Review of Final Fantasy Dissidia
Ehrgeiz, can you remember it? The 1998 title that included popular Final Fantasy VII characters in a fighting game.
Though it scored fairly well, it wasn’t a blockbuster hit. You could understand then, the skepticism when I first heard of Dissidia over a year ago.
It was a Final Fantasy fan’s wet dream. All of our favorite characters pitted against each other, what more could you ask for?
What’s Good
A New Type of Fighting - Not the easiest game to understand, the first hour playing Dissidia took some time to get used to. Thankfully, the game does a good job of easing you into the fray. This isn’t a simple action title that requires button mashing until someone’s HP is depleted. Square-Enix has added Bravery into the mix. Bravery is what allows you to dish out more pain towards your opponent’s HP.
By hitting the circle button you can attack and consume your enemies’ Bravery. Then, when you feel you’ve earned enough Bravery you can attack with the square button and do direct HP damage. So for instance, if my enemy has 1500 HP and my Bravery is 1550, if I can connect with my square attack, he’ll die.
The Characters – The main draw of Dissidia is obviously the characters. We’ve grown up with them from the nameless Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy I to Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy 7. Each protagonist features their counterpart. Sephiroth vs. Cloud, Terra vs. Kefka, Zidane vs. Kuja. The battles serve up some great fan-fare that not even Advent Children could contend with. This is a universe of great enemies and they all offer some exciting moments. Even the voice-overs are surprisingly well done with Kefka’s maniacal and insane behavior being a treat to watch.
What’s Bad
Spam Attacks – The fighting is fast and frantic, but the problem that occurs, especially early on, is that you are constantly spamming the same attacks over and over again until you level up. Even at level 20 I’m still finding myself being forced to use the same HP attacks over and over again. Hearing Fire, Fire, Fire, Ice, Ice, Ice, Here I come, Here I come, over and over again can get just a little irritating.
Emo Goth Cry More? – Cloud and Squall are both bad asses when they want to be, but they spend the majority of the story crying about something. No one loves them? They have no reason to fight? They want to be alone? I didn’t know half the time and it was only until they met their antagonist that they bucked up and began taking off the dark eyeliner and black nail polish. Sure they had reasons to be all moody in their own games, but you think they would have strapped on a pair by now.