Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

"A dirge to let SquareEnix remember: Don't make shooting games."

Ahh yes. Dirge of Cerberus. When news of it reached my ears, I was rather excited. I thought that SquareEnix might make an interesting, and enthralling shooting game implementing characters and features from FFVII. Was I right? Well, in the sense that it implements characters and features from FFVII... Yes.

Storyline: 6/10
Three years after the events of Final Fantasy VII, an unknown group of soldiers appears, and wreak havoc to the seemingly peaceful world. And so, it's up to Vincent to stop them, and along the way uncover disturbing and unknown truths to his past. To be honest, the storyline is mediocre at best. Not great, but it's not bad. The only reason I have a bit of a problem with it is how in love it is with itself. In the middle of intense and twisty gunfights, and a dramatic scene of soldiers and robots interrupts. Proceed through another 2 minutes of gameplay and yet again, more pointless cut-scenes unravel in order to take away from the gameplay. To put it simply; The storyline is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Graphics: 9/10
What can I say? SquareEnix once again plays to one of its strengths as it presents Dirge of Cerberus with beautifully rendered 3D graphics and detailed backgrounds. However, the variation and diversity of that detail is rather poor. Many of the hallways in the missions look a bit too uniform. The FMVs are amazing and photo-realistic, exactly like Advent Children was. All in all, the graphics very well may be one of the few things going for this game.

Sound: 7/10
Nobuo Uematsu is gone. Well I suppose it won't hurt to have some new blood right? Wrong. Masashi Hamauzu is, in a general sense, an admirable composer, but it really has no place in this video game. The music does not blend with the environment at all. It's all so anti-climatic and passive. Boss fights just aren't that enthralling when the music is so bland and monotone. Overall, the sound just isn't as epic and fitting as the works from Nobuo Uematsu.

Gameplay: 4/10
I'm sure you've all heard how people drone on about how terrible the aiming system is. Well, they're absolutely right. The aiming system is too difficult to use. You want to use the manual aiming do you? Well good luck, because it's nearly impossible. Also, if this game were a real-life simulation (I know it's not...), Vincent would be dead before he blinked. Dodging attacks in this game is about as easy as using a dead dog to fetch the newspaper. Not that it matters, because the game is disgustingly easy. There is virtually no strategy whatsoever. Sure, you might have to take cover behind some boxes to take out soldiers every now and then, but I could beat the game blindfolded. All that was necessary for me to beat the bosses was to run a full, continuous circle around them, and tap R1 until their life bar was depleted. Sounds pretty dim-witted, eh? Well that's the sad part. The dim-witted tactic will get you through the game. Sure, the gun customization is pretty in-depth and kind of fun to experiment with but in the end, you have to ask yourself... What's the point of doing more than is necessary? Another thing is how torn apart the player will get from the action just to be sent to another cut scene. It almost makes the game seem like filler, and the story as the main event. And so, the field where the game desperately needed to get right, failed.

Q: Do you think it's worth replaying?
A: Though I have never touched this game ever since I beat it once, I can safely say that some people out there will want to go back and find all the hidden capsules and hidden weapons and play the extra missions. It's not much, but it will keep you occupied for a while if you really want it to.

Q: Should I buy this... Or rent it?
A: I'd say if you played FFVII, and really was kind of curious in an offhand way, rent it. If you have never played FFVII in your life, or you just don't care for it too much, go play a much better game like Devil May Cry. And if you're a die hard FFVII fan and really want to play it... Do so at your own risk and prepare to be disappointed.

In conclusion, this game is a rather large letdown. I pre-ordered it thinking I would find an excellent spin-off on Final Fantasy VII, and I was instead left with a generic shooting game, full of generic explosive barrels and extremely easy gameplay. Sure it's kind of fun to see your favorite FF characters in cameos and new scenarios but it just isn't worth the poor gameplay that you have to put up with just to see it. When you get past the fact that it is based on FFVII, all you're left with is a bland shooting game that really isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sorry SquareEnix, but I strongly recommend you stick to RPGs.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/06