Pong and Beyond

849th played so far

Genre: Role-Playing/Fighting
Platform: Playstation Portable
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix

We still have a couple of Final Fantasy games to play – although there’s only one more numbered installment on the list, there are several spin offs to play. Dissidia Final Fantasy mixes a fighting game in, focuses on that with some RPG elements. The fighting genre hasn’t quite connected with me yet, but the RPG elements make it sound like we could grind it out where we need to instead of relying solely on my playing getting better.

Our Thoughts

The game’s set up is actually quite interesting. You play through ten stories, each featuring a protagonist (usually the main protagonist) of each of the first ten numbered Final Fantasy games. You also unlock stories for ten villains, matching the ten heroes, and two more secret characters. Some choices are odd (I’m not sure, having played through the game, that Jecht is fully the Final Fantasy X antagonist, but I guess it’s the best face you can have for it). The main story mode takes you across several playing boards of sorts, fighting enemies along the way while gathering items, with story scenes in between. The boss fights at the end of each board are most thematically appropriate, although the bigger challenges tend to be optional fights in between.

Your characters grow as you do, and you can further customize them using the equipment you find. It’s nothing too complicated, but it’s good enough to give that RPG feel and it feels like there’s always some progress to be made. I didn’t really get to a point where I needed to grind, improving my own skill level was enough, but it feels like there are at least some options there.

The fighting itself is quite interesting. The immediate combat doesn’t feel as complex as other games, although it has some bars for special moves that fill up and allow for some special stuff. What really stands out is the variety in characters. For example, Final Fantasy IV‘s Golbez switches between his dark knight and paladin versions based on how you fight, which changes how the rest handles too. Others get their own mechanic versions and while the variety isn’t as big as a Super Smash Bros game, there’s still a lot more variety than other games provide.

Final Thoughts

It feels like Dissidia Final Fantasy hits the right sweet spot of fighting and RPG for me – the controls and gameplay aren’t too compelx, but the variety and metagame are so much better that it really enhances the entire game. There’s a lot more grinding ahead, but sticking to the easier heroes worked really well.