The Official 'Dirge of Cerberus' Journal

[Depu Techiikue]

I just got this game today, as it was finally released in stores. I plan on playing through it, taking notes on everything, and sharing my thoughts and results from exploration in this game. I will let you all know exactly what the gameplay is like, what the features are like, what options the game itself gives you as a gamer and explorer, etc. I will show no bias towards the game, seeing as FF7 is my favorite Final Fantasy game. I will give you the down right dirty facts of the game!

I took some pictures while running through the packaging. Note that the full images are somewhat hi-res, so they'll be big in file size (200-500 kb).

This is just an AWESOME picture that is in the booklet, so I had to share it...
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4087/coolpicpr5.th.jpg (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=coolpicpr5.jpg)

Here is a picture of the NA cover...
http://img332.imageshack.us/img332/4051/frontda5.th.jpg (http://img332.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontda5.jpg)

I took it at this angle because you can see the shades of blue and green. Similar to the NA Star Ocean 3 box cover, this cover is holofoil. Pretty nifty, eh?

The back is awesome, great screenshot from Square...
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8383/docbacksy7.th.jpg (http://img501.imageshack.us/my.php?image=docbacksy7.jpg)

The disc art is a bit... uh... plain... O.o
http://img306.imageshack.us/img306/6167/discib7.th.jpg (http://img306.imageshack.us/my.php?image=discib7.jpg)

Sorry for my crooked photography work.

If anyone wants to ask anything at all about the game, post it in here, I'll answer it for you as I progress through the game.

The intro for the journal is now complete.

[Depu Techiikue]

After running through the tutorial and a little bit of the game, I have discovered some pros and some serious cons. :p

Pro's
- The action can become pretty engaging, depending on well you work the controls. You can double jump in this, and on the second jump you will wind up flipping, so you can wind up using some cool techniques to dodge enemies both on ground and in the air. And you can also shoot in mid air. Awesomeness.

- There is an auto-lock on system, so when you move the camera towards an enemy it will automatically lock onto them, making it easier for fighting a lot of enemies. It's pretty cool, but somewhat annoying too. Read cons section for more details.

- Cutscenes. Lots of them. They have good graphics, especially the pre-rendered ones. But there is something interesting always happening in the cutscenes.


Cons
- The auto-lock on system. It takes a while to get used to because it locks on when your camera gets close to the enemy, not when you move it onto the enemy. So when it locks on, you're still moving the camera, which will cause the target lock to go away, opening you up for damage. It becomes frustrating very quickly.

- Cutscenes. Mainly because Vincent gets the only good voice acting job of all the characters. The rest range from horrible to decent. Also, another con for cutscenes; there are not enough of the pre-rendered ones.

- The camera, after locking onto an enemy and you shoot them, will freeze up. You have to wait for a few seconds before moving it again. They do this to try and add realism to the recoil of firing a weapon, but you should be able to still move your camera and lock onto enemies. This becomes annoying very quickly too.

- It's very linear. There are walls and "road blocks" all over, preventing you from doing any real exploration in the levels. You can't go too far in one direction that does not advance in the level's mission.

I'll update the journal later on with more info, as I progress through the game some more. :)

Remember, people should ask questions if interested! :P