Polygon marks the 20th anniversary of Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII by reassessing the 2006 third-person shooter, long dismissed as the weakest entry in the sprawling Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The article argues that, despite dated shooting mechanics and uneven pacing, the game remains a genuinely bold experiment: Square Enix took Vincent Valentine, a moody gunslinger, and built an entire action genre around him rather than sticking with a conventional RPG, mirroring the trend for third-person shooters set off by titles like Max Payne and Resident Evil 4.

The piece highlights the game's deep weapon customisation across three gun slots (frames, barrels, scopes, materia and accessories), its story exploring Shinra's secret Deepground project and giving Vincent a fuller emotional arc tied to his guilt over Lucrecia and Hojo's experiments, and its constantly shifting level design, from shooting galleries to cinematic boss fights reminiscent of later titles such as Final Fantasy XVI. It was directed by Takayoshi Nakazato and produced by Yoshinori Kitase, and sits alongside other Compilation entries like Advent Children, Crisis Core, Before Crisis and Last Order as part of Square Enix's mid-2000s push to expand the FF7 universe.