Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. DMW Explained.

Crisis Core has garnered much criticism for the largely unexplained and thoroughly random Digital Mind Wave (DMW) system that drives all of the character progression in the game. Final Fantasy VII certainly had its shortcomings when it came to combat and the materia system, but replacing experience points with a slot machine probably wasn’t the most intuitive approach. Anyway, the purpose of this post is to explain it to the best of my understanding and hopefully make things a little clearer for those who are curious.

Hit the jump for the complete breakdown.

Introduction

In the original Final Fantasy VII, your characters leveled up by getting XP, and leveled up their Materia by acquiring AP. Every time Cloud, Tifa or any character was hit, the damage was translated into a progress bar, called the Limit Gauge. Once the gauge filled all the way up that character gained a Limit Break, essentially a high damage attack or series of attacks with pretty colors and animation.

In Crisis Core, levels, materia skill ups, Limit Breaks, and special status changes are all determined by the DMW. As you meet characters in the game their portraits are added to the DMW slot machine. As best I understand, the DMW is a trippy representation of Zack’s mind. Sometimes while the numbers and portraits are spinning you’ll see flashbacks to events that arn’t neccesarily seen in the actual game, and there is a sequence in the final battle that reinforces the idea that this slot machine is how Zack’s mako infused brain functions. Far be it from me to theorize on exactly why Zack can get special combat powers by focusing on these people’s faces, but that is as close to a reasonable explanation as I’ve come up with. And hey, its a video game.

DMW 101 (from the manual)

The DMW is a slot reel system that continues to spin and stop during battle by expending SP. Matching numbers of character panels can active a variety of special effects, such as “Invincible” and “No MP Cost.”
– The DMW cannot be manually controlled by the player.
– The DMW will not spin or activate effects if SP is insufficient.

Limit Gauge: The limit gauge monitors DMW status. It fluctuates between five levels (from LOW to HEAVENLY) depending on Zack’s emotional state and DMW results. A higher gauge level increases the chances of a limit verge.

Limit Verge: When the left and right slots have matching characater panels, the screen changes to show a limit verge. Matching character panels or numbers on this screen can activate different effects.

SP: SOLDIER points indicate strength based on mako. DMW results and defeating the enemy earn SP. DMW activation and materia fusion cost SP.

DMW 102 (Fred’s explanation)

During battle the DMW spins in the top left corner of the screen, and when the right numbers line up you’ll get a number of different status changes. Sometimes, completely removed from any player input, you’ll see “Power Surge” flash across the screen in attractive blue letters. Why? Who knows. The only connections between the gameplay you control and getting Power Surges is the level of difficulty of the opponents you happen to be fighting, and the amount of SP you have stockpiled.
For example, if you are playing a mission rated “Very Hard”, you’re much more likely to get a Power Surge then if you’re playing a mission rated “Easy”. At certain times during the game you’ll receive a message that “Heightened emotions have effected the DMW” (usually whenever Zack meets a girl, go figure). In your menu you’ll notice that there’s a little meter that looks a whole lot like a heart monitor. When you get the “Heightened Emotions” message that meter switches up to ‘Heavenly’, from wherever it was before. The faster that line is bouncing up and down, the better a chance you have to get a Power Surge.
At one point during my second play-through I got the “Heightened Emotions” message and immediately ran to a save point to run some missions. When I started up a “Very Hard” mission I was literally getting Power Surges every three seconds. It was awesome.

Status Changes

These changes are gained from the correct combination of sevens lining up in the little DMW slot machine on the HUD.

• Endure: x-x-7

• No MP Cost: x-7-x

• No AP Cost: 7-x-x

• Null Magic Damage: x-7–7

• Null Physical Damage: 7-x-7

• Invincible: 7-7-7, 6-6-6, 5-5-5, 4-4-4, 3-3-3, 2-2-2, 1-1-1

• Critical: 7–7-x

Power Surges

Once you get a Power Surge (or Limit Verge as the manual calls it) there are three possible outcomes.

• Number one: All three character portraits line up, and you perform a Limit Break attack.

• Number two: Two or three of the same numbers line up, and the materia in the corresponding slot levels up. Once if two numbers line up, and twice if all three numbers line up.

• Number three: A beautiful trio of 7s line up, and Zack goes up a level.

As you might guess, you can get a Limit Break and level up, or get a Limit Break and have your materia level up too. Here’s where it gets a little hazy. When, and only when you get a Limit Break, Zack’s HP, MP, and AP increase. Exactly how and why they increase is what I spent a lot of time trying to figure out, and this is what I came up with:
….
It’s all completely random. At least with the data I gathered, I found no correlation between the numbers on the DMW, the level of the Limit Break, or the amount or percentage HP, MP, and AP were raised. And believe me, I tried. I did come up with a few interesting tidbits though, such as:

• Zack’s HP, MP, and AP can only gain up to 200% of their original value through bonuses given by Limit Breaks.
• If you get a Summon Limit Break (i.e. Ifrit, Bahamut, etc), your HP/MP/AP increase exponentially more then they would with a normal Limit Break (Angeal, Cloud, etc). I had values increase up to 135%.
• Normal Limit Breaks on average provide a 20-35% increase in HP/MP/AP values. I had percentages as low as 0.89% percent and as high as 55%.

When I started writing this article I envisioned a treasury of content. A plethora of factoids. Spreadsheets.
Unfortunately (or perhaps thankfully), I ended up with a decent grasp on what to expect from the DMW system, and not much else. When I think about my goal in relation to the greater scheme of things, understanding the mathematical relationship between Limit Breaks and HP/MP/AP values in Crisis Core probably ranks right around watching YouTube videos and playing Second Life. Not all that important. I better stop before I wax philosophical any more.