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 :)