Review - Dissidia: Final Fantasy

System: PSP
MSRP: $40.00
Release Date: August 25th, 2009

For those of you wondering, "dissidia" is technically not a word. However, some speculate that it could possibly be derived from the Latin word "dissidium," which roughly translates to "one that causes conflicts." The English word "dissident" is derived from it, too.

Anyways, on to Final Fantasy's greatest battle…

Graphics

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (D:FF) looks gorgeous on the PSP. All the characters are fully detailed from their clothes and weapons to their physical characteristics. The areas that you fight in are detailed just as nicely, too. And each character's attacks (physical or magical) are very flashy and vibrant. Additionally, the cutscenes, especially the Intro, are stunning.

With that said, the graphics are not perfect. With the lack of anti-aliasing, certain objects and draw lines tend to look more rigid than they should. Feathers and certain parts of clothing look very sharp and jagged instead of soft and smooth.

- 18/20

Sound

All of the music in D:FF come from previous Final Fantasy titles. Some are exactly the same as the original, while some are remixed with more tempo to fit the fighting gameplay. The voice actors were exceptional, too. Each character had a different feeling and emotional tone.

- 20/20

Story

The world is slowly being overtaken by "Chaos" and it's up to the remaining protagonists in the Final Fantasy universe to band together, fight, and retrieve crystals in order to save "Cosmos" and banish the "Chaos." Each of the ten protagonists fight to obtain a crystal each, so, the story is split into 10 different sections.

The story is decent, but there it isn't very unique or original. Basically, it's your standard super-group of villains vs. a super-group of heroes to save all of existence.

- 15/20

Gameplay

The game has various modes: a Story mode, where you will spend most of your time leveling up each character and acquiring items, skills, equipment and money, a VS. Mode, Arcade Mode, and Duel-Coliseum where you fight by selecting opponents from a never ending deck of cards (you can also earn items through this mode, too).

The story mode plays out on a small map where you can move your character to a spot to fight someone, acquire an item, or end the stage and move onto the next map.

The fighting is done on a fully 3-dimensional plane where both characters are free to move anywhere. When fighting, you can use HP attacks that lower your opponent's health and Brave attacks that steal your opponent's Brave points. The more Brave points you have, the more damage your HP attacks do. When you use an HP attack, you lose some of you Brave points. Overall, you can use about 6 different skill/magic abilities when fighting. Your characters will learn a great amount of skills, magic, support skills, and basic skills, but you can only equip so many at once.

There are other things you can do when fighting , such as: aerial combat, chase combat, using summons and acquiring EX-Cores which will allow you to briefly go into EX-Mode where you can unleash devastating attacks and gain additional bonuses like health regen, higher attack damage, increased speed, etc.

- 19/20

Replayablity

If you have a PS3, then you can get into Ad-Hoc mode and play against other people. The story mode is going to take you awhile to complete. There are 10 characters that you can level up and acquire skills and attacks. And the items and equipment that you earn can be shared with all characters. So, if you purchase a very expensive armlet, you can have it equipped to all 10 characters at the same time.

- 20/20

Conclusion

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is gushing with nostalgia! The voice-overs and music are phenomenal and the graphics are some of the best shown on the PSP, even without anti-aliasing. The story is a little bland, but the gameplay is fun and addictive. If you like Final Fantasy, fighting games and own a PSP, you should definitely pick up Dissidia: Final Fantasy!

- 92/100

Justin Hubbell
January 11th, 2010