Dissidia: Final Fantasy Review

Dissidia: Final Fantasy © 2008, 2009 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All rights reserved.

Everything stated in this review is my opinion.

System: PSP
Number of Players: 1-2 via ad hoc local multiplayer
ESRB: T (13+)
My recommended age to play this game: 14+
Why: Some of the female characters are provocatively dressed. Don’t let the little kids play this one.

Time spent with this game: 81 hours

It’s time for Written Review # 2 and overall review number eight: Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP. Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Story:
Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, and Chaos, the god of discord, have been in conflict for ages. They are equal in power so they summon warriors to fight with them. Ten heroes and ten villains answer the calls of their deities and thus, a new battle begins. Cosmos and ten heroes are defeated in the subsequent encounter. The heroes are tasked by Cosmos to find crystals in an attempt to reset the balance of power. Can these Final Fantasy legends rise to the challenge and save the world?
The story is centered on the lead protagonists and antagonists from the first ten Final Fantasy games. Dissidia essentially creates two new characters – Warrior of Light (FFI) and the Onion Knight (FFIII). These characters are nameless and emotionless in their original games, so it is nice to see some heart injected into these blank slates. Firion from Final Fantasy II is also augmented from his original personality and I think it makes him less interesting. The other heroes and villains stay true to their sources, mostly.
The villains are overall more interesting than the heroes, which is a shame because you spend much more time with the heroes. But don’t get me wrong, there are a few on both sides that are just plain boring: Warrior of Light, Squall, Cloud, Exdeath, Sephiroth, and Ultimecia. Golbez, the adversary from Final Fantasy IV, has more meaningful dialogue and is the best developed character in the game. Sadly, there are no villain stories to play through.
The narrative as a whole feels detached. I know that it is hard for crossover games to have coherent stories and Dissidia does come close. But since I am a Final Fantasy fan and have beaten all ten of the original games, the characters (especially the heroes) fall short of their originals.
Cloud is probably the most famous Final Fantasy character in existence, so I’ll use him as my example. In the original game he was more than a brooding, self-loathing man. He stood by his friends, offered them encouragement, and he didn’t answer their questions with more obscure questions. The Advent Children version is the Cloud that wandered his way into Dissidia, and this Cloud is not the true Cloud. I’m just so sick of seeing this Cloud… what happened to the character development that occurred in the original game!? Did the creators just forget that they made a compelling character? Why the reduction to a lone wolf, self-loather?
I better stop with my mini Cloud rant; otherwise it could go somewhere I don’t want to go today. What are talking about again… oh right, Dissidia.

Game Play:

This is not a turn based RPG but rather a one-on-one dueling game. The combat centers around a statistic called Brave. Brave appears above the HP meters and is the number that determines the HP damage inflicted upon the opponent. At the bottom of the screen is a neutral pool of Brave that builds up as the battle progresses. If you manage to completely deplete your enemy’s Brave (sending him into a Break state) that pool will be yours and a massive HP blow becomes possible. If that happens to you, you’re not completely defenseless. While in Break, critical hit rate increases. All the fighters’ moves and abilities can be customized before battle.
Brave attacks are activated with the O button, and are used to attack Brave Points. They are divided into three categories: close range, mid-range, and long range. The attacks are used in combination with the control stick or pad. For example, my Terra has Blizzard Combo set to O, I can use Fire by pushing the control pad away from my opponent and pressing O, and I can use Graviga by pushing the control pad towards my enemy and pressing O. There are also combinations for airborne attacks, and the same principle applies for the HP attacks, which are used with the square button. I’ve had a few issues with chaining attacks together but overall the system is fun and pretty easy to get a handle on.
Something I nearly forgot to mention is guarding! By pressing the R button you can block a brave attack and knock your opponent off balance. If you manage to attack him after a guard, your critical rate drastically increases and it is the perfect opportunity to break your foe’s brave and turn the course of the battle.
If you want to try something a little different, command style is also available. In this mode you give you character suggestions and the AI will play out the battle. Control is gimped so I would stay away from this mode.
During the course of a battle you will notice little white dots appearing in the air. If you collect these a gauge next to your fighter will slowly increase. This is the EX meter and when it fills you can enter EX mode. This mode regenerates your health, greatly increases your critical hit rate, for some it changes their movement, and makes it possible to unleash your ultimate attack upon your unsuspecting foe. The moves differ in execution; some require hitting buttons in a sequence and some others just require mashing on a button until a set time limit runs out. Periodically items called EX cores appear and absorb all the EX energy in the air. Collect them to fill your gauge faster! If your rival fills up his gauge, enter coward mode and wait for his gauge to empty or go for the ultimate humiliation and trounce the guy while he is at full power! EX mode can really turn the tide of a fight so make sure to keep an eye out for those cores!

Modes:
There are only four battle modes at the outset: Story, Arcade, Quick Battle, and Communications.
In the Story Mode, you take control of the heroes and guide them through campaigns to retrieve the crystals. When all the stories are completed the path to final boss appears. Once the final boss has been defeated, missions appear to recruit the final two characters. Once that is done the Ultimate Fantasy scenario appears. The stories difficulties are represented by stars with Cecil’s being the easiest, and Warrior of Light and Terra being tied for the hardest. The extra scenarios are harder still and require mastery of technique, the right abilities, and high level equipment to work through. I still haven’t beaten Ultimate Fantasy.
The stories are told by a series of cutscenes and text boxes. You move your hero through a chessboard like area to battle and collect loot. All the main stories are split into five parts and each new region gives you a new set of Destiny Points (DP). If you finish a board with DP remaining you will receive PP, summons, or equipment. It is impossible to get everything on the first run so expect to play the individual stories at least three times.
In the Arcade, you pick a character with preset abilities and fight a string of computer drones. You can buy harder modes to increase the challenge and prizes.
Quick battle is where most of the training gets done. You select your character and opposition (or just push random if you’re lazy) and fight. You can adjust the AI’s power, level, and behavior. If you want to train against higher level dimwits to quickly raise your level, no problem. Or, you can test your skills buy maxing out the drones to give it everything they have. The experience, money, and items earned in the battle are yours to do with as you please.
The Communications mode is for the two-battle bouts. I have never played it but I can guess that is probably a lag-free experience since the two players have to be in the same general area to play each other. The option to play against in-game ghosts is also possible in this mode; all that needs to be done is to collect the cards that are given out throughout the course of the game.
Once the final boss goes down Duel Colosseum appears. This mode puts you into a string of battles to earn medals. These medals can be used to buy items found in this mode or saved to add to your PP. It isn’t an easy mode but the computer will make allowances if you send in a level two character on the lowest course setting. This mode is split into four courses, with the final area having opposition that goes twenty levels past the maximum you can obtain.
The other major modes are the PP Catalog, Museum, Player Settings, and Options. The PP catalog is where you buy things like extra characters, extra stages, music tracks, and many other things.
The Museum is where you can browse through pictures, read back-story about the characters and summons, watch movies, among other things.
The Player Options is where you enter your name, select a play plan, and enter your bonus day. The bonus day is the option that really matters. On this day all of the things earned after battle are increased and something else, like shops having a sale, will happen. Make sure that your bonus day is the day you have the most time to play.

Items:
There is no shortage when it comes to items! They are divided into these basic categories: Equipment, Accessories, and Summons.
Equipment is a facet of the game that cannot be ignored. If you aren’t equipped well you might as well not play the harder matches; you will have no chance to achieve victory. The weapons increase attack and sometimes have a secondary function like increasing physical damage by ten percent. Armlets and shields raise defense, most helmets raise brave, and most armor raises HP. Fortunately, new weapons and armor becomes available as you level up. If you want the really good stuff you’ll be playing this game for a long time; you have to forge the best armaments by trading in rare items at the shop.
There are many, many accessories to augment your characters with. For example, my level two Golbez has one that increases his power because he is under level four, and two others that raise his power when he is in the air and near his enemy. There are many more and vary in purpose from raising luck to increasing your power after the opposition uses a summon. It is a very customizable system, so be sure to experiment until you find something that fits your play style.
The Summons don’t cause massive HP damage like they do in the main games. Instead they will increase your power, lower your rival’s power, or just even things out. When you find yourself outmatched consider changing your summon to counter what the enemy is doing. In the hard matches they are a must. The first ones you receive activate automatically based on certain battle conditions but later on you can find some that you can use manually. They can only be used once per battle so use them wisely!

Presentation:
Dissidia shines when it comes to presentation. Tetsuya Nomura (of Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts fame) stays faithful to the original designs of Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy I-VI) and that is quite a feat unto itself because those two have completely different approaches when it comes to character design. The characters are beautifully detailed and nothing was over looked from Kefka’s goofy walk to the minuscule details on Onion Knight’s armor. It isn’t perfect – a foot will phase through a cape or something but the action is so fast paced that it wouldn’t be noticed in battle. The stages and set pieces from the various games are recreated in a masterly manner and are varied as well. Pandaemonium from Final Fantasy II is confined and renders most distant attacks useless, while Order’s Sanctuary is wide open and has a lot of space to run in. The colors stay true to the original games and are wonderful to look at and actually a little overwhelming when you stop to take it all in as a whole (not Uncharted 2 overwhelming, but still quite stunning). There are a couple of CGI cutscenes and they are gorgeous. The in-game cutscenes could have used a bit more polish. All of the characters look “flashy” or something. It’s like the guy working the lights accidently puts a spot on them. Also, when the camera pans back during these scenes the characters look a little pixilated.
The sound is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the new and remixed tracks use high quality MIDI and even recorded orchestral and vocal performances, and some just sound cheap. Fortunately for us, most of the bad tracks are used only in the story mode and aren’t heard as often. Once a particular track is unlocked it can be used on any stage. I like listening to my favorites and bypassing the ones I find less interesting. The music as a whole draws you even deeper into the experience, and it is very well done overall. It was a stroke of genius to include one track from each of the original games – NOSTAGLIA FOR THE WIN! My favorite tracks are Last Battle Part 1 and the Ending Medley.
The voice acting works for the most part but most of the lines are delivered monotone or way too overdramatically. Peter Beckman (Golbez) and Dave Wittenburg (Kefka) deliver the best performances. I can’t stand Warrior of Light’s over-the-top “I’m the hero and I’m completely obsessed with light” lines. They just get on my nerves. The voice over guy who introduces the stories is just a bit too melodramatic. I get the mental picture of a guy going to a poetry reading and trying too hard to make his reading good. Then again, if he wasn’t overdramatic his lines probably wouldn’t have worked. His performance just feels out of place when compared with the rest of voice work.

Problems:
All things considered, there really isn’t much to complain about. My major complaints have already been addressed: the lower quality cutscenes, a few musical tracks that fall well short of the rest in terms of quality, and the overall average voice work. The game plays great and with an adjustable camera you can always see what you are doing. Something else that bugs me a little is that all you do is fight. There are not any side activities that require active participation; all you do is prepare for battle and fight. It would have been nice to have a matching game or something to pass a little time when I wasn’t in a brawling mood. Oh well, I guess that is what Tetris is for.

Parting Shots:

Pros: fun game play, excellent music and sound, astounding animation, and many extras and achievements to unlock

Cons: middle of the road voice work, cutscenes overall disappointing, a few low quality music tracks, and if not the type to unlock everything there isn’t much to do except fight

Score: 8.5/10

Current Prices: $19-30

What I would pay for this game: I bought this game in a bundle last year with my PSP 3000. If you can get it for $20 that’s great, but I think it is worth the $30 price.

Buy/Rent/Skip:
If you are a Final Fantasy fan, this is fan service at its finest. If you don’t have much interest in the series, I think it is still worth a look. It is a solid fighting game that will keep you engaged for days, if not weeks and months. If you love the series, buy! If you like fighting games, I recommend a rent/borrow. It is definitely a change of pace from most arcade fighters. If you hate Final Fantasy, there isn’t much here that is going to change your mind. If you’re like me, you could rent/borrow just to put the beat down on emo-Cloud.