If you are anything like me then you are a massive Final Fantasy fan, and if you are a massive Final Fantasy fan then were hanging out for this. Dissidia – Final Fantasy or as I heard it advertised at some point, City of Final Fantasy. It has been made for the hardcore Final Fantasy fan, advertised as the ultimate Final Fantasy shooting games, that’s a lot to live up to.
So, what is it?
Well it is the ultimate battle between the Gods Chaos and Cosmos, all your favourite villains from every Final Fantasy up to 10 have joined Chaos and all your favourite Heroes up to 10 have joined Cosmos. However, while for a long time Chaos and Cosmos had been equal in their power, the balance has been broken and the last hope for Cosmos is the 10 Heroes getting their hands on a crystal each. This game appeals to Final Fantasy fans, because it puts their favourite Heroes in a new environment and it finally gives them a chance to play their favourite villains. That’s right, you get to unlock the villains and fight on the side of evil! Always good fun.
I have to say I had high hopes for this game, like I said I am a massive Final Fantasy fan, and when I heard about this game I set out to obtain it with gusto! I found myself then a little disappointed. I’ve always believed you should never meet your heroes and it may just be me, but a Final Fantasy game that brings together all the best Heroes and Villains and lets you play both sides, well I just found it too good to be true. And in a way it is. The game begins with a very impressive opening scene where a mighty battle between the forces of good and evil are having at it and it promises to be very impressive. That’s about where it begins to let you down, the great leaps in graphics and interactivity are all promised and then cruelly taken away.
The game itself is almost painfully complicated, there are too many different screens that do too many different things that you have to keep track of to know if you are doing well or not. One of the first things you are asked is for your Name (of course), what day of the week you play the most (I have no stupid idea, how can anyone say for certain what day they will play the most? Or is that just me?), and finally what kind of gamer are you? And here it gives you three options: Casual, Average and Hardcore. Normally I may have gone straight to hardcore (and I did in the end), but I had to read the manual to know what that meant and it means something painfully complicated.
Then we get to the battles, initially you are given a very helpful tutorial on how to fight, and off you go but not even this is that easy. The battles are hard, stupidly hard, there is so much going on its hard to keep track of the buttons you are meant to be pressing and even now I’m convinced I’ve forgotten a few which is only making it harder. But at least that is the kind of thing you can get a handle on and make it your own, plus if you don’t like the way the battles are set up in the beginning then after the tutorial you are allowed to change it from Action – Style to Command – Style as you so wish. To get to battles and to move forward in the game you have to clear each level on this board looking thing but just in case that wasn’t enough you only get a certain amount of moves to do it in. To be kind you are given the chance occasionally to get an extra move but don’t count on that or you’ll find yourself loosing points.
Finally the last thing I have to talk about is the customization screen, this is more or less like all the other customization screens you see with one big confusing difference. There is this Chocobo thing that I have no idea how it works nor what it does. I think it helps you get bonuses but neither the game nor the manual has been terribly clear on this. Other than that the customization screen is probably the least confusing thing in the free game, maybe…
Now I know I have said this game has a lot of problems and much of what I’ve said may make you run in the other direction. If you are not a massive Final Fantasy fan then I do suggest you run in the other direction, this is not a good introduction to Final Fantasy, I would hate for someone to think this is the best Final Fantasy has to offer because it really is not. I would also suggest that if you weren’t impressed with Final Fantasy, but though it looked interesting, don’t bother, there are far better games out there you could be spending your money on.