Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation 2, 2006)

I purchased this game, like many other people, because it is about Final Fantasy VII. This game seems to be a few years too late, it would have been an excellent game when the PS2 first arrived. The gameplay is fairly good, there are a few glitches, but nothing major.

One of my biggest problems is the enviroment. I mean, there is a set path, and you cant stray from it, you cant even jump over the railings on stairs, or over certain boxes. There was a tower I climbed, but when I jumped off the top, I went about a foot off the edge, then dropped straight down because there was a small railing in front of it at the ground. Plus it feels like Phantasy Star because there is areas that you have to kill all the enemies to get a card key to open a gate...regardless of where you are, even in the wilderness theres laser bars.

Another problem I had was the weapons. You get like, 3 major kinds, and they are upgraded quickly. The amount of weapons is lacking compared to what there was in FF7.

The enemies are very unintelligent. They dont chase you unless you are running in the path they were originally going to take, and when that happens you cant shoot them because the camera gets all messed up. I just beat extra hard mode, which was added to the english version, and it wasnt actually hard. Normal was like extra easy, hard was like easy, and extra hard is like normal. I have not played the extra hard + yet. The bosses are also really stupid. There was only one boss that was annoying, but that is because she moves really fast and its hard to lock onto her.

My biggest problem, the story. They added a new group of people called deepground. They were Shinra's secret that broke loose. Now, not a bad idea in itself, but, the characters that were part of it were poorly done. It seemed like a ripoff of Metal Gear Solid Subsistance bad guys. Each of the deepground had an ability they used for battle. Again not bad, but the ablilities were stupid. Like one guy is super strong, has a machine gun the size of a house, plus hes insane. But this is my opinion. Though what isnt my opinion, what they messed up. Shinra Mansion, they butchured it. They added rooms, took out a key place, and had a key place in the wrong spot. I mean, the library was so huge you could get lost in, and in FF7 it was small area with a small room. Vincents room was on the right instead of the left. Another thing was this new town they added. It felt like a town that was added just to be destroyed so they wouldnt have to destroy another main town.

Other things about the story would have been the dialogue. It was horrible. And on top of the horrible dialogue was the horrible acting. Granted there were a few that were ok, like Vincent was done ok. But I mean, its like a kid wrote it. Nothing made sense, and when main characters, like Cid, were talking, the words didnt match what they would actually say.

But, I am a Final Fantasy VII hard core fan. I could pick it apart for hours, though I wont. The reason I am giving this a 4/5 instead of a 3 or lower is because regardless if the story is bad, the acting is bad, enviroments lacking, it was still a fun game. Plus there are extras, so after I beat it in 11hrs, I had another mode, and a completely new difficulty level. So there is replay value even if the game is lacking. I believe the sequel could have potential if they fix a few problems, (assuming there is sequwl). Like materia, and story.