Feral Chaos

Feral Chaos is a playable character and superboss in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. An alternate form of the game's main antagonist, Chaos, Feral Chaos is, as his name implies, a monstrosity that is a bestial berserker in battle, and speaks only in roars, snarls and grunts. Feral Chaos is an original character created for Dissidia 012. Though he is an alternate incarnation of Chaos, who is based on Chaos from the original Final Fantasy, Feral Chaos himself has no counterpart in the main series and his backstory and design are entirely original.

Appearance
Feral Chaos is primarily black, yellow, red and orange. Compared to the original Chaos he is larger with torn and burnt wings, rows of spikes along his tail, and a broken left horn. His face is exaggerated to monstrous proportions, as are the faces on his groin and limbs, and the amulet around his neck has grown from a red gemstone to a red orb. His loincloth is shorter and the smaller horns on his forehead are larger.

In his alternate appearance, "Jade Dissonance," Feral Chaos turns green and blue with yellow on his claws and wings. It coincidentally resembles the color scheme of the Ivalice summon known as Chaos, as it appears in Final Fantasy XII. A Feral Chaos in this outfit is fought by the player in the storyline Confessions of the Creator, at which point it is said to be a manikin-like shade of the real Feral Chaos. Despite this color scheme being used for Feral Chaos's manikin, the player may still purchase it in the PP Catalog and use it as an alternate appearance for him.

Story
At the end of the thirteenth cycle, the Warriors of Cosmos defeat Chaos and end the cycle of war. Shinryu, displeased at Cid of the Lufaine for breaking their pact and siding with Cosmos, silently offers Chaos the chance to get back at Cid, and Chaos agrees. In reality, Chaos dies and the wars end, but Shinryu traps Cid in a nightmarish alternate world where the cycles continue. In this world, Cosmos wins every single cycle up until the eighteenth one: at this point, the constant deaths and losses finally drive Chaos to insanity. He transforms into Feral Chaos, losing any shred of his former self, and goes berserk.

Feral Chaos destroys all the summoned warriors, regardless of alignment, and during the twentieth cycle, he fells the Warrior of Light, the last remaining warrior. At this point Cosmos's power to summon warriors is exhausted, and to protect her from death, Cid seals her and himself in the Chasm in the Rotting Land. With his nemesis out of his reach, Feral Chaos turns his attention to Shinryu, and Cid cleaves the southern and northern continents in two, restricting them to the north for protection and sealing a gateway on the path connecting the two. The outcome of Feral Chaos's battle with Shinryu, who had also become stronger to transform into Shinryu Versus, is unknown, but as Feral Chaos has him as a summon, it would seem that he won, or at least the two came to a truce and joined forces.

At some point, five warriors appear in the nightmare world, their method of entering unknown to even Cid, though he speculates he may have done so himself subconsciously. In the form of a Moogle and having lost his memories after his sealing, Cid is rescued by the party and directs them to the north and eventually to the Land of Discord where Feral Chaos rests at the Edge of Madness, along the way recovering his memories and telling them the story of how Feral Chaos came to be. At the final gateway the party destroys Feral Chaos, shattering the nightmare world and releasing Cid from his torment. As he fades, Feral Chaos seems to come to his senses, and thanks the warriors for freeing his father.

Battle
Feral Chaos is described as The Omega and the Alpha and fights with fast, powerful Bravery attacks as well as a variety of HP attacks that make him a potent attacker. All of his Bravery attacks cause Chase and Wall Rush, and many stagger guards or crush them outright. Feral Chaos is hindered by several disadvantages - initially his Bravery constantly depletes, and his EX and Assist gauges are locked at empty. As he levels up he gains support abilities that negate these disadvantages. Feral Chaos's moves have a much higher CP cost than other characters, costing 30 CP per Bravery attack and 50 CP for each HP attack when they are mastered. Furthermore, his basic abilities cost much more than every other character, such as blocking and evading costing 25 CP each when mastered. Feral Chaos is also large, making him easy to hit and giving him poor maneuverability in small arenas. Uniquely, the player is unable to set Feral Chaos as their Assist.

Feral Chaos can be purchased as a playable character for 350 PP in the PP Catalog once the player completes the Confessions of the Creator storyline.

Boss
Feral Chaos is fought as a boss twice in Confessions of the Creator, at the end of Arcade Mode's Crystal Course in Time Attack, and in the Cloister of Rivals and Cloister of Demise in the Labyrinth. In all of the boss battles with Feral Chaos in story-mode, Arcade Mode, and Labyrinth, he has access to Garland as an Assist and Shinryu Verus as a summon, which, like the original Shinryu, can be summoned multiple times.

A Level 95 Feral Chaos is fought partway through Confessions of the Creator, colored as "Jade Dissonance." An accessory he wears boosts his Attack and Defense by 5%, enhanced by a lone Booster accessory. By this Booster after a period of one minute, this Feral Chaos will gain a 90.0x multiplier, resulting in an increase to his Attack and Defense of 450% that renders him almost invincible to Bravery damage.

At the end of Confessions of the Creator the player fights the "true" Feral Chaos at Level 130 with 125,698 HP. Due to unique accessories Feral Chaos wears, the player's EX Gauge and Assist Gauge are drained to zero whenever Feral Chaos lands an HP attack, even if it does no damage, his own Assist Gauge increases 50% faster, and he deals 400% damage in EX Mode. This Feral Chaos can be fought in the tutorial when beginning the game by answering "I am a Master" to the Moogle's question. The player's character is merely a Level 1 Lightning, and due to the massive difference in power, it is difficult to the point of being nigh impossible to win without cheating. Even if the player is to win, the Moogle reacts as though they lost.

Feral Chaos is fought at the end of Arcade Mode's Time Attack "Crystal Course." While he has access to Shinryu Verus, his stats and equipment are otherwise ordinary for an Arcade Mode opponent. Feral Chaos can be found twice in the Labyrinth. He appears in the second Cloister of Rivals, and at the end of the Cloister of Demise. When fought in the Cloister of Rivals Feral Chaos has only 8,844 HP, and in the Cloister of Demise has 44,967 HP.

Fighting Feral Chaos
Feral Chaos fights very much like his original counterpart: his melee Bravery combos are fast and difficult to avoid. He is equipped with the attacks Vicious, Erupt and Spew for Ground Bravery Attacks, and Destroy, Splinter and Raid for Midair Bravery Attacks. He has access to all his HP attacks. Feral Chaos mostly only uses Spew and Splinter from range, and Erupt or Raid when the player is directly above or below him. Feral Chaos most frequently uses Destroy to attack, and may use it several times in succession. He frequently Wall Rushes the player with either Destroy or Vicious, then follows up with Deus Iratus or Ventus Ire. The player should dodge as soon as possible to avoid being drawn into this combo. Feral Chaos will similarly call his Garland Assist to Wall Rush the player, then combo it with Deus Iratus or Ventus Ire. Because the player's EX and Assist Gauges will be depleted if they are hit with an HP attack, the player may as well use EX Revenge or Assist Change to break Chaos's HP attacks if they connect to avoid damage, as they will lose their EX/Assist charge either way. Fortunately, all of Feral Chaos's HP attacks have considerable end lag, making it the optimal time to counterattack. The player can also block Destroy to stagger him, but this is risky since he may follow up Destroy with Deus Iratus or Ventus Ire instead of another Destroy.

Feral Chaos' Shinryu Verus summon, like the original Shinryu, can be summoned multiple times in battle. It has four effects, all of which activate after a 20 second timer: the player and Feral Chaos swap Bravery, the player's Bravery falls to 0, the player's Bravery is locked, and Feral Chaos' Bravery is tripled. Because they have 20 seconds warning to these effects, the player has a chance to plan for them. It is advised they try to deplete Feral Chaos's Bravery as much as possible before the tripling effect activates, increase their own Bravery in anticipation of the Bravery freeze, and land an HP attack at the last moment for the other two effects, thus either dropping Feral Chaos' Bravery to 0 when the values switch, or being in a state of recovering Bravery when their own Bravery drops to 0.

Feral Chaos has Disable Sneak Attack equipped, so this ability is a waste of CP. His base Bravery is over 3,500, so the Spite ability can be useful. Exp to HP can help in prolonging the longevity of the party members: the great problem with Feral Chaos is his endurance due to his high HP, so Exp to HP can help even the odds slightly. Because his HP is so high, the boosters "Large Gap in HP" and "(Opp) HP ≥ 10000" will always be active when fighting him unless the player is close to winning. "Level Gap ≥ 30" and "(Opp) Summon Unused" are always active as well. Combined these four Boosters give a multiplier of 3.8x, and by their various conditions this boost will be in constant effect until the battle's final stages when Feral Chaos' HP dips low. If the player adds in one or two more boosters, they can easily achieve and maintain a considerable booster level throughout the battle.

A very easy, if unorthodox, method to defeat Feral Chaos is to enter the gateway with a Level 1 character and exploit the Smiting Soul accessory and the Iai Strike ability attached to it. The player must equip their character with a Smiting Soul, a Sniper Eye, and a combination of Boosters that results in a 99.9x multiplier. "Level Gap ≥ 90" grants a 10.0x multiplier and is essential to this. Combined with at least five other 1.5x boosters, and a seventh booster that gives at least 1.4x, the needed 99.9x multiplier is granted. The player must also have Exp to Bravery equipped, and either fight on a calendar day that grants them Exp x2, or equip a Chocobo Feather. In battle, the 99.9x booster will all but ensure Iai Strike will activate, instantly doing 9999 Bravery damage. The player must then use an HP attack that inflicts Wall Rush. The damage will read "9999 + 9999", but due to the Sniper Eye accessory and the booster level the Wall Rush damage will actually exceed the damage limit to do far more than ten thousand damage. Then, Exp to Bravery will instantly restore the player's Bravery to 9999 again. The player repeats this strategy until Feral Chaos is defeated. This method is fairly simple, and allows Feral Chaos to be defeated in under a minute.

EX Mode
Regnum Dei QYdR5gHYDy8 Feral Chaos's EX Mode is The power of discord reveals the true Chaos. His body turns a brighter shade of red and orange. He gains the abilities "Divine Might" and "Brutal," increasing his movement speed and his attack and defense. All of his Bravery attacks also crush guards.

Feral Chaos' EX Burst is Regnum Dei (The kingdom of God). A departure from other EX Bursts, Feral Chaos teleports the opponent and himself to a closed-in arena in a ring of fire, and the player has twenty seconds with a chance to lower their opponent's Bravery, during which time the opponent can still move and attack. When the time limit ends, or if the player presses R +, Feral Chaos will deal the final blow, Nexus Ultimus (Final Nexus), in which he grabs the opponent, and impales them with several of Chaos's giant swords from all directions, the more bravery the player has at this point the more damage the swords will deal, before dealing a claw thrust to deal HP damage. The last attack is seen from the opponent's perspective, shortly before the screen cuts to black like a turned-off TV screen. The EX Burst can only be used if the opponent has HP after the HP hit that initiates the EX Burst.

Because the opponent can still act during Feral Chaos's EX Burst, it is possible for them to enter EX Mode and execute their own EX Burst during it. If this occurs, after the opponent's EX Burst executes normally, Feral Chaos's EX Mode and EX Burst are both canceled out, and the two characters return to the normal arena. However, Feral Chaos will not suffer EX Break if hit by an opponent's Assist. It is also possible to use HP attacks, thus allowing Feral Chaos and his opponent to deplete the other's HP without completing the EX Burst. The match will end normally, but the victory/lose scene will play inside the ring of fire instead of the normal arena.

Equipment
Feral Chaos can equip Greatswords, Axes, Grappling Weapons, Gauntlets, Large Shields, Helms, and Heavy Armor. He also has two sets of exclusive equipment, the weaker pieces of which are initially obtained in Confessions of the Creator after defeating Feral Chaos in the final gateway for the first time.

Music
The theme used for the battle with Feral Chaos is "Cantata Mortis & God in Fire." This track can also be selected for random battles once Feral Chaos is defeated for the first time at Edge of Discord.

Trivia

 * Feral Chaos is the only character that only has one alternate costume.
 * Feral Chaos has the longest EX Mode name.
 * Feral Chaos utters only two words in the entire game, growling "Destruction" when using a charged Via Dolorosa and growling "Discord" when entering EX Mode. However, the speaker is unknown, as Feral Chaos has no credited voice actor in the credits.
 * Feral Chaos has the most expensive alternate costume out of any character, costing 3000 PP when the next highest being 700 for some second alts.
 * Feral Chaos's EX Burst is the the only one that does not have a "Perfect" EX Burst; the closest he has to button commands is his free assault against his opponent. On that note, he is also the only character whose EX Burst can be outright canceled by the opponent should they use their own EX Burst and not via EX Break.
 * Feral Chaos and Cecil are the only characters with combination effects on their exclusive equipment.
 * Feral Chaos is one of two characters that is able to crush guards with all Bravery attacks during EX Mode. The other is Cloud.
 * Feral Chaos is the largest character in the game, even larger than the original Chaos.
 * Due to his sheer size, it is nearly impossible for Feral Chaos to dodge Chaos's Divine Punishment HP Attack, as his body will almost always gets hit by the initial brave hits. However, a well-timed Deus Iratus and a dodge after the attack's end can prevent the attack.
 * If Feral Chaos is the party leader in the Confessions of the Creator storyline, any cutscenes that feature the party leader, such as those with Shantotto and Gabranth, will not play. However, a special text-only scene will play for Shantotto and Gabranth if Feral Chaos is the party leader when the player challenges them.
 * During the brief period of time during Feral Chaos's EX Burst, before he teleports himself and the enemy to the ring of fire, the background varies depending on his opponent's alliance: blue if they are a warrior of Cosmos and orange if they are a warrior of Chaos.
 * By using an HP attack while in the ring of fire instead of performing his EX Burst, it is possible for the ring of fire to be the background of Feral Chaos's victory pose.
 * Feral Chaos is the only super boss in the series that can be fought in a tutorial.
 * When fighting on the Crystal World (Ω) stage, depending on the fighters' starting locations, Feral Chaos may fall into a banish trap before the fight even starts if the pre-fight scene is set to long.