Clement Rage
Pro Adventurer
So, I was playing this lately, and I noticed a couple of things Dirge actually does pretty well when you think about it.
1: Representation of Women:
For better or worse, I've played a fair few games. You know what never happens? Random, killable female NPCs on both sides. You get female exclusive enemies, like the Alexandrian army or the FROGS, but just having women mixed into the ranks with little distinction...doesn't happen very often. Especially not on both sides, unless they're zombies or splicers or in some sense not in control of their actions. Only other examples I can think of are Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock Infinite. We know the Cocoon in FF13 army recruits women, but we only see a handful of them through the games. Even really well acclaimed games, like the Last of Us, Uncharted, or Tomb Raider don't do this.
As for the main characters, we have a 3:2 split on both sides (Vincent/Cid Reeve: Shalua/Yuffie, Azul/Nero/Weiss:Shelke/Rosso) and none of them are Love Interests if you aren't wearing shipping goggles- Shelke's a maybe, but she has Lucrecia's data ghost in her brain, so I'll give that a pass. Speaking of whom, the game is built on the fact that Lucrecia did Science, and accurately predicted the end of the world (and averted it. For all her apologies, she was right.
Costume designs are kinda stupid, but this is a Final Fantasy game.
2. Vincent.
More precisely, his attitude. He doesn't speak to Azul at all, and mostly only engages with semi-involuntary exclamations "Protomateria?" "What?", direct queries about relevant information " What did you do with Shelke?" "What are Deepground intending to do with Omega?", and telling Hojo to shut up, with but few exceptions. No threats, no snark, no one liners, no arguments about worldviews or the power of friendship. It's the right mix of professionalism and disdain, and you don't see it that often. In spite of his love of needlessly melodramatic killshots, he doesn't waste time mouthing off.
3. He can't handle this alone.
One of the things I enjoyed about Dirge was that it wasn't just Vincent's show with him rescuing everyone. We get to see Cloud tangling with Rosso, Reeve and Shalua taking on DG cannon fodder without much difficulty, and even the WRO rankers get the odd chance to shine. And unlike in AC, when they weren't around they actually had separate objectives, they didn't show up and then sit around on the sidelines. When Vincent does take point, it's because he legitimately can do something no one else can do, and even then Shelke has to help. Cid even has time to complete his objectives and find a shady spot to light up, despite losing all his engine room mechanics.
4. Cid's speech.
The classic speech to give at this point would be "We've gotta do this, whatever it takes", but Dirge doesn't go this route. Cid's speech directly defies it, the WRO army's role is not to be spent to achieve its objective, it's to 'stay alive.' You're not expendable, we want you alive at the end of the day. And Vincent actually abides by this in game in chapter 9, escorting that squad. Some games would have had them all be killed in a cutscene once the checkpoint was hit, but here they meet up with their commander and dig in rather than waste their lives against an impenetrable defence. You can actually work to save the lives of your allies, you get rewarded for it, as opposed to BC's attitude, whereby the Turks are essentially death incarnate to everyone they encounter who isn't a Turk, related to a Turk, or smart enough to prebook a cameo in a later game.
5. Surprisingly pragmatic combat.
Yes, melodramatic cutscenes abound, but lots of people can also be pretty calm and clever under pressure. A superhuman army trying to destroy the world is cause for concern, but not panic. A powerful enemy uses lightsabres that don't work when wet? Shoot out the sprinkler. Another enemy is behind an impenetrable shield? Okay, I'll get the RPG. A heavy hitter with supersenses is standing over the body of my ally. Okay, blind her with a trick, grab him and run.
As for the Tsviets, Azul gets points for being essentially invulnerable, but choosing to walk around under an almost impenetrable magical barrier anyway. Shelke goes into combat invisible. Nero's default method is to absorb enemies into swirly black stuff before they see him. And Rosso learns from her mistake in Edge by distracting Vince with a robot and sneaking up on him while he's recovering from destroying it.
I've got some more, but that'll do for now.
1: Representation of Women:
For better or worse, I've played a fair few games. You know what never happens? Random, killable female NPCs on both sides. You get female exclusive enemies, like the Alexandrian army or the FROGS, but just having women mixed into the ranks with little distinction...doesn't happen very often. Especially not on both sides, unless they're zombies or splicers or in some sense not in control of their actions. Only other examples I can think of are Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock Infinite. We know the Cocoon in FF13 army recruits women, but we only see a handful of them through the games. Even really well acclaimed games, like the Last of Us, Uncharted, or Tomb Raider don't do this.
As for the main characters, we have a 3:2 split on both sides (Vincent/Cid Reeve: Shalua/Yuffie, Azul/Nero/Weiss:Shelke/Rosso) and none of them are Love Interests if you aren't wearing shipping goggles- Shelke's a maybe, but she has Lucrecia's data ghost in her brain, so I'll give that a pass. Speaking of whom, the game is built on the fact that Lucrecia did Science, and accurately predicted the end of the world (and averted it. For all her apologies, she was right.
Costume designs are kinda stupid, but this is a Final Fantasy game.
2. Vincent.
More precisely, his attitude. He doesn't speak to Azul at all, and mostly only engages with semi-involuntary exclamations "Protomateria?" "What?", direct queries about relevant information " What did you do with Shelke?" "What are Deepground intending to do with Omega?", and telling Hojo to shut up, with but few exceptions. No threats, no snark, no one liners, no arguments about worldviews or the power of friendship. It's the right mix of professionalism and disdain, and you don't see it that often. In spite of his love of needlessly melodramatic killshots, he doesn't waste time mouthing off.
3. He can't handle this alone.
One of the things I enjoyed about Dirge was that it wasn't just Vincent's show with him rescuing everyone. We get to see Cloud tangling with Rosso, Reeve and Shalua taking on DG cannon fodder without much difficulty, and even the WRO rankers get the odd chance to shine. And unlike in AC, when they weren't around they actually had separate objectives, they didn't show up and then sit around on the sidelines. When Vincent does take point, it's because he legitimately can do something no one else can do, and even then Shelke has to help. Cid even has time to complete his objectives and find a shady spot to light up, despite losing all his engine room mechanics.
4. Cid's speech.
The classic speech to give at this point would be "We've gotta do this, whatever it takes", but Dirge doesn't go this route. Cid's speech directly defies it, the WRO army's role is not to be spent to achieve its objective, it's to 'stay alive.' You're not expendable, we want you alive at the end of the day. And Vincent actually abides by this in game in chapter 9, escorting that squad. Some games would have had them all be killed in a cutscene once the checkpoint was hit, but here they meet up with their commander and dig in rather than waste their lives against an impenetrable defence. You can actually work to save the lives of your allies, you get rewarded for it, as opposed to BC's attitude, whereby the Turks are essentially death incarnate to everyone they encounter who isn't a Turk, related to a Turk, or smart enough to prebook a cameo in a later game.
5. Surprisingly pragmatic combat.
Yes, melodramatic cutscenes abound, but lots of people can also be pretty calm and clever under pressure. A superhuman army trying to destroy the world is cause for concern, but not panic. A powerful enemy uses lightsabres that don't work when wet? Shoot out the sprinkler. Another enemy is behind an impenetrable shield? Okay, I'll get the RPG. A heavy hitter with supersenses is standing over the body of my ally. Okay, blind her with a trick, grab him and run.
As for the Tsviets, Azul gets points for being essentially invulnerable, but choosing to walk around under an almost impenetrable magical barrier anyway. Shelke goes into combat invisible. Nero's default method is to absorb enemies into swirly black stuff before they see him. And Rosso learns from her mistake in Edge by distracting Vince with a robot and sneaking up on him while he's recovering from destroying it.
I've got some more, but that'll do for now.
).
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