And ladies! And ladies who dress like men! The string of Duodecim posts becomes a hat-trick!
I was going to post something sensible and meaningful about completing the main story mode today, but I guess I might have gotten a little side-tracked, a little excitable ...
HERE BE SPOILERS!
Yes. It happened.
His establishing scenes really are wonderful, and all apart from his voice acting I think he is quite brilliant! I wasn't too sure if he was going to be represented as someone all-powerful and fierce or something more ridiculous and lolzy but really, it could have gone either way.
I am mostly surprised by his gameplay to be honest! I was expecting him to be slow, and I mean slow, like Garland or maybe even Exdeath, but he is much speedier than I thought he would be! Similar to Kain his jumps and vertical range are greater than his ground work or horizontal moves, but this can be easily worked with. He has a great move-range - offering up magic just in case you don't want to take the risk with his ridiculous weaponry - and his EX Burst is a lot of fun regardless of the outcome!
And come on, the guy gets ticker tape when he wins. If that doesn't sell him I don't know what will.
I am still faithful to Kain and I am really looking forward to building him up as my main, but it's going to be a competition between he and Gilgamesh now to see who gets the most of my attention. I need to be returning to the Reports first of all though I suppose.
So we've had a weekend to settle to Duodecim, to learn new ropes, get to grips with new characters, find out what has been tweaked and what has remained untouched. What are we all thinking?
So far, I am loving it.
Gameplay
Compared to the original Dissidia, Duodecim is much faster. As a fan of fast and furious battles, this completely appeals. Not only are actions faster, but the characters themselves have gained some extra speed too, and I say this at a level before having gained many speed boosts. This is good news.
Possible the biggest new addition to the gameplay is the Assist system, which allows the player to call in another AI character to attack and/or distract the enemy for a (very) limited amount of time. This was probably the feature I was most dubious about, but I completely take that back now. Assists, when well-timed, can be used very strategically to alter the flow of a whole battle, and changing up Assist pairings can make for some very interesting and unique combinations. Somehow the Assist system, Summons and EX Force manage to not get confused, and all together they remain very intuitive!
And of course, speaking of EX Force, the EX Cancel has been, well, cancelled! In its place now, if a player triggers their EX Mode during an enemy attack, rather than immediately going into an EX Burst the arena will turn black and white and time will slow for several seconds, giving the EX character a chance to retaliate or back away. This new system corrects a massive loopwhole from the former game, and as much as I was one of those awful EX Cancelling players I don't feel that anything has been unfairly taken away from us.
Story Mode
Without any of my normal Dissidia-playing warriors on hand this weekend I have been diligently working away at the new Story Mode, and although I am only 7 chapters in, the difference is remarkable. Reception of the body of the story itself will be totally subjective* of course, but the most significant difference is that particular chapters are - so far - devoted to particular characters. Before the game's release I had planned out whose story to play through first, but instead there appears to be one story that dictates who you play as and when. This might not sound fun, but it is actually a great way to make sure you're trying your hand with different characters and getting some level experience across the board.
As you play through the Story Mode you also unlock various Reports. Not only can you read these but they also contain extra videos and playable scenarios that flesh out the story from other characters' perspectives. (*for the record I'm loving the story so far, so much more than in the first game!)
New Characters
I haven't yet unlocked the last three of the new characters, but through Story Mode I've tried my hand at the others, and have definitely been gathering opinions.
I'm struggling with Tifa, I really am. I lean towards a mid- close-range vicious fighting style and I also favour faster characters, so really Tifa should encompass everything I love, but I can't get to grips with how weak she is. She ironically enough just doesn't pack any punch, which is quite a disappointment.
As for Yuna, I never expected to like her in the first place. I do not like to use magic-users, I dislike slow characters, and I hate moves that fill the screen so much. In sharp contrast to Tifa, Yuna represents a tonne of things I hate about a character. And I really hope I don't have to play as her again. It doesn't help that I really liked her in FFX!
Vaan and Lightning I'm rather unsure about. I've been pretty successful with both characters, but I don't feel that any particular level of skill has been involved in these successes, just luck. And luck simply isn't going to cut it! I'm particularly fond of Lightning's Paradigm shifts, as these make for some pretty fast-paced and interesting fights. (notice how the two characters I'm unsure of are the leads in two Final Fantasy's I've never completed!)
And here is the comedy. Kain and Laguna, the two characters I've been most excited about from the start, are currently my two best. What is unusual is that while - as stated above - my normal behaviour is vicious, both of these characters currently stand as tacticians! Also, neither of these characters are particularly fast. Kain is quite similar to Dissidia Cloud, in that he is not especially fast but packs one hell of a punch when he hits. He also shares some similarity with Jecht with his fantastic and customisable combos. Kain is a character who makes it easy to switch between vicious and tactician, and the only downfall is that - as I was informed by my warrior-in-arms - he sounds distressingly like Master Miller in the Metal Gear series. Don't get me wrong, I am a Complete Girl for Master Miller ... but if they couldn't put Solid Snake in Duodecim I don't see how they should get the Master in instead!
As for Laguna, his character is absolutely perfect when compared to his original role in FFVIII (right down to the leg cramp!). He is a delight to watch in Story Mode and also very interesting to play as, especially when one customs him eough to hold his own in close combat too. So far, neither of my characters have let me down!
I'm only half-way through Story Mode, and I haven't explored the game much outside of that, but so far I am very very pleased indeed with the transformation between Dissidia and Duodecim! Expect to hear more in the none-too-distant!
Since October 2009 I've been playing Dissidia Final Fantasy, a game which - for those of you who don't know - plucks some of the main characters from previous Final Fantasy games and pits them together in a universal war of good and evil, of Cosmos and Chaos. Other friends have since joined and so most of our 2010 became riddled with "Dissidia meets". I couldn't even tell you how many hours we've spent in various cafés (or one particular 24-hour diner *cough*) playing through story-modes, training new characters, usurping one-another's freshly-trained warriors of light and dark. Or just warriors of light if you are me, as I came to realise that I just couldn't play as any of the Chaos warriors!
My final unlikely team of SSS Rank warriors:
But finally the day is upon us now that we must cast aside all that we know and step into the Void (see what I did there?), as today is the release of Dissidia Duodecim 012! My party will already be shaken as Cloud will no longer be Cosmos組, meaning that I will have to find myself a new signature character to play as. However with new additions such as Laguna, Lightning and especially Kain, I'm sure I will have plenty of choice!
That's not to mention one particular character who, despite being Chaos組, has this particular blogger very excited indeed ...
But enough expository banter! For this blogger, it is morphing time!
It was the kind of crowd I'm used to and love best, the kind of crowd that lacks the courtesy of smaller gigs and the restraint of other European shows I've seen in the past. We managed to find ourselves bundled together initially only four or five rows from the front and in front of Ni, and as the live progressed we found ourselves mysteriously further forward until I was just at the bar with two shorter girls on each side. Throughout the whole show I was surrounded with a whole troupe of some of my best friends, and with the exception of maybe two songs I remained hand-in-hand with someone we never thought we'd have the fortune to meet again, and all of this plus the amazing gig made the whole night outstanding for me.
Here we go!! 20110318 @ O2 Academy Islington, London Setlist: 00. (NOW) intro 01. bit crash 02. NO MUSIC NO REASON 03. Endless wing 04. Vision 05. BEAST 06. driving time 07. 睡蓮 (suiren) 08. DIRTY STORY 09. BORDER 10. Dance Rock Night 11. I think I can fly 12. shining 13. destiny 14. MISSION CODE 15. Never ending story Encore: 16. Break Down 17. evolution 18. イノチノキ (inochi no ki)
Everything was right from the word "Go" (excuse the pun), as the intro for NOW kicked in instead of the opening track on Go, and bit crash is an absolutely great track to keep the audience jumping and joining in. That's the thing with girugamesh gigs, they're so interactive; there's always lines to be singing, or rhythms to be clapping, there's always something to be doing in virtually every song, a point perfectly highlighted when they reeled into BEAST with the refrain "Alright everybody clap your hands, alright together right now, alright hey make a noise aloud". Make noise we did, clapping our hands against those of our friends, tied up in the crowd or above everyone's heads, singing back lyrics at the crazy boys onstage.
Speaking of our crazy boys, they really were boys to be proud of. Lit up onstage with such fire and energy, they were perfectly reminiscent of the DIRTY STORY PV, aggressively throwing their all against the crowd at every opportunity. Nii has come to life as of late, possibly leeching some life from Shuu who has become slightly more taciturn on the other side of the stage. Together however they still make a stupid duo, meeting and grinning in front of Ryo who never ever seems to stop grinning behind his drumkit. Finally, Satoshi never let us down, a ferocity and power that only ever seems to grow leading him to the very front of the stage, challenging us to sing for him and to jump for him. He really is a vocalist whose transformation you can see over time.
Saying that Dance Rock Night was welcomed would be a massive understatement, as they disappointingly didn't play it earlier in Munich. I swear I will never get bored of that bassline and that Break Time Sa-wa-ge!. Now the amusing breakdown happened between I think I can fly (a welcomed angstier addition) and shining, when Shuu decided that it was time to have a natter with us. However, after the standard greetings and catching up, the nattering descended into a call-and-response! So with Ryo keeping a drum beat, and Satoshi and Nii clapping in time, Shuu led us with our replies!
"Woah-woah-oh!" sang Shuu, "Woah-woah-oh!" we replied.
"Woah-woah-oh-oh!" sang Shuu, "Woah-woah-oh-oh!" we replied.
"Fish-and-chips!" chanted Shuu, and we mostly laughed.
But it continued. Together we went from woah-ohs to "Fish and chips!", and then to "Na-ri-ta-ke!" which had me delighting. And from Naritake we went to "Pray for Japan!", ending finally with the loudest and most resolute "Ganbare Nippon!". Music changes things, guys, and I won't forget those voices.
A member-call now happens in MISSION CODE, which is just as great live as I expected it to be. This led into Never ending story, which is a great high-energy song to finish a main set on.
Rather than shouts of en-co-re! the words fish-and-chips! filled the air until their return, and it is only during an encore I can really appreciate the joy of Break Down. evolution became even more joyful when Nii donned a pair of plastic flashing sunglasses, and proceeded to hover right beside Satoshi until he looked twice and laughed. Ryo stood and danced throughout behind him drumkit. Good times for all.
The set ended as it has throughout the tour with イノチノキ, but not before Satoshi stepped forward, Shh'd us all a couple of times, and read out his lines concerning the events in Japan. The band were already in Europe on tour when the earthquake struck on the 11th, and since the disaster they have been collecting donations on tour. The strength, pride and majesty of this band never fails me, and when a very good friend of mine told me after the show that I can't afford to give up on them, the words "You're right" just weren't enough. Despite my thoughts on their newer releases, these boys really are something special live, and I hope I never throw away another chance to see them again.
girugamesh have always had a way with opening tracks - bass-heavy or techno and energetic - but right off the bat this intro is too slow, and too quiet. It doesn't bode well, but it leads nicely into the already-established Destiny.
Great sing-along vocals carry the song through the verses while good rocky guitar does its work inbetween, even enjoying a little six-stringed breakdown of sorts in the middle. The chorus is much lighter, more pleasant if you will, but it all rides smoothly along that encouraging girugamesh fire that burns underneath.
EXIT comes along to put that fire out. Well, that's being slightly unfair. The song starts with the good get-going guitar you'd expect to find in the middle of an album, but then kicks into vocals that want to be closing a tracklist. Here is where one of the fundamental problems with this album begins: the music and the vocals do not want to mix. On several occassions - beginning here - nice underlying bass and good heavier guitars could make a pretty ok rock track, and then pop vocals come in to mix it up. And not in a good way. For this reason, EXIT comes across more as throw-away filler. It's a shame, but every album needs them.
It's easy to miss the transition between songs as COLOR bears exactly the same problem - pop vocals betraying rock music. The only consistency here is the lack of consistency. That's ... not good consistency there, boys. An easy throw-away song. Again. But just when you're losing hope, MISSION CODE happens.
So it opens with synth and gutsy check-out-my-attitude vocals, and well-trained by the rest of the album so far you prepare yourself for a promising start to quickly descend into cheerful pop, but when the rest of the band chime in with the group refrain SHAKE IT SHAKE IT DOWN you start to realise that something might actually be happening here. Finally, five tracks in, you're hit with a track that maintains its energy and vibe throughout the whole piece. A painfully simple yet totally catchy guitar riff powers through the majority of the song, leads us into a chorus which doesn't stop for breath, and then a nice three-part guitar-bass-guitar breakdown in the middle sends us back for a great outro on the home-run. Selling point of the album right here, if only they could keep it up.
The only note I wrote next to 見えない距離 (mienai kyori) was "Please, no more of this". Skip it enough times and you'll forget it exists. Slowly but surely, it's working for me. Come the end of the track I'm feeling mildly suicidal, which is when I realise with apprehension that they haven't had a ballad track yet. Oh.
再会 (saikai) takes that spot, and I will admit here that I simply dont know what to say. I don't think that such a soft ballady style suits the band musically, but lyrically the song is something else. It almost brought a tear to my eye, I'll admit that, and that makes it difficult to judge. Objectively speaking, it earns bonus points for actually sounding different to every other track so far, which is something. The ballad was a risk worth taking, but not worth repeating.
I said from the start that I would never like a song called Never Ending Story, but I admit that it's definitely catchy. It could be clever placing after the requisite ballad track, but it's a song that's difficult not to sing along to. It's just a shame that - just like EXIT and saikai - it sounds like it belongs at the end of the album.
Speaking of which, イノチノキ (inochi no ki) comes to put things to an end in a very ... similar fashion to the rest of it really. This is a song which really could be ok, if it didn't sound exactly like the majority of the tracks that preceed it.
Overall, GO is an album full of songs that could well be ok if they didn't all sound like carbon-copies of the others. The genre-mixing is finally becoming a problem too, and as a damn good rock band they need to figure out if they are just dipping a toe into pop waters or if they want to take a complete dive. If this album is mere experimentation then it was a good attempt but it exposed lessons to be learned; if it is a sign of things to come then there is going to be a problem.
- Break
- Break
