Dissidia originally came about as part of the 20th anniversary celebration for the Final Fantasy series
roughly a decade a go.
The original PSP game and its follow-up, Duodecim, were unique 3D fighting games
that brought the entirety of the Final Fantasy series’ legacy to bear
by throwing fan favorite heroes like Cloud, Squall, and Lightning together
to fight against iconic villains including Sephiroth, Kefka, and Golbez.
After a lengthy hiatus, Square Enix brings us Dissidia Final Fantasy NT,
an updated console port of the 2015 Japanese arcade game.
This new installment sheds the original one-on-one nature of its predecessors
in favor of a three-on-three team battle system.
It also puts a heavy emphasis on the multiplayer components, especially online play.
At its core, Dissidia is mechanically very similar to previous entries.
It’s a fighting game that pits players against each other in 3D arenas with a full range of movement,
something that most fighting games have moved away from in recent times.
In that regard, Dissidia delivers something quite uncommon.
It’s fast-paced action demands astute observation of your surroundings
in addition to keeping tabs on your opponent's activities.
The complex nature of Dissidia is tough to swallow at first, and despite a built-in tutorial,
newcomers can expect to take a few hours to get through the initial learning curve.
Trying to make heads or tails of break damage, HP damage, EX skills,
and all the other layers of the battle system,
along with the sometimes strange vernacular Dissidia employs can be overwhelming.
Dissidia also doesn’t do you any favors with its cluttered on-screen presentation.
The HUD, which comes in a modified console version
as well as the option for the original arcade interface,
is an absolute mess that approaches a level of intricacy more akin to an MMO than a fighting game.
Given the game’s fast-paced nature, it seems almost impossible at first to keep track of everything on screen.
So much so that you’ll find yourself suffering from tunnel vision
trying to just focus on a single opponent.
However Dissidia demands you process and act upon
any one of the on-screen indicators at a moment’s notice, and it’s simply a staggering order.
For the average player, Dissidia might be too much to take in,
and it’s easy to see many being turned off before everything begins to click.
The game also fails to present critical information to the player in various ways.
The lack of character-specific command lists or tutorials
forces you to guess at some their movesets or
turn to help from other players.
Something as crucial as how to change Lightning’s stance from Commando to Ravager,
which drastically changes her playstyle, is never once explained in-game.
For some, Dissidia’s complex nature is just what they’re looking for,
and it’s possible those with a higher fighting game acumen
will acclimate more quickly and without as much difficulty.
If you manage to clear the massive learning curve
and put in the long hours to master Dissidia, there’s a solid fighting game underneath it all.
For those more competitively inclined, the biggest draw is the online mode,
which allows you to team up with two friends to go against another premade team,
or go it solo with random players.
As long as your fellow fighters’ connections are stable, the online works well
and can be fun when matched against those close to your skill level.
However, unlike some other fighters where it may be possible to salvage a match with a poor connection,
Dissidia is virtually unplayable with even a slight amount of latency,
but we didn’t encounter this issue very often.
On the flip side, the matchmaking system works well
as we typically get paired with players close to our ranking
and hardly any fight feels too one-sided.
One standout component of the online functionality is the lobby system.
Lobbies are easy to setup and offer an incredible amount of customization.
Online lobbies also have the added bonus of allowing custom matches with options for 1v1 and 2v2 setups,
offering an alternative to those seeking reprieve from the complexity of 3v3 fights.
Whereas the online mode is a major strength for Dissidia,
its offline modes leave much to be desired.
The story mode makes a return, but its structure is radically changed
and requires players to dive into other modes to make any progress.
In order to unlock new chapters in the story, you need to earn a currency that’s
only earned by participating in online matches or delving into the offline gauntlet mode.
This forced grind is a horrible decision
that robs the player of the option to enjoy the game how they see fit.
Given the poor effort of the narrative and dreadful writing,
it’s more likely that you’ll give up on the story rather than see it to its completion.
That’s not to mention the brutal difficulty of some of the story mode’s encounters.
Most of the battles weaved between cut-scenes are trite duels that don’t require too much effort.
However, at the end of each main story path lies a boss encounter
against one of the famous summons like Shiva or Ifrit.
Simply put, the difficulty of most of these milestone fights, including the final boss, is insane.
They ask you to memorize complex patterns over multiple phases and require precise movement
and impeccable timing that is just too demanding.
What makes matters worse is that there’s no difficulty setting to turn down the challenge
if you simply want to enjoy the story,
and leveling up your characters does little to reduce the struggle.
Square Enix could have remedied this by allowing players to join up with allies online
to take on these behemoths, but there’s no such option,
making it a huge missed opportunity.
The only other real draw of Dissidia is in superficial rewards you can unlock through grinding battles.
You can earn new outfits and items to alter your character’s appearance,
new songs to listen to in battle, and other trinkets
like icons used to dress up your in-game profile seen by other players online.
Together, these make for a nice touch, but
it’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before in countless other fighting games.
There’s no denying Dissidia takes a huge risk in trying to do something unique, but
this game simply asks too much of the average person.
The online features will satisfy seasoned players, but
there simply isn’t enough to keep everyone else coming back,
especially considering the story mode’s numerous shortcomings.
There’s certainly potential here, but it’s clear Square Enix needs to go back to the drawing board
if Dissidia hopes to have any sort of future.
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