Dissidia Playing Log: Part 8

How you doing, Space Monkees?

Normally I would be talking about "Final Fantasy VIII"'s chapter of Destiny Odyssey in this post.  However, I have officially run completely out of complaints and comments to make.  I'm done.  I'm finished.  Instead of going through each and every little chapter and delve into what I admit is needlessly savage criticism, I've instead decided to lump all three chapters into one post, and move on to something else.  Honestly, I really do want to get past this whole Dissidia epic and move on to some other topic of posting.

Since I just want Dissidia's plot to finally move on already, I've actually begun to skip cutscenes once the dialogue begins to run dry.  Which is fairly often.  And since I've fought the same twenty enemies about 100 times each now, I've begun to dodge fights too.  I guess ultimately my enthusiasm for this whole thing has begun to wane.  Really, the game needs to jump up into a new level of intensity, both plot-wise and in gameplay.  How many times can you fight a level one Firion while keeping up your personal level of excitement?  Twice?  Maybe if you're really really like disturbingly into "Final Fantasy II" (there has to be at least one guy out there), but for the rest of us, it isn't going to fly for very long.  So what I wanted to do is fly right through the last three chapters and jump into Destiny Odyssey where I'm sure things will finally pick up.

But first, a brief overview of each Chapter.

Plot-wise:  There's nothing to talk about in Destiny Odyssey VIII.  There's nothing to talk about in Destiny Odyssey IX.  I really believe, honestly, that whoever wrote the scripts for these chapters just did not care at all about how they performed on any level.  If you are out there, Japanese person who wrote this game and if you poured your heart and soul into this, I am sorry for being so furious with my critique.  I guess it was somebody else's fault that the shine of your ideas didn't shine through in the finished product.  Or if you just wrote whatever got your check signed, then I guess my suspicion was correct.  And you should definitely find something that you actually care about to do, because you're only hurting others by writing stuff like this.

Surprisingly, and I do mean its a surprise, Destiny Odyssey X is actually one of the better chapters plot-wise.  Because something seems to happen.  Tidus begins his journey hating his dad, Jecht for reasons that you would understand if you played "Final Fantasy X".  By the end of it, he's gained a respect for the old man.  It may be just a replay of that plot line from FFX, but it worked there, and by God it works here.  I never thought I would like Tidus's story, since he's easily my least favorite character to appear in Dissidia.  His narration is as grating as ever, but at least its a nice homage to the original game.  And that's what these chapters should have been:  homages.  As for the others, I just don't see.  Squall kinda gets a lone wolf sort of thing, but there's no love interest to drag him along.  Nothing at all happens to Zidane, which is sad since "Final Fantasy IX" is the second-best game in this compilation.

(I still can't say with a straight face that "Final Fantasy XII" is really in this game.  One bonus character that I can't figure out how to unlock and has appeared once is not enough.)

Characters:  Squall is a brawler, Zidane is quick, and Tidus is some kind of weird compromise character with HP attacks are painfully hard to land.  Tidus is probably the worst of the three, Squall the best.  I'm basically out of things to say here too.

On a completely unrelated note, the pronunciation of Zidane's name bugs me.  For years now, I've read it with a long 'A' (rhymes with "bane"), since in the English language, when you add a silent 'E', that typically makes the vowel after it long.  However, it turns out I've been saying it wrong the whole time.  Its a short 'A' (rhymes with "con").  It just sounds wrong to me.  "Zidon" is such a weird way of saying it.  He sounds like a stuck-up womanizing French guy.  "Hello, my darling.  It is fate that has brought you here to partake in the dance of love with me, the great Zidane."  Why have a silent 'E' in the name if it doesn't do anything?  I don't get it!

So now I've moved onto the final chapter.  Its a four-part epic called "Shade Impulse".  Here the Warriors of Cosmos will have to band together to face off against the victorious Chaos after he killed off their sexy Goddess. So finally the tension has been mounted.  Hopefully, these ten stages have been nothing more than an extended intro for the main course.  The heroes merely had to find themselves before they could move on and face off against the full power of evil.  Now we shall experience full darkness!

PS:  Why do the villains fade away like members of Organization XIII when they die?  And do they even die?  Its very unclear how death works around here.  Sometimes the villains swear revenge, but other times they act like they're being killed off for real, like Jecht did at the end of the last chapter.  I just don't understand...