Dissidia: Final Fantasy- First Look
My stepfather was nice enough to run out and pick up a copy of this game for me while I was laid up with my foot elevated, and though I'm not sure I have any final fantasy fans reading my journal, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts after playing it for a while.
At first, the gameplay was pretty frustrating. It seemed like there was a lot going on at once, and because I have a habit of skimming through tutorials I didn't always know what was happening. The first few battles I was able to win through good old button mashing, but I finally got to some sort of boss fight and, after several unsuccesful tries I finally adapted to the mechanics of gameplay. There's a definite advantage for characters using long-range attacks, but I suppose that's to be expected. Also, it may have just been Sephiroth's fifty-foot penis katana, but I experienced some massive camera issues while playing him in a closed-off room. Haven't really had any problems with it since, though.
The stage set-ups are really pretty cool. Square used some of the standards of modern fighting games like breakable floors that dump you into a lower level of the stage and breakable pillars/walls to create an interactive space. They also stepped it up a bit, though, and gave you the ability to run up walls, leap large chasms, and slide across banisters and... uh, solid bands of light or something... which enables you to travel quickly from one side of the arena to another. Many arenas consist of big chunks of land with open space in between, and while falling into this in-between does not result in death or a ring-out it does dock some points. Battles often take to the air, because anyone who's seen Advent Children knows that gravity is mostly optional in the realms of Final Fantasy.
The story is probably where Square Enix dropped the ball on this. The premise of the game is that the lead character of every Final Fantasy from one to ten has been selected by the goddess of light to battle against the god of darkness's chosen warriors, the lead villains of Final Fantasy one to ten. Sounds a bit cheesy, but it isn't terrible. The problem is in the execution. When you first go into story mode you're treated to fanboy porn-- the ultimate Final Fantasy battle. Ever wanted to see Squall clash swords with Sephiroth? Tidus take on Kuja? The battle is flashy and fast-paced, everything it should be, but it presents one problem-- we, the audience, seem to have come into this plot somewhere in the middle. The hero brigade has already been fighting the forces of evil for awhile now and already have some familiarity with each other. It's never explained exactly how all of this came to be. Did Cosmos, the goddess of light, just pop into Balamb Garden one day and haul Squall away from his girlfriend? I'm assuming thus far that if that's just the way it happened, that it happened after the end of the ff games and not before or during.
It isn't coming in the middle that really throws things off, however. It's the fact that really... well, there is no story. At least not anything compelling. I was hoping we'd have some sort of intrigue, at least something along the lines of, "Tidus did something stupid and now everyone is in danger!" or "Sephiroth has taken control of Cloud's mind and now Cloud is trying to kill fucking everybody!" but instead we get a pretty standard "struggling to find my reasons for fighting" sort of story for everyone that seems to always come back to "your friends are always with you" and "fight with the strength of your inner light!" I would expect that sort of thing from a Kingdom Hearts spin-off, but come on. I think the story here was actually in watching these different characters try to work together, not in solving Cloud's angst puzzle for the 50 billionth time.
(Seriously, Squenix. There are other things you can do with your "dark" characters than have them fight their old foe a million times while they wallow ceaselessly in the past. This applies double for Vincent and Dirge of Cerberus.)
After every character's story you're treated to the same CGI scene over and over, which actually looks like it might lead to further, more interesting adventures. I hope so. I thought I should play through every character's story before tackling that, though, and so far I've only completed three of ten.
I will say that Square was pretty clever about the fanservice, though. There are a ton of tutorials that you can choose to access throughout the game, and they're written from the perspective of Final Fantasy characters that weren't included in the game. For instance, Quistis and Irvine gave me a lecture about accessories (Quistis even cautioned me to take notes) and Red XIII and Yuffie talked to me about special items. It was a nice little touch, I thought, although I don't recognize most of the characters from earlier games. The menu icons that represented each character in their games shows up at the top to let you know who you're "talking" to.
One of the tutorial pages is actually an information page for the playable characters "written" by a character that looks fairly recent but whom I can't place. Possibly an FF12 character. I mention her only because she sounds hilariously like the anti-fangirl. For instance, of Cloud she says, "'Not interested?' More like not interesting." And of Sephiroth, "I hear he's pretty popular, but is he really that attractive? He's a psycho, so I think I'll pass." Nice to know Square can poke fun at themselves and their fans, even while shamelessly milking their cashcow.
There's also some sort of chocobo game that runs in the background and is dependant on the number of hours you play. The chocobo occasionally finds treasures for you. Also, at the beginning of the game you're to choose a particular day that you think you will do the most playing and it will become your bonus day. I don't quite recall what all that does, but I'll see tomorrow.
All in all, it's an addictive game once you figure it out. Though the story falls flat, it was kind of fun to see Squall and Cloud snubbing Tidus. I continue to hope that something more will occur with the story as I progress, but I wouldn't count on it.
At first, the gameplay was pretty frustrating. It seemed like there was a lot going on at once, and because I have a habit of skimming through tutorials I didn't always know what was happening. The first few battles I was able to win through good old button mashing, but I finally got to some sort of boss fight and, after several unsuccesful tries I finally adapted to the mechanics of gameplay. There's a definite advantage for characters using long-range attacks, but I suppose that's to be expected. Also, it may have just been Sephiroth's fifty-foot penis katana, but I experienced some massive camera issues while playing him in a closed-off room. Haven't really had any problems with it since, though.
The stage set-ups are really pretty cool. Square used some of the standards of modern fighting games like breakable floors that dump you into a lower level of the stage and breakable pillars/walls to create an interactive space. They also stepped it up a bit, though, and gave you the ability to run up walls, leap large chasms, and slide across banisters and... uh, solid bands of light or something... which enables you to travel quickly from one side of the arena to another. Many arenas consist of big chunks of land with open space in between, and while falling into this in-between does not result in death or a ring-out it does dock some points. Battles often take to the air, because anyone who's seen Advent Children knows that gravity is mostly optional in the realms of Final Fantasy.
The story is probably where Square Enix dropped the ball on this. The premise of the game is that the lead character of every Final Fantasy from one to ten has been selected by the goddess of light to battle against the god of darkness's chosen warriors, the lead villains of Final Fantasy one to ten. Sounds a bit cheesy, but it isn't terrible. The problem is in the execution. When you first go into story mode you're treated to fanboy porn-- the ultimate Final Fantasy battle. Ever wanted to see Squall clash swords with Sephiroth? Tidus take on Kuja? The battle is flashy and fast-paced, everything it should be, but it presents one problem-- we, the audience, seem to have come into this plot somewhere in the middle. The hero brigade has already been fighting the forces of evil for awhile now and already have some familiarity with each other. It's never explained exactly how all of this came to be. Did Cosmos, the goddess of light, just pop into Balamb Garden one day and haul Squall away from his girlfriend? I'm assuming thus far that if that's just the way it happened, that it happened after the end of the ff games and not before or during.
It isn't coming in the middle that really throws things off, however. It's the fact that really... well, there is no story. At least not anything compelling. I was hoping we'd have some sort of intrigue, at least something along the lines of, "Tidus did something stupid and now everyone is in danger!" or "Sephiroth has taken control of Cloud's mind and now Cloud is trying to kill fucking everybody!" but instead we get a pretty standard "struggling to find my reasons for fighting" sort of story for everyone that seems to always come back to "your friends are always with you" and "fight with the strength of your inner light!" I would expect that sort of thing from a Kingdom Hearts spin-off, but come on. I think the story here was actually in watching these different characters try to work together, not in solving Cloud's angst puzzle for the 50 billionth time.
(Seriously, Squenix. There are other things you can do with your "dark" characters than have them fight their old foe a million times while they wallow ceaselessly in the past. This applies double for Vincent and Dirge of Cerberus.)
After every character's story you're treated to the same CGI scene over and over, which actually looks like it might lead to further, more interesting adventures. I hope so. I thought I should play through every character's story before tackling that, though, and so far I've only completed three of ten.
I will say that Square was pretty clever about the fanservice, though. There are a ton of tutorials that you can choose to access throughout the game, and they're written from the perspective of Final Fantasy characters that weren't included in the game. For instance, Quistis and Irvine gave me a lecture about accessories (Quistis even cautioned me to take notes) and Red XIII and Yuffie talked to me about special items. It was a nice little touch, I thought, although I don't recognize most of the characters from earlier games. The menu icons that represented each character in their games shows up at the top to let you know who you're "talking" to.
One of the tutorial pages is actually an information page for the playable characters "written" by a character that looks fairly recent but whom I can't place. Possibly an FF12 character. I mention her only because she sounds hilariously like the anti-fangirl. For instance, of Cloud she says, "'Not interested?' More like not interesting." And of Sephiroth, "I hear he's pretty popular, but is he really that attractive? He's a psycho, so I think I'll pass." Nice to know Square can poke fun at themselves and their fans, even while shamelessly milking their cashcow.
There's also some sort of chocobo game that runs in the background and is dependant on the number of hours you play. The chocobo occasionally finds treasures for you. Also, at the beginning of the game you're to choose a particular day that you think you will do the most playing and it will become your bonus day. I don't quite recall what all that does, but I'll see tomorrow.
All in all, it's an addictive game once you figure it out. Though the story falls flat, it was kind of fun to see Squall and Cloud snubbing Tidus. I continue to hope that something more will occur with the story as I progress, but I wouldn't count on it.