Published by: Square Enix
Developed by: Square Enix
Release Date:
JPN: January 26, 2006
NA: August 15, 2006
PAL: November 17, 2006
Number of Players: 1
Genre: Action
Dirge of Cerberus is a Final Fantasy VII spin-off video game that bases itself around Vincent Valentine. The plot of the game doesn’t really make any sense so it isn’t really worth mentioning. Vincent Valentine didn’t even really play a large role in Final Fantasy VII, his fan base is somewhat obsolete and he isn’t a very popular character.
So throughout the game, you will not feel any different on the fact that you are playing with Vincent, it feels like a broken and dull third person shooter. You have one basic melee attack combo in the beginning of the game, the melee combos do less damage than guns do of course, which is a reason why it’s never used. The animations in the jumping and the attacks have barely any emphasis on them and a majority of all enemies consist of super soldiers that wield guns. All they do is shoot guns and they basically never attack you physically. The bosses consist of, different vehicles, monsters, and large soldiers. There is really no way to become a strategist in this game. With it being a third person shooter, it doesn’t contain elements true to that genre. For example, you cannot back up against a wall, or any surface for that matter, and look around the corner. All you have is zoom, and auto target. You can shoot while in motion and your weapons can be upgraded.
You have a health bar and a mako energy bar. The mako energy is present to use materia. You can implement materia into guns, and can shoot thunder and fire blasts through the gun, just to name a few. After each mission is completed, you have the choice to convert your points from your mission achievements into experience points, or gil. You need gil to buy items that replenish your health, the basic assist items, and then you are able to buy ammo for weapons and upgrade different weapons on various terms. When you level up, your health increases as well as other unmentionable attributes. Upgrading weapons is a priority in this game, because you will be using them, all of the time. There aren’t any stellar swords or combat weapons, just guns, and guns only, except from the Cerberus transformation.
Each weapon is basically fully customizable, down to if you would prefer for the weapon to have a Super Scope, or a longer gage. The game gets ultimately repetitive after the first mission. Some missions are extremely tedious and frustrating, and will have you asking yourself questions like, “What were they thinking?”, and, “Who thought this mission would be a good idea?” You will be persistently bombarded with undesirable cut scenes, throughout missions and they randomly pop up and generally aren’t needed. This shows that Square-Enix should stick to making turn based RPGs, because this game is far down the totem pole. It doesn’t touch games like Gears of War, Resident Evil or Killswitch. Do yourself and favor and don’t buy this game, don’t rent it even if you are a Final Fantasy fanboy, because this game has nothing to offer except excellent music.
Graphics: 8
Gameplay: 6
Presentation: 7
Sound: 7
Overall: 7 (D)
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