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[BAMFing ARCHER]

In honor of Final Fantasy's 20th Anniversary, Square Enix has decided to release a fighter involving all main characters from their Final Fantasy franchise. Of course, the exceptions are Shantotto(XI) and Judge Magister Gabranth(XII), both representing duality.

Now, onto the review

Story : 8.5/10.

All right, so as far as I'm concerned and what I'm able to understand, there is a war between two deities, Chaos and Cosmos. The side of Cosmos was almost entirely eliminated by the moves of Chaos, and Cosmos sends the remaining warriors to search for the "Crystals". Each character has their own plot, and have different alliances.

Now, here's something interesting. The villains are divided into two factions: One that wishes to conquer the world, and one that wishes to destroy it.

As for the rest of the story, I didn't understand, but it seemed pretty epic. Hey, it's not like I know Japanese or something.

Gameplay : 9.5/10

It's an intense, fast-paced fighter. There are two different types of attacks, Brave attacks, and HP attacks. Brave attacks([]) absorb Brave points on contact, and you need them to use HP attacks(O). HP attacks are attacks that deal damage. They deal damage equivalent to the amount of Brave Points you have, and reset your Brave Points to 0.

There's also EX Mode, which is sort of like your special mode. There's this little purple bar on the side, and as you collect orbs after you hit your enemy, it fills up. The only exception is Gabranth, where you must hold down O to charge it up, since he lacks HP attacks, and can only hurt in his EX Burst. You press R+O to unleash EX Mode. Most characters undergo a basic change, such as Cecil using his swords, Bartz class-changing to Mime, Exdeath's fancy near-palette-swap. Now, onto the EX Burst. You initiate it by unleashing a HP attack on the enemy. Then, there's a counter where you press [], and you go into your EX Burst. For each character, it varies. For the overused Cloud, for example, it's button mashing O. For Squall, it's the Limit Break thing. And with Cecil, it's synchronizing your input commands.

Now, many of you have seen that there's some sort of square grid thing. That's the overworld. You get random amounts of Destiny Points each time. Your goal is to get to the end with as much DP as possible. If you have negative DP, that just carries over to the next round and such.

Now, villains are playable, but only in versus mode. They cost 500 PP to unlock, and they're in their own special little store with the alternate costumes. There's also a number of easter eggs hidden in here, such as Cecil wielding a spear and a staff regularly being a reference to Kain and Rosa respectively. Why I didn't complete the sentence...I don't know.

Music: 9/10.

Did I ever mention that they re-did some of the music? As well, some of the boss fights have different music. For example, when Exdeath ambushes Cecil during the latter's talk with Golbez, the music played is Clash on the Big Bridge. Regularly, it would be the battle theme for Exdeath. It's Uematsu work, only slightly better, need I say more?

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics are certainly very impressive. There are no clipping issues or glitches, and the camera angles can be adjusted. The characters look very lifelike, and in the case of Garland, the Warrior of Light, Bartz and Cecil, they were re-done from their original sprite by Tetsuya Nomura. Ever wondered why it looks so much like Kingdom Hearts? Blame Nomura.

The stages are also very well designed. There are a total of 12 stages, each one with it's own unique feel to it.

Overall: 9.5/10.

I'm not saying this because I love Final Fantasy. I'm saying this because it's a great game. It's not massive scale and all, but it's rather nice to have. I'd wait till the English version comes out, if I were you.

Now, the full roster, so you'd know who's where.

Final Fantasy I - Warrior of Light - Garland
Final Fantasy II - Firion - Emperor of Palamecia
Final Fantasy III - Onion Knight - Cloud of Darkness
FInal Fantasy IV - Cecil Harvey - Golbez
Final Fantasy V - Bartz Klauser - Exdeath
Final Fantasy VI - Terra Branford - Kefka Palazzo
Final Fantasy VII - Cloud Strife - Sephiroth
Final Fantasy VIII - Squall Leonhart - Ultimecia
Final Fantasy IX - Zidane Tribal - Kuja
Final Fantasy X - Tidus - Jecht
Final Fantasy XI - Shantotto
Final Fantasy XII - Judge Magister Gabranth

[Lord Bob]

Damn, wish I could get this game. But what is Cecil's weilding a staff and spear referencing? His love for Rosa and friendship with Kain, respectively?

[BAMFing ARCHER]

Presumably. Firion wields all the various weapon types in Final Fantasy II as well, giving a similar reference.

[Paper_Waluigi]

Hmph, no spinoff characters. Marche would be pretty cool. Luso not so much though.

[Lord Krump]

Does it have a Cid? It shouldn't be associated with FF at all if it doesn't have one, in my book.

[BAMFing ARCHER]

It actually does. Cid of the Lufaine, the creator of the airship in Final Fantasy I, is the narrator. Other than that, no.

[Geno]

I'll probably end up buying this even though my brother's the one who owns the PSP...

[BAMFing ARCHER]

Get it. I imported the Limited Edition 20th Anniversary Edition, which I doubt will come out here. But I'm also gonna get the English version.

It's rumored the English version will come out late Spring - sometime in June/July. Final Fantasy IV DS was released around the same time last year in Japan, and it took 6 months to get to NA. I'm assuming the trend will continue with Dissidia.

[Mana7]

Wait wheres the FFXII hero

[BAMFing ARCHER]

Gabranth. Look up there.

[Super Maiq the Liar]

Since you don't really know much about the story besides the obvious few facts you've stated, how could you give it an 8.5? It'd be best left "TBD" IMO.

[BAMFing ARCHER]

You can tell, connotation, body action and stuff. I also watched some clips regarding the stories of several characters to understand it. But it has a interesting backbone to the story, since some of the villains are against each other(such as Garland and Kuja, which is a possible reference), and there's a whole bunch of stuff. But that's the game's weakest point. If I didn't mention, there's about 14 different chapters, and each one takes about 40 minutes to an hour. Battles, the longest I've seen was 4:50. The boss battles usually last about 2 minutes, but they're pretty fast paced.

And don't get me started on the level 9 AI.