Dissidia Final Fantasy Arcade/NT (Arcade since 2015, January 2018 for PS4)

[Meta77]

2 hours ago, Teoskaven said:

Due to the console version approaching fast, the next update is a bit bigger than the previous ones.
First, our final returning veteran, the medieval Darth Vader called Golbez:
 

He has been practically revamped, now has a lot more magic attacks and is dependant on his shadow dragon, wich can be KOd if you're not careful. His EX skill is Binding Cold, and has an absurdly fast recovery time, i'm expecting it to be nerfed.

But that's not all, this month we have a character + stage combo. Specficially, it's time to see the FFXI stage, based on the Celestial Nexus of Tu'Lia, of the Rise of the Zilart expansion:
 

To complement everything, some cosume updates. First, Ultimecia gets a new weapon skin (gold-colored) and a proper alternate cosume based on Edea, like in 012:


And finally, Cloud of Darkness gets her palette swaps and a weapon skin, wich is... ehm... flowers?

 


Supposedly next month we will get the FFVIII stage and the remaining costumes/palette swaps/weapon skins for CoD and Golbez, just in time for the console release.

I hope she s not censored stateside

[Teoskaven]

I'm confident she'll stay the same; besides, while not yet rated officialy (the closest thing we have is a "may have inappropriate content for children" of the ESRB on the trailers) the game is aimed at an audience of 14/16+, and i think she counts as partial nudity.
And this is not for a Nintendo console, so we can be sure there will be no meddling of that type.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

7 minutes ago, Teoskaven said:

I'm confident she'll stay the same; besides, while not yet rated officialy (the closest thing we have is a "may have inappropriate content for children" of the ESRB on the trailers) the game is aimed at an audience of 14/16+, and i think she counts as partial nudity.
And this is not for a Nintendo console, so we can be sure there will be no meddling of that type.

Nintendo doesn’t censor third party I mean look at the smt series

[Teoskaven]

Oh, you mean like Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (and no, the censored content did not involve any of the Fire Emblem referencial characters)?
Or, on another note, like Bravely Second, wich unlike the first one was fully published by Square-Enix yet is censored up the wazoo?

Nintendo has always shown inconsistencies in reguards of censorship. Always, ever since the SNES version of Mortal Kombat. It allows stuff like Bayonetta 2 sexual innuendos and camel toes, but it censors someone's belly texture in TMSFE. It allows dismemberment in Ninja Gaiden 3 but a bikini in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is too much. It's all over the fucking place.
I will never fully trust Nintendo on keeping themselves from interfering on anything involving mature themes on one of its platforms.

[Meta77]

I agree on that. Nintendo is very back and forth on what they allow at times bit being on ps may help dissidia out

[Teoskaven]

Alright, we got a lot of new info recently, so be ready:

 

*First thing first, the FFVIII stage. And if i have to be honest, of all the possibilities they chose the lamest; it's not Balamb Garden, it's not the Witch Parade, it's not Esthar City, it's not the Lunatic Pandora, it's not even Ultimecia's Castle. It's the fucking field where the opening FMV takes place.

 

Are you fucking kidding me? Disappointing to say the least.

*Next up, Noctis. We have an official trailer and a moveset recap (the jist of it is that he activates Armiger when his HP drop under a certain point, and Warp Strike is his EX Skill):

There are also Nomura' official artwork of him, his palette swaps, his weapon skins and his alternate costume, based on the royal garnment he wears in the initial sequence against Ifrit:

 

*Next, the Cloud of Darkness. She has a new weapon skin in the forms of skull heads, plus an alternate costumes (based on the Cloud of Light concept that was also in 012) and she looks GORGEOUS:

 

*Finally, Golbez. He gets everything now, palette swaps, weapon skins (one based on the Mist Dragon, the other on one of the dragon enemies in FFIV) and an alternate costume based on FFIV 3D's intro:

 

Every other alternate costume for the other characters also get palette swaps, but since i've listed enough images here, you can find all of the them in the recent tweets of this account: https://twitter.com/dissidiainfo

[Teoskaven]

Another livestream happened, this time more about technicalities:

*First, a sneak peek at how the story mode is gonna be, wich is pretty much like in the previous games: separated fights with cutscenes and some text-dialogues in-between. In case you need a reminder, this is actually a sequel to the the original game/012, so not only the returning heroes know each other, they also got all of their memories back. In turn, newcomers like Noctis are completely out of the blue, as the presented cutscene shows:

 

Apparently Materia is a sort of manifestation of Cosmos' will, but that's all it was said so far. Considering the amount of updates the game is gonna get, i'm not expecting at all the story to be conclusive in the base game, we'll get most likely new pieces of it the more DLC characters will show up.

-oh yeah, also Manikins are back for some reasons. k-

*Second, how stuff is handled in-game. Essentially, the PP-Shop from previous title returns, wich means that fighting both online and offline you get in-game currency like guil for unlocking what you want (costumes, weapon skins, music tracks and so on). There seems to be a gacha-styled roulette to spin once in a while, but it doesn't consume nor ask real-life money (apparently another in-game currency you get only while being good in online fights or something) and nets you stuff you already can unlock in the game without even the risk into running into duplicates. Essentially, something that you need only if you don't want to grind and want stuff immediately due to lazyness but without the need to pour actual money in the game.
Or at least that's what people speaking moonrunes managed to get from the stream. Square needs to come clear on this asap if it doesn't want to get the Battlefront II treatment.
You can also customize your skills, HP attacks to use and lines to quote pre-in-post battle; on the same note, you can choose the music track you want to be played and can create a playlist of favourites in order to not having to scroll through the massive amount of tracks in order to get what you want.

*Third, the pre-order bonuses in action: you get two costumes (helmetless Warrior of Light and Noctis in Regis' tuxedo) and two weapons (Garland's classic weapon and Cloud's Nail Bat).

*Fourth, the official opening of the game. While it doesn't involve all the characters (Kain, Ramza and Ace are not present), it still looks awesome:

 

[Teoskaven]

The PS4 version is officially out in Japan, so if anyone wants some story spoilers:
 

Spoiler

As predicted, Shinryu is the final boss. There is an EXTREMELY AWESOME CGI cutscene wich extends the intro and shows the character fighting in order to trigger the dragon god's appearance, then EVERYONE TEAMS UP, GODS, HEROES AND VILLAINS ALIKE TO BEAT THE EVERLASTING SHIT OUT OF IT.
Just watch, this is beyond amazing:

After this you fight Shinryu properly, it has 2 phases and functions like a summon fight, it's decently challening. Don't know yet how the ending is, but people reported that the story that will be presented in the Arcade version is gonna be a sequel to this, so it would also explain why it will be left hanging for other cutscenes involving the DLC characters.

Other than this, we have new weapon skins for all the characters. Some are from the original games, others are original:

*Warrior of Light: Sun Blade and Diamond Shield (from the original game)
*Garland: Zanmato (original)
*Firion: Weapon Pack IV (based on weapons from the original game)
*Emperor: Punisher (original)
*Onion Knight: Golden Sword, Kiku-Ichimonji and Omnirod (from the original game)
*Cloud of Darkness: Spectral Tentacles (original, but based on Ahriman)
*Cecil: Moonless Sword and Fullmoon Sword (based on the Game Boy Advance version of Cecil)
*Kain: Wyvern Lance (from the original game)
*Golbez: Black Dragon (original)
*Bartz: Weapon Pack IV (based on weapons from the other FF protagonists)
*Exdeath: Void Sword (original)
*Terra: Zantetsuken (Odin's weapon and from the original game)
*Kefka: Electric Hair Ornament (original)
*Cloud: Organics (from the original game)
*Sephiroth: Dual Katana (original)
*Squall: Hyperion (Seifer's weapon from the original game)
*Ultimecia: Rêve Armes (original, but based on Griever)
*Zidane: Orichalcon (from the original game)
*Kuja: Circular Core (original, but based on the Holy and Dark elements)
*Tidus: Arc Sword (from the original game)
*Jecht: Sin's Roots (original, but based on Sin scales)
*Shantotto: Laevateinn (Black Mage weapon from the original game)
*Vaan: Platinum Sword (from the original game)
*Lightning: Crimson Blitz (standard weapon from Lightning Returns)
*Y'shtola: Shire Crook (Conjurer weapon from the original game)
*Noctis: Arms Set IV (from the original game)
*Ramza: Excalibur (from the original game)
*Ace: Magician's Deck (from the original game)

Lastly, hints about the 6 DLC characters of the first season pass, wich will be released in updates every 2 months over the course of the year. In order we will get:

1)Male, newcomer, villain, from a chapter after VII
2)Male, newcomer, from a chapter before VIII
3)Female, newcomer, from a chapter after VII
4)Male, newcomer, from a chapter after VII
5)Female, veteran, from a chapter after VII
6)Female, newcomer, from a chapter after VII

Not exactly what people expected to be honest. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[JaidynReiman]

I'm pretty sure they'll have multiple season passes, and will eventually bring back every character (like they said they intended on doing). My assumption is that the new characters are from games that don't already have 3 characters (even if they haven't been brought back yet) or even 2 characters in the cases of the newer titles.

Also, this does lock the characters to at least numbered titles. IMO, it also hints at only mainline numbered titles and not sequels, but its hard to say. Its also hard to say if "half" is a literal half or just 2D/3D split. If taken literally, Yuna is a lock. If not taken literally, then that returning character could be Tifa (who I would ordinarily expect first anyway).

I'm guessing the new female is Ashe and new "older game" male is Edgar. Its really hard to say on the rest, though. I would guess they're likely villain characters (XI, XIII, XIV, MAYBE XV), but I'm not going to speculate anything specific atm.

 

EDIT: I suppose I can offer up a couple suggestions.

 

First off, I've heard about this Gaius villain from XIV. He looks like he could be intriguing. Perhaps he could be the XIV antagonist.

For XIII, I'm leaning on Cid Raines. My assumption is, no sequels yet. Otherwise, Caius could be it.

I have no idea about XI, but in the off chance we get XV, I'm leaning on Ravus over Ardyn, but could easily see either of them. I think Ravus is the more "direct" antagonist early on, with Ardyn just toying with you most of the game, and Ravus does have a direct personal beef with Noctis. The other issue is just that Ardyn is

Spoiler

basically Noctis already anyway

Ravus would be more original in that regard. But I don't know if we'd get a second XV character yet.

 

Other possible picks if NOT going for villains:

1.) Vivi, my number one choice for a secondary character from 9.

2.) Balthier. If the "newer half" female is someone like Rinoa or Serah, Balthier is a top candidate from XII. I'm just heavily leaning on Ashe right now, but I could absolutely see Balthier.

3.) Sazh. I think he's the obvious third XIII character due to Nomura's preference and he'd be quite original as well. However, I think we'll just get a villain first.

4.) Wakka. He'd be the more original pick as opposed to Auron. I... don't really expect a new X character unless our returning character isn't Yuna, and even then, I think they'd go with games that haven't gotten 3 characters yet.

5.) The "older half" character could be Vincent or 6.) Barret. VII is the only game I think could get a fourth now (of course, before they get their third character back in this case), I just think Edgar is more likely, and they won't add a new character to games that already had three before (even if the third isn't back yet). But VII is the game I can see an exception for.

[Teoskaven]

https://gematsu.com/2018/01/dissidia-final-fantasy-opera-omnia-coming-west-winter

 

 

In other news, Opera Omnia is getting localized (although apparently only in text, they're retaining the japanese voices for now), you can already pre-register on the IoS/Android stores.
I'm definetly gonna get it, but i know it's gonna be extremely heavy on the memory space, so i'm afraid i'll have to say goodbye to Fire Emblem Heroes as a trade. Alas.

[Teoskaven]

Two updates: first of all, a new stage, wich will released free for all in the next patch. It's Orbonne Monastery from FFTactics:

 

 

A bit simplistic for my tastes, but it's free, i'm not complaining.

Next, announced today, is the first DLC character. It's the Ivalice equivalent of Tommy Wiseau, Vayne Solidor:
 

 

Not gonna lie, he looks legitimately fun to play as.
Here are his palette swaps, alternate costume (based on his second form during his boss fight) and his weapon skins:

 

In case you wonder, yes, the memes have already started:

[JaidynReiman]

Wow, Vayne? Of all characters, Vayne? Also, how did I not notice this anywhere yesterday? So weird.

 

I legit never expected them to add Vayne. He does look pretty interesting I guess. So I'm currently guessing they'll be focusing on adding secondary characters to XIII and XIV after this, probably antagonists. But its hard to say.

[Teoskaven]

As expected by who speculated on the novel of some months ago, the next character to be released is Locke Cole from FFVI. He's basically a Zidane clone with some variations thanks to his EX Skill where he steals an item that grants him a specific attack depending on the type stolen.
His Nomura artwork is nice, as usual at this point:


His normal outfit is based on the artwork from Yoshitaka Amano, with the palette swaps based on other artworks, while the alternate costume is based on his in-game sprite:


And last, his weapon skins, all daggers from the original game like the Assassin's Dagger, the Main Gauche or the Valiant Knife:


He's gonna be released for the arcade version later this month and in June for NT, no real date specified.
I'm expecting more details at E3.

[Tailikku]

I know that this isn't Mortal Kombat, but just imagine Locke legitimately threatening his opponents of ripping their spines out like in Ted Woolsey's translation.

Also it appears that he got a voice in the form of Yuki Ono (Alciel from The Devil Works Part Time, Touma Akagi  in Tokryo Mirage Sessions #FE), which is a nice choice and change of pace considering that he is one of the few main FFIV characters (including Celes, Tina, Kefka, Edgar, and Setzer) not to be voiced yet; the remaining few are Leo, Gestahl, Banon, and possibly Cayenne.

[Teoskaven]

Other than Locke being released on consoles later this month, the next update will bring forth another stage, this time the Academya courtyard from Type-0:

 

 

As a minor things, since May, the team is having reworks of the oldest characters, with today's stream the ones that have been tweaked are the Warrior of Light, Terra and Lightning.

[Teoskaven]

Our next DLC character is...
-sigh-

...Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII.

Not gonna lie, i don't like her in the slightest.




This also continues confirming the leak of some months ago, meaning the next in line are a FFXI character, Yuna and Snow. In its entirety, not a really exciting season 1 to be honest.

[Teoskaven]

The latest stream revealed the next stage, the city of Insomnia from FFXV:

 

With this, all main games with a character in NT have a stage representation.
Rinoa and the Type-0 stage will be avaible on the 16th of this month.

[Teoskaven]

Forgot to update with the September new things, and considering other new things just got announced, might as well:

*New character: villain from FFXI, one of the Zilart princes, Kam'lanaut:

He's fun to play has, works as a magic knight. He was considered for 012 alongside his brother Eald'narche before Prishe. Here are his palettes, alternate costume and weapon skin:

*Other stuff that happened in-between was some minor reworks like Cloud and a couple of buffs/debuffs:
*Now onto today stuff: first of all, a stage used for the final boss of the story mode can be used in all matches:

*Second, new batches of music remixes from all chapters:

*Third, our 5th DLC character, the female veteran. As almost anyone guessed, it's Yuna from FFX:

She plays very differently from 012, her major summon now is Valefor while the other summons are used only for her bravery attacks. Here are the alts and weapon skins:

*Fourth a Free2Play version of the game is coming later on this month: it will have a couple of characters that will rotate periodically and no story mode, but it's perfectly cross-playable with the retail version, so check it out if you're curious and i'll see you online maybe. If you still wanna buy the main game though, it's gonna be discounted on the PSN for 2 weeks this month, so take advantage.

Finally a sneak peek at the future:

The December stream is mostly gonna be about reworking Y'shtola (and i'm guessing adding new cutscenes in the story mode)
The January stream will be about the last DLC character for the first season pass (wich according to the leak is Snow Villeirs)
The February stream will be about a massive rework for the summons

And i'm guessing after that the second season pass characters will start in March. We'll see.

[Teoskaven]

Our last character for the first season pass is, as the leaks foretold, Snow, specifically his Lightning Returns Cie'th version:

Rather than just using his moveset from the original XIII, here he has moves from his boss fight in LR. The more he get damaged, the more the corruption spreads and the attacks become powerful.
Wonder if Troy Baker will voice him again. I guess we'll know by February.

His weapon skins are based on the different types of Cie'th. There's even one inspired by the boss fight against Cid Raines. His main alternate outfit is the XIII one with Sazh's as one of the palette swaps; i'm guessing the XIII-2 one will get added in a later date.

In addition, it seems season 2 is on its way, mostly in order to add the remaining veterans. We'll see more in the February and March streams.

[JaidynReiman]

Huh so Season 2 is primarily focusing on Veterans? So we're looking at Gilgamesh, Tifa, Laguna, Prishe, Gabranth, and maybe Feral Chaos? If they don't care about Chaos then we could potentially see one more.

Gabranth reasonably could include a "Basch" themed outfit as well, of course.

 

With these characters that'd give us 3 characters for every main game universe except:

1, 2, 3, 9, 13, 14, 15. With 14 and 15 only having one each.

For any "new" characters I'd lean on second characters from 14 and 15, or a third from 9.

 

Gaius seems to be the best candidate from 14. Otherwise I have no comment as I don't know much about 14.

I think 15 could be really interested in how they play it out. I'm still not sure on it being Ardyn because I feel like Ardyn is too close to Noctis, though the daemon gimmick with him could help it out better. Otherwise, I lean on it potentially being Ravus. If they don't want to go with an antagonist, there's plenty of really good options. Prompto and Ignis I think are the better picks there.

 

For 9, there's so many good picks to choose from. Garnet is the most obvious one, though we already do have a summoner in the game. Maybe she can still do something with her specific unique summons though. And obviously Vivi is always a good pick.

[Teoskaven]

Update since someone translated better from the stream:
*starting from March characters will recieve new alternate costumes in small packages
*same goes for new weapon skins
*as mentioned, February will be focusing on reworking the summon system
*more characters will get reworks (in the last stream Sephiroth got a huge adjustment)
*the next character will be revealed in the March stream and will be an Assassin type (speed-based, using the game terminology)
*new characters will be added in a slower pace (fantastic), they'll be slightly more expensive (apparently though "they'll be worth it") and there are no plans to include them in a second season pass at the moment

 

The last statement pretty much tells me that the team can use this as an excuse for cutting at any point development on the game, wich considering all factors, it's the best solution. And i'm still fine the game is getting support anyway.

[JaidynReiman]

On 1/29/2019 at 2:17 AM, Teoskaven said:

Update since someone translated better from the stream:
*starting from March characters will recieve new alternate costumes in small packages
*same goes for new weapon skins
*as mentioned, February will be focusing on reworking the summon system
*more characters will get reworks (in the last stream Sephiroth got a huge adjustment)
*the next character will be revealed in the March stream and will be an Assassin type (speed-based, using the game terminology)
*new characters will be added in a slower pace (fantastic), they'll be slightly more expensive (apparently though "they'll be worth it") and there are no plans to include them in a second season pass at the moment

 

The last statement pretty much tells me that the team can use this as an excuse for cutting at any point development on the game, wich considering all factors, it's the best solution. And i'm still fine the game is getting support anyway.

I've heard the game hasn't done all that well financially, so yeah, that does sound like what they're planning. The ability to stop development at any point.

 

Anything to clarify the idea that they're focusing on returning characters? Assuming "Assassin type" is referring to Speed based characters, the only character I can think of is Tifa (and if they're concerned they might get development cut at any point, adding more popular characters sooner may be the preferred option). If not then I can't think of any returning characters that falls into that category.

Well, ok, I don't know how Prishe plays at all really.

[Teoskaven]

https://gematsu.com/2019/02/dissidia-final-fantasy-nt-free-edition-coming-west-for-ps4-and-pc-on-march-12

 

While the summons have been reworked, the F2P version of the game will be avaible for PS4 and PC on March 12 (meaning also the main game is coming to Steam).
If you have been curious to try the game but didn't want to spend a dime, this is your chance.

[Teoskaven]

The first character outside of the season pass has been revealed. In order to give a promotional boost to the end of Stormblood and the upcoming Shadowbringers, the XIV villain from the Garlean Empire, Zenos yae Galvus steps in.
He has an interesting gimmick with his special magiteck scabbard, wich contains 3 katanas that he can interchange for different effects like more range or more power.

So far he only has palette swap alts, his alternate costumes will come later down the line:


Other than more music and a slight adjustment of Cloud of Darkness, the other important thing is that characters are gonna recieve new alts and weapon skins starting with next month. And the first two who'll get ones are Terra and Kefka, respectively one based on another Amano artwork and the final god form from the end of FFVI.