I played Dirge of Cerberus and honestly, really enjoyed it. That was a long time ago, so the gameplay could have aged poorly. But i enjoyed the story.

I think the main reason Crystal Chronicles got such low scores wasn't actually because of what the game did but rather what it didn't do. Despite being primarily a co-op game and finally having online co-op they made it so that ONLY the host of the game could actually make progress in story. All The Bravest however not only deserves to be the lowest rated FF game of all time but should have a MUCH lower score than it does, not only are the microtransactions incredibly predatory but the game wasn't even free when it first released.

If I recall correctly, Dirge of Cerberus had a number improvements made for the NA/EU/AU release. The original Japanese release controlled/played much worse. The game also supports mouse and keyboard controls; try hooking up a USB keyboard and mouse to the PS2 the next time and see if the control is better. Honestly, there is a lot of potential for improvement with this game; I'm surprised a remake or remaster wasn't made already. Given the love given to Crisis Core recently, maybe we could see one or at least a PC release.

Dirge of Cerberus is one of my favs. I understand there are flaws but oooooh I love every second of it

If the level up gimmick from FF II showed up in a modern day retro inspired RPG it would be applauded

For Crystal Chronicles most of the negativity went towards the changes in multiplayer. The reason the controls are so weird is because the Gamecube original was controlled with 4 players all using GBAs linked to the Gamecube to play. Dumb but really fun with a group. Instead of just making the original multiplayer but online with regular controllers they turned it into a matchmaking system where your party disbands after every dungeon and only the host gets progress instead of the whole party gaining progress like in the original. Playing single player it pretty much the same game as the original but it is the multiplayer where the remaster stumbles

I enjoyed Final Fantasy II on GBA. Crystal Chronicles Remastered got a bad score because the multi-player is one sided. When you used to play with friends everyone would have their own families and receive letters and now you just follow whoever's game you joined. Or so I've heard. It was really fun with friends on Gamecube with GBAs. Dirge of Cerberus should get a remaster but make the shooting gameplay better, maybe something out of Rebirth mini games.

Dirge is my most beloved on this list and I think your review is 100%. I was on that Advent children high when I played it and was so hungry for more lore, loved Vincent. And I personally didn't play the other games you referenced. I think objectively, it's not great, but yeah, 57 is too low. Maybe 65 - 70 IMO. Great video!

The reason your opinion seems to align more with User Scores than with Metascores is that you actually played the games, unlike most critics. 🤣

"They screwd up somehow" That is a massive understatement.

Record Keeper and Dissidia: Opera Omnia were both enjoyable, but also exploitative. They've also both been discontinued, so there's that.

The number one reason crystal chronicles wasn't well received was the botched co op. We were all excited to finally have an easy way to play the game with friends without gamecube to gba link cables. But instead of creating a caravan with friends and going on the adventure together, you have a single host that starts the lobby for each dungeon and all progress is gained by ONLY the host. So if you and 3 friends want to progress, the guests either have to do everything a 2nd time solo or everyone had to do everything 4 times. Ridiculous. I dont know who thought that was a good idea at the start of production, but they deserve to be let go or demoted for overlooking the one and only reason for remastering that game.

Gackt as Genesis is gold to me

I am a rare gamer who didn't have a problem with how FFII worked. I'll admit that I played the GameBoy release that had the extra content that added meaning to those temporary characters, but I really enjoyed that game and completed it, whereas I just couldn't get myself to do more than a few dungeons of I.

Awesome video Taylor. Super nice to go back in time and see Dirge of Cerberus again. I don't remember it to be this bad and now I kinda want to replay it 😅 Can't wait to see you doing this kind of video with another series. 😉

I actually like FF2. It's definitely among the worst FF main series games, but that's just because the others are REALLY good. As a game in general, I think FF2 is pretty good. I just wish there was more build variety. There's pretty much only 3 "builds". Black Mage, Fighter (weapon attacker), and White Mage/Paladin.

I loved Dirge of Cerberus, and bought it when it first came out too, even have my old copy of it. Vincent Valentine was one of my favorite characters. The only thing that I found semi-annoying of Dirge of Cerberus, was the need to use Vincents first and last name in every dialogue

In speaking for all who liked, loved, Dirge Of Cerberus, myself included Dirge needs a remake or at the least a continuation

Crystal Chronicles's metacritic score mostly stems from the fact the online play is region locked.

Cool to see Ultros make an appearance!~

I came here to see what you thought about Dirge of Cerberus. I like the gameplay and Vincent. But not so much the story as I couldn't understand much about it. That Kings tale ff15 game , I played for a bit, and it was a fun little beat em up type game. That last game is cheeky. All The bravest is literally ATB

My favorite classic FF is actually 2 because of the leveling system everyone hates. Seriously.

Awesome video! I really like the topic and found this really interesting! Definitely do more like this! Just kinda neat to see if games are actually as bad as scores say. Haha and yeah, some of these look terrible LOL

i find it truly isane that the moment i am most excited for in the third remake game is Yuffie finally having her showdown with the secondary antagonist of dirge of Cerberus! I feel that remake devs really loved the characters and art they made for that game because the only reason to bring back anything from that game was because they wanted to.

Poor FF2. Is it one of the weaker FF titles? Yes. But for a 1988 game it was incredibly ambitious and the fact that they were even able to make it function is fairly impressive. Crystal Chronicles solo is not a fun experience. Sticking points with things like the tribe-locked doors are clearly designed around having mulitple players. Dirge of Cerberus I enjoyed, but I understand why it got tanked (also, one of a handful of games I haven't kept, so there's that)... The combat really holds it back, but I'd love to see it get a remake with a combat system more in line with the Remake. All the Bravest is the stuff of nightmares! I'm glad I never played more than a few minutes of it

I played both Crystal Chronicles and Dirge of Cerberus; I think the hate for Crystal Chronicles was largely down to it being a Gamecube game that required the GBA for local multiplayer. It was kind of a pain in the butt to get everything together for it, but I do remember a couple of really fun sessions with it when I did get a group together. I think just being so different and weird(and possibly the only Final Fantasy game of any kind on the Gamecube? Citation needed there) really hurt it with the critics. Dirge was a pretty fun action game, but again I think just being so different from other Final Fantasy games turned a lot of people off to it. A weird action game around a character most people left on the sidelines in the main game probably didn't do much to endear itself to the hardcore fans, and it wasn't likely to pull in new players who had little interest in RPG's. It was almost as generic an action game as you could get, and it wouldn't be a 2000's game without a turret section(Shout out to my fellow Indiemaus fans!), but it was still fun enough for the time for what it was. I'm not exactly racing to go play either of them again, but the hate on them is a bit much.

With Crystal Chronicles you were supposed to run dungeons multiple times to get more artifacts if you were having issues with harder dungeons, you weren't stuck with doing it only once per year.

A King's Tale was indeed free on release. I remember being moderately entertained for about an hour, then never thinking about it again.

Even if I don't like some games you always should consider playing them. It's part of the Legacy of Final Fantasy.

You’re missing a bit of context for Chrystal chronicles, by far the most unique thing it did was it’s multiplayer where you and some friends would go on this journey together, the weird stuff combat feeling more deliberate as you bait enemies and perform spell combos. And you’d replay areas to get money and materials and recipes for everybody’s gear so you’d get more stat boosters as well. This is by far what people were most looking forward to and is why fans can overlook the very stupid hardware requirements of the original and the person stuck with chalice duty. What the remaster did was give it online play but removed the persistent multiplayer in favor of dungeon lobbies so your journey is now lonelier with more Menus and is region locked as well. Which just leaves a giant spotlight on the games more lackluster bits while disappointing fans of the original.

Never even knew all the bravest existed.

Dirge of cerberus is fkn amazing if you know what you’re doing. Need a guide to really appreciate it

Crisis Core Reunion was pretty bad. Not that it was necessarily a bad game, but because they took a game with very outdated mechanics and gameplay, and just put a shiny new skin on it without touching the outdated mechanics.

Wow, a video centered around “the worst Final Fantasy games,” that isn’t made to specifically include or unfairly bash 13 for once. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. ❤

Interesting to see your take on Dirge Of Cerberus and compare it to mine. I also have a deep love for FFVII and also played Dirge recently in preparation for Rebirth, however my thoughtsa are kinda the opposite of yours. I honestly think the score of 57 is too high even, like I REALLY did not like the game on my revisit of it. The gameplay issues you mentioned are fuly there but also to there is so much more. Most of the enemies just stand there and shoot you, no one fucking moves, there is barely any enemy AI to speak of. And also my biggest gripe is the characters, writing and just the cutscenes in general, my god everything in this game is so aenemic and boring. And the cutscenes, especially in the second half, just won't end and it's all just talking about shit you already know. Like I practicylly screamed at my screen during the last part "JUST END ALREADY!"

I didn't even know that we can play as noctis dad, can i still play it?

Dirge of Cerberus is really good for its time. Nothing special but i enjoyed my time

Dirge of Cerberus is actually the first FF game I've ever played. That's my entrance to the main FF series, TBH. Yep. It's totally different from any main FF game, especially since it has FF7 in its title, you'll have the expectation, but I think it's not that bad. In fact, I learn to appreciate it more after all these years, especially since after FF10 when SE decided not to use the Turn-Based Combat anymore.

I forgot All The Bravest existed. I think you unlocked some unholy memory there. In hindsight, "All The Bravest" might be a perfect name since I'm sure it took a lot of bravery to make a game this scummy. : p

I like dirge other than the bosses. The amount of stagger and knock back they have drove me crazy

I played all of these except I played the PS1 version of FF2 originally then the GBA version. I think that's the absolute right ranking, sir. I think Dirge getting the Crisis Core treatment with some better gameplay would be fun, but I've no idea if it would sell.

We need more playing worst games vids, this was hilarious and informative, especially as someone whos planning on playing dirge :D

Dirge of cerberus was a fever dream. I remember love hating it

Dirge of Cerberus Is not even a bad game. Its not a great game. It is not the game people wanted. But It is solidly within the realm of OK. a bad game need to be genuinely unpleasant to play. And Dirge of Cerberus isn't that. It sits solidly at a 4 to 4.5 out of 10.

Dirge of Cerberus wasn't too bad until they introduced the stealth missions with Cait Sith. That crap made me abandon the game fast.

I actually really liked FF2’s leveling up system. Every battle had a chance to grow a stat so it felt more satisfying to come out with a strong team because I knew I had to actually work to manage my characters. It’s more engaging than watching an experience bar/number fill up. Story may leave you lost at what to do next or u may stumble into high level area, yes. Totes agree but personally, I wanna play another (better) game with that level up system.

Fun fact: Dirge of Cerberus had an online pvp multiplayer mode that was only available on the Japanese versions of the game. The servers have been taken down long ago, but there's videos up on here on what it was like. It was back in that era where every game seemed inclined to shoehorn a multiplayer mode in their game but before microtrasctions so it was more genuine.

I love Cerberus. The only lvl I hate is the cait sith one. Only one I got a bad rating on. Hell I mean when Gackt is the final boss of your game you can't go wrong. I'd honestly love a port of it.

I'm suprised that Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin wasn't mentioned in this video. And why it should be? It's a GREAT game!

Type 0 needs a remake, it has potential under bad gameplay, I couldn't keep playing it after some hours but the lore n universe is interesting

The last one is clunky because ur supposed to play with four friends all playing a dif race and class

I own CC on switch. I emulated it for the hack to make the moogle never get tired. It made the game 100x betters.

Dirge of Cerberus was a disappointment in terms of gameplay. The only interesting thing was building the weapons and even then, it wasn't that special because you'll end up with "low, medium and high" range. In the end, the game basically removes your weapons and the give you a good one that was low and medium range. And for the music, it wasn't that interesting, but the music from that end was pretty good. But the best thing was the lore, the cutscenes... And I also remember to make a challenge killing monsters 100 rounds that was basically secondary but it was curious to do. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't too good, but honestly, this game made Vincent my favourite FF character.

the crystal chronicles remake was rated lowly because of the crappy mobile app and share an invite code and wait just to set up co-op setting up an emulator is more convenient tbh

I loved dirge of Cerberus when I was a kid so I'm curious to see your opinion on it since I am assuming it's on here lol

Also doesn’t vincent have an ability to turn into a monster that is very good in combat, interesting that dirge of cerebus does not have that

Regarding Dirge of Cerberus's aiming. A video I saw shared that the game is compatible with a USB Mouse. For me, this made the aiming very enjoyable.

I liked all the bravest. I spent nothing and just farmed lvls until I beat it. Took only a few days 😂

I’ve seen all from 1980-Now what a life of gaming especially with RPGs

Ah, yes, Dirge of Cerberus. The game with such interesting new characters such as Blue the Blue, Red the Red, Clear the Clear, and White the White. Which proved to me that FF7 had zero further story potential, and makes me increasingly angry every time I hear another FF7 entry get released, along with radio silence on the alleged FF9 REMAKE. When was the last announcement on FF9, again?

Thank you for not hating on SOP FFO ❤

Dirge of Cerberus was how I discovered FF7. I started with 10. I’m trying to go for a sort of completionist playthrough on the PS4 HD Remaster.

Ah dirge of cerberus. The game I couldn't finish because of some scratches on the cd

18:49 Gotta love the cash shop tutorial. It's not explaining anything, it only says where to swipe your credit card.

Honestly, both final fantasy 2 and dirge of Cerberus were fun. The gimmick in 2 was a great concept for a person that wants to specialize a character. Too bad the remakes change the ending in 2, where the characters had a different ending.

I rolled Dirge of Cerberus as a kid, would love a remaster. Only people I hear of, who hate it, sucked at it.

Dirge of Cerberus is a fun experience even with its flaws. Is clunky, not well optimized by it's time yeah. But the lore was engaging, the cameos were great and like you said Vincent is a cool underused character. I beated the game back as a kid and i would play it again nowdays if i could.

oh i thought thats a video bout 16 HIHIHIHIIHI

Actually in FF:CC you can repeat any dungeon you've done before at any given time, so before advancing a year is recommended to go trough each dungeon and grab all the trinkets available, specially those that boost your main stat (depends on the race used) and those that increase your slots, it's also a good way to gather resources for better equipment, one of the issues with CC i think it's the fact that the new version doesn't seem to come with a manual, lot of useful stuff in there. And the rating score for Dirge of Cerberus is a crime, a great game be it for casual or speedrunning, fun thing, it's one of the few games in the PS2 that supports full keyboard and mouse control.

Great video!

Dirge of cerberus is one of my top favorite final fantasy games, If you guys were into ff7 fr you would understand how magnificent this game is.

Great Video

I half expected Stranger of Paradise to make an appearance here, but since it got pretty good ratings across the board I guess that wasn't an option. It's a good game honestly (Jack memes aside), at least judging from what I've played so far. The weird thing is that I really, REALLY hate Souls and soulslikes in general by design, but I actually have fun playing Stranger of Paradise. I guess it's because the combat flows better there than in other soulslikes.

I played Dirge of Cerberus so many times back in the day

okay, i will NOT have someone talk shit about dirge of cerberus

Great video! The Spinoffs of JRPG's are always the worst ones 😂😂

Played DIrge of Cerberus, felt cluncky but was fun to replay several times.

But it have manual aiming and the gun can be customize for long range.

9:10 actually , the moogle can help you casting spells, time to time. Helpfull yo archieve lv2-3 spells, gravity..

You ever notice how Japan sucks at making "shooters" where you have to aim but are godlike into making action games where you use guns. Resident Evil is probably their best shooter but even in that game the shooting takes a backseat to melee. Dirge feels like it wants to be DMC. It would be nice to see what they would do with it with all the progress we've learned with console shooters but seeing as I think Lucrecia is a horrible woman and the whole game is Vincent simping for him, I'd prefer if this gets banished into non canonicity from all timelines.

I've played Crystal Chronicles both on the gamecube and the playstation. It was my first final fantasy game and one of my favourites. They really messed up the multplayer feature of the the remaster. Deserved better.

So dirge of cerberus on ps2 had this heavily going for it. If you plugged in a usb mouse and keyboard it worked so well. Ioved it.

Dunno where u getting the scores from but dirge of Cerberus is 10/10

Hilariously, I knew next to nothing about FF7 beyond Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. I couldn't get past that translation error in the first boss fight of FF7 as a kid, so I just quit and never looked back. But I loved DoC. The narrow corridors were fine - gave it more of a rail shooter vibe, and the little secrets to find and shoot in the maps emphasized that feeling. The RPG mechanics and magic-gun thing were peak, though. Something I wish more games would bring back.

Yea dirge looks kinda poopy now but I think his transformation into chaos is what got me hooked. I loved those moments especially the final boss

I probably played All the Bravest for about 5 minutes before I decided it was dogshit, then never touched it again. Not sure what the devs were thinking.

I absolute love Dirge Of Cerberus, mostly because it is so different compared to other final fantasy games. And the 2 songs from Gackt. Longing and Redemption were bangers in a sea of forgettable bgms. Personally i would love to see a remake of it, with better aiming and close combat and better bgm ofc.

I'm only just now getting that All The Bravest abbreviates to ATB, like the Active Time Battle system. That's neat and probably the best thing about that game.

All the Bravest had some delightful bestiary entries. "Far too many arms, far too large a mouth, and breath that can end life. Just run away." - Malboro. Worth it to browse to wiki for them but otherwise the game(?) was a putrid mess almost as stinky as the creature mentioned above.

Yeah, FF:CC was designed primarily for co-op play and the remaster botched much of the fun of it, like having all players appear in overworld encounters where a random player gets control of the choices made, or that now, Moogle Nests can't be entered in co-op mode. I will admit that new post-game dungeons and artifacts are nice, but they suffer for the new co-op setup. Also, your comments about only being able to get 3 artifacts per year is wrong. You can repeat any dungeon, bar final boss, endlessly at any time, so long as you can reach them. You will only ever get 3 drops of myrrh per year, true, but you can do the same dungeon, or any without myrrh, over and over without passing time and get an artifact, or materials and/or gil, every time. It would be a lot of repetition, but you'd be sure to have good stats and gear as you need them.

I had only gotten around to playing FF2 out of these so it was fun to see what the other games were like aside from the mobile game lol.

I actually really like the PSP port of FFII. The new bonus dungeon is one of the best bonus dungeons in the series, and the graphics are amazing.

I'm pretty sure OG XIV was around there

A King's Tale is indeed wasted potential, so I assume it was forcefully turned into a mobile title; not helping the fact Square Enix fucked over FFXV for 15 years already(aside from the worst offender, Versus XIII), and the epilogue chapter became a novel instead of being DLC. I'll admit, Dirge of Cerberus and to a lesser extent FF2's PSP re-release are the best of all. DoC had the cool idea of playing as Vincent in gameplay reminiscent of Gungrave. The members of Deepground are very cool as well, like Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz, whom I jokingly call the Organization XIII rejects(and Geostigma as Planet AIDS, cuz it acts similarly to the disease irl, and lore reasons). I even like how they're named after colors in different languages: Weiss is White in German, Azul is Blue in Spanish, Rosso and Nero are Red and Black in Italian, and Shelke is Transparent in Latin. The Galian Beast and Chaos transformations were even given major glow-ups 18-22 years prior to FF7 Rebirth and Part 3, which remains untitled as of this comment. However, the game is still very flawed(plus the JP version's gameplay was the worst of all), and the secret ending was sequel-bait, so we wouldn't get to see more info on the return of Genesis unless it's through the Remake trilogy. On the other hand, IGN did one good thing in their prime: Inform everyone to never play All The Bravest due to its predatory microtransactions. As a Final Fantasy fangirl, I felt insulted by All The Bravest. It could've been added to TV Tropes' So Bad, It's Horrible, but never did because of the pay-to-win mechanics, though shit got even worse with EA's 2017 remake of Star Wars Battlefront II(another IP from a studio Electronic Arts acquired and killed, albeit owned by LucasArts, whereas Pandemic Studios developed), Raid Shadow Legends(as confirmed by Upper Echelon Gamers, especially his experience with the game's publisher bribing him constantly to promote it, which he kept refusing), and Diablo Immortal(further adding salt to the wound regarding Blizzard's fall from grace).

Dirge of Cerberus is one of the 2 games I got when I finally bought a ps2 and I remember really enjoying it (even though I'm not that big of a FF7 fan) but I haven't played it since. I really should go back to see how bad it actually was.

All The Bravest was my jam for like 2 days. The monetisation was terrible but i enjoyed it kinda.

I remember playing ffcc with my friend back on GameCube and the only thing i remembered was the bucket 😂

Thank you for playing the games, in spite of their bad score and deciding for yourself if they were good games. ☺️

DoC got a raw deal. Fans were starving for a new entry at the time and it got crapped on for being a spinoff.

Crystal chronicles remaster isn’t a bad game. It’s just a disappointing remaster. A big thing that hinders it is the lack of cross play. Its combat isn’t completely devoid of substance. It’s all about timing your swings correctly. Button mashing won’t really help you. It’s intended as a multiplayer experience and definitely feels better as one.