Dissidia: The Game That Transformed The Franchise (A Retrospective) 

I haven't played many PSP Games but I would say Dissidia and 012 are some of the best the system has to offer. And yeah, it really has transformed Final Fantasy.

One thing I think that ties into the points in this video is the effort taken to really flesh out not only the Warrior of Light and Garland but also the world and plot of FF1. They didn't have to go out of their way to flesh out the setting and explain why multiple FF mainstays (like summons) were not present in FF1, to the point that Dissidia can be counted as a prequel to FF1 but because they did WoL has that weight and became more than just a class, Garland's redemption after the time loop is severed no longer comes out of nowhere, we got to learn a bit more about the mysterious Lufenians and we got one of the most iconic ending shots in all of FF.

Like Firion wants a full world of roses I want a whole life with this stories

0:46 “The devs wanted to do a game with him as director.” And so began the tradition of Square Enix devs trying to consistently get Nomura to direct Final Fantasy titles

Full on agree that Dissidia connected all the disparate fans into learning and growing to love the all the different characters of the franchise. One extra point I would add for how revolutionary Dissidia was it using voiced intro dialogues for every character. It made every new battle a treat because you got to hear your favorite characters react to other. That's a model that was popularized by Mortal Kombat 9...3 years after Dissidia, and it is still used by MK9 and is regarded as one of their standout features.

This video is great and a real trip down memory lane! Especially because it was actually Dissidia that properly introduced me to the Final Fantasy franchise as whole and I have been hooked ever since. I have made so many great memories and experiences thanks to this one game starting my love for Final Fantasy. It also introduced me to all those fantastic old FF characters, to roleplaying, fanfiction, my love for fanart and - most of all - introduced me to my now girlfriend of 10 years. I kid you not, this game changed my life.

This is a fantastic video, thanks so much for making this! I cackled so hard when you said "who is Firion" because he's actually my favorite FF character *because* of Dissidia

There's a certain irony in hearing "Tide-us" when Dissidia may have been most players' first confirmation of the proper "Tee-dus" pronunciation. (It had been said before in a missable quip in the first Kingdom Hearts, but its console sequel KH2 had a compulsory scene using the "Tide-us" variant.)

Duodecim was the best single player experience I'd ever had in a fighting game while NT was among the worst. It's unfortunate the way it ended up. NT wasn't even bad mechanically, I like how fluid dashing was and there was some welcome balancing to bravery attack damage that tended to be quite low in Duodecim. I'd even call NT Bartz the most fun character to play as from any Dissidia game (Seriously. He got the glow-up of the century). A lot of the psp games wilder elements had to get toned down or cut in the transition to 3v3 and it could often feel like a watered down version of the original with team mates I didn't want around. Sorting characters into different classes that trended towards specific strengths and weaknesses occasionally felt like movesets got kinda homogenized with a gimmick being slapped on. The verticality in maps was comparatively sparse and they felt less distinct overall. All of this would've been a lot more forgivable if there was enough content to make a satisfying package but that wasn't the case at all. There were flaws in the psp games worth addressing but they didn't need a 3v3 makeover to achieve that.

Fantastic look back at one of my favorite sub-franchises in Final Fantasy! Excellent video!

Years later, Dissidia and 012 are still easily one of my favorite games of all time. They literally changed the way I viewed video games and stories.

NT was more of an experiment than anything else. I like what they were going for, it just doesn't work in practice. Give us another 1v1 game!

I hope they do another Dissidia title in 30th anniversary that is more like Duodecim than NT. Hopefully on PC so that the modding community will be revived and prosper again. If not, I'll settle with just a PC port of the original Duodecim.

I miss Dissidia so much ... NT sucked so badly and now I just really wish there was a remaster/remake of 012. Seeing NT release truly hurt my heart.

Will edit this comment as I go. Too lazy to switch out of meme account. Absolutely hilarious that Disney characters fighting each other is inappropriate, yet here we are in 2021 with an upcoming Nickelodeon fighter. I agree with what you said about Dissidia being the gateway to unfamiliar games. I wouldn't have gotten into Tactics without Ramza being such a teamplayer in NT. Love that guy and his buffs. Setzer was a weirdo in KHII. Big missed opportunity for him to be a disguised Luxord. There are times I wish Opera Omnia wasn't a gacha live service game though. I have enough dead games already under my belt. Not to say it's a dead game, far from it. I'd just feel bad for the hardcore players when it does go eventually. Overall, this is a fantastic video and something fans should be realizing more. You have a new sub.

@DrakeyC: slight error when you talked about the PSP. The handheld never used a hard drive, but the first three versions required user-supplied Memory Sticks up to 32 GB. I believe it was the last two revisions to get a model number that used flash storage instead. Even then, you only had one gigabyte to work with barring an "external" card. You may know me better as Swordzman; this handle comes from a period that encouraged diversity of one's online assets.

Comparing final fantasy to marvel is such a huge insult to final fantasy.

Couple things, most importantly, you mentioned at the end that dissidia didn't have special voice actors.. well...... the voice actors for dissidia are are dream team.. I've yet to hear anyone mention it but I've tried to get several people to make a video about it as it isn't something my subs care about. Garland is vegeta and piccolo and many others (Christopher Sabat?) Chaos is Keith David. Cosmos is ash Ketchum. They all have top of the line voice actors. And The rhythm game was the first one. Ftr But this was fantastic. I totally agree. Game changer for sure.

I remember when it was first announced. I have not experienced a lvl of hype since. Dissidia 012 is one of my favorite game. I have over 1000 hours in the game and was the best player at my college back in the day. Strangers who played the game would look me up for a fight. It was surreal. I play the game for the story and customization. Truly a magnificent game.

Really great video! I always hear people praising Dissidia but never actually explaining why it is good! Never realised how important dissidia has been to the franchise!

Really well done video

This is a well thought video, very well said!!! It changed the franchise forever in many ways as you said. I'm a fan of FF6, so I really love Terra. I don't mind the blonde hair as long as I can see her in 4k(tbh im simping) XD I was considered really odd in my childhood and so I could relate to her story a lot. Being born in late 2002, its pretty rare to find someone of my age talk about FF6 cuz sadly all they see is FF7 and considered it the "best ff game ever" which what came up too after the release of Dissidia the fandoms gone crazy XD Personally, I don't have a say about the best one since I have only played Remastered FFII, FFIV, Gba version of FFVI, psp version of FFVII, Dissidia, Dissidia 012, FFX-2, and finally Lightning Returns and so this 8 FF games have a very special place in my heart. I don't mind cuz... well FFVII.. it has a *movie*. And our national TV channel showcased it at some point so yea XD. So I'm happy that Dissidia gave a chance for the other games especially the old ones, to be seen. NT was kinda dissapointing, I mean the gameplay mechanics. It kinda nerfed them in combat alot like I mean ALOT. The versatility is not there anymore and the power balancing is off...some became incredibly op with their gimmick while some are meh :V in comparison to the OG Dissidia and 012 versions. The concept of being representatives of their respective games with equal strength is sadly gone. Let's just wait for future updates and keep the fanbase going :'3 Edit: What the heck is that one dislike? They need a Dose of every ff characters signature attacks XD

Just found this and while I never thought of it that way, I can whole heartedly agree with. Dissidia was my first final fantasy game and it lead me to play 13, 6 and 7. Now I'm hopelessly addicted to 14.

I love this examination, thank you so much. 😊

012 is a masterpiece and one of the besst psp games ever if not fighting games in general, it needs a remaster ❤

Great video! You can tell you spent your time doing a lot of research 🧐 interested to see more!

6:15 - *ahem*, that's Jan 9 2010 for Birth By Sleep, not 2019...and I watched this video before exporting, too! T_T

I love this game so much. I hope they make a true sequel back to the old style. Hopefully crisis core remake inspires hope.

Awesome video

7:56 “The game’s DLC file are stored on the PSP’s hard drive.” The PSP’s what?

25:20 I love what a waifey little twink Sephiroth looks like when standing next to gigachad Jack Garland lol.

I remember playing the demo for dissidia when it first arrived on the PSP Playstation store and fell in love. I was so excited when I scraped together the money to purchase a copy and played it like crazy until eventually getting 012 Duodecim years later. This game and its sequel are in my top 5 PSP games ever. NT was just pain to see because it felt like the game got gutted even though it looked visually beautiful. I hope one day they bring back dissidia with the Play style of the PSP games, but the look of the PS4/Arcade games

Ahhh still one of the best PSP games I've ever played. Currently I'm playing Opera Omnia, and it's quite enough to sate my nostalgia itch. I can use themed parties like "The Princess and Her Knights" (Garnet + Beatrix + Steiner, though very suboptimal since Steiner hasn't received any update yet. I usually swap Steiner with Freya since she's also a (dragon) knight. lol), "Happy summoner family" (Yuna + Tidus + Braska), or even "FFX-0" (Braska + Jecht + Auron). Not to mention the Burst Attacks on a lot of the character's uses the character's trademark attacks or scenes iconic to said character, while changing the bgm to iconic musics from the game, or from certain iconic scenes from the game. For instance, Beatrix' burst have her attacking the enemy with Steiner while the bgm "Something to Protect" is played. Vivi's burst have him cast reflected Trance Double Flare where before Flare happens, the camera zooms in to his face EXACTLY how it zoomed in during the FMV after fighting Black Waltz 3 after Dali. So, yeah.... DFFOO is nice. Anyway, I find it funny that you don't mind showing cutscenes from the games you referenced, EXCEPT FF14's. Lmao. Afraid to get the community snapping at your heels?

I wish I still had a PSP and this game. I still have my memory cards

excellent vid

Duodecim was the game that really kicked me into the series as a whole. I had played FFX like 3 times over already and I did play FF12 when I was a kid but I didnt like it at the time. So when I played Dissidia I was mostly there for Yuna, Tidus n Jecht but I quickly fell in love with all the characters and so I then marched on, emulated every game I didnt have access to and played all the numbered titles (aside from the MMOs) and now Im working on the side games. Gotta say, folks sleep on Type-0 way too much.

012 is my most played game in PSP (along with FFTactics War of the Lion). Countless of hours with that game, all the content, and on top of that you could even make your own stories with the Creation mode. I liked Tifa a lot in 012. And it even made me appreciate other characters that I wasn't that familiar with, like Lighting, Shantotto, Prishe, or the old main characters like Warrior of Light and Firion amd their respective enemies. I jave never liked FF12, yet I liked Vaan in 012 despite not even liking him as a character in FF12. About NT, lol, I knew it was destined to fail from the beginning when it showed the direction it was taking. Glad Tifa wasn't included right away, I would have bought the game right away (probably), but her late inclusion gave me time to realize it would be a waste to spend money in that game. Edit: NT is a good example of a good franchise full of content ruined by the eSports wagon.

The next Dissidia will be amazing.

When it comes to NT is like Square looked the Duodecim and how well it sold and was like let's get rid of everything people like about this game and make a team fighting game it's sad what happened to dissidia because now we can't have stuff like Clive having a EX mode where he turns in to Ifrit and using hellfire for his ex as for the or Noct and Arden where there fighting styles and a mirror of each other

Hail to the king baby

Really great video, its such a shame NT was so bad. I hope it hasn't killed our chances of getting a proper Dissidia sequel.

they should make another NT but this time with PSP dissidia mechanics and pace. the 3v3 was sooo slow in comparison

IIRC, my main uses were Firion, Squall, and Onion Knight. I can't remember who I mained in Duodecim, but I remember enjoying Yuna a lot. I didn't like playing as Exdeath or the Emperor though.

The unfortunate story is that both (all 3) were great concepts that could have shone much brighter. But ended up limiting themselves due to idiotic corporate decisions. The original two were incredible, and I enjoyed them greatly, but they were limited by the PSP technology. The two first could just as easily have been a single game (Duodecim being a DLC) with the ability to do 2v2 and 3v3 battles along with real summons on a stronger platform. Meanwhile NT had the graphics and the multiple players, but limited itself to the extreme in combat to "balance out the field" for multiplayer. Something that reduced the overall strength of the game compared to how much more fun and unique the combat was in the first two. Let alone designing it for an Arcade machine. I don't care how popular it is in Japan, its outdated. People are also no longer making games for the PlayStation 1 these days.

Oh man, only if NT... only if.... and yeah I admit pirating both Dissidia and 012, can't be helped. Its an FF game, and I'm a kid back then.

They better trash NT and give us another PROPER Dissidia

I feel this diminishes the impact of VI a bit too much. But yes, 013 and 012 were great entry points into the franchise.

This game is a fucking masterpiece