Exdeath/Dissidia (PSP)

Exdeath is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. Once a tree living within the sentient Great Forest of Moore, he is a warlock who controls the power of the "Void", a nothingness that can swallow space in seconds. His movements are slow, but he can use his teleportation ability to instantly close in on his enemies. Exdeath is allied with Kefka, Kuja, and the Cloud of Darkness, and the four work together to destroy the world. With Kuja's assistance, he seeks to trap and combat his rival, Bartz, who often flees from him.

While Bartz is his rival in the original Dissidia, his main rival in the 012 storyline is Kain.

Attire
Exdeath's appearance in Dissidia is virtually unchanged from his Amano artwork and in-game battle sprite in Final Fantasy V. Exdeath wears a sky blue suit of armor with a horned helmet, spiked shoulders, and a long blue cape. His helmet is topped with a two-ended plume and has a thin opening. His armor is decorated with jewels, gold trim, and beads. Although he is a warlock, Exdeath also carries a sword with him.

In his first alternate costume "Santalum Robe", Exdeath's armor is colored a lighter blue-green shade, based on the sprite of Exdeath's Soul, a palette swap of him faced in Final Fantasy V.

Exdeath's second alternate outfit "Ebony Robe" is based on Yoshitaka Amano's artwork of Neo Exdeath. He has a yellow and blue cape and white skin, revealing gold-lined black armour with yellow sashes around his waist connected to a blue gemstone. Exdeath has a demonic face, gray hair, and curved yellow horns with fin-like appendages emerging from their bases. His EX Mode is based on the front, humanoid portion of Neo Exdeath's sprite. The gold colorings on his armour turn brown, his hair is brown and styled differently, his cape is purple, and his horns turn red and grow larger.

Exdeath's manikin version, Fallacious Tree, is cyan.

Story
During one of the previous cycles of conflict, revealed in an Official Quest available for the japanese version of Dissidia 012, Exdeath confronted his former minion Gilgamesh who apparently had forgot about him until a series of matches jogs his memory as Exdeath is defeated. However, Gilgamesh is sucked back into the Rift as Exdeath states that his former lackey will never be free of his fate and should just accept it.

Twelfth cycle
Prior to the 12th conflict, Exdeath found the portal that unleashed the manikins into World B. In addition, he regained most of his memories, although he sees no point in divulging them when the other heroes don't remember. Exdeath appears with Garland at the Chaos Shrine, shortly after Lightning's battle with Kain, as well as hints at Bartz not being the first Warrior of Cosmos that Kain betrayed. He decides to pursue Kain to learn the location of his allies. He later appears before Kain and after battling him, conjures several manikins of him to attack him.

Later, with Golbez, he appears before the surviving warriors of Cosmos, telling them that the level of manikins is low in the area, realizing that they are going to attack Cosmos, they hurry to stop them, but Kain stays behind. His control over the manikins also ended up nullified by Golbez, causing him to realize that Golbez has betrayed them as he is forced to fight Kain. Defeated, Exdeath gloats to Kain that he will find nothing but a complete demise with his allies as he fades away.

Thirteenth cycle
Exdeath makes an appearance before Onion Knight and Terra while they are searching for the their Crystals, seeking someone to fight to alleviate his boredom. The Onion Knight is intimidated by Exdeath and meekly asks him to leave them alone, claiming they are too weak to be worthy opponents. Exdeath agrees to spare them, but warns the Onion Knight that cowards will not find the Crystals. Exdeath meets with Kefka shortly after, telling him that Terra acts of her own will now and likely will not be swayed back to Chaos's side.

Exdeath later finds Golbez speaking to his younger brother, Cecil, telling him about the Crystals. With Exdeath intent to execute Golbez for his treachery, Cecil defends his brother and defeats Exdeath, claiming Golbez is different from him. Exdeath laughs and says that light and darkness share the same root, and departs.

Under Kefka's suggestion, Kuja recruits Exdeath to assist him in their plans for Bartz and Zidane. Exdeath weaves a fake Crystal and leaves it for Bartz to find. Though he finds Golbez interfering, Exdeath lets it past as he reveals his goal is a "true ending" to the conflict After Zidane is teleported away by the fake Crystal, Exdeath confronts Bartz and Squall as they run off as he conjures manikins to attack them. Exdeath pursues the two to the Interdimensional Rift, where Bartz engages him in combat and wins. Exdeath fades away, and Bartz's Crystal manifests from his Chocobo feather good luck charm.

With Cosmos destroyed, the heroes come across Exdeath in the rift, who compliments the Crystals' strength. Exdeath tells the heroes the power of the Crystals is the power of Cosmos herself: it was their collecting of the Crystals that allowed Chaos to destroy her though the Crystals' power of having then survive Cosmos's death. After being defeated, Exdeath fades into nothingness, delighting in his true demise while declaring that the Warriors will follow suit soon enough.

Official Quests
During the 12th cycle, in "Lightning's Quest 012: One Can Fight Together", Exdeath attacks Lightning while she is musing over the memories stirred by Firion's wild rose, mocking her reliance on a flower to regain her memories. Yuna assists Lightning in defeating Exdeath, who retreats. In "Sephiroth's Quest 012: The Hero's Memory" Exdeath tells Sephiroth that the manikins are hollow shells found in the Rift, information that motivates Sephiroth to kill himself to determine the true nature of the cycle and the purification of fallen warriors. Exdeath is also briefly mentioned in "Kain's Quest 012: A Dragoon's Betrayal", when Kain thinks that his plan to defeat Lightning and put her to sleep has to be delayed, as Exdeath's pursuit runs the risk he will be followed to where he is keeping the other defeated warriors safe.

During an unspecified cycle in "Gilgamesh's Quest 000: End of a Hero's Delusion", Gilgamesh re-enters World B and begins looking for Bartz again. Finding Exdeath, Gilgamesh struggles to remember him and comes to think Exdeath is Enkidu, and Gilgamesh joyfully battles his "old friend" to celebrate the reunion. However, Gilgamesh's memories soon return, and Exdeath mocks his amnesia. They battle again, and afterwards Gilgamesh is consumed by the Rift again, Exdeath declaring it is a suitable fate for him.

Battle
In battle, Exdeath is described as an Entropic Adversary. Exdeath's offensive Bravery attacks are slow and weak, but rather than be aggressive, Exdeath uses several powerful guards to block opposing attacks and launch swift, powerful counterattacks. Exdeath's guard attacks vary in effectiveness, but overall he can block almost any attack. Exdeath is also able to teleport, which somewhat compensates for his slow movement. His HP attack Delta Attack doubles as another blocking attack, and his other two HP attacks are usable as counterattacks.

All of Exdeath's guard attacks have the same counterattacks, and he is able to use any of his counterattacks when guarding regardless of if he has them equipped as normal attacks or not. When using any of the following counterattacks, Exdeath attacks much quicker than if he used them as normal attacks. In Dissidia 012, Exdeath can cancel any of his HP attacks into his guard attacks, and can combo Reverse Polarity into one of his counterattacks if it damages the opponent.


 * [[File:Circle-button.png]] - Hurricane
 * Towards Opponent + [[File:Circle-button.png]] - Sword Dance (Can be used twice)
 * Away from Opponent + [[File:Circle-button.png]] - Vacuum Wave (Can be used twice)
 * [[File:Square-button.png]] - Almagest
 * Away from Opponent + [[File:Square-button.png]] - Grand Cross

Boss
In Dissidia, Exdeath is fought in Destiny Odyssey IV and V, Shade Impulse, Distant Glory, and Inward Chaos.

In Dissidia 012, he is fought in Indiscernible Truth, Report #6, Guidance of the Moon, A Treasure Hunt, and Conclusion of the Cycle chapters of Story Mode.

EX Mode
The laws of the universe mean nothing! qKNaeM7Z29E Exdeath's EX Mode is Power of the Void, and is his tree form as seen in the second to last battle of Final Fantasy V. While in EX Mode Exdeath gains the ability "Speed Guard." This decreases the recovery time from his guard attacks and lets him perform twice as many counterattacks when he successfully blocks an attack with them.

Exdeath's EX Burst is Power of the Void in Dissidia 012 - in Dissidia, his EX Burst is named The laws of the universe mean nothing!. The player must hold to reduce an energy gauge to 0% as Exdeath conjures the power of the Void around him and the opponent. If the player releases too early or too late, Exdeath will cast a more powerful version of Grand Cross. If the player releases the button exactly as the gauge hits 0%, Exdeath will use Neo Almagest, casting the opponent into the Void and sealing the entrance between his hands as the screen fades to black.

Equipment
Exdeath can equip Rods, Staves, Shields, Gauntlets, Helms, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor. In Dissidia 012, Exdeath can also equip Swords, Greatswords, and Large Shields.

Allusions

 * Exdeath's intro lines "Anger and hatred could not defeat me!" and "Prepare for the afterlife" are lines he says during his battle against Galuf in Final Fantasy V.
 * Exdeath's exclusive weapons reference Ghido, the Great Forest of Moore where Exdeath was born, and the necromancer Enuo from Final Fantasy V.
 * All of Exdeath's HP attacks, and the Bravery attacks Reverse Polarity and Vacuum Wave, are attacks that either he or Neo Exdeath use in Final Fantasy V. Sword Dance is named for the party ability of the same name. The name of his EX Burst is taken from a quote that Neo Exdeath frequently utters during the final battle.
 * Exdeath's Reverse Polarity attack takes its name from an enemy ability in the main series that changes the party members' row position. Exdeath's use of the attack to teleport further from, and closer to, his opponent, roughly reflects this same basic concept.
 * When confronting the Warriors of Cosmos at the beginning of Shade Impulse, Exdeath's line "All shall be returned to nothing, as will I...For eternity!" is based on Neo Exdeath's quote at the beginning of the final battle in Final Fantasy V: "All that is shall be returned to nothing. Then I, too, can disappear... ...forever!!!"
 * Exdeath's Victory Pose is exactly the same as his battle pose from Final Fantasy V.
 * When Exdeath begins his EX Burst, he takes a pose similar to his tree form's sprite pose, and the background appears in a circular bubble before expanding to fill the screen, similar to how the way portals to the Void appeared over towns in Final Fantasy V. His starting line, "To the silent beyond!", refers to the title of the music track in Final Fantasy V played during the cutscene after defeating Neo Exdeath.
 * In Destiny Odyssey 4 when he is defeated by Cecil he screams "Uwaaah!!!" which is his death cry when he is defeated in his tree form and absorbed by the Void.
 * Neo Almagest is not an attack that Exdeath uses in battle in his original game, but is instead identical to the way he attempts to dispatch the heroes just before the final battle; he sucks them into the Void through a black portal, and then collapses the entrance.
 * Upon reaching Level 100, an extra voice sample for Exdeath can be purchased in the PP Catalog, which features him yelling "Turtle!", a line he uttered during his battle with the turtle sage Ghido. This line sometimes replaces "To the silent beyond!" when initiating Exdeath's EX Burst. In the Japanese version, he shouts "Kame!" which instead means Tortoise. The line also functions as an unintentional pun on Exdeath's fighting style - in video gaming communities, "turtling" means to play very defensively.
 * In Dissidia 012, when using Exdeath's EX Burst on Gilgamesh, an extra line of text reading "You worthless fool!" appears as Exdeath begins to charge the attack, and the box that normally reads "Neo Almagest" is changed to read "Fall to the depths of the Rift!" Along with Exdeath's line when facing Gilgamesh, this is a reference to when Exdeath's dialogue when he banished Gilgamesh to the Void in Final Fantasy V, "You worthless fool! For your continued bungling, I banish you from this dimension!"
 * When Exdeath performs Neo Almagest, he says "Embrace the stillness of eternity". In the Game Boy Advance remake of Final Fantasy V, Enuo, who meets the party within The Void, says that "All that is sealed within this beautiful darkness is the stillness of eternity."
 * The fact that Exdeath seems to have the most control of any character over the manikins is a reference to his ability to use the rift, which is where the manikins were sealed.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version, when defeated, Exdeath references the Final Fantasy series by saying "Is this my final fantasy?". In the English versions, this line is translated as "Will I end like a mirage?".
 * Exdeath and Gilgamesh are the only two villains to come from the same world, but apart from the Japan-exclusive official quests, the two never meet.
 * Exdeath is one of two characters with the exact same set of moves in midair as on the ground. The other one is Ultimecia.
 * Counting variations of the same moves, Exdeath has the most attacks of all characters, nine Bravery attacks each for air and ground and four HP attacks each for air and ground, a total of twenty-six attacks.
 * Exdeath has the slowest movement speed of all characters by default.
 * In Dissidia, Exdeath's EX Burst is the strongest among all the villains. However, this is changed in Dissidia 012.
 * Exdeath's second alternate outfit is the first time Exdeath has been seen without his helmet in his humanoid form in the whole Final Fantasy series.
 * In Dissidia 012's remake of Shade Impulse, Exdeath is the first villain to die, replacing Kefka from the first game.
 * Exdeath's hand does not rest properly on his hip while in his second alternate outfit. This might be due to a change in size of the new alternate outfit's model.

Exdeath (Dissidia) Exdeath/Dissidia Exdeath (Dissidia)