Considered lost forever. Fans brought a rare Final Fantasy VII back to life

After almost 20 years, enthusiasts have restored the mobile game Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode from the Final Fantasy VII universe, which was considered lost.

After almost 20 years, enthusiasts managed to restore one of the most mysterious games in the Final Fantasy VII universe. Thanks to the community dedicated to archiving mobile games, Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode, a spin-off released in 2006 on Japanese mobile phones, was brought back to life.

The game told a separate story of Vincent Valentine, was fully voiced, and was distributed episodically through Square Enix servers. After the authorization system was disabled in 2018, the project became unavailable and was considered lost.

The turning point came in 2024 when an enthusiast under the pseudonym Yuvi obtained the encrypted game files. To decrypt them, OpenCL-based software was created, and over 90 servers with NVIDIA RTX 4090, RTX 6000, A5000, and other professional accelerators were used. The operation cost about $900.

Now fans can work on translating the game. The restoration is especially relevant amidst the development of Final Fantasy VII Revelation, where, according to director Naoki Hamaguchi, events and characters from Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, and Advent Children will play an important role.