Gaming Sunday: Dissidia 012 Prologus: Final Fantasy (JPN)

Introduction

Ah! The urge has thus been quenched, if only for a while. Thank God for the arrival of Dissidia 012 Prologus: Final Fantasy (henceforth known as Prologus). My urge to play Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy (hence forth Duodecim) has been fulfilled, if only for a while. Square Enix sure is smart to include a PAY to download demo, which includes a Story Mode, an Arcade Mode and a DLC assist character for the full game which will be arriving on US shores on 22nd March. Lightning and Kain are the only new characters playable in this demo, along with 6 others. It is really a short game that exposes to the some of the major changes involved in Duodecim, like assists and chase. What do you expect from a 300 yen demo? That's 11 bucks where I live, and 3.60 dollars in the US.

Story

While not much, a small chunk of a story does exist. It is sort of a prelude to the coming war. Entitled Treachery of the Gods (no treachery is involved, least of all from a god which leads me to think that the story mode in Duodecim will be thus entitled), the Scenario involves the four characters pictured above. Lightning is the player character here, with Warrior of Light as her assist. Lightning is narrating about the Warriors of Cosmos and their loss memories and that their only way to return home is to defeat Chaos. Jecht and Kain soon comes to introduce themselves and discuss problems with working as a team. They are then interrupted by Warrior of Light who tells them that the Warriors of Chaos are attacking. Lightning follows him, while Jecht and Kain goes another way. 

Lightning and WoL fight a series of battle. Garland + Emperor fought in Chaos Shrine, Kefka + Ultimecia fought on Sky Fortress Bahamut, Sephiroth + Cloud of Darkness fought at Crystal Tower and lastly, *drum rolls*, Cloud + Golbez on Prima Vista. Yup, it is all but confirmed that Cloud, Terra and Tidus are headed to the Dark Side of th-, scratch that. This also serves as an introduction to the 3 stages. Out of the 3, I liked Sky Fortress Bahamut the best, the other two were kinda cramped. At Crystal Tower, half the time the opponent is hidden from your sight, on Prima Vista your opponents are two short dashes away. I wonder how the heck Phantom Train is gonna work...

Gameplay

The Arcade Mode is the only other playable option in the demo, and is the place where you'll spend most of your time. The Arcade Mode comes with two flavors, a 5 round battle and a 30 round battle. Stages and opponents are random, skills, levels and items are fixed, but you do get to choose the background music. 

You'll also get to pick from 7 characters, and unlock one, Cloud, when you defeat Tifa in the 30 round mode. It would seem she will appear if you set difficulty to hard. She'll randomly appear in the 23rd to 30th round of the 30 rounds arcade mode. Returning characters are also set to their 3P outfits, and no, you can't change them. 

I think I should save the gameplay stuff for until Duodecim comes, but I'll just talk about it. The assist is a really nice addition, you can use assist for vital blocks, distraction or just attacking. EX cores' reduction is in my opinion, a sad thing, since EX Modes are really cool, and EX Burst are good. I would prefer them to nerf EX Burst then to reduce EX cores. Most of the times I can play through the 5 round Arcade Mode without going into EX Mode, unless I purposely wait for it. As for Gabranth, he can enter EX Mode pretty much anytime. I'm not entirely sure, but I think his EX Charge got a buff. And Chase is ridiculously fun. It is more engaging, fast-paced and more guessing required. 

Graphics

New loading background, I think

This one I will really leave for the actual game. Since I think it will probably be the same, with the addition of CG scenes. There is a new loading background, I think. At least from what little I can recall, it wasn't like that in Dissidia. As for the UI, I am seriously loving it. Especially the Character select screen. Sadly, i think we will still have to access the Character info screen to change costumes.

Conclusion

Get this, or don't get this, it's your call. But for the sake of the DLC assist character, Aerith, get it. You'll gonna like her. She uses some skills that stuns and heals. Pure awesome assist if you asked me. If not for Aerith, then get it for some insights on Duodecim. Or wait for the US version, really. Oh and hackers are trying to make all characters playable, I wonder if they will succeed, but they did succeed in somethings, like artworks, movesets and EX informations of Desperado Chaos, Gilgamesh and Prishe as well as additional songs, 3rd alternates and stuff. Oh yeah, and this:

Super 2D 16bit(?) Moogle? or a new FFXIII Warrior of Cosmos. Hmmm... If it's down to new FFXIII Cosmos warrior, it'll be Sazh I guess, since he's the last Nomura candidate that has yet to arrive in the game. Besides, who is gonna share all does gun equips with Laguna?