Dissidia: Final Fantasy (or Final Fantasy Dissidia for its likely U.S. name) allows gamers to re-create epic Final Fantasy battles, such as Cloud versus Sephiroth, a showdown between what is arguably the two most popular Final Fantasy characters (one the hero, one the villain) ever created.
As you can see from the gameplay video below of a typical Dissidia battle, the game plays out similar to what we saw with the Final Fantasy VII CG movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where the characters dash and “fly” around the environments as they attack each other with melee and magic attacks while airborne.
In the game, each character has their own special moves and magic attacks and you can roam freely through the environments, which will also feature specific traps that you can use on your opponent. Characters can also be customized with equipment. You defeat an opponent by reducing their HP, but to spice things up your offensive and defensive power is represented by “Brave Points” (BP). Both fighters start out with equal BP and must steal BP from the enemy by attacking with basic “assist attacks” which will add what’s taken to your own BP total. Raise the BP increase the amount of damage you’ll dole out and gain the upper-hand over your opponent. You can then strike with “HP Attacks” which deal direct damage to your opponents HP meter so you can defeat them.
Deplete your opponents BP to force them into Break Mode which causes all your attacks to be critical strikes and bars them from being able to deal out HP Attacks. There is also an “EX Gauge” which is filled as you fight (take damage, give damage or collecting items on the field) and allows you to enter “EX Mode” once filled. EX Mode allows you to do an unblockable super attack (the EX Burst) and significantly increases the damage you give as well as allows you to perform new attacks.
Final Fantasy Dissidia has yet to be announced for release outside of Japan. But it’s release is a given, considering how popular Final Fantasy is here and how much Square is now focusing on the Western market.