Dissidia is a solid fighter that any Final Fantasy fan should play and any fighting genre fan would love.
Every battle in Dissidia is fast and exciting, and almost always feels fresh. In battle, characters have a set number. This number is called Bravery. To gain Bravery you must cause damage to your opposing opponent and steal their Bravery. If your opponent's Bravery goes to zero he/she goes into Break mode, and you get an additional Bravery bonus. To cause real damage to your opponent you'll have to use a special attack, which power depends on how much bravery you have at the time. If you manage to hit your opponent and cause damage, then you're Bravery returns to base value and the cycle continues. Mind you, you'll be doing this while dodging your opponent's attacks and movements, so you'll have to watch your opponent's gestures carefully and timely if you want to win. Another way to dispatch your foes is to use an EX special attack, which the gauge for fills up when you absorb EX crystals around the stage. Each character has it's own EX Mode attack where you're put into a mini-game directed to do a certain task. If you do it perfectly, you do lots more damage. If you get hit by an EX attack you'll have to press a button frantically to boost your defense.
Dissidia is just loaded to the gills with content to keep you coming back. You'll mostly spend that time in Adventure Mode, in which you play as the heroes traveling on chess-like boards seeking the crystals that will bring back Cosmos, so they can defeat Choas, the main enemy of the game. Story wise, Adventure mode is laughably terrible. I wasn't expecting a great storyline considering that this is a fighting game, but considering the fact that Square Enix, the great story teller that made us endear these characters in they're past adventures, it's kinda disappointing. None the less, Dissidia still delivers a fine action adventure where you can even level up, learn new abilities, and unlock more treasure chests than even Twilight Princess could fit in.
Dissidia is just a huge game, where you can just spend hours upon hours unlocking everything. Though it may be bringing me back every day of my life (and I love that, by the way) I still find little loose stitches every time I play the game. Though 20 characters and plus 2 unlockables from FFXI and XII is a big list, it would've been great if they would've added sub and spin-off characters from the Final Fantasy universe. As cool as it is to play as Sephiroth against Squall, it would've been awesome to play as Kain (FFIV), Yuffie (FFVII), or even Zack (Crisis Core) too. But knowing that this is Square Enix, there will be a big chance that there will be a sequel, maybe even next year, so we might be seeing these characters and plenty more if that does happen.
Though that was only a minor complaint, there are other things that got in my way to cripple a great Dissidia experience. A.I. opponents can be very cheap later in the game, blocking all your attacks and seem to always have the level and equipment advantage. Nothing is more frustrating than being forced into fighting an opponent who's like level 30, while you're still level 18. I also experienced some camera issues, but they only happened in some enclosed stages, so it wasn't too frequent.
Final Fantasy: Dissidia is a must bye however, for any FF fan or even fighting fans for that matter. And it also would be dumb of me not to mention Dissidia's brilliant graphics and frame rate. never once did my game glitch or stutter. Dissidia is almost a perfect example of a masterpiece, save for it's ocastional hic-cups and cheap A.I. It's a must buy for ANY and ALL PSP owners. And the fact that it's now only $20 is a huge plus for this delicious apple.