This game is specially made for Final Fantasy VII fans, shooter fans MIGHT find something to like about this game.
There is also so much cinematic presentation you might consider this a great chapter to the Final Fantasy VII universe, that is if you were a Final Fantasy fan.
Story: 3 years after the fall of Meteor and Midgar's demise, the world was entering a peaceful era and the planet was recovering from its wounds. That it is until one of Shinra's deep dark secrets have decided to throw the world in to chaos. Vincent was enjoying a peaceful night in Kalm, until the town was under attack by a mysterious group of Soldiers. Vincent later learned that these Soldiers were known as Deepgroup, soldiers that were genetically enhanced by the Shinra company 3 years ago as a measure of improving their strength, but were never released due to the incident with meteor. Now Deep ground has one purpose, to kill and destroy the planet under the leadership of Weisse. It was up to Vincent to put a stop to these menace.
Game design: As most people know the release in Japan was a disaster and the game has been further improved for the US and EU release. Many changes made the game a lot better and more fun to play. The world of Final Fantasy VII was remade in an impressive presentation, you will surely notice all the locations and characters from the previous game and the movie Advent Children.
The game also has a lot of cinematic presentations, and their long as well. This makes the game more appealing to Final Fantasy fans but will annoy shooter fans.
Game play: You will be playing as Vincent Valentine. Vincent can use melee attacks and will be using his gun Cerberus. The changes from JP to US/EU were as following:
- In the Japanese version when shooting it only appears in shoulder view, now it can be viewed from 3rd person and 1st person view.
- Vincent can perform a double jump and attack while jumping. Although the double jump give Vincent more advantage in battle it doesn't really help much when trying to go through areas.
- The game has been sped up and Vincent can perform a dash manuver
- The limit Breaker, which allows Vincent to turn into the Gillian Beast, was in conjunction with filling a meter, in the US/EU version it is an item and can be used at will.
- Extra missions and extra hard mode was added to the game, providing you with lots more challenges. - An Art and Movie gallery was also added to the game.
All the changes done to the US/EU version of the game makes incredibly filled with contents, Final Fantasy fans will definitely loves these additions.
The only problem is that there are not a wide range of enemies. You will be killing Deep ground agents of many different classes. Although there are some occasional enemies like the Lizard men or Guard hounds.
After completing chapters you will gain points and can use them to level up Vincent or trade for gils, and buy items or can customize Cerberus to different scales.
Sound: Since this game is more a hardcore action shooter, it has been given music tunes that fit with the theme. The music is awesome and the voice actors from Advent Children made the game presentation a hell lot better. The sound effects are also great.
Overall I personally find this game great in every way. I just feel sorry for the Japanese though.
There are lots of great Final Fantasy VII presentations, you will meet other characters along the way. Although in fact Cloud, Barret, Tifa and especially Red XIII make rare appearances. If you loved Final Fantasy VII you will like this game as well. But if you are not a Final Fantasy VII fan and are just looking for a shooter, I will warn you that you may not like this game very much, at least not the Japanese version anyway.