Dissidia Final Fantasy is a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) features key characters out of each Final Fantasy game and thrusts them into a small arena to fight out their differences and prove which Final Fantasy title reigns supreme. Each game has their own character and some of the featured characters include Cloud, Titus, Squall, Zidane and several others. Each character is designated in a different way, for those familiar with MOBAs, it breaks down in similar ways: Marksmen do what they do best and attack from range, Vanguard is similar to the Tank/Bruiser classes, Assassins are best used to dart into and out of combat, Specialists felt almost like a mix between support and fighter to me.
There is a fair amount of maps to choose from, many of which you may recognize from throughout different areas you have explored throughout your Final Fantasy adventures. Battles are 3v3 games with a team winning by scoring 3 KOs. The game incorporates different attacks that function together but very differently. Bravery is the main attack, HP Attacks do as the name suggests and attack the players HP.
In order to succeed in knocking a player out of the match, Bravery must be built up in order to attack the HP and bring it to 0. This can be both a blessing and a curse. Build enough Bravery and you can one hit your opponent into oblivion, wait too long and you may lose the stored up Bravery due to incoming damage or find yourself taken out in the process as you try to build it all up. But it’s not just Bravery and HP, you also get to choose a Summon. Favorites from throughout the series include Bahamut, Odin, Ifrit and a number of others. Each summon attacks in a different way across the map, provides buffs and helps to build Bravery.
The combat system had its ups and downs. The Bravery and HP Attacks are an interesting take in how the battle goes. The ability to build Bravery from one target and take out another possibly without them even seeing it coming was intriguing and fun; as mentioned earlier, it doesn’t always work out how you plan it, don’t be surprised if the same happens to you. Combat is hectic at first to say the least. A “lock on” system is used which on its surface seems like it may help, I actually found myself wishing I could look around on my own and often found myself unable to keep my eyes on multiple targets effectively.
In order to use summons, you have to break the crystals that spawn across the map, this also throws the proverbial monkey wrench into keeping eyes on your target when you have to also lock onto the crystal. As for the Summons themselves, I will admit that the way they attack is a little anticlimactic. Few things compare in my past to that first time I used Bahamut and watched his beam decimate all the enemies on my screen. In this rendition, the attacks are able to be dodged and while they can be devastating, they don’t quite hold to the initial thought of a summon in your mind (although to be fair, it would be worse if the first team to summon won due to them being overpowered).
All that being said, combat is not horrible. I truly enjoyed the fact that Summons have to be summoned and can be disrupted, I also found it an excellent detail that the more players summoning, the faster it went. The Summons themselves were impressive and beautiful; they worked very well into the scheme of the game and not dominating the map (as I said, my first gripe was a base impression, not the most pragmatic).
There can be a variety of attacks despite there being one button for Bravery and one for HP. Different directions elicit different attacks, including whether you are dashing or not. Different characters have differences in their attacks based on their character as well. Some can charge, some can transform, and others are more speed orientated. These small differences make for a very complex way that each character can be utilized, both on a team and when combined with buffs.
All in all I was very impressed with the game. The combat is overwhelming at first but not overly difficult to grasp. The maps offer not only a wide variety of sights and sounds, but also different ways to use the landscape to your advantage to decimate any who stand in your way. Each game is incorporated, some more subtly than others, but I think fans of the series will enjoy it as a whole. I look forward to the many different avenues that I see open, and to the many I am very sure I don’t see or just didn’t notice; because as we can all agree, there is no shortage of oddities to pull out of the Final Fantasy universe.