FINAL FANTASY VII: DIRGE OF CERBERUS
Developer: SquareEnix
Publisher: SquareEnix
Systems: PS2
INTRODUCTION:
Many gamers were stoked when FINAL FANTASY: ADVENT CHILDREN was announced by Sony, and even moreso when DIRGE OF CERBERUS was announced soonafter. A chance to relive 1997 all over again with two sequels to one of the greatest RPGs ever in FINAL FANTASY VII seemed too good to be true. ADVENT CHILDREN rocked for many folks, but DIRGE OF CERBERUS suffered in its initial outing in Japan.
Plagued by a lackluster targeting system, easy difficulty and thick-as-shite AI, the game wasn’t exactly lauded as the second coming for the FFVII universe, but it still sold relatively well. Still, disappointed with Japan’s reaction, SquareEnix decided to re-tool the game for release in North America and remedy some of the problems. Did they succeed? Yes and no.
GAMEPLAY:
For those not introduced to the realm of FINAL FANTASY VII, the original game for the PlayStation centred on Cloud Strife and his friends as they battled a powerful mega corporation called Shin-Ra, which was draining the life of the planet to use as an energy source. Later on in the game, Cloud’s mysterious rival and former friend, Sephiroth, appears on the scene to take matters into his own hands, threatening everything on the planet, leaving Cloud and company to shift focus to the true enemy. A mere 9.72 million copies sold worldwide later, and the game stands as the highest-selling FINAL FANTASY game ever, and garners appreciation from gamers the world over.
DIRGE OF CERBERUS takes place 3 years after the events of FFVII, and puts the player in the shoes of one of the original game’s more memorable characters in Vincent Valentine. People have begun putting their lives back together in the aftermath, but the peace is short-lived as a group of elite soldiers known as Deepground appear, with plans to revive the powerful Omega weapon and destroy the world. In order to do so, they need Vincent. It’s the player’s job as Vincent to save the world once again while uncovering the secrets of Vincent’s past and discover why he plays such an important role in Deepground’s scheme. Along the way, you’ll see familiar faces as well as new ones, all the while kicking ass and taking names. Or so it should be.
Despite what some folks will think of when they first pick it up, DIRGE OF CERBERUS is not an RPG. In fact, the game has more in common with a PC shooter than anything else (more on that later). Sure, there are elements of an RPG in the game, but for the most part, it’s running and gunning. With that in mind, playing the game felt more like having a DEVIL MAY CRY clone spinning in your console, and a fairly ordinary one at that. The game plays out in a mission-based format, with a lengthy non-interactive cutscene setting up each stage. Upon entering the stage, you then start blasting down a very linear path to the end, where you usually encounter a boss battle. In short, kill everything that moves in this game.
There is some variety in the form of optional side missions, which by completing them you’ll earn extra points that can be used to level up Vincent between stages, or to purchase weapon upgrades and items. The missions do make the levels a bit more interesting by giving you something to do other than mow down bad guys in a long hallway over and over again, but unfortunately, the missions are small in number, leaving you to run and shoot your way through the levels again, which gets old despite the deep storyline and occasional switches to stealth missions with Cait Sith (ugh) and some rail shooting segments.
With all the action taking place, the controls fit the game well. The game feels like a first-person shooter, with the left analog stick being used for movement, and the right analog stick being used to aim. Tying the game to the PC shooter fare is the option for the player to use the PS2 mouse and keyboard for controling Vincent, making the controls ever better. It’s easy to strafe around a target while keeping your aim steady, and the shooting is made easier by an optional targeting support feature that will snap your aim to the nearest available target, something the original Japanese version lacked.
However, the other problems from the Japanese version still exist, namely the camera, which is positioned behind the back of Vincent. The idea is that when you move the right analog stick, the camera follows, which is fine when you’re out in the open, but in a tight hallway the camera doesn’t have anywhere to move, and instead you get a closeup of the back of Vincent’s head. Another area in need of improvement was the AI, which unfortunately is still dumb as ever. While more aggressive this time around, the enemies still don’t offer much more beyond shooting directly at you and dying from one hit. Boss battles will take a bit longer, but only because they have thousands of hit points instead of just a hundred.
It’s unfortunate that the gameplay turned out like this, since it’s clear that the developers tried to insert some interesting elements into the gameplay, like a customizable weapon system which allows players to tweak Vincent’s gun to their heart’s content, and the use of Limit Breaks, which turns Vincent into his monster forms to really clean house. In the end, though, there isn’t much here to separate it from the other shooters on the market, or have it join the ones that stand above the rest.
Gameplay: 7/10
Despite continuing the awesome FFVII story with another impressive one, the game comes off as being generic and in serious need of fine-tuning. Clever RPG elements aside, the level design appears too square in some parts, and boring in others. While there’s some good stuff here, expect to wade through some crap to see it.
GRAPHICS:
It’s SquareEnix, it’s a FINAL FANTASY game, so the graphics should blow everyone away, right? Well yeah, to a point. The cutscenes are gorgeous as expected, but the real-time visuals aren’t nearly as good. Textures tend to be 50/50; on one hand, they look great in many areas and you can see quite a bit of detail from them, while on the other hand, they are fairly repetitive with both inside and outside areas generally sharing similar, if not the same, texture sets at some points.
Tetsuya Nomura’s character models are nicely done, though don’t be surprised to see the same baddies more than once. Aliasing creeps up and smacks you in the head too often, it seems, but then again, we’re talking about the PS2 here, not the XBOX 360.
Graphics: 8/10
SquareEnix knows their stuff when it comes to graphics, but falters at times throughout this game. The dark and muted colour schemes look good, but were obviously used to cover up a lot of the PS2 hardware limitations. Textures hit more than they miss, but given the age of the PS2, the graphics overall hold up nicely.
AUDIO:
Again, it’s a FINAL FANTASY game, so it’s a treat for the ears, right? True, but don’t expect something earthshattering. Music for the game was composed by Masashi Hamauzu (who also did FINAL FANTASY X), with a couple of tracks by Japanese rocker Gackt. For the most part, the music does its job, but other than ‘Redemption’, its nothing memorable. Voice acting duties for characters that appeared in ADVENT CHILDREN are again assigned to the same group of people, though the voice acting sometimes feels off at times. Still, it get more right than wrong, and that’s the main thing.
Audio: 7.5/10
Despite some nods to earlier FINAL FANTASY songs, the new music tends to be forgettable in most instances. Overall, the voice acting is more of a plus than a minus.
FINAL VERDICT:
What started out as a promising action-filled FPS with a killer story soon turned into just another shooter. Fans will no doubt be flaming me for saying bad things about the game, but it’s still an enjoyable game to play. Don’t think I hated the game. Far from it. The game is a fun time-waster that doesn’t require much thinking, and has its moments. But as an addition to the FFVII family, it comes off as seeming very ordinary and out of place. Sort of like FINAL FANTASY: MYSTIC QUEST.
SquareEnix had done the smart thing and tweaked the game further before bringing it over here, but the ugly parts that they tried to cover up still showed through at times. Gamers looking to get into the FINAL FANTASY universe are best to stay clear of this one for now, and focus on the other FINAL FANTASY entries, while fans of FFVII are advised to enjoy DIRGE OF CERBERUS’ story, and focus less on the gameplay.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
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