Dissidia - Final Fantasy preview

One of the few beat-'em-ups Squaresoft (before they merged with Enix to make Square Enix) developed was Ehrgeiz, which was a pretty decent effort, but it didn't exactly have Tekken shaking in its boots.

It did get bonus points however, for having one of the best titles in gaming history; Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring (no comment needed here - Ed).

Ehrgeiz is infamous for featuring a number of Final Fantasy characters (Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Sephiroth, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine and Zack) and is affectionately known to FF fans as the 'Final Fantasy Fighter'.

Since then - in terms of releasing fighting-style games - Square has only done the graphically impressive but slow plodding The Bouncer. But now, ten years after Ehrgeiz, Square Enix feel they are ready to tackle the beat-'em-up genre again, this time by making a 'true' Final Fantasy Fighter.

Being described as 'dramatic progressive action', the game sees you controlling one of several Final Fantasy characters, battling it out against your opponent on a three-dimensional field map. Players are able to use the environment to their advantage and execute agile moves like sliding on rails and wall-runs.

The environments aren't just there to be used as dexterous ways of moving around - some parts of the scenery can be destroyed by a strong move. Well sort of, since they end up gradually regenerating after some time.

The object of each battle is to reduce your opponents hit points (HP) to zero. To help you achieve this, you have two types of attack at your disposal: a single-hit HP attack and combo-able assist attack.

The former takes HP off your opponent, while the latter diminishes your foe's 'Brave' bar, which is used to determine attack power.

The higher the Brave the more damage you will do. Dejon traps, which litter the battlefields, can also decrease your Brave. If the bar becomes empty, you get a 'Brave Break' bonus which awards you with loads of Brave points.

Of course, at times you're going to need something with a bigger bang and that's where EX mode comes in. On top of your HP and Brave bar, there's one for EX and it increases by grabbing an item known as EX force.

Once the bar is filled and players activate EX mode (by pressing square and X) and perform a combo, they will unleash an EX burst special move (think limit breaks) that is unblockable.

Dissidia will have at least ten characters (excluding their villain counterparts). So far, eleven have been confirmed: Warrior of Light, Garland, Frionie, Emperor, Sephiroth, Squall Leonhart, Ultimecia, Zidane Tribal, Kuja, Tidus and Jecht.
What's interesting is that Ultmecia is the only female in the game (so far) and Cloud hasn't been confirmed as a character. Tetsuya Nomura (whose artistic credits are on over 30 Square titles, including Parasite Eve, the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series,) is in charge of the character designs and, if the trailer is anything to go by, he's doing a fantastic job.

In terms of ensuring the game provides sufficient playtime, Dissidia allows for character customization, though how deep this is nobody knows at the moment. As you battle through each opponent, you can earn experience, which allows tou to customise your character in some form or other.

The storyline also requires you to play through using all the characters, so each Dissidia combatant will get sufficient playtime and, in the process, you will discover who you fight best with and who you'd leave to one side, which of course comes in handy when fighting with a friend through a Wi-Fi connection.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy may be something unexpected from Square Enix, but so far the reaction from other sectors of the gaming press has been favourable. Rather than be nervous about a beloved franchise taking a different turn, Square Enix fans (especially those who love Final Fantasy) are (mostly) taking it all with enthusiasm and great anticipation.

Gabriel May