There aren’t a lot of US/EU PSP titles coming out at this time, probably because developers are preparing for the advent of the NGP now more commonly referred to as the PSVita. Among the later titles that came out was the second FF Dissidia game: Duodecim.
At a little over 100 hours of gameplay, that wouldn’t exactly constitute a ‘mid-game’ status for a fighting game; in this particular RPG spinoff however, you can somehow gauge it through the various accomplishments that can be completed all throughout the various sub-games within it.
For the uninitiated, Duodecim would certainly feel a very different from any other fighting game since your character (just like how it is in an RPG) needs to level up and don equipment’s and master skills in order to battle effectively. It is because of this diverse number of equipment and accessories that character builds between PSP devices are almost always somewhat different even if they are the same individual.
As will be explained to you in-game, this twelfth cycle actually predates the earlier Dissidia game and that the entirety of the Dissidia story is re-played in this installment as well… with a few twists to differentiate it from the original, plus a supposed real ending to the game which I have yet to find time to conquer. A little spoiler here is that the final battle features your team of 5 characters with a maximum cumulative life total of around 55,000 will face off with Feral Chaos who has close to 125,000 hit points all his own… that and his attacks occupy a third of the battle stage and just a tad bit quicker to execute than yours. A little research reveals that the actual formula for defeating this annoying boss monster can be summed up into two… the very effective Iai build and the time consuming but equally effective gravitational HP attacks from specific characters… I’ll be sure to test them out when I find the time to pick up the device again.
With this installment of the Dissidia series comes the addition of several familiar characters from earlier Final Fantasy titles as well as Lightning from the more recent FFXIII.
New minigames such as the Labyrinth, new dynamics such as group battle tournament and round robin, and the assist system which is really fun when you learn to properly utilize it.
One of the funniest parts of playing this game is during the orientation where a moogle asks you if you think you are an expert at the game already… if an affirmative answer is chosen you suddenly enter a fight with Feral Chaos with your level 1 Lightning character and then you get the beating of your life. There’s even a webcomic made about this and it’s absolutely hilarious… of course it won’t be if you’re not into the game.
If you’re looking for an efficient and fulfilling way to pass the time, you can have a go at this offering from Square Enix for your portable game fix; fantastic graphics and familiar Final Fantasy tracks from thirteen other awesome titles make the arduous process of grinding through levels a very engaging endeavor.
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