Square Enix has announced that Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII will be receiving quite a few significant changes for its debut in North America. Listening to player feedback after the Japanese release, as well as examining the game thoroughly, the company has decided that renovations on some of the gameplay aspects were required before a stateside release.
Vincent now runs faster than he did in the Japanese release of the game, and the drag time of weapon drawing during aiming mode will be reduced, with further improvements of the speed being available as upgrades to the gun itself. The dive roll special move has been replaced by a dash function that allows players to evade enemy attacks but has a quicker recovery time. Vincent's special attacks now no longer drain his magic bar; instead, he must now find single-use limit break items to execute special attacks. Perhaps the biggest change is that Vincent is now able to execute melee combos and shooting attacks in midair now - something he wasn't able to do in the Japanese release.
The difficulty level has also been changed - there's no longer an easy mode, and the game instead offers normal and hard modes upon accessing a new game, with an 'extra hard' mode becoming unlocked after finishing either one. The extra hard mode will feature forty new missions that the player must unlock; these are the most difficult the game has to offer. These extra missions in turn unlock sound galleries, character galleries, and more once they are completed.
But wait, all this extra content? What's the catch, you might ask? Unfortunately, there is indeed a price to pay for all of this new content, and the North American release of Dirge of Cerberus will be stripped of its PlayOnline functions. Square Enix cited a lack of usage of their PlayOnline service as the culprit for this removal, as well as the fact that the online mode required use of the PlayStation 2 hard drive, which has an incredibly small user base on this side of the Pacific. The missions found in the online portion of the game in the Japanese release have been put in as the forty new missions we're going to be getting, and the game will still have mouse and keyboard support for those FPS gurus. Also of relevance is that Gackt is still set to make an appearance in this game, as are the two songs he has contributed.
Still, the tradeoff will be worth it if the game has improved drastically over the somewhat lackluster presentation the Japanese release offered. We'll know for certain when the game hits in August.
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