon frames (each of which can be upgraded along three paths), three barrel attachments, and three materia options.
  • The Cerberus handgun fires three bullets per shot, giving it great damage output per shot. It can be upgraded on the P line for greater damage, the S line for a greater firing rate, or the M line for greater ammo capacity.
  • The Griffon machine gun has fully automatic fire and a huge clip for Death of a Thousand Cuts. It can be upgraded on the P line for more damage, the S line for more range and greater rate of fire, or the M line for a bigger clip.
  • The Hydra rifle is slow to shoot, but has plenty of range and very accurate shots for sniping. It can be upgraded on the P line for massive damage at the cost of clip size, the S line for a faster firing rate, or the M line for more ammo.
  • Each weapon must be equipped with a barrel - defaulting to the Normal Barrel, the Long Barrel produces longer range and the Short Barrel produces a greater firing rate.
  • Off the butt of the gun, Vincent can hang either an accessory for stat boosts or a materia orb for magic. Fire Materia lets him shoot exploding shots, Ice Materia lets him shoot homing ice shards, and Lightning Materia focuses on a single target.
• Three-Strike Combo: Vincent's melee attacks all come in three-hit combos. Despite being his Emergency Weapon and unlikely to come up in normal gameplay, the animators gave him an impressive plethora of beautifully-animated combos based on whether he's grounded or airborne, in his cape or his Turk suit, and even whether he's double-jumped or not. The Galian Beast instead has four-hit combos. Chaos has a seven-hit combo.
• Token Mini-Moe: Shelke, thanks to suffering from a bad case of Not Allowed to Grow Up, has the body but not the attitude, at least to start.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The Tsviets, in the backstory.
• Two Shots from Behind the Bar: Vincent can retrieve the Hydra rifle in Edge from behind a bar inside a deserted building.
• Unexplained Accent: Nero has a British accent, and Rosso has a Russian accent.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The game auto-saves before and after most boss fights. It is possible to enter a boss fight without sufficient ammo and healing items to win. However, the game averts the usual problem with autosaving by making separate save files for each checkpoint. Therefore, you can simply go back to the last checkpoint and replay up to that point. It's annoying, but at least you don't have to restart the entire game. Plus, there's usually a shop and some kind of sealed door just before it's about to hit the fan.
• Villainous Breakdown: Rosso and later Nero. Hojo had a gargantuan one when Weiss and Nero merged together, causing him to be slowly erased from existance.
• Violation of Common Sense: There are several areas where Deepground soldiers will infinitely spawn until Vincent either dies or leaves. Because dying allows the player to "cash in" their accumulated EXP (either put it towards Vincent's levels or convert it to gil) the same was as clearing a chapter does, the only real way to level-grind or money-farm in Dirge of Cerberus is to visit one of these areas, keep fighting until you run out of ammo, MP, and Ethers, kill enemies with melee until you run out of Potions and Limit Breakers, and let Vincent die, then cash out, take the restart option, and do it again.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Weiss. Oh my, Weiss. He spends the entire game with no shirt on, even when armoring up as Omega Weiss.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Argento factors heavily in the backstory of the remaining Tsviets, but is only seen in the online multiplayer mode, leaving her fate and actions unknown.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Weiss has a mass of spiked white hair and even when he isn't possessed by Hojo, he seems fine with using Omega.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Tsviets easily qualify. They had essentially been raised to be weapons by Shinra, so while they did do atrocious actions, the main characters also at the same time have some pity over them because of how they were raised.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Shelke is subjected to this; her weak body and constant reliance on mako meant Deepground only kept her around to find the Protomateria. Weiss or rather, Hojo ordered her killed once Rosso had retrieved the Protomateria from Vincent.