It's 1997 and I'm glued uncontrollably to the television screen after saving for an eternity to purchase the game I'd hired so many times. I'm young, poor and more than slightly overweight, locking myself indoors away from other people and the light. When I finally got my hands on my own copy of Final Fantasy VII, I didn't stop playing for months. The game that brought RPG's into the mainstream Western market, the game that will for years to come be the game by which console based RPG's are compared. The story was huge, characters unique and touchable, the side-quests uncountable, the weapons, magic, summons vibrant and with over "120 minutes of mind-blowing cinematic sequences" that helped the story's progression and rewarded the 50 hours spent playing. Final Fantasy VII - the one game to get 10/10 across the board and make people cry.

...you're doing it wrong!

Now, it's 2006 and we've seen a short, nicely rendered but ultimately uninteresting film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which continued the story but only seemed to raise more questions than provide answers and seemed like just a shameless excuse for CG animation. In the evolution of the Final Fantasy VII series, the only Final Fantasy to be milked for all it is worth (thanks to the loveable and intriguing characters created in the first game), the next piece of Square-ploitation is on us. Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII continues the story of Final Fantasy VII from the view of gun-toting, semi-undead and uber-goth, Vincent Valentine and set 3 years after the conclusion of the first game, which saw the destruction of Midgar and the demise of the Shinra corporation.

Dirge of Cerberus is a 3rd person shooter taking place over 12 episodes and requiring approximately 2 days solid play to complete on Hard, the first time through. With plenty of CG films and FMVs (old lingo) using the same graphical quality and character design as the Advent Children film, the new FFVII franchises are tied together nicely, existing in vastly different forms.

Fans of Final Fantasy VII, you're after the story, so here it is (without spoilers of course). 3 years following the destruction of Midgar, the city Kalm is assaulted by armed soldiers, who begin killing "tainted" civilians whilst abducting "clean" ones. Deepground generals, Rosso, Shelke, Azul and Nero with the leader Weiss ("Hail Weiss!") head the assault and soon become key members and adversaries in the developing story and battles. Our main concern, however, is between the relationship of Vincent Valentine and his beloved, Dr. Lucrecia. It's an intriguing one and ties plenty of loose ends from FFVII well. Knowing the back-story and having lived through the original game countless times, I was happy with the conclusions offered, though I'm sure some fans won't be as satisfied.

Ooh! Shiny!

Playing Dirge of Cerberus is interesting. With the camera sitting behind Vincent and a fairly obvious cross-hair stuck on the screen, a target locks onto any enemy should they stray into the cross-hair and then firing right-shoulder blows them away. Clicking in R3 pulls up a sight, which essentially makes the game a first person shooter and provides for better aiming. The FPS sight is good for sniping excellent for sniping should you have a scope attached to your weapon. The enemies in Dirge of Cerberus are somewhat dull and unintelligent unfortunately, which suits the style of the game I guess, as they're essentially cannon fodder. The most unfortunate thing about Dirge of Cerberus is the lack of urgency, frustration, skill or interest in boss fights. Most bosses simply involve running and shooting, maybe jumping every now and again to avoid a missile attack, but essentially they're all the same and extremely disappointing.

Weapon customization takes the place of character customization as Vincent's base weapon, Cerberus and other weapons throughout the game, may be upgraded with a variety of barrels, add-ons, materia and random effects. These affect the firing rate, strength, accuracy and weight of the weapons and there's a huge variety of ways to upgrade, with three different paths for each weapon base. Overall there are approximately four different guns, each with its own unique purpose. Three slots are available for customization, allowing for three complete weapons to be built and switched between at will in game, which is a smooth and simple affair making battles more enjoyable. You'll be picking off snipers using the rifle and then flicking to a machine gun to eliminate a pack of hungry dogs before making a mess of a small group of soldiers with a magic fire blast. Ahh, the magic. A huge element of Final Fantasy VII was its use of magic through stones called materia, which could be fitted to weapons providing them with power, magic and status effects. Dirge of Cerberus uses an extremely basic magic system involving only a small variety of magical elements, fire, thunder and ice, which have only one use for the entire length of the game. Disappointing.

Have you met my little friend?

Experience is gained by defeating enemies and achieving side-objectives in game. Once you've completed the episode, the experience is dished out and you've then the option of converting that to Gil, game currency, to purchase upgrades for your weapons, or to level up your character. It's not a hard decision, if you're dying more than you should you level up to get more health, then you power your weapons and take out them baddies or you can just power your weapons up so much using Gil that you don't have to worry about the baddies because they're dead before they see you. Additionally, if you die, the experience you've gained to date is totaled to the time of death and you're provided the option to level up or cash up. This is helpful if you're stuck on a boss or hard section, rather than getting frustrated and continually getting killed if you're too weak to continue, you can replay stronger than before. I appreciated this kind of death system and it allowed me to customize my weapons faster. Though, in the end, it can make the game a walkthrough if you're willing to die over and over after large battles in order to accumulate cash or experience.

In my own, Final Fantasy VII loving opinion, this game was great fun, answered so many questions and tied in elements from the original whilst evolving Vincent's story, providing better insight into his original character. Though the game is a below par and bland shoot-em-up it was good to explore and revisit familiar streets and places from the original RPG in three dimensions and to fight familiar enemies fully rendered with detail. Unfortunately, if you're not interested in Final Fantasy VII you may not understand the story or relevance of the character development in this game and honestly, it's not worth playing in that case. Dirge of Cerberus is a nostalgic experience falling short of great expectations.