Dissidia: Final Fantasy Game Review ~ The Reimaru Files

Fans of the ever-popular RPG franchise Final Fantasy will drool over once they can grab a copy of the most awaited fighting game Dissidia: Final Fantasy in stores on August 25.

The Japanese version of the game was already released a year ago and the English version is on its way. The game features not only showcase arcade modes but also a unique story mode that has its own engaging storyline which will ensure more replay value.

*Note: The review only featured the playable version of Dissidia; where Arcade mode is the only available feature.

The concept is the same as all of the fighting games: the first to reduce their opponent's life bar to zero wins. Dissidia boasts to have over 20 characters from all the Final Fantasy series, so far only 5 characters are playable in the demo. The arenas are not your typical side scroll maps, but more of a fully free roaming 3D arena. Players will be able to play the game with no problem thanks to the tutorials on the loading screen.

Dissidia has two types of attack, one that reduces your brave points (BP); points that determines your attack power (the higher the points, the higher the damage you will inflict on your opponent's health with the HP attack) while the ohter attack is used to reduce your opponent's health points (HP), but in order to inflict dmage to it, you need to accumulate BP and also making a successful HP attack will reset your brave points to zero.

Each characters has its own unique traits such as Terra from Final Fantasy 6 where she uses magic, Cecil from Final Fantasy 4 can switch from Dark Knight to Paladin during battle. Characters can unleash their devastating attacks via EX mode by filling up their EX meter by absorbing EX orbs (gain by attacking opponents) and EX cores (scattered around the map). Activating the EX mode can change the character's appearance or unlocking their ultimate weapon with added stats boosts.

Attacking with the HP attack while in EX mode can release their finishing skill called EX burst, this is similar to the famous Limit Breaks in the Final Fantasy series where you enter a certain button combination or repeatedly pressing a certain button to unleash its full power.

As for the graphical presentation, it really shows that it's using the PlayStation Portable's full power, giving it great graphics. The music is pretty impressive, from the original tunes of Final Fantasy 9 & 10 to the remix versions of 2 & 3, voice acting is kind of average but they still manged to use the originl voice actors from the other series and giving voice to the classic ones.

Although the game is only a demo, it's still an amazing game with new game mechanics. Fans of Final Fantasy and fighting games will sure be hungry to get a copy of Dissidia once it's out.