There are plenty of other little add-ons, charms and baubles that can be added to your gun to increase its power, provide better defense or give you the ability to create a sniper rifle. The game gives you a lot of freedom in this department allowing you to create whatever you like, though you'll only realize its effectiveness when you are out on a mission killing off bad guys. Luckily you can change things up at any time simply by hitting the triangle button, so if your gun's configuration sucks, you can change things up as often and as many times as you wish until you get it right.

There are also shops scattered around the world that are all purpose stops to buy and sell medicinal items (Phoenix Downs, X-Potions, Red Potions and more) and gun add-ons. But one of the more important things you can do is modify your gun's various components to improve power, accuracy, etc. Some of these changes have caveats - like gaining power, but losing clip size, etc -- but as things get more difficult the trade-off is oftentimes worth it. These modifications tend to be pretty pricey, but if you're careful on how you spend your cash, then you shouldn't have too much trouble making your gun the best that it can be. Players can also use Materia to added powerful attacks to their weapons just like any other gun related trinket. There are a number of different kinds of Materia you can use, and each one has its advantages and disadvantages, but the power they give the player is very important and integral to survival at times.

Easy Mode? No Thanks!

There are a number of changes -- for better or worse -- for the North American version of Dirge that should be noted. While I'm still on the fence on a couple of the changes from the Japanese version, you can kind of understand what Square Enix was trying to achieve in changing some pretty seriously core components of gameplay.. One thing no one in their right mind can complain about is the speed increase to Vincent. He runs noticeably faster in America - two and half times faster according to Square Enix. Then there's the ability to shoot while jumping. When Vincent jumps up and fires his gun it slows down his descent for a pretty nifty affect - and it's pretty affective to boot. Speaking of jumping, you can now double jump by simply tapping the jump button twice.

The use of limit break has also been tweaked. Now it's an item that you can pick up and use whenever you want. Limit break transforms you into a sort of demonic version of Vincent who has his own energy attack and a very powerful and fast melee combo attack that's pretty sweet.

Anyone that's played the Japanese import version of the game will also note that easy mode has been clipped from the game. Judging by the ease of Normal mode, this is completely understandable. This seems to be a common thing when Japanese games come to America - Konami did it with a few of their Metal Gear Solid titles and now Square Enix is doing it with this game. Ultimately U.S. gamers won't mind the omission - we love a challenge after all.

Finally the multiplayer portion of the game has been removed. There were several reasons mentioned for removing it, but the most prominent is that a fair percentage of PS2 users don't own the hard drive, which is required to play these missions. In their place are 40 some odd missions which we discuss below briefly. This is a change that I'm still on the fence on. On the one hand it would be pretty cool to be able to play multiplayer against other players, but if you don't own a HD is it really worth it to buy one for one aspect of a game? I'm not sure what the impact of omitting multiplayer mode from the North American version of the game will ultimately have at this point..

Extra! Extra!

Dirge of Cerebus comes with some fun and interesting extra content. Some of it is simply eye candy the FFVII fans will eat up, while some of it is to compensate for removed features from its Japanese counterpart. Extra Features include an event viewer (to which there will be a very lot of content if you consider how much storytelling is going on in this game. The amount of story is simply astounding and ultimately very entertaining with high production values.), a character viewer ( a walk down memory lane for FFVII fans for sure), a sound gallery offering many of the great tunes in the game, an art gallery, and lots of extra missions to enjoy. And enjoy this content you will, though you'll have to wait for much of it after your first pass through the game because it is all locked. The extra missions should be of particular interest to anyway who want to enjoy the gunning without having to deal with massive cutscenes every five seconds. Many of these missions were multiplayer maps in the Japanese version of the game, but were reworked for special single-player challenges.

Swan Song

So far Dirge of Cerberus is an interesting addition to the Final Fantasy VII family. What we're interested in seeing is how hardcore Final Fantasy fans will receive this game which is more focused on action and offers light role-playing. One thing that FF7 fans will get is a first hand account of the origins of Vincent and an all new storyline set in the aftermath of Final Fantasy VII peppered with cameos from some of that game's biggest icons - many of which play integral roles in this new plot. But even those gamers that don't know Cloud Strife from White Cloud tissue may find some fun in the run-and-gun third-person action Dirge of Cerebus has to offer. One important thing I want to leave you with is my impressions of the presentation and story-telling in this game: Square Enix has created a Hollywood caliber presentation here, with a very appealing and compelling backstory that could stand toe to toe with Advent Children.

We'll give you a final verdict on Dirge of Cerberus when the game is officially released in North America later this month. - James Fudge.