Paladin Force

Day 366

I've ended up playing Dissidia 012 a lot more than I'd originally intended. After completing the primary story mode I likely could have stopped right there and counted the game as beaten. I assumed the Confessions of the Creator mode would continue and conclude the storyline established in the original Dissidia game and be a logical progression in difficulty from the main story mode. This has turned out not to be the case, at least as far as the difficulty goes. The difficulty has so far been significantly higher. My primary characters Cecil and Yuna are at level 100 (with only passable gear, mind you) and I'm still definitely having some issues. A large part of the problem lies with me being terrible at fighting games, no doubt.

I really do like the game a lot and think that it's reasonably deep and well designed, although I am perhaps not the best person to comment on such a thing. I'm definitely not an authority on the genre and aside from the gameplay itself I find myself drawn to the customization aspects of the game--both with equipment/accessories and abilities. These elements add a lot of variety and strategy to the game beyond the raw mechanical skill required to succeed in combat.

The main story mode was difficult at times, but it was a joke in comparison to what Confessions of the Creator has to offer. There were many instances in the story mode where I could get by by spamming HP Attacks until my foes were vanquished. Confessions of the Creator is forcing me to time my dodges appropriately lest I be punished by counterattacks, to block incoming attacks to force staggers, and to space appropriately. Playing all out offense is no longer a viable strategy unless I significantly outlevel the AI opponent, and sometimes not even then. The odds are frequently stacked heavily in their favor, depending on the circumstances surrounding the match.

I don't think I'd ever be able to play Dissidia competitively. I'm not convinced I don't have the skill to reach the level of proficiency required to compete with better players, but I just don't have the patience to do it--at least not for a game that has a pretty marginal scene at best. A cursory investigation of a few online Dissidia communities reveals that although the scene was once vibrant and growing, it is now approaching stagnation. This is kind of sad because I feel like Dissidia is a game with a lot of strategic depth and fun characters, but I can understand when something like this happens. The scene will likely die out completely if Square-Enix chooses not to release another title in the series.

I'm not going to consider Dissidia 012 finished until I finish Confessions of the Creator, even if the credits rolled after the main story mode. It seems like a copout to call that a finished game when there is so much content left to finish. I dreaded taking on Chaos in that mode because of how difficult he was in the original Dissidia but in this particular case he was shockingly easy. I can't imagine the same will be true for the final boss of Confessions of the Creator. I can imagine being stuck there for weeks--which is annoying, because there are a lot of games I'd like to pick up on after I'm finished with this one.

I play a lot of games that are very simple to finish but this is not one of those games. I do enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing a game like this one, but I am getting a little antsy here. I'd really like to finish Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem as well, a game that is a similar roadblock to clearing out my backlog. I did finish Divinity: Original Sin last night though, and I'll probably talk about that a bit tomorrow!