Does anyone remember Distrega? It was an arena based fighter for the original Playstation in which characters had both melee and long range, magic attacks. They were spread out over enormous, sweeping arenas, which they could travel with remarkable speed. It didn't have the fast paced rush of Virtual On and it wasn't quite as close and intimate as Power Stone, yet it still managed to carve its own niche in a genre overwhelmed (at the time) by generic Virtua Fighter-esque 3D fighting games.

Why am I talking about a 10+ year old PS1 game? Because my gut reaction to Final Fantasy: Dissidia mirrored feelings of playing Distrega over a decade ago. This isn't necessarily bad, I think the mass populace skipped right over that game, but the influence is clear none the less. Dissidia takes Distrega's framework, alters a few of the mechanics, and glosses it all over with a Final Fantasy flavor.

Which is to say, obviously, that everything feels quite nice. For my brief demo I picked Terra and was pitted again Zidane. I easily dispatched him with two different magic attacks, and was tickled with glee when I saw the traditional Final Fantasy blue menu box border the text for every attack. Sound effects were also in place, and the music was a remixed version of the traditional victory theme. From there I was promoted to a battle with Tidus, who promptly dispatched my noob ass with incredible speed and finesse.

Dissidia is crazy/ Pure, unbridled insanity in the form of an arena fighter and filtered through the lens of Final Fantasy. The controls weren't too complicated and can probably be learned and cultivated into deliberate decisions with a bit of practice, but the mechanics could still leave plenty of room for unpredictable, did-that-just-happen shockers. In any case, I think we should be glad they may have taken inspiration from something as cool as Distrega, and not the last Final Fantasy brawling disaster, Ehrgeiz.