Dissidia Final Fantasy is a unique game in that a person should be able to judge whether or not they will enjoy the game simply by viewing the opening cinematic (the video is embedded below for anyone who thinks they may be on the fence). The video features all of the characters from the game in a massive battle royale without giving any background to the characters or any context to the fight. I had originally started to play Dissidia in late March, at which point I realized that sum total, I had only played 5 out of the 10 games that were receiving fan service in the game. I started to play through with a couple of the characters before I figured that the game would probably be a lot more enjoyable if I finished up some of the other Final Fantasies first. And so, over a month later, I went back to Dissidia after finishing the first three Final Fantasies. I have to say, this is definitely the type of game that you're appreciation of it is directly tied to your love of the source material, as that opening cinematic was way more interesting if you had already spent at least 15 hours with each of the characters involved in the fight.
While I've had my problems with Final Fantasy games (unforgiving save/load systems, cheap enemies, often incoherent endings), it still remains one of my overall favorite series of video games. I really started to play the series at Final Fantasy X, but have gone back and played through most of them since then. Even the ones I didn't play I owned, yet they were always a safe "rainy day" backup option that I never took advantage of. I always appreciated that the series had some common threads (chocobos, Cid, certain items) yet each told a standalone story that did not require one to play any of the previous entries to enjoy. It is the equivalent of having a favorite author who told more than one series of stories, as I can play the games that I hear are the best yet still always know that the ones I have not are at least competent because I have such faith in the series developers.
Well, Square Enix decided to through out a non-canonical bone to Final Fantasy fans with Dissidia that basically throws this standalone approach out the window in favor of an all-star mash-up, and surprisingly it holds. However, this should be taken with an extreme grain of salt. When the game first came out, it got near universally positive reviews from game websites and magazines, and yet I would be hesitant to recommend it to anyone who isn't at least somewhat of a Final Fantasy fan. The gameplay is fine and no aspect of the game is broken, yet Square Enix definitely intended to sell this game to Final Fantasy fans, not to bring in new fans. The story is filled with vague references to other games in the series, and it just seems that something would be lost in the translation if someone not familiar with the series tried to play the game. Namely, who can be expected to care about a character with almost no development in the game? Square Enix didn't really have to ask this question, as the player already had a bond to the character they were choosing.
Dissidia is about the forces of Cosmos (the light god) battling against the forces of Chaos (the dark god). These forces conveniently consist of a hero and a villain from every Final Fantasy I-X (along with a couple unlockable characters). You take control of one of the heroes and play through a storyline that ends with a confrontation with that hero's corresponding villain. Afterwards, you are given the choice of continuing on and seeing the story through to its conclusion or playing through another character's initial story. The stories consist of general ideas from each game that are condensed to pure ideology, so the cutscenes are even more philosophically dense than normal. However, fans who are used to these kind of cutscenes will find them bearable, and those that have played the games that contain these ideas will definitely get more out of the cliffnotes version due to nostalgia.
The actual gameplay consists of moving the character around a storyboard that features enemies, treasures, and a few powerups until the character reaches a "Stigma of Chaos" that will either just advance the character to the next board or throw an enemy at you and then move you to the next board. When battling enemies, the game takes a 3rd person "behind the shoulder" view and you must drain your opponent's health. However, the system is a bit more complicated than that because only "HP Attacks" drain health. In order to do more damage, you must build up your characters bravery by hitting your opponent with "Bravery Attacks." The amount of bravery that your character has represents the amount of health they will knock off after connecting an HP Attack. After hitting the opponent with an HP Attack, however, your character's bravery drains to zero, and thus the game becomes a careful game of attacking with Bravery Attacks while waiting for the perfect moment for an HP attack.
Each character features a fighting style that is faithful to their game, so no one will play in a way that would shock a fan (other than the fact that, well, they're in a fighting game instead of an RPG now). Cloud has his Braver attack and Tidus has a Sphere Shot, so the game definitely pays out a bit more to people that have played the corresponding game as most people that hadn't wouldn't really care. Additionally, the items and summons featured are from the various games, further showing just how much effort Square Enix put into the game as fan service.
The game also features an Arcade Mode, Duel Colosseum, Quick Battle, and Communications Mode. Arcade Mode and Duel Colosseum is just a run through several AI opponents, Quick Battle is a match against one AI opponent, and Communications mode allows for battling against a friend. Additionally, the game has a Museum mode to collect all the unlockables, such as concept art and sample music, in one place
The graphics take an art style that is best thought of as a compromise between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X, and overall each character is recognizable from their respective game (except, to me, the Onion Knight, but then again that was a secret class in the U.S. re-release). The characters' special moves are all fairly accurate as well, so fans will get a kick out of seeing their favorite moves in a fighting game with a different engine. The game animates well with no real slowdown, although the load times are fairly common and long, even with the optional data install.
Dissidia Final Fantasy contains too much fan service for me to readily recommend to just anyone, as I sincerely doubt it'll share anywhere near the same level of appeal to non-fans. Granted, it's a solid enough game, I'm just not sure that there isn't a game those same people would rather play that features a more fleshed out story (like Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep... on second thought, recommend KH:BbS, but don't tell them the full name). For the longtime Final Fantasy fan, however, Dissidia is about as much fan service as you can shove into a game.
Overall Score: For Fans: 8.0
For Non-Fans: 7.0
The stories consist of general ideas from each game that are condensed to pure ideology.
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