than through Cait Sith. Dirge of Cerberus was first announced in September 2004, and was scheduled for release in Japan in 2005. The game's official site went online in April 2005. In May, Nomura stated that several snippets from the game would be revealed during that year's E3. However, no demo was shown at E3, as the staff were still trying to fix some issues with the controls in the game. In September, the beta test program was postponed indefinitely. Listed as 60% complete, the company stated if the beta test started with the game's current state, they would not be able to fully utilize the beta testers. The North American and European releases of Dirge of Cerberus received a major overhaul as the developers were not completely satisfied with the final Japanese version of the game. They also wanted to make the game more single-player oriented, and as such, they removed Online Multiplayer support, primarily due to the lack of popularity of PlayOnline outside Japan, and lack of PS2 HDD support in the U.S. Missions from the Multiplayer Mode were reworked into unlockable secret missions in the English-language versions of the game, although none of the additional storyline presented in the Japanese Multiplayer Mode featured in the English versions. The Easy Mode, which was originally featured in the Japanese version to assist gamers not overly familiar with shooter games, was also removed. On September 11, 2008, the English-language version was released in Japan as , as part of Square's Ultimate Hits lineup. Audio The soundtrack for the game was composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Japanese singer and actor Gackt wrote and performed the two theme songs, "Longing" and "Redemption". For the game's ending theme, "Redemption", the staff originally planned for it to be a ballad, but Gackt decided to make it a rock song instead. Upon hearing Gackt's ideas, the staff were pleased with the direction in which he had gone. The CD soundtrack, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, was released on February 15, 2006 in Japan. Consisting of two CDs, the soundtrack spanned 53 tracks. A limited edition of the soundtrack includes a "Cerberus Complete Case" deluxe box designed to hold the soundtrack along with the Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII PS2 game and the limited edition of Gackt's single for the game, "Redemption". This single was released on January 25, 2006. A limited edition