Dissidia 012: Duodecim is certainly a worthy prequel, but it's the small little changes that weaken the formula.

User Rating: 8.5 | Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy PSP
When I first pre-ordered my copy of Dissidia back in 2009, I was amazed by how unique the game was. A fighting and RPG game mixed into one? What a fantastic idea. I couldn't really complain about the game whatsoever, and I certainly didn't expect to see another game judging from the fact that Dissidia was made for nothing more than to celebrate a 20 year anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise. That said, here I am playing the much improved Dissidia, and by improved I mean those extra characters, arenas, modes and even little tweaks that really enhance the game.

Duodecim is set just before the first Dissidia and the main '012' story mode puts you in charge of the newest characters; being Lightning (FFXIII), Laguna (VIII), Tifa Lockhart (VII) and more. The '012' story mode is a little too short, however, but you're greatly rewarded for completing it, nevertheless. One thing that I was really pleased to find is that Duodecim allows you to import your save-data from the first Dissidia, which then allows you to keep all your characters, character levels and things you've unlocked in the PP Catalog, so you don't have to worry about starting from scratch all over again. Duodecim even provides the original story from Dissidia for you to play, but unfortunately even those who completed the original and imported their save will still have to complete this mode again if they're to unlock more bonuses.

Speaking of the Duodecim story, unlike Dissidia which was entirely told out as you play through a chess-like board, Duodecim allows the player to roam an open world and enter these chess-like dungeons in gateways rather than having the whole board to play through one after another. It's a cool idea, and although the world isn't exactly huge, (given the fact you're a roaming the map, Cornelia from the original Final Fantasy but your character is far bigger) it's still fun to search for treasure or buy rare items from the random moogles you'll come across.

As for the gameplay, it has been greatly improved. Remember the EX-mode where players could enter and take far too much health off you? Well no more! No the EX-mode hasn't been removed, but the critial damage has, so you deliver far less damage making fights much more fair and stopping other players from spamming the EX-cores. Other little tweaks include improvements on the characters, such as Jecht's combos being easier to pull off, Ultimecia's attacks being greatly improved and many other character changes. Some characters even have the extra couple of attacks too.

Now if I was to be a little petty here and complain; I feel that Duodecim is a little cheap at times. It's been 2 years since the original, yet the actual '012' prequel is incredibly short and the story itself is neither better nor worse than it's Dissidia original. I don't know whether Square Enix wanted to clear things up from the original, but they sure didn't do a good job as the story is still very weak and feels more like fan-fiction than anything we know the franchise is capable of. Aside from the '012' story, you'll find yourself having more fun in the unlockable '000' story which is suprisingly far better than the '012' or '013' stories as it explains how 'Feral Chaos' came about and has lots to do and unlock. Just one other thing; the new encounter voices for the characters are a little poor compared to the originals. Squall for example sounds TOO stubborn and Cloud sounds too full of himself. Yeah this is probably too petty, but I'm just leaving it out there.

So Duodecim is quite the improvement and anyone who loved the original is bound to love this even more. There's a lot of content to be revealed, the new characters are wonderful to play around with, and as always, Dissidia's fighting just keeps you coming back for more.