Sora96's DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII- Review

[Sora96 17,256]

DIRGE of CERBERUS –FINAL FANTASY VII- is the sequel to the film, FINAL FANTASY VII: Advent Children. It expands upon the story of a side character, Vincent Valentine. Shedding a lot of light of what happened to him before the events of FINAL FANTASY VII and what occurs three years after the game. 

 

In a first for the JRPG series, this game is a third-person shooter. And as for how it holds up as a shooter, it’s a pretty good PlayStation 2 era shooter. It’s not the best shooter, but there aren't too many things to complain about.

 

There’s a bit of customization you can do, but it’s really up to you if you want to dig deep into it. You can get through the game fine with only minimal adjustments.

 

There are two difficulty modes in Normal and Hard. And you can unlock a third called Super Hard by completing the game. It’s slightly disappointing to see Easy removed in the English version. Speaking of, they made various changes from the Japanese version but the only one worth mentioning is the removal of multiplayer. The multiplayer missions have been changed to bonus missions which offer an additional challenge and something to do after you complete the game.

 

You can re-watch all of game’s cutscenes in an Event Viewer, unfortunately you need to collect Memory Capsules in the main game to unlock them. Simply completing the game won’t suffice. You can also watch four Japanese trailers from Tokyo Game Show 2005 and Jump Festa 2006 among others. There’s also more extras to explore including an Art Gallery, Sound Gallery and Character Viewer. Common features in the series but uncommon on console titles so this is a nice touch. They have their content unlocked by completing requirements in the bonus missions I mentioned above.

 

The story didn't really feel FINAL FANTASY VII-like a lot of the time. Some stuff didn't make sense, but that might only be due to the fact I've never actually played FINAL FANTASY VII. I've simply watched both versions of Advent Children and all the recap extras they included covering all the titles in the Compilation of FINAL FANTASY VII.

 

The music’s nice, and the graphics are pretty good for PlayStation 2. The FMVs/CGI scenes look great for PS2.

 

Something quite amusing about this game is that you can access your menu and even the game’s shop during boss battles. Sorry, Weiss but I'm going to open my menu and use a potion and now I’m going to the shop to buy some more potions. I'm guessing this was done so the fans who don’t play shooters could get through the game although really you had an Easy mode originally.

 

I can see why this game got a mixed reception.

 

There’s also some VERY LONG cutscenes.

 

The final chapter was pretty epic until the final bosses and then it just downhill with the easiest final bosses ever.

 

The game holds up quite well in 2014, even for someone who hasn't properly played a PS2 game in nearly two years. I was surprisingly able to enjoy the visuals despite being so used to PlayStation 3 graphics.

 

All in all, DIRGE of CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII- is a pretty good game that I had quite a bit of fun with. If you don’t like shooters I’d suggest not playing this game, you won’t be missing much in terms of story assuming they never do another FINAL FANTASY VII title. But if you like FINAL FANTASY and shooters this is a game I definitely recommend you play. It’s unlikely to get a full HD remaster and will most likely be released as a PS2 Classic at some point so you can either wait for that or just pick it up on PS2 now.

 

I’d really like to see them having another attempt this era at developing a shooter for the FINAL FANTASY series. And if they do, hopefully they try multiplayer again as well. The game’s producer, Yoshinori Kitase loves shooters so hopefully he can be produce another one someday.

 

7/10

[Soravids 1,056]

PS3 network won't be up much longer and who's to say PS4 will even have PS2 classics? Having that said, how will it be released as a PS2 classic much later from now?

[Sora96 17,256]

PS3 network won't be up much longer and who's to say PS4 will even have PS2 classics? Having that said, how will it be released as a PS2 classic much later from now?

 

Lol. The PlayStation 3's network as you put it, will be up for years to come. Square Enix Japan is only just starting to release PS2 Classics, their first is releasing very soon. They will at some point be able to emulate PS2 games on PS4.

[Soravids 1,056]

Lol. The PlayStation 3's network as you put it, will be up for years to come. Square Enix Japan is only just starting to release PS2 Classics, their first is releasing very soon. They will at some point be able to emulate PS2 games on PS4.

I only hope you're right.