Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII is a third-person shooter from Square Enix that tries to break free from the RPG tone of the Final Fantasy series and take it along new roads. The first spin-off game in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII comes after the DVD movie “Advent Children” and follows Vincent Valentine three years after the events of the original title, as he fights a group of soldiers who intend to summon the ultimate weapon, Omega, to destroy the planet. With such a prestigious label, Dirge of Cerberus had the massive challenge of breathing new life into the already classic world of Final Fantasy VII.

Unfortunately, Dirge of Cerberus falls just as short of the mark as a long jumper with his shoelaces tied. Even without the inherent stigma of the brand, Dirge of Cerberus barely qualifies as “competent” of its own accord. The main problems lie in switching to a genre Square Enix has little experience in, and this shows in the poorly thought out level design. The effect is a very linear experience with invisible walls blocking jumps over the smallest of obstacles to keep the player on the straight and extremely narrow path.

the most part the gameplay follows a simple move - aim - shoot formula with little variation – although using materia and customizing Vincent’s gun helps to break up the monotony a little. The customization tool allows the player to edit Vincent’s weapon in relation to four attributes; power, range, rate of fire, and weight. Some combinations allow for high damage shots but will make movement slower, for example. It’s an interesting mechanic that is unfortunately wasted as differences between the weapons are mostly so small the options are effectively reduced to “Shotgun” or “Machine Gun”, and trudging through the entire 7-10 hour game doing nothing but mash the trigger with the standard gun equipped presents little to no challenge.

This is a problem exacerbated by Dirge of Cerberus’ assisted aiming function, which means the player’s gun will automatically lock on to enemies with unerring accuracy as long as he points it in their general direction. The only real challenge this presents is that after four hours of this unrelenting tedium can you still be bothered to point your gun in their general direction? Players can also sometimes transform into the Galian Beast, Vincent’s limit break from Final Fantasy VII, and this does succeed in changing the formula a bit as mindless shooting turns into mindless pummeling. Still, in a game like this any tiny positive is one to be cherished.

One area Dirge of Cerberus does come in at slightly above average is the graphics, with Square Enix not reaching the heights of Final Fantasy X or XII, character animations are impressive and the CGI sequences would not have looked out of place in the game’s big brother Advent Children.

Also on the plus side is a decent soundtrack. Although most in-game music is instantly forgettable, and the theme song by Gackt, a popular musician in Japan, has a more “nails on chalkboard” effect to those used to Uematsu’s creations, music in cut scenes is dramatic, impressive, and helped out by a strong cast of voice actors.
Overall the compilation of Final Fantasy VII gets off to a miserable start with a game worth a rent for the more hardcore fans, but for those who want an entertaining, engaging shooter on the PS2, get Resident Evil 4. An ill-advised cash-in that one can only hope doesn’t set a trend.

Overall: 4/10