Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

"Could and should have been better"

Final Fantasy is one of the biggest franchises in the whole of gaming. The series has been going on for a long time and anyone who has played a videogame is likely to know about it. A lot of this exposure is thanks to a PlayStation game called Final Fantasy VII. That one game brought a huge fan base and set the bar for all RPG's to follow.

It's been three years since what happened in FFVII and world finds itself in trouble again. From under Midgar come the Deepground, ex-SOLDIERs. Led by the enigmatic Weiss, they are hunting down the ex-Turk Vincent Valentine in order to achieve their plans of the destruction of the earth. If not one of those names rang a bell, don't bother with this game. It's meant only for fans since the story expects that you should recognize characters and plot lines without heavy explanation.

In developing the FFVII universe, you'll get to experience Vincent's story and his struggles with his mysterious past. Other characters make small appearances like Yuffie but there is little but a cameo role for others. Vincent has his spot in center stage now.

Dirge of Cerberus is definitely not an RPG. It's purely real-time action more akin to a first-person shooter than any other Final Fantasy. You control Vincent with an over-the-shoulder view and when your gun is draw an aiming reticule will appear. Moving the reticule over a target locks on to it, making it easier for you to move while shooting. There's also a first-person mode, if you'd prefer more precise aiming. Other than your guns Square have brought back limit breaks which turn you into a very powerful form and some magic. There are trace elements of the RPG genre. At the end of every level, you gain an amount of experience points that can either be used to level up or be transformed into Gil, Final Fantasy's currency. Your guns and their add-ons can be upgraded to do more damage, bigger clips and every other obvious addition at the cost of Gil. The ideas are fine but it all gets messed up quickly.

First the story is definitely too slow paced for an Action game. The level will open up with numerous cut-scenes, there'll be several more cut-scenes placed throughout, right before the end there'll be more cut-scenes, and after the end there may be some too. Yes, most will be quite lengthy. These last for an overly long time and for an action game to be broken up like this definitely takes the player out of any immersion. For an average RPG this wouldn't be as bad, as they are usually less frantic. So if you're looking for non-stop action, this game will not be for you.

The story is one that is mediocre at best; it's all one way with no twists or turns. An average plot isn't so bad usually but abysmal dialogue and direction is of course a major hindrance. The speech of the whole thing is like honey, its slow, sticky and sometimes refuses to come out at all, I wish I could compare it to something else, but toilet humour is frowned on. Apart from the speech being terrible most characters have not been developed at all and the characters from past games have an advantage of actually being better known that any of the new ones. It's a good thing you can actually skip the cut-scenes. Fan of FFVII may find something to enjoy out of them but shouldn't expect too much.

Of course with the new style Square DoC is full of flashy action. As expected, the CGI looks lovely like usual from more recent games. The in-game graphics also hold up well and the characters look like they're supposed to and move naturally. However, that only applies to the primary characters. A lot of the “extras” and less important characters are pretty much the same and this can really hinder any realism. A few of them blend in with the background, which would make more sense in the real world. However, this is a game and when people can't be seen all the time it means below par visuals. Some of the levels themselves are too bright and this ruins the feeling of it still being FFVII. On the opposite side of the scale there are so many dark and gloomy levels in the usual situations, sewers, hallways, train stations and slums all add to the drabness of many locations. It can be expected to re-visit the slums and it does not cause much of a problem to the graphics, but take into account the aiming system and you will be finding it hard to lock-on to enemies that are almost camouflaged into their surroundings.

All action in the game is over simplified and the AI is some of the worst I have seen, they attack you from range or with melee and will either stand ground or move forward. And the same goes for bosses. There's not any real strategy required, just keep moving and shoot them. Use a limit break and the battle becomes even more simplified. The game-play doesn't change at all and the difficulty barely increases. The little the enemies is similar to what Vincent can do, he levels, gets his stat increases and nothing else. No new skills or anything to aim for. Oh and the experience and gil system is terrible, you can choose between taking all experience or all money, nothing between that, so you can't get a level and a gun after one stage even if you were close to getting both.

An added problem to the action is the speed of it all, it's so slow. Your moves aren't the fastest and sometimes the enemy actions can overtake yours and there is nothing you can do. The aiming has no option to switch to separate targets and this is a problem when locking-on to a target is very hard if they are grouped together. Not very good if you're low on ammo and want to shoot the explosives instead of shooting them all separately. There's an option to use the analogue stick and aim manually but it does not work well. Shooting will be most of what you are doing because practically all the special actions given to you, mostly melee attacks and jumps are next to useless. There will be certain times you're forced to use them, to get over certain areas or to kill certain enemies, but for the majority of time you'll just be running and shooting. There are not actually any puzzles or open ended-ness to the game, it's completely linear. All you do is go from point A, kill somebody and end at B. Occasionally there will be missions within a stage to add some sort of variety but it will be mostly “keep such a body alive” or “find & kill somebody”. All this means though if you have to shoot the enemy as fast as possible but even a very poor player couldn't let the person die even if they tried. Also there's a very bad sneaking bit which is really something to rush past, it seems all multi-genre games must at least include a weakly done sneaking level.

Well Dirge of Cerberus isn't all bad it does elaborate on Vincent's background. It might not be presented in a way everyone will like, but it's definitely not done badly. And even if the dialogue tends to become pointless, the voice actors do an admirable job with the material. Most carry on their roles from Advent Children and Steven Jay Blum does well with the lead role (Vincent). If there's one thing to be noted though, it's the pauses they make in order to sync with the lip movement. Each time that happened it reminded me of Final Fantasy X with much the same problem. It wasn't to that extent, but it is noticeable. The music is your typical final fantasy affair but more “jazzed” up, with Japanese singers performing some of the tracks and others composed by the game designers. I actually enjoyed the music and it seemed to suit with the locations, people and atmosphere well.

There are a lot of nice extras throughout the stages, with capsules popping out of buildings. Shooting these unlocks events, allowing you to view them later. These are quite interesting to watch but whether or not this is a negative or positive attribute depends on how much you enjoy replaying levels. Going back to level up is not really so interesting or useful and would end up more of a waste of time. There's the artwork and sound gallery which is interesting for a short while, plus extra missions and an extra ending for finding an item. The extra missions added are interesting and add more of a challenge than the main game, but do contribute to the story.

This game is only for fans, if have not experienced the FFVII world before and enjoyed it this is not for you. Its worth playing for the story alone if you're a complete fanatic and the action can be interesting. In my opinion Square should definitely stick to RPG's in future and probably cut down on the flashy stuff. If they look back to the past they should see people cared more about game-play and that was the reason for the great success of FFVII.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/06