Dissidia 012 Review

The first Dissidia released on the PSP in 2009 wielding tons of Final Fantasy characters in a battle royale. I pondered purchasing it but held out for the impending sequel. The sequel released in 2011 with the insane title of “Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.”  Dissidia 012 (also titled Dissidia Duodecim) Features the same characters plus many new ones. It also contains the prequel story PLUS the entire first games story.

Story
The story takes place in a world where a god of harmony, Cosmos, and a god of discord, Chaos, fight an endless battle. They summon heroes from other worlds (Final Fantasy worlds) to fight for them. That’s about it. Yes, there’s some side dialog between the heroes and their original world nemesis. Some characters want to help others. However it’s all drawn out drivel that you’ll eventually just hit the skip button.

Graphics
Now on to the good stuff. The graphics here are some of the best you’ll ever see on the Playstation Portable. Nearly cinematic all the time. The colors are vibrant, motion is quick, and spells are amazing. While there isn’t much to look at outside of combat, and most dialog is exchanged with 2D stills and dialog boxes; it becomes understandable as this game contains a lot of dialog. However with the story as stale as it was, I almost would have preferred to just cut out all the dialog and replace it with more cutscenes.

Controls
As . There are two settings RPG and Action. The RPG mode is what I used mainly. It allows for you to play using a menu. I didn’t think it would work well but it did. Also its why I was able to continue playing as the other mode Action, made me want to hit a wall. You can essentially control everything but the problem is there’s a need for 50 Buttons all of which have to fit on the PSP’s 6 buttons. Ah well. My RPG mode worked fine beating the 012 chapters. I’ve been told that others who have mastered the controls enjoy it.

Sound
The music is amazing as usual. The sounds are great aside the occasional repetitive yelling of the same move.

Appeal
There’s no denying that a huge part of the appeal in this title is fan service. The real meat and potatoes of why someone would want this title is going to be in the Final Fantasy aspects through and through. From the musical scores, the 30 or so playable characters, the hundreds of other characters popping in and out of menus, story references, rivalries; there’s plenty for a Final Fantasy Fan to get from this.

Outside of it being a fighter type game it really does lack a drive to keep playing it. However there is tons of unlockables to drive some players to push on.

Conclusion
Dissidia 012 is a visual masterpiece. Its filled with fanservice galore. However some may be turned off by the lack of story drive or true gameplay. I doubt anyone outside FF fans will enjoy this and suggest it to anyone that is a true fan and wants to see if Cecil or Cloud would win in a fight.