Dissidia Impressions *MAJOR SPOILER*

[Wolf Kanno]

This is just a thread for us to discuss our thoughts about Dissidia as you play through. I don't want to exclude those who haven't finished the game yet so please try to use spoiler tags if you may for anything concerning the story.

I've played through half the heroes in Story mode and haven't used my points to unlock anything yet. I really love the minor "on the go" game mechanics. The game feels a bit reminiscent of TWEWY with all the extra little specials and unlockables. The battle system is just as I imagined but works so much better in practice than I thought it would so its been really great.

Impressions of characters so far:

Cecil - Pretty powerful and once you really start to customize his skills and get use to the Job switching is an evil and broken SOB. He's pretty combo friendly...

Tidus - Love his aerial superiority but cannot get used to dodging to save my life thus his major strength is lost to me I'm afraid.

Cloud - Very powerful but slow. Like Sephiroth, he seems to be normally slow and his abilites give him some lag. Am I the only person who feels his character model is lifted directly from Crisis Core? His animation for the Fire spells look identical to Zack using them in CC.

Firion - His HP attack being a long range attack seems to be a double edge sword. Especially since its so easy to dodge. Still he's fun to play with.

Onion Knight - Smurfing broken... He has Tidus' issue of having to heavily rely on the Brave System but due to his speed and combo friendly move set, I feel OK blows Tidus out of the water.

Favorite summons so far are Magus Sisters, Magic Pot, and Phoenix.

[Masamunemaster]

Im going through stories twice before moving on and right now Im on Bartz's and god does he suck for me lol

WoL- he was pretty good and Id say I will have him as ONE of my mains lol

Firion- he was ok but trying to hit someone with his hp attack is annoying lol

onion knight was so much fun because his dodging is so fast I can get behind and attack

Cecil(cessil)- is good once you get the hang of it but once you do it loses all the fun

[Skyblade]

Overall, I think it's a great game, with one exception.

The item system is seriously messed up. There are 3 primary ways to gain new items: Winning them as drops from opponents, buying them in the shop, or using the Battlegen system. While Battlegens are fairly common, they produce pitiful little accessories with minor boosts that are primarily used to trade for bigger things. To get armor and weapons, you need either to get drops (good luck with that, the drop rate is insanely low), or buy in the shop. Oh, and the items in the shop? Yeah, they cost an incredibly high amount of gil (compared to what your gil intake is), will be obsolete in about 5 levels, and half of them require trade accessories that I can't even Battlegen yet.

The rest of the game is fairly cool. Playing primarily with Bartz right now, though I've started Squall's story too. I have gotten 100% on the prologue and Bartz's Destiny Oddessey.

[JKTrix]

This is just a thread for us to discuss our thoughts about Dissidia as you play through. I don't want to exclude those who haven't finished the game yet so please try to use spoiler tags if you may for anything concerning the story.

I've played through half the heroes in Story mode and haven't used my points to unlock anything yet. I really love the minor "on the go" game mechanics. The game feels a bit reminiscent of TWEWY with all the extra little specials and unlockables. The battle system is just as I imagined but works so much better in practice than I thought it would so its been really great.

Impressions of characters so far:

Cecil - Pretty powerful and once you really start to customize his skills and get use to the Job switching is an evil and broken SOB. He's pretty combo friendly...

Tidus - Love his aerial superiority but cannot get used to dodging to save my life thus his major strength is lost to me I'm afraid.

Cloud - Very powerful but slow. Like Sephiroth, he seems to be normally slow and his abilites give him some lag. Am I the only person who feels his character model is lifted directly from Crisis Core? His animation for the Fire spells look identical to Zack using them in CC.

Firion - His HP attack being a long range attack seems to be a double edge sword. Especially since its so easy to dodge. Still he's fun to play with.

Onion Knight - Smurfing broken... He has Tidus' issue of having to heavily rely on the Brave System but due to his speed and combo friendly move set, I feel OK blows Tidus out of the water.

Favorite summons so far are Magus Sisters, Magic Pot, and Phoenix.

You can't dodge? I want to play you NOW

My first playthrough in the story mode was as Cecil, and he was ok. Some major weaknesses (at least early on--only played him up to level 12) is that he doesn't have a quick, reliable long ranged attack from the ground. Then my 2nd Story was Tidus, and he was awesome. So many of his moves dodge, so many of his moves can cause a 'chase' on hit, and he's pretty fast.

[Wolf Kanno]

I got a lot better at dodging with Terra thank you very much...

Anyway, I just finished Terra and can safely say she is probably one of my favorite characters in this game and its not just the inner fanboy talking (maybe a little...) but she is so different from the others and requires so many different strategies that I had a blast going through her story.

She's a bit like Cloud except way more versatile. She has high Brave damage so she can easily break opponents and her array of spells give her great coverage from short to long range. Her Tornado move alone is one of the best defensive abilities in the game since they actually parry enemy attacks. I think only Jecht or perhaps Mateus could knock her out of the spell animation. Her EX Burst leaves a bit to be desired but her EX Mode is just unfair... Overall, like Cecil, she requires you to learn her abilities and get yourself a bit of a rhythm for her before she suddenly becomes totally super special awesome.

I'm probably going to start Squall tonight and then move onto Bartz and Zidane and finish with WoL. After that, I'm debating about starting the next story part or playing through all the story modes to get 100% completion.

As for the item system. It doesn't completely bother me as I actually have quite a bit of cash now and I plan to put a good amount of time into this game so chances are the main item system will reward me.

[NeoCracker]

You know, they have made Squall and Tidus much more tolerable characters then in their original games.

And after seeing a certain fight scene with Garland, he is, and always be, from this point on, a badass.


So far, I've beaten it with Just the Warrior of Light, who as a character is pretty awesome. In game however? His only HP attacks both require some setting up just to land a hit. He's extremely difficult to use right off due to low number of attacks, and what he has is hard to hit with, something Tidus and Squall (I"m leveling characters I don't like now to get them out of the way first. :P) Don't suffer from.

I'm at the last fight in Tidus's story, so here's to happy hunting. Cheerio.

[hhr1dluv]

I suck at this game...I haven't quite gotten the hang of the fighting system yet, I guess. I started story mode with Cecil (haven't beaten any of the story modes yet), but I've played a bit with all the characters. I <3 Onion Knight and WoL, and Tidus rapes me everytime I try and fight him, especially with characters like Cecil.

I like all the FF lore in this game -- it's fun to run into all these random characters in the menus.

Does anyone have any tips concerning this fighting system? I can't even really practice because I own the weak enemies in 2 seconds and can't get anywhere once the enemies are just a bit more skilled.

Firion and Bartz are hot...just sayin'.

[Ramza Beoulve]

Does anyone have any tips concerning this fighting system? I can't even really practice because I own the weak enemies in 2 seconds and can't get anywhere once the enemies are just a bit more skilled.

Firion and Bartz are hot...just sayin'.

Get yourself some PP from free battles, and try to get ExDeath and Jecht. Use Jecht to practice Dodging (in free battle, make him a Random character, and when you master that, move to Tactician, and so on). Do the same with ExDeath for Brave and HP attacks, and how to retaliate against a defensive character. You can practice against Terra to understand magic attacks, and Bartz for mostly everything else.

But mostly try to learn how to Dodge at the right time, and how to retaliate with a high brave damaging combo.

OTT: I found the computer intelligence a little higher here than the Japanese Version, and the Arcade mode is a great way to perfect your abilities without loosing to much time.

[Masamunemaster]

ok said wtf ima do bartz story again for the second summon and I was doing the (SPOILER)kuja lvl 16 fight again and dodged all his attacks....(SPOILER)he used flare star when I missed him with 3700brave><

[Wolf Kanno]

To hhr1dluv:

Dodging is good to learn, pursuing (using the triangle and R button to have your character dash towards an enemy) is also very important, especially against Ultemacia, Terra, and Kuja... Overall, its about learning distance and your character range.

My main advice is to learn not to do certain things. For instance, sometimes, its better not to follow through on a chase, especially when you are just starting out. Kefka and Ultemacia have some odd delay with their attacks so timing the dodge can be really tricky.

Sometimes, its better to actually try to whither your opponent down rather than go for the big finish. Learned this the hard way... there are just some battles where the opponents equipment makes it too difficult to try for a guard break at which point its better to cut your losses and just take their health down as much as you can with the Brave stat you have.

Also, abuse EX mode, don't always go for the Burst attack (the cinematic finisher) and just use your benefits from EX mode to help you out. Most of the characters have the Regen affect and some... like Terra and OK... seem to actually be better off using their multi attack bonuses from being in EX mode over using their Burst. But sometimes it is good to use Burst to take off some good health but mostly its a very quick way to whither down a high brave stat.

Also, abuse the summons. Summons like Phoenix, Magic Pot, Demon Wall, and Carbuncle are just not fair...

My other advice is that Cecil is quite possible the worst character to start the game with since he works so differently from all the others and requires some experience with the combat system to make him deadly. I'd suggest Cloud, Onion Knight, or Tidus for well rounded starter characters.

Also...

You know, they have made Squall and Tidus much more tolerable characters then in their original games.

And after seeing a certain fight scene with Garland, he is, and always be, from this point on, a badass.

Is it because Squall tries a little more?

[NeoCracker]

To hhr1dluv:

Dodging is good to learn, pursuing (using the triangle and R button to have your character dash towards an enemy) is also very important, especially against Ultemacia, Terra, and Kuja... Overall, its about learning distance and your character range.

My main advice is to learn not to do certain things. For instance, sometimes, its better not to follow through on a chase, especially when you are just starting out. Kefka and Ultemacia have some odd delay with their attacks so timing the dodge can be really tricky.

Sometimes, its better to actually try to whither your opponent down rather than go for the big finish. Learned this the hard way... there are just some battles where the opponents equipment makes it too difficult to try for a guard break at which point its better to cut your losses and just take their health down as much as you can with the Brave stat you have.

Also, abuse EX mode, don't always go for the Burst attack (the cinematic finisher) and just use your benefits from EX mode to help you out. Most of the characters have the Regen affect and some... like Terra and OK... seem to actually be better off using their multi attack bonuses from being in EX mode over using their Burst. But sometimes it is good to use Burst to take off some good health but mostly its a very quick way to whither down a high brave stat.

Also, abuse the summons. Summons like Phoenix, Magic Pot, Demon Wall, and Carbuncle are just not fair...

My other advice is that Cecil is quite possible the worst character to start the game with since he works so differently from all the others and requires some experience with the combat system to make him deadly. I'd suggest Cloud, Onion Knight, or Tidus for well rounded starter characters.

Also...

You know, they have made Squall and Tidus much more tolerable characters then in their original games.

And after seeing a certain fight scene with Garland, he is, and always be, from this point on, a badass.

Is it because Squall tries a little more?

...Creepy.

BUt really, I think it's in part due to dialogue that is vastly superior to VIII's. For examnple, (This spoiler comes from a scene around the Middle of the Warrior of Light's Story)(SPOILER)WoL comes across Squall, who is traveling alone. They exchange a few brief words and squall says "We each must face our challanges alone. Thats what Cosmos told me." It wasn't exactly like that, and twas worded better, and when paired up with his English voice actor, comes across in the way they probably intended Squall to be, if that makes much sense. I can't really find good words to explain it. :P

[Masamunemaster]

ok I thought doing 777 damage would amount to something but I got nothing when I did it with terra


and btw that is an AWESOME smile lol

[Wolf Kanno]

...Creepy.

BUt really, I think it's in part due to dialogue that is vastly superior to VIII's. For examnple, (This spoiler comes from a scene around the Middle of the Warrior of Light's Story)(SPOILER)WoL comes across Squall, who is traveling alone. They exchange a few brief words and squall says "We each must face our challanges alone. Thats what Cosmos told me." It wasn't exactly like that, and twas worded better, and when paired up with his English voice actor, comes across in the way they probably intended Squall to be, if that makes much sense. I can't really find good words to explain it. :P

You mean the way he's always been

That scene is more amusing after you play through Squall's story. Anyway, I just finished Squall's chapter. I really like Squall, he's got some weakness' (made very apparent in his battle with Ultimecia) but overall, he's actually quite nasty though I was sad to learn that the Bahamut summon isn't nearly as good as it should be unless its got some exploitative ability I'm unaware of.

Bartz is definetly one of the funnier stories and unlike some of the other "funny" stories, its intentional!

Bartz has proven to be one of the hardest character to use. His chapter has also proven to be one of the most difficult for me. He doesn't seem to gain levels quickly like the others and I can't seem to get 2 AP from battles like the other characters despite having similar equipment set ups. His abilities also cost quite a bit so you quickly find yourself making really tough decisions. He's also cursed with every other mime class problem in the main series and has very "average" stats. On the bright side, he can equip almost anything except for character specific gear. His summon is also pretty neat. His starting skills seem quite good in the beginning but they lack the flow of other characters so you have to be really careful how you set him up. Hopefully, I'll finish his chapter in the morning once my PSP recharges and I get some rest.

Also, Favorite lines in the game so far...

(SPOILER)Kefka: (talking about Sephiroth) He's just another sadist with a god complex. Whats so special about that?

Bartz: Holy Cosmos! It's a talking rock!

[Crimson]

I HAVE DREAMS!


DREAMS WORTH DYING FOR!


Yeah I cant wait to get Dissidia in 7 days, you people all suck. D:

[Masamunemaster]

yea I beat terras twice last night and she really is cheap lol, but I could see her as my magic user