Exdeath/Dissidia (PSP)

Exdeath is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. 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.

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.

Dissidia 012
Prior to the 12th conflict, Exdeath found the portal that unleashed the Manikins into World B. 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.

Scenario 013
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.

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.

Attacks
Bravery attacks

HP attacks Bravery attacks

HP attacks

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 is able to equip Rods, Staves, Shields, Gauntlets, Helms, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor. In Dissidia 012, Exdeath can also equip Swords, Greatswords and Great 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."

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's primary physical weapon is a sword, but he cannot equip any types of swords in Dissidia unless one buys the ability in the shop.
 * Exdeath's EX Burst actually stops the music and ends by fading the screen to black.
 * Based on their EX Bursts, as well as their opening quotes when battling each other, he and Cloud of Darkness have two opposite views of the Void, his being an all-consuming nothingness (which is why his gauge reduces to 0%) and hers being an all-powerful existence (which is why her gauge increases to 120%).
 * Exdeath is one of three characters with the exact same set of moves in midair as on the ground. The other two are Ultimecia and Kuja.
 * Exdeath has garnered memetic status due to his seeming obsession with the Void, and many of his English quotes have been misinterpreted with much more humorous meanings. Some of his Japanese lines when using attacks also take on such humorous meanings when interpreted phonetically.
 * Exdeath moves the slowest of all the characters in-game.
 * Due to his slow movement, he has become a fan favorite for level grinding.
 * Besides Black Hole, Reverse Polarity, Delta Attack amd Maelstorm Exdeath can use all of his attacks to counter an opponent after a successful block attack.
 * Exdeath's EX Burst is the strongest among all the villains.
 * Exdeath's second alternate outfit is the first time Exdeath has been seen in his humanoid form without his armor in the Final Fantasy series.
 * Although Exdeath's normal form is his knight form pre-transformation into Neo Exdeath, his overall personality is more similar to Neo Exdeath, as he, pre-transformation, did not plan on the Void consuming him, and yet in Dissidia, he seeks to return all things to the Void, even himself, similar to Neo Exdeath.

Exdeath (Dissidia) Exdeath/Dissidia Exdeath (Dissidia)