If you’re a Final Fantasy fan then you’ll be chewing your arm off to play Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Of course, don’t do that because you’ll have trouble playing it on your PSP. In a move similar to Super Smash Bros paying fan service to Nintendo junkies, Square Enix have taken a whole host of characters from most of their Final Fantasy games and put them into a fighting arena where they can battle each other one on one and earn tonnes of collectables. Tidus, Cloud, Cecil, Sephiroth and others all appear in the ultimate battle between good and evil.
It seems the gods of Cosmos and Chaos have had a bit of a falling out and Chaos is winning. So, in story mode you play through a number of ‘levels’ playing as a key Final Fantasy character on a sort of board game, choosing where to go and what to fight. Battles are fought in real-time in 3D arenas as you attempt to steal bravery points from your opponents. The more you steal, the harder your attacks. You can also pick up a special item that lets you do a super move and often it’s a race to who can get to it first.
Combat is fun and slick but sometimes the camera points the wrong way and when you try to lock onto an opponent, sometimes you end up locking onto special items and facing the wrong way instead. The story of each character’s destiny isn’t great either. For a series that prides itself in involving stories, it’s a bit disappointing to have some hammy voice acting and boring plot lines at times.
Still, if you’re into Final Fantasy there’s all the role-playing elements of finding and equipping weapons and items and tonnes and tonnes of collectables from extra playable characters to voice samples. There’s also enough gameplay here and more modes to keep you playing if you’re unfamiliar with the series. Dissidia: Final Fantasy gets an excellent 8 out of 10.
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