Dissidia 012[Duodecim] Final Fantasy review

Two years is fine time for a series update but Dissidia 012[Duodecim] Final Fantasy looks like it shares more than an ounce-and-a-half of its predecessor. Does it do enough to warrant a sequel?

Words by Khai Trung Le , playing on a Sony PSP.

More. Nine additional characters, seven new arenas, twice the amount of music and several new mechanics. But more is restrictive. More also implies something else: same; original characters included, original stages unchanged, same music and the backbone of the new mechanics lies firmly on the old. While the fighting genre has heralded a stubbornness to change, and often rightly so, progress is evidently rife; the evolution from Street Fighter 2 to 3 is palatable, the maturation of Soul Calibur is undeniable and it would not be unfair to expect the same from Dissidia 012[Duodecim] Final Fantasy.

In many respects, Dissidia 012 gets it right. The march of the first was cumbersome, with a prolonged and inadequate tutorial that simultaneously held desirable content back while overloading the options to maintain impenetrability. It was not uncommon to amass a playtime into double digits and not fully grasp the rules, further into triple digits and fail to unlock everything. Dissidia 012 retains a tutorial with a prosaic pace but unavoidably agreeable considering the many complexities while focusing on the latest features to keep veterans salivating and the later game hastened up with extra content quickly obtained.

The new additions are eagerly welcomed. Old hands such as Kain Highwind and Laguna Loire are included along with oddities Japanese favourite Vaan and little-known Prishe, while a little show stealing with their bonus abilities and quirks they fit the roster comfortably, the new stages understand that Dissidia works best with open spaces and the supplementary music works: XII boss theme “Saber’s Edge” has never seemed more dramatic. Most radical addition is a comprehensive custom scenario editor, uploadable online although incompatibility with other regions almost makes it a redundancy.

All willingly accepted although the most important changes are also the most suitable. The first game was mired with a propensity to encourage turtling – an exaggeratedly defensive approach - and a widely unbalanced character sheet. This has been countered with a general increase in speed, improved and updated character attacks and a new assist system that is charged through aggressive behaviour. Bizarrely enough, the basic dodge has not been adjusted to compensate and the Chase sequences have been dramatically sped up beyond human reaction speeds (specifically, 19 frames). To persevere with the beat ‘em up cant, defence has been nerfed.

Although the last 1-on-1 fighting game, but not necessarily the end of the franchise, Dissidia 012[Duodecim] Final Fantasy still falls short of what it aims to become. For every improvement there’s an unnecessary change, for every addition there’s a prohibitive linchpin unaltered and the biggest changes lie firmly on the spine established in 2009. But it is greater than its predecessor, attune to the legacy of the franchise, less abusive to fandom than Smash Bros. and will reward as much effort as you put in. Just like any good beat ‘em up.