Dissidia Final Fantasy was released in Japan on the 18th of December last year, shifting 350′000 units in three days and I was lucky enough to nab a copy for myself on the 29th. Will this be Final Fantasy’s greatest journey? Or is this merely a way for a desperate Square Enix to cling onto their fans and milk their biggest franchise yet?

The Final Fantasy series is as old as I am, yet it has managed to constantly reinvent the genre when things were looking stale. Each game has yielded a vastly different protagonist, in some cases giving us so many at once we can’t figure who’s meant to be the one in the limelight, and no two antagonists are ever the same. Whether it be Garland and his fleeting desire for immortality or Sephiroth and his unquenchable desire for revenge, the antagonists are as famous and popular as the people we ourselves control. So, in commemoration of the twentieth birthday of their biggest franchise, Square Enix have released Dissidia Final Fantasy. Apparently, Dissidia means “conflict” in Latin, something that suits the game well, explaining without much fanfare that this is a conflict that involves the entire Final Fantasy universe. One could even say this shows that the Latin route is one Square Enix wish to take the series from its thirteen installment onwards. Dissidia itself is labelled as a dramatic progressive action title, which is really just a way for them to shorten Action Fighting Board Roleplaying Game into something actually coherent. 

The game itself is pretty easy to navigate, with a surprising amount of English for a Japanese title. Each selection on the main menu, for example, will bring you to the next screen – in the top left corner will be the name of whatever it is you just pressed in English. Handy for those with little knowledge of Japanese. The only real place you could find yourself having difficulty with is in the PP Store and the Museum, as everything in the former is purely Japanese aside from the category headings and everything in the latter is Japanese – even the Replay Editor, so you may accidentally erase your own replays. As you’ll most likely aim to buy everything in there, however, I suppose it isn’t really that much of a problem. For those unsure of the game’s mechanics, there’s even a Tutorial that explains itself more in button icons than Kanji, lending to a “press this and see what it does for yourself” Tutorial that works exceptionally well. As I had already played the game before, however, the ease at which I began playing it may be because I already had the gist of the control system.

A video of the Menu System. Thanks to Steparu for the video capture!

 Initially, the main menu is split between Story Mode, Battle, Multiplayer, PP Catalogue, Data Setup and Options, with Duel Coliseum being unlocked later and the Calender is accessible by pressing Square. Story Mode is covered below, while Battle is a nifty little Mode that almost all fighting games have. You select your character (they retain whatever level and equipment they hold in the Story Mode) and who the CPU will control. Afterwards, you select the arena, the CPU's difficulty level, their character level (at default, this ranges from Level 1 to your current character's level) and a mindset of sorts that dictates how they will behave in battle. Later on, you can unlock an additional option that adds seemingly random extra effects during the battle. So far, I've been stunned and seen my opponent stunned as well as seen my opponent's Bravery get reduced to 1 while recovering all their HP and vice versa. The Multiplayer works in a similar fashion, except you have less options to choose and must visit a lobby to select your opponent first. Local play has no lag whatsoever, working quickly and really well. I've sadly yet to fight anyone as challenging as the CPU at its toughest, however, so I can't comment on how the connection fares under heavy strain. I also gave Ad Hoc Party a shot, as well, and that works surprisingly well considering that the PSP has to connect to the other PSP through a pair of PS3's. During the three fights I had, I found there to be hardly any noticable lag. The PP Catalogue, which many just call the PP Store for conveniance, is where you'll be spending all the PP you've accrued through victories and defeats whilst playing the game. Generally speaking, characters cost 500PP, costumes cost 300PP, extra arenas cost 100PP and it is also here that you buy upgrades for the Calender as well as Level Cap raisers - a special purchase that will allow you to fight a CPU-controlled enemy from anywhere between 10 levels higher than you to 100 higher. The Calender is quite a special addition to the game, each day bestowing you with two letters that house 30PP as well as the occasional piece of equipment. In addition to this, as well, is that certain days on the calender provide bonuses to certain things - whether it's AP, PP, Gil or EXP. By spending PP in the Store, you can increase the bonuses each yields.

Dissidia centres around the conflict between Cosmos, the Goddess of Light, and Chaos - who just so happens to be the God of Chaos - and the latter's move to shift the stalemate in his favour by calling together the ten most powerful warriors in all of the Universe. Cosmos, sensing the balance shift in an unfavourable way, then uses her power to call together the very people who once defeated each of Chaos's summoned warriors through varying stages in their own tales (Cloud is still in the middle of FFVII, for example, while Cecil's tale finished sometime beforehand). The first order of business, as always, is to regain the Crystals that are apparently tied to each world. It's here that you decide which character you play as, although be warned that you'll have to beat all ten stories in order to progress any further, and mark your journey to fight your nemesis and take back the Crystal. Interestingly enough most of the heroes pair off and work as a team, as do Chaos's warriors. Kefka tags along with Cloud of Darkness, for example, so the two can deal with Terra and Onion Knight respectively. There's a surprising amount of animosity and dissent among both sides, however, which adds to the scale of the story. We're really seeing Squall and Cloud stand side by side, fight side by side. It really doesn't get much cooler than this. 

Graphically speaking, this game is easily superior to Crisis Core. The full motion videos which many of you will have seen already, are better than even those seen in Resident Evil Degeneration and the in-game character models used for other cutscenes are surprisingly detailed - although this makes the 2D gemstones and flat swords stand out a bit at times. During battle, everything is incredibly fluid - attacks flow between each other flawlessly, something that helps a lot considering how much concentration must be paid to the timing of attacks. The menus are clean, crisp and appealing to look at, another good thing considering how long you'll be spending in them, and the Destiny Boards are different depending on which character you're using so they're well detailed as well... The little statues that represent the characters are really quite cool, as well, enough for me to want the whole set. The only real letdown in the graphics department is the Summons - they're more pop-up than great spirit beast - which is sad, as those were one of the things I really would have looked forward to. I can understand why they made the choice, however, as enough happens on the screen as it is without giant dragons getting thrown in as well. Each character has been redesigned by Nomura himself to better reflect the original artwork that Amano drew for them, which shows within seconds of seeing your old favourites remixed with dramatically more detail than you've seen them before. Both Tidus and Jecht look stylistically and graphically superior in Dissidia when compared to their main series appearances and both Cloud and Sephiroth look better than they did in Kingdom Hearts 2 as well.

One of the many extremely impressive looking attacks in Dissidia.

The story itself, at the beginning, mostly concerns itself with each character and their nemesis with little concentration regarding the overarching plot. It works remarkably well, as you're often reminded of why you're doing what you're doing - this is not just an excuse for Square Enix to milk their franchise. In regards to how the Story Mode plays out, there is an enormous amount of things to beat. Everything is given a rating in terms of stars, ranging from a single star to ten of them, with the higher star-rated stories proving harder. It is the bulk of the game, and sees you control a specific character and cross boards, engaging enemies, opening chests and battling bosses. Movement across the board is not limited, yet there is a similar system to golf - with each board holding a certain amount of Destiny Points. If you get to the end with DP to spare, you'll be rewarded for it. Failure to remain "on par", however, will result in no bonus at all. Another great feature (that is oft used against you) is the ability to "chain" fights. The advantages are clear to see, with an increased amount of AP, Gil and EXP given for each successive victory, yet the disadvantages are harder to see. You can't, for example, cancel a chain. The game will use this on occasion to force you to fight an incredibly difficulty enemy, so beware. The game punishes loss of battles, with a -10 for each death during the Summary that takes place at the end of each Board to confer rewards and suchlike. If you lose, however, you can either reset your EXP to try again or lose 2DP to back out of the fight.

To progress, you must first defeat each protagonist's Destiny Odyssey - each is five boards long, a few required fights and a boss at the end of each. Upon completing all ten, you'll unlock the four-chapter Shade Impulse, where each chapter also houses five boards (although the fourth is much harder and only has two boards to reflect this). Upon Completion of Shade Impulse, you'll unlock two Distant Glory and one Inward Chaos. The former unlock the two hidden characters for you to buy in the PP Store for 1000PP each, while I've still to beat the latter. I'm told on good faith, however, that you once again fight an enemy similar to the one fought at the end of Shade Impulse, yet far more powerful - fitting, as the enemies on the first board of Inward Chaos are stupidly tough. When all is said and done, there is still much more to be done. Completion of Shade Impulse grants you access to something called the Duel Coliseum - an interesting mode whereby the main currency is actually Medals. Winning fights yields them, while losing fights sacrifices them. Technically, you can't die in this mode unless you run out of Medals either, so you could go on indefinitely. After beating Shade Impulse, you'll notice instantly that the Duel Coliseum is your foremost and quickest way to gain PP, so it'll be where you'll spend a lot of time upon unlocking. It is also only here that you can attain the loot required to trade for each character's ultimate weapon, a weapon that is unique to that character only that also confers upon them incredible buffs.

The game itself lends a lot of detail to the customisation of your current character - there are options for choosing what attacks get mapped to what button combination (chosen between Circle and Square and directions used with them), as well as a variety of additional abilities that are mostly passive. Each assigned ability has an AP metre that can be filled by winning battles and earning more AP. All abilities, regardless of whether they're Land Abilities, Air Abilities, Action Abilities, Support Abilities or Extra Abilities, have a CP cost. Think of this like the number of slots an ability takes up, with different characters having different amounts of CP they can assign. Mastery of certain abilities unlock further, more advanced, ones that usually offer a far more enhanced effect. In regard to actual attacks, however, you are given a new attack that chains with the mastered one, usually hitting your opponent's weak spot for massive damage to both their HP and Bravery. You can also equip a weapon and a piece of equipment for your head, body and hands. Generally, the weapon will increase Attack, the helmet will increase HP, the gloves increase Bravery, and the chest piece increases Defence. Other, more advanced, weapons will increase additional stats as well as confer special effects as well, such as increased Bravery or EX Core absorption. In addition to this, there is also a variety of accessories for you to equip as well - rings that are either found in the Shop, or as loot from battles. The final area of customisation is within the Summons you can equip. I'll go into more detail with those in a bit, however. Overall, the success of your character depends on much more than your skill with them in battle - some enemies will greatly outmatch you in terms of most of your stats, so evening the ground as much as possible is vital during the harder fights.

For fans of the tenth game in the series, Dissidia finally offers us the opportunity to see how the father and the son would interact.

The battles themselves are incredibly hectic at times, with a lot of weapon trailing, huge visual fanfares and motion blurring. It's here that one of the game's biggest flaws come into play, as well. Sometimes it can be hard to see exactly what is happening when there's so much happening on the screen. With all the numbers flying around, dictating how much damage you've done and how both your and your opponent's stats are affected, and all the effects that light up the screen, it can become really hard to keep track of where the two characters are and what they're actually doing - which, in a game where timing is everything, can really mess things up considerably. Another shameful flaw with this game is the camera. While, for the most part, it's very good at keeping track of you and whatever you're targetting, it seems to suffer extremely poorly when you and your opponent are slamming against the walls of the arena. Aside from that, however, the combat is brilliantly done. There's a great variety of arenas to battle in, with many having an alternative version that also frequently changes itself or even teleports you to a completely unique area to continue the fight. Bravery, the large number that sits above your HP bar, dictates how much damage you can deal with your HP Attacks - slower attacks that require precise timing in order to connect with your opponent.

Depending on what attacks you assigned to the various commands, you will also be able to initiate a QTE-like battle where you throw your opponent into the air and attempt to strike each other in turn. This revolves around either pressing Circle for a quick attack that damages your opponent's Bravery or a slow attack that damages your opponent's HP. As each has their own slot, so to speak, it's easier to dodge these. If your opponent does indeed dodge the attack, you yourself must attempt to dodge. Attacks to a character's Bravery can be chained, as well, adding further damage to your opponent and granting you more damaging HP Attacks. Dodging, handled by holding the right shoulder button and pressing Cross with whichever direction you intend to dodge towards, is a mechanic that you'll spend a substantial amount of time either not realising it's existence or not needing. But later on, when the CPU gets smarter, you'll find yourself dodging more often than actually attacking yourself. You'll find that opportunistic attacks will fare better and land more often than trying to go on an all out offensive. Summons wholly activate in battle, as well, with over fifty various creatures fans of the series will often recognise straight away - there are twenty five different summons, with the other half being Automatic versions of them. As each have varying effects, some will suit others better. Ifrit, for example, increases your Bravery by 1.5 times (he'll do this when you successfully Break your opponent's Bravery if you choose to use his Automatic version). Leviathan, however, has a twenty second counter that, upon reaching zero, will triple your Bravery. So obviously, Leviathan needs a lot of preplanning, as the very nature of the game means your opponent will seek to crush your Bravery as quickly as possible. Getting at least 3333 Bravery before Leviathan activates will obviously give you an incredible advantage.

One crowning achievement of this game is how it has successfully created twenty three distinct fighting styles. No two characters will ever handle the same, nor will their approach to defeating their opponent ever really be the same. Cloud, for example, seeks to keep his opponent off balance as much as possible so he can keep piling on the attacks. Sephiroth would seek to use his incredible range to keep himself outside of his opponent's range but his opponent well within his own. Cecil looks to constantly switch between forms, using the strengths of his two forms to effectively neutralise any weakness either has. The various base stats of the characters wildly differentiate from the start as well, with a Level 1 Shantotto having only 13 for Attack and 10 for Defence, yet 400 CP while The Emperor has only 330CP, 11 Attack and 13 Defence. These stats dramatically improve over time, however, with a Level 95 Tidus holding 105 Attack, 106 Defense and 443 CP. Their variety doesn't stop there, either, as, in true Final Fantasy form, only certain characters can equip certain things and, surprisingly enough, certain characters are even weak against specific characters. 

The central Hero of our tale who also happens to be the most balanced fighter.

Whether this was intentional or not, as I think the developers merely wanted the character to be weak against their nemesis, it makes for a great system as you really have to step up your game in order to beat characters who are effectively stronger than you - an example being Tidus fighting Warrior of Light. As Tidus' attacks are almost exclusively horizontal, while the Warrior of Light's attacks has a stronger leniency towards vertical attacks, he is at a disadvantage whilst in the air against the Warrior of Light. This, in turn, pushes the person playing as Tidus to capitalise on the fact that Tidus is stronger in the air than Warrior of Light in order to win. Another good example is Garland vs. Kuja - Kuja can move whilst attacking, even fly, while Garland is a very slow and sluggish mover. Garland is obviously stronger than Kuja, yet Kuja's ability to cause massive damage at any range while also keeping out of Garland's range makes him the superior fighter in this case, meaning that the person playing as Garland will have a harder time succeeding. This works extremely well considering that it could have become frustrating, yet the advantage is never so much that it can't be overcome - merely adding to the tension and enjoyment for those highly adept at the use of specific characters.

The audio of Dissidia is definitely one of it's higher points. It has a very meaty selection of theme songs, with a different BGM for each character that remains faithful to their original tune for use in battle. Much of the music used is used simply due to the nostalgic factor, as hearing the original Final Fantasy's battle theme in it's new form is quite something to behold. Fans of the series will probably find themselves listening to the soundtrack in the Museum quite often. The themesong of the game itself, called Cosmos, and a few other remixes that are scattered across the game were written and produced by a band called Your Favourite Enemies. I had never heard of them before, but I understand they have an impressive following. Regardless, they produced one of the most harrowing performances I've ever heard with this themesong. It's really amazing stuff, somehow perfectly complementing the works of Uematsu with a different feel and vibe that works well. In terms of the actual sound effects, as well, everything is brilliant. Fully voice acted, you'll often hear grunts and war cries pierce the clanging sound of swords colliding. Upon activating their EX Mode, the characters can also be heard saying a familiar phrase that will often leave a smile on many people's faces. The sound effects of the attacks are equally impressive in terms of quality - they never seem to really conflict, which I would believe wouldn't be easy to pull off, although you'll rarely really pay much attention to the audio while fighting for your life against, say, Kefka.

Pro's
- Very deep game in every respect;
- Amazing audio and visual components;
- This does the series, and its fans, proud;
- An incredible amount of things to do and plenty of replay value;
- Yes, Sephy looks great topless.

Con's
- The camera angle can suck at times;
- Difficulty can be too high;
- Far too much happens on the screen on occasion;
- Why are the Summons so visually lame?
- Some characters require heavy grinding before they're actually useful.

All in all, this game is more than a sum of it's parts and remarkably impressive in terms of depth and sheer size. I'm over fourty hours in and I still haven't finished the Story Mode, so acing it will take even longer. The game was definitely made to cater towards the fans of the series, with enough fanservice to make brains explode with Kefka's creepy dual-toned vocal performance (going from light and airy to dark and sinister in the middle of sentences) and fangirls squeel with delight at seeing a shirtless Sephiroth. The soundtrack, the graphics, everything makes this not only a must-buy game for fans of Final Fantasy, but for anyone who wants a game that will last them a very long time. The game was released to commemorate the 20th birthday of the Final Fantasy series and I'm not too sure they could have done much better than this.

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