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 a story within a story so to speak. Not too much is known about the actual plot of the game, outside of there seems to be a pairing of a hero and villain of most major titles in the series. The plot does focus around a crystal (Now there is a shock for ya) and a balance of good and evil. Each character will have a certain point to the main story, as well as their own stories to go through within the game. The unfolding of the story both in and out of battles is something not seen in Final Fantasy before, and should make for an interesting gameplay.
Graphically, it would appear that Dissidia is right up there with the recently released Crisis Core: Final fantasy VII. They are crisp and sharp. The PSP compasity is perhaps the best yet in a handheld machine, and it is good to see more new titles hitting this platform. Though personally I would have liked to see it on the PS3, while waiting for XIII.
The music sounds good and strong, but it does not seem to have the grand scope of most other titles. This might be do to the limitation of sound on youtube as well as the PSP, but right now I am holding there will be no major moving scores found within the game.
The battle system seems to resemble that of the Kingdom Hearts series, with real-time fighting. You can pretty much be assured that the battle transitions have gone by the way of the Dodo. The fighting seems crisp, and well done. There would appear to be magic in use, as well as certain limit breaks of both enemies and heroes. In one instance it shows Kuja and Zidane (IX) both going into their Trance states, before continuing a fight.
Suprisingly, there is a solid gain of hype surrounding this title. I would assume that it is due to all the different Final fantasy heroes and villains being pulled into one game. Or perhaps it is because the most infamous gaming villain of all will make a unknown appearance within the game. At this time, there is no certain release date for Dissidia in North America, but Japan has a release date set sometime this year. I would say we will follow suit in late 2008, early-mid 2009.
For now, here is a trailer to get your appitite up.