Preview
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Square-Enix Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Square-Enix USAPreviewed by
Ash Paulsen on 2006-07-17
Square Enix had an entire two walls of PS2s devoted to their upcoming "gun-action RPG,"
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.
Taking place one year after the events of
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (which means three years after
Final Fantasy VII),
Dirge of Cerberus follows stoic vampiric gunman Vincent Valentine as he takes on a new threat to the Planet's peace in the form of the Deepground Soldiers, a group made up of the people who have been trapped under the ruins of Midgar for the past three years. However, this battle is a special one for Vincent: the Deepground Soldiers and their plans have some kind of connection to Vincent's dark past, which he'll have to face if he is to save the Planet.
Gameplay shots, FMV shots, and trailers have already revealed that Vincent will be joined by the rest of the
FF VII cast in his battle, while Yuffie and Cait Sith will be getting lots of in-game screen time (with Cait Sith as a playable character, at least temporarily). For the vast majority of the game, however, you'll be controlling Vincent... and it doesn't feel quite as fluid or empowering as you'd think it would be.
In fact, controlling Vincent is a markedly slow, stilted experience, with the game featuring overly complex controls and uneven gameplay. The main beef I have is that, because there is no lock-on feature, you must manually aim Vincent's guns at his enemies. This would be fine, except that Vincent cannot aim while moving, which pretty much means you have to stop any time you want to aim... and thusly, any time you want to attack, because Vincent can only attack once you've hit the R1 button to start aiming. Once you've started shooting, you can move around... albeit very slowly, because any time Vincent has his gun raised, his agility is reduced massively. Unfortunately and strangely, Vincent's enemies do not suffer from these hinderances, and are perfectly able to run around and dodge your attacks realistically as they return fire and blast you with ease, since you're so unable to do any dodging or quick moving of your own.
Vincent does have a cool and somewhat acrobatic-looking melee combo he can use on close-range enemies, but because the game emphasizes gunplay, most of the combat you'll be engaging in is of the long-range variety. I found that if you try to rush most gun-equipped enemies and melee them, you'll usually be met with an onslaught of bullets and damage before you can reach them.
What this all means is that you don't ever really feel like you're playing as Vincent, because the gameplay is just so slow and clunky. I kept feeling that the game should have been more like the
Devil May Cry series, because Vincent's character is at least as acrobatic and badass as Dante, if not more so. Unfortunately, those aspects of his character certainly do not translate into how he plays in this game.
This is all a shame, because story- and presentation-wise, I can already tell that this game is going to really stand out. It was hard to make out much of the story during all the chaos of E3, but from the trailers that have been released so far it's hard not to be excited about the game's in-your-face presentation and foreboding story in which Vincent's past is set to finally come into light. Additionally,
Dirge of Cerberus stands as one of the most attractive PS2 games out there, although this becomes less impressive when you consider that we're talking about Square Enix here, and that all of their games tend to be very attractive visually. I was not able to hear any of the game's music among the loudness of E3 (aside from the title theme, "Redemption," which plays in the trailer and is an absolutely fantastic Gackt song), although I am happy to say that the English voice acting so far seems to be quite solid, with the returning actors from
Advent Children reprising their roles.
I'd like to say that I think Square Enix will clean up some of the gameplay inconsistencies before the game's release, but I don't think that's the case. The game was met with the same criticisms when it was released in Japan, and yet it doesn't seem like Square has really seen fit to do anything about it. Honestly, what it really seems like is that Square obviously knows RPGs and action RPGs best, and suffers when it attempts to branch out into other genres, especially one involving lots of gunplay and precise action.
I don't want to make it sound like the game is terrible, because it isn't. Overall, it's an okay experience; it's just not nearly what it should be considering the title character and his traits. Playing as Vincent should be a badass, intense experience, not a run-of-the-mill, clunky one. If things stay the same, it looks like if anything, you'll be playing this one for its story and presentation, not its gameplay.
