Cosmos, the goddess of harmony.
Chaos, the god of discord.
Reigning from distant realms, the two gods had gathered warriors from all lands to lead them in savage war.
Cosmos and Chaos were of equal strength.
It was believed that the conflict would last forever.
But----
(Dissidia: Final Fantasy Prologue)
Graphics
The most important feature for me to be interested in a game. Hoho.. I was impressed by the opening movie and though I am a bit disappointed by the lack of CG events in the game, the graphic (even during the fighting scenes) is just impressive. The person looks like a person, no pixels seen whatsoever. A treat for the eyes. Hoho..
A cutscene in the game (but this is not the CG event that I like).
My favourite female character in the game :p
Gameplay
It is not easy as it is not a typical fighting game where you just hit the enemy until he/she dies. Here, you have to amass enough brave points before you can do damage to the HP (hit points of the enemy). At the beginning, I thought it is very hard. But after playing, this feature actually 'balances' the power. Hoho.. It is not always the 'stronger' or 'better' player will win. Add the summons and it makes the results of the battles more unguessable. Players must play carefully and strategically since spamming cheap skills repeatedly will not work. The battle can go on forever as the fighters keep transferring their brave points.
Airborne fight.. Yihaa...
Most fighting games pride themselves as "3D". I will call this "4D". The fourth D refers to the aerial battle. It adds more fun and more rooms for manouvers and dodging. It also adds the complexity since opponent has more directions to evade our attacks. I would say that most of the battle is done air-borne and that makes a different with other fighting game.
The difficulty of the game is quite tough. I do not expect much from a fighting game (usually fighting game becomes too boring after you read the AI patterns etc). This is not the case for Dissidia. The AI is too smart (sometimes, I feel that they can read what I do even before I do the attack), the AI behaves like human players (if I play too defensively, the computer can spam their long distance magic), and the computers are too overpowered. Lol.. The leveling (ala RPG) system does not really help since it is the level of the equipment is what really matters. And at the start when players have unlocked few equipments, it just makes the game harder to beat. But after you get nice equipments, things are more even. But just as we think that "hmm i have all the ultimate weapons", the game offer crazy things with enemies with level up to 130. The max level players can have is 100. And somehow, even with the same level 100 equipments, the 30 level difference is significant, only if it is the computer who is 30 levels higher! If player is 30 levels higher than the computer, it makes little difference. This "unfairness" sometimes make the game very irritating! Lol.. Though on the other side, it never gives player the feeling of "completely beaten the game".
While the characters are well-balanced (read below), the summons are not so. Some summons are just too good (eg: Magic Pot is everyone's favourite) while some are just useless (eg: Mog's random effect, I hardly use Iron Giant, Ultima Weapon's is too slow to be activated, etc). However, when I see the AI uses the various summons, every summon is actually pretty good. But some are just good when AI uses them.. when players use them, they are just not so playable. Lol.
Ifrit x1.5 to brave points.
My friend likes him but I hardly use him. Personal preference perhaps.
The different battlegrounds also play a significant role in a match. Some places are good for some characters while some are not. This adds another complexity in a game. For example, Mateus seems to be very weak as his attacks are 'useless' and his strongest magic takes forever to charge. But in his own castle (with many walls and partitions), he can easily glide and hide in between the walls while casting his magic. And once succesful, poof, the enemy cannot evade his big giant meteor. The narrow alleys also provide little space to evade and this helps his trap attacks to thrive. The stage also can be boon or bane like there are suddenly giant thorns appear from the ground or the stage changes shape.
Replayability/Features
This is my second most important factor to love a game. The fact that I played this for a continuous 120+ days (4 months!!) says it all. Haha.. The game boasts 22 playable characters with distinct fighting styles. Something I didn't expect because in RPG, all characters seem to have same/similar sets of skills rite? Haha.. Unlike other fighting games where a few characters are made very strong and another few are made very weak, each character here has his/her own strong and bad points. Hence, I can play endlessly to try every character, each with different skills and playstyle. Example: I love Squall. He can spam strings of brave attacks but unfortunately he has NO brave -> hp attacks combo. To make things worse, his hp attacks are directional. So the opponents have advantage with more rooms to evade. Thus I can easily collect brave points with Squall, but it is hard for me to hit a hp attack (to kill opponent). In contrast, Terra and Ultimecia are magic users and hence people will think they are quite lousy in this game. They are not weak! It is just their style is defensive attacks. Thus it takes lots of patience to use magic users. But winning is possible. And their attack animations (magic) are much cooler than physical attacks lol..
Squall's brave attacks are brutal.. So many hits in one skill!
It is very cool to play the antagonists too. And it is great that SquareEnix does not neglect them. They get same number of attacks with the protagonists. In fact, some of the antagonists are nicer to play than the good guys. Lol.. I especially love Ultimecia and Cloud of Darkness. It's the skills and not the clothes okay! Though clothes do make a little benefit here LOL. And all characters are given alternate clothes. Too bad that most of it is just different 'colour scheme' instead of a brand new clothes. Tidus, Gabranth, and Shantoto's costumes colour difference is almost unnoticable -__-"
Cloud of Darkness (left) and Ultimecia (right)
The attacks for each characters are different and stay true to their original games. Example: Firion can use 12 kinds of weapons since in FF2, players can customise the characters in any way they like: can equip any magic and any weapon. That's why Firion is mentioned as "master of 12 kinds of weapons". Even more great for the antagonist since in the original games, they don't have that many attacks. For this, specially named skills are made for them!. Ultimecia has a "Time Crush" skill to freeze the enemy. That suits her as she is a time sorceress in FF8. Hoho..
In addition, each character is given a limit break (EX mode in the context of this game). Prior to FF, there is no limit break, so new creations were done. I guess the limit breaks for characters who previously had none is only so-so. The limit breaks of the antagonists 'mirror' those of the protagonist. Perhaps it is to reduce new ideas but it makes the gameplay to execute the limits more identical, which is good in my opinion.
Ultimecia's Limit Break. Similar to Squall's. Just that she had 13 "bullets" at much faster rate. Much harder to execute!
O instead of R1 as the trigger.
Ultimecia vs Squall in EX mode
Chaos, the god of discord.
Reigning from distant realms, the two gods had gathered warriors from all lands to lead them in savage war.
Cosmos and Chaos were of equal strength.
It was believed that the conflict would last forever.
But----
(Dissidia: Final Fantasy Prologue)
Graphics
The most important feature for me to be interested in a game. Hoho.. I was impressed by the opening movie and though I am a bit disappointed by the lack of CG events in the game, the graphic (even during the fighting scenes) is just impressive. The person looks like a person, no pixels seen whatsoever. A treat for the eyes. Hoho..
A cutscene in the game (but this is not the CG event that I like).
My favourite female character in the game :p
See the details even during battle.
Squall still looks cool as ever.
Squall still looks cool as ever.
I actually love the effect of broken/smashed stones/pillars in the battle stages. Hehe.. Unfortunately, the stage can 'heal' itself. Bleah.. It will be my ideal game if the stage keeps the damages. It will be cool to see the damages done after a long battle.
Gameplay
It is not easy as it is not a typical fighting game where you just hit the enemy until he/she dies. Here, you have to amass enough brave points before you can do damage to the HP (hit points of the enemy). At the beginning, I thought it is very hard. But after playing, this feature actually 'balances' the power. Hoho.. It is not always the 'stronger' or 'better' player will win. Add the summons and it makes the results of the battles more unguessable. Players must play carefully and strategically since spamming cheap skills repeatedly will not work. The battle can go on forever as the fighters keep transferring their brave points.
Airborne fight.. Yihaa...
Most fighting games pride themselves as "3D". I will call this "4D". The fourth D refers to the aerial battle. It adds more fun and more rooms for manouvers and dodging. It also adds the complexity since opponent has more directions to evade our attacks. I would say that most of the battle is done air-borne and that makes a different with other fighting game.
The difficulty of the game is quite tough. I do not expect much from a fighting game (usually fighting game becomes too boring after you read the AI patterns etc). This is not the case for Dissidia. The AI is too smart (sometimes, I feel that they can read what I do even before I do the attack), the AI behaves like human players (if I play too defensively, the computer can spam their long distance magic), and the computers are too overpowered. Lol.. The leveling (ala RPG) system does not really help since it is the level of the equipment is what really matters. And at the start when players have unlocked few equipments, it just makes the game harder to beat. But after you get nice equipments, things are more even. But just as we think that "hmm i have all the ultimate weapons", the game offer crazy things with enemies with level up to 130. The max level players can have is 100. And somehow, even with the same level 100 equipments, the 30 level difference is significant, only if it is the computer who is 30 levels higher! If player is 30 levels higher than the computer, it makes little difference. This "unfairness" sometimes make the game very irritating! Lol.. Though on the other side, it never gives player the feeling of "completely beaten the game".
While the characters are well-balanced (read below), the summons are not so. Some summons are just too good (eg: Magic Pot is everyone's favourite) while some are just useless (eg: Mog's random effect, I hardly use Iron Giant, Ultima Weapon's is too slow to be activated, etc). However, when I see the AI uses the various summons, every summon is actually pretty good. But some are just good when AI uses them.. when players use them, they are just not so playable. Lol.
Ifrit x1.5 to brave points.
My friend likes him but I hardly use him. Personal preference perhaps.
The different battlegrounds also play a significant role in a match. Some places are good for some characters while some are not. This adds another complexity in a game. For example, Mateus seems to be very weak as his attacks are 'useless' and his strongest magic takes forever to charge. But in his own castle (with many walls and partitions), he can easily glide and hide in between the walls while casting his magic. And once succesful, poof, the enemy cannot evade his big giant meteor. The narrow alleys also provide little space to evade and this helps his trap attacks to thrive. The stage also can be boon or bane like there are suddenly giant thorns appear from the ground or the stage changes shape.
Replayability/Features
This is my second most important factor to love a game. The fact that I played this for a continuous 120+ days (4 months!!) says it all. Haha.. The game boasts 22 playable characters with distinct fighting styles. Something I didn't expect because in RPG, all characters seem to have same/similar sets of skills rite? Haha.. Unlike other fighting games where a few characters are made very strong and another few are made very weak, each character here has his/her own strong and bad points. Hence, I can play endlessly to try every character, each with different skills and playstyle. Example: I love Squall. He can spam strings of brave attacks but unfortunately he has NO brave -> hp attacks combo. To make things worse, his hp attacks are directional. So the opponents have advantage with more rooms to evade. Thus I can easily collect brave points with Squall, but it is hard for me to hit a hp attack (to kill opponent). In contrast, Terra and Ultimecia are magic users and hence people will think they are quite lousy in this game. They are not weak! It is just their style is defensive attacks. Thus it takes lots of patience to use magic users. But winning is possible. And their attack animations (magic) are much cooler than physical attacks lol..
Squall's brave attacks are brutal.. So many hits in one skill!
It is very cool to play the antagonists too. And it is great that SquareEnix does not neglect them. They get same number of attacks with the protagonists. In fact, some of the antagonists are nicer to play than the good guys. Lol.. I especially love Ultimecia and Cloud of Darkness. It's the skills and not the clothes okay! Though clothes do make a little benefit here LOL. And all characters are given alternate clothes. Too bad that most of it is just different 'colour scheme' instead of a brand new clothes. Tidus, Gabranth, and Shantoto's costumes colour difference is almost unnoticable -__-"
Cloud of Darkness (left) and Ultimecia (right)
The attacks for each characters are different and stay true to their original games. Example: Firion can use 12 kinds of weapons since in FF2, players can customise the characters in any way they like: can equip any magic and any weapon. That's why Firion is mentioned as "master of 12 kinds of weapons". Even more great for the antagonist since in the original games, they don't have that many attacks. For this, specially named skills are made for them!. Ultimecia has a "Time Crush" skill to freeze the enemy. That suits her as she is a time sorceress in FF8. Hoho..
In addition, each character is given a limit break (EX mode in the context of this game). Prior to FF, there is no limit break, so new creations were done. I guess the limit breaks for characters who previously had none is only so-so. The limit breaks of the antagonists 'mirror' those of the protagonist. Perhaps it is to reduce new ideas but it makes the gameplay to execute the limits more identical, which is good in my opinion.
Ultimecia's Limit Break. Similar to Squall's. Just that she had 13 "bullets" at much faster rate. Much harder to execute!
O instead of R1 as the trigger.
Ultimecia vs Squall in EX mode
Thus, each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. Players have to adapt to the different characters and that does not bore me out. However, my main disappointment is with Bartz (FF5). He is assigned to no specific job in the original game and he can do all the jobs available there. Hence in Dissidia, he is a given a "Mime" job. His skills are merely copycats of the rest -___-, albeit with his own flavour. To me, miming is just a sign of "no more ideas". Lol.. Thought his limit shows him wielding the various swords of the other characters! Haha..
Bartz is seen with Squall's Gunblade and Cloud's Buster Sword
Dissidia also has endless features for player to keep on playing: lists of accomplishments to do, lists of items to collect, etc. I complete 100% of item collection but only 96% for accomplishements. I still need to block another 5000 attacks and evade few more hundreds. -__- Kinda tough.. But that will still keep me playing again to complete all the accomplishments and thus getting all the icons. Lol.
Online PVP is a useless feature to me. It is good to play versus with a friend. But the artifact system is just lousy and pointless. This brings me to the equipments. Various equipment sets can have special effects. However, just like summon, some are too good (eg: Diamond set for AP+100%, Snowpetal and Adamant Set for end-game users) while some are too lousy for players to bother to use them (eg: Gold set for more money and money is not so much used in the game). I guess more variety will be better. To make matters worse, while initially each character can only wear specific equipment types, there will be items to learn skills which enable each character to wear their non-default equipment types. These make everyone just wears the same set. Another weakness to me.
Storyline
The story is just bad... poor... pathetic.... A big disappointment for FF series which have always been renowned for impeccable storylines. Dissidia is just a fighting game. And a fighting game never has solid story lines. Lol.. It is just a good vs evil. The good's objective is clear: to defeat the badasses and save the world. But the evil's objective is weird. Each antagonist follows their purpose in their original games (eg: Cloud of Darkness and Ex-Death want to send the world to the Void, Ultimecia wants a time compression, Mateus aims for world dominion, Jecht and Golbez seem to have no purpose and are just there so that at least FF10 and FF4 have representatives) and when they are discussing their plans, it just does not make sense. How can one wants to rule the world while another one who wants to destroy the world work together? If the world is already destroyed, is there a world to be ruled? Lame.. The protagonists' plot is equally bad. What is the point of collecting crystals? And what is the purpose of Cosmos to die and in the secret ending, she is shown to be alive? I am confused. Lol..
Hence, just enjoy the game for the fighting. Don't bother about the story okay! Haha.. Though I wish that they make a story mode for the antagonists too. That would be pretty cool eh?
Music
Not my main concern. I am too consumed with the fights and do not really pay attention to the music. Lol.. 2 songs from each game are featured here. One noticable song is the ending song: a medley of all the theme songs. Cool!
Overall
My biggest complaint is: WHY IS THE ENDING SCENE SO SHORT?? I did nothing at the start of the game and I was treated by almost 6 minutes of action-packed movie. After spending hours and days and weeks of playing, why is the ending only about 2 minutes movie? I wish for something more satisfying for my hardwork to beat the game leh! And the ending is kinda anti-climatic. It is quite sad because everyone has to say goodbye to return to their own worlds. There should be a better ending!!
Overall, I think Dissidia is the best fighting game I have played so far. It is also the best PSP game I have played so far. Lol. I don't even think I played FF8 (my favourite game ever and that explains why I deliberately pick lots of Squall pictures here) as long as Dissidia. This game is the reason why I bought PSP and it justifies the money that I paid for it!
Tidus' Ending Scene
Squall's Ending Scene
Terra's Ending Scene
Cecil's Ending Scene
Final Ending Scene.. Back to Cornelia Castle. The city where Final Fantasy begins ^^
Bartz is seen with Squall's Gunblade and Cloud's Buster Sword
Dissidia also has endless features for player to keep on playing: lists of accomplishments to do, lists of items to collect, etc. I complete 100% of item collection but only 96% for accomplishements. I still need to block another 5000 attacks and evade few more hundreds. -__- Kinda tough.. But that will still keep me playing again to complete all the accomplishments and thus getting all the icons. Lol.
Online PVP is a useless feature to me. It is good to play versus with a friend. But the artifact system is just lousy and pointless. This brings me to the equipments. Various equipment sets can have special effects. However, just like summon, some are too good (eg: Diamond set for AP+100%, Snowpetal and Adamant Set for end-game users) while some are too lousy for players to bother to use them (eg: Gold set for more money and money is not so much used in the game). I guess more variety will be better. To make matters worse, while initially each character can only wear specific equipment types, there will be items to learn skills which enable each character to wear their non-default equipment types. These make everyone just wears the same set. Another weakness to me.
Storyline
The story is just bad... poor... pathetic.... A big disappointment for FF series which have always been renowned for impeccable storylines. Dissidia is just a fighting game. And a fighting game never has solid story lines. Lol.. It is just a good vs evil. The good's objective is clear: to defeat the badasses and save the world. But the evil's objective is weird. Each antagonist follows their purpose in their original games (eg: Cloud of Darkness and Ex-Death want to send the world to the Void, Ultimecia wants a time compression, Mateus aims for world dominion, Jecht and Golbez seem to have no purpose and are just there so that at least FF10 and FF4 have representatives) and when they are discussing their plans, it just does not make sense. How can one wants to rule the world while another one who wants to destroy the world work together? If the world is already destroyed, is there a world to be ruled? Lame.. The protagonists' plot is equally bad. What is the point of collecting crystals? And what is the purpose of Cosmos to die and in the secret ending, she is shown to be alive? I am confused. Lol..
Hence, just enjoy the game for the fighting. Don't bother about the story okay! Haha.. Though I wish that they make a story mode for the antagonists too. That would be pretty cool eh?
Music
Not my main concern. I am too consumed with the fights and do not really pay attention to the music. Lol.. 2 songs from each game are featured here. One noticable song is the ending song: a medley of all the theme songs. Cool!
Overall
My biggest complaint is: WHY IS THE ENDING SCENE SO SHORT?? I did nothing at the start of the game and I was treated by almost 6 minutes of action-packed movie. After spending hours and days and weeks of playing, why is the ending only about 2 minutes movie? I wish for something more satisfying for my hardwork to beat the game leh! And the ending is kinda anti-climatic. It is quite sad because everyone has to say goodbye to return to their own worlds. There should be a better ending!!
Overall, I think Dissidia is the best fighting game I have played so far. It is also the best PSP game I have played so far. Lol. I don't even think I played FF8 (my favourite game ever and that explains why I deliberately pick lots of Squall pictures here) as long as Dissidia. This game is the reason why I bought PSP and it justifies the money that I paid for it!
Tidus' Ending Scene
Squall's Ending Scene
Terra's Ending Scene
Cecil's Ending Scene
Final Ending Scene.. Back to Cornelia Castle. The city where Final Fantasy begins ^^
2 comments:
oh boy. I want to play this game. Dah lama kepengen maen sbagai sephiroth!! haha
sephiroth keren lho!!! walaupun gw ga demen dia (basically gw ga demen ff7), jurus dia di game asik2.. jadi maininnya asik ^^
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