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PS2
Dirge
of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII -
New Import |
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NCS
Game Synopsis
©NCSX▪
Three years after the events of Final Fantasy VII
and one year after Advent Children, there's a
night festival in progress. Crowds walk through a
circus-like fair while fireworks light up the sky
and colorful balloons rise upwards. While the mirth
is in full bloom below, the ever somber Vincent
Valentine sits on a bed and watches television news.
There's a report on a missing investigative team
when an explosion outside captures his attention.
Rushing to the window, things get personal when a
missile takes out the building he was just lounging
in. Hurtling through the air, Valentine spins around
and takes a shot at the airship that fired the
missile. After a few more shots, it explodes in a
fireball and Vincent lands. Watching the carnage
wrought by the DG soldiers from a distance, VV takes
up the gun to find some answers and possibly save
the world...
Played in 3D rolling motion, Vince runs with cape waving behind him
as he attacks with punches and gunplay. Although the
default camera view of the action peers at Vincent's
back when he roams around the alleys and streets,
there's an over-the-shoulder camera view of the
action in gun shooting mode. That's when a gun sight
appears and is maneuvered to target DG soldiers and
their slavering dogs.
NCS Game Notes & Spoilers
* In the
intro to the game, the camera plows through
streaming blackness before focusing on a computer
terminal and then a girl's back and then Vincent
Valentine as he appears with wind fluttering his
sails. He eyes a person slouched over a desk
terminal and raises his gun... Scene shift to
various scenes of battle including one that's
reminiscent of the conclusive battle in the second
Star Wars movie. Quick
cut scenes continue to surge through the screen with
recognizable faces appearing...
* The title screen features three options - SINGLE
PLAYER / PLAY ONLINE / TUTORIAL MENU.
SINGLE PLAYER MODE
* After selecting SINGLE PLAYER, three difficulty
levels appear - for those who require auto-targeting,
we recommend EASY mode while HARD mode leaves all
of the targeting to the player.
*
CONTROLS
L-analog / MOVE
R-analog / CAMERA
TRIANGLE
/ MENU
CIRCLE / JUMP
SQUARE / CROUCH
X / KICK
L1 /
GUN SIGHT
R1 / GUN SIGHT + SHOOT
L2 / SWITCH GUNS
(Three in arsenal)
R2 / RELOAD GUN
* After starting the game, winds howl and a ship drifts into view as soldiers
below gather and carry out a wounded person. Yuffie
Kisaragi
in hot pants appears near the soldiers and talks to
someone on the phone - Vincent. He's above and she
tells him that her equipment is registering a life
form near him. He goes to investigate and rushes up
a flight of stairs. Thunder claps sound in the background
as he reaches the top and spies someone collapsed in
front of a terminal. He raises his gun but an
explosion rips through the installation. Vincent looks up and the
collapsed person is gone. As explosions continue
to ripple, Yuffie appears on a
whizzing airship and sweeps Vince away from danger. The
camera shifts to the computer terminal and the words, "fragment
program" may be seen. Three years later, Vince is
in a subterranean location where he checks out a
special guest encased in a crystal coffin of
sorts. The scene shifts and he's in room by himself
while festivities take place below. He's watching
television and the news reports on a television crew and 38 members of an
investigative team that are missing - the footage is from 3
weeks ago. Vince is seated on a bed and is watching
with disinterest. He looks outside the window at the full moon
while fireworks blow up. The camera pans down on a
crowd of revelers as they walk through a festival
where there's dancing girls and balloons that waft
upwards through the air. Vince turns his head quickly to
watch an projectile hit a building and explode. In
the distance, helicopter-planes approach and soldiers
drop to the ground and begin firing into the crowd.
Additional soldiers appear and press the attack on the crowd.
Vince 's interest is caught and he saunters to the window
and a missile zooms in. The
building explodes but he's already jetting into the
sky where he spins back and fires at the attacking
ship. After a few more shots, he destroys it and
turns his attention to the carnage in general.
* As he watches the events unfold below, a team of
DG soldiers walk behind him and prepare to attack.
Vince turns around and control is handed over to the
player. The gun sight is already on the three
soldiers so all one has to do is tap the R1 trigger
to shoot the middle soldier and then train the sight
on the other two and blast away.
* After the three fatalities, Vince may walk along the platform
and eventually reach the side of a building.
Additional DG soldiers attack and it's possible to attack them
with fisticuffs or train your gun sight on
them to blast away. We found it was easier to rush
up to the DGs and throw down some combo attacks.
There's a point where Vince can run down some stairs
but if he rushes too quickly, the camera can't
quite catch up to his descent. As such, DG soldiers
are attacking before they can be seen. One solution
is to roll the camera as your descending but the
camera may be swiveled too much to compensate
for Vince's approach. Once VV reaches street level,
he'll run right into the thick of a bunch of
citizens being chased by DG soldiers who are
shooting to kill. After blasting a couple of
civilians in the back, VV may jump in and intercede
to stop the carnage. Throughout the street level,
scenes of innocents being slaughtered may be
witnessed as the oppressive force motors along. There's
a cut scene in the game where mother and
child (carrying a MOG plush) are attacked by two DG
dogs. As one towers over the mother, the other
dog snatches the child away and runs into a
storage bin located in the street. After
saving the child from the storage bin, the young'un runs out of the bin crying, "MAMAAAA" while
Vince turns away unpassionately. In a funny sequence, after saving a cowering
child from a DG soldier, Vince walks up to the child
and receives its gratitude. He then spins away with
a flourish of the cape. We love this guy.
* Although melee attacks are quick 'n dirty, NCS
recommends shooting your way through the street
level since the enemies do eventually chop Vince up
with gun fire and sniping attacks.
TUTORIAL MODE
* In the TUTORIAL MENU, VV appears in a blue suit
for his training run. He hefts a gun and is
advised by the announcer to begin his training
mission. L-analog moves him around but none of the
other action buttons are functional yet. To learn
about the game, run forward to the green terminal
box and check out the instructions for what controls
what on the D-pad. Every button is used in the game
and instructions for using a keyboard and a mouse
are also offered in the tutorial. Information on
reading the meters and stats on screen are also
thrown up.
* To start an action tutorial, follow these
instructions since none of the menu options are in
English. While in the green terminal, go to the
fifth option and press O. In the next screen, move
the d-pad left to highlight "OK" and press O again.
Four selections will appear and either of them will
allow you to practice your skills.
* The first selection throws VV into a hallway with
a jukebox to the right and another terminal dead
ahead. When VV runs up the
stairs, a suitcase may be picked up and the game
lists the different types of items that may be
found. The first lesson shows how to crouch
(SQUARE), barrel roll (FORWARD+SQUARE), and dodge an
enemy attacker. Vincent can't blast away yet...
After going through a door and watching four armored
warriors enter the room, Vincent is taught how to
kick with the X button. With every kick and jump,
Vince makes grunting noises as if exerting himself
too much.
* The second mission has VV blasting away at crates
or kicking them into submission. There are five
levels to play and in the second and third levels,
VV gets to try an auto-targeting gun with a scope
that locks onto an object instead of leaving it up
to guesswork. The fourth level pits VV against armed
human targets and the fifth shows VV the ways of
sniper skills where he's armed with a lengthy sniper
rifle with scope mount.
*
When targeting an object, a green cursor appears.
Move the cursor with the R-analog. When the cursor
goes over something that's destructible such as a
crate, a pink circle appears. While targeting an
object or enemy, VV can still move around which is
useful for run 'n gun situations.
* Shooting at walls with a high powered gun will
leave pock marks where the bullets gouged out bits
of the wall. There's also a lesson where VV sits
behind an elevated Gatling gun and mows down teams
of DG henchmen below. Just press down on the R1 trigger
and move the Gatling gun around with the R-analog
to watch bullets rip through enemies.
General Notes
* When Vincent is killed, he'll vocalize a gruff
sounding death rattle as he slumps over... dead.
* Dirge of Cerberus is a visually accomplished title
with a control mechanism that requires a little bit
of time to learn and get used to. How much time?
Going through the all of the missions in the
Tutorial should do it, which takes about 60 minutes.
Vince's movement in the game is for the most part,
simple to learn. Moving and shooting at the same
time is also fairly intuitive since the L-analog
moves, the R-analog swivels the camera and R1 shoots
at anything that moves. After going through the
tutorial, it's fairly routine to run, target, and
shoot at DG soldiers as they appear out of nowhere.
Shifting from targeting mode to melee attacks can be
a bit disconcerting since the camera perspective
changes quickly but this too can be learned and
overcome with practice.
* To save your progress anywhere in the game, press
START and select the second option. The game will
dump your progress to memory card and kick you back
to the title screen.
* Japanese pop artist Gackt provided the game's
theme song, "Redemption" and a second track,
"Longing." Gackt also appears in the game as a
character.
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This document is ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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