Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Review

August 11, 2006 - It's been ten years since Sephiroth threw a meteor past half a dozen planets at Cloud and friends, and yet Final Fantasy VII continues to tell its story. In fact, no other narrative in "RPG sequel" history has planned more spin-offs, revisits, sequels, and tie-ins than Mr. Strife's edgy trek across a battered Midgar -- and fans just can't seem to get enough of it.

Though diehards still have some time to wait before they can get their hands on the SOLDIER and Turk-based FF7 prequels for PSP and mobile phones, the aftermath of "Meteorfall" is getting immediate documentation now. The recently-released direct-to-DVD (and UMD) movie Advent Children picked up two years after the final events of the game, and it succeeded in answering several of the arbitrary questions left hanging from the PlayStation days. It didn't answer everything, though, and that's where Square Enix's latest offshoot comes in.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII proves that's there's still plenty of story left to tell. Following the strange and brooding FF7 bonus character, Vincent Valentine, Cerberus addresses a number of unsolved mysteries that fanfic writers have only dreamed about: "Where did Vincent come from and how did he become such a badass?" That's the primary theme over the course of the game's 12 chapters. But that's not all. Discovering the unsettling plans of an elite band of evil narcissists known as Deepground, teaching an unwilling warrior the meaning of family and friendship, and watching the goofball antics of Yuffie and Cait Sith are also popular subjects.

Like Final Fantasy VII before it, Dirge of Cerberus tells an impressive story. Most of the new characters involved go through quite a bit of development and even some of the old ones have a chance to shine. Don't expect much from anyone other than Reeve or Yuffie, though, as the rest of the FF7 cast are typically consigned to supporting cameo roles and little else. Luckily, Vincent himself is exposed pretty convincingly here, and while there aren't any major surprises or twists to get excited about, the game's focus on a small group of characters and their experiences hold their weight just fine. This really is some engaging stuff.

Of course, the real twist to Dirge of Cerberus is that despite its strong story and RPG background, it's actually a shooter and not a role-playing game. Cerberus also has the distinction of being an infamous underachiever in the import market (particularly in Europe) where it was panned by critics for its lackluster targeting, easy difficulty, and dumb-as-bricks AI.

Criticizing the US version for the same problems isn't entirely fair. Though it does retain some of the original issues that hurt it overseas, Dirge of Cerberus has fixed a number of its hindrances. The targeting and game balancing in particular are two ways in which Dirge has obviously improved. It's no longer possible, for example, to get perspective changes and firing buttons crossed-up during simple button presses, and barreling through opponents with one weapon in your arsenal can't be done without generous item or magic usage. Granted, the game is still easy by most console shooting standards, but the point here is that it's nowhere near the cakewalk it once was.

Fixing the camera and targeting system aren't the only addendums either. A plethora of various adjustments have also been addressed for the final American version. These updates include a hastening of Vincent's default running and firing speeds, a more challenging item management system (there are fewer to hold and they're worth less when resold), and the Chaos limit break (an alternate beast-form melee attack) is much more useful. More importantly, though, these changes have an actual effect on the quality of the game by making it quicker, more balanced, and more intense.