Hands-On With Dissidia Final Fantasy

Editor's note: Writer Adam Laatz attended Jump Festa 2008 in Tokyo earlier this month, bringing back with him impressions of some anticipated new Square Enix titles. Here is his hands-on report of the first playable demo of Dissidia Final Fantasy, a fighting game for PSP set in the world of the RPG series. -CK

Square Enix has definitely taken big steps forward from their disappointing PSone fighting game Ergheiz in their next stab at a Final Fantasy-flavored fighting game, Dissidia Final Fantasy.

Japan's gamers came in droves to Tokyo's Makuhari Messe convention center earlier this month for Jump Festa 2008, flocking to the game's first playable demo. Lines for Dissidia at the weekend event were soon filled, forcing staff to hand out tickets to participate in playing the demo, and closing off the area to those who arrived late.

Somewhat reminiscent of Taito’s Psychic Force or Capcom's PowerStone games, Dissidia is an intriguing mishmash of on-ground & in-air fighting.

Directed by Yosuke Shiokawa of the Kingdom Hearts series, Dissidia is one of PSP’s most visually impressive games yet. The game features a cast of stylized Square characters compiled by Tetsuya Nomura, semi-destructible environments, decently sized and varied battle arenas, and a surprisingly good camera. Add in fast-paced free roaming 3D combat, the ability to scale walls and other areas of the map, all in a very smooth frame-rate, and you have what looks to be a fairly promising title.

The Jump Festa ’08 demo featured four playable protagonists: The Warrior of Light from FFI, Firion from FFII, Squall from FFVIII, and Zidane from FFIX, who faced off against three opponents in three different battle arenas.

Varied moves when fighting on-ground and in-air, along with innovative stat-based (Brave Points, AP EXP, even some bonus Gil to boot) combat is really what brings something new to the table with Dissidia.

The square button acts as more of a special projectile attack unleashing damage to your foe’s HP. However, by hacking your opponent with the circle button, you steal their “BRAVE” points, which in turn assist in inflicting more damage to your foe.

You can also unleash an “EX BURST” attack after the gauge is filled, making for some moments that recall the RPGs' lengthy monster-summoning moves. These vicious attacks can also blow away destructible areas of the environment, or finish off an opponent.

The dynamic auto-camera does a good job of lending itself to the action. It is neither too fixed on you nor too far away from the action. The L button also helps in making it possible to lock the camera towards your opponent at any time, while the R button handles blocking and evading.

While the controls and gameplay may not be incredibly in-depth, the system could lead to some hard-fought matches both in the story mode and multiplayer.

While I can’t imagine this game will be winning over any die-hard Virtua Fighter fans, the classic characters along with the graphical flair of the title will likely please most fans looking for a decent portable brawler. The same might not be said for the single-player “alternative universe of Final Fantasy” story, which will probably leave us scratching our heads.

As of now, the only confirmed characters are listed below, though it will be very interesting to see where Nomura and the development team take things as far as the list of main and hidden combatants goes.

The Warrior of Light, Garland (FFI)

Firion, Emperor Palamecia (FFII)

Sephiroth (FFVII)

Squall, Ultimecia (FFVIII)

Zidane, Kuja (FFIX)

Tidus (FFX)

While the masses of Final Fantasy aficionados and worshipers of everything Square Enix will surely come out and support this title here in Japan, I still have some reservations. Though the demo is a very positive indicator of what’s to come, let’s hope Dissidia turns out to be something more than impressive visuals and lavish CG cutcenes. Depth through a fine-tuned and balanced combat system, more inspiring battle arenas, and a long list of playable/hidden characters could go a long ways to help this team break their bad habit of style over substance.