Dissidia Final Fantasy
Or you could say ‘dizzying’ Final Fantasy because here’s another head-spinning fighting game landing soon, this time it’s on PSP.
In the same way that Guitar Hero switched people on to hard rocking guitar music, Dissidia Final Fantasy could recruit new fans for the iconic Square Enix RPG series. We suspect most Guitar Hero fans are closet metallers anyway, much in the same way that gamers eye Final Fantasy characters with much curiosity. However the thought of getting to know them throughout 70+ hours of turn-based fighting and reams of dialogue is understandably off-putting.
But now there’s Dissidia Final Fantasy, comprising the best-loved heroes and villains from the Final Fantasy series against the backdrop of a 3D fighting game with an RPG twist. Characters include: Warrior of Light and Garland (Final Fantasy), Onion Knight and Cloud of Darkness (Final Fantasy III), Cloud Strife and Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) and Tidus and Jecht (Final Fantasy X). Don't worry if you haven't a clue who they are just yet, but a million FF fans probably just wet themselves.
Essentially the game that’s coming to PSP early next month is a one-on-one fighting experience, spiced with character modification you’d normally find in an RPG. We’re not just talking mirror shades, freaky hairstyles and tattoos as you see in Tekken and Virtua Fighter, but choices of techniques to take into battle. Perhaps you could think of this as a more strategic extension of the weapons selection in Soulcalibur.
Also adding to the strategy are the backgrounds, which for the first time as advertised play a crucial role in every battle. The fighters run up and down walls and grind along rails at the press of a button, and can launch attacks from spectacular leaps between obstacles. Knowing your way around the battlefield gives you the edge for attacking and evasive manoeuvres, and it’ll also mean you get to the power-ups first!
Yes, power-ups – last most-successfully implemented in Power Stone (Dreamcast, PSP) from Capcom, the closest fighting game to Dissidia we can think of. These are limited to EX Cores in Dissidia, which boost your fighter’s EX Gauge, used to trigger extra-special attacks called Limit Breaks. Final Fantasy fans will already be familiar with these, and can be briefly explained as holy-snot-what-just-happened moments resulting in one very happy player and one very wounded and vengeful player.
Explosive Limit Break strikes, along with absolutely everything else in Dissidia, look magnificent. The presentation is flawless, albeit a little intimidating to begin with, but that’s only because there’s so much to learn. We’ve enjoyed taking our time getting to grips with the HP and Brave techniques, upping the ante when the Story Mode requires it, encouraged by our chosen fighter levelling up – another heartland RPG aspect that works terrifically well in this new context.
Ahead of the review in a few weeks’ time, we’re valuing Dissidia as a Versus Final Fantasy experience and enjoying it immensely as such. Square Enix has avoided the trap of recruiting 3D fighting talent to serve an FF version of Tekken or Virtua Fighter as Konami has tried with Castlevania on Wii. Instead Dissidia feels completely fresh, and should prove exciting to any gamer looking for a long-lasting in-depth challenge.
Dissidia Final Fantasy is released 5 September for PlayStation Portable (PSP), published by Square Enix.
