Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Revolutionary"

Gameplay- 8.5/10
Dissidia is what you could call a one-on-one action fighting game. Can I sum it up in a few words? Super-flashy moves. Easy controls. Destructible environments. Hundreds upon hundreds of unlockables. Diehard FF fans may seem a little skeptical about this unexpected title, but along with the new formula, the game includes tons of content from the games, like Moogle letters, full character customization, weapons, summons, and RPG elements get in on story mode. Ok, the gist of the game. You choose two characters from the first ten Final Fantasy games, and throw them into a battle to the death. It works well, and the battles turn out differently every time. The characters are amazing- none are alike. Square Enix didn't (thankfully) resort to just changing the look of a character and giving it the same move set as another one. The battles can get repetitive sometimes, especially if you keep fighting weak enemies in story mode. Story mode itself is very challenging and fairly long, with five decent length levels for each character involved.
Graphics- 9/10
The PSP did a very good job of polishing the games graphics, which look great down to marks on the floor and walls. Unfortunately, the cutscenes of story mode are rendered in-game, and although there are good graphics, the cutscenes are sometimes awkwardly animated. However, the game also sports a nice frame rate, which barely, if at all, breaks stride.
Sound- 9/10
The sound effects are right on queue, and the music is ok. It contains many original and remixed songs from the franchise and some, like One-Winged Angel and Otherworld, are awesome songs that well suit the frantic action. The voices are generally ok, through a few sound… weird…
Story- 6/10
It's a Final Fantasy game, so it's got to have a sprawling, amazing story that includes emotional battles, treachery, and plot twists all wrapped up in a movie-like presentation, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, Dissidia has a very mediocre story that most likely won't yank your heartstrings. There is one consistent, confusing plot twist at the end of every character's main story that's continued by the very difficult mode Shade Impulse, but there's a predictable ending and an impossible-to-beat final boss.
Multiplayer- 7/10
WHY, SQUARE ENIX? WHHHYYYYYY? There's NO INFRASTRUCTURE MODE! I don't know anyone in my vicinity with a PSP and a copy of Dissidia. Sure, you can unlock some bonus content by playing other people, but that just sucks because I have no one to play it with. It looks fun, though.
Extras- 20/10
This part was WAY overdone. It's almost impossible to 100% this game, because there are so many unlockables to find. Character items, bios, classic FF icons, and my favorite part, a very robust replay editor. Once you unlock it (I unfortunately had many worthy battles I couldn't save 'til then) you can edit the video in any way, and the best part is you can easily convert the video and upload it to your computer to share your glory online. (I have). Tons to find, tons to do.
Overall- 9.5/10
The thing I'm actually most impressed about Dissidia is that with so many things that Enix could have gotten wrong, they managed to stay true to the series, create and new genre of a series and wrap it all up in and inviting and professional manner. The only notable problems are the weak story and no online play, but everything else overshadows those shortcomings. Whether scouring for that final summon, collecting every character icon, or just battling, Dissidia Final Fantasy is one game you will not want to miss.