Who would win in a fight?

Kefka or Cloud Strife?
The Warrior of Light or The Cloud of Darkness?
Jecht or Cecil Harvey?

The Dissidia Final Fantasy franchise has sought to answer these selfsame questions for ten years, with two mainline releases on the PlayStation Portable, an arcade game, and an upcoming PlayStation 4 release of the aforementioned arcade game. Each iteration has fused mechanics from fighting games and RPG elements to create a battle-royale of furor, fun and good, ole' fashioned spectacle.

Enter the first game, known as Dissidia Final Fantasy, released in 2008 (Japan) for the PlayStation Portable. Under director Takeshi Arakawa and an idea from Tetsuya Nomura, Dissidia Final Fantasy was engineered to be a spin-off for the franchise that utilised a swift and action-packed combat system in real time. Ten heroes and villains, brought from the first ten Final Fantasy games (as well as a secret two from XI and XII), would do endless battle by deific decree. And battle they did. Dozens of times, hundreds of times, thousands of times. With each battle won or lost, experience would be gained for your chosen fighter as well as gil, gear and new abilities to use within the various stages airlifted from the games they inhabited. I thought it absolutely brilliant to see Zidane fight against Exdeath in Final Fantasy VII's Planet's Core, chopping and changing the lore of the franchise's respective canons in the pursuit of creating a most thrilling battle.

This was deepened and extrapolated further in the 2011 sequel Dissidia 012 [duodecim] Final Fantasy, also released on PlayStation Portable. The roster expanded, from 22 to 31 playable characters, bringing in fan favourites such as Kain Highwind (FFIV), Tifa Lockhart (FFVII) and Gilgamesh (FFV), as well as deepening the stage count, item count, and ability count. The sheer density of unlockable content on such a tiny disc was staggering for nineteen-year-old me, and it continued an absolute trend of lost nights and multiplayer battling into the dawn.

Though my praise is lavish, Dissidia Final Fantasy, as a franchise, isn't without its flaws. Spectacle and frenetic gameplay aside, the complexity and sheer number of systems that a player needs to both memorise and utilise at maximum potential are unwieldy. Battles can sometimes stray from spectacle into repetition, and feel unbalanced. Progression is layered but rarely meaningful outside of unlocking new characters, stages, abilities and narrative beats. And, lastly, the narrative, a tale of endless battle at the command of deities Chaos and Cosmos, does little to evolve the archetypes of Final Fantasy's greatest villains and heroes in meaningful ways.

Even with its flaws, I believe that Dissidia Final Fantasy deserves to be known as a spin-off that continues to try and succeed, both fiscally and spiritually, in doing something different with an established property, akin to Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy Tactics. With Dissidia Final Fantasy NT on the horizon, there's a new breath of fresh air awaiting for fans of the franchise, and I, for one, cannot wait.

Here's to another cycle of cool battles, sick combos, and sweet air-dashes. See y'all there!