Garland (Final Fantasy)/Dissidia (PSP)

Garland is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy, a man consumed by battle and conflict. He wields a large sword that can freely transform into various weapons, from destructive axes to twin blades. Due to his connection to Chaos, Garland is one of the higher-ranked villains of the game. His seeming position as Chaos' right-hand warrior can be seen as analogous to the one his rival, Warrior of Light, has with Cosmos.

Attire
Garland's original outfit is based on his in-game sprite artwork from Final Fantasy. His alternate outfit colors his cape burgundy and his armor gold, to resemble Garland's battle sprites in the remakes of Final Fantasy. Garland's Manikin version, False Stalwart, is blue.

Garland's sword appears to be entirely original. It is a crushing weapon that is capable of taking versatile forms. In addition to the default "greatsword" form in which it is regularly carried in, it is able to transform into an axe (by folding the blade forward), twin swords (by removing a smaller portion of the back of the blade), a lance (by extending the plated portion of the blade), and a chained whip-like form, where the blade and the hilt are connected only by interconnected rings.

Destiny Odyssey
After the Warrior of Light promised Cosmos that he and the others would find the Crystals, Garland arrives suddenly and challenges him. After Garland was defeated, he tells the Warrior that the fight was pointless and fades away, leaving the Warrior confused. Believing that Garland was dead, the Warrior journeys on while Garland is confronted by Ultimecia, knowing his ties to Chaos, convinces Garland to ally with her against Squall, and the two eventually corner Squall and plan to attack him at once. However, Zidane appears and tackles Garland aside to fight him off as Squall faces Ultimecia, with Garland taking his leave as he mockingly thanks Zidane for giving him a decent practice for his eventual fight with the Warrior of Light. Garland later relays to Kuja by explaining that his cruel fate is like the others, spurring on Kuja's goal to prove himself superior to the other villains.

Soon after the Warrior of Light defeats The Emperor, Garland appears before the startled Warrior, alive and well, and tells the Warrior to follow him. At the Chaos Shrine of Time, Garland told the Warrior that the reason he came back to life was because of Chaos, and as long as Cosmos and Chaos are alive, the never-ending struggle with good and evil will be endless. Though the Warrior of Light bested Garland again, Garland laughed at the victor, claiming once again that the battle was worthless, and soon vanishes, saying that even after the Warrior's victory, the war will rage on.

Shade Impulse
After Cosmos's death at the hands of Chaos, Garland oversees his god's slumber. While doing so, he meets with Golbez and Sephiroth, each of them providing meaningful words that Garland relucantly decides to ignore because of his eventual fate. When Chaos awakens and describes a peculiar dream in which he governed the world harmoniously with Cosmos, Garland reveals to Chaos that such was the way things were before the conflict between harmony and disorder, and that he himself had instigated the conflict in accordance to the Great Will. While revealing that the Great Will brought him to the realm, Garland reveals that he is predestined to be sent 2,000 years into the past by Chaos where he becomes the god of discord himself — Garland and Chaos are one and the same, their meeting and Garland's actions in the war actually serve as a paradox to ensure the birth of Chaos and the resulting destruction to occur once Cosmos is killed.

Though Garland is ultimately defeated by the warriors as he challenged them and revealed his future self's intent, he is confident that Chaos's plan will come to fruition while explaining to the warriors that his soul will live on to find another cycle once the world is gone. Garland then fades away into the past to fulfill his task, saying he will meet the warriors again someday in the afterworld.

Battle
In battle, Garland is described as a "Nemesis", and uses his huge sword to crush opponents with powerful attacks, transforming the blade into various different forms as he fights. Some of his attacks vary depending on the timing of the button inputs, allowing Garland to chain his attacks together depending on when the button is pressed during his attack. A drawback is that Garland is a slow ground mover, and his sword drags along the ground.

Boss
Garland is fought in Destiny Odyssey I and IX, Shade Impulse, Distant Glory, and Inward Chaos.

EX Mode
thumb|300px|right|Soul of Chaos Garland's EX Mode Class Change consists of a color swap into silver armor with a white cape, and new helmet details. The overall appearance is meant to symbolize Garland's appearance as a heroic knight before he turned to evil. While in EX Mode, Garland's health will regenerate over time and won't be knocked back by enemy attacks(except by an HP attack) while he's in the middle of executing attacks of his own.

In his EX Burst, Soul of Chaos, Garland charges himself with evil power, and unleashes a series of attacks that utilize all five forms of his weapon. To execute it perfectly, the player must press the button repeatedly to charge a gauge up to its maximum within a time limit. A visual distortion and a chiming sound indicate each level of power attained; no levels mean one attack, two levels mean three attacks, etc.

Equipment
Garland is able to equip Greatswords, Katanas, Spears, Axes, Shields, Gauntlets, Helms, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor.

Allusions

 * At the start of Destiny Odyssey I-5, Garland's quote "You will meet your end here, and I will live forever!" is based on what he says in Final Fantasy before the final battle after transforming into Chaos.
 * In his battle dialogue with Kuja, the two make reference to Kuja's antagonistic relationship with the Garland of Final Fantasy IX. Garland says, "I sense you are haunted by your fate," to Kuja, referring to the mortality Garland placed upon Kuja. His dialogue to Zidane, "I will erase you and your soul," refers to when the Garland of Final Fantasy IX attempted to destroy Zidane and take back the soul he had given him.
 * Garland's introduction to Tidus is, "Better you fall down fate's spiral," referring to Sin's cycle of destruction and rebirth in Final Fantasy X. While Garland embraces the cycle he is trapped in, Tidus rejected his and found a way to end it by destroying Sin for good. His quote to Jecht, "Another prisoner of fate," likewise refers to how Jecht became trapped within the cycle as Garland did, when he transformed into Sin.
 * Garland's EX Burst is named after the Soul of Chaos dungeons in the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary editions of Final Fantasy. His three exclusive weapons are all weapons found in the Whisperwind Cove, another bonus dungeon in the aforementioned releases, and are named after a subset of axes that do additional damage to giant-type enemies.
 * Garland is the only villain fought twice in the same storyline. He is fought as a boss both at the beginning of Destiny reveiling lights of Final Fantasy.
 * When fighting Ultimecia, Garland references his crossing 2000 years into the past: “I shall even conquer time!”
 * In Garland's conversation with Chaos in Shade Impulse, he states that he was sent 2000 years into the past to become Chaos himself, directly paralleling his actions in Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy, Garland says he will lose all memory of the past in 2000 years, reflected in Chaos' amnesia in Dissidia.
 * When facing the Emperor he'll say, "Authority means nothing in battle!" referencing that he was the most trusted knight but then betrayed the king. Golbez also references this when he faces Garland, commenting, "A pitiful knight who knows no honor."
 * Garland's HP attacks are named for the series of four powerful elemental attacks used by Chaos in the final fight of Final Fantasy. Each correspond to one of the Four Elemental Fiends, and each use a different form of Garland's weapon. Earthquake uses the axe form, Blaze uses the twin-swords form, Tsunami uses the chain-whip form, and Cyclone uses the lance form.
 * Garland's fighting pose is the same pose he takes right before fighting the Warriors of Cosmos in the opening FMV.
 * Garland has two lines in battle, "I'll crush you!" and "I'll smash you into pieces!", both of which are similar to his famous quote, "I, Garland, will knock you all down!" In particular, Garland cries "I'll crush you!" while using his "Bardiche" attack, in which he transforms his sword into an axe and uses it to slam the opponent downwards. In addition, in the opening FMV, he knocks Cloud down after the latter charges at him by hitting Cloud upside his head.

Trivia

 * Tetsuya Nomura has stated that, because there were only in-game sprites to draw from, he had trouble designing Garland as a character, as in essence, it was designing a new character rather than redesigning an old one. However, Nomura is still pleased with the result and is fond of Garland.
 * In the opening FMV, Garland fights more heroes than any other villain.
 * Garland might be the tallest character in the side of Chaos, probably even taller than Exdeath and Golbez themselves, although it cannot be determined so easily due to his fighting pose in the game. In the opening FMV, it is seen that Garland is taller than any of them, although it could be due to the distance between his allies.
 * Garland's sword is also the largest weapon out of all the characters, even larger than Cloud's sword and Jecht's sword, and can also extend for a range even longer than Sephiroth's sword.
 * The sample voices that the player can purchase for Garland in the PP Catalog are of him speaking the names of the Four Fiends and additionally, Chaos.
 * Coincidentally, both of Garland's voice actors (English and Japanese) also voiced Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * Unless one considers Garland and Chaos in Final Fantasy the same being, Garland is the only villain in Dissidia that uses absolutely no moves used by his original counterpart. This is because in Final Fantasy, Garland used nothing but normal physical attacks and had no special attacks to speak of. He is also the only villain whose EX Mode is entirely original and not based on an ability or form from his original game.
 * Garland's sword, which can extend on a chain and split into two, has been interpreted by some as a vague reference to "sword-chucks," a running gag in 8-Bit Theater. Sword-chucks as seen in the comic are simply two swords connected by a chain at the hilts.
 * Garland is plagued by a graphical error. While in his EX Mode, Normal form, the texture for Garland's eyes is mistakenly placed on his smaller set of horns. While in his Alternate form, his EX Mode does not have the same problem.
 * Other than his HP Attacks, his sword attacks also referenced the Four Fiends. The axe represents Lich's physical prowess, the Twin Swords represents Marilith's sword mastery, the Lance represents Tiamat's multiple necks, and a Chained Whip represents Kraken's tentacles.