Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII

The Good
Dirge of Cerberus is a spin off game which tries to complete one of the most important games in the RPG history together with other projects for other platforms. The Final Fantasy VII universe was something so big that they needed to create some extra-stuff to complete all the things showed in the game, and Dirge of Cerberus is a game made for that. Because of this, the game has his strong point in the story, it's a really deep and emotive plot. The characters are just perfect, all of them, and the movie scenes are incredible.

The Bad
As well as this game has its strong point in the story, his weakness is its gameplay, which is the most important thing on a game. The gameplay is really simple. Square is a good company to create RPG's (maybe the best) but there's no doubt that to make a game like this is something totally different. The story is so big and there are a lot of things to tell, so, there are lots of interruptions all over the game, which is something a little bit frustrating for the player. The action is not good enough, just good, but there are lots of games of the same genre better than this, so when you've played some time it's like watching a movie. Anyway, the story and the movie scenes are great, but we're talking about games, here you have the problem.

The Bottom Line
It's a good game, but nothing more, just a game. There are lot of games which are better. Recommended for those who loves the Final Fantasy VII game, and want to learn something more about one of its more enigmatic characters.

The Good
The graphics in this game was quite cool and beautiful in its FMV movies. The learning curve for the controls is short, which is good, and the characters in this game have great voice actors (thankfully, most were kept intact from the Advent Children movie). The story was great, adding a twist to itself and the other Final Fantasy VII spin-offs, although it still seemed lacking. Other nice features included the little shop music-box, the end of level trade-in, which gives you the option to either gain levels (thus becoming stronger) or trading it all in for money (thus becoming richer).

Another thing to compliment is the fact that Square-Enix chose to make the main character run faster, and the weapon lighter, thus no sluggish gameplay during the heat of battle; which really helps during boss battles.

The Bad
Sadly, the graphics in-game were no up to the standard one would expect at the time of the release, and the gameplay within the game slowly become boring - jump, shoot, kill, collect key-card, open gate with key-card, and repeat. Sure, there were a few missions which required unique goals but most of the time, the same procedure was required. Also, the bad level design was a major flaw, with most places having repeated graphics in many locations. all the item boxes looked the same, boxes, TNT crates and even some of the surroundings. Why couldn't they add variations?

The Bottom Line
This game, in my own opinion, is strictly for Final Fantasy fans. Most people who haven't played any of the series before will find themselves confused. And, most fans of Final Fantasy may not even like it anyway, as some feel that it kills the spirit of Final Fantasy VII. If you want fast-paced shooter RPG action, look elsewhere unless you watch gameplay movies from a website to let yourself know what you're getting. It'll vote "Graphics" as fantastic only because of its superb FMV quality.