While In Whitegate: Dissidia

Its been a while since we have had any "While In Whitegate" posts, but a few games have come out or are pending to be noteworthy above all others. Until I get my PS3 set up my options are fairly limited on this particular aspect as I would be playing any additional games on that while I run FFXI on my pc!

Of course, while I am bound to only do one thing game wise on my pc (this doesn't stop me having Photoshop and Dreamweaver open at the same time LOL), it does leave me hands free for anything I want on my PSP. I've been leveling THF recently which means loong periods of seeking as I am being far too idle to create my own parties.



Now I didn't actually buy Dissidia to play while seeking in Whitegate, I took it away with me on holiday, which was apparently a HUGE mistake as Ringthree commandeered my PSP and was nose deep in Dissidia every time there was a lull in our daily activities on the cruise. I think there were even a few times where I had to confiscate the PSP *grin*.

The premise is very simple, take the 10 main characters from FFI to X and stick them on the side of Cosmos, then take their shadowy counterpart on the darkside throw them on the side of Chaos to create a very fluid battle system for one of the most gorgeously involving fisticuff games I've seen in a while.



If you are a fan of all the FF pantheon of characters, there is not much to dislike about this game, sort of an amalgamation between a game of chess, a fighting game and an rpg with the ability to level up your characters, learn new fighting techniques and unlock special content through the PP Catalogue which allows you to wallow in nostalgia with images, voice captures and music from the games gone by.

You can focus on one character, or try and go for everything there are so many elements you can do it is very easy to pickup and put down again, but it will just keep you coming back for more over and over once it gets its hooks into you.



The primary character if you will for this game is the Warrior of Light from FFI, who is the leader of the pack and most of the main FMVs center around him on point. Each character has a progression storyline you can explore in order to gain their own path, and while they do tend to be repetative they are a source of rewards and a very easy guided path to leveling up if you need your hand held. Alternatively you can take part in a quick succession of small battles where you set the opponent behaviour, level as well as the usual beat e'm up options like arena and music.

An aspect of the game that I appreciate is the fact that leveling up is not an arduous affair but instead based on bonuses from your friendly chocobo and the amount of damage you do to the opponent. The higher your damage the more exp you are going to get in general. Although a protracted battle is going to garner you exp through every successful hit. My highest earning so far was a hit worth 21k exp off defeating an enemy of the same level.

This is ultimately a game with its feet firmly planted in the beat 'em up genre, but it definately feels like it took the best ideas from Erhgez and planted them firmly in a Final Fantasy setting. It could be hailed as simply a cash-in on the FF brand and to a certain extent that is true, but you quickly forget that this is just a spin off from a larger entity, with a fully realised three-D environment where your characters can make complicated aerial attacks as well as the more traditional earthbound attacks, impressive special effects and a use-friendly interface mean that you can become involved in the fights very quickly. There is also the option for you to make it as complicated or as simple as you want, appealing to button mashers and strategists.

At the end of the day I have found this game to be highly addictive and well worth the money I spent on it, and if Ringthree ever looks up from the psp he would agree with me! If you are a fan of dynamic fights in an inventive setting then Dissidia won't disappoint.