Exdeath/Dissidia (PSP)

Exdeath is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia 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.

He is set to return, along with the other characters from Dissidia, in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

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 alternate costume, Exdeath's armor is colored a light shade of green to resemble the sprite of Exdeath's Soul.

His Manikin version, Fallacious Tree, is cyan.

Destiny Odyssey
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. Using the fake Crystal as a trap, Bartz returns to Zidane and Squall, and upon touching the fake Crystal Zidane is spirited away for Kuja to confront alone. Confronting Bartz and Squall, Exdeath conjures Manikins to attack them, but the two run. 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.

Shade Impulse
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. The Crystals' light is fading, but it has allowed the heroes to survive Cosmos's death. After Terra and Tidus successfully kill Kefka and Jecht respectively, the latter and the player hero will accompany Bartz and confront Exdeath. He attacks them and is defeated again, fading into nothingness.

Battle
In battle, Exdeath is described as an Entropic Adversary. Exdeath's offensive Brave 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.


 * [[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
Exdeath is fought in Destiny Odyssey IV and V, Shade Impulse, Distant Glory, and Inward Chaos.

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. During EX Mode, Exdeath recovers HP gradually due to Regen, and he 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 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.

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 Brave 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.

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 screen to black, this might reference what his belief of what the Void is.
 * Based on their EX Bursts, 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.
 * Exdeath has the longest EX Burst named of all the characters.
 * Besides Black Hole, Reverse Polarity and Delta Attack, Exdeath can use all of his attacks to counter an opponent after a successful block attack.
 * Exdeath learns the most total attacks of any character, learning eighteen Brave attacks and six HP attacks.
 * Exdeath EX Burst is the strongest between all the villains.

Exdeath (Dissidia) Exdeath/Dissidia