This week, Square Enix launched the first beta for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, the third title in the Dissidia fighting game series. This latest version was originally released only to Japanese arcades in 2015, so for Western fans like myself, we have been waiting two years to try out Team Ninja’s take on the Final Fantasy brawler. And Dissidia veterans were in for something of a shock.
Dissidia and its sequel Dissidia 012 for the PSP were very silly games. Dissidia NT is even more frenetic and wild. Instead of one-on-one, this game is built for team battles of three-on-three. Team Ninja has also rebuilt the battle system, completely reworking the UI, physics, and even the button mapping. It’s the same ridiculous Buster Sword and the same Thundaga, but it’s now a very different kind of ridiculous.
Improved Combat
The good news is that combat is more satisfying than it was on the PSP. Team Ninja didn’t make a sequel to the old Dissidia games, they were just inspired by them. NT does not play like the games you remember. Your old muscle memory is only a hindrance. Button mapping, physics, and even character movesets are very different. Dissidia NT is confusing at first, but actually worth learning.
The action feels more skillful. Just hitting dodge does not guarantee you’ll dodge anymore. Old Dissidia was biased towards defense, but this is more biased towards offense. Until you learn how to properly dodge and block, you’ll get thrashed. The combat is a bit slower in pace, but HP is also much lower. So battles actually go by much faster.
Another big change is to the overall geography and flow of Dissidia. Dissidia NT is a more “grounded” game. I don’t mean the combat is any less Advent Children-style nonsense. But characters spend a lot less time floating infinitely in the air. Stages are horizontal and flat, so there’s space if you want to have three one-on-one fights. Or you can gang up on an opponent and take them out fast.
Just remember, if you’re fighting an opponent two-on-one, your other teammate is left alone with the other two enemies. So there are a lot of potential drawbacks and strategizing to be done here.
Missing Features
You and your teammates share a stock of three lives – three KOs on any one of you and you lose. One player failing means you all fail. So don’t leave Terra on her own forever, she’ll take you down with her.
While this is all fine, we don’t have the features yet to make this work. There isn’t a voice chat feature and you can’t invite friends either. Dissidia NT seems to want team balance a la Overwatch. Some characters are built for ranged attacks (FFXI‘s Shantotto) and some are more like tanks (FFI‘s Warrior of Light), but you can’t change characters at any point, even when your team is clearly unbalanced.
The biggest issue with the beta is one that should be fixed by the time of release. Square Enix’s netcode was abysmal. It took up to five minutes to load up matches, and while lag wasn’t a constant problem, it was an annoyance. I had a match stall out for a full minute until Firion finally decided to move again. Presumably on the full release, this won’t be an issue.
Awful Camera, Awful UI
While the netcode problem will likely improve once the game is released, there are also issues that may still be there in the final product (and not just that Dissidia NT doesn’t have my Dragoon bro, Kain Highwind, yet.)
One issue is that the camera right now is a nightmare. It’s a lock-on system, which worked fine on the PSP when you only had one opponent. But now you have to switch between three targets and the camera is just as likely to target a Squall on the other side of the map as it is to target that Vaan who is chewing your ass from behind. It’s chaos.
Another serious problem is that the UI is a godawful mess. It is way too busy. The game looks great, but you won’t notice because there’s always text in the way!
A Lot of Potential
Dissidia NT releases fully in January 2018. The beta gave us a good taste of what the game could be, but there’s still a way to go. Luckily, the game’s heart is in the right places.
Dissidia will never be a hardcore fighting game series. Team Ninja, the creators of Dead or Alive, give this latest title a better pedigree, but while Dissidia NT combat might require more timing and skill, nobody wants a serious fighting game out of this. And NT isn’t one. The game isn’t perfect by any means, but Dissidia isn’t supposed to be finely-tuned or balanced. It’s a satisfying laser light show.
On the PSP the Dissidia games were messy pieces of candy. On the PS4, that’s still mostly the same. Only now, you get to share the madness with up to five other friends. I’m willing to hope for the best.