EX Mode (term)

EX Mode is a gameplay term from Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 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
All characters except Chaos have an EX Gauge that fills as the player collects EX Force, glowing orbs of light that appears whenever a character takes damage. Chase Sequences also produce high amounts of EX Force. EX Cores randomly appear in the arena and slowly absorb all the EX Force present. Picking up the EX Core thus tends to greatly boost the EX Gauge. Gabranth can also charge his EX Gauge slowly by using his "EX Charge" attack. When the EX Gauge is full, it turns orange, and players may enter EX Mode by pressing and R.

Once EX Mode is entered, the EX Bar drains, and EX Mode ends when it empties, but collecting EX Forces and Cores will increase the Mode's duration, and certain equipment also extends its time. While in EX Mode, all characters gain the Regen status, slowly regenerating their HP, and they have a higher chance of dealing critical hits. Characters also gain bonuses specific to them, such as new attacks, increased damage and certain other enhancements. Entering EX Mode also cancels out any attacks the player is performing and any combos the opponent is striking them with, allowing attacks to be canceled out and chained in ways otherwise impossible. In this, EX Mode can easily turn the tide of a losing battle. For most of Dissidia's playable cast, their EX Modes involve a transformation they perform in their original game. For example, Sephiroth enters his "One-Winged Angel" form, Ultimecia fuses with Griever, Jecht transforms into his "Final Aeon" form, the Warrior of Light class-changes into a Knight, Zidane, Terra and Kuja enter their variations of Trance, and so forth. The fighters who do not transform - Firion, Cloud, Squall, and Tidus, instead have their weapon transform into their ultimate weapon, such as Squall's Revolver into the Lion Heart or Firion's weapons into "blood" weapons.

EX Burst

 * View videos of the different EX Bursts here

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 an HP attack while in EX Mode, an icon appears on the screen. If 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 of depleting all of an opponent's HP. Once the EX Burst is executed, EX Mode is automatically canceled. If the player ends up falling victim to an opponent's EX Burst, the player can increase their Defense to reduce damage taken by continuously pressing at the same time as the opponent charges up the EX Burst to set the meter to +5 or +10 defense but if the player continues to press  further, it might get to -5, decreasing it instead.

For the games that have the Limit Break system, EX Bursts are based on that character's Limit Break. For example, Terra uses Riot Blade, Cloud uses Omnislash, 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, Firion's uses all of his weapons with elemental affinities, 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 when fought against as a boss, like Kefka's "Light of Judgment"/"Forsaken", Sephiroth's Supernova or Cloud of Darkness' "Ultra Particle Beam", based on her "Particle Beam" move; or, in majority, entirely original, like Garland's "Soul of Chaos".

Trivia

 * In Dissidia, all EX Bursts were executed against a field of orange. In Dissidia 012, while characters aligned with Chaos still execute their Bursts against an orange field, the characters aligned with Cosmos use a blue field while executing an EX Burst.