One of my actual non-ironic points of praise for Dirge is its art direction, specifically that its more colorful than Advent Children and Crisis Core. It isn't a very bright game, mind you, but it isn't so washed out.
Now, I agree with you 100% in reference to DC's unique art direction, style and design for it's characters. One of the things I enjoyed were the stylized appearances of their main characters along with the detail of some it's locations. Kalm's traditional old European/Irish town design was a cool architectural style to give the place along with it's villagers. The WRO was well done, too. And you later mentioned Deepground itself, which I completely agree with. I found it to be the most fascinating, mysterious and well done location of the game. I wish it were a PS3 game so it could be properly detailed, explored and investigated as they really did a great job in the design of that location. When DC did it's own unique art and design, they did it well.
...However, I simply do not see what you're saying in it being more colorful than Crisis Core. Crisis Core's visuals are more vibrant and varied in color palette. I had to turn my TVs brightness up to 100 to see things properly
But I will say that Dirge looks good and has a great unique art style (especially for a PS2 game for it's era), even though it's colors are very subdued. Unless you're Deepground. In which case you shine brightly like a neon star.
I think sorta get what you're saying in terms of Crisis Core's style not being as interesting to you, too. Crisis Core stayed really close to FFVII's style and really didn't try too hard to chart out a new direction for itself. In terms of what Dirge brought to the table in unique art design and appearance, I kinda agree. But at that the same time, I did like Crisis Core's look and return to VII's appearance in PSP graphics.
In my recent Crisis Core playthrough on hard mode my sole strategy consisted of running behind the enemy/boss and spamming the basic attack, consequently stun locking them with critical hits. If the enemy/boss didn't have a back then you just do the same to their face. Dodge whenever you feel threatened. Have cure, barrier, and mbarrier. Occasionally the "action" is interrupted by the DMW wherein you have to watch an unskippable animation multiple times a sitting. And don't get me started on the monotonous 300 extra missions and flat level design.
....What? No way. First off, stun locking only works on basic low to mid level enemies, which requires you to actively critical hit them repeatedly. Unless you have one of the high level accessories that allow a critical hit rate of 100% you can't naturally just stunlock enemies to death like that. And most high level enemies and bosses have a passive auto-endure that allows them to not recoil or get stunlocked from critical hits. Raising your stats and enhancing passives via items and materia is one of the most unique and creative ways to manipulate the RPG attributes for Zack. It allows you to low-level run mission levels far beyond your inherent level. It's similar to how Critical Mode in KH challenges you to master the combat beyond just the RPG level mechanics and it's an interesting challenge. You're selling Crisis Core waaaay too short. And you
can totally skip DMW and summon sequences just by pressing the action button.
Again, I'll admit the Extra Missions get repetitive in their design due to the fact this is a PSP title with limited storage space, but at least Crisis Core tried to give each of the missions their own unique story reason and lore. That was a nice touch to give it some semblance of identity.
In my recent Dirge of Cerberus playthrough on hard mode I found genuine surprises, especially when navigating Deepground. At least aiming requires a bit of effort. At least the shootouts incorporate the level design. At least Dirge is weird. Furthermore, Dirge was a RPG-shooter before Destiny and The Division where even a thought. You could customize a character in the online mode! It was ahead of its time in a way.
Deepground is the best looking and most uniquely designed level in the entire game so I agree with it being a proper stage that incorporated the terrain for well done gameplay. But the rest of the game simply isn't like that. And given your setting of the bar so low here, I can easily flip that argument to Crisis Core's favor.
Crisis Core at least gave Zack more than 1 limit break, 3 magic spells, a handful of accessories and weapons, and actual summons. There's depth and RPG mechanics to work with. I didn't expect Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry, or Bloodrayne but the dearth of depth was disappointing. Now, granted I agree about it's multiplayer mode being ahead of it's time, and being unique and cool for it's time. That would have served it's longevity and I think there were unique mechanics that were included there as well. It is a shame we never got it.
That's a lot of extra words to say "You right, Dirge was actually better."
Technically I started CC, but only played the first like 3 hours. Regardless, it sounds like I wasn't missing out on much.
Wrong.
You missed this.
And this.
