'Dissidia NT': Review

If you've ever played a Final Fantasy game, then there is no doubt that you must have experienced its incredible charm. Was the first Final Fantasy that drew you in from the start, or was it Final Fantasy VII's unforgettable story that still weighs heavy in the hearts of fans? Maybe it was the recently released Final Fantasy XV that introduced you to the famous franchise. Whichever game you started with, they all come together in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT.

The newest addition to the Dissidia Final Fantasy franchise brings a number of new characters, as well as most of the original cast. Featuring 3v3 battles, customization options, unlockables, and much more, NT brings a lot to the table. It brings together everything that makes the Final Fantasy franchise wonderful while allowing for fast-paced action packed gameplay filled with numerous incredible moments.

The Dissidia storyline has roots buried deep within the stories of the original franchise itself, but this sadly seems to fall fairly flat with NT. I was deeply invested in the character arcs of each hero in Dissidia 012, but in NT, the story is just a mass of overlapping character arcs, leaving almost no room for large amounts of character development. The lackluster story can be slightly overlooked by the fact that this is essentially a port of a Japanese arcade game, but I still had high hopes considering the large story elements of the previous titles.

In addition to the not-so-amazing story, the controls feel a bit off. Not in the sense that they are difficult or that they are confusing, but more so that there is no move list or ability descriptions at all. The best you'll get is a brief description of how your HP attack works, and even that is sometimes a bit misleading. Character descriptions may give you tips as to how to play the character and/or what moves you should use, but they never really tell you how to do that.

"Character descriptions may give you tips as to how to play the character and/or what moves you should use, but they never really tell you how to do that."

Despite all of the inconveniences and the disappointing story, there are many great parts to the game that should be highlighted.

First of all, the updated characters are amazing. A few character designs were tweaked a bit to give them a newer look (looking at you, Garland.), and some characters' fighting styles were changed as well. For example, Bartz no longer mimics the other fighters, but instead has attacks based on the jobs from his own game, and Vaan's primary focus is on the use of Concurrences, where he can use multiple HP attacks in a row to deal massive damage.

The summon system is much simpler and more cinematic than before as well, and the summons actually appear as fully modeled figures rather than 2D sprites that float onto the screen to inflict a stat change. Instead, they now come into play and fight alongside you for a short time.

And yeah, they still inflict stat changes, but whatever.

All in all, there's a lot more that I could say about Dissidia NT, but I'll leave it to you to make your own opinion. I do recommend that you give the game a shot and see if it's your cup of tea.

My Rating: 7.5/10