finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1917]Dirge of Cerberus wasn't a bad game[/drupal]
"What's this?" you may think to yourself, "Finalark, the world's biggest hater of Final Fantasy VII saying that Dirge of Cerberus, one of it's spin-offs, was a good game? Even the fanboys hated that one!" Well you know what? Yes, I am saying that Dirge of Cerberus wasn't a bad game but rather, a decent one. Not anything as awesome as oh say... InFamous but good enough to keep you occupied for a weekend or so.
Here's where I'm going to start, with the game's very title. It's the words "Final Fantasy" that throw everyone off. What does everyone expect when they play a Final Fantasy? Well, A JRPG adventure, of course. But DoCter Vincent (c wut i did thar?) delivered something different, a third person shooter with heavy RPG elements. I can guarantee that if the game was just called "Dirge of Cerberus" and had absolutely no connection to Final Fantasy whatsoever, the scores would jump from fives and sixes to sevens. It's like playing through Star Fox Adventures, the game becomes a million times better if you don't think about it as a Star Fox.
Next up, the story... okay, the storyline is a jumbled load of crap that makes no sense but ever sense when has an FFVII story been anything else? And everyone seems to be forgetting that DoC is a shooter, not an RPG. Honestly, no one hates on Halo for not having a very good story so why would you hate on DoC for it?
Alright, now we move onto game play town. Okay, the US version of DoC is vastly superior to the Japanese version because all of the ****ty parts of Japanese DoC were fixed in the US version. Let's take some time to compare the two, shall we?
JPN DoC has Online play, US DoC doesn't
You know, when you take online play out of a shooter you're really screwing yourself in the replayability category. And while I think that the complete removal of any multiplayer was a really stupid idea on Square's localization team's behalf, if the interwebs has anything to say, DoC's multiplayer was... lacking. Players would play as a Deep Ground Solider going on various missions with other players. However, not many people played the game so the servers were emptier than the Tetra Master servers. The lag was also apparently as bad as Brawl's and as Final Fantasy XI has proven, PlayOnline (while it has a really, really nice interface) can be... costly.
US DoC has side missions, JPN DoC doesn't
They (kind of) solved the replayability problem by adding in side missions that you can play after you've finished the main story. And while they're not anything special, they are entertaining enough to keep you amused if you get to the point of near-suicidal boredom.
US DoC has an "Extra Harde" mode, JPN DoC has an "Easy" mode
What's this? A Japanese game that wasn't dumbed down for us stupid Americans? Impossible! Yes, for once there's a Japanese game that's actually more difficult in the US version than it is in the Japanese version. And although I have yet to play through (nor do I have to desire to) play through the game on Extra Hard, apparently it's challenging enough to keep things interesting. Even though the AI is still dump as rocks.
JPN DoC has annoying poor aiming, US DoC doesn't
In the original Japanese version, when you draw your weapon for combat mode the camera zooms in so close to your head that you can almost see the grease dripping off of Vincent's rock star hair. In the US version the camera is zoomed out greatly, meaning that you can actually see what the hell is going on.
JPN DoC has crappy movement, US DoC doesn't
In the Japanese version, controlling Vincent was about as easy and fun as controlling Marcus Fenix in Gears of War. Crap jump, useless dodge roll, slow movement. In the US version, all of these problems were fixed. Our long-haired emo hero gets a second jump, he's dodge roll is replaced with a quick burst of speed, and he moves roughly 1.2 times faster than in the Japanese version. Any improvement on game play is a welcome one in my book.
JPN DoC has crappy combat, US DoC has... improved combat
I'm a tad reluctant to say that the combat in DoC was good, but it was much better than it was in the JPN version. Originally, you could note fire in the air period. Thankfully, this was changed, making shooting enemies in high places much easier, and combat much funner. Another thing that was changed were the limit breaks, which you use to become some big scary monster thing for a bit. Originally, there were a spell of sorts that, when activated, reduced your MP. However, most people claim that this was... annoying and felt tacked on. They changed this to items called Limit Breakers in the US, although the Limit Breaks still feel tacked on and kind of pointless. Oh, and here's something nice: weapon drawing. Originally, Vincent would slowly and dramatically switch weapons as if he had time to do that. In the US version the weapon change is so fast there's pretty much no animation for it.
I'm going to sum this all up here. Dirge of Cerberus isn't bad it's just run-of-the-mill, just like the game it's based off of. Yeah, it's not Earth-shatteringly awesome but it isn't "burn-it-at-the-stake" bad either. It's just a run of the mill game that will keep you entertained for a weekend that doesn't deserve the crap that it gets.
"What's this?" you may think to yourself, "Finalark, the world's biggest hater of Final Fantasy VII saying that Dirge of Cerberus, one of it's spin-offs, was a good game? Even the fanboys hated that one!" Well you know what? Yes, I am saying that Dirge of Cerberus wasn't a bad game but rather, a decent one. Not anything as awesome as oh say... InFamous but good enough to keep you occupied for a weekend or so.
Here's where I'm going to start, with the game's very title. It's the words "Final Fantasy" that throw everyone off. What does everyone expect when they play a Final Fantasy? Well, A JRPG adventure, of course. But DoCter Vincent (c wut i did thar?) delivered something different, a third person shooter with heavy RPG elements. I can guarantee that if the game was just called "Dirge of Cerberus" and had absolutely no connection to Final Fantasy whatsoever, the scores would jump from fives and sixes to sevens. It's like playing through Star Fox Adventures, the game becomes a million times better if you don't think about it as a Star Fox.
Next up, the story... okay, the storyline is a jumbled load of crap that makes no sense but ever sense when has an FFVII story been anything else? And everyone seems to be forgetting that DoC is a shooter, not an RPG. Honestly, no one hates on Halo for not having a very good story so why would you hate on DoC for it?
Alright, now we move onto game play town. Okay, the US version of DoC is vastly superior to the Japanese version because all of the ****ty parts of Japanese DoC were fixed in the US version. Let's take some time to compare the two, shall we?
JPN DoC has Online play, US DoC doesn't
You know, when you take online play out of a shooter you're really screwing yourself in the replayability category. And while I think that the complete removal of any multiplayer was a really stupid idea on Square's localization team's behalf, if the interwebs has anything to say, DoC's multiplayer was... lacking. Players would play as a Deep Ground Solider going on various missions with other players. However, not many people played the game so the servers were emptier than the Tetra Master servers. The lag was also apparently as bad as Brawl's and as Final Fantasy XI has proven, PlayOnline (while it has a really, really nice interface) can be... costly.
US DoC has side missions, JPN DoC doesn't
They (kind of) solved the replayability problem by adding in side missions that you can play after you've finished the main story. And while they're not anything special, they are entertaining enough to keep you amused if you get to the point of near-suicidal boredom.
US DoC has an "Extra Harde" mode, JPN DoC has an "Easy" mode
What's this? A Japanese game that wasn't dumbed down for us stupid Americans? Impossible! Yes, for once there's a Japanese game that's actually more difficult in the US version than it is in the Japanese version. And although I have yet to play through (nor do I have to desire to) play through the game on Extra Hard, apparently it's challenging enough to keep things interesting. Even though the AI is still dump as rocks.
JPN DoC has annoying poor aiming, US DoC doesn't
In the original Japanese version, when you draw your weapon for combat mode the camera zooms in so close to your head that you can almost see the grease dripping off of Vincent's rock star hair. In the US version the camera is zoomed out greatly, meaning that you can actually see what the hell is going on.
JPN DoC has crappy movement, US DoC doesn't
In the Japanese version, controlling Vincent was about as easy and fun as controlling Marcus Fenix in Gears of War. Crap jump, useless dodge roll, slow movement. In the US version, all of these problems were fixed. Our long-haired emo hero gets a second jump, he's dodge roll is replaced with a quick burst of speed, and he moves roughly 1.2 times faster than in the Japanese version. Any improvement on game play is a welcome one in my book.
JPN DoC has crappy combat, US DoC has... improved combat
I'm a tad reluctant to say that the combat in DoC was good, but it was much better than it was in the JPN version. Originally, you could note fire in the air period. Thankfully, this was changed, making shooting enemies in high places much easier, and combat much funner. Another thing that was changed were the limit breaks, which you use to become some big scary monster thing for a bit. Originally, there were a spell of sorts that, when activated, reduced your MP. However, most people claim that this was... annoying and felt tacked on. They changed this to items called Limit Breakers in the US, although the Limit Breaks still feel tacked on and kind of pointless. Oh, and here's something nice: weapon drawing. Originally, Vincent would slowly and dramatically switch weapons as if he had time to do that. In the US version the weapon change is so fast there's pretty much no animation for it.
I'm going to sum this all up here. Dirge of Cerberus isn't bad it's just run-of-the-mill, just like the game it's based off of. Yeah, it's not Earth-shatteringly awesome but it isn't "burn-it-at-the-stake" bad either. It's just a run of the mill game that will keep you entertained for a weekend that doesn't deserve the crap that it gets.
