8-25-2009		12-18-2008
	9-4-2009		9-4-2009

This is a story long steeped in Final Fantasy, a history of conflicting opinions. Originally, the goddess of order, Cosmos, and the dark god Chaos were both equal in power. However, the forces of evil have threatened that balance. The most infamous villains of the Final Fantasy series have united under Chaos to take control of the crystals. If they succeed, they will have the power to change their fates and plunge the Final Fantasy universe into eternal darkness. To prevent this from happening, Cosmos has summoned 10 warriors to protect the crystals. Each warrior must once again face their greatest foes in the ultimate showdown.

Now, a new battle begins...

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a unique title to the series. It is the first Final Fantasy title to kind of take on the role of a fighting game. "This means that there's going to be at least one move you can rinse and repeat to hammer your way to victory". This quote right here, turned me off to this game for the better part of th first month it was out. Lucky for me, I got a shot at actually playing it for a bit with my friend, and went and got it the next day.
Thankfully though, there are very few moves that can't be dodged, and when those come around are so few and far between that it'll all just blend into itself before you really start to care about it all. The move-sets are very unique with no character feeling like a exact replica of another character. Each character has a different feel, fighting style, just everythign is fantastically different. The attacks are set to some easily maneuvered controls which can be customized to give your character a very personal feel.
EX Mode, which is Dissidia's version of Limit Breaks, when activated it boosts your abilities and changes your form so as to give you the upper hand. This can be taken as-is and used as a stat booster temporarily, or let loose into one devastating finisher move. These were great additions to the fighting, as they assured you great power. But you learn not to get too cocky. You want to get the final attack, and sometimes this requires some strategy and patience. Some Ex Modes were mere button mashing, while others required certain buttons being pressed in sequence. Not too much in originality of their exicution, but overall it was still fun.
As with Crisis Core, Dissidia's graphics were phenomenal, explosions were to die for, magic looked magical, and the characters all looked fantastically rendered in-game as well as in cutscenes. Unfortunately there is a severe lack of anti-aliasing. What was supposed to be soft fabric, hair, or feathers ended up looking more like hard-edged deadly weapons that were horribly pixelated. But that is really the only complaint. Otherwise everything from the menus, battlefields, and characters were just impressively stunning to look at.

The music sounds good and strong, but it does not seem to have any new scores in it. There are remixes of the original Final Fantasy scores though. Most found this to be a let down of sorts, but I rather enjoyed it. While fighting with the characters, it reminded me of following their stories in their original games. It was done beautifully, though, as with Crisis Core, it is limited by the PSP without proper earphones.
The battle system resembles that of the Kingdom Hearts series, with real-time fighting...and a whole lot more. You can pretty much be assured that the battle transitions have gone by the way of the Dodo. The fighting up the walls, in the air, speeding across the field, skating across divides, (and just about everywhere else you can imagine fighting) is crisp, clean, and amazing. If all fighter style games were like this one, I would be all over them in a heart beat. There is almost no limit to where and how you battle across Dissidia's many different fields. And it is truly more than just randomly mashing a single button to win the fight. (cough XIII cough). You need strategy, and skills all over to gain the upper hand in these fights, makes the system stand out as a perfect blend of difficulty and challenge.

Dissidia proves to be an amazing game with a well developed story that was ready to prove itself on a console that has too few good games. As Final Fantasy's first stab at a fighting game, it was met with great reviews and success. I loved this game immensely, and would recommend it to anyone. And they do not even have to be a fan of the series. It is just a great game over all. Trust me, it's worth the effort. This is an excellent addition to the Final Fantasy series, an excellent fighter, and an excellent addition to the PSP's gaming library.