Dirge of Cerberus

[Jingo Jaden]

Well, Vincent's alternative form may also raise some questions considering this, I hope it is nothing too serius.

[Bobtheduck]

Dirge means "Cry."
Cerebus means "devil."

Actually, dirge is a funeral song, and cerberus is the 3 headed dog that guards hades (hell?)... So, it means "The funeral song of the 3 headed hell-guarding hound" Not quite the same... So, this could mean that the dog that guarded hell died... If you take the name literally. I suppose the devil may cry if his dog dies, but...

And devil may cry is a dynamic gun and sword fighting game, while DC is more like an FPS with a third person perspective... They don't play similar at all (from the previews, anyhow)

[Tommy]

Yeah.....okay, try crush my point.

That's not the point though. I'm sure its not debatable, Square borrowed some ideas from DMC.

Let me conclude with a question.
Do you think this will be rated M?

EDIT: Nevermind. It already officially recieved a T rating.

[blue elf]

I am definitely planning on buying this game. The release is set for August 22 or 23 according to EBgames and August 1 according to July's issue of PSM magazine. I actually hope August 1 is correct, since the other date is the week my college classes start back up. I hope it gets good reviews, even though I'd buy it anyway for the sole fact that it's a game about Vincent.(Yes, I am an uber Vincent fangirl. ^^)

[Nate]

Bought it yesterday, and played it for around an hour. My first impressions.

The tutorial level has you as Vincent in his Turks days. Short hair, uniform, it's pretty cool, honestly.

Graphics are nice...in the FMVs. They're still fairly nice in the actual gameplay, but they're still a little...lacking? I dunno, I'm an RPG fan, so graphics don't matter much...but for FPS/TPS fans this is kinda disappointing.

The music...ooh. The opening theme is awesome. The music in the tutorial level was like...I don't even know. It wasn't BAD...just not Final Fantasy music. It actually reminded me of the music from the Transformers game.

Voice acting is good. Basically the same voices from Advent Children. Cait Sith's accent doesn't sound so bad this time. And this game finally has the real Reeve in a starring role (finally!). Lots of fanservice (the good kind), such as a redone sequence of the Mako Cannon in Midgar during Meteorfall, and mentioning of names like Scarlet and Heidegger. Oh, and Lucrecia. :p

Gameplay...hoo boy. The gameplay. It would NOT have killed Square to FREAKING PLAY SOME OTHER SHOOTER GAMES TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT RIGHT. The gameplay is well, frankly, HORRIBLY broken. I am very, very sadly disappointed in this. Though given that Square only knows RPGs, it's understandable that they...wait a second. They did Kingdom Hearts. Okay, there is absolutely NO excuse for a game like this to play this poorly.

Interactive environments? Yeah, you WISH there were. You can't even shoot a barrel with your gun. Well, you CAN, but instead of the barrel exploding like in any other game, nothing happens. Oh, can't shoot crates either. Unless they're specially colored crates. Which means finding "hidden" items is beyond easy, because the items are "hidden" in crates which stand out from the environment like a sore thumb.

The stages are also ranked on various attributes like people saved, accuracy, items used, Materia used, etc. It's not too hard to get high ranks (at least on Normal), I don't know if higher ranks unlock anything special. Oh, and the ranks contribute to how many points you get...the points in turn give you EXP, which you can use to level up Vincent, or trade it for Gil.

The weapon customizing system is pretty freaking sweet and in depth, it seems to be the one part of the game they got right.

Oh, from what I hear on other message boards, pretty much you fight the same enemies over and over again, through the entire game. For anyone who's played games like this before, you know that's a bad thing. Part of the fun in games like this is waiting to see what new bad guys wait in a new level, what kind of attacks they have, the best strategy to use on them. But in this game, pretty much the only enemies you fight the entire game are the same "I'm going to stand here and shoot you until I die" ones that you fight from the very start of the game.

Overall, I'm giving this game a 6/10 so far. Maybe it'll impress me, but it hasn't yet. It's fun, don't get me wrong. I'm liking it. But it's still horribly broken, and could have (SHOULD have) been much better.

[Tommy]

Well, kaemmerite, that game is a pure example of milking a game for all it is worth.
But you gotta admit, Square has improved doing that since FFX-2.

[yukinon]

So....it's pretty much a typical Square game? (wow, I'm hoping no one shoots me for saying that.)

I'm crazy about Vincent myself, but I hate FPS, so I'll probably just bug my boyfriend to get it and then watch him play it. I am such a backseat gamer. It's sad.

[Kkun]

I've heard a few good things and a lot of bad things, as Mr. Nate up there pointed out.

I think I'm just going to not play this one and go back to Devil May Cry 3. >_>

[Tommy]

I'm crazy about Vincent myself, but I hate FPS.

You hating FPSes are completely irrelevant since this is a 3rd person action game.
I'm sure there are a few 1st person stages but overall, no.

[yukinon]

And devil may cry is a dynamic gun and sword fighting game, while DC is more like an FPS with a third person perspective... They don't play similar at all (from the previews, anyhow)

Really? That gave me the impression that it was more of a FPS type game.

[Radical Dreamer]

Aw, it's too bad they didn't make the gameplay right. 'Cause yeah, I don't have 50 bucks to blow on a game that's not all that fun. XD Heck, I don't even have 50 bucks to get KH2 yet. o_o I'll just look up the opening on YouTube and hope this is the last wave of the recent FFVII flood.

[Nightshade X]

It's not. There's also Crisis Core that's coming out for the PSP. I'd be happy if the game actually hit stateside.

[Debitt]

That's too bad the gameplay is sucky. =/ I'd still like to see this game, simply because it's Vincent and Reeve, but...I think I'll rent.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Hmm, despite the gameplay, it still sounds pretty cool. Yeah, it's the Vincent factor.

[Radical Dreamer]

It's not. There's also Crisis Core that's coming out for the PSP. I'd be happy if the game actually hit stateside.

Oh yeah, Crisis Core...Wasn't sure if that one had been released or not. Man. Talk about overkill!

[jieshi]

I think I saw a film clip for this game while I was in Japan. THey showed it on the morning news because Gackt was involved, I was absolutely blown away! Only problem is I am having trouble locating the actual clip I saw, it had vincent and all the characters skyboarding and taking down helicopters with their guns- any of you know the clip I'm talking about?

[Nate]

Got a little further today.

Sniping in this game is practically pointless. There's a part in the third level where you have to take out a bunch of enemy snipers in the middle of the city. In order to shoot them, you have to step into their line of fire. And with the targeting system, you'll get shot two or three times before you can draw a bead on them.

Not pretty.

The storyline is pretty neat though. Apparently Vincent's Chaos Limit Break is a whole lot more important than the original game made it out to be. Oh and so far, the item that puts you in Limit mode, only turns you into the Gallian Beast (his level one). I'm not sure if you can get the other ones later on or not.

[Tommy]

Got this game yesterday. Great game, and I would definately give it an 8.5/10 instead of 6. Kicks FFX-2 straight in the butt in terms of sequels that didn't have to exist.

My best friend loves 3rd person shooters but hates RPGs.
However, he liked on particular RPG:
FF7.

This kid owns at the game. He is currently breezing through Hard Mode and I don't recall him ever missing a shot.
While I've had some issues with the camera, he mastered it before playing.
The scenery is a little unfamilar and boring.

Overall 8.5, definately. I think the GameSpot video review definately underrated it.

The plot is good as a stand alone, but doesn't add much to the FF7 universe.
The gameplay could've been better and less repetative, but it is an excellent game.
The music is cool.

[blue elf]

I just beat this game, and I really liked it. I don't play many shooter games, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I thought the gameplay was good. It could have been better though, such as objects that logically you should be able to jump over or on top of but can't. That's really a minor thing though. I thought the story was quite good, plus there was lots of Vincent. ^_^ The game was really short though, but I thought that was actually a good thing for me, because it gave me time to beat it before college starts on Monday. Has anyone else beaten the game yet? If so, what did you think of it?

[Nate]

I haven't beaten it yet. Which ending did you get? Apparently if you collect some item thingies you get a better ending.

[Nightshade X]

A small review from me:

For a company that doesn't do shooters at all, Square-Enix did pretty good. Gameplay-wise, Dirge is pretty mediocre. However, that doesn't mean that the game sucks. The story (from what I've seen) is everything I would expect from Square-Enix. I'm not disappointed at all.

I've read other reviews, and I agree that there are some elements of the game that I don't really like. My complants are the uber-useless double jump and the lack of an over-the-shoulder view, both of which are changes from the Japanese version of the game. Frankly, I think that an over-the-shoulder view, while aiming, would be a much greater help than a frickin' stupid double jump that doesn't help you get frickin' anywhere!

Anyway... I like this game so far, and I can't wait to finish it.

[blue elf]

I haven't beaten it yet. Which ending did you get? Apparently if you collect some item thingies you get a better ending.

I got the "better" ending, which is actually just a very short scene that plays after the screen that says "the end" You get it by collecting 3 G-reports. I didn't find many of the memory capsules though, so I didn't really unlock that many scenes in the scene viewer. I'll probably play it again though or work on some of the extra missions to unlock some of the concept art and stuff.


For anyone who may want to know what the extra scene is:
[spoiler]It's just a scene in which the J-rock artist Gackt makes a cameo as a Deepground soldier. He picks up Weiss' body and flies off with it saying that they still have work to do or something like that, thus in my opinion, leaving room should Squenix ever decide to do a sequel. One interesting note: the character played by Gackt had one wing just like Sephiroth, and it was on the opposite side of his body as Sephy's wing was on. Just felt like sharing that.[/spoiler]

[Souba]

I got the "better" ending, which is actually just a very short scene that plays after the screen that says "the end" You get it by collecting 3 G-reports. I didn't find many of the memory capsules though, so I didn't really unlock that many scenes in the scene viewer. I'll probably play it again though or work on some of the extra missions to unlock some of the concept art and stuff.


For anyone who may want to know what the extra scene is:
[spoiler]It's just a scene in which the J-rock artist Gackt makes a cameo as a Deepground soldier. He picks up Weiss' body and flies off with it saying that they still have work to do or something like that, thus in my opinion, leaving room should Squenix ever decide to do a sequel. One interesting note: the character played by Gackt had one wing just like Sephiroth, and it was on the opposite side of his body as Sephy's wing was on. Just felt like sharing that.[/spoiler]

Hmm so pretty much like the footage I saw back when the Japanese game came out. Only now I'll know what they are saying. Is the secret ending tranlated, and do they have an english version of Redemption playing?
God Bless,
Souba.

[Tommy]

A
My complants are the uber-useless double jump and the lack of an over-the-shoulder.

Vincent looks cool when he double jumps...well, not in his Turk outfit.
I like doublejumping. While unrealistic, at least you don't take turns.

And I have no interest in finishing it. With games like these, I want to take my time.

[Nate]

Frankly, I think that an over-the-shoulder view, while aiming, would be a much greater help than a frickin' stupid double jump that doesn't help you get frickin' anywhere!

According to every review I've seen, the over-the-shoulder view was absolutely horrendous because you could barely see where you were going when you tried to walk anywhere.

As far as the double jump, I admit it doesn't help as far as getting anywhere, but it's saved my bacon quite a few times as far as dodging and being able to shoot some of the higher up enemies. But eh, to each their own, I guess.

EDIT: Found a full list of the changes from Japanese to NA versions. Apparently you couldn't fire your weapon while jumping in the Japanese version. So yeah. NA version FTW.

[blue elf]

[quote="Souba"]Hmm so pretty much like the footage I saw back when the Japanese game came out. Only now I'll know what they are saying. ]

The secret ending is dubbed in English, but both of the songs from the game, Redemption and Longing, are in Japanese.

[Souba]

The secret ending is dubbed in English, but both of the songs from the game, Redemption and Longing, are in Japanese.

Ok, thanks Blue elf! Hmm dubbed in english can't wait to hear that! ^^ I'm glad they kept the original songs I don't it would be the same if they sang english versions. Did you like the Vincent voice actor? Or is the Japanese actor still better? ^^ Btw I hope to pick up my copy soon!
God Bless,
Souba

[blue elf]

Ok, thanks Blue elf! Hmm dubbed in english can't wait to hear that! ^^ I'm glad they kept the original songs I don't it would be the same if they sang english versions. Did you like the Vincent voice actor? Or is the Japanese actor still better? ^^ Btw I hope to pick up my copy soon!
God Bless,
Souba

You're very welcome! Vincent's voice actor was the same one that was used for the Advent Children movie. I think his English voice is fine, but I do slightly prefer his Japanese voice. ^_^

[Tommy]

English, OF COURSE!
Steve Blum played him.

[Quote=Monkey J. Luffy] Steve Blum is in everything, isn't he? [/quote]

How right he is.

I gotta admit, I didn't have high hopes for Steve playing Vincent.

[yukinon]

Wait...what else has Steve Blum done? (I know veeery little about dub actors.)