Dissidia gets demoed

Almost anyone who is anticipating the release of Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the US received their first ability to test the game yesterday, as a demo hit Playstation Network yesterday. I'll admit that the game initially alerted the cynic in me. A 3D fighting game "dramatic progressive action" game with all of the Final Fantasy heroes and villains? And character designs from Testuya Nomura. The ostensible origins of something horrifying, I think, given Square Enix's track record on games that aren't RPGs.

But I'd heard good things from importers who were reliable, and that made me anxious to actually play the game. Well, from what's presented here, it's quite superlative. Thankfully it contains a fighting system that's more -- but not entirely similar to -- Power Stone, and less Ehrgeiz. Dissidia has your favorite characters fighting within an action/RPG-live environ, realizing every fanboy fantasy conjured by the GameFAQs forums in stylish-yet-deep and satisfying action. This means that you don't have to feel guilty playing this game. That's good!

The demo gives access to more popular characters like the Onion Knight, Cecil, and Terra, while also giving players the chance to try out less popular ones like Cloud and Sephiroth. They all control great too. And while Cloud and Sephiroth will undoubtedly be the all-too-often go to characters ('cause they're, like, so cool), Onion Knight has a good amount of speed to stand a chance, while Terra is a very good long-distance fighter. I had the easiest time going through the demo as Sephiroth, which I'm not sure is a sign that I'm getting better at the game or that he's overpowered (it's probably the latter). As for Cecil, well he's definitely the most intriguing character presented in the demo. He almost has two different move sets, one for his light side and the other for his dark. He also transforms between them constantly like some super hero, which is pretty neat.


Another surprise about this demo is how robust it is. Though you have five selectable characters at your disposal, you don't fight against any of them. You'll go up against Warrior of Light, Firion, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus from the light side, while fighting Garland, Cloud of Darkness, Golbez, Kefka, and Jecht from the dark side. All of the characters are featured with English voices, and they all sound good. I was also thrilled to realize that Johnny Yong Bosch is voicing Firion. Though I don't think anyone who sick of hearing him as a lead character is going to like that, including Angela.


I was pretty surprised with how good games like The World Ends with You and Crisis Core turned out, and it looks like Square Enix has impressed me again. I doubt the final iteration will be a crushing let down compared to the demo, so this is definitely worth looking forward to. The game hits US retailers on August 25th (a month from tomorrow), and releases on September 4th in Europe. If you want to play the demo, you can either access it through Sony's new Media Go program. You can download it through your PSP, though the former option is much less hassle considering how sluggish the system's internet is. It's only 79MB, so it won't take up too much space on your memory stick.