Dissidia Final Fantasy reviews

Final Fantasy Dissidia on PSP is a great fighting game for what Final Fantasy's origins are. For the die-hard fans who like turn-based style this is not the game for you, the matchs can last a few seconds and be over with one mighty slash of your blade and yet you have to be four steps ahead of your opponent. Over all this is a great game with some crisp graphics, awsome C.G.I video clips and the ability to keep your thumbs moving. Overall it gets a 10/10 and thats because it is what it is not just another turn-based or fighting game it has its own style

Square Enix never fails to disappoint these days. Firstly, with the release of extremely shallow games like the Final Fantasy Crystal Chonicles series and now with Final Fantasy Dissidia.

The story of Dissidia takes place in a time where Cosmos (the goddess of light) is fighting and seemingly losing to Chaos (the lord of darkness). If you think that storyline is cliche enough, sit tight because it actually gets worse. In order to assist Cosmos in her battle and to stop the world from descending into darkness, the ten heroes, each from the ten FF games, have to collect crystals. The developers at Square Enix must have either have a crystal fetish or a serious lack of imagination. The whole game therefore revolves around searching for these ridiculous “crystals”.

Each character has a unique storyline as they journey to find their alloted crystal. I am most familiar with the quests of Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 and Cecil from Final Fantasy 4. By the end of Cecil's journey, I had had enough of the game and decided to sell it. The stories were, for lack of a better word, stupid. Cloud and Sephiroth relive their feud for the thousandth time and Cecil still tries to see the good in his brother, Golbez. I personally feel these insecurities were best handled in their respective games however Dissidia tries to take them places, they don't need to go. What results is an absolute hatred for the once loved characters like Cloud and Squall. To be honest, by the end of their quests, i was literally shouting “get over it you morons” at Cloud and Cecil.

As for the battle system, Dissidia is a hybrid of the RPG and fighting genre. The crew at “Good Games” have accurately described this as a game trying to be both but not really succeeding at either. I have to agree with this statement as the elements of each genre does not play out as effectively as one might expect.

There are two types of attacks, HP and Bravery. Bravery in simple terms is like the characters defense. If it reaches 0, the character experiences “break” status and starts to take serious damage if attacked. Therefore, the main strategy should include trying to reduce the enemy's bravery so that more HP damage can be inflicted. It sounds interesting enough on paper, but it executes quite differently. In order to attack the enemy you have to get near them first. But this is made harder by having an extremely large battle area. Most of the time, your character will be whizzing through the air trying to reach the enemy only to be caned by their perfectly timed combos.! Or you may find yourself unable to proceed forward because theres a boulder in the way, and instead of whizzing around it, the character just tries to go through it. Later on, the characters receive the ability to sidestep obstacles such as these but it makes the first initial battles extremely frustrating.

If the action based battle system seems a little too chaotic for your tastes, you can change to command based combat which allows you to choose one of four tactical strategies that your character can then employ. These commands can be selected at any time during the battle and can allow your character to perform actions such as guard, concentrate on hp attack or bravery attack or just run away. While this is useful, it does get a bit boring at times and you'll find yourself choosing one command, then leaving to do something else like read a book while waiting for the battle to end. It also has the same impact as the gambit system in FF12 where you leave your characters to perform their tasks, while you as the player, take a back seat and just watch. It leaves you with a rather disconnected feeling as a player.

Characters can also make use of the Ex Mode can be define as limit breaks. Once in Ex mode, the character or enemy regains HP, has greater defense & attack power and can execute limit breaks. While these are good and all, SE introduces yet another frustrating tradition – mashing buttons. If you have ever played FF10 you will remember how damaging, Lulu's limit break could be to your controller. Well in Dissidia, you will find yourself punching buttons and putting your PSP through the kind of carnage that will undoubtedly reduce its life span. Perhaps, this was SE's plan all along, after all the more PSPs that get damaged, the more money Sony can make.. If you have any respect for your PSP at all, you'll give this game a miss.

Overall, I found the battle system quite boring. After a few battles, I was over the whole game and just wanted to move on.

Well I've talked a lot about the bad, now lets get to the good. Dissidia has some of the best graphics you can ever expect to view on the PSP. You can look forward to seeing characters such as Terra and Squall brought to life in 3D graphics and the cut scenes are exceptionally good. However, if you're like me and can't stand to see the characters butchered anymore than they already have, you'll be forwarding most of these cut scenes. In addition to the graphics, I was very happy with the soundtrack of Dissidia. In fact, it was my favourite aspect of this game. It was brilliant being able to listen to your favourite battle music while fighting it out.

Another great thing about the game are the sheer number of unlockables from costumes, to summons and characters. There are a lot to choose from and you can purchase these using PP which you gain from battles as well as reading the daily Mognet letters. If you do enjoy the gameplay, you can easily find yourself spending hours unlocking various goodies to your hearts delight.

In conclusion then, my experience of Dissidia has been really disappointing and after a string of substandard Square Enix games, I am reluctant to pick up any of their upcoming titles in the near future and this includes Final Fantasy 13. A lot of their focus seems to be on the aesthetic rather than the quality of gameplay and immersing stories – two features of what made previous FF titles a huge success.

This game is truly revolutionary. Who would've guessed that Final Fantasy would make a good fighter! But this is more of an RPG fighter, nothing like Tekken or Street Fighters. Individual stories for each hero character, an arcade mode that gets very addictive and a massive amount of customisation available for each character, good or bad, makes this game unending. A completionis­t's nightmare (or dream). Definitely a must have for anyone with a PSP. Worth every penny.

This game came as a complete surprise, a fighting game by a renowned rpg developer? Well boy did they pull it off.

This has shot straight to the top of my “To Play” list, and since arriving hasn't been taken out of the PSP.

Its great mix of strategy and speed is an amazing mix that really adds to the fight game genre. I seriously recommend this to any PSP owners looking for a game that gives both instant thrills and a longer enjoyable full gaming experience.

If you are a final fantasy fan like me, this is something you don't want to miss, and if you are just looking for a addictive RPG game, this is it guys!! 100% recommended to all!! Thank you Mighty Ape!!

Its almost got all the characters from the Final Fantasy series up to X. It is so fun to play because now it is real time fighting; so faster pace. Something Final Fantasy fans should get.