Rating: T for Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1 – 2
Publisher: Square Enix
Release Date: August 25th, 2009

BUY

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is Square Enix’s latest spin off of their beloved flagship series, but unlike other installments, the PSP exclusive fighting/action hybrid is quite in unique and innovative. Square Enix’s forays into the fighting or action genre have not always been well received, with their Playstation One fighter, Ehrgeiz being largely over looked, and their debut title for the Playstation 2, The Bouncer falling through the cracks to make room for more revered action games, like Devil May Cry. But for those of us who’ve invested the money in purchasing a PSP, we will find ourselves hooked on another gem of a fighting game with a particular fighting engine all it’s own.

Dissidia tells the story of the god Chaos, the goddess Cosmos, and the war that’s been waging between them. They’ve each enlisted the help of the villains and heroes respectively, from the first ten Final Fantasy games. Our ten protagonists are trying to help Cosmos restore harmony to the universe she and Chaos reside in. Each protagonist has their own story mode in which they set out to retrieve the crystals Cosmos has instructed them to find. The main story mode is comprised of a board game like series of areas in which you move your piece (represented by a figure of the character you chose) through an arrangement of tiles, either containing enemies, or various treasure or items that you collect on your route to a boss piece, or a “Stigma of Chaos” piece that advances you through the story.

When engaging an enemy piece, you’re taken into a battle. Combat in Dissidia is simple, yet intricate at the same time. Characters have an HP stat, and a BRV stat. BRV, short for Bravery is an offensive stat that not only protects HP, but determines how much you can damage your opponent. When your BRV is broken [by reducing the number to 0 through Bravery attacks] or you break an opponent’s BRV, their HP then becomes vulnerable. (Although it’s still possible to damage HP before breaking BRV through HP attacks.) Square button is for HP attacks, while circle is for BRV attacks. Characters start out with a few basic abilities, either magic or physical and will gain more as they level up and master those. Terrain is very important to the flow of combat in Dissidia, as moves are divided by aerial attacks and ground attacks, and differ greatly from each other. Abilities are customizable and may be allocated to any command maneuver. The basic commands are, Button, Button + analog toward opponent, Button + analog away from opponent. As a character levels, more intricate combos will become available and will require specific strings of attacks or scenarios to use.

Other modes include a more classic Arcade mode, Quick Battle; where you can customize any aspect of a fight you wish, and eventually the Dual Colloseum; and endless gauntlet of battles through cards you draw, mainly used to collect high level equipment and items. Dissidia has a leveling system where, much like in traditional Final Fantasy games, you can level to 100, while increasing your HP, BRV and statistics while gaining access to stronger equipment and accessories. The game has tons of collectables including extra costumes, secret characters, icons depicting hundreds of Final Fantasy characters throughout the series, and best of all, rearranged and remixed music from all games throughout the series, all of which are buyable via the game’s PP catalogue.

Dissidia upholds the Square Enix standard of comely, beautifully unmatched character models as well as environments that push a system to it’s limits. The character designs were all updated from their respective games and tailored by Nomura to work well together, many of the sprite originating characters getting a complete overhaul aesthetically. Promoted as a 20th Anniversary title of the Final Fantasy series, the game truly feels like a celebratory game and a thank you to the fans for supporting the series since 1988. Fans of the series can finally answer the questions they’ve been debating for years; “Who would win in a fight!? Kefka or Sephiroth!?” One of my own personal favorite features in the game is of course, The Ad-Hoc based multiplayer. Not only giving the game a surge of replay value on top of it’s myriad of collectibles, [there are near infinite combinations of accessories and equipment to customize your character and enhance the abilities you allocate to them] you’ll have ample amounts of fun trying out the game’s 22 characters and finding the one who’s style of play suits you the most.

While the story in Dissidia is a little flat and predictable, some of the character specific monologues are sometimes profound and nostalgic of the series. The real draw of this game is it’s unique combat system and Ad-Hoc mode (which you can now REALLY enjoy with the North American PSN Release of Ad-Hoc party this November) so I would consider the story merely the back drop to the game play. Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a great addition to any PSP gamer’s library, and a must have for fans of the series. Even those who aren’t will still be able to enjoy this precise fighting/action blend, which would serve as a great introduction to the series for newcomers as well.