Bartz Klauser/Dissidia (PSP)

Bartz Klauser is one of the heroes fighting for the side of Cosmos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and the upcoming arcade version who was previously the main character of Final Fantasy V. A courageous young man with a strong sense of justice, Bartz can mimic and combine the powers of Cosmos's other warriors in battle. Traveling with Squall and Zidane, he strives to defeat his nemesis, Exdeath.

Appearance
Bartz's design is based on his artwork by Yoshitaka Amano. Bartz appears as a young man who has brown hair and gray eyes. His outfit is made up of a blue sleeveless shirt, gray pants, and pointed boots. He wears a golden spike on his left shoulder and has a flowing cape.

Bartz's first alternate outfit, "White Mist Cape," is based on, which depicts him with a black and white patterned shirt, a red cloth around his waist, black and white leggings with white boots, white hair, and a blue Brave Blade.

Bartz's second alternate outfit, "Freelancer," is based on in Final Fantasy V, with differently styled hair, blue eyes, a blue tunic, white pants, and green boots. His EX Mode mirrors his appearance from the for Final Fantasy V, giving him a differently styled cape that wraps around the neck with a yellow emblem.

Bartz has a DLC outfit, "Dancer," based on from Final Fantasy V, giving Bartz a red shirt, black pants and a green sash. This look's EX Mode adds the three "mastery" stars hovering over his head, but does not give him a cape.

Bartz's Crystal is a spiked purple and blue mass of material, based on the Adamantite found by him and his party in Final Fantasy V.

Bartz's manikin version, Fallacious Wanderer, is cyan.

Personality
Dissidia Final Fantasy focuses on the playful and carefree part of his personality, which gets him into trouble. Bartz still shows his "serious" side that reveals his real strength, fitting Golbez's statement that "One must find for one self, the true power that dwells within".

Twelfth cycle
In one of the earlier conflicts, Bartz finds himself in the Interdimensional Rift where he is caught off guard by Gilgamesh, whom he cannot remember. Gilgamesh's reintroduction and story persuade him into fighting Gilgamesh in a battle he ultimately wins. Though Bartz warns him, Gilgamesh is sucked back into the Rift as he swears to return for a true rematch against Bartz someday.

At the start of the 12th cycle of conflict, Bartz accompanies Zidane and Squall to meet with Kuja, believing him to be a rarely seen Warrior of Cosmos before his identity is revealed and Kuja drives the three off. Bartz is later attacked by Kain and found by Lightning, as he reveals his attacker's identity before Kain spirits him away.

Thirteenth cycle
After Squall saves Bartz and Zidane from the manikins, he is asked to come along to look for the Crystals together. Squall is more comfortable by himself and the three split up. A moment after Bartz runs off with Zidane, he returns and gives Squall a chocobo feather as a good luck charm, promising that Squall would give it back when they meet again later.

Wishing to make their quest a bit of fun, Bartz and Zidane propose to compete over who will obtain their Crystal first. The competition is cut short as Bartz falls for a trap Kefka intended for Zidane and after Bartz regains consciousness, finds himself in the Land of Discord. He escapes after overhearing a conversation between Kefka and Kuja about the plan to target Zidane. Later on, Bartz overhears a discussion between the Emperor, Ultimecia and Sephiroth concerning the fellow villains who fight only for destruction. At first Bartz thinks the Emperor and Sephiroth are fighting over Ultimecia; he is spotted and makes his escape.

Bartz finds a Crystal and snatches it from Exdeath without a second thought. Bartz runs into Golbez and fights him though he tries to warn him that the "Crystal" is a trap. Bartz realizes it too late after he used the teleport stone to escape to the Shinryu Isles and finds Squall and Zidane, with the latter teleported away to Kuja. Making their way back to the Land of Discord to find him, Bartz blames himself as Squall returns the chocobo feather before Exdeath arrives. Bartz, tired of running, decides to fight and defeat him. After he wins the chocobo feather turns into his Crystal as Zidane appears, having obtained his Crystal.

Sometime after, reuniting with the other Warriors while returning to Cosmos, Bartz was asked by Tidus about what he remembers of his homeworld. Bartz mentions that, aside from the feather, he remembers nothing, and ends up having to cut the conversation short due to manikins. Afterwards, he continues, remembering advice about not worrying about things even if he has no control over them. Tidus initially thinks it was a girl of his, until Bartz explains the advice came from an old man. Bartz later talks to Warrior of Light on the subject of naming the currently unnamed warrior.

Realizing Cosmos sacrificed her life by allowing Chaos to destroy her and leaving final hope of the world is in their hands, the Warriors battle their respective enemies one more time before defeating Chaos himself. After finding themselves near Castle Cornelia in World A, Bartz returns to his world as he throws a stick and fades into a forest. As he leaves, he tells his friends that when one is having the most fun time flies on.

Official Quests
During the 12th cycle in "Bartz's Quest 012: Mimicry And a Promise", Bartz travels with Laguna and Jecht to find treasure. When they take a break Bartz challenges Laguna, wishing to learn how to mimic his skills. Laguna accepts and the two do battle, Laguna using only his Ragnarok Blade attack. Bartz learns to copy it and challenges Jecht to test out the move and learn Jecht's attacks as well. Jecht brushes him off and tells Bartz he'll teach him later, as his attacks are harder to mimic.

Gameplay
Bartz's fighting style is Mimic, as he copies the attacks of the other Warriors of Cosmos, freely changing between their weapons and fighting styles in battle to create new combos. His Bravery attacks have the unique feature of carrying support abilities, and he can equip any equipment piece in the game, making him versatile. The abilities connected to his attacks stack with support abilities, allowing Bartz to achieve higher bonuses than other characters. Bartz's HP attacks are original attacks from other characters, and he possesses an impressive ground speed, though not as fast as some other characters like Zidane, Shantotto and Onion Knight. A slight drawback is that most of Bartz's moves are close to mid-ranged, limiting his ranged capabilities. In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Bartz is given new moves to accommodate the new characters.

In the Dissidia reboot, Bartz's fighting style is revamped with a new set of weapons and abilities at his disposal based on the jobs Dragoon, Monk, Black Mage, Mystic Knight, Blue Mage, Ranger, Ninja, Geomancer, Knight, Dancer and Samurai. Now known as a Job Master, Bartz's attacks grow more powerful the more they are used over the course of a battle and when mastered will grant him a support ability. His EX Skill, Lucky Charm, gives team mates the same stat boosts that Bartz gain.

Boss
In Dissidia Final Fantasy, Bartz is fought in Distant Glory and Inward Chaos.

In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, he is fought in Report 1, Side Story: Singer of the End -2-, using Kuja, and in Report 19, Side Story: The Duel of Dreams!, using Gilgamesh.

EX Mode


Bartz's EX Mode is Job Mastered. Bartz's cape turns red, approximating his appearance as a Mime in Final Fantasy V, and he gains three gold stars over his head, a symbol of job mastery. While in EX Mode Bartz gains the special attack Goblin Punch by pressing and. The attack is a quick, short-ranged unblockable HP attack with the Wall Rush ability, and does Bravery damage before knocking the opponent away. As is tradition with the attack, it deals eight times as much Bravery damage if Bartz and his opponent are at the same level.

Bartz's EX Burst is Master Mime in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy — in Dissidia Final Fantasy it is named Spellblade-Dual Wield-Rapid Fire, referring to a powerful combination of abilities commonly used in Final Fantasy V. Bartz imbues his friends' weapons with elemental energy and attacks his opponent eight times. To execute it perfectly, four pairs of D-Pad commands must be input correctly in quick succession. He finishes off the Burst by combining all his mimicry weapons into the Brave Blade for a final attack.

Equipment
Bartz can equip any sort of weapon or armor, except for the pieces unique to the other characters and female exclusive equipment.

Allusions

 * Bartz's weapon is the Brave Blade, a weapon from Final Fantasy V that is initially powerful but decreases in strength as the player flees from battle. Ironically, Bartz spends much of his storyline hiding from and fleeing from the various villains, perhaps a reference to the Brave Blade's counterpart, the Chicken Knife, which grows stronger as the player flees from battle. In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Gilgamesh can use the Chicken Knife as one of his weapons.
 * Similar to Gilgamesh's use of parody weapons owned by various warriors, Bartz uses a variety of weapons the other heroes use: The Warrior of Light's sword and shield, Firion's axe and lance, Onion Knight's sword, both of Cecil's swords from his two forms, Cloud's Buster Sword, Squall's Revolver gunblade, Zidane's Mage Mashers and Tidus's Brotherhood.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Bartz gains Kain's lance, Laguna's Ragnarok Cannon, Yuna's staff and the aeons summoned by it, Vaan's katana and Lightning's Blazefire Saber.
 * Several references are made to Bartz's friend Boko, his pet chocobo: Bartz carries around one of Boko's feathers as a good luck charm, and when he begins his EX Burst chocobo footprints run across the screen, and the cry of a chocobo is heard as Bartz kicks his opponent with a flurry of yellow feathers around him.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, in one of the world map conversations, Bartz refers to the feather as his "partner", further alluding to Boko.
 * Bartz's association with the wind alludes to it being his element in Final Fantasy V.
 * Bartz's EX Burst, where he attacks eight times with magic-enhanced weapons, refers to one of the most powerful ability combinations in Final Fantasy V. Dual Wield lets a character equip two weapons, Spellblade lets them enchant them with magic, and Rapid Fire lets them attack four times with each weapon, for a total of eight strikes. These abilities can only be used all at once by the Freelancer or Mime classes, hence Bartz's status in Dissidia as a Mime.
 * As Bartz begins his EX Burst, he raises his arms, and the eight swords he uses for the burst fly out in four directions, turn into orbs of magic, and fly back into him. This alludes to the Spellblade animation in Final Fantasy V. The colors of the magic are red, blue, yellow and green, referring to the colors and associated elemental Crystals' elements in Final Fantasy V. As well, before inputting the commands for his EX Burst, he will shout out, "The four essences!", which is seen at the PlayStation version's intro FMV of Final Fantasy V, describing the power of the Crystals.
 * Two of Bartz's strongest exclusive weapons are nods towards the Warriors of Dawn, and his father Dorgann Klauser, who was a member. Bartz's artwork for the game is in the same pose as Dorgann's artwork.
 * The Goblin Punch attack available in Bartz's EX Mode uses the same visual effects of white stars used to display a hit in Final Fantasy V. The Goblin Punch attack is furthermore a reference to Final Fantasy V being the first game in the series to use Blue Magic, as the blue octahedrons from the attack animation of Blue Magic in Final Fantasy V are included in the move as well.
 * Bartz's attacks granting him minor support abilities may allude to how Blue Magic works in Final Fantasy XI. It also may refer to the Mime class's ability to take on the support abilities and stat boosts of mastered classes in Final Fantasy V.
 * Bartz's ability to use other heroes' weapons may refer to Gilgamesh, who also uses the signature weapons of previous protagonists in Final Fantasy XII, and who first appeared in Final Fantasy V. When battling Jecht, Bartz says "Let's fight like men!" as a reference to one of Gilgamesh's famous lines. Another line said by Gilgamesh is when fighting Chaos, "Let's finish this, one on one!" which is said by Gilgamesh to Bartz before he defeats Necrophobe in Final Fantasy V, "When we meet again, let's fight one on one!"
 * When Bartz finds the Leviathan summonstone in his Story Mode, he exclaims "Sweet Cosmos, it's a talking rock!", a reference to his amazement when he met Ghido: "Sweet Christmas, it's a talking turtle!"
 * Bartz's victory pose is identical to the Amano artwork of him.
 * Bartz's combo of Holy and Flare alludes to the Fork Tower, where the player must acquire both Holy and Flare simultaneously to progress.
 * At the end of the battle scene between him and Exdeath in his Destiny Odyssey, Bartz assumes a pose similar to that of his sprite in the original game.
 * Before he returns to his homeland, Bartz throws a branch into a forest and walks in, similar to how the party uses the Guardian Branch to enter the Great Forest of Moore in Final Fantasy V. It could also be referring to the fact that Bartz begins Final Fantasy V camping in a forest.
 * Bartz can use any equipment besides exclusive and female-only equipment. This refers to his job class as a Mime, as Mimes can use any equipment except Ribbons in Final Fantasy V.
 * During a cutscene in a report sequence, Tidus asks Bartz about his homeworld. Bartz is able to remember an old friend but doesn't remember his name. He is referring to his friend Galuf, noting that he also suffered from amnesia.
 * Tidus questioning whether or not Bartz's friend was a girl may also allude to Faris, a female pirate who disguised herself as a man.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, when the Warrior of Light faces Bartz, the latter says "You're not the only warrior of light here!" This refers to Bartz and his allies being known as the Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy V. This is further alluded to at the end of Shade Impulse in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy; when Cosmos's warriors make their way to the final gateway, housing Chaos, the three heroes who appear on the map to be spoken to are the Warrior, Onion Knight, and Bartz. All three were known as Warriors of Light in their respective games.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, when Bartz faces himself he says "How's about we have a staring contest?" This refers to how the best strategy is to do nothing to defeat Famed Mimic Gogo to acquire the Mime Job.
 * Several characters in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy tease Bartz about his fear of heights in their encounter quotes. Kain says "Surprising that you would fear the skies". Vaan says "The sky's the limit". Bartz will retort "The skies are pretty scary, if you ask me" when facing Vaan.
 * When Gilgamesh fights Bartz in Report 19 he is wearing his Freelancer outfit, while in their battle in Report 8 Bartz is wearing his default outfit. This alludes to Bartz's sprite in Final Fantasy V, as Report 19 is a dream of Gilgamesh's and thus he imagines Bartz as he looked in their original game.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy there is a chest inside a gateway in Bartz's chapter containing 1992 gil, a reference to the year of release of Final Fantasy V in Japan for the Super Famicom.

Trivia

 * Out of all of Bartz's Bravery attacks, Holy is the only one that is not a combination of two attacks, making it an identical copy of Terra's version, but can also be chained into Onion Knight's Flare in a similar style to how Terra chains it with Holy.
 * According to an Official Quest, the reason why Bartz does not mimic Jecht despite Jecht's time as a Warrior of Cosmos is due to Jecht refusing to teach Bartz when asked, claiming his attacks are more difficult to copy than the others, and saying he would show Bartz another time.
 * Bartz performs some moves with the opposite hand: Cecil uses Soul Eater with his sword in his right hand while Bartz holds it in his left.
 * Bartz's image on "Dissidia Potion" cans, along with Terra's, is not from the official artwork. Although in Bartz's case, only his height differs, so it's hardly noticeable.
 * Bartz learns the most new moves of any character in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, and retains just three of his attacks from the original Dissidia Final Fantasy.
 * Bartz does not mimic Shantotto's and Prishe's Bravery and HP attacks.