Dissidia: Redoing story modes; WoL, Firion, Onion Knight and Terra done. Why these 4? Cause Terra was level 100, so figured I might as well murder my way through that, and then just go in order from there to make things easier.
And I swear, Terra being level 100 is *NOT* fanboyism on my end; I think I said this earlier, but it
Unsure if I said it earlier, but unlocked Shantotto and Gabranth as well. Don't think I did since I didn't remember assessing them so...
Shantotto: Exists to prove you can make a character entirely reliant on HP Attacks. Being able to combo HP Attacks is a neat quirk, and its balanced by giving her Firion's penalty of "Cannot move while attacking" with a hint of Sephiroth's lagging after each attack. She's also fast, which is odd for a mage (only Kuja shares this trait.) In general, Mages are more about HP Attacks than Brave attacks, but not as extreme as Shantotto, whose Brave moves are dog shit. Oh, and she seems to have a status move in Stop, that makes the person immobile for a few seconds, which is something no other character has.
...yeah, yet again, we have OH NOES ANOTHER MAGE! turned into something completely unique and quirky fighter.
Gabranth: To prove you can make someone literally rely 100% on their EX Mode to win fights, and NOT FAIL at it. Gabranth replaces his HP Attacks with a move called "EX Charge" which charges his EX Gauge, so he can gain EX Mode a lot easier than any other character. His EX Mode is also a massive upgrade; not only does he gain HP Attacks (good ones at that), but he goes from "Slow as Garland" to "Fast as Tidus", and his Brave Attacks are infinitely better...not to mention there's the EX Burst potential.
And no, he's not another swordsmen...he's another Swallow user! We only had two of those, and Bartz never counts, so really, we only had Zidane <.<; Regardless, totally unique character again, yay!
Anyway, now to talk about random fun stuff Dissidia did with characters not really related to anything significant, just me noticing the stuff characters can be associated with now!
WoL: ...is still generic. Like, they didn't try to make him unique in anyway; he's a balanced fighter, whose not particularly stylish (basic sword slashes and stabs), and his personality is all "I'm the hero, I beat up bad guys!" Basically, it feels like they went OUT OF THEIR WAY to make him as boring as humanly possible (well, not on the game play front, though he's not exactly visually outstanding so...uhh <_<?)...which is fine, considering he's representing FF1 PCs who were all Silent Protagonists.
Garland: They turned the first boss in an FF Game ever, who could do nothing but punch you, and was most memorable cause of a funnily translated quote...and made him awesome. Basically, same guy, but now give him a sword that makes the Buster Sword look sane in size, and he wields it one handed. Now add to the fact that this sword can randomly split into two that he dual wields (so he's basically dual wielding swords that are slightly smaller than the Buster Sword), turn into an axe, and has an arbitrary chain attached...not to mention can be turned into an effective cannon that shoots fireballs, and...yeah, knock down specialist.
Firion: He use to be the most boring FF Main by far, that wasn't a generic, and...now he's also completely awesome too. Wields 7 weapons which are ALL VISIBLE (most FF mains whip their weapons out from nowhere, as if its magical...obviously a tease at how no matter how big your weapon is, you can't see it unless you're using it, reference to...well, every FF game, if in different ways!), he's Batman, and he auto wins against Palmer since he hits like a truck (...almost literally too.) They also gave him a ROMANTIC!!! personality or something. Oh, his Cape also blows in the wind even when he's indoors like in Kefka's Tower.
Emperor: JUST. AS. PLANNED. I don't think I need to say anything more <_<
Onion Knight: Not much about him, except for the fact that his EX Burst "Mini game" is the classic Command Window from the series, so I guess that's his awesomeness feature.
Cloud of Darkness: Charge...SHOT!!! effectively sums up her EX Burst. Also probably someone they wanted to use to see how close they could come to breaking censorship laws without actually breaking them <_<
Cecil: His awesome feature is the fact that he renders Kain completely obsolete in his Paladin Form. Speed, close range aerial specialist who uses a pointed stick...heck, several of his attacks even resemble the Dragoon's Jump move, and apparently he even has Kain's big special move from FF4-2, rendering Kain further pointless! Anything that lowers Kain's odds of getting in = good, and you know it.
Golbez: Is Darth Vader. Alternatively, HOLY SHIT HE'S NOT MIND CONTROLLED, so we can finally see what kind of person he actually is when he's not all "I done bad, time to kick Zemus' ass to make amends!" Also summons random Attack Nodes from the Tower of Bab-il, as a silly reference
Bartz: I think his attacks are the funniest thing. Slicing through the guy like he's Tidus using the Brotherhood, then suddenly pulling out the Buster Sword and stabbing them all in one combo is hilarious to watch, ESPECIALLY when you hear the sparodic voice changes (going from Tidus' relatively high pitched, young teenage voice to Cloud or Squall's deep, manly adult voices in all of two seconds.) His names are hilarious too ("Climbarrel" for example.)
Ex-death: Is still a tree. I got nothing else to say. Well, ok, more accurately, they did like next to nothing to make Ex-death more interesting in random superficial ways like the above characters have, so he stands out as being still the ultimate lamer of the FF villains.
Terra: Fanboyism aside...Terra's awesome quality is just how graceful she is. Watching her spin so gently and raising her hand slowly and then suddenly meteors start dropping down everywhere on the guy has a certain charm to it. Also has a hint of Mega Man in her since Meltdown is basically a magical version of the Mega Buster.
Kefka: ...where do I start? There's too much random hilarity in him to cover at once, so I guess I'll just say "He skips as he fights, and you hear boing effects every step he takes" for now.
Cloud: Sadly, Cloud's got a serious one going for him, and that's mostly the fact that they made his personality actually more like FF7 and not like the Compilation (so he doesn't suddenly turn into Squall Mk 2.) Not much on the silly or pure awesome end, just kind of the satisfactory end.
Sephiroth: Well, after facing him so many god damn times between FF7, Crisis Core and Kingdom Hearts games, its nice to just be able to finally PLAY AS HIM. Its fun being able to use those moves he kicked your ass with in Kingdom Hearts games (ahahah to Sephiroth kicking your ass in Crisis Core.) Also, Aerith Death Stab as an attack! What I've learned is while it works on Flower Girls, it doesn't work so well on Armored freaks, REAL Magical Girls (more proof that Terra > Aerith!!), 8 Bit RPG Mains and MANLY BLITZBALL PLAYERS! ...but it does work well on Blitzers...
(NOTE: Not being totally serious, this is based on my EARLY experience with Gokumon, where I kept missing it...and then hit Tidus of all people with with it...three times in a row...and he's the Evasion Specialist. I've since learned how to use the move more effectively; for starters using it over Lava or Bottomless Pits = Bad >.>)
Squall: As we all know, Squall uses one of the most ridiculous weapon concepts of all time in the Gunblade. However, he makes up for this in Dissidia by finding CREATIVE WAYS to make use of it. For example, Heel Crash involves him shooting the Gunblade backwards, and he uses force to make a nice kick to the face that knocks the enemy into the floor. He also shoots his Gunblade like an actual gun at times (its still close range, but there are combos where he just holds the weapon up and starts pulling the trigger, juggling the guy aireborne a bit.) Basically...they made him stylish
Ulitmecia: HOLY SHIT SHE HAS SCREEN TIME AND PERSONALITY AND IS ACTIVELY DOING SHIT. That's all I have to say.
Zidane: Has the best plot scene moment in the game. I won't say what it is, but if you've played Zidane or Squall's arc, you probably know exactly which one I'm referring too.
Kuja: If you think Kuja is freaky now, you've never seen Kuja with voice acting. His...creep factor goes through the roof when you hear his immensely flaming voice combined with how he sounds like he's almost singing, and...yeah, lets just sya "They took Kuja to the next level"
Tidus: To be blunt, Tidus is no longer Meg Ryan. Improvement? I think so!
Jecht: ...is Jecht. That's...yeah, just him BEING there is enough. The other factors are irrelevant, he's the best!
Shantotto: I know nothing about FF11, but she's cute and nukes things with black magic and speaks in poetry, so I guess if they chose someone I never heard of, might as well be someone like her!
Gabranth: He steals Basch's Quickening's for his EX Burst, which is hilarious. Also, he proves the Judge's Helmet is the source of all their power, since putting that on makes him a lot stronger! Makes you wonder how strong Revenant Wings Basch would be if he put the helmet on...
Oh, and I must say, when you think about it, Shantotto and Terra must be really fucking strong despite their appearance. Why? Cause they can smack people as far as Cloud and Garland can with rush attacks, and they use much smaller weapons!
