Edon

Mild analytical report. So after a weekend playing the Beta, I can can answer the question of "does it still feel like Dissidia?" Yes, yes it does retain the feel. The foreboding feeling of 'about to eat combo on low brave' is there, the rush felt when dodge punishing an opponent, and knowing when you have your opponent(s) cornered. All still there, but somewhat lost amid the 3v3. I'm actually glad that only 1 HP is allotted to each character, makes it simpler and it means you only have to watch out for 3 HP's. Once you play for a little bit, you grow accustomed to the many on goings transpiring on-screen. The lock-on lines do a great job telling you who is targeting you, and even turn red in the advent of an impending attack directed toward you. In short-- you are always in the know. Now, as for the actually 3v3? well... I hope that is not all we're stuck with on release day. In order to win, everyone on that team has to do good. I have had numerous times when I'd be 1v1 by the Core with the upper hand while my idiot teammate kept dying in the corner. I was winning my battle! but he made me lose the war! If I dashed over to help him, my previous opponent would attack me from behind or go for a Summon Core(lose lose). I know this problem isn't exclusive to Dissidia and steps can be taken to mitigate it, but it's still annoying. Unto summoning, omg yes! summoning is awesome! When your team has a filled the summon gauge you can begin chanting to call forth a AOE whore to wreck your opponents. Chanting takes about 10 seconds alone to complete, faster with more teammates chanting. Chanting is interruptable, but what can the enemy do when one of there own of is respawning and the rest are occupied by your fellow teammates? When interrupted, the chanting progress gradually decreases and can be salvaged by initiating once more. Summons aren't game winning, but they sure do help by leaving your enemies at Hellfired crispy low bravery(usually 0). Summons cannot inflict Break. Blocking is now primarily purely defensive, as it doesn't stagger oppo's and you still launched away, ableit safely in a Smash rip-off orb and in no position to retaliate since your knocked far away. They have humbled the dodge nicely, you can only travel horizontally and the distance is short. Luckily most attacks have low tracking when it comes to sudden movements. And no, you still can't block HP's. Everyone has 3500 HP and 1000 base bravery, as you can assume, death occurs in 3-1 hits. Bravery depletion is fast, 300-400 for melee, 100-300 for chain multi-hit magic (Terra's fire) and 400-500 for one-hard-hit magic (Light's Watera). Damage is even higher when the victim has high brave. Character Notes Firion: Still most powerful on ground, his long combos keep him stationary and thus vulnerable from behind from distance sources. Onion Knight: Super buffed! Ninja job is a beast! Sage I find to be wimpy but I'm not a magic user. Cloud: Ugh he is so annoying to fight, the team with Cloud usually win. His attack charging makes it so easy to dodge-punish. Squall: Now has more useful moves than Solid Barrel(I think that is what it was called, don't remember.) Zidane: One of favs, super fun to hit and run, and stealing all the buffs. Shanttoto: The english voice actor for her was better in 012. Vaan: Another good hit-n-runner, has great battle quotes. Light: Simplified, but now more savage it seems("You'll be begging for mercy soon enough...") and is really good at killing. The Beta only included Heroes. In the Beta, 2 modes were available: Matchmaking. Online 3v3 only battles, stage is always random and each player votes for the team summon they want. Gameplay is smooth, usually no lag. Absolutely inexcusable waiting times for finding a match. 3 minutes was the minimum amount of time I spent watching "waiting for players", 20 minutes at the max. I ran out of bread for the innumerable sandwiches I making during the waiting period. Practice An offline 3v3 only mode composing of AI allies and enemies. You choose your character and the team summon, teammates and enemies are decided at random. On a random stage, you face off against very sad, idling punching bags(enemy team) who never ever use HP attacks. Sometimes times they poke you or block, but most of the time they just ran around making alot of noise. A rushed tutorial video was also included. NT has delivered as a successful evolution of Dissidia. I eagerly await the final release with the hope it has more story than the average Street Fighter.

I will be participating in the closed beta (if I get my internet working)on my PS4 this Friday. Wish me luck! Stay tuned for a mild analytical report. I really hope the HUD isn't the clusterstorm it appears to be....

Does the sky fluctuate in the Key Blade Graveyard with the Will's Cage?

A full view of Materia(that name, ugh) would be cool. The Final Fantasy Wiki refers to her as a "goddess of machinery". Spiritus reminds me of a Terranort incarnation.

That could really use some localization polish. "Dissidia: Final Fantasy New Tale" The mouthful as usual.

Oh, thats a fun quirk they added to make you smile. We can also assume canonically that Moogles run the theater.

Oooh pretty, it was so cool UNTIL they showed that god awful HUD. Then it was cool again when the HUD dropped.

What attacks or mechanics do you desire to be preserved in the in the arcade version? For Light: Thunder & Watera must maintain themselves, I need my Poko & Bob (though I think a video showed Thunder being like Lickidy-Split Thundaga). For Prishe: Custom brave options with ridiculous combinations please. And some more taco references like a Spicy Fire-Breath attack. For Exdeath: This guy still needs to be able to block everything. For Gabranth: I demand this guy say even more ruthless stuff, "You miserable wrench" must be topped. I haven`t watched the Arcade videos lately, so I might be behind on some facts. I haven`t played XI either, so I`m unfamiliar with Prishe's affinity of tacos.

For the recent activity tab, I liked it when the latest post is displayed with the little preview. .

I was creating a ghost card for some Tome grinding the other day & was curious to how the game defines rank. All my characters are 'SSS' 'cept for Empy,Kefka & Prishe. It probably involves play time & win rate, but does other factors like opponent difficulty or HP damage per fight factor?

Ultimecia got sick from eating Void Cake. I`m surprised Yuna is so low.

One Lurker, signing in. I've resided in a dark corner, playing all by myself...spent 2400 hours in it. Ubuntu + limited technical ablility = forever alone. But I sometimes hand my old PSP to my friends & fight them with my Vita.