This game was ridiculous. I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy VII, and I can't even tell you how disappointed I was in this game. Apparently, Square-Enix thinks that all they need in order to be successful anymore are good graphics. I suppose they're right, though, considering the amount of money they made on this game and Advent Children (which, admittedly, was halfway decent, but still nothing spectacular). I think that the graphics (both in-game and cinematic) were good overall (although I'm still wondering what in the hell was up with half of the characters' hair). The plot was lackluster at best. Prior to playing this game, I had been really excited to get more insight on Vincent's past, but most of the game ended up being a bunch of crap that felt like nothing more than filler material.
I was completely unable to get any sort of feel for the new characters, except for *maybe* to be slightly disturbed by Vice, and that was primarily due to his particular predicament and the person with whom he was...most closely associated. I don't know if she's any better a character in her minor role in Before Crisis, but Shalua Rui was, quite possibly, one of the flattest characters I've ever come across.
Character depth (or lack thereof) aside, the game was ridiculously easy. Even if you put the difficulty level on Hard, once you have a feel for the controls, you come across almost no challenges. If you want to mix things up, you can opt to not use the Auto-Scope (if you choose the Hard difficulty level, you start without Auto-Scope, but you can either pick it up or buy it shortly thereafter). Enemies typically do something like 50 HP worth of damage. You start off with at least five hundred HP. Every time you level up (which you do at the end of most - if not all - missions), your stats go up by a ridiculous amount. I think Rosso and Vice were the only remotely challenging enemies. A couple of the enemies - Nero, for example - are annoying, but present no real challenge. Even the last boss is ridiculously easy. Mind you, this is coming from someone who absolutely sucks at shooter games.
This game seriously got to the point that the only reason I was motivated to finish it at all was a) Reeve getting screen time, b) to see how many in-jokes my friends and I could get out of it, and c) to see Gackt (who is, indeed, in the game, albeit a secret character of sorts).
I guess if you're a hardcore fan of Final Fantasy VII or Vincent, feel free to pick it up, but don't waste the money on importing a copy of it; just wait until it comes out in the U.S. and is cheaper. In fact, just find it used somewhere.
I was completely unable to get any sort of feel for the new characters, except for *maybe* to be slightly disturbed by Vice, and that was primarily due to his particular predicament and the person with whom he was...most closely associated. I don't know if she's any better a character in her minor role in Before Crisis, but Shalua Rui was, quite possibly, one of the flattest characters I've ever come across.
Character depth (or lack thereof) aside, the game was ridiculously easy. Even if you put the difficulty level on Hard, once you have a feel for the controls, you come across almost no challenges. If you want to mix things up, you can opt to not use the Auto-Scope (if you choose the Hard difficulty level, you start without Auto-Scope, but you can either pick it up or buy it shortly thereafter). Enemies typically do something like 50 HP worth of damage. You start off with at least five hundred HP. Every time you level up (which you do at the end of most - if not all - missions), your stats go up by a ridiculous amount. I think Rosso and Vice were the only remotely challenging enemies. A couple of the enemies - Nero, for example - are annoying, but present no real challenge. Even the last boss is ridiculously easy. Mind you, this is coming from someone who absolutely sucks at shooter games.
This game seriously got to the point that the only reason I was motivated to finish it at all was a) Reeve getting screen time, b) to see how many in-jokes my friends and I could get out of it, and c) to see Gackt (who is, indeed, in the game, albeit a secret character of sorts).
I guess if you're a hardcore fan of Final Fantasy VII or Vincent, feel free to pick it up, but don't waste the money on importing a copy of it; just wait until it comes out in the U.S. and is cheaper. In fact, just find it used somewhere.