Eh it was worth it for me because I was dying to try Kain out. The only other new character you get to try out is Lightning. The prologue story with lightning is only 4 fights and you don't get to try out the world map. Arcade mode is included and you get to try out Kain and Lightning (and 5 or 6 returning characters) at level 50. The accessories you win for completing these are chocobo colognes, which, if I remember correctly, are breakable exp boosting accessories. You can carry these over to the full game. Also you get access to the aeris assist. Assists pop in for a second or two and smack your enemy around.

So probably not, unless you have a boner for dissidia dragoon.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Nah. I wanna try Lightning but I can wait. Also never played 7 so Aerith is whatever

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[In Yarr we trust.]

Badass! I loved Dissidia! I played it waaay too much. I wish it had infrastructure multiplayer though

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Graduate student/clinical psychology
"The World breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong in the broken places." Hemingway

I wished that too so we can kick each other ass on the game.

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PS3 Friend list name: Pantherxx Wii code 1629-0463-4657-0263 (revised 9/28/07) Steam ID - Pantherxx010 62BLU 75PLD Reactived 7/5/10 I dare you Click this!

k so:

You can transfer over the chocobo colognes you win in the prologue
You can transfer character levels and abilities from the original game (along with boosted accessory slots), however you do NOT carry over equipment and accessories
You can transfer over stuff you bought in the PP catalogue

World map is cool, based on the original FF1 world map.
On the world map you can converse with your teammates, find treasure chests and hidden treasures. No random encounters. You find locked portals that lead to the old checkerboard battlegrounds.
Destiny points have been done away with, in their place is the new "KP" system. You never lose KP, you only gain KP, these are used to buy items and other stuff from moogles on the world map.

Going through certain unlocked gateways brings you to different portions of the world map, where manikins roam free. COming into contact with them enters you into a single fight.


More to come.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I can't even get Prologus until tomorrow! My Legacy Edition already shows as ready to ship, chances are I'll get it Thursday.

Kind of sucks you lose all of your equipment and accessories. Kind of makes me wonder what the point of keeping your Level 100s is, because without equipment and accessories they're barely battle-ready at all.

Man, I don't know shit about this game. I thought it was just a street fighter like game, and now you all are talking about levels and world maps.

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Dissidia is about as close to an RPG as you could possibly make a fighting game. It has levels, experience, skill points, equipment, gil, accessories, treasure chests, cutscenes, an actual story (though the story is probably the game's weakest area, which is expected since it's still a fighting game), etc. You equip skill sets, abilities, summons, traits, and weapons. You can synthesize new weapons and equipment using item drops. There's even a chocobo on the menu screen that finds treasure and eats greens to earn you stuff.

Heck if action games aren't your thing you can even unlock and play in "command mode" which gives you a classic "Attack/Magic/Item" style-ish menu to control the action with. I wouldn't recommend this because you lose a lot of direct control you'd otherwise have but it's cool that it's there.

If anyone is interested, it's worth pointing out that Dissidia Duodecim (the new one) includes the entire original Dissidia game and it's story built-in, no disk swap or anything like that.

Yeah a level 100 with no gear may as well be about level 50. You can also adjust your characters' levels manually up to their maximum. A weird feature to be sure.

I haven't yet figured out how the whole original story is included...maybe unlockable. As it stands I've cleared one bit of story with Lightning. Upon clearing it a report was unlocked (like Cosmos/Chaos reports in the original) and while reading that, key words pop up like in FF2 and unlock a new story mode. Seems to me story mode forces you to play in a certain order, with certain characters. Right now it's forcing me to play as Kuja, not a particularly strong suit for me. I didn't have much chance to play yesterday. Either way I really like the world map and I hope there's more of it soon. This Kuja story has thus far been a single "party battle" which basically means I have to fight a 3 man marathon of bartz>squall>zidane without healing my hp between fights. No world map, no checkerboard.

I haven't played as all the new characters, need to try Vaan and give Tifa some more attention. Yuna is a monster, she's great. She uses ifrit and Shiva for close fighting and Bahamut and Valefor for range, with Ixion for melee range HP damage. I haven't learned any other attacks with her. Laguna takes some getting used to, he's fairly unique despite some Ultimecia influence. Lightning is pretty much what you'd expect. I mainly stick with Commando and fight toe to toe.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Haven't seen any way to save battle replays and no record keeping section as in the first game. I also can't find aeris on the assist list even though I loaded the data. eh

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Pretty sure I read you unlock "013" (Dissidia) once you complete the main story "012" (Duodecim).

Also heard you can unlock extra story and extra battles inside those reports. It's supposedly where Gilgamesh and Prishe are for unlocking, gotta get some kind of report and then do the battles inside the report and you unlock them.

I'm pretty sure battle replays are still there, I've seen people uploading videos to youtube with the SE watermark on it, so they were made with the game's replay exporter. Maybe you have to unlock it.

Yeah the reports unlock battles and some cutscenes. As of now they seem optional, don't actually need to do them to play the story mode. Story mode right now is forcing character selection. It's been Lightning>Vaan>Laguna so far and the first two reports are Kuja and Terra.

Battle replay is available...just need to go to options and activate it. You can also take screenshots during replays. There's also something where you can create your own quests/storylines. Suppose the point is to share them online but I haven't read much into this.

When you find roaming enemies on the map you can attack them with the circle button. If you do this, they start the battle with 0 bravery. Pretty cool.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Yuna pronounces Valefor and Bahamut the same way I do, grand victory. Yuna's world map theme is a rearrangement of Suteki Da Ne, background sounds almost like a music box, fore has live strings. Shit's blowing my mind. This game has so much more music than the original. Yuna's second alt costume is the getup from the wedding scene in FFX.

Yunayunayuna

Exdeath: So you offer your life in exchange for theirs?
Kain: No. I offer yours.


Kain is my friggin hero.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

The story mode of dissidia012 is a prologue and 8 full stories where you play as the 6 new characters. Story focuses on the manikins and a dimensional rift, direct danger to cosmos, etc. It's better than the original. Clearing all of that unlocks a bunch of stuff:

Museum, including player records, character/summon info, jukebox, theater, and player icons.
New items in the PP Catalogue, including alternate levels and brand new levels.
Labyrinth battle mode (kind of like duel colisseum)
Dissidia013 (Original game's story mode)
New reports (Which, in turn, unlock more stuff)

Completing the 013 prologue with the Warrior of Light unlocks new report tales, and finishing those reports (A shantotto vs gabranth fight and bartz vs gilgamesh) unlocks prishe and gilgamesh in the PP Catalogue. Unlocking Prishe automatically unlocks the background music "A Realm of Emptiness" from the promathia final battle in FFXI. Prish combos brave attacks together to make skillchains for bonus damage. lol

Gilgamesh attacks with random weapons every time you launch an attack, including excalipoor which only deals 1 damage per hit.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Looks like my Dissidia didn't get shipped til this morning so I won't get it til tomorrow. I did finally just get Prologus though, but I didn't play for very long. Seems like all you need to do is beat the (very quick) story to get the Midgard Flower. I might as well just play the full game tomorrow instead of grinding arcade mode for Chocobo Colognes.

Kain's Jump was pretty fun to use and the AI seemed to have a hard time dodging it and pinning people to the wall with Gungnir was fun too. Didn't like Lightning too much, her Commando role feels kind of weak, her Medic role seems quite pointless, and Ravager feels too slow.

Yeah Gungnir and Sky Rave are absolutely disastrous if you have a lot of space behind/under the enemy respectively. Prishe is like a tiny Jecht except without the ability to block everything in the game. Vaan is fun, unlike Firion when you use an attack as Vaan he sticks with the weapon for subsequent attacks. His moves are powered up and gain different attributes on the initial/weapon switching strike. I've actually played more as Tifa than any other new character, she's awesome despite her so-so performance in aerial combat.

Pretty sure I loaded the aeris assist data but I'm still sans flowergirl. Also don't know what the flower is for, haven't seen it as an ingredient in the shop yet and it only sells for a bit. Chocobo colognes can be traded at the shop for level ups.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Kain learns another attack like Gungnir and Sky Rave except it goes upward and drags the enemy all the way to the ceiling. If you manage to chain sky rave and rising drive together properly it's monumental damage, and looks pretty damn cool too.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I tried using one of my unequipped Level 100 characters, it's hopeless. Even Jecht hits for 1-2 damage a hit, and with no summons or accessories to tip it in your favor, it's basically impossible to play as your old Lv100s.

It kinda bugs me that the story is so linear this time in that you don't even get to choose your characters (so far). In original Dissidia you could choose a character and do the starting stories in whatever order you wanted. So that feels like a bit of a step back, especially since they don't /really/ seem to be in any kind of order (everyone is split up).

All that said, it's still Dissidia so it's still fun. I hear the Duel Colleseum is gone now which makes me sad because that's where I did all my grind levelling. Hope this Labyrinth i hear about as it's replacement is just as good.

So apparently the AI has a lot of trouble trying to dodge Yuna's basic Valefor HP attack (Energy Ray?). The blast area is huge and 9 times out of 10 the AI will either walk right into it, dodge straight into it, or simply not bother to move out of the way at all. I've beaten entire battles by standing still and spamming that same one attack for the whole thing.

I think I read later in the story you can pick who is in your party.

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[In Yarr we trust.]

The 012 story offers no chance to choose who you play as til the very end when the party teams up.

The Labyrinth is set up like duel coliseum, ie: card draw determines battles, treasures, bonuses, teammates, etcetc. You can gather teammates via cards for party battle, job cards, treasure cards, and coin cards work just like in the DC. However, upon entering Labyrinth you are unequipped and your summons/accessories are removed. You can gain items/summons/etc inside the labyrinth via cards/coins but you can't take them with you when you leave... You progress through "Floors" of the labyrinth via door cards. It's pretty fun.

The manual mentions that there are certain things that can be taken with you upon leaving the labyrinth, and I picked up the geomancer job card which says it allows you to take items out with you but this didn't seem to have any effect. I'm kind of puzzled. I'll play it more today and see what I find.

Noticed the same thing about valefor's basic HP attack, the attack is totally telegraphed and still it never misses. There have been a few situations where the balance just seems totally off. For example, the emperor just can't fight Kain at all. It's impossible. His brave attacks are too slow and completely ineffective against Kain's pure vertical style. If you're in a battle arena with room to jump, the emperor will never get an attack off and nothing he does will get anywhere near Kain, except Flare. Speaking of attack AI, I have to say the short-charge jump, besides being phenomenally accurate, has about 5 steps' distance worth of concussion. Add to this that it actually incorporates a dodge like with tidus' attacks and it's pretty busted.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

After story 013 you gain access to story 000. I haven't reached the end of it yet. 000 is long.

Also the 012 story actually explains why Jecht is such a powerful ass kicker, besides the fact that he's already a god-slaying professional athlete.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Yeah I've gotten as far as 000 now, but the very first enemy I ran into was level 89 or something so I figured I needed to level up some more before trying to get too far in that.

Labyrinth basically being the Duel Colleseum with multiple rooms made me happy, but:
- You lose all your gear going in and can't take any of it back out with you. This sucks, means you can't use it to farm or grind at all anymore, which was exactly what the colleseum was good for.
- Your calendar bonuses are turned off while inside the Labyrinth. You don't get bonus EXP, PP, or anything else while inside. This sucks, because on a PP bonus day I get 40 PP per battle instead of 10 PP.

I used the colleseum to deck out my Lv 100 characters before, but now I'm at a loss at how to effectively farm. After playing through the 012 story and all the reports I got so far, I still have an absolute pittance of gil and barely any accessories or decent gear.

It would be nice if the quick battle mode allowed you to quickly move on to a different fight (not against the same character or same stage) without having to go back to a menu and pick them yourself. That's what I liked about the colleseum, along with being able to grind stats and get lots and lots of gear and materials.

Yeah I can't see the point of the labyrinth without the ability to farm materials and exp. I'm in the same situation with terrible shop stock, inventory, and gil. My level 100 warrior of light got absolutely destroyed by a level 88 golbez in story 000 because the equipment and accessories just aren't there. Golbez had 11,000 hp, WoL had <8k.

There are battlegen items I'm not even sure how to obtain. The desire/hope/dream series for the Giant and the Horror, which are Gilgamesh and Prishe respectively, can't be obtained by fighting them in quick battle or taking on their manikins in story 000.

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

Yeah this is being a huge problem for me. I can't even beat arcade mode on easy with a Level 60 character because they hit me for 500+ bravery and i hit for like 20. The only way to win is to spam HP attacks for base bravery and hope your opponent never hits you.

It wasn't a big problem in 012's story mode, because all the manikins had lots of Def-50% accessories and stuff, and only the "bosses" put up a fight, which is fine. Now 012 is over, it's almost impossible to do anything else except redo all of 013 which is kinda bleh. I re-did one of the chapters hoping it would unlock Shade Impulse but it didn't, meaning it probably wants you to do them all again.

There's some okay gear in the shops but I simply don't have the gil for it. I don't remember gil being this hard to get, what gives. And my only two basic accessories are still the first +3% damage one and some other EX Absorb one. I'm not getting the materials and there's no colleseum to farm them in. I feel like this is hampering my ability to enjoy the game now, its kind of annoying.

Are the cutscenes for 013 exactly the same? I just got to Shade Impulse on my file and am contemplating beating it first or just trading it in and picking 012. If they're the exact same and I can skip them, I may just trade now.

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[In Yarr we trust.]