Dissidia Again: Knocking you all down!

[Kerensky287]

Hey, would you look at that? Somebody's gotten that latest trailer subbed (http://community.livejournal.com/ffchaoticcosmos/31090.html) already.

My thoughts:
-I think I will like Shantotto very much, oh yes.
-The following exchange made my day:
Sephiroth: "Shall I lead you into despair? Let me guide you there!"
Cloud: "I can find my own way."
Because nobody knows their way around despair like Cloud Strife does.
-I'm looking forward to more info on Gabranth because I never beat FF12 and "Weak people suck" doesn't really shed much light on his personality.

[Regulus Tera]

Yup, that confirms Judgemaster Gabranth is Shantotto's nemesis alright.

Go finish XII liek nao, btw. All I can say is he's a noble but troubled and guilt-burdened character. My favourite in the game after Balthier.

[POS Industries]

Because nobody knows their way around despair like Cloud Strife does.
Apparently, it's a family tradition.

[Regulus Tera]

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/dissidia_artwork_shantotto.png

The website has updated with screens of Shantotto, basically confirming that the roster will be limited to twenty-two characters.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_01.jpg http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_02.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_03.jpg http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_04.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_05.jpg

http://community.livejournal.com/ffchaoticcosmos/31451.html

Shantotto

An overbearing mage who destroys everything that does not please her. She is not only proud of her powerful black magic, but is also skilled in fighting with her staff. On her world, she was a minister of the Orastery in Windurst, as well as a hero of the Great Crystal War. With her magical power, she is a mage who weaves powerful high-ranking spells together in a repeating aria of pure energy.

There was no promotional video for FFXI. The bastards! Also updated are new individual pages for each of the first twenty characters, PSP themes for up to FFVI, and wallpapers.

http://i38.tinypic.com/2w5rars.jpg

On related news, the V Jump "Destiny Heroes Guide" is OUT. There's a profile on Gabranth with his Nomura full body artwork (looks great!) and some screens. The direction he faces confirms that he's a Chaos character.

[Ryong]

That sword seems familiar...But uh, what happened to his wavy-and-spiky dual swords? Not that I'm complaining, becuase that sword looks awesome.

[Regulus Tera]

His sword could be combined into one or separated for dual wielding. What one poster identified as a bow in the previous thread was actually both swords united by the handle. He wields it during the raid of the Sky Fortress Bahamut.

[Bells]

i still feel more and more that Shantotto and Gabranth are in the rigth teams, but they seem close to "neutral". Gabranth as a noble knight with his own personal demons, and Shantotto as a Good minded magician with a small bend towards world domination..

[Donomni]

Pretty much.

Anywho, now that we have a clear picture of her EX Mode, it looks like Nomura did tweak existing FFXI items into a unique look, because I can't find those specific armors anywhere, but can find a lot of lookalikes.

That or I have shitty search skills, who knows.

[Bells]

from what i could gather from the 5 trailers it seems that the overall storyline has Chaos creating a massive army and cosmos gathering the "Last force". But as it seems the heroes cant get past their own problems with themselves and each other and that nearly causes Cosmos to fall in defeat.

Some characters dont seem to care about the Crystals or the reasons why Cosmos say they should fight for. Some dont even know the Crystals (such as Cloud... as his world dont have a clear representation of the Crystals, nor squall.)

The villains on the other hand just seem to think they have the right to rule the world and that in fact, Cosmos is the Evil one...

Which is great... as it seems that we'll have true character development, and that the storyline itself is a bit more "meaty" than what you would expect from a Fighting game.

[Kerensky287]

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_01.jpg http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_04.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_02.jpg http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x305/Andres2Tiger/ff/FF11_03.jpg

...Just saying, they don't seem to have gone to much trouble for Shantotto's animations...

Speaking of going to much trouble, those awesome people at FFChaoticCosmos (http://community.livejournal.com/ffchaoticcosmos/31951.html#cutid1) have another set of profiles for us today!

Firion

【Concept】

"Weapon Master/Weapon Specialist"
As he freely uses the 8 types of weapons from the original game (dagger, long sword, staff, bow, spear, axe, shield, bare-handed), he is comfortable fighting at any distance. However, he cannot move while attacking. He works best at luring his enemies in close, and then hitting them with combos the cannot guard against. While he is a master of ground combat, in the air he can only manage magic attacks which tend to move slowly. Therefore, during the demos it was really hard to time his aerial attacks properly, however, in the TGS demo he was also allowed to use his bow, and although this image as an "archer" was established, the staff were steadfast in saying, "Especially if you have mastered him in the air, you are a true Firion player."

【Position and Personality】

A man who is single-minded and serious, but not without his romanticism. He is continuing the unfolding battle between himself and the cold-hearted Emperor wishing to expand his autocracy. He is the owner of a hot heart who believes in justice, and who - once dedicated to something - will pour his soul into it, even if he appears to be simple on the surface. He seems to be almost randomly entwined with Tidus.

【EX Info】

EX-Mode Effect: All of his weapons are dyed red. Some of his armor also changes its coloring, such as his breast plate switching from black to gold.

EX-Mode Bonus: "Blood Weapons" (Recovers HP in proportion to the damage he does)

EX-Burst: "Fervid Blazer" He uses all of his weapons in a series of attacks, and the end all of the arms are unified as he draws his bow, and shoots straight through his opponent. On the screen 5 commands will appear (three directional arrows, and two from the O, X, Square, and Triangle buttons), and they must be input in order from left ro right. The power of the final attack is dependent upon how many are properly entered.

【Alternate Costume】

Confirmed in an interview, it draws upon the illustrations done by Amano for the original game, appearing in his yellow and orange based costume. It has not been seen up close, but can be glimpsed in screenshots.

Emperor Mateus of Palamecia

【Concept】

"Trap Maker"
He sets up traps all over the map, releasing magical spells that trail after him in order to corner his opponent, making sport of his battles. In order for the traps to remain on the map, he must maintain a smooth pace. As such, the geographical features of a map come into play, and as expected he works best in Pandemonium. On the other hand, if too many powerful traps are left out, there is the danger that he may be the one caught in them. He is much easier to use on the ground than in the air, and does have a counter-attack in case he is engaged in close quarters combat. His powerful HP attacks "Meteorite" (air) and "Flare" (ground) will chase after his opponents, giving some interesting meanings to the term "powerful impact." The staff sums up his style as, "Fighting dirty," but really it's a type of battle that involves his head as much as his skills. And yes, his death cry is "Uboar."


【Position and Personality】

Adept at trapping people in his web of schemes, Emperor Mateus* stands as Firion's bitter enemy. He is a callous person who believes that the ends justify the means. His desire to rule is as extraordinarily strong as his conceit, so much so that nothing could break the prideful attitude he possesses while looking down on the rest of the world. He is extensively involved with the story, as he pretends to ally with the other troops of Chaos, all the while considering them to merely be his pawns.

*Yes, I know that he is only called "Emperor" in this game, but I love using his first name... 'cause I'm kinda the person who connected it to him in the English-speaking fandom.

【EX Info】

EX-Mode: His color scheme is darkened, and his appearance is changed to the demonic one he received after gaining the powers of Hell.

EX-Mode Bonus: "Blood Magic." Recovers HP in proportion to the damage he does.

EX-Burst: "Absolute Rule" His magic reaches its height as he blows his enemy away in a wave of mines, damaging his opponent repeatedly and culminated in a grand explosion. A glowing set of directional arrows and buttons appear on the screen. The power of the attack will be raised if all five are properly input within the time limit. If you fail, instead he will cast the less powerful "Tornado."

How fitting it is that Firion's Ex-Mode uses the Blood Sword... I hear it was pretty useful against the final boss.

And the Emperor sounds like a fun character to play. Traps and Flare are a winning combination!

[Regulus Tera]

...Just saying, they don't seem to have gone to much trouble for Shantotto's animations...

That was the animation for her every spell in FFXI, so you can't blame them for the homage.

A man who is single-minded and serious, but not without his romanticism. He is continuing the unfolding battle between himself and the cold-hearted Emperor wishing to expand his autocracy. He is the owner of a hot heart who believes in justice, and who - once dedicated to something - will pour his soul into it, even if he appears to be simple on the surface. He seems to be almost randomly entwined with Tidus.

Firion <3 Tidus am confirmed?

Mateus sounds a lot like Snake. Let's hope he doesn't end up overpowered.

EDIT: HOLY FUCKING SHIT TERRA VS TERRA VIDEO OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGMOGMOGMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOGM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHBmVs9H1H4&fmt=18)

THE DECISIVE BATTLE FUCK YES

EDIT2: Squall VS Squall too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z6dDUhl5OU&fmt=18)

[Kerensky287]

EDIT: HOLY FUCKING SHIT TERRA VS TERRA VIDEO OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGMOGMOGMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOGM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHBmVs9H1H4&fmt=18)

THE DECISIVE BATTLE FUCK YES

Whoa... I sure hope the rest of the music remixes are as good as this one, because that was superb.

Regarding the battle... I know it was Level 1 vs Level 1, but I would've liked to see some Riot Sword happening there. Also, I was surprised at the distinct lack of Fire attacks for Terra, considering it's the only element she learns naturally as far as I can tell.

I guess while I'm posting anyway... who's considering importing this? :D

EDIT FOR SQUALL VIDEO: Ah, now THAT was more like it! The Terra/Terra one was too one-sided. This was more exciting, and the AI Squall actually got their Ex-Mode in this time. Also: I guess we have it confirmed that battle music is based on characters and not levels. That was the same arena used for Onion Knight vs CoD, but the music track was "The Extreme" from FF8.

[POS Industries]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT TERRA VS TERRA VIDEO OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGMOGMOGMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOGM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHBmVs9H1H4&fmt=18)

THE DECISIVE BATTLE FUCK YES
....and I came.

[Regulus Tera]

HAH! BLONDE TERRA SUCKS


Is the version of The Extreme in the Squall VS Squall video an arrangement, or is it taken from FFVIII? I can't tell.

[Kerensky287]

Is the version of The Extreme in the Squall VS Squall video an arrangement, or is it taken from FFVIII? I can't tell.

It's the Black Mages version. I... listen to it fairly regularly. Upon further inspection.... nope, it seems to be just the regular one. They sound remarkably alike. *blush*

Another thing: Squall doesn't run like a girl, what the hell was the guy talking about?

EDIT: Oh, and is the AI terrible, or is the player just good?

[Regulus Tera]

These battles seem to be Level 1 against Level 1, meaning some motherfucker already has the game. I imagine Level 1 AI is not something to be proud of.

EDIT: Yup, it's already online. Fucking pirates.

[Krylo]

I find the two dimensional static summons to be rather jarring against the rest of the graphics/gameplay.

They probably should have just left them out if that's all they were gonna do with them.

[Regulus Tera]

I find the two dimensional static summons to be rather jarring against the rest of the graphics/gameplay.

They probably should have just left them out if that's all they were gonna do with them.

It doesn't bother me since I played the shit out of III, IV, V and VI, where the summons were static too. I think it's a nice tribute to the early days.

http://community.livejournal.com/ffchaoticcosmos/32037.html

So a few highlights from the Destiny Hero's Guide for everyone -

To access Shantotto and Gabranth's special storyline, you do have to complete story mode at the least. Also, completing story mode will open up a special mode called Duel Coliseum where you are given a random "fight card" of opponents to battle. The "fight cards" change depending upon what day it is and which day you select as your "Special Day" when first starting the game will come into play.

Also, the guide ranks the characters' Story Modes, so if you're still trying to decide who to start with, this may help. Number of stars indicates the level of difficulty.

★ - Cecil and Cloud

★★ - Firion and Tidus

★★★ - Squall and Zidane

★★★★ - Onion Knight and Bartz

★★★★★ - Warrior of Light and Terra

[POS Industries]

Fuckin' Cloud gets all the breaks....

[Krylo]

Yeah, see, the thing about those games is that a 2D static sprite being superimposed over other 2D sprites, half of which were ALSO static, is not a jarring disconnect from the flow of the game.

In a game where everyone is running around in 3D pissing armageddon all over the place, a little poster of, say, Bahamut being stuck over their faces is just... weird.

A nice tribute to the early days was things like... putting those characters in, and giving them their proper personalities, and what not. Maybe actually basing the appearance of the summons off their earlier conceptions, as opposed to FFX's. Choosing to put a completely out of place static graphical effect into the game isn't a tribute. It's just lazy.

[Regulus Tera]

Yeah, see, the thing about those games is that a 2D static sprite being superimposed over other 2D sprites, half of which were ALSO static, is not a jarring disconnect from the flow of the game.

In a game where everyone is running around in 3D pissing armageddon all over the place, a little poster of, say, Bahamut being stuck over their faces is just... weird.

A nice tribute to the early days was things like... putting those characters in, and giving them their proper personalities, and what not. Maybe actually basing the appearance of the summons off their earlier conceptions, as opposed to FFX's. Choosing to put a completely out of place static graphical effect into the game isn't a tribute. It's just lazy.

There are multiple versions of the same summon. We've already seen Carbuncle in his VIII and XI renditions.

I admit it is a bit lazy, but I guess I can suspend my disbelief more easily than you. The fact that, so far, all of the summons only affect Brave numbers instead of actually attacking the opponent is more disappointing to me.

[Kerensky287]

Eh. I like the summons how they are. If it was a full 3D thing, then people might expect it to do something other than a quick status effect...

[Regulus Tera]

The soundtrack website has updated with a partial (dicks!) tracklist, a preview and a promotional video (http://www.square-enix.co.jp/music/sem/page/dissidia/). Arrangements for Clash on the Big Bridge and Terra are confirmed. The official theme song will be Cosmos, from Your Favorite Enemies. It seems like a dull song, but whatever. If someone could translate the rest of the songs that'd be great.

Also, the guys at Chaotic Cosmos have ripped the songs (http://www.sendspace.com/file/x7f5i9). They should do good until the soundtrack (with 55 songs at least) is out next Christmas' Eve.

EDIT: Cloud VS Squall with an arrangement of Force Your Way (http://youtube.com/watch?v=PYKMxsi9dj0&fmt=18).

EDIT2: AC Cloud VS FFVII Cloud (http://youtube.com/watch?v=3ONSaF96bsA&fmt=18).

EDIT3: GODFUCKINGDAMMIT neither Dancing Mad nor Kefka are in the game. Dancing Mad is in, but not as an arrangement. The Fierce Battle (from the fight against Atma Weapon) doesn't sound bad, however.

Here are the songs taken from each game (those in bold are new arrangements):

FFI - Two renditions of Battle Theme + Main Theme + Town Theme
FFII - Battle Theme + Boss Theme + The Promised Land + something else
FFIII - Boss Battle + Cloud of Darkness + Eternal Wind + one other piece (no The Rocking Grounds wtf?!)
FFIV - Red Wings + Main Theme + Boss Battle + Golbez' Four Elemental Fiends
FFV - The Four Valiant Souls + Battle Theme + Clash on the Big Bridge + NeoExdeath + Mambo de Chocobo + Fanfare
FFVI - Terra + The Decisive Battle + The Fierce Battle + Dancing Mad
FFVII - Opening/Bombing Mission + Those Who Fight Further + Main Theme + One Winged Angel (this one is from Reunion Tracks)
FFVIII - Blue Fields + Force Your Way + The Extreme + The Man With the Machine Gun
FFIX - Battle Theme + Crossing Those Hills + Boss Battle + The Dark Messenger
FFX - Otherworld + Battle Theme + To Zanarkand + Fight With Seymour
FFXI - Three pieces I don't know about, really. Only one (the one from the world map) is arranged.
FFXII - Boss Battle + Theme of the Empire + Desperate Fight

[Lord Setheris]

Meh. It's still just another fighting game to me still. How many of the bad guys are sporting the "heavily armored horned helm evil looking big man with sword" look right now anyways? Cause I think we're up to 3.

[Regulus Tera]

It's four now. More than one third of the villains, actually.

[Lord Setheris]

It's four now. More than one third of the villains, actually.

And speaking of, why is Chaos trying to gather Golbez despite the fact that he is simply being CONTROLLED by an infinitely more powerful magus.. from the moon?

Its the equivalent of removing cloud of darkness from FF3 and insteading putting in Xande.

[Regulus Tera]

And speaking of, why is Chaos trying to gather Golbez despite the fact that he is simply being CONTROLLED by an infinitely more powerful magus.. from the moon?

Its the equivalent of removing cloud of darkness from FF3 and insteading putting in Xande.

Maybe you should play the game to find out?

Just saying.

[Ryong]

Not to mention how Gabranth's and Garland's armor are nearly the same...The same is true for Golbez's and Exdeath's armor. We also have three scantly-clad, girly magicians on the evil side, one of which is a man. On the good side, one wears armor, three wear semi-armor and the rest wears "normal" clothing. Truly, a varied cast.

[Krylo]

Wait wait wait.

Just to get this straight:

Are we seriously complaining about how the cast of Dissidia is dressed--when they are, specifically made up of characters--namely the main protagonists and antagonists--from Final Fantasy games whose costumes had been decided long before the game was even conceived?

I mean, that's what it sounds like, but... it's just so... I don't even know.

What? This is how they looked, dressed, and acted in the games. What exactly do you guys want them to do?

[Ryong]

Wait wait wait.

Just to get this straight:

Are we seriously complaining about how the cast of Dissidia is dressed--when they are, specifically made up of characters--namely the main protagonists and antagonists--from Final Fantasy games whose costumes had been decided long before the game was even conceived?

I mean, that's what it sounds like, but... it's just so... I don't even know.

What? This is how they looked, dressed, and acted in the games. What exactly do you guys want them to do?

To note: I was being sarcastic.

I believe putting them all together is causing people to go "my god they all look alike!".

And if anyone finds a wallpaper with all characters facing off, that person would be given a great deal of internets.

[Regulus Tera]

OPENING FMV GO GET IT (http://files.filefront.com/Dissidia+openingavi/;12681253;/fileinfo.html)

Cecil's Dark Knight EX-Burst (http://youtube.com/watch?v=81sd7AWJ7zo&fmt=18)

[Bells]

Cloud Vs Zidane + Select Screen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3oTlRullZ4)

Onion Knight Vs Cloud of Darkness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMYYKII_8Z8&NR=1)

Jecht Vs Terra (Crappy version) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUVsjQgXdrM)

Zidane Vs Bartz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_rjQU17EpY)

Tidus Vs Onion Knight (No sound) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sob3bePNfBw)

I really really liked how this game turned out so far. I was in total desbelief at first... but the entire work Squeenix presented here surprised me in the best of ways...

Sure, they replaced Zelts and Bipers with Earrings and armor plates... but they didnt screw with the characters in any important way... looks like a solid fun fighting game with a way better story than what we usually get with fighting games...

Too bad they didnt make this game for the PS3... Sony could really use that, and it would certainly be fantastic...

Im off to find moar videos!

[Kerensky287]

@Bellsouth: That OK vs CoD video was the first gameplay video that was released. So... a little old.

But I'm liking all the OTHER gameplay videos. I kinda wonder whether the CPU will actually get smarter as they level up, perhaps... because all the fights I've seen (generally Level 1) are completely one-sided.

EDIT: Wow... Dimensional Castle looks like something out of Mario Galaxy. AWESOME.

[Bells]

Those are pouring in at Youtube right now, nonstop... at least 2 new videos every hour, including tutorials.

Later today people who just got the game will unlock the villains and soon enough (im guessing Saturday tops...) we will se the first "Lvl99" battles

[Regulus Tera]

I'm surprised at how good Terra is. Usually, magic characters in fighting games are among the easiest enemies to fend off, but even when used by the CPU she can make her ground very well. Mind you, all I've seen are low-level battles of her, so this may change.

Too many people rely on her tornado (Aero? Was that in FFVI?) attack. It's supposed to be a finisher, hence why it has a short range and ends with an HP attack!

First video of story gameplay: it's a Zidane VS Kefka battle (+ cutscene)! (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LHUtE1QNeVg&fmt=18)

[mudah.swf]

So I'm actually playing this now. One thing I notice is that attacks tend to have A LOT of recovery on them, so whiffing any will most likely result in pain. Blocking an attack is pretty much a free attack opportunity too. I'm liking Squall and Butz so far, already got a little BnB combo with Squall. I played against CPU Terra once and found Tornado annoying as hell to fight against. Its range isn't THAT short imo, and one wrong move will probably get you caught up in it.

How the hell do you save replays? There's no visible option to save a replay after a match so I dunno wtf.

[POS Industries]

Too many people rely on her tornado (Aero? Was that in FFVI?)
Nah, it's the Tornado spell, which you could learn from the Terrato/Midgardsormr magicite. Aero was in FF6, but it was Blue Magic. Strago could learn it and Relm could use it when sketching the right enemies.

[Bells]

First part of the full Terra Playtrough

Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnezdFBoCeY)
Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSx67zfK3GY)
Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-XpnaDPlxA)

Terra seems capable to demolish anything with her spells... damn!!

Also, i liked the menus... feel like there is no lack of options

[Kerensky287]

Sooo.... I guess nobody cares about the character profiles now that we've got videos (and some of you are playing it already), but here it is anyway - and only a day late!


Warrior of Light

【Concept】

"All-Arounder"
As orthodox as the original game. He easily handles both offense and defense, and is all-purpose type fighter. Conversely, since he doesn't specialize in anything, you have to be very aware of exactly how to use him in any given situation.

【Position and Personality】

The Warrior of Light stands at the heart of the warriors of Cosmos as the leader. A knight blessed by the power of light, he appeared to cast off the darkness that gripped a world tumbling towards ruin. While fostering the light of justice within himself, he dedicated himself to battle in order to rescue the world from chaos. He is austere and honorable in dealing with himself and others, remains composed, and has a strong sense of responsibility. Yet his heart is deeply empathetic towards his companions, and he is every inch the hero one would wish to entrust with the world's safety.

【EX Info】

EX-Mode Effect: Class changes into Amano's version of a Knight from the NES packaging. His armor ornaments become more complex, and the horns on his helmet point forward instead of up.

EX-Mode Bonus: "Protera/Protect 2" (Defense increased), and during his Brave attacks, light flies from his sword. Furthermore, his attacks will be able to defect his opponent's magic attacks.

EX-Burst: "Oversoul." Shining with rays of light, he slashes at his opponent repeatedly with brilliant displays of swordplay. On the screen, a set of 6 directional arrows will appear to be in input. Correctly inputting all 6 will raise the attack's power, while missing will result in a weaker attack.

Garland

【Concept】

"Power Attacker"
Strikes his opponent with one powerful attack at time with his transforming sword. He especially excels at devastating close quarters combat. While he moves slowly, many of his attacks have wide range, and he often spins while attacking which makes guarding and countering his opponents attacks easier, if you are good at anticipating them. Among the troops of Chaos, he has the most well-balanced learning curve, and is referred to as the "standard" of the group. As with some of the other members, the timing of his attacks can change up the combos he preforms. He does have some magic attacks such as his HP attacks "Earthquake" and "Flame."

【Position and Personality】

The central figure among the troops of Chaos. He believes deeply in the concept of "reincarnation." As he blocks the warriors of Cosmos from obtaining the Crystals, he seems to be actively enjoying the fighting. Once a famous knight in his own right, he now stands as the eternal rival of the Warrior of Light. As shown in the introduction movie of the official site, his backstory and establishment are shaky at best, the only statements he makes are regarding how he has captured the princess, and his dare to "cross swords with him."

【EX Info】

EX-Mode Effect: A complete change in his color scheme. He appears as the famous knight he once was, with a shining white cape, and silver highlights on his normally dark armor.

EX-Mode Bonus: Super Armor. (Completely removes knockback. This will allow him to freely interrupt his opponent's attacks as he does not flinch form theirs.)

EX-Burst: "Soul of Chaos." He slashes at his opponent with his great sword to knock them down, and then transforms his sword by powering it up. Press the O button to fill up the gauge that appears, and depending on final measure of the gauge, his sword will have a different transformation for the final blow.


So yeah, Ex-Mode Garland has Super Armour. VERY useful in a game like this, I think.

[Regulus Tera]

Ending Movie is online, bad fanfiction confirmed.

(http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/297559.html)First part of the full Terra Playtrough

Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnezdFBoCeY)
Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSx67zfK3GY)
Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-XpnaDPlxA)

Terra seems capable to demolish anything with her spells... damn!!

Also, i liked the menus... feel like there is no lack of options

Just link to the guy's channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/steparu).

[POS Industries]

Ending Movie is online, bad fanfiction confirmed. (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/297559.html)
Mo' like language most of us don't speak confirmed.

[Bells]

It's not a bad ending... considering that this game has quite some content in it, the ending is what you would expect from a celebration title... the "homage" they pay to the series by doing the "countdown" in the end is quite cute looking i would say.

You cant expect much more from this storyline... as long as the characters keep their personalities, it's all good.

[Regulus Tera]

Mo' like language most of us don't speak confirmed.


Understanding the dialogue would make it worse.

Kefka VS Kefka makes me happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4g6O9goPYA&fmt=18).

[POS Industries]

Understanding the dialogue would make it worse.
Well, considering it didn't seem all that bad at all without understanding it, I'm having a hard time seeing where the problem is. It's kind of hard to complain about writing to a bunch of people who don't speak the language in which the thing you're complaining about was written. If you'd like to supply a translation to support your statement, please feel free.

Kefka VS Kefka makes me happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4g6O9goPYA&fmt=18).
Odd choice of music for the occasion, though. I'm guessing it's a result of the stage?

[Regulus Tera]

Well, considering it didn't seem all that bad at all without understanding it, I'm having a hard time seeing where the problem is. It's kind of hard to complain about writing to a bunch of people who don't speak the language in which the thing you're complaining about was written. If you'd like to supply a translation to support your statement, please feel free.

I was being facetious. :/

Odd choice of music for the occasion, though. I'm guessing it's a result of the stage?

You can choose a BGM from anywhere in the soundtrack before the battle begins.

[POS Industries]

Ho snaps! (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S5EL8SXoJEU&feature=PlayList&p=F390585149C0E4B5&index=7) BEST PLOT TWIST EVER: TERRA VS. CLOUD!

[Regulus Tera]

And a million fangirls are squeeing in unison. In the meantime, Japanese fans are working hard on some rule 34.





Hey guys, Dissidia confirmed for North American release! (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081218/lath040.html)

Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced that DISSIDIA(TM) FINAL FANTASY® for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system will be available mid-year 2009 in North America.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

And a million fangirls are squeeing in unison. In the meantime, Japanese fans are working hard on some rule 34.

Mac is squealing like the otaku nerd he is

Hey guys, Dissidia confirmed for North American release! (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081218/lath040.html)

That is all.


But in seriousness, I am so glad they finally announced the game for N/A. ANd judging by the characters, it should be fun to play. I don't care if it's as (RT) says bad fanfiction. I am just gonna be entertained by the game.

Does anyone know what musics are available for the game?

edit for Kefka v Kefka fight. That music is wrong wrong wrong. Maybe Ideal for Kefka vs Sephiroth but I was expecting the latter half od Dancing Mad or at the very least Kefka's Theme.

[Regulus Tera]

Does anyone know what musics are available for the game?

edit for Kefka v Kefka fight. That music is wrong wrong wrong. Maybe Ideal for Kefka vs Sephiroth but I was expecting the latter half od Dancing Mad or at the very least Kefka's Theme.


Here are the songs taken from each game (those in bold are new arrangements):

FFI - Two renditions of Battle Theme + Main Theme + Town Theme
FFII - Battle Theme + Boss Theme + The Promised Land + something else
FFIII - Boss Battle + Cloud of Darkness + Eternal Wind + one other piece (no The Rocking Grounds wtf?!)
FFIV - Red Wings + Main Theme + Boss Battle + Golbez' Four Elemental Fiends
FFV - The Four Valiant Souls + Battle Theme + Clash on the Big Bridge + NeoExdeath + Mambo de Chocobo + Fanfare
FFVI - Terra + The Decisive Battle + The Fierce Battle + Dancing Mad
FFVII - Opening/Bombing Mission + Those Who Fight Further + Main Theme + One Winged Angel (this one is from Reunion Tracks)
FFVIII - Blue Fields + Force Your Way + The Extreme + The Man With the Machine Gun
FFIX - Battle Theme + Crossing Those Hills + Boss Battle + The Dark Messenger
FFX - Otherworld + Battle Theme + To Zanarkand + Fight With Seymour
FFXI - Three pieces I don't know about, really. Only one (the one from the world map) is arranged.
FFXII - Boss Battle + Theme of the Empire + Desperate Fight

I got them from the incomplete audio rip, since I just found the FFVII Battle Theme in the game too. There are tons of unlockables in the game, including audio.

Oh yeah, I got it motherfuckers. Forgot to mention that!

[mudah.swf]

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16954029S65y7G2x

Gameplay vidoe I recorded, Butz v Terra.

[POS Industries]

And a million fangirls are squeeing in unison.[/url]
To be fair, I'd have been right there with them a lot more if the person playing in these videos wasn't just absolutely terrible. Hey guy, guess what! Tornado spam doesn't do a damn thing if they're on the far end of the stage!

Hey guys, Dissidia confirmed for North American release! (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081218/lath040.html)
Yep, right in line with their usual six month wait to release games outside Japan.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Yep, right in line with their usual six month wait to release games outside Japan.

It takes a while because S-E has to recruit their fanfic writers for the north american story.

[mudah.swf]

One thing I'd like is an increased amount of move learning for the characters. Some characters seem to take ages to learn new moves, like Golbez.

[Melfice]

Yep, right in line with their usual six month wait to release games outside Japan.

Oh, stop that.
At least it's been announced for you guys.

EDIT: And don't you guys dare start talking about the Squeenix tax either.
I mean, even with THAT added, your DS games are still cheaper than ours.

EDIT AGAIN: Ah, topic, yes.
I actually started looking at getting a PSP for this, thinking it'd already been announced for all the markets.
Disappointment.

[POS Industries]

It takes a while because S-E has to recruit their fanfic writers for the north american story.
"No! I must kill the Sephiroth" he shouted
Terra said "No, Cloud. You are the Sephiroth"
And then Cloud was a clone.

Oh, stop that.
At least it's been announced for you guys.
I think you misunderstood my point.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

"No! I must kill the Sephiroth" he shouted
Terra said "No, Cloud. You are the Sephiroth"
And then Cloud was a clone.

That is where the blonde swordsman broke out in song. "I think I'm a clone now..."

[Melfice]

I think you misunderstood my point.

Yes.
Yes, I have.

I'm still gonna leave my previous post as it is though. Because, y'know, it still makes a good point.

[POS Industries]

Yes.
Yes, I have.

I'm still gonna leave my previous post as it is though. Because, y'know, it still makes a good point.
Oh, totally.

But yeah, mostly I was trying to say "called it" without being so up front about it.

[mudah.swf]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PSHkZm5U8wQ

Footage of Gabranth in action.

[Regulus Tera]

Nice to see Quickenings are getting some love. <3 This will only fire up the speculation that he is Basch and not Noah, though.

One video of Shantotto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ORycaWsxIA&fmt=18

I don't quite get the hang of air "battles" at the moment. That said, Zidane is a fucking beast. Kefka kicks all sorts of arse, too. Ice 1 (I know it's Blizzard but fuck it) is a homing attack, and Ice 2 attacks for double the damage.

[mudah.swf]

I am uploading a vid of Squall v Zidane on youtube right now, woo

[Ryong]

So, apparently, Gabranth has no HP attacks outside of his Ex mode and gets to use said Ex mode differently. He has to charge the bar. I like how he can also shatter reality by punching it really hard.

[Bells]

Gabranth is officially scary in this game... imagine what he can do at Lvl 99... i think that was him under lvl 20!

[Regulus Tera]

It's taken from Basch's second quickening. In fact, his EX-Burst is all of Basch's Quickenings. Kind of an homage, kind of a mindfuck.

To unlock the ending story you need to finish all the Destiny Odysseys. After finishing with Chaos you get three more cards, one for Shantotto and Gabranth each, and another one. Once you complete these, you unlock the character for purchase in the PP shop thing.

Shantotto and Gabranth cost 1000 PP each.

About Shantotto's EX-Burst (http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=939394&topic=47083553):

"EX-Burst: "Lost Temper" She attacks with two staves at once for this Skillchain, with 6 types of Ancient Magic swirling around her. In the lower left corner there is a menu box with the options of "Quake" "Tornedo" "Freeze" "Flare" "Flood" and "Burst." As each spell has a different elemental type, they must be cast in a pattern in order to raise their power. However, if you take too much time making your selections, the deadline will pass."

Quake - Earth
Tornado - Wind
Freeze -Ice
Flare - Fire
Flood - Water
Burst - Lightning

In FFXI

Flare lowers resistance to water (Flood)
Flood lowers resistance to lightning (Burst)
Burst lowers resistance to earth (Quake)
Quake lowers resistance to wind (Tornado)
Tornado lowers resistance to ice ( Freeze)
Freeze lowers resistance to fire (Flare)

soooo the order should kinda go, Flood > Burst > Quake > Tornado > Freeze > Flare
Flare is highest lvl, sooo if it's last that could make it stronger at the end. I don't know if that changes anything in Dissidia.

[Major Blood]

So...

Guess who's playing the imported version with the aid of menu translations i found online? Me, that's who.

Firion is totally overpowered.

[Regulus Tera]

Firion is nothing compared to what Shantotto is able to do. She's like Terra except quicker, faster casting spells, and on steroids.


Seriously, her basic spells can juggle you for quite a while if you are unprepared. I'm starting to believe they were put in the game as untouchable Akuma-like characters, but the higher levels will be the ones to decide that.

[Kerensky287]

Yeah, I gotta say, Gabranth being able to pretty much Ex-Mode AT WILL puts me off a bit. I was planning to main Exdeath, but after that video... I mean, is it POSSIBLE to block an Ex-Burst? The only way I can see a fight against Gabranth being winnable is to hit him hard just as the game starts, and that just can't be done as Exdeath.

[POS Industries]

I mean, is it POSSIBLE to block an Ex-Burst?
It appears to be possible to keep from getting combo'd into one, which is more or less as easy as blocking and dodging your enemies attacks as you would normally. Keep your distance and play defensively until the EX-mode wears off, then try to get in close before he can charge up his meter again.

Sadly, this would be especially difficult with Exdeath, so I don't know what to tell you. He's intended to be played defensively, though, so if you're smart then you can use that to your advantage.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Hey RT, mind putting up the japanese VA list again for the game. Kerensky showed me a video and I wanna know if the voice of WoL is also the voice of Link/Viral

[Ryong]

It's taken from Basch's second quickening. In fact, his EX-Burst is all of Basch's Quickenings. Kind of an homage, kind of a mindfuck.

Which is why I said also. It's a family thing, apparently? Being able to pick dark energy, separate it then fuse it again making it into a death ray, shattering reality by punching it really hard and summoning swords made of fire that explode when they hit their target don't really seem like something you inherited from your parents, like the color of your hair.

...I still wonder why are the flaming swords stronger than the reality-breaking punch.

And Gabranth's Ex-Mode isn't an "at will" thing. You just can't let him charge the bar. If he's stuck fighting someone fast, I doubt he can even deal any damage, since he can only actually deal damage in said Ex-Mode. I think he can't pick the usual ex-cores ( or whatever they're called ) like everyone else, but I'm not sure.

[POS Industries]

Which is why I said also. It's a family thing, apparently? Being able to pick dark energy, separate it then fuse it again making it into a death ray, shattering reality by punching it really hard and summoning swords made of fire that explode when they hit their target don't really seem like something you inherited from your parents, like the color of your hair.
You know, I think Terra would beg to differ more than anyone.

[Ryong]

You know, I think Terra would beg to differ more than anyone.

Gabranth and Basch's abilities are very, very specific. Terra simply has a gene that grants her control over magic.

[POS Industries]

Oh, come on! Special powers, passed through heredity, hair color?

You set the joke up and you know it!

[Bells]

im still stuck on how:

1- Every single fight in this game has a deep "Kingdon Hearts" feel to it, it's so clear that im amazed Sora isnt in it...

2- Every Hero uses less clothing than the last... Warrior (FF1) being the most dressed one... the villains at least remained somewhat consistent.

[POS Industries]

Every single fight in this game has a deep "Kingdon Hearts" feel to it
A platforming combat system based around Final Fantasy mechanics developed by Square-Enix being similar to Kingdom Hearts?

THIS IS A BIZARRE AND UNPRECEDENTED COINCIDENCE.

[Regulus Tera]

Finished Onion Knight's story, starting Butz'. His entire plotline consists of sneaking on to the Chaos members. xD

Hey RT, mind putting up the japanese VA list again for the game. Kerensky showed me a video and I wanna know if the voice of WoL is also the voice of Link/Viral

'kay (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=852262&postcount=81).

For shits and giggles, here are the other roles of Kefka's voice actor:

http://xs432.xs.to/xs432/08424/kefka389.jpg

im still stuck on how:

1- Every single fight in this game has a deep "Kingdon Hearts" feel to it, it's so clear that im amazed Sora isnt in it...

Sora is Disney's property, like I've been telling you guys since forever.

2- Every Hero uses less clothing than the last... Warrior (FF1) being the most dressed one... the villains at least remained somewhat consistent.

I suddenly had the mental image of Shantotto in a Cloud of Darkness outfit.

Yeah, I gotta say, Gabranth being able to pretty much Ex-Mode AT WILL puts me off a bit. I was planning to main Exdeath, but after that video... I mean, is it POSSIBLE to block an Ex-Burst? The only way I can see a fight against Gabranth being winnable is to hit him hard just as the game starts, and that just can't be done as Exdeath.

You can in fact minimise the damage done by an EX-Burst. When an EX-Burst is being used against you, vertical defense bar with an indicator appears in your side of the screen. It can be balanced by rapidly tapping the button to raise it up or slowing down the tapping to allow it to drop. Balancing the indicator at the ideal spot will reduce the damage from the Ex-Burst by the indicated amount.

[mudah.swf]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8oz2Gr2oB3I&fmt=18

Finally, my second video uploaded. Yes I know the quality is really bad but oh well.

E: link edited, thanks RT

[Regulus Tera]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8oz2Gr2oB3I

Finally, my second video uploaded. Yes I know the quality is really bad but oh well.

Word of advice: adding &fmt=18 to the end of a youtube link will give you the video in high quality. Adding &fmt=22 will link to a high definition version of the video.

[Mesden]

Word of precaution, Youtube is entirely finicky with both its HQ and HD formats, sometimes refusing to buffer at all while the 'normal' (read: shit) quality loads just fine.

[Regulus Tera]

V Jump has revealed the first secret magazine unlockable in Dissidia! By editing your Friend Card comment message to the following password, you will unlock Yuffie's special Friend Card in your Offline Lobby. This includes a lvl45 Cloud ghost, and beating him will gain you the Snowboard accessory.

Password: PASS3CH3GC45. It has to be in all caps and using the 4th character set (the second english alphabet set, not the first one) in the input menu.

[mudah.swf]

It's worth noting that Dissidia has 3 settings for video quality. The 3rd setting's file size is a LOT bigger than the other two, so that must be the best quality mode. Beat Frionel's story today, still truckin there.

My third vid: Kuja vs WoL: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=W326CDz5g-E&fmt=18

and butz v squall: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WnxbFUDcBD0&feature=channel

[POS Industries]

You know, the more of these videos I watch, the more bummed I am that Cloud's alternate costume isn't a dress.

[Bells]

i just noticed something... you dont get to fight Chaos in this game?

also.. here is a video of a dude taking 6 minutes to review the Dissidia Potion drinks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHkcw7jIeb0)

[POS Industries]

i just noticed something... you dont get to fight Chaos in this game?
If I understand correctly, completing all of the individual story modes unlocks an all-encompassing story mode where Chaos is the final boss.

EDIT: Holy hell is the Emperor ever dangerous in the right hands. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ik3onogBL2E)

[Kerensky287]

Shantotto vs Gabranth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCy1xevi2ZI&fmt=18)... and Gabranth vs Shantotto. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxv3w8mwYu0&fmt=18) Both relatively high levels, and both pretty spectacular fights.

The first one (Player = Shantotto) is pretty hilarious at the end, actually. Ex-Mode Shantotto seems... fearsome. Especially when you already have some Brave to throw around. Gabranth doesn't seem quite as stacked as we originally thought, though... his Ex Charge looks like it has a lot of recovery.

And yeah, Emperor looks really good... yet he's still mostly getting the shaft, it seems.

EDIT: I think we'll be seeing a lot more of these (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-STISJzfas&fmt=18) in the future. This guy is facing a CPU Firion, and the level difference is enough that a single HP attack will end it with the player losing. The AI deficiencies shine through at a few points but it's still impressive as hell.

[Krylo]

And yeah, Emperor looks really good... yet he's still mostly getting the shaft, it seems.
Well, maybe you didn't notice, but, well, most of the people posting videos aren't very good. I mean, a lot of the Terra ones involve spamming Tornado--a close quarters move--even when the opponent is clear on the other side of the arena.

The Emperor is based on strategy and fighting intelligently with traps as opposed to move spamming. Obviously move spammers are gonna think he sucks.

[Kerensky287]

Well, maybe you didn't notice, but, well, most of the people posting videos aren't very good. I mean, a lot of the Terra ones involve spamming Tornado--a close quarters move--even when the opponent is clear on the other side of the arena.

Well, I noticed, but I kinda meant I wish people were being more like the guy in the Emperor video and this guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NCx5zv898w&fmt=18); just picking a character and sticking with them rather than trying to cash in on the Dissidia craze by posting rapid-fire quickplay videos in hopes of mad subscribers.

I mean, I've seen NO ONE play Cloud of Darkness well, and only one Exdeath game worth half a damn (and he lost at the end anyway). Most people are, as expected, sticking with Cloud, Squall, Sephiroth or Kefka. Hell, I'd like to see a half-decent Jecht game, too.

...Well, the game's still young. There'll be plenty of time for the fanbase to smarten the hell up, and sooner or later I'll play it, too.

[Regulus Tera]

This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YULyM6FyPtc&fmt=) makes me think that it was probably a mistake by Square to make the Brave cap the same as the HP cap. Never mind also that Cloud is using some way too broken equipment. Those multipliers he gets are goddamn insane.

[POS Industries]

Well, I noticed, but I kinda meant I wish people were being more like the guy in the Emperor video and this guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NCx5zv898w&fmt=18); just picking a character and sticking with them rather than trying to cash in on the Dissidia craze by posting rapid-fire quickplay videos in hopes of mad subscribers.

I mean, I've seen NO ONE play Cloud of Darkness well, and only one Exdeath game worth half a damn (and he lost at the end anyway). Most people are, as expected, sticking with Cloud, Squall, Sephiroth or Kefka. Hell, I'd like to see a half-decent Jecht game, too.

...Well, the game's still young. There'll be plenty of time for the fanbase to smarten the hell up, and sooner or later I'll play it, too.
Though one thing I've noticed with Kefka especially is that a lot of people aren't necessarily sticking with him. He appears in a lot of level one fight videos for entertainment value, but after that people move on to someone that starts out with a lot more power. Too many people aren't realizing that the effectiveness of a character at level 1 is not an indicator of their effectiveness at higher levels. Kefka apparently gets some pretty nasty moves as you level him up, but no one wants to take the time to do so because they want the instant gratification that comes with someone like, well, take your pick from the Cosmos side, really.

I think the Cosmos characters got heavier hitting moves at level 1 than Chaos because they have story modes to go through and the developers wanted to make them easy enough to jump into. So far, it seems like pretty much all the Chaos characters' movesets are fairly well gimped when you first unlock them, with just a couple projectile attacks and maybe an HP-damaging special move if you're lucky. On top of this, their movements are overall slower and more methodical than the Cosmos characters, so a lot of less patient players are going to wonder why they should bother playing them over the quicker, more immediately powerful heroes, and thus they don't.

Which is fine by me, really. I was actually really worried that there would be Kefkas everywhere, but that's not shaping up to be the case. Some of the smarter players are giving Emperor a look, and despite her lack of appearances in the youtubes, the AoE death machine that is Cloud of Darkness is also garnering a following. And there are the steadfast Exdeath loyalists who see the value in strength and patience over trivialities like speed.

Now, if you really want to stand out from the crowd, main Ultimecia.

[Ryong]

The first one (Player = Shantotto) is pretty hilarious at the end, actually. Ex-Mode Shantotto seems... fearsome. Especially when you already have some Brave to throw around. Gabranth doesn't seem quite as stacked as we originally thought, though... his Ex Charge looks like it has a lot of recovery.

He only didn't kill her because he did his ex-burst at 0 Brave. He'd have won in less than three hits.

[Kerensky287]

He only didn't kill her because he did his ex-burst at 0 Brave. He'd have won in less than three hits.

Yes, but notice too that a bunch of the times Gabranth was charging, the player was just kinda walking around doing nothing. Shantotto has a bunch of ranged attacks and she could probably have just harassed him and prevented him from reaching Ex Mode without one of those blue thingies. EDIT: And she also knocked him INTO the blue thing the first time around. And then proceeded to kinda stab with her staff from across the map.

...Keep in mind that I still haven't played it and may have misinterpreted stuff but that's how I saw it. A lot of the players seem to leave themselves open almost at random... but then you watch the people who get used to a single character and they're just doing endless combos and the opponent can only get in hits if they get lucky during one of those jump and hit (rock/paper/scissors) sequences.

[mudah.swf]

The game has been out for a grand total of 3 days, of course people aren't going to be experts yet.

[Ryong]

...Keep in mind that I still haven't played it and may have misinterpreted stuff but that's how I saw it. A lot of the players seem to leave themselves open almost at random... but then you watch the people who get used to a single character and they're just doing endless combos and the opponent can only get in hits if they get lucky during one of those jump and hit (rock/paper/scissors) sequences.

Gabranth also left himself open a LOT. Look at his failed attempts at jumping over the building piece for an example. Also, is it me or some summons activate specifically on certain situations? Like using something that negates lowering your Brave when you reach less than a specific number or reducing the opponent's brave to 0 when he enters Ex-Mode.

[mudah.swf]

Yes some summons activate automatically in certain situations. I don't see why people here are criticising other players when the game has been out for so little time. What, do you expect people to be instant pros at this game?

[POS Industries]

Yes some summons activate automatically in certain situations. I don't see why people here are criticising other players when the game has been out for so little time. What, do you expect people to be instant pros at this game?
I'd appreciate it if they didn't think they were.

[Ryong]

I don't see why people here are criticising other players when the game has been out for so little time. What, do you expect people to be instant pros at this game?

All I'm saying is that Gabranth will be insane against everyone but the fast ones and the ranged ones. I haven't seen a single gameplay vid of Jecht yet, but I'm expecting the same.

[mudah.swf]

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/9606/dissidiaabilties2hx7.jpg

Translation of some of the basic abilities.

[POS Industries]

From the Shade Impulse story mode:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/posindustries/BFF.png
These are the moments you most treasure.

[mudah.swf]

Just dropping in to say that the Chaos fight at the end of Shade Impulse is an exercise in sheer frustration and it's as if the game actively wants me to hate it.

[Bells]

really? the videos i saw had people beating him 3 times under 5 minutes... i thought the only bad part was the 3rd round were it got a lot more aggressive.

[POS Industries]

From what I hear, it's best to take some time to grossly overlevel whatever your favorite Cosmos character might be for that fight.

[mudah.swf]

Well, I finally beat the fucker with Squall. Perhaps he wasn't the best choice, but oh well. Went on to unlock Gabranth and mess around with him for a bit. EX mode Gabranth is fast, has a longass Brave string to kill the other guy's Brave, and breaks reality. How badass is that?

[Bells]

Also, just to confirm... Gabranth outside of his EX mode is just pretty useless, no? All i see is people charging with him untill EX kicks in

[POS Industries]

Also, just to confirm... Gabranth outside of his EX mode is just pretty useless, no? All i see is people charging with him untill EX kicks in
If you're using him right, no. Since he doesn't have any HP attacks outside of his EX-burst, he's able to hold on to his Brave a lot easier than everyone else with a wider range of moves with which to do so. Thus, when he gets to a high enough amount of Brave to one-shot his opponent, he can auto-charge his EX-bar and fire at will.

And that's on top of the bonuses mudah mentioned above that he gets by pretty much being capable of spending most of the fight in EX-mode.

[Regulus Tera]

Summons are fucking overpowered at high levels.

That is all for now.

[Bells]

quick question... in your view, from 1 to 10, just how hard is it to fight the CPU on the highest difficulty level?

[Regulus Tera]

About as hard as fighting a level 9 CPU in Brawl.

About a 7.


EDIT: Someone at Gamefaqs found a shitload of passwords:

M8ATK2TCPAYA Matoya: Lv.100 "Bad-Situation" (?) WoL (SSS)
CH4D9EN3A3TE3 Death Machine: Lv.52 Aggressive Garland (SSS)
MR3ZNNGXU72P Minwu: Lv.100 Aggressive Firion (SSS)
PASS3SU433KA Behemoth: Lv.74 Strategic Emperor (A)
H4NA53NJRE9
MAPE5REPE4T5 Ahriman: Lv.52 Strategic Cloud of Darkness (S)
6A3K2A538TS Akaitsubasa (Red Wing): Lv.94 Calm Cecil (SSS)
SF5AUS5WUJ39Y Fusuya: Lv.100 Careful Golbez (SSS)
GU3RK3UG4AMP Gilgamesh: Lv.100 Calm Butz (S) (Holy crap FULL Genji set including Genji Blade)
6C6M6E6G6A6 Omega: Lv.100 Careful Exdeath (SS)
8TA9CQQTAC Ortoros: Lv.100 Careful Terra (SS)
FGR3ET5KKJC Siegfred: Lv.100 Strategic Kefka (SSS)
PASS3CH3GC45 Yuffie: Lv.45 Aggressive Cloud (A)
P2KET4DTCW6 Cait Sith: Lv.66 Brave Sephiroth (SSS) (Full Crystal set including Crystal Lance)
RJAGH5UE6NA7 Laguna: Lv.24 Aggressive Squall (SSS) (Machinegun + Full Crystal set)
SME4SA39SFAH Seifer: Lv.100 "Bad-Situation" Ultimecia (SSS)
A3NASX6UXT7 Steiner: Lv.100 Calm Zidane (S) (Excalibur II!? O_o)
VTS3RAPLVKE3 Vivi: Lv.100 Calm Kuja (SSS)
WRKA3KUMKRA Wakka: Lv.100 Careful Tidus (SS)
AK6ATR7ECD8N Auron: Lv.100 Brave Jecht (SSS)
469J3ELEVENWS Shantotto: Lv.31 Strategic Shantotto (S)
LAXBU6GRA4U Basch: Lv.100 "Bad-Situation" Gabranth (SS)

Recipes:

33MKERDTA2AK Aries Recipe
KRCYGU7RJ8E3 Taurus Recipe
H3CSH3SDA3YUN Gemini Recipe
SSAYECXK4CY6 Cancer Recipe
HA3SESGAH3W3A Leo Recipe
ECTLMCCW3NMC Virgo Recipe
TGALKCAWTNA Libra Recipe
H336DETYA23X Scorpio Recipe
UC6H3M3778CH3 Sagittarius Recipe
UC5H3J46F3MZA Capricorn Recipe
MZCC3H38ZTUK Aquarius Recipe
QTAK5UWATGA Pisces Recipe

[POS Industries]

Also some player icons for FFXIII:

7TY2AE6KLUL8
TCAMABR3ADTQ
HEEBANRLTGS
NGAA3NMB3URGR
28C7KMT23M48
HK4A3ST6HA3S4
SCHKJKDB3CH6C
HMM48AC4JH3

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

For those of you that care...

Dissidia Music released on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F3F1F5E8E0D62E81)

/edit: Clash on the Big Bridge is pretty sweet.

/edit 2 in 30seconds.

POS: Here is a direct link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ416NYsmFI&feature=PlayList&p=F3F1F5E8E0D62E81&index=26) of the Decisive Battle if you care to hear it.

[Regulus Tera]

That reminds me, my copy of the OST just arrived. The Messenger (a remix of Cosmos, or Chaos' battle theme) works a lot better with a much faster tempo.

It's still a very weird choice for a vocal theme song. And I'm still mad that The Fierce Battle made it into the game, but not Battle Theme.

[POS Industries]

POS: Here is a direct link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ416NYsmFI&feature=PlayList&p=F3F1F5E8E0D62E81&index=26) of the Decisive Battle if you care to hear it.
Haha, yeah, I found that a night or two ago, but thanks.

That reminds me, my copy of the OST just arrived. The Messenger (a remix of Cosmos, or Chaos' battle theme) works a lot better with a much faster tempo.

It's still a very weird choice for a vocal theme song.
Who's performing those vocal tracks, by the way? I've been wondering for a while but haven't been able to find any information.

EDIT: Nevermind. It's a Canadian band called Your Favorite Enemies.

And I'm still mad that The Fierce Battle made it into the game, but not Battle Theme.
I rather prefer it, though I'd have taken either one. I think they opted to not go with "Battle" simply because there were enough songs in the soundtrack from other games that used that same opening bass line, so I can accept it. "The Fierce Battle" was always a pretty great theme anyway and it's a solid arrangement of it.

Incidentally, the arrangement of FF2's "Battle Scene 1" has quickly become a favorite of mine from the soundtrack.

Anyway, to those of you who have gotten some time in with the game, what are your thoughts overall on character balance? I've been hearing a lot of complaints about mages being completely overpowered against melee fighters, though I'm skeptical about how much of that is actually the case as opposed to the people complaining about it just not having their dodge timing down.

[Regulus Tera]

It's kind of difficult considering I've not played against any actual human opponents. In my opinion, Butz and Squall are more likely to overwhelm you than any of the magical characters, but it's true that these do have an advantage for camping, which strangely gets even more dangerous in close arenas. This is somewhat lessened by the fact that they get lower HP caps, which is very worrying when you can get to 9999 Brave in less than ten seconds under the right multipliers.

Nevertheless, I feel the game, barring summons, is actually pretty balanced. You can dodge almost anything if you're actually paying attention, so it's more about tricking your opponent into attacking you at the right moment. Kefka's HP attacks, for example, are very difficult to connect in comparison to Terra's long-range projectiles, so this makes him more reliant on mind games than the heroine would be.

[POS Industries]

Yeah, that's more or less what I figured from watching a fair amount of videos for most of the characters, but there's always like two or three people in a lot of discussions on the subject elsewhere that just can't figure out how to get their melee characters within range of mages, Kefka and Terra in particular. I chalked it up to them perhaps needing to undergo training with Piccolo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6P_sXbQtgc).

I am seeing the gamebreaking factor presented by the summons. I get where they were going as far as the strategy factor involved in choosing summons and knowing when to use them, but the application was a tad flawed. Doesn't mean I don't have some hilarious ideas in mind on how to use them for the purposes of repairing the imbalance they create, but yeah, they kinda screwed up there.

[mudah.swf]

The fact that you can just spam air dodges whenever and wherever you want helps to get near mages. I don't think Terra would be much of a problem considering most of her magic attacks at a low level at least are slow as shit and not difficult to see coming and deflect. I guess if Terra chooses to just spam Tornado everywhere it'll be hard. If anything it's Kuja people should probably be worrying about.

[Kerensky287]

Tornado wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that she can move while she does it, and it pulls you at the same time. It drives me nuts.

Kuja isn't so bad in my experience, except that I STILL haven't found a reliable way to dodge fucking Flare Star. Really, most of the Brave attacks aren't too hard to avoid, but I'm sick and tired of wondering where he's gone off to only for him to pop up behind me and make me explode - even more so if he's in Trance mode.

EDIT: And another thing... yes, MAYBE I'm still a little new to the game, and MAYBE I'm bad terrible at it, but Paladin Cecil is also annoying as anything. Really, really fast and with this one powerful anti-brave attack that launches the player straight down... I can beat him sometimes, but not with my main characters (those being Ultimecia, Sephiroth and WoL). To make it clear, I'm fine with Dark Knight Cecil, but once he gets in the air he's unstoppable.

[POS Industries]

my main characters (those being Ultimecia, Sephiroth and WoL)
Interesting mix. Did you give up on Exdeath? Kudos on working on Ultimecia, though. She looks like she's got a pretty neat moveset and seeing how interesting she is in Dissidia makes me sad that she was arguably the worst FF villain ever in her own game.

[Kerensky287]

Interesting mix. Did you give up on Exdeath? Kudos on working on Ultimecia, though. She looks like she's got a pretty neat moveset and seeing how interesting she is in Dissidia makes me sad that she was arguably the worst FF villain ever in her own game.

I've KINDA given up on Exdeath, but it's more that I feel like limiting myself characterwise (to only characters from games I've beaten) so when the game comes out in English, I'm not bored of it. I've been trying to beat FF5 for ages but I kinda got bored when Dissidia came out... oh, and also, I suck at guarding of any kind.

Ultimecia is a LOT of fun to play because it's so easy to mess with people. Games with her take a long time, but that may be just because I usually play against characters 15+ levels higher than me, and I usually end up doing almost no damage to them... I'm interested in seeing how she acts in story mode though, seeing as how she was an unfortunate casualty in a game that suffered from poor character development all around. I mean, she didn't appear anywhere except for right at the boss battle, and she had like 3 lines of dialogue. But there's plenty of evidence that she's related to Rinoa, if not outright BEING her (strong facial resemblance, also Rinoa's the ONLY FUCKING SORCERESS LEFT so Ulty's powers had to come from her somehow) and if they had left hints that Ulty was perhaps a descendant of Squall/Rinoa, that would have been a hefty plot twist.

...Sorry about that. I really like FF8. Not sure why.

Back on Dissidia topic, though, has anybody else got any ideas of what characters they like? Sephiroth is probably my favourite because his attacks have large hitboxes. You can be riiight out of your opponent's range (if they're melee) and still hit them, or you can hit a quick character with relatively little effort. Plus, it's fun to watch them just walk into your combo.

[Regulus Tera]

I'm having the most fun with Kefka and Terra, as the FFVI whore I am.

I find Butz' all-for-one gameplay style to be very satisfying, since you take the best from everybody else into him.

I thought I would have liked Gabranth a lot more, but his playstyle doesn't lend himself to much variety. He's rather sluggish.

Shantotto is pretty cool with her ranged yet large attacks, although broken against Chaos. Bio (Poison?) is a bit slow, but I love to spam it to attract the opponent.

From the other villains, I'm really enjoying Kuja (speed + magic ftw) and Jecht for those random moments I want to just smash things down.

[mudah.swf]

I like Gabranth and Kuja and Butz and Squall. Cloud too but mostly because I like his AC look.

[Regulus Tera]

For those interested, this dude over here is translating the story mode cutscenes: http://www.youtube.com/user/sinnesspiel

[POS Industries]

For those interested, this dude over here is translating the story mode cutscenes: http://www.youtube.com/user/sinnesspiel
Wow, the guy making those videos is kind of a jackass.

[Kim]

I'm lazy. Howso?

[POS Industries]

He's adamant that no one buy the English release.

[Kim]

That's pretty dumb, even by NonCon standards. What possible motivation could you have for not wanting to support the dub?

[Regulus Tera]

DUBS < SUBS

Real bishie fans watch it in its original language! Nihon-go for the motherfucking kawaii desu win! d=(^o^)=b

[POS Industries]

Pretty much what RT said. I mean, yeah, the FFX dub was kinda bad but I feel that most of the dub work done by S-E recently has been pretty good on the whole. Pretty silly to me. Of course, I want a game with Terra and Kefka in it, not Tina and Cefca.

Back on topic, some of the character interactions are rather interesting. Onion Knight and Exdeath's little exchange was hilarious, and I find the idea that OK apparently believes Terra's lack of confidence is based on her being weak to be amusing, as well.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

Pretty much what RT said. I mean, yeah, the FFX dub was kinda bad but I feel that most of the dub work done by S-E recently has been pretty good on the whole. Pretty silly to me. Of course, I want a game with Terra and Kefka in it, not Tina and Cefca.


Only kinda? The only redeeming factor of the FFX dub was Auron. And he was pushing it. Though I will agree that they have gotten better and I'll be damned if they named the characters Tina and Cefca

[POS Industries]

Well, I was trying to be nice. Do you see why I don't do it very often?

[Kim]

You aren't very good at it. Stick to what you know.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

You aren't very good at it. Stick to what you know.

When it comes to the VA of FFX, be as cruel as you can.

Wow, that almot rhymed.

[POS Industries]

When it comes to the VA of FFX, be as cruel as you can.

Wow, that almot rhymed.
"When regarding the game with that Tidus fool, it's totally okay to be especially cruel"?

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

"When regarding the game with that Tidus fool, it's totally okay to be especially cruel"?

Ladies and gentle, POS Industries

(studio applause)

[Donomni]

You know Dissidia's dub is gonna be good. At least as long as they con Mark Hamill into being Kefka.

[Solid Snake]

Hah. I actually liked FFX's voice acting (exception: Yuna.) I know. I must be clinically insane.

[Regulus Tera]

Must be all those nanomachines.

[Daimo Mac, The Blue Light of Hope]

You know Dissidia's dub is gonna be good. At least as long as they con Mark Hamill into being Kefka.

Let's not get into v/a discussion again. It'll only lead to disappointment.

[Kerensky287]

Shall we discuss the inevitable sequel, then? We all know how much S-E loves money, and once they've done a port of all the FFs so far, they'll probably get to work on Dissidia 2.

If I were to make a Dissidia sequel, this is what I would include:
-One new character for each FF from 1-12, characters from the FFT series, Noctus and Lightning from 13, and maybe cameo characters from other SquareEnix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_trigger) properties. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_alchemist)
-One new map for each game. And give them level properties like Dimensional Castle and Memoria, not the lazy Chaos Temple upgrade.
-A story mode each for the collective Cosmos and the collective Chaos characters of 1-10. This is just for timesaving; with everything else included, individual story modes would take forever. Plus, Dissidia already had the characters' stories; 2 long story modes is better than 30 short ones.
-A story mode each for the FFT characters and the FF13 characters. They're new and special.
-A special tag-team story mode with musical cutscenes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04-0A4UvMww) for Shantotto and Gabranth. Shantotto rhymes already, and I'm sure Gabranth is just a big softie inside.


...Okay, yeah, maybe that whole post was just to make the last point in there. Shantotto and Gabranth are the PERFECT musical duo.

[Regulus Tera]

I for one would be glad if they waited until after Final Fantasy XX for the next Dissidia. The game as it is has a lot of quality, and I'd prefer if Square waited for some new material before dumbing down the franchise, if it ever becomes one.

[Solid Snake]

I'd really like Square-Enix to attempt the following when crafting their next Final Fantasy:

Get an internal group to work on the project but don't tell them they're making a Final Fantasy game. Just say "we need you to work on an original RPG, but this is going to be a new franchise so you really need to do something amazing and innovative with it if we're going to make any money. We'll give you just enough resources to do some decent FMV sequences and whatnot but seriously, we need you guys to work your asses off on this. You'll need to create everything from scratch."

Then, when they're about 95% done with the game, come back and say "Surprise! You've actually just made the next Final Fantasy game! Just be sure to tack on some chocobos and moogles into the final product and hell, throw a reference to Clouds or Squalls in there for grins and giggles."

I think the game that would result would be far far better than what we're going to get as Square-Enix continues to milk its cash cow. And this is win-win! This way, Square-Enix can keep using the damn Final Fantasy name to sell their products, but we gamers can ensure their new Final Fantasies are actually good games!

[EVILNess]

I for one would be glad if they waited until after Final Fantasy XX for the next Dissidia. The game as it is has a lot of quality, and I'd prefer if Square waited for some new material before dumbing down the franchise, if it ever becomes one.

This is probably what the fans would most likely want.

We are proud to announce Dissidia IX, the latest in the popular new series.
What Square will probably do in six months.

[mudah.swf]

I would change things around with the fighting engine itself, like such (wall of text incoming):

-Lessen recovery on certain moves such as regular Brave strings, since I believe the recovery on some moves is too much.
-Lessen the stun after being blocked. I think getting a free anything after a block is a little too much, unless you're ExDeath and your entire point is blocking.
-Add a ground/wall ukemi technique, to stop bullshit like CoD repeatedly spamming her huge AoE Brave attack up against a wall. This could also introduce tech traps for deeper mindgames.
-Perhaps change how blocking works. Have the parry set to Forward+R or something and the regular block be holdable, like in a normal fighting game, but have the character get pushed back or something. Also, since it's possible to delay strikes in Dissidia this could introduce blockstrings for more pressure+mindgames possibily.
-Introduce mechanics, or perhaps just character, who actually make more use of the Brave/EX meter than just for big attacks. Perhaps having EX moves that use up a portion of the EX meter?
-Change the dodge mechanic somehow so it's not spammable. I noticed that some things can be straight up nullified by just spamming dodges everywhere, which isn't right. One example of this is Ex Kuja's jumps. Also, have recovery not be cancellable by a dodge.
-Perhaps making the attack mechanics theirselves more flexable, to allow for the player's own combos. For example, Frionel's (and Butz's) thrown axe melee attack has great potential for creative combos, but it has a preset followup that cannot be changed. I was thinking of making a system of stuns, ala the later DBZ: Budokai games, but that would require a big adjustment of the Brave stat and how much Brave damage some attacks do.
-Remove that QTE event thing that comes up after someone gets knocked away, it breaks the flow of the game and happens far too often for my liking.
-CONSOLE RELEASE, NATIVE ONLINE VS MATCHES.

Feel free to add, criticise or tell me how dumb my ideas are.

[Regulus Tera]

An example of the Exdeath exploit -Cloud of Darkness goes up from lvl 1 to 100 in less than a minute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c5-ivghZ7s&fmt=18