UPDATE :LOS ANGELES (November 5, 2009) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that DISSIDIA™ FINAL FANTASY® for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system (including the PSP®go system) is now available on PlayStation Store.
So now you can download it straight from the Playstation Store! (As long as you aren’t sentimentally attached to owning a disk.)
Dissidia is the new Final Fantasy game, released for the PSP. When I first heard about this title I was completely uninterested, as I thought it was going to be a glorified fighting game. But then I tried it, and it was a glorified fighting game. (With lots of RPG elements.) Much more playable than I was lead to believe from the first images.
The game is mostly the 3-D one on one fighter that it looks to be, but it has a story mode that implements a grid style map, laced with treasures and battles, that you have to maneuver to get to the end. The grids are simple at first, but they require more and more strategy as you get further along.
The battle systems pretty good itself, if not a little extreme. Kind of like if Advent Children were a video game, because you’re characters are practically flying. You are given two different kinds of hit points, one is a courage gauge, the other is an actual life meter. The courage gauge is filled by stealing the courage of your opponent, and the larger number you have the more damage you’ll deal. And you have two separate attacks, one to attack courage, the other to deal death blows.
Another part of battling that I quite like is the EX gauge. Which is the same as limit breaks from the games. A meter that if filled, can deal greater damage, and do super moves for a short time. When in EX gauge mode each of the characters each do something different.
Cloud does Omni-slash with Ultima Weapon, Terra goes into Trance, X-death does Grand Cross, Etc…
The game is actually quite amazing when you take into account what a portable system can do now a days. It seems to me that it’s nearly PS2 quality graphics during gameplay, and I was astounded by what they did with the CG movies. They looked really good. Since the days of Gameboy, I have been dreaming of playing video games that were this intricate, and looked this good. And these dreams have finally been realized. (But I find that I just want more now.)
The story in this game is very simple. Good = the heroes from all the Final Fantasy games, working for a goddess named Cosmos. Bad = the villains (Plus Jecht) from the same games, working for Chaos (fittingly voiced by Keith David, fitting because he kinda looks like a gargoyle.) All of the characters go through their own small side stories, playing into the major battle between good and evil. Although I found that they had way to much character story, and that it interrupted game play if you didn’t skip most of it.
Which brings me to my next analysis, this game has tons of gameplay, plenty of equipment, relics, summons, and abilities to acquire. Plus all of the levels gave you incentives for beating them with high grades, giving them plenty of replayability. The only real trouble I had with the game, was that the main boss was so easy when you got to him. Way easier than lots of battles leading up to him. But then when you get to the bonus dungeons you have to fight a harder version of him, that’s so impossible that I gave up trying. So there was a definite lack of balance.
As stated earlier I didn’t think I would enjoy this game, but it was actually really well made, and fun. I wish it could be played on a system as well as being portable. It’s not exactly an RPG, but it’s a good blend. If you have a PSP, it’s worth a try.
3.5 out of 5 Bigshinyrobot’s!
