Cosmos, the goddess of harmony. Chaos, the god of discord. Reigning from distant realms, the two gods had gathered warriors from all lands to lead them in savage war. Cosmos and Chaos were of equal strength. It was believed the conflict would last forever. However, the balance is now broken. Those who answered Chaos's call created an inexhaustible force. And under vicious attack without relent, the warriors fighting for Cosmos started to fall one by one. The conflict that has continued for eons is now about to end in Chaos's favour. The world has been torn asunder, sinking into a vortex of disorder. As for the few surviving warriors… their fates have yet to be determined...

Dissidia Final Fantasy includes an all-new battle system with an ultimate cast of characters that include fan-favourite heroes and villains from the entire Final Fantasy series. Engage in fantasy matches where you select your favourite Final Fantasy characters, sided with either Cosmos or Chaos.

Series staple battle features: Accessible through “EX Burst”, players can experience game play faithful to the originals through memorable battle features such as "Limit Break" and "Overdrive". In addition, longtime fans of the series can enjoy the ability to summon Aeons and options such as the “command battle” system. Community: Continue the experience by trading Friend Cards, creating items and sharing AI characters with other players and even engage in virtual AI battles made possible by the PSP system ad hoc mode.

The opening cut scene includes all of the characters, both good and evil, from the first 10 Final Fantasy games. This includes a segment with both sides staring each other out, before charging into battle. The result is mayhem everywhere. There are two or three people attacking just one opponent, and then other characters are going one on one; such as Squall and Sephiroth who are duking it out on equal footing. There there is also teamwork going on, such as Tidus propelling Zidane whilst in mid-air so Zidane can get the drop on an enemy.

The graphics for the main cut scenes are amazing, resembling the look of Advent Children, this is most noticeable in the way Cloud and Sephiroth move in a very similar style to the film.

The battle system appears to be very complex at first but makes sense once you get used to it. As you start to hit the harder levels this system becomes like second nature as you try to avoid your opponents attacks and land yours.

There are two types of attacks that can be used: bravery attacks and HP attacks.

Bravery is the amount you are able to hit and raises with each bravery type attack you use. When you employ a HP attack the damage hit is calculated from the amount of bravery you have, i.e. if you have 1356 bravery, your attack is going to land 1356 damage on your opponent.

In ex mode your character enters a powered up state and has a higher chance of hitting a critical hit on your enemy and you also regain health on a regular basis. Another tricky ability is dodging which can be hard to master at first but once you get the hang of it, it will work in your favour and can help win a battle.

Each character has a variety of different abilities available to them which are unique to that character and also helps them to keep their form and movement for a fluid battle. Different abilities are unlocked by gaining levels. At the higher levels the amount of abilities available are more but you have a limit to how many you can have.

There are several things that can be customised by accessing the in game menu. These include accessories which can be equipped for a varied game play. There are summons which allow you to activate certain abilities revolving around bravery, and then there's your equipment which is your general mix of armour and weapons.

There is a store where you can buy new equipment and accessories with gil obtained from winning battles. In this store there are items which have yet to be unlocked before you can buy them, and some that after you've unlocked are still unavailable until you have obtained a certain item - which can be found when you kill certain enemies.

There are a lot of unlockables in this game which can be obtained from completing the game with each character more than once. There are several slots in the unlockables section which include, characters (where you can buy all the villains and also alternate costumes for every character); system (where you can unlock extra maps and variety's to the quick battle mode); calendar (which are special boosts which happen at certain dates); icons (which are the pictures used to show the characters in the first 10 games); and finally etc. (which includes random elements like music and extra shop ware).

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a Final Fantasy fan's main database for all there favourite main characters and villains in the first 10 games, including old menu pictures of each character and also getting to use that old favourite character one more time or even being able to use a villain such as the well famed Sephiroth. In addition, while the music has been remade and vamped up for the game, you can still notice the old tunes.

If you are a hardcore Final Fantasy fan I would seriously recommend this game.

9

Carl Simpson