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| Dissidia: Final Fantasy Review; Rating: 8.5/10 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 9 2009, 10:11 AM (2,839 Views) | |
| Fate | Sep 9 2009, 10:11 AM Post #1 |
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![]() Title: Dissidia: Final Fantasy Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Square Enix Platform: Playstation Portable Genre: Action Role-Playing Game, Fighting Game Mode: Single-Player, Multi-Player Rated: T Release Dates: Japan: December 18, 2008 North America: August 25, 2009 Europe: September 4, 2009 Australia: September 3, 2009 Official Sites: | Japan | North America | Europe | Though many have been aware of the game's existence for about a year now, its release outside of Japan has just been recent: near the end of August 2009 in North America, and near the beginning of September 2009 in Europe and Australia. Dissidia:Final Fantasy is an action role-playing game, as well as a fighting game, developed and published by Square Enix. In this review, I will explain all the options that are accessible in the game, just to give you a glimpse of what the game has to offer. I will go into little detail, so to fully understand it, you need to play it yourself. Story:
Starting the game, the prologue takes place, introducing players to the game and its concepts before throwing them with its real plot. The game calls back protagonists - as well as antagonists - from the main Final Fantasy series, from Final Fantasy I to Final Fantasy X. They are as follows: Warriors of Cosmos: Final Fantasy I - Warrior of Light Final Fantasy II - Firion Final Fantasy III - Onion Knight Final Fantasy IV - Cecil Harvey Final Fantasy V - Bartz Klauser Final Fantasy VI - Terra Branford Final Fantasy VII - Cloud Strife Final Fantasy VIII - Squall Leonhart Final Fantasy IX - Zidane Tribal Final Fantasy X - Tidus Warriors of Chaos: Final Fantasy I - Garland Final Fantasy II - The Emperor Final Fantasy III - Cloud of Darkness Final Fantasy IV - Golbez Final Fantasy V - Exdeath Final Fantasy VI - Kefka Palazzo Final Fantasy VII - Sephiroth Final Fantasy VIII - Ultimecia Final Fantasy IX - Kuja Final Fantasy X - Jecht Each hero, of the Warriors of Cosmos, has their own unique story, and you can pick to play as any of them first. However, villains are non-playable, unless you buy them in the PP Catalog (which I will get to later). However, even when you buy them, they do not have their own story. The stories are called Destiny Odysseys, and they tie with one another to create the conclusion of Dissidia. Gameplay: Dissidia is a fighting game, so the goal in battle is to deplete the opponent's HP to grant you victory. However, it is much different from other games of the same genre. So different, in fact, that it could be labeled as a role-playing game altogether. For starters, you are not limited to just moving left and right on the battlefield. No, you can move freely throughout the entire three-dimensional area, jumping, attacking, or running as you please. There are many stages, each with their own obstacles. Later on in the game, there are also Omega areas, which are technically the same as their normal ones, with the exception that they can shift and change at moments into an abstract realm. Commands: Each button also has its uses. The analog stick is used for running around the field, as you would have guessed. The X button is used for jumping and for chase. The Triangle button can be used to run on obstacles, such as walls or edges. Also, when pressed together with the R button, it will allow for a long stride across the map at incredible speed. However, you must have the ability equipped to do so. Disabling the ability with unable you to dash. The O button is for using Bravery attacks. And the [] button is used for using HP attacks. You can also use the Start button to pause if you wish. The L button can be used to lock onto targets or unlock. Finally, you can use the R button to Block, the R button and the X button together to Evade, if you enable the ability to do so, and the R button with the O button to use your Summon, if it is manual. Bravery: The big numbers on your mini profile is called your "Bravery." This will increase as you attack opponents with Bravery attacks, and it determines the amount of HP damage that you will deal. For example, if you have 1,000 Bravery points, you will deal 1,000 HP damage to your opponent if you successfully launch an HP attack on them. Bravery attacks will only decrease Bravery points, so you cannot defeat an opponent simply by depleting their Bravery. However, when you decrease their Bravery to 0, they will suffer from what is called "Break." During this time, the opponent's Bravery will slowly increase back to its base value, while you gain a huge boost in yours. Also, if your opponent were to attack you with an HP attack, it would not damage you, but it will instantly un-break them. Be warned, however, that you can also be inflicted with Break. When equipping Bravery attacks, you can equip them to the default button, or to the analog options, which are done by pressing the analog stick towards or away from the opponent. HP: Your HP is the tiny set of numbers under the gauge. Once this number reacher 0, you will lose. Now, HP can only be depleted by successfully using HP attacks on opponents with the [] button, and how much damage you deal is determined by your current Bravery. Once you deal damage to your opponent, your Bravery will automatically deplete to 0, as it recovers to its base value quickly. That means that if you gained 2,000 Bravery and your base Bravery value is 1,000, you will recover only 1,000 after you connect an HP attack, losing those 1,000 Bravery points that you gained. Again, once your HP reaches 0, you lose the battle, and vice versa. Also, when equipping HP attacks, you can equip them to the default button, or to the analog options, which are done by pressing the analog stick towards or away from the opponent. Chasing: After launching a Bravery attack that enables the Chase command, a little X will appear on the screen as it pauses for a short time. Pressing it will initiate a Chase. During this phase, you can attack the opponent's Bravery with the O button or their HP with the [] button. The person getting attacked has to dodge with the X button, also. Bravery attacks require the X button to be pressed fast, while HP attacks take a while longer, so you'll need to wait and then dodge to avoid them. You can dodge only once, so act quickly - decide whether to dodge now or later. If a Bravery attack successfully connects, the enemy will be sent flying. If they do not hit an obstacle, you can press X again to chase them again. This doesn't work for HP attacks, however. Finally, each character can attack three times only. After that, it automatically exits out of Chase. Ex Gauge: The Ex Gauge is the gauge that you see on the side of your profile. As you gain Ex Force, which is gained from fighting and look like glowing blue orbs, it will increase. At times, Ex Cores will also appear, and they look like bells with wings. They will absorb the Ex Force that comes out, and if you touch them, you will gain the Ex Force. At first, they have a single wing, and they will increase your Ex Gauge by only a little. But as it absorbs more Ex Force, it will gain two wings and then four wings, the latter of which will completely fill your Ex Gauge. Once your Ex Gauge fills completely, it will become yellow, and pressing R and [] will result in you entering Ex Mode. While in Ex Mode, your Ex Gauge will steadily decrease, and if it completely decreases, you will exit Ex Mode. In Ex Mode, you will recover HP and you will have enhanced abilities, unique to each character. Better yet, if you attack your opponent with an HP attack while in Ex Mode, a large [] will appear in the middle of the screen as it pauses. Pressing [] will initiate your character's Ex Burst, which is once again unique to each character. Following the commands will result in a powerful attack that cannot be blocked. Summons: Summons are acquired in stories. They can either be Auto or manual. The word "Auto" will appear next the summon if it is. Auto summons will automatically activate when a certain thing happens, such as the opponent using their summon, you losing Bravery, or other reasons. As for manual summons, you can use them by pressing R and O whenever you want to use them. The amount of blue tiles next to the summon determines how many times you can use them. However, you can only use your summon once per battle. Once you have used it enough times, the summon will need charging, which is represented by yellow tiles. They will fill with each passing battle. You can use them again after that. Also, if you reserve summons, you will automatically equip the second summon in reserve when the first summon is charging. If your second reserve is charging, you will equip the third. But once the first summon is done charging, you will equip that again. Obstacles: Obstacles are simple. If you go near one, you will see yellow arrows, which means that if you press the Triangle button, you will be able to climb them. You can also destroy certain obstacles, which are sometimes required for Battlegen, and some will reappear after you destroy them. They don't serve much purpose other than that. Blocking: If you enable it, you can block the opponent's Bravery attacks with the R button. This will guard you from their attacks and leave them defenseless for a short while, leaving you time to attack them back. This can be done on the ground or in mid-air. Evading: Again, you can only Evade if you enable its ability. If you press the R button with the X button, you will spin to the side, attempting to evade the opponent's attack. This works quite well, but if the area of effect is too big, if might miss. You can use this any time, and it can be done on the ground or in mid-air. Locking: With the ability equipped, you can lock onto targets, such as the opponent or Ex Cores, with the L button. Once you do, you can dash towards them. To switch targets, press L again, and if you want to unlock, just press L another time, after all the locking has been done. It's good for accuracy, and using attacks with the analog stick can only be done by locking. Battlegen: Battlegen is a system that lets you acquire accessories from opponents during battle. Before the battle, you can see what items you can acquire through Battlegen by going to that section on the opponent's menu. There are different ways you can gain Battlegen from the opponent: by inflicting Break on them, by attacking them with HP attacks, by launching an Ex Burst, or by destroying stage obstacles. The formula is determined by many factors. Refer to a guide for them, though. Item Drops: Like Battlegen, you can also acquire the equipments that the opponent has equipped, or equipments that can be used to trade for those. Again, there are many factors to this, so refer to a guide instead. Capacity Points: Capacity Points, or CP, determine how many abilities you can equip. Each ability requires a certain amount of CP to equip, and once you don't have enough CP anymore, you cannot equip any abilities. They will increase as you level up. Ability Points: Along with a CP cost, each ability will also have a mastery gauge, which can be filled by gaining AP. You can gain AP after every fight. Usually, it is only 1, but if you do what the level asks you to do for bonus AP, you will receive more. Once you master an ability, its CP cost will be reduced. Some will even cost 0 when mastered. PP: You will gain PP whenever you finish a fight, or as rewards when you finish stories. They are other ways to obtain them, too. Their purpose is to be spent in the PP Catalog to buy things, such as characters, icons, or stages. Mognet: Every day, you will receive mail from Moogles, which is represented by a couple of letters. You can view them with the [] button. You will receive helpful hints, PP, special items, or questions in them. Correctly answering those questions will result in better gifts, too. Every so often, you might even receive Friend Cards. Bonus Day: When the game asks you to pick which day of the week that you play the most on, it is really determining the Bonus Day. If you chose Sunday and the day is Sunday, you will be on Bonus Day. During this day, you will receive a boost in EXP, AP, PP, and even a chance at greater Battlegen or Item Drop rate. The game has many, many options for a fighting game, enough to keep you playing for a long time. On Screen: These are some of the options that appear on the main screen. Story Mode: This is the option that will open up all other ones. In here, you can choose any of the ten heroes to play through their story. Each character has a different style of fighting, and their stories - though connected - will differ. But there are more stories than just those ten. Special ones will unlock given the right requirements. Arcade Mode: The Arcade Mode is a place where you can test your abilities in a competition of sorts. At first, you can only choose Normal Mode, but later you can buy harder modes. In the Arcade, the character that you pick will have preset abilities, so you must test them out to see for yourself. If you can win all the battles, you will be rewarded with prizes. Duel Colosseum: This option will not become available until certain requirements are met. You can choose from several modes to play through, all of which have certain leveled opponents. In the Colosseum, you must choose cards to use each turn. They will initiate fights, contain treasure, or have certain effects. You will gain medals for every fight that you win. Losing will result in your medals being decreased. It will also reduce the number of cards that you have by one; you start with three. After every turn, you will receive new cards. There is also Card Luck, which, I assume, raises the chances of you getting good cards. Battle Cards: These opponent cards have a + number on the upper right corner. Winning the battle will give you this much. On the battle card, you can also see how many medals you will lose if the battle is lost. The difficulty of the card is also showed, so you can see which ones you think you can fight and win, and avoid the ones that you think you can't win. Boss Cards: Cards with a giant "Boss" label on it are more challenging cards, but they give greater medals. Note that this also means if you lose, you will lose a considerable amount. Another thing to keep in mind is that boss cards will not disappear once the turn is over. Instead, they will remain, and you must either use the Samurai card or fight them to make them disappear. Chaos Cards: These are cards of the game's final boss. Choosing them will have you fight against Chaos. Like boss cards, it will not disappear unless you fight it or use a Samurai card. Secret Cards: Secret cards have a x2 on the upper right corner instead of a normal number. These are incredibly tough fights, but they will double your medals if you can win. Losing will halve it, though. These are rare, so you might want to just go for it when you see one. Treasure Cards: These cards also have numbers, but they do not signify how much you win. Instead, they represent how many medals you must give up to keep the item inside, which is shown on the little profile. Some items are only gotten through here. The following will be job cards, which all have special effects on the game. If the card reads "Ongoing," then its effect will keep lasting until you exceed the maximum amount of job cards you can carry, which is three. If it reads "One Use," then it will only last for a single turn. Knight: [Ongoing] The amount of cards that you can hold at one time will increase by one. But losing will deactivate it. Red Mage: [Ongoing] Treasure cards will be free, but cards will not be discarded after each turn. Thief: [Ongoing] It will make you draw treasure cards more often. Summoner: [One Use] The next cards that you draw will be either job cards or treasure cards. Mystic Knight: [Ongoing] Your Card Luck will increase more easily with it. Blue Mage: [Ongoing] Job cards will be drawn more often. Black Mage: [Ongoing] With this, you will draw secret battle cards more often. White Mage: [Ongoing] It will restore all your HP, as well as restore it after each battle. Dragoon: [One Use] You will jump to a new set of cards, but the new set will have a Dragoon in it. Samurai: [One Use] Discards your boss and Chaos cards. Ranger: [Ongoing] It will grant you battle cards that have larger medal winnings. Ninja: [Ongoing] Losing will not decrease your medals or your Card Luck. Monk: [One Use] The next set of battle cards will be at the weakest strength. Time Mage: [One Ongoing] Card Luck will increase by five. Mime: [Ongoing] It will take the effect of a random job card. Chemist: [Ongoing] Erases status effects and prevents cards that inflict them from appearing. Toad: [Ongoing] It will prevent you form drawing treasure cards. Imp: [Ongoing] Job cards' effects will be nullified. Mini: [Ongoing] You will not recover HP after battles. Pig: [One Use] Your current medals will be halved. If you want to exit early, choose the Exit option to do so. The remaining amount of medals that you have will determine how much PP you will be rewarded with. Quick Battle: You can fight freely here. Choose the character that you want to use and then the character that you want to fight against. You can also set the stage, the difficulty, rules, levels, and behaviors. You can still gain Battlegen, Item Drops, EXP, AP, and PP here. PP Catalog: You can use the PP that you gain to buy things here. Some possible things are: new characters, player icons, themes, stages, bonuses, unlockables, and much more. Ratings: Now we get to my personal ratings. Plot: I liked the plot of Dissidia, I really did. I liked how all the characters have their own unique story about acquiring their crystals, but they all linked with other ones. For example, Onion Knight and Terra travel together, so you get to see both of them in both of their stories. And in the end, when all the characters acquire their crystals, they team up to bring down Chaos. Rating: 8/10 Battle System: As described before, Dissidia has a very great battle system for a fighting game. It is full-time, and it utilizes the whole three-dimensional field. Instead of just moving left and right, attacking mindlessly, you can plan out how you want to deal with the enemy and take your time doing so. You can sneak behind the enemy, attack them from the air, shoot them from afar, or go head-on with them in melee range. Rating: 10/10 Graphics: Dissidia is a three-dimensional game, and in my opinion, the graphics are very great. They look quite real, especially the ending. The screen could shake and sort of freeze at times in battle, but that can easily be broken out of. Any Final Fantasy, I'm sure, would love to see their favorite characters in a new environment, one where they are with others from the series. Rating: 7.5/10 Sound: Like Star Ocean, the game has each character with voices, so you can hear how Square Enix wanted the name pronunciations to be if you are interested. Also, a different theme will be played each battle. They feature ones from the previous games, such as Battle on the Big Bridge and One-Winged Angel, and new ones, like DFF: Cosmos. To me, the themes remind me very much of the past games, so that's a plus. You can also change the theme if you'd like. Rating: 8.5/10 Replay Value: Honestly, I don't think you will replay the game for a long, long time. There are too many things to do, and the enemies are already adjustable in terms of power, so you won't get a greater challenge. The only reason I see to replay the game rather trying to build up the one you already have is if you want to train your characters again and unlock everything from the beginning. Rating: I really can't determine this, since I don't think anyone would replay the game once it's over. The stories themselves can be played through multiple times as well, without starting over. Final Rating: 8.5/10 Personal Thoughts: I think Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a fantastic game for any RPG fans, because it takes the elements of an RPG and incorporates it into a fighting game. Just when you think you have done everything, more things will reveal themselves. Playing through each character's story will take you some time already, but the game has so much to offer than just that. I have been playing for over a week already, and still I'm eager to play it. If you like Final Fantasy, then I'm sure you will enjoy to see all those characters packed in a single game. This game is truly worth the buy, in my opinion. Please note that the ratings are all based on my opinion of the game after playing it. They are not what other sites have rated them. Also, if you see anything at all that I have missed or haven't had time to type, such as the Chocobo or Data Install, or especially the Communications Mode, and want to summarize it, then please feel free to do so and I will add it to the review to make it as detailed as I can. You will be credited, of course, and I will highly appreciated it. If you have any thoughts on the review or just the game itself, feel free to post after here. Thank you for reading! |
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| Fayt | Sep 9 2009, 10:37 PM Post #2 |
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Easy wins have never been my style
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For the first review I've read from you Fate it's quite good indeed, plenty of detail and thoughts. This is something I've considered to get and probably will end up doing in the end, typically I enjoy both fighting games and RPGs - and this looks like a unique clash of the two. The bravery thing sounds a bit complex on a first read, but I'm sure it would make much more sense if I was playing the game. |
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| Fate | Sep 11 2009, 08:57 AM Post #3 |
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Ah, thank you. ;] Yeah, I never understood what the Bravery thing was when I first heard of the game, either. Usually, you have an HP gauge and that's it. Now you have two things to worry about. But a minute into the game and it was a piece of cake. Also, I heard that Japan will be getting an International version of Dissidia soon enough. The game was just released outside Japan and now its original country is getting another one. But I heard it just adds features from the North American, European, and Australian versions to the Japanese one. So maybe we got the best one. Exactly how many other features it could add, I don't know. =P |
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| Rally | Sep 17 2009, 08:20 AM Post #4 |
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Are you high!?
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Excellent job, Fate! I could never write anything like that... -_- Anyway, I find the game to be one unlike any other I've seen in a long time. It's been a long time since I found a game where I never wanted to stop. This game gives you those feelings. I find the sound quality to be almost crystal clear! Sometimes, you can't hear what the voice actors are saying, but that also invites some speculation! "Stem the movement!" "Guide the shadow light above and trascend the skies!" However, I find some of the tracks to be a bit weak(did we need a techno FFIV theme?) And the final boss theme is surprisingly unfitting, but other than that, the music is quite good. Gameplay is addiciting, as I said. Much more innovative than just trying to deplete a generic HP bar. And the way a battle can turn in mere moments with Ex Mode is truly amazing. Without getting too much into the stories, they're quite good. Instead of focusing on new things in this Dissidia world, they instead choose to strengthen the stories that have already been established. For example: Cloud will brood and wonder what he's fighting for. Tidus will despise Jecht and do anything for a chance at his throat. So, that's pretty cool to me. It further strengthens the characters we love! Thus, I would give Dissidia a solid A-. It's been a long time since a game like this, and I hope there's a sequel!
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| Gumdrop | May 5 2010, 07:56 AM Post #5 |
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Cute Snugglepuffs
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Nice long/detailed review. My feelings towards this game are pretty different so I'm going to add them (not that it would stop me had they been the same ).First off I played the Asian version (never the English, I think the English one is easier?) so to be fair I didn't understand everything, but I felt the character stories were terribad..actually I think I'm glad I didn't fully understand it becuase when I did know what they were saying it was that baaaaaaad Nice they tried to add a story for all the characters and all since it's a Square game, but at the same I almost wish they hadn't :p I wudda been cool with it if they had just had the basic story and then end scenes for each character like in Tekken and the other beat 'em ups. Hell, even Ehrgeiz had better scenes. As for the Asian voices I can say they were pretty damn run-of-the-mill. I've not heard the English ones but I'm guessing those are of the usual standard for over here too. I think Cloud was the same voice actor as the Japanese Advent Children cloud? Sure sounded similiar so guess that was cool. The combat was okay. Liked to jump about and go along the slides (for the stages that had them) but the actual attacking part wasn't terribly exciting to me. Didn't care much for the game, thought it was just a giant fan service attack. Avoid this if you're not a pretty big FF fanboy/girl imo, and this is from somebody who used to be just that. At least there really is a load to do and it does look good I would give this game six Gumdrops out of ten! Wasn't that impressed myself but if you consider yourself a big fan of the Final Fantasy games then do get + it was better than Ehrgeiz (not like that's a real challenge though) |
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| Aigis | Oct 17 2010, 11:01 PM Post #6 |
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Totally not a trap. :3
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Love this game. I'm not as good as most of the hardcore players from the Dissidia forums, but I consider myself decent. Logged 500 hours just trying to complete everything, 200 more hours into fighting other players from my area. Currently, I only have one other friend that I like to fight because the others are spammers or just use Cloud, whom I consider extremely predictable. The voices were crap, with exceptions for a couple. My favorite character is Cecil, yet he was played by my least favorite voice actor for many reasons, but I was exceedingly angry when I heard that he played Cecil. And like I expected, he messed it up extremely. |
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