Chaos (Final Fantasy)/Dissidia



Chaos is the primary antagonist and the Final Boss of Dissidia Final Fantasy. He is the god of discord that opposes Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, both being equal in power. However, Chaos summons villains from other worlds to seize control of the Crystals, tipping the balance of power in his favor and setting the stage for the game's events.

Chaos is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the Japanese release, and Keith David in the English release.

He is set to return, along with the other characters from Dissidia, in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. A new form of Chaos, a feral beast called Desperado Chaos, is revealed to be a playable character.

Appearance


Chaos's appearance is based on his original artwork by Yoshitaka Amano. He appears as a muscular four-arm fiend in dark red hues, with large wings sprouting from his back and demonic faces on his knees. He has a long tail and several horns, the most prominent of which are two red horns that curve into the air. Chaos wears a loincloth with another face on it, and a red amulet. While using his Utter Chaos attack Chaos changes into an alternate form based on his original sprites in Final Fantasy, coloring his skin a pale yellow-green, and the demonic faces are purple. In this form Chaos wields up to four large black and orange swords, initially appearing as spires stuck into the arena floor.

In the first's game opening FMV, he takes the form of a creature made of magma emerging from the earth, in contrast to the cloudy form of Cosmos in the same cutscene.

As Desperado Chaos, Chaos takes on a black, yellow and red color scheme, appearing as a damaged, wounded form of Chaos with torn wings, spikes along his tail, and a broken horn. His body details and face are exaggerated to monstrous proportions, and he walks on all sixes. In his alternate outfit, Desperado Chaos takes on a green, blue and yellow color scheme, similar to the Final Fantasy XII incarnation of Chaos.

Shade Impulse
After the ten Warriors of Cosmos retrieve the Crystals, they return to Order's Sanctuary as she takes them to the Edge of Madness where Chaos himself appears and incinerates the goddess before the heroes' eyes. But given tentative time by Cosmos's gambit, the warriors have a final chance to strike back at Chaos and end the war for good.

As the heroes journey to Chaos and strike down the other villains who are now acting of their own agendas, it is revealed that Chaos, like the other characters, has no memories of the previous cycles of the war. However, he admits to Garland that he had a dream of a world where he suppressed disorder, and ruled this happy world alongside Cosmos, though he cannot understand what this dream means, and he refers to it as "cruel". Garland then reveals to Chaos he was the one who guided him to begin the war in order to perfect Chaos's power, and that Chaos will send Garland into the past to become Chaos himself. Garland also claims he did this to serve the purposes of the "Great Will", though he does not say why.

After Garland is sent back into time to remain the cycle from his position, Chaos begins to be overwhelmed as he regains the lost memories of the world's inhabitants, giving him true understanding of the cycle of war. Contacted by an unknown entity, Chaos is given the power of Shinryu to end the cycle in his victory, and purge all existence.

Shortly after this, the Warriors of Cosmos arrive at Chaos's throne, having dispatched the villains. In a final battle, Chaos is defeated, and the warriors return to their own worlds as the god is consumed in fire.

Battle
In battle, Chaos is described as The Master of Bedlam, and fights with long, powerful fire and earth-themed combos that do massive damage. Due to his sheer size, and the small size of the Edge of Madness area, even his melee strikes have considerable range. His melee attacks execute quickly and do high damage, while his magic attacks are slower and easier to dodge or block. Chaos has access to the unique summon Shinryu, which can be summoned multiple times in one battle and has varying effects during the three rounds, ranging from locking Chaos' Bravery to doubling it instantly. He has no EX Mode and no EX Gauge, but can pick up EX Cores and EX Force. Chaos can also dash, dodge, and block like all other characters.

Chaos is fought as boss twice, as the final boss of both Shade Impulse and Inward Chaos, as well as for a third time in the Time Attack sub-mode in Arcade Mode. In any battle, Chaos must be defeated three times in succession for the player to win; if the player's character loses all HP in any round, he or she must start over from the beginning. During the battle's third phase, Chaos's attacks augment in power and grow stronger.

The Desperado Chaos incarnation uses a different fighting style, that of the berserker who is able to move well on all fours while using his attacks.

Fighting Chaos
One general strategy for Chaos is to jump into the air and wait for him to dash up, blocking him and attacking when he staggers. With the small arena it is advised the player try to use Wall Rush HP attacks when possible to maximize the damage done. If possible the idea is to use any blocking HP attack and/or chase effect Bravery attack, to prevent Chaos from attacking with his brutal attacks as much as possible and limiting him of his would-be fatal arsenal of attacks. Staying on the ground leaves the player vulnerable to all of Chaos' attacks and minimizes their dodging options, so it is safest to be in the air. While his Bravery attacks can be difficult to anticipate and defend against, Chaos' HP attacks can all be avoided with proper timing as explained above. Divine Punishment is easily his most difficult attack to avoid due to the very precise dodging required, but if it is dodged Chaos is highly vulnerable as he is immobile while completing the attack.

The player is only able to use their summon once during the three-part battle, so it is highly recommended they save it until they badly need it. Defensive summons like Demon Wall and Alexander are advised. Mandragora is also a good option as it quickly refills the player's Bravery and make it even stronger if the player can damage Chaos's Bravery - between his HP attacks inflicting Wall Rush and his Shinryu summon increasing his Brave even more, if the player is inflicted with Break Chaos is likely to kill them in a single hit. Since Chaos must be beaten three times in a row, and the player is defeated after losing only once, using EX bursts are not recommended until the final round (however this varies, as depending on how the player can stagger Chaos, how quick they can fill their EX gauge, making it possible to perform EX Burst in all 3 Rounds and even more than once in one round, but this method requires experience and strategy) unless the player's selected character is low on HP and desperate to survive. Resin-type items remain active during all three battles, so items like Arcane Resin are very helpful to start every battle with a full EX Gauge - a timely entrance into EX Mode to block an attack can easily help save the player's life.

AP Farming
Chaos is the best enemy in the game to face to amass AP, and doing so is simple. The player should equip their character of choice with a Diamond Ring, three pieces of Diamond equipment, the Beckoning Cat accessory, and fight Chaos on their Bonus Day. Enter Quick Battle and set Chaos to Level 1, as his level has no impact on how much AP the player earns. Provided they earn the AP Chance for each of the three battles, the player will earn a total of 108 AP at the end of the third battle.

EX Mode
Desperado Chaos' EX Mode turns his body a brighter shade of red and orange. In his EX Burst, Regnum Dei (Kingdom of God), a departure from other EX Bursts, Desperado Chaos teleports the opponent and himself to a closed-in arena in a ring of fire, and the player has twenty seconds with which to attack their opponent using Bravery attacks, during which time the opponent can still move and attack. When the time limit ends Desperado Chaos will deal the final blow Nex Ultimus (Final Slaughter), where he grabs the opponent, and impales them with several of Chaos' giant swords from all directions before dealing a claw thrust to deal HP damage. The last attack is first from the side, then from the opponent's perspective, shortly before the screen cuts to black like a turned-off TV screen.

Music
Chaos has his own two themes: Dissidia's "Chaos" by "Your Favorite Enemies" and 012 Dissidia's "Cantata Mortis & God in Fire".

Allusions

 * Chaos's eventual madness in Shade Impulse is a reference to the Ivalice summon Chaos. His ultimate attack Brink of Delusion, involves four swords that stab the arena in a manner similar to the Chaos of Ivalice. Furthermore, the alternate costume of Desperado Chaos has the color scheme as the Chaos summon.
 * The finishing segment of the Utter Chaos attack is called Brink of Delusion, which is a clear synonym for the Edge of Madness. Both of these names can also be considered to be approximate synonyms for Final Fantasy.
 * The white circles of energy that appear at the end of Brink of Delusion resemble the portal of energy that consumes Chaos upon his defeat in Final Fantasy.
 * When the Warriors of Cosmos confront Chaos on his throne, he is sitting in the same pose as Yoshitaka Amano's original artwork of Chaos in Final Fantasy.
 * In several instances during the story, Chaos's eyes flash in the same way his eyes flash while using Blaze, Tsunami, Tornado, or Earthquake in the later remakes of Final Fantasy. The attack he used to kill Cosmos, as well as the lava-like background from the Edge of Madness stage, is very similar to his Blaze attack from the Dawn of Souls release.
 * Chaos's amnesia of the past cycles of the war is a reference to Garland's words from Final Fantasy before he transforms into Chaos, where he states he will forget his memories after 2,000 years.
 * His quote whilst fighting Garland is "Let us close the infinite cycle.", which is a reference to the time loop within Final Fantasy.

Trivia

 * Although Chaos's official artwork depicts him facing to the right, as the artwork of the other villains do, his logo artwork and in-game character icon face to the left, as the artwork of the heroes do.
 * Chaos is the only character to be fought three times in succession. This causes several unique things to happen when facing him:
 * Chaos is the only character against which the player can Battlegen two or three of the same Accessory in a single battle.
 * If the player is equipped with any items that give an initial boost to their EX Force, that bonus will be applied at the start of each battle. For example, if the player equips the Zwill Crossblade (initial EX Force +30%), at the start of each battle they will retain their EX Force from the previous battle, plus 30%.
 * In Story Mode, if Skills such as Maser Eye are used on Chaos to damage his HP, the resulting HP reduction will only apply to the first battle and does not affect the second and third battles.
 * While fighting Chaos, the player is not allowed to save replays of the fight.
 * Though he is not a playable character, Chaos can be played using hacks. There are a few problems with this though - Chaos has no victory pose, no EX Mode, while using him the opponent's HP bar will not appear, and when using his Utter Chaos attack in an arena other than Edge of Madness the camera angles will swing through and inside the arena floor and walls.
 * If made playable via hacks, the game keeps track of Chaos's records in the Museum, such as the total damage he has inflicted, like any other character.
 * Also, if made playable via hacks, the game allows the player to save replays of the fight.
 * After completing Shade Impulse, the player can purchase Chaos in the PP Catalog to fight him in Quick Battle mode and Arcade Mode. However, like the Shade Impulse and Inward Chaos battles, Chaos can only be fought at Edge of Madness and the save replay function is not available.
 * Because Chaos has no EX meter, any Booster accessories equipped that rely on the opponent's EX meter will never be active while fighting Chaos.
 * Because Chaos's Shinryu summon can be used without limit, any Booster accessories that rely on the opponent having used their summon will never activate when fighting Chaos. On the other hand, any Booster accessories that rely on the opponent not having used their summon will always be active, as the accessory checks whether the opponent is still able to use their summon, and Chaos always can.
 * Despite the fact that Chaos could use attacks based on all four elements in the original Final Fantasy, he only uses earth and fire-based attacks in Dissidia and Garland uses the elements instead.