Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a video game developed by Team Ninja of Koei Tecmo and published by Square Enix and Taito. It was announced during the Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) trade show in Chiba, Japan on February 14, 2015. The game is a sequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, released for PlayStation Portable. Cosmos and Chaos are no longer part of the game, as the arcade version is stripped of story. The initial release of the game was exclusive to Japanese arcades, and thus it is more battle-oriented than RPG-oriented unlike the previous Dissidia games, losing customizability to attacks and gear.

The game was released for arcades on November 26, 2015. It uses modified PlayStation 4 hardware, though Square Enix noted it would not be considered until at least a year after the original release. An enhanced port of the game was announced for PlayStation 4 as Dissidia Final Fantasy NT in June 2017, and is scheduled to release in January 2018. NT adds story content focused around the gods Spiritus and Materia, who were first introduced in the "Battle of the Gods" DLC for the arcade version and then featured in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia.

Gameplay
Compared to its predecessors, the game's battle system is said to be remade from the ground up. New to the game is the three-on-three combat feature, where a single player commands three characters, switching direct control between them while the other two characters are AI controlled. A player can choose to have more than one of the same character on their team, and one-on-one combat will still be available.

Playable characters are now divided into four combat categories to identify that characters personal fighting style: the power-orientated Vanguards focus on dealing the highest damage and are the designated tanks of the team, agility-based Assassins have fast mobility or very high attack speed, the ranged-based Marksmen primarily attack from a distance, and the varied Specialists, which have unique battle traits.

The game will retain some core elements from the previous Dissidia games. Characters can perform two kinds of attacks, Brave Attacks and HP Attacks. Doing a Brave Attack will decrease the opponent's Bravery stat and increase the attacking player's Bravery by the damage done. Doing an HP Attack will inflict damage equal to the player's current Bravery. Decreasing an opponent's Bravery to zero will result in a Bravery Break, giving the attacking player a substantial increase to their Bravery. Characters have seven Bravery attacks at a time: three ground attacks, three midair attacks, and one attack that can be performed while dashing. Each character can only equip one HP attack. Some attacks that were HP attacks in previous titles are now Bravery attacks, such as Terra's Tornado. Players cannot customize Brave attacks and can customize only one HP Attack and two EX Skills. It is possible to save "battle sets" for characters: 1 HP Attack, 2 EX Skills and a costume.

Each character has an independent HP bar, and the party has one HP bar and a summon bar. When the player character is KO'd one part of the team HP bar is erased. If the global HP bar depletes the team loses. Double jumping returns, though some characters can now perform triple jumps e.g. Lightning and Onion Knight. Dashing now uses up a stamina gauge, and can only be performed for a limited period of time, though now, the direction in which can be changed by using the analog stick mid-air. Dodging is now a step, which has more invincibility frames than the original dodge.

The shield deteriorates very slowly and blocks everything, but every time one blocks an attack the shield starts to break. Shield deterioration is shown as color changes from green to orange to red. When someone is targeting a player, a blue link will appear above them and the enemy's head, and also on the minimap. When the opponent attacks the blue link turns red to show when to dodge.

EX Mode returns, renamed "EX Skill," and encompasses up to three skills that a character can activate in battle. Some of these skills are based on the original Dissidia EX Modes, such as Terra entering Trance and Cloud entering a "Limit Break" state, while others have support effects such as Regenga, which recovers the user's HP. EX Skills boost rely on the utility spells encountered in Final Fantasy games. For example, the ability to shield oneself or one's allies, the ability to heal or to use a break attack to destroy the enemy's defense. EX Skills and EX Bursts are available after some time and after using them, one must wait before they become available again; the cooldown is represented as a white circle around the circles and the biggest circle is the EX Burst. EX Bursts have been made weaker in comparison to the previous Dissidia games where they were often so powerful as to gain an instant win. EX Bursts are also weaker than summons.

Summoned Monsters can be called by filling a Summon Gauge during battle by hitting the opponent or a crystal, but the player must also get the crystal icon by first hitting the crystal, then consuming it to call a summon. Summons are auto-controlled allies that assist the player in battle directly. Summons seem to change the battlefield's appearance; e.g. when summoning Ifrit the arena gets a storm of fire. The effect disappears as the summon is dismissed after 30 seconds. If the player is hit while channeling a summon the summoning will be interrupted.

On the April 21st update, in addition to balance changes for all fighters, characters can now equip different weapons in battle, based off their respective designs from each series, such as the Hardedge for Cloud, and the Exploda for Zidane. They are aesthetic in change and have no major effects in battle.

Premise
It has been confirmed that the game takes place a very long time after the events of the original Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. While the battle between Cosmos and Chaos has long ended, the battle of the gods continued on.

Both heroes and villains summoned to this conflict no longer have their memories wiped out, and not only retain their memories from the cycles of war, but also retain memories of their original world after the most recent events of their respective universe e.g. Cloud Strife remembers both the cycles he participated in and the events after Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Because of this, this isn't the first time all the characters have met each other, and as such the heroes are more confident because they've completed the main stories in their main games. Also, if Yuna were to return as a playable character, her combat style would most likely be that of a gunner rather than of a summoner.

Both the Arcade and PlayStation 4 versions share the same world view and story. There is no story mode, but rather the tale is told through more battles that the player partakes in.

Setting
In the initial arcade release, six stages are available, and more stages are added through updates. Eventually, there will be stages from all represented main game series. Each stage features a change in atmosphere after half the time during battle has passed or if either opponents HP gauge are depleted by two-thirds. These changes reflect the events that took place within the original game, but otherwise, have no effect during battle.

Stages in Italics are stages released via updates.

Characters
Upon the game's initial release, its cast of playable characters was only 14. However, through updates, the count is increasing towards the developers' goal of 50. Usually, one character is introduced into the game every month. The developers have even stated that once the goal of 50 characters has been reached, they would like to include even more as to them, "50 feels like a small number". They also wish for all characters playable in the previous Dissidia titles to return.

Tetsuya Nomura has said he'd like to see Minwu in the game, but there has been no statement from the development staff on his inclusion otherwise. Further, Team Ninja has stated that it has no plans to include Dead or Alive characters.

The Season Pass revealed that 6 more characters will be available as downloadable content after the console release. It is unknown currently who the 6 characters will be.


 * Characters highlighted in Italics are characters released via updates.

Summons
Summons return, and they play a more active role in battles in that they participate during the battle itself, damaging opponents with their signature attacks, and dealing other attacks across the stage. When a summon is present, the stage will not commence its stage transition until the summon has completed its attacks, unless it has already transitioned mid-battle, and the timer stops temporarily until the summon has completed its sequence, giving players more time to act in battle.

Each summon has a beneficial boost to a specific battle mechanic, and these boosts take effect both before and after the summon appears in battle. (e.g. Alexander boosts the teams HP gauge; Leviathan improves debuff skills etc.)

Summons in Italics are added via update.

Hardware
Around the end of 2012 producer Takeo Kujiraoka was talking with Dissidia Final Fantasy director Mitsunori Takahashi about creating the next Dissidia entry. The first thing the two tried to nail down was which hardware platform to go with. At the time it was being planned as a sequel to a PlayStation Portable game, and thus going for the PlayStation Vita was a natural choice, but Taito, a subsidiary of Square Enix, suggested doing an arcade Final Fantasy game.

Character designer Tetsuya Nomura felt that "all that there is was to do" was accomplished by the two PlayStation Portable Dissidia games and took the stance that it was "completed." That's why the direction with the new Dissidia Final Fantasy was decided to be different from the start. Ichiro Hazama, the producer, approached Nomura with the idea for an arcade version, and Nomura gave the go ahead.

Kujiraoka was unfamiliar with the current arcade scene, and started with research. He was shocked how much arcades had changed since his youth with people now using ID cards for save data. Discovering this feature was the catalyst to go with the arcade platform. With a console release that includes the desired characters and features and adds new characters through DLC and rebalances the old ones, the number of players still steadily decreases. With arcades, however, players can go and play and always have the most up to date version of the game, creating a fair online environment for everyone. The user can save their game, and Square can keep adding new characters. Thus the developers figured the arcade platform was workable both for players and creators.

As this was this development team's first foray into arcade gaming, Kujiraoka talked with people who had previously published arcade games with Square Enix, like the Lord of Vermillion producer Takamasa Murasaki. He was told how interesting arcades can be with the short distance between developers and players, and the possibility of going to an arcade and seeing people play the game, gather feedback and respond to it in a timely manner. This was an attractive proposition to Kujiraoka who had witnessed players' excitement at Dissidia Final Fantasy tournaments.

Hayashi's team felt that 60fps was necessary despite members outside of the team expressing doubt over it. Hayashi has explained it makes the game glide along in a simple, stress-free way—something he considers integral to getting people into arcades day after day.

In a press conference on April 10, 2015, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Atsushi Morita revealed that the game is being developed with the core technology of the PlayStation 4. Square Enix said that they want to release it for arcades first and the console version will not be available until at least a year after the launch. Producer Ichiro Hazama contacted Sony (SCEJA) about getting PS4-based arcade hardware. What he got was literally an arcade machine with a PS4 inside it, albeit one that had been customized for arcade use. The game will use a controller akin to a divided DualShock 4 in lieu of traditional arcade buttons and stick to help traditional Final Fantasy players get into the game.

Cooperation with Team Ninja
The work started on the game at the beginning of 2013, and full development by the end of the year. Team Ninja put Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Arcade out in 2013 under Sega Interactive, and the team was in talks with Taito to work with them. Acting director from Tecmo Koei, Yosuke Hayashi, told he would create something on the condition he could use Final Fantasy characters, but at the time he was not thinking specifically of doing a Dissidia game. The producers Ichiro Hazama and Takeo Kujiraoka introduced Hayashi to the Dissidia development team. Kujiraoka stands in as director from Square Enix's side, but other than that, Team Ninja handles everything internally with Yosuke Hayashi at the helm. The team does get indirect cooperation from Square Enix, such as overseeing the CG work. Tetsuya Nomura is one of the people on the Square Enix side overseeing the graphics.

Battle system
It was decided early on to go with a 3 vs 3 concept. The developers wanted to give the game the "FF party feeling" by including multiple characters to a player's side. A 1 vs 1 concept was ruled out as Team Ninja already had a 1 vs 1 fighting game IP (Dead or Alive), so even if the team was to create a new one it would inevitably be the same fundamental gameplay and the team felt it would be difficult to alter that into something distinct. 3 vs 3 allowed the developers to think of something new, and a chance for players to co-operate with friends, play against others, and create a team they could call a "party."

Although design briefs did not change much there was a time Kujiraoka's feelings on the 3 vs 3 player count would change daily. He considered exploring 1 vs 1, or having the computer take over for two of the characters, or even having teams of four. At one point he even considered 10 vs 10. During the development of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Takahashi said that creating a party was an expected part of a numbered Final Fantasy–something he wanted to replicate. He felt convinced they could create Final Fantasy-like battles if they used something like the party battle system in the previous Dissidia, where the player controlled one character at a time.

Conceptually the new Dissidia Final Fantasy game was to be fun to play socially, but also fun to play seriously. When releasing an arcade game it's not enough to just be fun socially, as players need to understand why they lost. Hayashi explained to Kujiraoka why it was necessary for the game to be fun on the basis of pure action and that's why the RPG elements of the previous Dissidia games needed to be mostly stripped. Kujiraoka in turn had Hayashi play Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy to showcase the feel of the game he was looking for.

Although the team is trying to replicate the visual and sound effects from the previous Dissidia games, there will be some changes as before the animation would freeze during Bravery Breaks; this was deemed unacceptable in a tense match. At one point there were talks about scrapping the Brave system, but ultimately it was kept in, as it was conceived as a way for those who struggle with fighting games to have a chance of turning the tables, and it had been received well previously.

There will be only few arenas available for the game's initial phase because level design has changed a lot from the previous games, and the team wants to see how people play and the kind of strategies they come up with so that the developers can add new arenas accordingly.

The PlayStation 4 version will have 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 options apart from the default 3 vs 3 gameplay.

Music
Takeharu Ishimoto, the composer for the two prior Dissidia games, returns to compose the soundtrack. Two new vocal versions of the series theme "DISSIDIA", the orchestral "Explosion" and the rock "Massive Explosion", appear as the game's main themes and battle themes. "Massive Explosion" is performed by Ishimoto's band The Death March, while the vocals for both versions are provided by Death March singer Chris Ito.

The soundtrack includes a number of new arrangements of tracks from the series, some of which had been featured in the previous Dissidia games in their original forms, as well as some returning arrangements from the Dissidia series. All of the new rearranged tracks are performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, including the new tracks originating from Final Fantasy Tactics that were implemented along with Ramza Beoulve in later versions. The recordings were done in Abbey Road Studios in United Kingdom.

Songs both old and new included are available in their original format as well.

Etymology
The arcade version shares the same title as the original Dissidia game, because the developers wanted to show their earnestness in doing an arcade version and so felt that not adding any numbers or subtitles and simply rebooting was the best choice.

The "NT" in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT began as simply taking character designer Tetsuya Nomura's initials in order to later find a meaning. "New Tale" was the decided result. . During the prior 30th anniversary livestream, the additional meanings of "New Trial" and "New Tournament" were given alongside this. "New Tale" may refer to the story being about the fight between Materia and Spiritus, instead of Cosmos and Chaos, while "New Trial" and "New Tournament" might just refer to it being a reboot.

Coincidentally, it could also stand for "Ninja Team", referencing the partnership between Square Enix and Team Ninja for this game.

Trivia

 * This is the first Dissidia game to feature playable characters outside of the main series.
 * On the official website, the images for each stage feature an image of their appearance in their original series. The Eden stage initially featured the image of its destruction in the ending of Final Fantasy XIII, but was later changed to feature that of its original appearance in-game.