Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

"It came, it played, it finished, I felt bored."

Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII Review

An Unlimited Review

Overview: The original FF7 game is considered to be the greatest game of all time by some and the most overrated by others, but since the game is vastly popular SE decided that they needed to do more with FF7, so they created 4 compilations to it, this is the third a game staring Vincent who was actually a secret character in the original game. So we can debate on why or how or wtf were they thinking, but lets just get down to the review.

As I said you play as Vincent in an action third person shooter game, the story starts in Kalm which many people might remember from the first game, this is where Vincent is currently staying when suddenly some strangely dressed soldiers arrive and cause havoc kidnapping and killing many people. Vincent is attacked and has little choice but to help so starting is adventure.

P.Q.P. (Product Quality Presentation): 8/10
The game starts out very well in terms of graphics which are on par to Advent Children, at least until you actually get to PLAY the game, once that stars they don't look that much better then FFX which is quite dated overall. Although the graphics at time look dated there is a lot of detail to every area and it's really nice to see old places such as Kalm, Midgar, and others in full 3D in PS2 graphics.

In terms of sound it really changes quite a bit, at times there are some really good music tracks but most of the time the music is easily forgettable and even the theme song and insert song aren't that good (Although the ending theme Redemption is likely the best I've herd from Gackt), the sound effects aren't bad but at times it's hard to tell if you actually killed an enemy or not because they all make the same basic sound when they are just hit or when they are killed. However most all other sound effects are quite good.

In terms of voice acting it really varies, Vincent's is very well done although there really could have been a lot more emotion in the voice mainly in the flashbacks. When it comes to other voice acting such as some of the new character there's just a lot to be desired since even though the voices tend to capture the characters the voice actors don't show much if any emotion, which can be towards a flaw with most of the character's since many of them are emotionless in the first place.

Storyline: 9/10
Since Vincent is the main character you can expect the story mainly revolves around him, which it does as it shows a much deeper aspect of his character that you don't get to see in FF7. Many questions about Vincent's past are answered however with how largely out of order the flashbacks in this game are it's easy enough to get confused on the past. The storyline itself starts out somewhat slow and progresses that way for the first half of the game, with not much at all happening. However once the second half starts then it gets a lot more unique and interesting and gives a unique aspect on Vincent's character as well as what he fights for.
A good plus in terms of character development is that you get to see a lot more of Reeve who although was on your side in FF7 you didn't see much of him but instead got to use his robotic cat companion Cait Sith. Yuffie also makes more then one appearance and in terms of the story she plays a rather important part and helps Vincent out quite a bit.

One aspect I'm disappointed in was the development of the villains mainly because there wasn't much besides one of them but that's only because that character is also one of the major players in the game and goes along with Vincent quite well. The villains could easily have been built up more and likely in a better way but it just seemed like they didn't really care to not to mention that the villains are very stereotypical but considering the main cast of FF7 this isn't much of a surprise.

Gameplay: 5/10
I really hope you got this game for the storyline because actually playing the game just isn't that good. The controls are insanely over simplified and limited. The camera works completely out of your favor 95% of the time. The ‘lock on' feature if you can even call it that sucks because even if it locks on it doesn't actually follow the enemy except out of a very small range and once it moves out of the range (which is all the time) then you need to move the camera again just to lock on and be able to hit something again.

Another problem with this game is the level design, although graphically the levels look wonderful the game linear beyond any other PS2 game I've ever played and stands as one of the most if not THE most linear game I have ever played. You can't jump onto poles or anything, you can't explore and most of the time your on one path which leads to the end of the level, the few times you get to look around it's still very limited as if you happen to go the wrong way then you'll likely move on through the level and not be able to go back.

The gunplay in itself isn't good either, you start out with a simple triple barrel Cerberus gun and you get a machine gun and a rifle, that's it. The only difference between the three is power, rate of fire, and how many bullets are in the magazine. When it comes to magic there are only three different Materia which I found in the game, Fire, Thunder, and Blizzard. You can make both your weapons and magic more powerful by equipping different things onto the gun, but even those are vastly limited as you'll only find a few things which can also be upgraded by even if you do your money is better spent on leveling up a weapon rather then anything else.

In the end although the game isn't a chore or something to play, the controls aren't well done, it's hard as heck to actually hit an enemy, you can't do much in terms of dodging and you have very limited customization.

Value: 6/10
This is really where the game falls short, the main storyline will only last you about 12 hours even if you take your time, although there are extra items to find most of those only unlock events from the game and some artwork, although there are extra missions you can do, you can only do them once you beat the game and even then why would you want to considering how many faults there are with the core gameplay, if you happened to like the core points of the gameplay then you'll likely enjoy the extra missions. When you start the game you have Normal and Hard Mode but you can unlock higher difficulty but honestly why would you want to play through the game more then once JUST to make the game harder? Not to mention the game is beyond easy, most soldiers die in just 1 or 2 hits with a normal attack and most of the bosses can be taken out within a minute without even worrying about healing.

Overall:
The game a wonderful storyline despite it taking time to get really into this and the graphics for the most part are wonderful and if it's one thing that this game proves it's that it'd be wonderful to see a remake of FF7 for the PS3, however right now that's just a dream, the game has many flaws within the core part of the gameplay and considering how short this game is I really don't see it needed to buy this game.

Rent or Buy: Rent if anything, the game is just too short to waste 50$ on.

Final Score: 28/40 (Gamefaqs score: 7/10) C-

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/06