Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a video game developed by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable as part of the campaign of the Final Fantasy series 20th anniversary. Dissidia ' s genre has been described as "dramatic progressive action" featuring a 3-D graphical environment with the ability to level up characters like in RPGs.

The game reunites characters from other installments of the Final Fantasy series. Chaos makes an appearance as the god of discord (the god of destruction in the upcoming NA release), while a new character, Cosmos, appears as the goddess of harmony. A total of eleven villains and eleven heroes, two from the first ten games in the main series, appear in a war that will determine the fate of the various Final Fantasy worlds. Chaos and the villains have seized control of ten Crystals and wounded Cosmos, and the heroes must recover these Crystals to restore Cosmos and prevent control of the worlds from falling into evil hands.

Gameplay
Dissidia is an action-based fighting game mixed with RPG elements. Battles take place on fully rendered 3D fields, where the scenery might be damaged because of the fight. Destroying pillars and other objects builds up the character's "Brave" meter. Brave points are required to do more damage to an enemy. The more Brave points a character has, the more damage they can do with their HP attack. Each character also has a distinctive fighting style as well. There is also an "EX Bar" meter which fills up during battle from attacking or from acquiring the EX Cores placed around the stages. Once filled, the character can enter EX Mode which grants a character-specific bonus and gives access to an EX Burst, a special move that deals massive damage to their opponent. These moves are often a reference to each character's respective game, such as Squall using his Renzokuken or Kefka Palazzo using Light of Judgment. After the battle is over, characters are rewarded with Gil, EXP, and AP. Characters level up in the game, the max being level 100. Depending on the player skills and equipment, any level character can defeat any other theoretically.

The battles in Dissidia are divided into stages, each taking place on its own checkerboard-like map. Characters will be moved around the board, able to pick up equipment and potions on the map and fight whenever they stop adjacent to an enemy. "Destiny Points", also known as DP, are needed to move around the board. Characters can collect more DP by fighting non-boss enemies on the board. These non-boss enemies are pallete-swaps of other characters of the game. The energy of characters is not refilled after battles with regular enemies, so grabbing items and equipment on the board is the key to winning a battle and being prepared for the next. Each character must progress through their own series of stages to complete their storyline. Once all ten storylines are complete, the player can access the eleventh stage which serves as the final area leading to the final boss of the game.

Summons
Summons can be equipped prior to fighting and are represented by red orbs over the player's health bar. Some of the Summons have two appearances: one for their "Auto" version, and one for their normal version. The "Auto" version acts on a condition, usually a Brave Break, while normal version must be triggered by pressing and R. The normal version is usually more powerful than the "Auto" one.

Arenas
Twelve arenas appear, ten serving as an important site of conflict between the heroes and the villains in their original games, and the other two being entirely new areas made for the game. Each arena can be played as a basic arena with no special features, or as a stage with a special "gimmick", effectively doubling the number of arenas to twenty-four. For example, the Chaos Shrine stage's alternate form constantly drains the BP of both characters during a match.

Characters


Player characters are split between supporting the cause of the "Goddess of Harmony", Cosmos, and the "God of Discord", Chaos. Both summoned the characters from the series with their own motives: Cosmos wishes to protect the Crystals from the forces of Chaos and keep order, while Chaos wants to take control of the Crystals and upset the balance of power between good and evil. The narrator of the events occurring in Dissidia is Cid of the Lufaine.

There are twenty-two playable characters in all; a hero and a villain from each of the first ten Final Fantasy games, and a secret character from both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XII. Long-time series collaborator and character designer Tetsuya Nomura was in charge of the characters' design, although many of the characters, even those originally designed by Nomura himself, were designed to fit their appearance as drawn by Yoshitaka Amano.

Story
The story follows the conflict between Chaos and Cosmos and their allies, drawn from the main series games of Final Fantasy. Backstory for the various characters are also given in "Reports", which are divided into Cosmos Reports and Chaos Reports. Within the history of Dissidia, various warriors have fought for Chaos and Cosmos, but every time one of them is defeated, the dragon Shinryu restored the losing god to life and restarts the war again.

As the game opens, the Warrior of Light finds Cosmos mortally wounded from a battle with Chaos. With the forces of light in peril, Cosmos appears before the other nine heroes and entrusts them with the task of recovering the Crystals, which can save their worlds. Thus, the heroes set out to find the Crystals and retrieve them.

Each of the ten heroes has a storyline following their journey to recover their respective Crystal. Each storyline also parallels, to a certain extent, the events, or at least the spirit, of the storyline in the hero's original game - Terra's story for example, deals with her amnesia and her waning control over her powers, while Cloud's concerns his indecisiveness and questioning his reason for fighting. The stories also overlap a great deal. One by one, the heroes each retrieve their Crystal and defeat their respective villain in battle.

The heroes return to Cosmos, but Chaos appears and incinerates the goddess, and departs back to his realm. With Cosmos gone, her power over the heroes fades and they begin to fade back to their own worlds. However, with the last of her strength inside them, the Crystals are able to keep the heroes from fading and keep them safe.

Determined to avenge Cosmos and see her will fulfilled, the heroes journey to the Chaos Shrine, each confronting their respective villain once again. At this time it is revealed that the villains wished to permanently destroy Cosmos and prevent her from being revived. They thus allowed the heroes to collect the Crystals, which contained Cosmos' light, and their shining caused Cosmos to weaken to the point she couldn't be revived, a "perfect death". With Cosmos gone for good, the cycle of war is over for good, with Chaos as the ultimate victory. Resolving to destroy Chaos and claim vengeance for Cosmos, the heroes each defeat their villain once again in battle.

At the Chaos Shrine, the ten Crystals combine to open the path to Chaos' realm, and the ten heroes confront the god of discord on his throne. After an epic battle, Chaos is defeated and is consumed in flames as the heroes vanish. They appear in the fields outside Cornelia, and after some reminiscing, each return to their own worlds with their Crystal safe, while Warrior of Light returns to Cornelia.

In the secret ending of the game, unlocked after obtaining all the Reports, Cosmos is shown to be alive in her world. She has a discussion with Cid of the Lufaine, implying that the conflict has not yet ended.

Development
First news of the game appeared when Square Enix filed for the United States trademark registration of "DISSIDIA" and then with the opening of the Dissidia website with the games logo. It was fully unveiled at Square Enix Party 2007 with the first trailer featuring the Warrior of Light, Garland, Zidane, Kuja, and Sephiroth. It was announced as a part of the Final Fantasy series 20th Anniversary collection (although the game wouldn't be released in time for the Final Fantasy series anniversary, and would not represent all numbered Final Fantasy games of the last 20 years, instead stopping at Final Fantasy X.) It was announced that the game would be produced by Yoshinori Kitase, directed by Yousuke Shiokawa, with music by Takeharu Ishimoto, and character designs handled by Tetsuya Nomura.

The game would pit past Final Fantasy characters against each other in a 3D battle field. The game made its playable debut at Jump Festa 2008, December 22nd 2007 where another trailer was shown featuring Squall, Ultimecia, and Tidus. In an interview Nomura stated that the game was being developed by younger staff members within Square-Enix and although he was the character designer, he was pretty hands off the project and leaving it in the hands of the younger developers. When asked by Famitsu about the possible inclusion of characters from Final Fantasy XI, Nomura cryptically stated, "I can't say anything yet." He avoided a similar question concerning the appearance of Final Fantasy XII characters in a later interview. The story revolves around the conflict that each of the paired characters has that makes them unique, as well as the overarching concept of each side battling for the Crystals. Each character has a distinctive battle style, and some have been redesigned to resemble the original artwork of Yoshitaka Amano.

The story will unfold both outside, and in the middle of battles, marking a unique style of story telling. At first, only the ten heroes will be playable, but as players play the game and earn "PP", they can use the PP to buy alternate costumes and to access the villains. To see the "true" ending of the game, one will have to complete the game with all twenty characters. Although the playable cast consists of ten villains and ten heroes, they are not all on the same side - heroes and villains fight amongst themselves on several occasions. It has also been indicated that some characters have their own agendas beyond the Crystals, working together to further their own plots.

Director Takeshi Arakawa has said that there were difficulties in developing Dissidia using the UMD media in that they wanted to find a compromise between reading from the disc constantly (which drains battery) and longer loading times.

Music
Dissidia Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack was released on December 24th, 2008 on two CDs. A Limited Edition version was also released. The soundtrack features arranged music from the series, rearranged by Takeharu Ishimoto and Tsuyoshi Sekito.

Merchandise
The Dissidia cast will be made into Trading Arts Figures, posing in their positions as depicted in their Dissidia artwork. Dissidia will also include a purchasable bundle similar to that of Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. It will include a copy of Dissidia, with limited edition cover art that features Cosmos and the heroes, and the new PSP 3000 with engravings of Cosmos and Chaos, similar to the Crisis Core bundle. A line of grape and citrus flavored Potion beverages with likenesses of the artwork for each of the heroes and villains on the cans have also been produced. Studio BentStuff published the Dissidia Final Fantasy Ultimania α as an initial reference guide for the game on December 4th 2008. The Japanese magazine V-Jump also published the Dissidia Final Fantasy Destiny Hero's Guide on December 18th 2008, which covers all the 10 chapters of the story mode and provides info on the 22 characters' ability and items. A Dissidia entertainment pack will also be released in the U.S. starting on August 25, 2009. The pack will include a silver PSP 3000, a 2GB memory stick, a copy of Dissidia, and a copy of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on UMD.

Etymology
The name "Dissidia" comes from the latin word "Dissidium", which originated words such as the French word "Dissident" and the Portuguese word "Dissidente", the latter roughly meaning "one that causes conflicts".

Localization
The US and EU versions of Dissidia are set to have many changes. For example, the tutorial, which is about one hour long in the Japanese version is only 10 minutes long. There will be cameos from other characters in certain cutscenes, but they will remain unplayable. There has been no confirmation of which characters yet.

There are also changes to the gameplay itself. A new mode of play has been added, which supposedly can be beaten more quickly. In addition there have been tweaks to the characters' move sets, some of which involve attacks not seen in the Japanese release.

Trivia

 * The first trailer for Dissidia had the tagline "There are 12 worlds...and the 13th is about to be revealed." The meaning of this line could be that along with the 12 Final Fantasy game worlds the Dissidia world will also be revealed.
 * Dissidia's release date in Japan, December 18th, is the same date that the original Final Fantasy was released in Japan.
 * Tetsuya Nomura wanted to include Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, but felt that this could have affected Final Fantasy XIII in the process by locking down the image of the character's skills and so forth.
 * The design of each character's ability names correspond to the battle menu design of the game he/she originated from.
 * Tetsuya Nomura has stated that there are no immediate plans for a sequel to Dissidia, although it was discussed. However, depending on fan requests and the success of the first game, this may change in the future. According to an interview between Takashi Arakawa and Yoshinori Kitase (director, writer, and producer) with a German gaming site, Kitase stated that a sequel would be ‘very interesting’, and might even include Kingdom Hearts characters, although it would still have to be discussed with Disney.
 * Some of the abilities of some characters seen in the Intro FMV and some cutscenes are not usable in the game, like the Potential Area-Zero Wave combo of Cloud of Darkness, the Electric Orb Trap of the Emperor, and Terra's Barrier and Teleport.
 * An odd fact is that there are more Magic Users in the side of Chaos than the side of Cosmos, which in turn, have more Fighters in the side of Cosmos than the side of Chaos.
 * The line "What will you fight for?" has been uttered before in Final Fantasy IV, when Cecil turns into a Paladin

Awards

 * IGN Best of E3: Fighting Game Award