Chaos (Final Fantasy)/Dissidia



Chaos (カオス) is the primary antagonist and the Final Boss of Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He is the god of discord that opposes Cosmos, the goddess of harmony, both being equal in power. During the events of Dissidia, Chaos and his forces tip the balance of power in their favor, setting the stage for their victory. Dissidia 012 explores this shift in power in-depth, and the actions taken by hero and villain alike that set the stage for the thirteenth cycle. Chaos is voiced by in the Japanese release, and  in the English release.

As the final boss of Dissidia and Dissidia 012, Chaos is unplayable unless one hacks the game. An alternate form of Chaos, a bestial monstrosity known as Feral Chaos, is playable in Dissidia 012, and serves as the game's superboss.

Appearance and Personality
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 opening FMV of Dissidia Final Fantasy, 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.

While his Final Fantasy counterpart shared Garland's personality during the short time he appeared, in Dissidia Chaos and Garland are entirely different. Despite his monstrous appearance and position as the God of Discord, Chaos demonstrates a calm, collected and reasoned demeanor when not in combat, speaking in an even tone of voice even to his enemies. He watches over his minions with a light hand, a trait influenced by his time with the Lufenian military when he was forced to fight against his will and came to hate his superiors. Even against traitors and those who neglect their duties to him, Chaos is hesitant to punish their disobedience. However, this attitude allows many of his warriors to turn their backs on him or otherwise plot against him, and only Garland is loyal to his god to the end.

Story
Chaos's history is revealed extensively through the Cosmos Reports and Chaos Reports, which are expanded on by more reports in Dissidia 012. Chaos was the first manikin to be given a sense of self by Cid of the Lufaine, creating a child-like monster imbued with the memories of ten people. Placed in Cid's care for observation, Chaos was eventually taken away by the Lufenia military to be used as a weapon of war to fight neighboring nations that used Omega and Summoned Monsters to fight. Chaos initially refused to fight, but complied when his mother was threatened. When she eventually fled, the Lufenian military used Cid's research to turn a manikin into a perfect clone of her to control Chaos.

Chaos was eventually rescued by Cid and his wife, though he grew twisted and hateful due to his time with the Lufenian military. However, when his mother was shot during the escape, Chaos's rage caused him to open portal to the Rift which swallowed him, Cid and the manikin of his mother. In a new dimension, the three are met by Garland, and eventually Cid makes his pact with Shinryu - Cosmos and Chaos agree to fight each other in order to eventually open a door to the Rift again, allowing them to return home. However, over time Chaos's memories fade, and by the last two cycles of conflict has forgotten Cid, whom he grew to hate since being used by the Lufenian military, and his relationship with Cosmos.

Twelfth cycle
Prior to the actual conflict, after overpowering Cloud when he attempts to destroy him, Chaos tells him the futility of his actions as Cloud starts to fade. Later, with Garland at his side, Chaos is approached by the Emperor, who brought to his feet Jecht and asks to have the former warrior of Cosmos be recruited in their side by having Chaos infuse Jecht with his energy.

Thirteenth cycle
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, Chaos confides 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 its meaning and referred 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 purpose of the "Great Will", also known as Cid.

After Garland is sent back into time to fulfill his predestinated fate, Chaos begins to be overwhelmed as he regains all of the lost memories of the conflict and before, giving him true understanding of the conflict and a maddened urge to destroy everything to cope with Cosmos's destruction. By then, having been a neutral figure in the conflicts before, Shinryu gives Chaos his power to purge all existence. Shortly after this, the Warriors of Cosmos arrive at Chaos's throne, having dispatched his warriors. In the final battle, Chaos is defeated, and the warriors return to their own worlds as the god is consumed in fire, the cycle of conflict ending with his death.

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 arena, even his melee strikes have considerable range. They are executed 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's 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. Chaos wears customized equipment whenever fought in any way, with stat boosts that change depending on his level, usually equal with the strongest equipment pieces usable by the player at Chaos' current level. These four equipment pieces are the Chaosbringer, Entropy's Aegis, Bedlam's Crown, and Havoc's Carapace.

In Dissidia 012, Chaos is fought as a boss in a Report. He is at Level 1, and uniquely the player only needs to win one round to defeat him.

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's 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's 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, Mandragora or Alexander are advised - between his HP attacks inflicting Wall Rush and his Shinryu summon increasing his Brave even more, if the player is inflicted with Break status then 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 Mode is not recommended until the final round, unless the player's selected character is low on HP and needs Regen, or the player is using an equipment set-up that lets them quickly refill their EX Gauge. Unique to the Edge of Madness stage is that EX Cores vanish if not picked up quickly, so the player should do so if they wish to receive the boost to their EX Gauge. 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 save the player's life.

AP Farming
In Dissidia, 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.

In Dissidia 012, this strategy still works and earns even more AP than before, due to the AP Chance going as high as +3 AP if the player is lucky, and the addition of the Diamond Studs and Diamond Earring which also raise the AP gained. However, it is much more difficult to pull off, as if the player sets Chaos to Level 1 the AP Chance will usually require the player to amass 9999 Bravery before using an HP attack. Furthermore, the AP Chance takes effect only if Chaos does not damage the player first, regardless of if he uses a Bravery attack or an HP attack. Thus, while the player can still earn a lot of AP using the above method, they may need to build up 9999 Bravery and avoid taking any damage from Chaos, which is highly difficult but can be made easier by creating custom rules. Diamond accessories cannot be purchased like the original, making obtaining them much harder as their break-ability is still 100%. Thus the player is encouraged to equip a Super Ribbon for this, which will slightly lower the chance of the Diamond accessories breaking. Also if the player has an artifact, there's a chance the artifact will give an ability that increases the percentage of additional AP you receive. Since any of the four equipment slots can obtain this ability when you make an artifact it can prove more useful than the Diamond equipment set.

Music
The theme used for the battle with Chaos is named simply "Chaos," performed by Your Favorite Enemies. It is divided into three parts for each phase of the battle. These tracks can also be selected for random battles once Chaos is defeated for the first time.

Allusions

 * Chaos's eventual madness in Shade Impulse and his transformation into Feral Chaos are references 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.
 * 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 in the original game 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. Similarly, Cosmos's art faces to the right.
 * 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 normally.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * It is possible that this is supposed to be the result of Chaos using the power of Discord, whereas Garland is using the power of the Four Fiends.
 * The battle against Cloud from Report 7 in Dissidia 012 is the only time where Chaos is fought in one round instead of three.
 * When Chaos is being attacked by long combos during the start of the Soul of Oblivion ability, Chaos will not disperse the orb until the combo is finished.
 * Dissidia 012 leaves Chaos's origins vague. Garland claims that Chaos will send him back in time so Garland will become Chaos, but Chaos's museum profile states Chaos is an advanced manikin created by Cid. There are two possible explanations - the scene where Garland tells Chaos about their connection is a cutscene carried over from the original Dissidia, and as none of the cutscenes in the original game were altered for Dissidia 012 the scene could be considered retconned by Chaos's new origins. Alternatively, a Report has Garland recounting that he will become Chaos, but also concerns him being summoned to World B and addressing Chaos as simply a monster, deciding that he will have to give the monster a name some day. This could suggest that the Chaos Garland became and the Chaos that is a manikin are not the same being, and that Garland named the monster "Chaos" due to its similarities to the "Chaos" Garland would become. If this were the case, Garland's claim that he will become Chaos could simply be the continued cycles distorting his memories, as happened to Chaos. Another possibility is that the manikin called Chaos becomes the man called Garland after being stripped of his power of discord by Shinryu, and then lives his life as a knight of Cornelia up until the events of Final Fantasy. If this is true, then Garland actually becomes Chaos twice in his life, first empowered by the power of Discord (from "birth"), and then by the elemental power of the Four Fiends (after being killed by the Warriors of Light).