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Review: Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII

Story Summery
Three years after helping to evacuate Midgar during Meteorfall, Vincent Valentine finds himself the target of a rogue branch of the Shinra Military named Deepground who are responsible for a mass disappearance of civilians. Vincent chooses to join forces with WRO, led by his former allies Yuffie and Reeve, and sets out to solve the mystery.

Review
First I would like to point out that THIS GAME IS IN NO WAY AN IMITATION OF DEVIL MAY CRY! Now I’ve had my rant I’ll get on with it. As, essentially, the big finale of the Final Fantasy VII storyline, DoC is a brilliant climax, giving a much-loved character a credible storyline regarding his and Yuffie’s absence from the final video’s of FFVII. It also, during the Turk’s Vincent tutorial, explains away Squeenix’s error in giving Vincent Cerberus during the final battle of VII during the quick recap at the start of Advent Children (At this point in time he had a beretta-style gun but now he has a revolver-style weapon.) which observant fans may have noticed.

Graphics
Graphics-wise, DoC is not exactly spectacular compared to it’s recent relatives XII and XIII and the forced expansion of previously-existing towns, Kalm for example, messes further with the timeline but does give the impression of towns as opposed to the minute villages of the original but the expansion gives a great idea of how the towns should look. The updated designs of Vincent’s Galian Beast gives the big blue bruiser a beefier look similar to Fenrir from FFXI. The actual transformation looks great too, in fact all the character design’s and effects look great (Though the shadow portal that swallows people looks a little too Kingdom-Hearts-2-ish.) particularly the FMV at the beginning.

Gameplay
The idea, though unconventional (read unpopular) by most actually works. As an RPG fan I found the control interface completely usable for both Newbies and Veterans alike. The acrobatic gunplay and hand-to-hand fighting mix seamlessly (the Melee command daunted me a little I’ll admit.) along with the Limit break. There are a few week points, an early example being the Bike attack in the wastes which resembles a deadly sideshow shooting gallery.

Sound
The score for DoC doesn’t quite match up to the original, mostly due to the absence of Uematsu Nobuo-San, FF’s resident composer, but the scoring is still fairly good, matching the grittier and darker storyline and character. Now to the voice acting. Steve Blum (one of my personal idols and heroes) brings life to a character much loved by many (including myself) proving, as he did with his performance as Orochimaro and Zabuza in the anime Naruto, that he is capable of handling the responsibility of dubbing a much-loved cult character. The other voice actors, particularly MGS’s Paul Eiding (Hojo) and Grandia 2’s Kim Mai Guest (Shalua), are terrific, especially the cast of Advent Children reuniting for the game (and also a reunion for Blum with his Naruto co-star Yuri Lowenthal (Uchiha Sasuke) who is a background voice actor on this.) giving a wonderful cast for DoC

Conclusion
In my opinion the lack of Critical success should make DoC a great success in terms of sales and reputation. Another problem are the rabid Dante-DMC fanboys/girls who are obsessed with a character who ripped off Vinny-boy and claim that DoC copies DMC, these deluded people (all readers of UK’s Play magazine will remember Julie Dixon) are obviously wrong as DoC bears no resemblance to DMC over than a similar-sounding name. My advice is to ignore the critics and buy this game as many of these critics inspire the stale ISS and FIFA series to continue while inventive, imaginative games like this and Katamari depend on Cult status and reputation. From the first mission, ending with Vincent taking down a helicopter single-handedly in fine form by leaping onto it from a church spire and the re-introdution of Reeves Hyperactive Furball alter-ego Cait Sith, you know that Valentine’s day has arrived.

Graphics: 7/10
Some problems but still considerably high quality given the lower budget.

Sound: 10/10
Incredible voice acting talent overshadows the less-than-perfect score, Uematsu-San’s contribution would have been appreciated.

Gameplay: 9/10
Experimental control system will shock traditionalists and Newbies alike but greatly widens the games audience to Third-Person Adventure fans. Resident Evil fans can easilly slide into the system.

Overall: 91%
Good points
The Kingdom-Hearts-esque combat system is comfortable for new players.
Terrific Vocal talents, especially Steve Blum (Worship!)
Ability to play as Turks Vincent during Tutorial

Bad points
Uematsu-San’s absence is becoming noticeable
The control system may cause some confusion amongst FF Veterans
Annoying system for unlocking extras