Dissidia Duodecim (Dissidia 2) Catch-All

Just announced here - http://www.siliconera.com/2010/09/07...

Not much to say right now, except Lightning from FF13 and Kain from FF4 confirmed. I'm still playing Dissidia, so I'll be excited to play this, particularly if they expand the FF6 roster a bit.

A new preview has come up from Joystiq - http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/18/di...

Points of interest to me:
- Tifa from FF7 (a very welcome addition)
- Assist characters
- RPG Mode (this sounds much better than the simple control scheme change Dissidia had)

I'm also very interested to see how Lightning's Paradigm Shift works, I hope it's something closer to Gabranth in Dissidia than a simple EX Mode finisher.

Tifa. Hell yes, getting excited.

I wish I had a PSP, or even better that made a cheap and dirty PS3 port, so I could play this. This is grotesque, pandering fanservice I can get behind.

What's up with SE and numbers these days? Them seemed to take a turn to the absurd with "Final Fantasy X-2", and now they've flown off into oblivion. That last Kingdom Hearts themed game was a goddam fraction.

Actually, they just released a real KH game called Birth By Sleep - it's the one that's the basis of the secret video you unlock in the back of KHII. It is PSP only, though. I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

I thought that was the fraction game. Whatever, point stands. Hindu-Arabic numerals and linear progression won in the 10th century, SE, enough with the quantum stuff.

A whole bunch of new screens from the game. Tifa has her Advent Children costume, no surprise, but SO AWESOME!

I can't wait for this.

Laguna Loire has been confirmed for the game.

While Laguna's story was hard to understand in FF8 until the end, I really liked him as a character. I think he's a nice contrast to Squall, and Dissidia already has enough sword users, it's nice to see someone sporting a nice SMG.

A video has been released:

I have the first Dissidia, and I find it almost impossibly impenetrable... but damn I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, I'll probably look into the second one, Lightning is pretty darn cool so that'll help tip me over. Wish they'd use Balthier instead of Vaan, but I guess they're trying to go with all the main characters... Vaan's just so boring.

I don't understand Square Enix. I don't wanna start a mindless debate, so while no one FF title is better than the other, no one can deny the popularity and excellence that is FF6 within the franchise. To me, it's the best, surpassed by none. Many will disagree, but many, MANY feel the same way. Yet, it's the only one that hasn't gotten a remake, only ports. And in Dissidia, with such a fantastic cast, doesn't see any new characters.

Don't take me wrong, FF7 and FF4 are 2nd and 3rd on my list in no particular order, and Kain and Tifa are absolutely awesome. But isn't it about time we saw Shadow in there?

EDIT: Damn, that sounds like a FF6 fanboy....

Last I heard they were talking about redoing 5 and 6 for the 3DS. We'll see what actually happens, though.

I was a bit surprised that they didn't add a new character from each game. Terra/Tina was my favorite in Dissidia, so I was hoping for another 6 character too, though my top choice is Sabin, with Celes coming in 2nd. Oh well, I'll just get my fisticuffs on with Tifa.

Redwing - Agreed, Balthier would have been a cooler choice. I also never really got the sense that Vaan was the protagonist of FF12. Yes, he's the focus character in the beginning, but the story so rapidly moves away from him that I almost forgot about him entirely.

More characters and silly promotional gimmicks.

Gilgamesh could be cool, and I didn't play 11 so I have no idea who Prishe is. I like the idea of having Aerith as an assist character, and honestly I'd pay $3 for it too, but there's no word of the demo coming for the US.

A new trailer has been released, possibly the last before the game comes out. The big news - Yuna as a playable character (or at least it certainly appears like it). So that's new characters from 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13 now. I like having someone from 10 to contrast the two Blitzball players, and Yuna is certainly a better choice than... *shudder* Rikku.

I may finally throw down a pre-order for this, once I can confirm that I'll be able to run it on my CFW.

EDIT: Duh, add 4 into that list, I totally forgot about Kain.

Thanks ahrezmendi for turning me on to this game. I would have never even thought about getting this had you not recommended it. Considering I have never played more than 20 mins of all the FF's put together, I was surprised by how much I like it. It's good that it's not about the characters too much and just focuses on solid fighting mechanics. If you have a PSP or PSV pick this game up and let's wake up this thread. I need to talk about it.

I bought this game and it's predecessor to repeatedly kill certain annoying Final Fantasy characters, and they have more than met my expectations on that score.

momgamer wrote:

I bought this game and it's predecessor to repeatedly kill certain annoying Final Fantasy characters, and they have more than met my expectations on that score. ;)

It's Onion Knight for you too, isn't it?

I might take a break from my Metal Gear Solid 2 game to get back into this for a bit. I was trying to get further into the Labyrinth when I stopped, and also trying to farm some epic loot off ghosts, but that got old fairly quickly. I finished Scenario 000, which was tough, but worth doing.

ahrezmendi wrote:
momgamer wrote:

I bought this game and it's predecessor to repeatedly kill certain annoying Final Fantasy characters, and they have more than met my expectations on that score. ;)

It's Onion Knight for you too, isn't it?

I might take a break from my Metal Gear Solid 2 game to get back into this for a bit. I was trying to get further into the Labyrinth when I stopped, and also trying to farm some epic loot off ghosts, but that got old fairly quickly. I finished Scenario 000, which was tough, but worth doing.

Him, but most especially Tidus, Sephiroth, and The Emperor (aka King Female Doggo-move). That sort of personal vendetta makes farming a joy, not a chore.

I hate The Emperor with a burning passion. The harder AI just makes it impossible to approach him, and even when I do land a hit I can't continue my combo because I have to dodge all the freaking fireballs that are following me around. I once spent 2 hours just trying to beat him, and when I finally did I wanted to scream in triumph (but I couldn't, public transit and all).

I love how the fights can last minutes (or hours) and they are tied down to 90 seconds like most other fighters. You can go forever without administering or receiving an attack that does HP damage. It's a lot of dodge/bravery/block/bravery/dodge.

I do think the boss battled are a little difficult. When I am fighting the same guy for the 35th time then their may be a problem. That or I just haven't grasped the finer points.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I love how the fights can last minutes (or hours) and they are tied down to 90 seconds like most other fighters. You can go forever without administering or receiving an attack that does HP damage. It's a lot of dodge/bravery/block/bravery/dodge.

I do think the boss battled are a little difficult. When I am fighting the same guy for the 35th time then their may be a problem. That or I just haven't grasped the finer points.

If you're having trouble, you can take your character into free battles to gain a few levels and get a chance at some drops. Levels/gear persist through all game modes (for the most part), so you can make a tougher battle easier with a few more levels.

A lot of it is learning the different abilities of each character though. This is especially true at the end game, when you don't have more levels to gain. Pay close attention to each ability, when it hits, how fast it moves, whether or not it tracks, is it blockable, etc.

Kefka, you are a son of a Female Doggo. I'm on probably round 50 with him. Sounds like I will be taking Vaan to battle mode to get some levels. I am only 5 right now and Kefka is 10.

That'll make things rough, I'm betting he knocks you into Break in one or two hits?

The trick to Kefka and Terra is they both have a lot of Brave attacks, but only a few HP attacks, many of which chain off Brave attacks or are very easy to predict. Havoc Wing tracks a little bit, but it only tracks before the attack comes out, so if you air dodge while Kefka is flipping upside down you should avoid the attack entirely.

It's been a while since I played Vaan, but I recall his Sword & Shield brave attack to be very fast coming out, so it's a great counter-attack move. His HP attacks are all mid and long range and slow to come out, so you might also want to have a chase move to fall back on (Crossbow, Katana, etc.) If you're fighting in a small arena, spamming Cataclysm from far away can often work, the AI will sometimes get itself trapped in a corner as it tries to dodge large AoE attacks.

The community over at Dissidia Forums is still active. Found this video posted from a few months ago, good match:

This is one of the few fighting games where the challenge isn't raging. It doesn't feel cheap the way some fighters can because it's all timing base. You learn the enemies movies are learn to dodge and when to attack or you loose. There is no spamming moves and expecting a win. You learn the strategy or you look foolish.

...can someone tell me what the hell is going on in this game? I've got like an hour or so in, winning just by hitting the square button over and over. I really have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. I want to like this game, so a guiding hand would be helpful. I just need a general explanation.

And by someone I mean ahrezmendi.

Haha, I'm not the *only* person who played this a lot.

I take by your post that you mean gameplay guide and not story guide? The story is also convoluted, but since you've played a lot of Theatrhythm you probably already know most of it. Anyway, gameplay stuff:

The fundamental goal of the game is to build Brave, then deal actual damage with an HP attack. You have 4 stats you are concerned with:

HP - Your HP, duh. The bar only represents 1000 HP, your full HP is the small number on the bottom of your character panel, next to your Assist gauge.

Brave - The big number above your HP bar. This is the amount of damage you will deal when you land an HP attack. You start with an amount of Brave based on your level and your equipment. Brave is gained by doing Circle attacks and likewise it's lost by getting hit by an enemy Brave attack. Think of Brave as a scale, and as you land Circle attacks you are tipping that scale in your favor. If you manage to reduce your opponents Brave to 0 they enter Brave Break, which nets you bonus Brave and causes their HP and Brave attacks to do 0 damage until their Brave recovers to their starting amount. The reverse is also true, if your Brave is reduced to 0 you enter Brave Break, with the same penalties.
Landing an HP attack will reduce your Brave to 0 (since it all just became damage), and your Brave will recover to its base level after a few seconds. Be careful during this time, it's very easy for you to get hit by Brave Break right after you've landed an HP attack.
Oh, one more thing - Brave attacks can be blocked, but HP attacks cannot.

EX - The rising bar on the left/right of your character panel. When this is full you can either enter EX mode, or you can use EX Revenge. EX mode is basically your Limit Break, the actual changes you get from it differ by character, but a few common elements apply:
-- You regenerate HP
-- You attack and recover from attacks faster
-- Any landed HP attack can be finished with an EX Burst. These are character-specific finishers which deal bonus damage, and are usually the signature finishing move for that character/game (i.e. Tifa's is her Limit Break complete with roulette, where as Terra's is her desperation attack).
EX Revenge also consumes your EX gauge, but instead you interrupt an enemy attack and slow them for a few seconds. You can use this to counter an enemy combo, and get yourself a free combo at the same time.
You fill your EX gauge by collecting the tiny blue particles that pop out when you land a hit, or collect the EX bells which appear periodically.

Assist - The double-bar below your HP bar. Each use of your Assist requires a full bar, so you can do a max of 2 consecutive Assist attacks. This fills as you attack, whether the attacks land or not. Calling an Assist will summon your Assist character, they will perform their action, then disappear. Assist characters can be targeted and hit by attacks, and if they are hit they get locked out for a little while. Also, entering EX Mode will cause your opponents Assist gauge to completely empty. Assists have quite a few uses, a few of which are:
-- Taking a hit for you. You can call an Assist during an enemy combo to gain a moment to escape.
-- Continuing a combo. Assists can be part of a combo, or some of them (such as Aerith) can trap your opponent so you can link combos or get a free HP attack.
-- Give you EX.

So on a very basic level, a round will be:
- Build Brave by landing Circle attacks. You can build enough Brave for a one-hit kill, or you can chip away at your opponent. Call in Assists to help, or use EX mode to perform large combos for big Brave.
- Land an HP attack. Use EX mode for extra damage, or EX Revenge to guarantee a hit.
- Rinse repeat until victory.

Since you're just starting, my advice is to just focus on landing Brave and HP attacks. Once you get a feel for how your character plays, you'll start to see how they can combo attacks. Every character is completely unique, so I recommend sticking with 1 character for a while rather than jumping around. Some really good starting characters are Warrior of Light, Cecil, Cloud, or if you prefer range Terra. Hopefully that helps for now, I can answer specific questions if you have them.

Thanks so much sir. That makes a ton more sense than the crappy tutorials.

...but now I'm getting my ass kicked consistently. Maybe I should turn the difficulty down.

Do you get to pick from a wide variety of characters in story mode? You mentioned sticking with one, so far I've been stuck using Lightning.

There are three different story modes. First you go through a story for each character, in this case you obviously have no choice (Scenario 012). Once you beat that, you unlock Scenario 013, which is the original Dissidia story mode (again it's one story per character, with increasing difficulty). Once you beat that, you unlock Scenario 000, which opens up the entire world for you to explore (you need to be pretty high level to play this).

What I meant by stick with one was for free play or Scenario 000. To beat each story you don't need to do much more than find an ability configuration that works for you, but to beat Scenario 000 you really have to know a set of characters down pat.

If you're having trouble beating a particular enemy, I find it helps to take that character into a free play game or two, and figure out how they work. If you know how they work, then you can tailor your character to beat them more easily. I have particular trouble with Golbez, so I did that and it helped (and showed me just how OP Golbez really is, he's crazy good).

Another thing is that dodging rather than blocking is probably the way to go early on. Blocking requires being able to identify if the incoming attack is a Brave attack on sight, and get the timing down which is rather strict, so while you're just learning it can get you punished more often than it'll help you.

EDIT: Any better luck now, Blind?