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Game Review - Dissidia: Final Fantasy

posted by nikki at 8:26 am.

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Though it hasn’t been released in the U.S. yet, I finally broke down and imported this one from Japan a while back. Dissidia is sort of the Super Smash Bros. of the Final Fantasy world, bringing together the heros and villains of the series and letting them beat the stuffing out of one another. Exclusive to the PSP, the game is slotted for a release in the U.S. some time this summer.

The premise of the game is that in the war between the goddess of harmony (known as Cosmos) and the god of destruction (called Chaos) things have suddenly shifted in Chaos’ favor. Though evil appears to be winning, a small band of heros band together to restore the balance.

The game itself is a straight-up fighter, very much in the vein of Smash Bros., with a little Soul Caliber thrown in. The battle field allows you to move the characters in full 3D (one of my major grips about SSB Brawl was that it lacked true 3D environments), including the ability to wall-walk and climb pillars and other structures, and slide on rails. Like most fighters, the object is to reduce your opponent’s HP to zero.

During battle, both opponents begin the match with equal BP (Brave Points). Damage to HP is dealt based on the difference between your BP and that of your opponent. There are two basic attacks… a BP attack, which steals BP from your opponent and adds it to your own guage, and an HP attack which depletes your stores of BP in order to damage your opponent’s HP.

In addition, battles also feature Break Mode (in which a character’s BP is reduced to zero and all attacks against him or her result in critical damage), and EX Mode (in which the EX Gauge fills and enables the character to use their EX Burst, Dissidia’s version of a limit break).

The story mode is completed by clearing “chapters”, each chapter being represented by a chessboard-like field that contains battle, treasure, and bonus icons. The object of each chapter is to move and battle your way across the field until you capture the Chaos square (usually occupied by a boss icon).

Each and every hero has his or her own storyline to play through that contributes to the overall plot, and a hero from Final Fantasy I through XI is included in the line-up. Access to the villains (who also have their own storylines) must be unlocked by earning Purchase Points during gameplay and then purchasing them in the in-game shop. Adding to the playtime, clearing the initial “chapters” unlocks the Shade Impulse “chapters” (which in turn, when cleared, unlocks Distant Glory and Inward Chaos).

My overall impression of the game was very favorable. Though it lacks the combo moves that many gamers expect in fighting titles, Dissidia is a solid fusion of one on one fighting with an RPG feel to it. Admittedly, I probably missed out on a lot of the story-related content, my Japanese not being exactly fluent, but it didn’t really detract much from my enjoyment of the game.

So overall, how did it fare?

Story: n/a
I’m going to refrain from giving this a rating until I have a chance to play it in a language I fully understand. But what I did manage to pick up gave me the impression that Square Enix’s strength in crafting a plot hasn’t diminished.

Characters: 9/10
It’s hard to go wrong with classic, well-loved Final Fantasy characters. The only reason it didn’t get a 10/10 is because I wish they’d included more than just two per game.

Gameplay: 8/10
Controls are easy enough to pick up, even without an English language tutorial. Sometimes, maybe a little too simplistic. But that doesn’t mean the game itself is a breeze. There’s plenty of challenge packed in there.

Overall: 9/10
I’m still having a lot of fun with this game, and I’m eagerly looking forward to the U.S. release so I can figure out what all that dialog is about.

Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.