Chaos (Final Fantasy)/Dissidia



Chaos is the main antagonist of Dissidia Final Fantasy. He is the god of destruction that opposes Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, both being equal in power. However, Chaos summons villains from other worlds to seize control of the Crystals, tipping the balance of power in his favor and setting the stage for the events of the game.

Chaos is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the Japanese release, and Keith David in the English release.

Appearance
Chaos' appearance is based on his original artwork by Yoshitaka Amano. He appears as a four-arm fiend in dark and red hues, with wings sprouting from his back and a demonic face with large horns. He also has an alternate form that can be changed to in battle, which is a palette swap based on the in-game sprite from the original Final Fantasy. In the opening FMV, he takes the form of a creature made of magma, emerging from the earth, in contrast to the cloudy form of Cosmos in the same cutscene.

Shade Impulse
After the ten Warriors of Cosmos retrieve the crystals, they return to Order's Sanctuary as she takes them the Brink of Madness where Chaos himself appears and incinerates the goddess before the eyes of the heroes. But given tentative time by Cosmos' gambit, the warriors have final chance to strike back at Chaos and end the war for good.

As the heroes journey to Chaos and strike down the other villains who are now acting their own agendas, it is revealed that Chaos, like the other characters, has no memories of the previous cycles of the war. However, he admits to Garland that he had a dream of a world where he suppressed disorder, and ruled this happy world alongside Cosmos, though he cannot understand what this dream means. Garland then reveals to Chaos that he was the one who guided him to begin the war in order to perfect Chaos' power, and that Chaos will send Garland into the past to become Chaos himself. Garland also claims he did this to serve the purposes of the "Great Will", though he does not say why.

After Garland is sent back into time to remain the cycle from his position, Chaos begins to be overwhelmed as he regains the lost memories of the world's inhabitants, giving him true understanding of the cycle of war. Contacted by an unknown entity, Chaos is given the power of Shinryu to end the cycle in his victory, and purge all existence.

Shortly after this, the Warriors of Cosmos arrive at Chaos' throne, having dispatched the villains. In a final battle, Chaos is defeated, and the warriors return to their own worlds as the god is consumed in fire.

Battle
In battle, Chaos is described as The Master of Bedlam, and fights with long, powerful fire and earth-themed combos that do massive damage. Due to his sheer size, and the small size of the "Edge of Madness" area, even his melee strikes have considerable range. However, his attacks can still be dodged, and several leave him vulnerable to counter-attack. Chaos has access to the unique summon Shinryu, which can activate one of several random effects and can be summoned multiple times in one battle. He has no EX Mode, but can pick up EX Cores and EX Force. Chaos can also dash, dodge and block like all other characters.

Boss
Chaos is fought as boss twice, as the final boss of both Shade Impulse and Inward Chaos, as well as for a third time in the Time Attack sub-mode in Arcade Mode. In any battle, Chaos must be defeated three times in succession for the player to win. During the third phase of the battle, Chaos' attacks augment in power and grow stronger.

Music
Chaos has his own theme, with vocals, included in the game, titled Chaos. The band "Your Favorite Enemies" performs this song for the game.

Allusions

 * Chaos' eventual madness in Shade Impulse is a reference to the Ivalice summon Chaos. His ultimate attack "Brink of Delusion", involves four swords that stab the arena in a manner similar to the Chaos of Ivalice.
 * The final blow of "Utter Chaos" is called "Brink of Delusion", a synonym for Final Fantasy. The white circles of energy that appear during the attack resemble the portal of energy that consumes Chaos upon his defeat in Final Fantasy.
 * When the Warriors of Cosmos confront Chaos on his throne, he is sitting in the same pose as Yoshitaka Amano's original artwork of Chaos in Final Fantasy.
 * In several instances during the story, Chaos's eyes flash in the same way his eyes flash while using Blaze, Tsunami, Tornado or Earthquake in the later remakes of Final Fantasy. The attack he used to kill Cosmos, as well as the lava-like background from the Edge of Madness stage, is very similar to his Blaze attack from the Dawn of Souls release.
 * Chaos' amnesia of the past cycles of the war is a reference to Garland's words from Final Fantasy before he transforms into Chaos, where he states he will forget his memories after 2000 years.

Trivia

 * Although Chaos' official artwork depicts him facing to the right, as the artwork of the other villains do, his logo artwork and in-game character icon face to the left, as the artwork of the heroes do.
 * Chaos is the only character to be fought three times in succession.
 * When fighting Chaos, the player is not allowed to save replays of the fight.
 * Though he is not a playable character, Chaos can be played using hacks. There are a few problems with this though - Chaos has no victory pose, no EX Mode, while using him the opponent's HP bar will not appear, and when using his "Utter Chaos" attack in an arena other than Edge of Madness the camera angles will swing through and inside the arena floor and walls.
 * After completing Shade Impulse, the player can purchase Chaos in the PP Catalog to fight him in Quick Battle mode and Arcade mode. However, like the Shade Impulse and Inward Chaos battles, Chaos can only be fought at Edge of Madness and the save replay function is not available.