Damn You Nostalgia(?)

Talk about a product engineered to snipe your warm fuzzy memories with surgical precision.

The game I'm talking about happens to be DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (herein much more reasonably referred to as Dissidia). It's an ATM for Square-Enix shareholders that is directly linked to their rabid fanbase's wallet and comes in the guise of a video game. To continue the pessimistic line of thought, the game is a big What If scenario: The 10 main characters of the main Final Fantasy games square off against their respective main antagonists in a 1 on 1 fighting game. It looked and sounded like a petty cash-in when it was announced.

So why can't I stop playing it even in the wake of BIG releases this week in the form of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Metroid Prime Trilogy?

Well, the unexpected happened: the game has turned out to actually be very playable and really good.

1) Despite the fact that it is a fighting game, the designers did not forget that these characters earned their adoration in RPGs. The game mechanics lend themselves to typical RPG design concepts. There is stat building, upgrading equipment and customizing your character (with different abilities that they learn through leveling up).

2) Interesting fighting mechanics. The game appears to be like a 3D fighter. The are two meters that matter: your Bravery and your HP. HP is self-explanatory, you lose when you run out of it. You gain Bravery by using Brave attacks, but conversely you lose Bravery by being hit by them. On top of that, the more Bravery you have, the more damage your HP attack will do (i.e., if you have 2000 Bravery and your opponent has 1500 HP, your HP attack will kill them if it connects). Your Bravery "fuels" your HP attack, in essence. Once you connect with an HP attack however your Bravery drops to 0 and must be replenished.

3) Many, many additional game systems to supplement the main fighting. These include Summons, new equipment, accessories (which in turn have booster accessories that can enhance other accessories depending on a variety of scenarios), story mode to power up your character in a regular RPG fashion, A separate "Chocobo" meter, etc. etc. etc. You don't have to pay attention to all of these different game systems, but if you do your character will greatly benefit as opposed to had you not.

Upon announcement, I thought the game was going to be a cheap cash-in on nostalgia. In reality though, the massive amount of fan service actually enhances a really solid & playable game, in the same way that the Nintendo mythos enhances the basic gameplay of a Smash Brothers game. Bravo Square. I didn't think you had it in you anymore.