EX Mode (term)

EX Mode is a gameplay term from Dissidia Final Fantasy. EX Mode effectively serves as Dissidia's Limit Break system, granting the user an extreme boost in power. This grants access to new abilities, including the highly powerful EX Burst.

Entering EX Mode
To enter EX Mode, players must fill up their EX Bar located next to their health meter by attacking and being attacked. Once the EX Bar is full, the player can enter EX Mode by pressing the Square and R buttons at once. Once EX Mode is entered, the EX Bar drains, and EX Mode ends when it empties. The EX Bar can also be filled by collecting items called EX Cores, which appear around the arena. Other factors may also affect when and how the EX Bar fills as well - in a trailer depicting a fight between Cloud and Sephiroth, at one point both their EX Bars fill slowly without them trading blows. While in EX Mode, players are under Regen status and will slowly regenerate health. Their appearance also changes, they gain new abilities and their attack power increases, giving them stronger attacks they would normally not have access to. In this, EX Mode can easily turn the tiding of a losing battle.

For most of Dissidia's playable cast, their EX Modes involve a transformation of theirs from their original game. For example, Sephiroth enters his "one-winged angel" form, Ultimecia fuses with Griever, Warrior of Light class-changes, Zidane enters Trance, and so forth. The fighters who do not transform - Firion, Cloud, Squall and Tidus, instead have their weapons transform into their ultimate weapons, such as Squall's Revolver into the Lion Heart, and Tidus getting the Hastega status.

EX Burst
During EX Mode, the player can execute an EX Burst, an extremely powerful attack that can inflict a great deal of damage to opponents. After connecting with a Square-button attack while in EX Mode, an icon appears on the screen. If Square is pressed again while the icon is visible the character will use their EX Burst. Once an EX Burst is triggered, there is a sequence in which the player charges up the EX Burst (the exact method varies for each fighter), followed by the attack executing. EX Bursts tend to be devastating, capable (but not guaranteed) of depleting all of an opponent's HP. Once the EX Burst is executed, EX Mode is automatically canceled.

For the games in which the Limit Break system exists, EX Bursts are based on that character's Limit Break. For example, Terra uses Riot Blade, Squall uses Renzokuken, and so forth. For the characters from games that do not have a Limit Break system, their EX Burst is more original. Cecil's EX Burst involves magic and sword slashes, Bartz's revolves around his abilities as a Mime, etc. For the villains, some of their EX Bursts are either based on their strongest attacks, like Kefka's "Light of Judgment"/"Forsaken", or Cloud of Darkness's "Super Wave Cannon", based on her "Particle Beam" move; or, in majority, entirely original, like Garland's "Soul of Chaos".

List of EX Bursts

 * Warrior of Light: Oversoul
 * Garland: Soul of Chaos
 * Firion: Fervid Blazer
 * Emperor: Absolute Rule
 * Onion Knight: Ninjutsu / Great Magic
 * Cloud of Darkness: Super Wave Cannon
 * Cecil: Double Phase
 * Golbez: Twin Moons
 * Bartz: Rapid Fire Dual-Wield Spell Blades
 * Exdeath: "The Laws of the Universe mean Nothing!"
 * Terra: Riot Blade
 * Kefka: Light of Judgment
 * Cloud: Omnislash
 * Sephiroth: Super Nova
 * Squall: Renzokuken
 * Ultimecia: Time Compression
 * Zidane: Reverse Gaia
 * Kuja: Last Requiem
 * Tidus: Blitz Ace
 * Jecht: King of the Blitz
 * Shantotto: Magic Burst
 * Gabranth: Unknown