DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY is a mobile PvPvE third-person action game from Square Enix. Pitting two teams of three against each other, as well as random monsters, the two teams race to defeat the boss first. But while fights between teams are inevitable, if they focus too much on each other, they will all lose when the timer runs out.
The core concept of DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY’s brief matches is simple. Kill the boss. However, players cannot attack the boss at will. They must build their bravery meter to empower themselves to damage the final foe. Clearing spawn sites of monsters and slaying opponents charges up the gauge. Once activated, the state lasts only as long as a player continues firing abilities; then the meter must be refilled. And, as one may expect, dying costs you bravery.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
With a short timer and relatively small map spaces to work with, DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY quickly forces the enemy teams together naturally. Crashing into each other as a spawn site refills is common, injecting a lot of action into a match. And the bosses aren’t slouches either.
DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY brings back some familiar faces.
Recognizable foes from the franchise run the gamut from massive Behemoths to true icons like Ifrit. And as players scramble around trying to gain the bravery to slay the creature, the boss won’t sit quietly around and wait. The monster will stalk the narrow map, lobbing projectiles, taking swipes at players, and unleashing large-scale AOE attacks. Thus adding even further to the action-fueled mayhem.
To fight through this chaos, players will choose to play as one of the ten characters available at launch. At the start, the game gives you your choice of one of four starters, and then others will be acquired later through Gacha pulls. There is a system that allows a player to spend 5 pull chances at once to guarantee a specific character. However, this is only from a certain selection of the pool.
To help the chosen heroes weather this storm of magic attacks, sword slashes, and monstrous maws, players get to equip their chosen hero with five main and support abilities each. All abilities bring stat buffs, but only the main abilities can be used in combat. While the bulk of the equipable abilities are forms of attack, there are a fair number of defensive and support options as well. And of course, these skills come in a variety of qualities, ranging from Normal to Ultra Rare.
The more you spend, the more likely you’ll get better abilities.
The selection of abilities in DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY is gained through earned or paid pulls. So the more you spend, the more likely you are to get the best abilities. Adding to this hurdle is the fact that each character has unique abilities usable only by them. So if you have a preferred character among the starting ten options, even once you acquire them, it could be a while before you can make them perform at a competitive level without shelling out some cash.
The one kindness the game gives new players is that the first 10 pulls they receive during the tutorial are rerollable. Meaning if you don’t get a high-level ability for one of the four starting character options you picked, or if you didn’t get one for the character you plan to work towards, you can reroll until you do. At least you can start on a solid footing.
During a preview opportunity to play the game, I made a point of playing the first few matches with only a few ten pulls to see how I’d fare. Given that our accounts were set up with effectively limitless currency for the event, those early matches were as rough as you would expect.
The Square Enix game requires focus and multitasking.
Neither my Rinoa nor Lighting was able to accomplish much. Only after I moved onto Terra, whom I managed to pull all of her unique abilities for, did I start seeing far greater results in combat. Though power level is not the only factor.
There are still critical decisions to be made during a match of DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY. Knowing when to fight opponents, when to focus on spawn points, and coordinating with your teammates, all while avoiding the rampaging boss, takes a lot of focus and multitasking.
A ranked system should alleviate some of these problems. Players willing to shell out should rise fairly quickly, allowing other players to play the game against opponents of similar skill and spending limits. You can also set up custom matches and invite friends, if you have the chance, to guarantee everyone in the battle is on the same page.
DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY delivers crisp animation.
The game’s presentation is well-implemented. The choice to transplant the characters to the streets of modern Tokyo is effective. The setting allows everyone to fight on neutral ground and creates an excuse for skin variants. Each character has alternate outfits that can be unlocked. All the designs I looked at were quite cool. They stay true to design concepts and color schemes, making sure they feel right for their characters.
The visuals do a great job of bringing these iconic characters to life. The animations ran smoothly on my brand-new iPad, and the attack animations were both crisp and suitably grand in scale. The monsters also bring their familiar styles to life as they clash with players.
DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY shows that there is fun to be had in this latest spin-off from the storied JRPG franchise. Familiar characters and customizable builds are adapted into a fun, new, bite-sized gameplay loop, so long as the monetization doesn’t prove to be too much of a hurdle.
DISSIDIA DUELLUM FINAL FANTASY arrives on iPad and Android mobile devices on March 24th.
