Dissidia Final Fantasy is what happens when you take an iconic Japanese Role Playing franchise and give it it's own fighting game treatment. It was released in 2008 and 2009 for the PlayStation exclusively worldwide competing amidst the storm of other fighting games like Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur IV, Tekken 6, King of Fighters XII and Super Smash Bros Brawl just to name a few. Two years after the original Dissidia was released in the west a remake/prequel of sorts was released again exclusive to the PSP called Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy which wins the award for video game title names that rolls off your tongue. Both Dissidia games on the PSP got fairly good reviews from critics and fans alike but however after reading about and hearing from friends about how dreadful the newest entry in the Dissidia line of Final Fantasy games Dissidia NT Final Fantasy for the PS4 and how it even managed to get a so called Free Edition I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at the Dissidia game on the PSP and do a review on it before eventually tackling that utter disaster of a game. I am going to let you know that for this review I am going to be focusing mainly on Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy as it includes the original Dissidia game's storyline plus all of it's characters as well as adding some new characters and new features that make the original version inferior in comparison. I might make a small gameplay comparison between this game and the original Dissidia and express if it is either better or worse then the original version so without further ado let's begin the review.
The storyline of Dissidia involves around the cycle of conflict between two gods, Cosmos the Goddess of Harmony and Chaos the God of Discord who have engaged in war. The protagonists of each Final Fantasy game are summoned to try and end the conflict, fighting against an army of crystalline soldiers called Manikins which replicate the Warriors of Light and Chaos whilst having to deal with Chaos' warriors which obviously are the antagonists also from each game which stand in the way of them getting the Crystals. This game's storyline has two different storyline arcs which play out differently from each other, in the 012 storyline it focuses on the supposedly never ending fight against the manikins while the original Dissidia storyline called the 013 storyline focuses on each of the Warriors of Light as they scatter and try to overcome their adversaries to gain the Crystals. The storyline for what it is isn't actually that bad, you have plenty of the main protagonists from Final Fantasy games from I to X with the 012 storyline having six other characters like Tifa from Final Fantasy VII, Kain from Final Fantasy IV, Vann from Final Fantasy XII and of course Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII is in the game as well. The character dialogue in the cutscenes is decent and the English Dub voice acting with people like Johnny Young Bosch involved is pretty good as well even if the lip-syncing is off in some places. The characters in the storyline have some genuine moments and some of them like Cloud, Tidus, Kain and Terra have their motivations that are somewhat close to how their backstories play out in the main games while others like Onion Knight and Firion have some motivations that I don't think reflect their personalities from their main games. Also I find it weird that they didn't bring Luneth from the remake of Final Fantasy III into the game to represent III instead of Onion Knight as he had some actual personality and characteristics compared to how Onion Knight is portrayed in this game. There are some half decent moments with the storyline where characters each shows their moments with others and each of them do hear out their troubles and beliefs which are nice and then there are the bad moments with the characters and story. Squall I still find him to be a complete lone wolf jerk who cares for no one but himself and his mission and that's it, Kain just goes around betraying others for the shake of it and as much as I know about the reasons behind it in IV but ultimately in this game he does do it because well he did it in IV so they thought make him do it here and everyone else says only a few lines about it and quickly forgives Kain for it afterwards. Vann as usual is there just because he is just there just along for the ride and hardly gets much attention like how he is treated in XII. I also found some of the moments in the 012 to just be kind of odd, some of the characters act like the war against the manikins is hopeless and in one cutscene some of them say that it's better that they should kill their allies instead so that they can be revived without retaining any of their memories only just to repeat a never ending cycle of rebirth which just sounds utterly stupid. Lastly there is the franchises' worst ever protagonist in history and in fact one of the worst J-RPG protagonists in general and that is Lightning from XIII. I already written in my Final Fantasy XIII reviews how much I despise her as a character and the biggest reason for that is because of her attitude towards the party members throughout the storyline and how she reacts to the events happening around her. She picks fights with anyone in the group over small things when sometimes it's her own fault like and would even backtalk some of the time. This is the same character who would in XIII punch anybody in the face over the slightest of things that was actually her fault like how she dumped her own sister after seeing her become a L'cie without even caring to save her from fate while Snow understandably angry at Lightning about it does his best to try and find a way to help her sister though it. Why doesn't anyone in the cutscenes ever stand up against her? Still Dissidia's storyline is half decent and does provide some good bits of fan service with plenty of characters that they picked from each of the games.
Dissidia Final Fantasy's story mode is split up between the 012 and 013 storylines where you progress through each individual chapter and completing a series of battles to advance onto the next. In Dissidia 012 there is a world map that you run around and explore which was never in the original version of the game before. On the world map you'll find dungeons called Gateways, an enemy to fight against, treasure chests to find and also parts where you can slide on after breaking down a nearby boulder to get to other parts of the map. You can also interact with characters on the map which will give you some dialogue as well as a Moogle which you provide shops where you spend in currency such as Gil earn in battles or KP earned in Gateways on new equipment or other things like summon stones or Chain Skills that you can use in the Gateways which I'll come back to later on. The world map is a neat idea as you get to explore around and enter some optional Gateways throughout the campaign but it isn't all that well executed. For starters there is hardly much you'll see in the world map, you will only see just maybe one enemy or maybe at least two enemies at best but they never respawn after defeating them and what you end up doing most of the time on the world map is just walking from point A to point B, hitting crystals to get a usable item in the Gateways and only fighting one enemy the whole time you are outside. Also while you interact with stuff with the X button you use the slides on the map with the Triangle button which is dumb because anytime you press that button when you are away from the slides you bring the character menu screen instead which causes you to sit through a loading screen which is very annoying. Lastly during some of the chapters you will spend a certain percentage of them exploring maybe two or three of the same areas on the map that you already visited just as different characters and at times it does feel kind of feel lazy just having to go through some of them again.
At least you'll get to admire the views outside though because Dissidia is actually pretty amazing looking for a PSP game. The character models are surprisingly detailed, the backgrounds are superb, a lot of the character and attack animations and effects are really impressive and they actually got plenty of the environment from other Final Fantasy titles. There were plenty of the areas I really recognized from each game like the Earth's Core from Final Fantasy VII, the Emperor's Throne from Final Fantasy II and also the Phantom Train from Final Fantasy VI and they are well designed and rendered faithfully into the game. The same is also carried into the soundtrack as well, it does use a mix between original versions of tracks taking from the games while doing remixes of different tracks as well and many of them are impressive but it's a shame they didn't use the fantastic remix of One Winged Angel from the Final Fantasy VII movie Advent Children.
The Gateways at least fair much better, they involve you moving on a tile based grid where you engage in battles, pick up treasure and some of them later have you fight a boss battle at the end as well. You can use Chain Skills which can either heal or revive fallen party members during moments where you have up to five members in your party although these moments are rare and don't come fully till the chapters near the end of either storylines. Chain Skill can also be used to get into multiple encounters with enemies and emerging victorious as well as completing small challenges will earn you KP which is used in the Moogle Shop. As this is a fighting game with RPG elements you earn EXP from inflicting damage to enemies which when you earn enough gains a level up which increases a character's strength. You can enter the character customization screen where you use Gil to purchase gear for your characters from Equipment and Accessories as well as changing a character's level which on the surface is kind of dumb to have to be honest and mostly has only a purpose in the Arcade Mode which one mode in it restricts character levels. Levels do however tie to equipment as your character has to be at a particular level in order to be able to equip it which isn't an issue as plenty of them compensate for effectiveness. Back to the Gateways, most of them just have a single floor with some other ones might have multiple floors which drag the Gateways on and on but the amount you get for doing them are pretty much worth while.
The combat system is what is really different from other fighting games. The game uses a Bravery system where depending on the Bravery you have deals damage to the enemy's health. You use Bravery Attacks with the Circle button which damages an opponent's Bravery Meter and use a HP attack with the Square button which does damage based on the amount of Bravery your character has. If a character gets attacked whilst their Bravery is at 0 that character goes into a Bravery Break and using HP attacks in that state does no damage to opponents and you have to wait till the Bravery Meters refills itself while the other players receives a boost of Bravery that was set by the stage. The idea is to deal regular Bravery Attacks and break their Bravery Meters so that you can get enough so that you can defeat your opponent and surprisingly it works pretty well. You can slide around on slides, dash, block which only works if well timed and evade attacks which is the most effective way to avoid attacks or send an enemy flying where you can then engage in a sequence the attacker has a chance to knock them further for extra Brave or deal HP damage while the opponent can have the chance to avoid it and counter attack. Each time attacks are inflicted little white particles float around and each fighter has a chance to get them to boost up the EX Guage which well full can allow you to release a character's special Limit Break attack that has the player input either a series of commands or just rapidly tap the button to fully use the attack. The game has different summonstones which can be used to turn the tides of battle, some of them will boost a Bravery of a player while others reduce the Bravery of their opponent's in many ways like in half, decrease overtime or completely. New additions in the 012 version are the inclusion of Assist characters which when the Assist Meter is full allows another character to join the fray and provide assistance by using one of their attacks or use a HP attack they have but the player and the opponent can also break each others assist characters which will leave them disabled for a set time. They did change the EX Revenge for this game though, if an enemy is clearly destroying you can use the EX meter to slow things down for a short time and escape from enemy attacks allowing you an opportunity for a counter attack which in the original version the EX Revenge just halted an enemy's attack entirely.
Each character like in different fighting games have different attacks and fighting styles that you need to get to grips with in order to be effective in combat, Firion uses many different weapons and spells at his disposal, Onion Knight is fast and nimble and can unleash a lot of quick attacks yet doesn't deal as much damage as others, Terra is long range and relays on a lot of magic spells and Cloud is a real damage dealing tank who is effective up close. The character customization system allows you to fully customize your characters and equip what abilities you want them to have in battle from offensive abilities to defensive abilities such as being able evade easier, dash further or anywhere or equip an ability where your EXP becomes placed into either more Brave or have the EXP refill your lost Health during the fight. As you continue to level up your character, upgrading stats and learning new abilities you'll eventually master some of the abilities that are equipped which is handy because it frees up space so that you can equip other abilities but however there is a limit to what skills you can equip.
The fighting mechanics are good and the game does rap up in difficulty later on in the game and the more you play the game and unlock stuff the more you become more effective in fights but however the combat has it's issues. For starters on higher difficulties and also during later bosses and enemies the AI becomes overly aggressive and also spends plenty of time in fights dodging your attacks and counter attacking you constantly. There isn't much clear strategy to tackle the super hard enemies you just have a way to cheese the AI into a pattern in order to beat them without them exploiting you which is what they tend to do most of the time. Another thing is that you can't follow from a Bravery Attack into a HP Attack combo unless a character you are using has a Bravery Attack which can be chained into a HP attack. In order words, some characters can chain moves while others cannot. Compared to most fighting games like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat every character has a series of moves that a player can master if they understand how a character controls and learning how to pull of special moves at the right time but in Dissidia only some characters to do chains where as if you try to chains with other characters that can't do that and try to follow up a Bravery Attack into a HP you'll end up standing around for a second or two leaving the opponent a chance to evade and counter attack you. It all then boils down to evading at the right time and then counter attacking with some characters who can't chain attacks together while with others using the same chain-able attacks with others till the super difficult fight is over. There are some characters like Exdeath who are super difficult to use because of slow movement and difficult to use abilities plus have absolutely terrible moves that just leave you open to counter attacks. There is also a thing about the gameplay is the evasion and the game's hit detection, attacking enemies for the most part works fine but then are times some attacks don't connect properly as they should even when the attack animation is placed on them. There are attacks in the game that can directly home in on you and evading at the wrong time is going to get you damaged and sometimes you just can't evade the attack properly due to the camera not allowing you to see what is coming at you when you are backed to a wall.
Accessories in this game are very odd to put into use, there are some of them which improve some stats but then you get ones where “When Attacking” or if “Level 1 through 100” or “On Ground” or other weird ones is supposed to give you some kind of boost in damage but however you have limited accessory slots and it can be confusing to fully set up effectively. There is an item you'll come across which you can exchange at a shop called the Rosetta Stone which will give a character an extra accessory slot but getting your hands on these isn't very common. Even with those it's still a nuisance to having to set the right accessories due to the ridiculous conditions that you can set with some of them plus there are too many variables with them and the majority of them are just flat out useless.
The game has two different battle styles Action Style which is the standard style of gameplay and also RPG Mode where your actions are controlled using the menu from movement to attacking. It's a very awkward system to the hang of and it leaves you to getting hit and getting damaged most of the time plus it is a rather pointless system to have as it is meant to be a proper fighting game not a menu driven RPG game. Still though even with the issues regarding the pointless RPG mode, the character's controls and abilities and so on the gameplay is still rather enjoyable yet not very refined compared to more entertaining fighting games of that period like Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6 or Super Smash Bros Brawl.
The two storylines will take around 60 hours approximate or longer if you really take your time and try to get as much optional stuff and unlock other Summonstones and get other stuff done as possible. After finishing the storylines there is the 000 storyline which has you facing AI enemies that are more aggressive and annoying when they were including the super boss Feral Chaos who is an utter tough boss to beat. You also have the Arcade Modes where you can take part in small challenges where you play through matches at the Levels you need to have your characters at. The challenges are ok but some of them are a bit tricky and they are kind of hit and miss. Afterwards there is the Labyrinth mode where you explore an expansive dungeon by selecting commands from a set of panels shown which will either give you items, new equipment, assist characters or party members, medals or single encounters or party encounters where you can tackle these by having the game switch between party members after a round or have it where the characters switch over when one is defeated in battle and those rules apply to the main campaign as well. Surprisingly I found this mode really enjoyable as it allows you to chose how you wish to tackle through the challenges although some of the requirements that you need to do to progress onwards can be a little annoying at times. The game has on Online component where you can compete in matches with players around the world or by creating a few quests that you can give to them or something but I honestly never bothered with any of the online stuff but when you win battles you can save replays so that you can quick videos of your biggest battles online to friends on Youtube or other video streaming websites. Lastly you have the reports where highlighting them allows you to see more backstories with some characters even if some of them done make all that much sense and also tons of unlock stuff that you can purchase in the PP store in the main menu where you can purchase content like new music tracks, extra characters and costumes, areas, character voices and player icons which are only for those who want to really give their player setups with a Final Fantasy look to them. On top of Shantotto from FFXI and Judge Gabranth from FFXII being unlockable characters alongside the villains afterwards you also have Prishe also from FFXI and lastly Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy V who has appeared in other games in the series alongside Feral Chaos who is just really good fun to use.
Dissidia Final Fantasy overall has some ideas and mechanics inside there and it is an enjoyable fighting game for what it is but however it is held back by some storyline elements that aren't really all that good plus don't make all that much sense. The 012 version adds new characters and a new world map and some new mechanics but however lacks proper refinement and polish compared to other fighting games, and this is supposed to be the updated version of Dissidia where they could have improved on the issues that the original version of the game had on the PSP but instead just wanted to add in more characters like stupid Lightning and mechanics to make it a more complete version without really giving it a proper polish. This game instead is the Dissidia game that it possibly should have been in the first place having more stuff to do and play around just that it needed that extra care to make it more superior, which is why there is no point in playing the original version of the game as it feels really bare bones in comparison. The original version of the game lacks the assist character options, it lacks the additional characters that were in the 012 version plus it doesn't have the world map that 012 would have plus this version has DLC content allowing you to have more costumes and extra tracks as well plus there is the 012 Prologus Demo on the PSN Store which if you are interested in paying small money for it allows you to have Aerith be in the game as only an assist character when you complete the demo. So if you really want to play a Dissidia Final Fantasy game then it has to be this game. It is avaiable for download on the PSN Store and it can be played on the PSVita as well as the PlayStation TV if you really want a Final Fantasy game to play on the small black that is picky about what games it can work with. Don't get me wrong it lacks polish and it isn't as fully enjoyable as other fighting games on the market but the idea of a Final Fantasy fighting game was a great idea and it could have gone a lot worse except it have, later Dissidia would enter the mobile gaming world and the Dissidia Mobile game ain't all that good but it was Dissidia NT Final Fantasy that came out the for PS4 that landed perhaps the biggest blow on not only the Dissidia line but the whole Final Fantasy franchise in general. So maybe sometime after a long break we will take a long distasteful look at Dissidia NT and see how Square Enix managed to take a half decent fighting and worsen it in every regard.
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Game Score: 7.0/10
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Game Title: Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: Fighting/Role Playing
Age Rating: PEGI: 12+
Release Date: 25th March 2011 (Europe)
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The Good Points:
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Impressive graphics and has the music tracks from each games
Additional characters and other new content that the original version doesn't have
Decent and enjoyable battle system with a Bravery system that works surprisingly well
The Bad Points:
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World Map has little to do and sliding controls are annoying
Combat isn't as refined, difficulty with the AI can be tedious and things like RPG Mode feels pointless
Some storyline elements don't make much sense and Lightning is just as unlikeable as ever
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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