Dissidia Sephiroth

So after playing Final Fantasy Dissidia during the past week, I finally levelled up Sephiroth to the maximum level 100 and got his Masamune :) I just want to share some of my thoughts on his playing style. Sephiroth definitely has powerful sword techniques like a great master samurai. But to make the most of his moves, you have to master his timing. Unlike some of the other characters in the game, Sephiroth's playing style emphasizes control and precise timing (that's probably why the game describes his style as the 'focused blade'). So you won't get most of Sephiroth if your just a button-masher because strategy and precision are very important to master his style. You have to anticipate when your opponent has an opening and then strike. If you guess wrong and you miss your target, then the opponent can launch a vicious counter-attack.

Sephiroth's Octaslash & Scintilla moves are only deadly if you can time them just right. These moves are definitely not intended for button-mashing as they are precise and controlled sword strokes. In the bravery department, Sephiroth has the Reaper technique. This move is really powerful as you can zap the Bravery points of your opponent three times in a row and then launch further strikes during the chase mode. This move definitely opens a lot of strategic and tactical options for Sephiroth. It's also one of the few moves in the game that always has a high chance of connecting with the enemy. But to get the most of the Reaper move, you have to time each stroke just right. If you swing too fast, the Bravery damage to your opponent will be minimized. So once again, timing is important in Sephiroth's playing style. Also in the beginning his Reaper attacks are quite weak. They don't zap that many Bravery points off your opponents. But once you get better swords for Sephiroth (such as the Masamune and the One Winged Angel), then the Reaper is more effective. When you're up close to your enemy and in the air, Sephiroth's Heaven's Light move is very effective. It's a move where Sephiroth thrusts his sword upwards into the air. It reminds me of Ryu or Ken's dragon uppercut punches in Street Fighter 2. As for projectiles, Sephiroth has the HP-damaging Black Materia and Bravery-damaging Fervant Blow. I find the Black Materia useful when the opponent is about to launch a magic attack from a distance. If you can time it just right, your Black Materia "projectile" will catch your opponent off guard before he has a chance to execute his projectile attack. The move is useful because its very unexpected. Sephiroth's Fervant Blow (a Bravery projectile) is great when your opponent is low on Bravery and you want to break him from a distance. It's the only true projectile move in Sephiroth's arsenal.

In the hands of a master tactician, I think Sephiroth is one of the best characters in the game. I'm far from mastering Sephiroth's character myself since I only started playing the game for about a week. But from what i learned and played so far, Sephiroth definitely favors the more tactical players. For fans of samurai's, I think Sephiroth in Final Fantasy Dissidia offers some of the best samurai-like action of any game. The sword fighting is as intense (and exciting) as those found in those Samurai Shodown games.

Final Fantasy Dissidia

So this weekend I picked up a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) to get Final Fantasy Dissidia (an RPG-Fighting Game Hybrid). As a big Sephiroth fan (and a fan of RPG's in general), this game is a must-have. I've only played the game for few days but I can already tell that it is fun and addictive especially for fans of Final Fantasy. They combined all the major heroes and villains from Final Fantasy 1 to 10 into this RPG Fighting game. So for the very first time, we can actually play as those end-game bosses from the FF games like Sephiroth, Kefka, Ex-Death and Golbez. This game is like Boss battle heaven - if you like fighting rpg bosses, you'll love this game.

The game is essentially an RPG where the characters level-up their stats, but it also includes a special Arcade mode where all the stats, weapons and fighting moves are set in stone for every character. So the Arcade mode plays like a standard fighting game (albeit a more sophisticated fighting game with RPG elements like summons and magical moves). Right off the bat, you can play as any of the ten heroes or ten villains in the Arcade mode without having to unlock any of the characters. So guess who was the first character I tried out in this mode? Sephiroth :) I really like his playing style. The game developers made him into a fully-fledged samurai-like swordsman. His sword stroke animations are simply beautiful in this game. I was very happy that they made Sephiroth into a true swordsman. In Final Fantasy VII we never got a chance to fight against him as a swordsman. In this game, we get to control "samurai" Sephiroth as well as fight against him in three boss battles (in the Story mode).

So what moves does Sephiroth have in this game? He has the Octaslash and Reaper attack moves, both of which are sword strokes. He has a magical attack called Shadow Flare that's hard to dodge. When Sephiroth's EX gauge is full, he becomes the "One Winged Angel" (the Advent Children version) and can launch a powerful magical attack called Super Nova and also execute the Heartless Angel that reduces the opponent's bravery points to 1. Sephiroth is equipped with his super-long Masamune sword. The game description for Sephiroth: "Focused Blade - Uses peerless swordsmanship to deliver precise strikes". He's actually one of the few characters in the game that can launch quick bravery combos that connect to further and further sword strikes (through the chase mode). With his long masamune and refined sword techniques, Sephiroth is one of the more powerful melee characters in the game.

For anybody itching to play as the samurai-version of Sephiroth (or even fight against him as a boss), I highly recommend Final Fantasy Dissidia. I never been a portable console gamer but this game made me one. In the beginning I had trouble adjusting to the small screen since I usually play games with my PS3 and big-screen TV. But after a few hours I warmed up more and more to the smaller-sized screen. In fact I think the PSP is great for those "old-school" RPG classics. Speaking of classics, you can also download FF7 to the PSP (through the Playstation Store). Next up for me will be Final Fantasy Crisis Core :)