QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus (Last updated on 11/14/2007)

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By: wsim

     Dirge of Cerberus takes place three years after the events that ended FFVII.  Since then, an unknown group of SOLDIERs appears and are known as the Deepground SOLDIERs, with their main intention to call forth the final weapon, Omega.  Vincent is pursued by members of a mysterious organization as well as coming to terms with his past and will lead him to be an important figure in saving the planet once again.  By uncovering the secrets of Shinra and finding out about his dark past, can Vincent find a true reason to live and save the planet from new threats?

     Three years after the meteor crisis, a new group of SOLDIERs called the Deepground SOLDIERs, created by the late President Shin-Ra suddenly appears and raids the town of Kalm.  These SOLDIERs have vowed to cleanse the world of those who they deem unfit to live.  The WRO, also known as the World Restoration Organization is headed by Reeve Tuesti and the organization's job is to restore order to the world and prevent anything from harming it.  Vincent learns that he is pursued by members of an unknown organization and also deals with uncovering his past.  The Deepground SOLDIERs have been chasing Vincent for quite some time now.  We eventually learn that Vincent was a Turk in the past and had been selected to oversee a project by his father, Grimoire Valentine.  Vincent fell in love with a scientist named Lucrecia.  Unfortunately, when Grimoire died, Lucrecia left Vincent, being unable to cope with feelings of guilt that she felt about his father's death.  As a result, Lucrecia left Vincent.  Eventually, Vincent found Lucrecia and attempted to propose to her.  She turned him down and later started a relationship with Professor Hojo.  Lucrecia was pregnant and attempted to use the unborn child as the experiment for Jenova Cells.  The unborn child that the experiments were performed on eventually turned out to be Sephiroth.  Vincent objected to this and the experiment caused Lucrecia to fall very ill and Vincent confronted Hojo over this.  Hojo shot Vincent and shut him in the Mt. Nibel mako reactor, where Lucrecia infected Vincent with the mako substance and Vincent became Chaos.  Vincent, with the influence of Chaos had a fit of rage and broke out of the pod.  Lucrecia used some materia to calm Chaos down and put Vincent into a deep sleep.  He later woke up in the basement of ShinRa mansion but noticed that Hojo and Lucrecia are nowhere to be found.  Vincent became distraught over the modifications found in his body and shuts himself up in the coffin.  Hojo locks the coffin and hides the combination key in the safe of the mansion.  The main storyline focuses on the theme of redemption and all the characters have something to redeem themselves about.  Vincent manages to save Kalm from the attack and encounters Azul and Shelke, who are members of the Tsviets, the elite force of the Deepground SOLDIERs.

Shelke and Azul have their own side stories, which are tied into the plot.  There are also mysteries uncovered regarding the sudden disappearance of many people and the WRO investigates this mysterious event.  With Vincent facing these threats, he gradually uncovers more about his past and is able to stop Omega.  Afterwards, Vincent goes and reflects on what has went on between him and Lucrecia and finally understands it.  The storyline mainly focuses on Vincent's past and is mostly a flashback of Vincent and Lucrecia, along with their history together.  Another interesting character is Weiss, who is the leader of the Deepground SOLDIERs.  He was a SOLDIER who had been controlled by a computer version of Hojo's own personality.  Weiss is instructed to find Vincent and Chaos, absorb the pure mako infected people captured and brought by the Deepground SOLDIERs and eventually have Vincent lead them to Omega.  Weiss then uses the pure mako to absorb Omega and then receive the great power for Hojo's intentions for the planet.  Eventually, Weiss manages to win back control over the computer and decides on his fate to eventually end his own life to stop the suffering.

Analysis/Ratings
 -Graphics
 -Gameplay
 -Storyline
 -Sound
 -Fun Factor
 -Overall
 -Ratings

Graphics

    The visuals are quite good in this game.  The FMV sequences are nicely done and are very reminiscent of FFVII: Advent Children.  For the in-game cutscenes, the amount of detail and texture is pretty good as well.  The graphics is probably the most strongest part about Dirge of Cerberus.  There is one major glaring issue though.  Dirge of Cerberus suffers from some poor aliasing and some collision detection problems.

Gameplay

     Dirge of Cerberus offers a pretty good variety of different gameplay aspects.  While the game is primarily a straight forward shooter, there are still some RPG elements within it.  Players are able to customize and upgrade their weapons to their own needs.  Vincent can level up by playing through the missions and you can even use his limit breaks occasionally too.  The camera has been much improved over the extremely poor Japanese version.  However, even with these improvements, DoC suffers from some poor AI, awkward pacing of the game and generic but stale stage designs that fail to really impress.

Storyline

     While DoC focuses more on a very small group of characters, they generally have decent character development.  The game is mainly about the story of Vincent and it is intriguing to learn more about his past and about how that shapes his perception and personality.  There aren't too many surprises in DoC though, but a few interesting twists nevertheless.  Most of the existing FFVII characters are only in DoC for cameo purposes only though.  Otherwise, there isn't much else to expect in DoC as far as the storyline goes.  But one major flaw in the storyline is that the pacing is quite horrible.  Not to mention that there are some very long cutscenes that appear to be unnecessary in my mind.

Sound

     Don't be expecting anything epic or something along those lines here.  There are some tracks that are decent but the majority of the soundtrack appears generic and doesn't seem to interest me very much.  The voice acting is sub-par in my viewpoint.  Some characters are quite good but others are pretty mediocre.

Fun Factor

     The one good thing about DoC is that there are multiple endings in the game, which is really a bonus.  There are some extra missions that are available as well once you beat the game in addition to a few other extra modes.  Since the game is pretty short, don't expect to be playing for over 25 hours total.  Replay value is not too bad though.

Overall

     Dirge of Cerberus is not a horrible game by any means, it does offer some pretty good features for FFVII fans.  Some previous FFVII favourites make cameo apperances in DoC and a few others play larger roles in the game.  The visuals are excellent and the FMV sequences are a treat to watch.  DoC has numerous gameplay mechanics that provide for some cool customization and there are some RPG elements implemented as well.  It has a decent storyline and some interesting extras too.  But DoC does suffer from stale level design, mediocre controls and average music.  Even with some nice twists on the shooting aspect of things, the game still has some issues that range from being downright glaring to minor.  Its still a decent game, but nowhere near the quality of what fans expect from games that have the name "Final Fantasy" in them.

Ratings (Compare w/ other games)

GRAPHICS:	8/10	8	Great FMV sequences and nice visuals.  However, the game does have some aliasing problems as well as issues with collision-detection.
GAMEPLAY:	13/20	6.5	Decent gameplay elements include various customizations on weapons and there are a few RPG elements integrated with traditional shooting conventions.  The AI can be quite poor at certain points and the level design is very generic and stale.  There are a few minor control issues that could be improved upon as well.
STORYLINE:	15/20	7.5	The story focuses more on Vincent but the characters in DoC generally have some pretty decent character development.  The pacing of the storyline remains relatively mediocre and can be quite horrible at times.
SOUND:	7.5/10	7.5	DoC has a few decent tracks but a lot of mediocre ones too.  In general, the music does not really appear to interest me that much.
FUN FACTOR:	7/10	7	The fact that DoC has multiple endings is pretty cool.  More games should have this.  Some nice bonuses and extra modes appears after you beat the game.  However, the game is pretty short and doesn't really offer any significant interest past 20 hours.
OVERALL:	50.5/70	7.2	DoC is not a bad game and has many good things going for it.  Multiple endings, some cool gameplay mechanics and beautiful visuals are quite impressive.  The game does have many glaring flaws that cannot be overlooked.  Generic level design, poor AI and a lot of other mediocre factors exist in the game.

Characters

1) Main

    

2) Secondary

Lyrics

REDEMPTION (Vocals: Gackt)

Shizuka ni sora ni kaeru anata no sugata wo
(what else can I do besides avenge you?)
Namida ga kareru made zutto mitsumete ita

Afureru kanashimi wa kesenai kizuato ni
Wasure wa shinai to chikatta

Oreta tsubasa wo habatakase subete wo keshite miseyou
Itsu no hi ka owari wo mukeru saigo no kane ga nariyamu made

(you told me
like as if you were to die tomorrow
feel as if you were to be reborn now
face as if you were to live forever)

Furueru yubi de akai namida wo nazotta
(I had nothing to lose, nothing truth)
Hakanai omoide ga yami ni ochite yuku

Saigo no hohoemi ga ukande wa kieru
Nukumori dake wo nokoshite

Yasashii dake no kotoba nara ima no boku wa iyasenai
Hateshinaku tsuzuku tatakai ni kono mi ni subete sasageru dake

Itsu ka wa kono sora ni daremo ga kaeru kara
Wakare no kotoba wa iranai
MAKE IT UP!

Oreta tsubasa wo habatakase subete wo keshite miseyou
Itsu no hi ka owari wo mukaeru saigo no kane ga nariyamu made

Yasashii dake no kotoba nara ima no boku wa iyasenai
Hateshinaku tsuzuku tatakai ni kono mi wo subete sasageru dake

REDEMPTION
REDEMPTION