Dissidia Final Fantasy

Imagine the heroes and villains from dozens of Final Fantasy entries suddenly finding themselves in a single arena and starting to duke it out in a battle of gods. This exact fan fantasy became reality when Square Enix, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of its legendary series, built a fighting game as a grand celebration of its own history.

Dissidia Final Fantasy was no ordinary brawler. The fights took place in freely explorable three-dimensional arenas where the heroes flew through the air, climbed walls and used the environment for flashy combos. The system rested on two types of attacks: one drained the opponent's bravery, the other only then converted the accumulated advantage into actual damage. From this arose a tense tug-of-war over the upper hand that set the game apart from ordinary fighters and gave it almost strategic depth.

Into the action stepped iconic heroes and unforgettable villains from the series' main entries, from the lonely Warrior of Light to the demonic Sephiroth. The game also offered a rich character-upgrade system with levels, abilities and equipment, so it was closer to an RPG than the genre would suggest. This mix of combat and character building gave players reason to spend dozens of hours with the console.

Development was in the hands of a team connected to the Kingdom Hearts series, which explains the fluid action and sense of grand staging. For fans it was a dream come true, and commercially the title became one of the most successful exclusive works on the handheld, earning itself a sequel and further adaptations.

Dissidia showed that a deep catalog of characters can be not only a nostalgic reminder but also the basis for entirely new gameplay. For anyone who grew up with the Final Fantasy epics, the chance to finally pit their favorites against one another was an irresistible lure.

Why play: It is a declaration of love for Final Fantasy in the form of an unexpectedly deep fighter, where heroes and villains from the whole series finally clash.