Review by: Tom Chick

Okay, first things first. In case I'm able to convince you to get this game -- if you have a PSP and you're not averse to weirdly grindy brawly RPGs, you definitely should get it -- let's parse the title, which will be your first obstacle. This game is called -- deep breath -- Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy. Okay, that last bit, the "Final Fantasy", is because the game features Final Fantasy characters. Who cares. I don't know the first thing about Final Fantasy and I have no idea who these people are. Yuna? Cloud? Onion Knight? Sephiroth? Whatever. It doesn't matter. If you're a Final Fantasy person, you're probably already sold on this game, so you're not even reading this review. But whatever Final Fantasy hoo-ha is going on here is so irrelevant that Square Enix lets me select an option to automatically skip all cutscenes. The best fan service is optional fan service.

So now we're down to Dissidia 012 Duodecim. As near as I can tell, "duodecim" is Greek or French or something for the number 12. It's an entirely redundant part of the title. Plus, I don't speak French. Let's cut it.

Dissidia 012. Now we're getting more manageable. The implication is that this is the sequel to an eleventh Dissidia in a series that intends at least 100 separate games, hence the extra zero before the 12. Someone besides me apparently sucks at math, because this is only the second Dissidia game. So let's just swap in a 2 for the 012 and call it Dissidia 2.

And that's where I come to a screeching halt, because I don't know what a Dissidia is, and I've played the daylights out of the first game, and now this second game. So it's called Dissidia 2 and you're wondering why you should play it.

Because, quite simply, this is perhaps the most gratifying grind you can get on the PSP, a system brimming with gratifying grinds (mostly recently, Cladun, ZHP, Tactics Ogre, 3rd Birthday, Phantasy Star Portable 2, and Patapon 3). The core gameplay consists of quick battles between nimble characters with unique powers. These battles are so satisfying because they're short, strategic, and often spectacular. Well, as spectacular as they can be on the PSP. Sure, it's lo-res, but the fantastical anime-influenced artwork comes alive so long as you let your brain provide the antialiasing (i.e. imagine away the rough edges).

Combat is based on a shrewd risk/reward system where you have to build up your power to land a hit, but the longer you build up your power, the longer you're letting your opponent build up his power, and the longer it will take to recover after an attack. What's more, you can steal power from each other. There's a sense of both characters jockeying for position before going in for the kill. And since all of the characters can fly -- or "fly", since these battles are based on the sort of crazy wirework that originated in Asian cinema -- Dissidia 2 is a far cry from the grounded toe-to-toe fisticuffs in the usual fighting games.