Some [Relatively] New Dissidia Media, and FFi 1.5

Dissidia | January 15th, 2008

Dissidia for the PSP was playable recently at Jump Festa 2008 in Tokyo (Dec. 22-23), so in the show's ensuing aftermath there has been a bit of new information and media to go around. Judging from the impressions of those who went to the event and played the game, Dissidia is turning out to be more than just the quick cash-in many thought it would be.

Apparently, it's a 3D fighter with one-on-one aspects, which plays closer to something like Kingdom Hearts than, say, Soul Calibur or Super Smash Brothers. The environment is decidedly more important to combat than in other fighting games, as players can hide behind obstacles, run up walls, and even destroy certain objects, such as columns and platforms. It seems that Dissidia can best be described as a 'fighting platformer'.

The control scheme uses everything available on the PSP. Movement is with the control nub. Jumping and double-jumping is done with the X button. The L trigger locks onto enemies, and the R trigger is for guarding and evading. The camera is controlled with the D pad.

Pressing the triangle button will perform a special map maneuver in certain instances--for example, your character can run up walls if you press it near one. In fact, if you keep holding it down, your character will keep running up the wall until you let go. The function is a bit similar to the context-sensitive Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II, allowing characters to do some insane Advent Children-eqsue move by pressing the button at the right time.

Both the square and circle buttons, when accompanied by a direction on the analogue stick, function as attacks. However, Square Enix has given the gameplay a nice twist by having not one, but two damageable stats: HP and Brave. HP serves as the standard life force from Final Fantasy games--if it reaches zero, the character dies. Attacks that deal damage to HP are done with the square button. Brave, on the other hand, is the character's attack power. It also functions similar to MP, as each physical attack uses up a small amount of Brave. Attacks that drain an opponent's Brave are done with the circle button. Once one character's Brave falls to zero, the other character receives a "Brave Break", granting massive amounts of Brave, and the more you have, the more damage your attacks do. Essentially, the goal of gameplay is to gain as much Brave as possible, which will in turn allow you to damage your enemy more. It's interesting to say the least.

Also, in dedication to Final Fantasy's long tradition of Limit Breaks (a.k.a. Overdrives, Quickenings, etc.) Dissidia has something called an EX gauge, which fills up in battle. When it's full, your character can unleash a super special move which deals massive damage to an opponent. I'm not exactly sure what causes it to fill up yet--possibly by being attacked.

However, even above all of these unique gameplay features, the game's selling point may be its roster. It's an epic battle of Final Fantasy all-stars, and at least two characters from every major title are likely to be included--the central hero and the main villain. The confirmed characters so far are:

FFI - The Warrior of Light, Garland
FFII - Firion, Emperor Palamecia
FFVII - Sephiroth
FFVIII - Squall, Ultimecia
FFIX - Zidane, Kuja
FFVIII - Tidus

There have also been sightings of a Judge from Final Fantasy XII, and of course characters like Cloud and (my guess) Seymour will be included to counter their respective rivals. Plus they still have yet to reveal those from FFIII-FFVI. Add to that the high likelihood of a plethora of unlockable characters, and the possibility of playing as each of your all-time favorite FF characters makes this experience an exciting one indeed.

If the gameplay turns out to be as solid as we hope, and if the storyline mode is deep and intriguing, Dissidia could become THE game to play the year that it's released. Whenever that is.

Also, some media (most from Jeux-France):

So who do YOU think is going to make it into the final Dissidia roster? Tifa? Basch? Wakka?! Discuss it at the forums!

FFi to become more "Web 2.0" oriented: The main colors have been tweaked, some page designs have been cleaned up, and Final Fantasy Illumina is on its way to becoming more of a Web 2.0 type of website. It's only a term, and nobody really knows exactly what it means, but from my interpretation it's an emphasis on more direct (and simpler) user interaction, including the ability for those other than the site's owner to add and modify content.

FFi has always been somewhere between Web "1.0" and 2.0, sporting relatively progressive features like blog-style news posts with commenting, and dynamic artwork uploads, but I'd like to take it even a step further. And I'll finish up the content while I'm at it.

Jayhawk Jan 16, 2008 at 4:25 AM

Supposedly there will be some FFXIII news next week from Famitsu. Hopefully it's more than just "screens from the TGS 2007 trailer." Come on now SE. Come on.