Dirge of Cerberus: Valentine’s day

[I played the original Japanese release for this article, which is a touch different from the later international releases. You can read more about the alterations here.] Final Fantasy‘s been many things over the years. Turn-based RPG. Action RPG. MMO. RTS. Mobile gacha. Music game. TCG. Fighting game. Arcade game. Movie. Anime. Manga. It’s one of the series’ charms—and one of the reasons why it’s survived so long, I’m sure. Yet in spite of the series’ tireless desire to embrace a diverse range of genres and mediums, seeing it venture into third-person shooter territory still feels like a step too far. That’s just… wrong. Not in Final Fantasy’s wheelhouse. Not in Square-Enix’s wheelhouse. Not that it matters. Dirge of Cerberus is lavishly and confidently made, with an extensive online mode (accessed via PlayOnline) included seemingly just because they could make one. It’s not some token cobbled-together deathmatch mode either: From the information given in the manual—so extensive it…