FFVII: Dirge of Cerebrus is Boring

Ok, so I signed up for a GamezNFlix account and I have to say, it’s a pretty sweet deal. I’m starting to get games and I’m really loving on the whole thing. However, I have to say that recently I’ve been renting FFVII: Dirge of Cerebrus and I’m not impressed. In fact, it bored me out of my freeking mind. I sat down and got half way though the game and I found myself playing only to be able to finish the game, not because I like the game. I know, for those who haven’t played it and love Final Fantasy 7 you might be upset, thinking I’m crass and stupid. However, I too loved FF VII. It’s a freeking classic and Dirge of Cerebrus is not what I would consider a worthy successor.

It’s not even because it’s an action game. I love action games and at first I enjoyed the game. as an action game it’s not terrible, but unfortonately the Final Fantasy conventions seem to get in the way more than anything. The storyline is boring and the Final Fantasy style of slow story progression and slow storytelling drags the game down to the point that I don’t even want to finish it. That I find to be quite depressing.

The worst part of my experience with this game is that I feel compelled to finish it because it’s a Final Fantasy game, yet I can’t bring myself to waste another five or six hours to get to the ending. This brings up a question I have. Have Final Fantasy games always been this boring or is it just this game? How does this game barely hold my attention for 5 hours when other Final Fantasy games keep my attention for 40+ hours? Where did Dirge of Cerebrus go wrong?

I’ve thought about it and I think it has to do with the mixed-metaphor of an RPG and a action-shooter. The designers did a good job of managing shooter gameplay that is fairly fun and almost satisfying, but the designers didn’t push the envelope on the storytelling. Instead, they kept the traditional Final Fantasy storytelling which is just too slow for this game type. Dirge of Cerebrus should have just stuck with the simplicity of shorter story segements and more action.

In short, avoid this game unless you just can’t help yourself but do yourself a favor and rent it. This game is NOT a keeper. Look elsewhere. Anyone else suffered through this dirge?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.