RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

I’ve never been a huge fan of fighting games, and my experience with them has been largely limited to Super Smash Brothers. But Dissidia: Final Fantasy interests me for obvious reasons — I love the Final Fantasy series — so I gave it a try at Square Enix’s booth.

Like the DSes for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, the PSPs running Dissidia were mounted on awkward metal stands. Fortunately, the PSP wasn’t as uncomfortable with them. In spite of not being experienced with fighting games, I was able to grasp Dissidia‘s controls fairly easily. They’re a little more complicated than those in Super Smash Brothers, but not enough to alienate non-fighter fans.

I started with Terra, who looks absolutely beautiful in 3D graphics. She uses mostly ranged magic attacks, so I had no trouble using Tornado and Flood to defeat a series of opponents from Squall to Kefka, though the latter was quite evasive.

Next, I switched to Cloud so I could try out a short-range melee. Again, I didn’t have too much trouble defeating a series of foes, but the last one, Cloud of Darkness, gave me some trouble. I needed to get close in order to land my hits, but Cloud of Darkness kept fending me off with little balls of white-yellow light. Terra might have been a better choice for the match.

I left feeling pretty pleased with Dissidia. The visuals are really amazing on the PSP — comparable to or better than those in Crisis Core — and the music and voice acting sounded top-notch. My only real complaint was that the voice clips for each attack get repetitive; they needed some randomized variety. The game is quite friendly toward those with limited experience with fighters, but the option to ramp up the difficulty shouldn’t alienate the veterans either.