Final Fantasy Dissidia: Review

Posted by Justin On August - 31 - 2009

Final Fantasy Dissidia

Ehrgeiz, can you remember it? The 1998 title that included popular Final Fantasy VII characters in a fighting game.

Though it scored fairly well, it wasn’t a blockbuster hit. You could understand then, the skepticism when I first heard of Dissidia over a year ago.

It was a Final Fantasy fan’s wet dream. All of our favorite characters pitted against each other, what more could you ask for?

What’s Good

A New Type of Fighting - Not the easiest game to understand, the first hour playing Dissidia took some time to get used to. Thankfully, the game does a good job of easing you into the fray. This isn’t a simple action title that requires button mashing until someone’s HP is depleted. Square-Enix has added Bravery into the mix. Bravery is what allows you to dish out more pain towards your opponent’s HP.

By hitting the circle button you can attack and consume your enemies’ Bravery. Then, when you feel you’ve earned enough Bravery you can attack with the square button and do direct HP damage. So for instance, if my enemy has 1500 HP and my Bravery is 1550, if I can connect with my square attack, he’ll die.

The Characters – The main draw of Dissidia is obviously the characters. We’ve grown up with them from the nameless Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy I to Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy 7. Each protagonist features their counterpart. Sephiroth vs. Cloud, Terra vs. Kefka, Zidane vs. Kuja. The battles serve up some great fan-fare that not even Advent Children could contend with. This is a universe of great enemies and they all offer some exciting moments. Even the voice-overs are surprisingly well done with Kefka’s maniacal and insane behavior being a treat to watch.

Story Mode – You move along a chessboard-like map and you fight bad guy after bad guy. You can use items, equip new weapons and rings for stat altering effects, and even acquire summons (though there is no 2 minute long summoning scene this time around). It plays out fairly simple and the story unfolds beautifully. With ten warriors in all, their tales are interwoven with each other and only by playing all ten will you get the full gist of what’s going on. You might expect Square-Enix to mail in this portion of the game, but to my shock it’s done extremely well with some excellent in-game cut scenes. Of course there are a few moments that are extra cheesy, but what RPG isn’t?

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music – Music has made the Final Fantasy series stand out from other RPGs over the last two decades and Dissidia is no exception. Old battle and boss fight themes have been redone beautifully and still manage to hearken back to the good old days. Even though they might not be original scores, it’s still one of the best soundtracks to date.

More Bang for your Buck – It’s amazing how much is packed into this little UMD. The story mode alone will take you about 15 hours and if you’re lucky enough to have a friend Ad-Hoc VS will keep you occupied for some time. Add on a nice replay editor, a ton of unlockable goodies (mostly for nostalgia purposes) and the ability to play as all the baddies, and you’ve got yourself a reason to go out and get a PSP.

What’s Bad

Spam Attacks – The fighting is fast and frantic, but the problem that occurs, especially early on, is that you are constantly spamming the same attacks over and over again until you level up. Even at level 20 I’m still finding myself being forced to use the same HP attacks over and over again. Hearing Fire, Fire, Fire, Ice, Ice, Ice, Here I come, Here I come, over and over again can get just a little irritating.

Emo Goth Cry More? – Cloud and Squall are both bad asses when they want to be, but they spend the majority of the story crying about something. No one loves them? They have no reason to fight? They want to be alone? I didn’t know half the time and it was only until they met their antagonist that they bucked up and began taking off the dark eyeliner and black nail polish. Sure they had reasons to be all moody in their own games, but you think they would have strapped on a pair by now.

Slow Developing Story – You really don’t get a clue as to what’s going on until half way in. You know about Cosmo and Chaos and the warriors of light, bad guys, good guys, crystals etc… but the pieces of the puzzle don’t begin to really show themselves until later on. People will play this game regardless of the story, but it would have been nice if it could have hooked me in a little bit earlier.

Tight spaces CRAMP my style – In a game where you fly in every direction, some of the map designs leave me a little confused? Why give me a cramped, small castle to fight in? If I can fly I’d like to be able to do it without being firmly planted in a wall and having the camera spin around like it has epilepsy.

Keep your Feet Firmly Planted on the Ground – Not necessarily a bad thing, but Dissidia suffers a little bit of Dragon Ball Z syndrome. You very rarely fight while on the ground. You chase, you run, and you practically fly around the map. Terra flying makes sense but I don’t recall my warrior in Final Fantasy I ever moving on his Z-Axis. It might be a little much for certain fans to swallow.

Worth Remembering – Some of the unbelievable battles that flow together beautifully ending with a perfect limit break.

Worth Forgetting- No online multiplayer? I mean come on, how could you not put this in? Ad-Hoc mode, what the hell is that? 1990 technology if you ask me.

Dissidia is a pretty big gamble. If Square-Enix took all of these cherished titles and mashed up some horrible beat-em-up not only would it sell poorly, it would disgrace some of my most (and countless others) favorite games of the past 20 years. Thankfully the gamble has paid off big time, and although it’s not perfect, Dissidia offers both a breath of fresh air and warm sense of nostalgia in a well celebrated series. It might not cater to RPG fanatics but the game is so incredibly good that all Final Fantasy fans owe it to give it a shot. Those who aren’t a fan of Final Fantasy but enjoy a good action title might even want to give it a try. You never know, it might even make you a convert.