Dissida: Final Fantasy is a Final Fantasy lover’s dream come true. More than 20 characters across Final Fantasy games from FFI to FFXII come together to fight for Chaos (discord and evil) or Cosmos (harmony).
Dissidia is an extremely deep game. At first glance, the amount of equips, summons and skills may be overwhelming to players not used to action games. The game hosts more than five modes of play with varying difficulty levels for each mode. There is also an unimaginable amount of unlockables including characters, alternates costumes, BGM tracks, additional play modes and character enhancers. If you are looking for a game to sink some time into, Dissidia is a great choice.
The game plays primarily as an action game. After selecting a fighter (and opponent, depending on the mode), the player can choose the opponent’s level, fighting strength, specific rules for the level and even CPU behavior. Fights can be conducted in “action mode” or “command-based mode.” Action mode is like a traditional action-based fighting game: Players use “Brave Attacks” to build up their brave to power up HP attacks which damage an opponent’s HP bar. Attacks are customizable before the battle and can be set to different directions on the analog stick, along with either the circle button for brave attacks or the square button for HP attacks. Unfortunately, these attacks are not quite as responsive as one would like; however, careful input can solve the issue of unresponsive commands. It is unfortunate that the player has to take extra care when the input type could have been tweaked to accommodate for this shortcoming.
“Command-based mode” is more for those who enjoy traditional RPG-style fighting. Commands for brave attacks, HP attacks, defending and other context-sensitive commands are displayed that allow the player to pick one and see how their choices play out. Besides these attacks, players can build up their “Ex-Force” by collecting spheres and cores on the field to activate an extremely strong Ex-Attack. Ex-Attacks often refer back to the Final Fantasy game a character is from for their properties (Squall’s Renzokuken or Cloud’s Omnislash), and Ex-Attacks are often deciding blows in matches that can turn the entire fight around.
Battles are conducted on well-rendered 3D battlefields that players may recognize from previous FF games. Stages such as the Lifestream or the Final Aeon stage make a welcome appearance in Dissidia, and most of the stages are quite spacious, allowing room to take a breather in the fight or the providing the satisfying feeling of knocking your opponent a mile away. Stages are dynamic and allow players to smash through certain stage elements, run up and down walls and interact with stage elements — such as riding on the Lifestream —which adds an interesting element to the game play. In stages with no floor or bottom, characters who run out of jumps land in a void which saps bravery and teleports them back onto stable ground. There are sometimes issues with the camera, most noticeably in stages with many walls. The camera has some issues with maneuvering so that the player can see what is happening when the action gets stuck on a corner or through a wall.
The Story Mode sports a separate story for each of the heroes on Cosmos’ side that allow the same overarching story to be told from several different viewpoints. Unfortunately, the story is lackluster and the characters’ motivations often static and boring; it would have been nice to see character personalities pinned down through deeper story-telling. Fortunately, the story modes are enough to give each character a direction and a higher purpose than just fighting. Other modes, like Quick Play or Dual Coliseum, allow players to quickly earn experience, items and weapons while learning the finer points of a character’s play style. Since all of the fighters in Dissidia are unique and changing characters requires players to rethink their strategies, modes like these are welcome.
Most of the fights start before the battle. Players have a wide array of weapons, armor and accessories to choose from, along with many fighting and support skills. Many weapons cannot be equipped until higher levels or require other specific items to be traded into the shop to obtain. Weapons generally follow the same name and effects as the weapons from the FF game that they are from, and all characters have at least three weapons that are exclusive to each character. While exclusive weapons are the most effective, they often are the most difficult to obtain and getting them requires diligence and some luck on the player’s part. Enemies can drop weapons, items or accessories they have equipped, or the player can “Battle Generate” them. This is a system that, by performing certain actions in battle, increases the probability that specific items will drop after the match. Actions for BattleGen include breaking field objects, getting rid of all your opponent’s brave or ending the match in a certain amount of time.
Dissidia also supports multiplayer via online ad-hoc mode. Though it is unfortunate there is no online multiplayer, the ad-hoc mode is seamless. Players can engage in the same great battles amongst themselves as they do the computer, with the added bonus of getting items, experience and money from human opponents. If a player acquires another person’s Friend Card, the game will remember the final setup that their opponent used so that the player can fight a Friend Card at any time, even when offline. Players can manipulate their levels, equipment and weapons just like they can within the single player portions of the game.
Overall, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is an excellent game. The character models are rendered extremely true to the original concepts, English voice acting is generally very good and the two (yes, only two) CGI cutscenes are excellent. It is a bit of a letdown that there are not more cutscenes, especially in lieu of a better storyline, but the two that are there at the beginning and ending of the story modes are awesome. Such beautiful renderings on the PSP screen are sights to behold, and really make the player pine for more. It is unfortunate that more of these scenes were not included.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy works great on the PSP. A bland storyline, annoying camera and unresponsive controls are the only major shortcomings to this otherwise awesome game. If you are a PSP owner and need a game with some legs on it, Dissidia is an awesome time sink. If you enjoy the FF universe and its characters, this game was made for you, so go out and get it. A unique battle system, deep character customization, and tons of unlockables make this game worth the price. After all, who does not want to see Sephiroth fight Squall?
Grade: A-
Dissida: Final Fantasy
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Price: $34.99
ESRB:Rated T for Teen
Pub: Square Enix
Dev: Square Enix
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