So, what exactly is Dissidia Duodecim? As I mentioned previously it’s a fighting game on the PSP, albeit not in the traditional sense. Unlike games such as Street Fighter or Tekken, you’re probably better off thinking of this to be a lot closer to Super Smash Brothers.
One reason for this comparison is because it contains a large roster of popular characters from the Final Fantasy series, with 2 or 3 characters (generally the main character and villain) from each numbered entry. For those who played the previous installment, there are six major new characters introduced in Duodecim, they are Lightning, Vann, Laguna, Yuna, Tifa and Kain, plus a couple more hidden characters.
The other reason I compare is that while the game itself incorporates many themes that are conventional to fighters such as one on one fighting where each player has to deplete the others health bar, this game takes a different approach to it completely and in the process creates a unique game experience.
The games mechanics basically work on two major concepts, bravery and HP, that characters have a set amount of, this leads into each character having a set of both bravery and HP attacks. The general idea of the game works as follows, by using bravery attacks you can do damage to your opponent’s bravery which increases your own in equal amounts, whereas when you use a HP attack you do damage to your opponents health that is equal to your own current bravery, once you have used a HP attack your bravery will then be reset to its base amount.
Confused? Well it’s actually much simpler in action than I am making it sound, and creates a very interesting concept for a fighting game, as you are constantly deciding whether to use the current bravery that you have stockpiled to launch an attack, or continue to risk building up your bravery and attempt an even larger attack on your opponent. During a fight you will also build up a meter that when maxed out lets you enter a state known as EX mode, this provides bonuses to your attacks and health regen and when a HP attack connects in this mode it launches into a finishing move that usually requires you to perform a mini game that often results in massive damage to your opponent. Add to this that you can dodge, block, wall run, rail slide, dash (both on the ground and in the air), plus new editions to the series such as assist attacks and EX breaks, all in relatively large 3D environments and you have what becomes a pleasantly deep and complex game.
After each fight your character gains experience and will eventually level up, just like a typical Final Fantasy game, with each new level comes new abilities and attacks that you can customise and select the ones you wish to use (very similar to the ability equip system employed in FFIX). I especially like the rate at which you level, as it’s not slow enough that the game becomes a grind, yet isn’t so fast that you can level each character to 100 in no time, they strike a very good balance and it greatly helps with the pacing of the game. There’s also a large amount of equipment and accessories that you can equip the characters with, as well as summons that perform a myriad of different things, such as reducing enemy bravery or guarding your own.
Content wise, Duodecim is phenomenal. The story mode alone is a lengthy affair as the main scenario took me around 14 hours to finish and once this has been completed more scenarios are unlocked, as well as other modes to play in, and this is just the single player modes, you can then carry your characters along with all the equipment and upgrades into multiplayer to challenge your friends. So including the main story scenario along with all the extra modes, scenarios and multiplayer, there is a huge amount of content available to players, expect to spend many hours completing modes and collecting extra music, stages, characters and icons, you will not be done with this game in any short amount of time.
Speaking of story modes, the game retains the “chess board” style of progression of the first game in that you move around to encounter enemies and chests, although it has changed. You are now free to move around the board as much as you want, not limited by destiny points as you were previously, which I think is a welcome change. There are also new abilities to use on the board known as chain abilities, that when used will encounter all enemies that it comes in contact with, so you can chain large amount of enemies together which is risky, but leads to a larger payoff in Kupo points these come in a variety of forms such as straight chain which encounters enemies in a plus shape and cross chains which (shockingly!) have a cross shape. Also added is a classic Final Fantasy style world map, you move around this finding gates (that lead to the aforementioned "chess boards"), crystals that give board abilities, random enemies, treasure chests and Moogle shops, where you can spend Kupo points (acquired from the "chess boards") to buy new items.
The story that wraps the games together literally does just that, it’s not especially great and is a typical light vs darkness story that is there only to provide direction for each character, and to tie all of the characters into one storyline. Although despite this the storyline is still leagues ahead of most other fighting games out there and does the job that it’s intended for wonderfully.
One other awesome thing that I would like to mention is that once you complete the game you unlock the whole original story, which has been updated with the new mechanics introduced to Duodecim, this is great since you are essentially getting two games in one package, and anyone who missed out on the first game is getting one hell of an amazing deal.
TL;DR
While the concept of Dissidia Duodecim’s fighting mechanics may seem rather complex at first, the payoff of mastering the battle system and the sheer amount of content that is available makes this one of the most rewarding games that is available on the PSP, or even across all platforms. This rings even more truely if you are a fan of Final Fantasy, as there are many instances of fan service and references to past games, along with what may as well be the Final Fantasy greatest hits soundtrack. For anyone who owns a PSP I highly recommend this as it’s a must-buy for the system.
5/5
