Dirge of Cerberus was a disappointment. I was expecting a full-fledged RPG... Nope. Anyway, there was a way to farm gold in the first level, that required you to die repeatedly, but you would gain your exp, keep your gold, and it made upgrades very conveniently easy. I always fashioned a 1 bullet, max range sniper rifle, a really short range full auto weapon, and the third being somewhat like a .357 magnum. All of the stories for FF7 sort of make sense individually, but I never found a clear timeline from Advent Children to Dirge...