Final Fantasy Dissidia - Quick Review
The Story: The story for Dissidia is pretty straight forward with two warring sides. Chaos and Cosmos assemble a team of fighters to decide the fate of the world -or, well, worlds. Each of the characters for Cosmos has their own story to look for the "Crystals" that well help them on their journey to defeat Chaos. The story for each character intertwines with the other Final Fantasy characters. There are little twists here and there though that makes things interesting and keeps the player involved throughout the game. However Dissidia was crafted to be a fighting game so don't expect too much out of the storytelling. It just paves the way for a reason to fight.
The Gameplay: Being a fighting-based game, gameplay is very crucial to Dissidia. It doesn't disappoint either. In my opinion Dissidia is the best fighting game ever, all the mechanics just work with real time and controls. Players can experience Kingdom Hearts-like hack & slash movement to defeat their foes in full 3D rendering. You can also use the environment around you to your advantage by breaking through them or slamming opponents into walls. Wall riding proves to be an effective getaway too.
The menus and controls are not difficult to follow. By attacking bravery points, the power to strike at health points increases. There are also plenty of abilities for each character to use and different styles of combat as well. If you aren't into real-time fighting there is also a turn-based fighting engine you can switch to for a more traditional feel. Overall the gameplay is fantastic and one of Dissidia's high points.
The Music: The musical score is very good because it takes the original soundtrack from each Final Fantasy and places it in the game. The tracks for Dissidia itself is very good as well. Whether trekking across the chess-like board map, entering battles, or cutscenes Dissidia has a great library of music.
The Extras: Players will clearly see Final Fantasy's love for customization because Dissidia is loaded with extra content and tweaking. There are unlockable maps and areas that reward the player along with a setting for a special day that gives more points or goodies when they are playing the game. Friend cards and wireless battles, a buying system to put points to good use and so much more. Dissida will be a joy to play even when the main story is over or if the player's character is maxed out on level and ability. Even with the 40-100 hours I put into playing there was always something more, something to surprise me with the next time I picked up the game. There's just that much content and extras. There isn't a sense of disappointment when your finished because chances are you aren't. I probably covered only about 1/4th of this game in this quick review.
Dissida isn't flawless though. I found it hard at times to fight because the camera angles for the game blocked my view. Even though the camera is controllable for zooming in or out it difficult to do that while actually in the fight since everything is in real time and fast paced. I was also a little disappointed with the choice of "alternate" costumes. It was more of just color swaps instead of real costumes but some characters do get a fresh new alternate costumes. I also noticed that even with different fighting styles, a lot of the warriors for Chaos were all generally slow and warriors for Chaos fast. There wasn't enough diversity I thought. Overall though Dissidia is a fantastic game for the PSP. It fully uses the system's capabilities and is perfect for on the go. Even if players are not familiar with the Final Fantasy characters they can enjoy fights and exploring new areas.
I thought Final Fantasy Dissidia deserved an 8.5 - 9.0
It's game made for the fans yet enjoyable to new players as well. It won't disappoint :) So until then, watch out for Final Fantasy Dissidia Duodecim.