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Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Developed By: Square-Enix
Review By: HeavyBlade
Written on: Saturday, August, 26th, 2006 at 07:20:44 pm
Rating: 92%
Site: here
System: Playstation 2

Dirge of Cerberus:
In case you didn\'t read my FF7: AC review, I\'d like to recap by saying that I have a bias in favor of FF7, and Square-Enix in general. That said, you now know my disposition on the issue and are better informed as to how to read this. Enjoy.

Controls:
8/10

The controls fit this game perfectly. Left analog for movement, right analog for camera. Nothing new, but it works. Perhaps the biggest difference is the use of the directional keys - left key toggles through your items, right key uses an item. This tends to work very well, except when you\'re running around in the middle of a firefight while flipping through all 20 of your items for what you need. However, this didn\'t happen often enough to be a problem. One thing that might cause minor irritation to some is that you can get hit while on the ground (by which I mean knocked over). In a few cases, this created an annoying chain effect where I got pummeled to death - unable to do anything while I was down. Once again, this didn\'t happen often enough to be a big problem.

Graphics:
9/10

Graphics in this game are great. The cinematics look almost as good as Advent Children, and the in-game graphics boost well detailed models and beautifully done levels. Weapon effects and the like are awesome, though I was a little dissappointed to note that when the materia levels up, it doesn\'t get a new effect when used. My other irritation is that it\'s still married to the red flash damage effect. I hate the red flash damage effect. Anyone with sensitive eyes will find playing for extended periods of time to be quite painful. Although it is to the games credit that I found myself playing into the wee hours of the morning anyway.

Sound/Music:
8/10

The sound is superb. There\'s the crackle of comms as you hear soldiers communicating to one another, squads following you make plenty of ambient noise - like they should, gunfire sounds unique depending on the weapon, and of course, almost all the dialog is spoken with great voice acting. The voice cast from Advent Children provides voice once more to all the characters from the movie.

Music is sweeping and most often hard - more like Advent Children then FF7, but it makes sense considering this is a combat oriented game. There are one or two soft tracks, and these primarily concern Lucrecia. In addition, it was dissappointing to note that none of the FF7 tracks had been remade for this, especially when taking into account some of the locales. Ah well, can\'t have everything. All in all, a great job to support a great game.

Story:
10/10

They didn\'t skimp on story. I mean, it\'s Final Fantasy, right? Dirge
of Cerberus focuses primarily on Vincent. We learn the reasons for
his grief, and as we journey along with him, come to an understanding of Lucrecia\'s cryptic last words. It\'s really well written, keeping you curious and guessing til the end. Not all the demons in this game come from within however, an offshoot of SOLDIER code-named \"DeepGround\" makes itself known with a series of brutal attacks on the remaining towns after MeteorFall. Vicent soon finds himself in a pitched battle with the WRO (World Regenisis Organization, led by Reeve (Cait Sith)) and all our old friends -Cloud, Tifa and the rest. While the rest of the team has presence throughout the whole game, the focus is always on Vincent. So don\'t be expecting to play as Cloud. ;) The story takes us back to many of the old haunts of FF7, the Shinra Manor, Sewers of Nibelhiem, Edge, and even Midgar. What a treat it is for fanboys like myself to tread these grounds in detailed 3D. For those of you concerned as to how this could fit into FF7\'s storyline, don\'t worry. It fits in perfectly. And, like FF7, it\'s pretty dark. Don\'t be expecting some happy-frolic tale, though with a name like \"Dirge of Cerberus\" I think you\'d have to be on drugs to.

\"And so the hound plays out the last chapter in this story of life...\"
(The \"hound\" refers to Vincent, and comes from reference to the Dogs of War).

Gameplay:
8/10

Gameplay is about Gunplay. That\'s about the gist of it, and seeing we play as Vincent, there\'s nothing wrong with that. However, you\'ve also got six basic melee combinations (one normal and one aerial combo as Vincent, one normal and aerial as the Galian Beast,
and one normal and aerial as Chaos), and of course, limit breaks. Limit breaks are induced via relatively rare (though the game boosts around 30 of them) items called \"Limit Breakers\".
Using these items will induce a limit break. For most of the game, this means that Vincent will transform into the Galian Beast (his first limit break in FF7), though in the final part of the game, you will become Chaos (his final limit break in FF7). In terms of gunplay, you\'ll be modifying your weapons extensively throughout the game, which is always cool, and the way you modify your weapons will determine how they\'ll handle - fire rate, accuracy, weight, recoil, and
power are all accounted for. You get three basic weapon types (and you can only carry three quick weapons at once) - the handgun (fires 3 rounds at once), the machine gun, and the rifle (as in sniper rifle). These cover your every firearm need beautifully. In addition, every enemy has a weakpoint. Hitting them there will inflict double, triple, or even quad damage depending on the hits severity.

I found the game to be of reasonable difficulty. It wasn\'t overly hard - though the extra missions (which I\'m still working on) and some of the later bosses (Weiss especially) can be hard as hell. Rarely was I gunned down by the average grunt though, at least on Normal difficulty. Considering the aforementioned extra missions though, I\'d expect hard and Ex-Hard difficulty to be exponentially more challenging.

Items and upgrades are purchased via gil. Almost all of the gil you get you find, although I think a small percentage
is garnered via all the creatures you whack. You can also opt to trade in your EXP for gil, though why you would I can\'t
imagine. Levelling up increases your attack, defense values (of course), but also gives you more hit points and increases
materia damage. Don\'t think this can make you invulnerable though. I was over level 30 by the game end and I still couldn\'t
wade into an onslaught of gunfire without taking a severe beating.

There\'s plenty of extras to unlock via the extra missions. While these are your usual artwork/model/sound variety, it\'s still
interesting stuff, and the missions you play are fun. In addition, there are 100 cruelly hidden capsules throughout the game.
Shooting these will allow you to view a cinematic or two (corresponding to which capsule you shot), to be viewed at any time.

This game will be most fun for the FF7 fanboy. Though lesser fans of the game, and even action gamers in general, will find a lot to like here.

Final Thoughts:

This game kinda struck me as something of a love letter to FF7. A final, lovingly crafted game for those who so supported the
original. I could be wrong, but that\'s my thought. With that said, it\'s a superb game to explains many of FF7\'s mysteries,
and gives us a vague idea of what happened in the year since Advent Children. The fanboy will get the most out of this game -
and frankly, I\'d recommend a fanboy buy it without blinking an eye - and for everyone else, there\'s a kickass new third person
gun slinger on the market.

Final Score: 92 / 100

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