The most apparent addition is that of an overworld. Some of the changes that have been made to the story mode are immediately obvious others are revealed after many hours. You can skip cutscenes, though doing so brings the long-ish loading times to the forefront. Everyone uses a lot of words to say nothing at all ("I took a risk to believe in a chance"), and they drone on about the nature of friendship as if they were quoting from Chicken Soup for the Shallow Soul. The setup is simple enough, but the storytelling is often an excruciating mess of superficial conversations in which every character is reduced to a single personality trait. The proliferation of enemies called manikins further complicates the heroes' efforts to bring an end to the conflict. The tale, such as it is, focuses on the continuing conflict between the forces of Cosmos (the good guys) and Chaos (the bad guys). There are multiple story modes, with the primary one focusing on the heroes new to this edition: Lightning (FFXIII), Vaan (FFXII), Yuna (FFX), Tifa (FFVII), Laguna (FFVIII), and Kain (FFIV). The story is, unfortunately, a key element of Duodecim, which tosses together well-known Final Fantasy heroes into a melting pot of one-on-one battles, leveling up, and inventory management. Now Playing: Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy Video Review Vaan does his best Whirling Dervish impression.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's The obstacles hindering the joy are familiar ones: a camera that performs poorly in claustrophobic arenas and a self-indulgent story that plays out like embarrassing Final Fantasy fan fiction. The promise of more is Duodecim's key asset, and it's a big part of what keeps you enthralled for hours on end. Like in the original, every success also results in a showering of rewards in the way of currency, equipment, moves, and more. New characters, a new single-player structure, and new features (including a robust create-your-own-adventure toolset) make this another rich package, brimming with hours upon hours of colorful battles in gorgeous environments.
If you give it time, however, Duodecim reveals its unique strengths, building on the original in meaningful ways without sacrificing its cinematic energy. When you first start playing Dissidia 012 Duodecim: Final Fantasy (a mouthful, that title), you might be struck by how little progress has been made since the first Dissidia fighting/role-playing hybrid was released.