Platform: Playstation 2
Publisher: Square Enix
Price: $19.99

Review by Ken McFarlane

In 1997 Square Soft (Now Square Enix) released an RPG videogame under the title of Final Fantasy VII, today it’s reached cult popularity and Square knows it and recently started milking the franchise for all it’s worth, creating The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII consisting of four video games and two films.

Dirge of Cerberus is set a year after Final Fantasy: Advent Children the film sequel to FFVII. This time the story focuses on Vincent Valentine (a hidden character from the original game) and his origins, involvement in the Shinra Corporation and its secret organisation, Deep Ground. This game takes a leave from the RPG trend in the Final Fantasy series and opts for a third-person shooter genre instead.

Dirge of Cerberus keeps up with the quality of Final Fantasy’s narrative abilities creating a compelling story to which the player will most likely start wanting more of but it does take a while to get into the story, especially for none-FFVII fans. The story opens with a beautifully animated sequence of Vincent and Yuffie (another hidden character from the original) saving people from an industrial building. Vincent double checks the building for anyone left, finding a scientist slumped over controls he steps forward, unfortunately as he does debris falls; he turns away and the scientist is gone. When the game starts a few years after the events of the night in the industrial building, the town in which Vincent is residing is attacked by a small army, thus beginning Vincent’s tale. Spanning over 12 chapters of game play the story will answer such questions of how Vincent came to be the way he is, and his history within the Shinra corporation and what the deal is with the Deep Ground organisation.

Final Fantasy VII characters such as Cloud Strife and Co. appear but only as cameos and this serves it very well as this is a game centred around Vincent and not a party of people saving the world. Unfortunately there are some pacing issues - at time levels will go quickly whilst certain ones will drag on longer than they need to be, but near the climax of the story these problems disappear.

Square seems to have gone for a third-person view as this makes sense with Vincent’s weapon being a gun, when running around using the left analogue stick the player can have the crosshair appear in the centre of the screen by pressing the R1 button to start aiming, this doesn’t get in the way of the visuals as one would think when you first see the crosshair (it is rather large). Vincent has the ability to run, shoot, jump and use melee attacks consisting of punches and kicks as well as being able to transform into his limitbreaker form at anytime as long as he has a limitbreak item in stock.

One of the best features of Dirge is the customisable weapons, by collecting various equipment such as barrels, scopes and accessories the player can create many different guns for Vincent to use. Certain combinations will do different things such as the Fire Materia accessory giving additional damage and a slight explosion, this way of customisation works really well and slots in perfectly, giving it a slight more depth to the game. At times this game does become slightly lacking and seems like a rail shooter but these sequences can flash by quite quickly so that isn’t so bad. It also seems to take on slight characteristics of the Devil May Cry series as you can upgrade you weapons and get scores at the end of the level on how well you have done and this did seem reminiscent of the DMC games. The game it’s self isn’t particularly hard but at times you can get into a snag if you’re unsure how to act in certain scenarios such as mass enemies and boss battles.

It is clear that graphical qualities are one of Square’s strong points and here they make a graphically fluid PS2 game look like a next-gen game but the players really gets treated when witnessing the FMV cut scenes as they are on par with the FFVII movie Advent Children and it really is a feast for the eyes as so much detail can be seen showing great justice to Tetsuya Nomura’s character designs and the narrative. The sleek new wave designs of characters and vehicles coupled with the old designs of the locations and settings give an excellent mix of steampunk and futuristic. Of course original FFVII characters have their Advent Children designs to keep continuity but new characters really show off Nomura’s flare for character design.

Overall this game works really well as both a stand-alone game and as part of a compilation, you also don’t have to be a fan of FFVII to enjoy this game either, this game has been thought out which is always good considering it’s a spin-off game which often have the tendency of a low budget or poor planning. Whilst there are slight problems with story pacing and level design this is by no means a bad game, there are quick loading times so you’re not left in suspense for the next part of action/story, the graphics are outstanding for a PS2 game and now being out for some time the price should be reasonable. This is really good game and shouldn’t be over looked by both fans of Final Fantasy games and shooting games, an excellent addition to the FF franchise.

Presentation: 8/10
This game encapsulates the feeling and world of Final Fantasy VII very well, whilst making characters who were minor in FFVII move into the foreground. With a great menu design that’s easy to use and load times make it very fluid to play.

Graphics: 9/10
Characters are extremely detailed and frame rates don’t falter, with awesome designs and fluid animation the only thing lacking is the stage designs as they seem a little basic in some places but you soon forget about it as you play more. FMV scenes are amazing though.

Sound: 7/10
There is some great music unfortunately it’s not very memorable; even now I can’t remember it. Voice acting is superbly done but as many fans may agree Vincent’s voice doesn’t quite settle at first as it sounds gruffer - it should have been softer. Younger Vincent does have the softer voice though.

Gameplay: 7/10
Good Camera and fun shooting action with good controls, the enemy AI is slightly poor as at time it can see a little too easy to progress through stages, but boss battles are really fun, one or two reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid 3.

Lasting Appeal: 7/10
A quick game a 14 hours and great lasting appeal with hard mode to play through and with bonus features to keep you busy after you’ve completed it. You can go back and try collect all items and get A ranks on all levels.

OVERALL: 7.5/10

Discuss this topic here.