Prima Game of the Week | Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

Why You Should Play

• Characters from almost every Final Fantasy game.
• Three-on-three team battles!
• Lots of items, skins and music to unlock.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT has been available in Japanese arcades for over two years. During that time it has seen quite a lot of play from competitive and casual players alike. Now the game is finally available for the PlayStation 4, and US audiences are already diving into the title head first. Some competitive players have even been searching for teammates to travel around with for tournaments. There’s a lot to like about Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, whether you’re a long-time fan of the Final Fantasy series, or a competitive gamer looking for a new tournament title.

Gameplay

If you’ve played the previous Dissidia games, you should already have a general idea of how the gameplay works. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is a three-on-three  arena battle game. With 28 playable characters, hailing from almost every Final Fantasy title, plus more on the way via DLC, there are plenty of fan-favorite characters to choose from. If you ever wanted to pit Cloud against Zidane, or Sephiroth against Jecht, this is the game where you can do that!

Each character in the game falls under one of four classes: Assassin, Marksman, Specialist or Vanguard. Assassins, like Jecht or Kuja, are generally close-range melee characters that can dish out a ton of damage, but don’t have many defensive options. Marksman almost always want to attack from a distance and generally include mage characters such as Terra or Shantotto. Exdeath, Bartz and similar characters are considered specialists, and don’t fit into any one role. They usually excel at a variety of combat techniques, making them fairly well rounded. Vanguards include Cloud and Cecil, and are the so-called tanks of the game. They can dish out the damage, but also have good support or defensive techniques as well.

The three-on-three nature of the game also means you’ll need team work. You can play online with friends, or random people, but communication is key. It can be a lot of fun playing Dissidia Final Fantasy NT with your friends, each selecting their favorite Final Fantasy character as you take on a competing team of players. Add in legendary musical selections from across the Final Fantasy series, and you may find yourself smiling randomly as you play Dissidia Final Fantasy NT.

Visuals and Performance

While Dissidia Final Fantasy NT was originally developed as an arcade title, the arcade hardware was based on the PlayStation 4. The visuals in the arcade version are extremely impressive, bringing classic Final Fantasy characters into a new era of visual splendor. Those same exceptional graphics have been ported over seamlessly to the PlayStation 4 console version. If the wait for Final Fantasy VII Remake is getting unbearable, you can see Cloud and Sephiroth in their PS4 glory right now with Dissidia Final Fantasy NT.

From a performance standpoint, the game plays smoothly. A good online connection will net you near flawless online play, while offline you won’t see any slow down or other issues. Once again, since the arcade hardware was based on the PS4, it was very easy for developer, Team Ninja, to port the game over to the PlayStation 4 with minimal issue. The fast-paced arena combat action is just as smooth on PS4 as it was in Japanese arcades.

Game of the Week

If you’ve got friends who enjoy Final Fantasy, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll find something to like about Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. You can finally settle those childhood squabbles about who was better between Cloud, Tidus and the Warrior of Light, or even which bad guy was the baddest between Sephiroth, Kefka and Kuja. With a lengthy story mode and tons of things to unlock, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is Prima’s Game of the Week!

While Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is great, it doesn’t play like a traditional Final Fantasy title, so be sure to brush up on the gameplay mechanics and character move lists before you dive into this one! You can also check out the official Dissidia Final Fantasy NT guide from Prima Games!