Review by: Cole Jones

It’s been over a decade since Square’s first foray into the fighting genre hit the PlayStation, and if anyone remembers the laughably dated Ehrgiez: God Bless the Ring, it’s because of its playable Final Fantasy characters. Thankfully, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is nothing like its distant predecessor. It’s a fast-paced, lengthy brawler specifically designed with Final Fantasy fans in mind, and plays out much more like a one-on-one RPG match than your average Street Fighter clone. Even though it may take a little while to get a handle on its gameplay and vast array of content, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a unique adventure and a “must-play” for fans of the series willing to welcome it with open arms.

Dissidia features ten "Heroes of Cosmos" -- one for each Final Fantasy through FFX -- that must overcome their arch nemesis and reclaim their crystal. Each of the heroes have been called upon personally by the Goddess of Harmony, Cosmos, to eliminate the God of Discord, Chaos, in order to bring back balance to the world. Each of the ten characters (as well as the many unlockables) are relatively true to their roots, and must embark upon their own personal quest to find out exactly what they're fighting for. Sure, some of the voice acting is a little rough around the edges (Firion, in particular, sounds a little constipated), and you’ll tire of the story mode’s formulaic questioning, but seeing all your favorite characters interacting in such a casual way is really what makes Dissidia so endearing.

Unsurprisingly, the true meat of Dissidia lies in its Story Mode that follows each hero as they discover their reason to fight. After setting the scene with a bit of scruffy-voiced narrative and a cutscene, you’re sent to a board game-like grid to strategically pick your battles. Each of the five levels in your character’s story grant you a set amount of "Destiny Points" (DP) to spend on fights with adversaries, opening chests, or using items found throughout the level. While you can technically trudge on after your DP is gone, every extra DP spent docks you precious points from your end score that earns you exclusive abilities and prizes.

Much of mastering Story Mode involves figuring out how to chain fights together and snag extra DP wherever possible, but the battles themselves aren’t quite so simple. Each character has up to six main “Bravery Attacks” that build up your strength at your enemies’ expense, and six HP attacks that deal actual HP damage equal to your Bravery (if they connect). While Bravery attacks technically do no damage, they're essential to increasing your firepower and building up your “EX Gauge” for epic EX attacks like Omnislash and Rough Divide that will end battles in a single strike. As such, battle is a delicate balancing act between building up bravery and skillfully executing a tricky HP attack; making Dissidia much more suited to devotees than reckless button mashers.

Square-Enix did a pretty good job re-balancing characters from the slightly uneven Japanese version so no one utterly dominates, but when you’re starting out, characters that can get off fast HP attacks (like Zidane and Tidus) have a considerable advantage against slower low-level opponents. Once you start to “get” the system, however, you’ll notice that bulkier opponents don't need to connect as often because they can build up ridiculous amounts of bravery and destroy you in a single blow -- I can’t tell you how many times I ended up on the floor of after a skillful dodge. Dodging also brings my greatest gripe in the game: the camera, which occasionally gets stuck behind objects when you’re locked in a midair “chase” to execute an HP attack. Even though it happens infrequently, I hate worrying about getting locked into a one-sided battle, so be sure to practice your timing for the occasional blindness.