Rating: 4.4/5
Dissidia 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy is a 3D arena fighter similar to games like Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi. Players attack with the circle button to build up Bravery points that strengthens the damage of their Bravery attacks performed with the square button. Players can also interact with the environment in combat with triangle to run on walls and other such acrobatic stunts and jump with the X button. Players lock on to each other with the L button and R acts as a parry for incoming attacks. Combat involves some cinematic chase moves here and there, but it's mostly about dealing enough damage to put the opponent into Bravery Break so you can earn enough Bravery points to deal significant real damage to the opponent's HP. It is technically possible to beat opponents in one Bravery attack under such circumstances. The game has a Story Mode, Arcade Mode, and full character customization that allows you equip items and change the attacks and supports characters have access to. All things considered, the gameplay is rather shallow and encourages a lot of turtling due to how parries and dodges work. There's a bit of meat in the character customization, but the game starts off slow and other modes are practically impossible to beat on Normal difficulty if you don't have any moves and equipment to add to characters. It doesn't help that the game's tutorial trolls you with an unbeatable enemy in respond to claiming you've mastered the previous game. It's not the worst arena fighter, but it can be pretty frustrating and tedious to get into.
You also need an emulator to run this game. To grab one quickly, please check out our PSP emulators section.