History YMMV / DissidiaFinalFantasy

* CrazyAwesome: Gilgamesh. His attacks include spinning in place to create a cyclone, whipping out a giant cartoon missile from {{Hammerspace}}, firing a pair of giant boxing gloves as a RocketPunch, and leaping into the air to deliver a diving headbutt straight down. He's without question the wackiest character, and he makes it work.

** Another example is if you run as Laguna solo (and you have to do so solo, or else he doesn't appear), Squall shows up and asks him ''why''.

* CharacterTiers: Yes, the [[FlameWar debate]] on which character matchups put who in what tier are still raging -- but actually, the tiers for [[AssistCharacter assists]] are actually pretty clear and well-accepted. Kuja and (maybe) Sephiroth are generally considered best, with Jecht trailing as third. Sometimes Gilgamesh and Cecil make appearances in more unusual builds, as well. Everyone else is generally considered good only for diversion, not serious play.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Sephiroth, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII just]] [[VideoGame/CrisisCore as]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts always]], but his status as one flies over the head of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Penelo]], [[LampshadeHanging who simply does not understand]] [[EvilIsSexy his]] [[EvilIsCool appeal]].

* MotiveDecay[=/=]VillainDecay: Sephiroth's desire to become a god was greatly toned down in the first game, and pretty much removed entirely from ''Dissidia 012''. Thus he mostly spends his time fighting Cloud and Tifa, or trying to fight them, so he can recover his lost memories, and in-between brawls ponders the nature of the cycles of war and why his memories were taken. Almost edges into DesignatedVillain because he doesn't care about who actually wins the war, his only priority is to regain his memories.

** Unless you are using Terra, in which you can just have her use Tornado. Watch ''all'' of the flame pillars and attacks get cancelled out while Chaos teleports himself right above her, landing straight into the vortex and getting himself hit.

** The Level 95 Feral Chaos at the midway point of Confessions of the Creator. He's ''supposed'' to be a FinalBossPreview for the Level 130 Feral Chaos at the end of the storyline, but in practice is much more of a headache. You can't access the northern areas of the world map until you beat him, so you can't farm the Lufenian equipment or reliably farm the trade items needed for Level 90 and Level 100 equipment, so your equipment is mostly limited to Level 60 stuff; Feral Chaos has Level 90 equipment, of course. He also has an accessory that boosts his Attack and Defense and an accessory that depletes your EX and Assist a bit when he lands an HP attack, and a Booster that triggers after 60 seconds to give him a ''90x boost''. The resulting ''450%'' boost to his stats means any attack he unleashes will certainly break you and put him at 9,999 Brave, and your Brave attacks will barely scratch him, and of course now he instantly depletes your EX and Assist when he lands an HP attack. Also while the Level 130 Feral Chaos uses Vicious and Destroy for his basic Bravery attacks, the Level 95 one uses Brute Force, an air attack that executes just as fast as those other two attacks but cannot be blocked and deals just as much damage. All of this boils down to a boss that you only get sixty seconds to fight before he essentially activates GodMode and kills you instantly, and you can try to chip away a bit more HP damage before he inevitably nails you with the fatal blow. Fortunately this fight is 5v1, but it's still a challenge.

** Ultimecia's Castle is a small, vertical arena where the entire ceiling except for a couple alcoves is a huge banish trap, which can be disruptive to many attacks that knock the opponent back or up, since they'll probably get knocked into the banish trap and get warped away out of danger. While it has more solid ground than Planet's Core, most of it is at the bottom of the stage, midway up in alcoves where gears will get in your way, or the balcony on top of the stage. The rest of the stage is destructible platforms suspended between two long spiral grind bars up and down the stage, which ones again AI opponents will ride on forever.

** The games cover the 12th and 13th cycle in full, but only briefly allude to the first eleven cycles and show a couple of disconnected events within them, and they're disconnected enough that reasonably those events could take place across multiple cycles. It's also ambiguous how long the characters have been fighting, with a couple of exceptions established to be new arrivals in the 12th (Cecil, Tifa, Tidus). Further, defeat purges one's memories of the current cycle, thus providing a convenient in-universe explanation for why no one clearly remembers the earlier cycles. All of this leaves plenty of room for one to write their own ''Dissidia'' fic covering events in earlier cycles and bring in new characters to participate in them. The Reports make mention of a warrior with an unusually strong will, causing Cid to wonder if they have a connection to Shinryu, and three other warriors not strong enough to survive purification and perishing -- while there are candidates for these positions among the canon roster, the implications are vague enough that they could be anyone.

* CompleteMonster: TheEmperor from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' is one of the oldest [[Characters/DissidiaFinalFantasyWarriorsOfChaosIToVI warriors serving Chaos]] in his ongoing war with Cosmos. When [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus]] appears in the 12th cycle of war as another Chaos warrior, the Emperor manipulates him into conflict with his father Jecht, culminating with him taking Jecht to Chaos and having him be converted into one of his warriors. Cosmos had granted her warriors fragments of her divine power that would manifest as Crystals, and the Emperor's [[HiddenAgendaVillain ulterior motive]] was that Jecht's Crystal would not manifest as a Crystal attuned to darkness. In the 13th cycle, the Emperor masterminds a scheme to allow Cosmos's warriors to get their Crystals, as doing so will siphon her power so Chaos can kill her. With Cosmos dead the world begins to fall apart, and her warriors assault Chaos's realm to destroy him before they fade away. The Emperor reveals he will use the Crystal of darkness Jecht manifested to [[GodhoodSeeker claim god-like power]] and [[TakeOverTheWorld reign over the world]] once both of the gods are dead, and until then he waits for Cosmos's warriors to kill off rivals to his power in their final stand. Cruel, condescending, and caring about no one but himself, the Emperor treats everyone including the gods as pawns to manipulate in his scheme to become a GodEmperor ruling their world.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In the middle of Tidus' storyline in ''Dissidia 012'', there's suddenly a text scene of Sephiroth talking to Garland about the nature of the cycle and the motivations of characters. The two don't appear in Tidus' storyline at any other time, neither has any involvement with Tidus' storyline in even a tangential way, and at best their conversation provides some thematic commentary on Tidus' character arc, but not in any substantial way. The scene seems to be to establish Garland's return after apparently being killed at the start of the Warrior of Light's storyline, except ''Dissidia 012'' puts his storyline last, so players following the menu order of things won't know this. This explanation also doesn't work according to the official timeline in the Museum -- Garland's "death" happens relatively in the 13th cycle, and there are several scenes of him talking to other characters before the scene of him and Sephiroth happens, so it makes no sense for Sephiroth to comment on his return at this time.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: In the middle of Tidus' storyline in ''Dissidia 012'', there's suddenly a text scene of Sephiroth talking to Garland about the nature of the cycle and the motivations of characters. The two don't appear in Tidus' storyline at any other time and neither has any involvement with Tidus' storyline in even a tangential way. The scene seems to be to establish Garland's return after apparently being killed at the start of the Warrior of Light's storyline, except ''Dissidia 012'' puts his storyline last, so players following the menu order of things won't know this. This explanation also doesn't work according to the official timeline in the Museum -- Garland's "death" happens relatively in the 13th cycle, and there are several scenes of him talking to other characters before the scene of him and Sephiroth happens, so it makes no sense for Sephiroth to comment on his return at this time.

** Leading up to ''012's'' release, the Emperor's new HP attack was known as "Melancholy Prison" from translations, then English footage revealed its name in the English version was "Dreary Cell". Fans decided this name was lame compared to the fan translation and the attack was re-dubbed "Sad Box".

** Cecil's entire personality centered on his BigBrotherWorship of Golbez, spending his entire story arc wondering if he can trust him and chasing after him to see him. ''012'' establishes that Cecil was a new arrival in the war in the 12th cycle and awoke with no memories of home -- at first he didn't even remember Kain, his best friend he grew up with. Cecil's attachment to Golbez in the 13th cycle stems not only from him clinging to the only person in the cycle that's from the same world as him, but from Golbez being one of the few things Cecil even remembers about home, and his confusion over Golbez's allegiances is because his memories of Golbez from ''IV'' are still fuzzy and incomplete. As the story continues and Cecil develops his friendships with the other characters, he drops the Big Brother Worship, because now he has made friends and is not so insecure or alone anymore.

** Cloud and Sephiroth's conflict in the original game was fairly shallow, Sephiroth seemingly manipulating Cloud only to prove he can and Cloud being disinterested in fighting without good reason. The prequel explains that the warriors have no memories of their home worlds but they recover over time, and fighting someone else from their world accelerates this, and this is why Sephiroth wants to fight Tifa and Cloud. Cloud meanwhile has been through several cycles and knows they don't end so he doesn't care about fighting pointless battles, and while his memory was erased at the end of the 12th cycle, this hesitation lingers in the 13th cycle.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The BossRush at the end of ''012'' storyline in ''Dissidia 012'' pits against five bosses. Four of them you fought earlier in the story and have had Manikins of themselves throughout the storyline, so you're very familiar with how to fight them. They're only proportionally as strong compared to your party as they were the first time you fought each of them, and depending on your level grinding it's possible to close that level gap or even be higher level than them. The fifth opponent ''could'' be genuinely difficult, as his Manikins have only appeared a few times before and he's at Level 39, so you're facing a higher-level opponent with an unfamiliar fighting style. However, he has no weapon, a shield that ''lowers'' his defense, and only Level 1 armor, which cripples most of the stat advantages he would have on you otherwise.

* EvilIsSexy: Cloud of Darkness and Ultimecia for the guys, Sephiroth and Jecht for the girls.
** [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Also, Jecht for the guys.]] Don't lie, you know you would.
** [[DudeLooksLikeALady Kuja if you aren't exactly sure.]]
** Golbez's ''voice'' has been reported to induce StupidSexyFlanders in men (in addition to the expected results for women). One can only imagine what will happen when they combine it with his [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIVTheAfterYears Man in Black]] [[ShirtlessScene attire]] for his 3rd costume in ''Duodecim''.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: In America, the fandom has practically ''deified'' [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Jecht]] for the infamous "body of a bronzed god." In Japan, he's... just another character. Not ''un''popular, but not nearly as beloved.
** Whereas in Japan, Vaan is massively popular, and everywhere else he's one of the series' least popular characters.

** ''Dissidia'', as a CrisisCrossover, can be looked at the ''Final Fantasy'' version of VideoGame/SuperSmashBros... AND then Cloud shows up as a DLC character.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: Squall's gameplay seems to be heading this way in ''Duodecim'', having so far only ''one'' new Brave Attack that's apparently not worth even keeping over other moves. Made more evident by no move of him at all showing up in the trailers.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Squall and Terra ([[TheSmurfettePrinciple particularly the latter]]), either with one another or with the rest of the characters.

* {{Narm}}: A good portion of the storyline revolves around Firion's wild rose, the people who come across it, and his dream to see a world full of blooming roses. Yes, it's a metaphor for a world of freedom and peace. Doesn't help the fact that Cloud and Terra are staring off into space discussing flowers like it's SeriousBusiness.

** A rare lampshaded narm is the description for the Iifa Tree: "One whole Iifa tree. It's amazingly heavy... obviously."

** Everything about the Manikins, especially in ''Duodecim'' which makes them one of the most nightmarish set of Mooks ever. Dead eyes and vacant expressions? Horrifically distorted versions of the voices of their originals? Being able to permamently kill their foes just because they don't know to stop fighting? Potentially infinite numbers? They've got it all.

* PanderingToTheBase: Actually intentional of the devs parts. The added roster is ''012'' are all [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorites]] from the various Final Fantasy games, though in the case of Yuna, Vaan, and Lightning, it's fan favorites in their home land.

** In his original game, Kuja was an effeminate and dramatic but highly skilled mage, and not only played Zidane and his friends as {{Unwitting Pawn}}s several times, but destroyed Terra with Ultima and almost destroyed Gaia as well. In ''Dissidia'', he's instead rather like an arrogant and lonely child, throwing fits whenever things don't go according to plan, expressing jealously and loneliness towards Zidane and his friends, and being mocked by the other villains for apparently being the newest member of their team. However, this parallels Kuja's personality after his VillainousBreakdown in the original game, where he has a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum when Garland revealed to him that he was not only mortal, but due to Zidane being the true Angel of Death, Kuja's life will also end very, very soon.
*** This is justified when it's revealed [[spoiler:that Kefka [[FakeMemories altered his memories]].]]

** Bonus Lines, especially in the 013 story. The intent behind them is sound -- players who imported their original ''Dissidia'' save data to ''Dissidia 012'' will have a bunch of Level 100 characters, so the developers use Bonus Lines to incentivize players to lower their levels so avoid a KP penalty for going over the line, and thus the gateway can still be a challenge for new and returning players alike. The problem is that they didn't take into account players who start at Level 1 and their characters levelled up faster than normal due to calendar bonuses, exp-boosting items, or level grinding outside of storylines. This turns a mechanic meant to provide a challenge to Level 100 characters into an AntiGrinding mechanic that punishes new players for growing faster than the developers expected them to.

* BadassDecay: Chaos is a much less dangerous foe in ''Dissidia 012'' than in ''Dissidia'', ironically through no fault of his own; he's the same boss he was in ''Dissidia'', just a couple levels lower and thus having minor stat losses. However, the player now has Assists, EX Revenge, attacks are mastered quicker so it's more likely they have HP links, and most decaying of all, the final battle is treated as a party system. As a result, the player gets five party members to fight Chaos, and when one falls, the next one steps in; in ''Dissidia'', you had to fight all three forms with one character, and if they died, that was it, you lose.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The BossRush at the end of ''012'' storyline in ''Dissidia 012'' sees you pitted against five bosses. Four of them you fought earlier in the story and have had Manikins of themselves throughout the storyline, so you're very familiar with how to fight them. They're only proportionally as strong compared to your party as they were the first time you fought each of them, possibly weaker depending on your level grinding. The fifth opponent ''could'' be genuinely difficult, as he's Level 39 and you have only fought his Manikins a couple times, so you're facing a higher-level opponent with an unfamiliar fighting style. However, he has no weapon, a shield that ''lowers'' his defense, and only Level 1 armor, crippling the stat advantage he has on you so he just ends up having higher HP and Bravery, which doesn't mean much. The handful of Elite and Expert Battle Pieces in the gateways (including the Level 35 one just before the final gateway) will probably provide more challenge than the boss.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Though the story mode of ''012'' still isn't very difficult, enemies are at higher levels and have better equipment and accessories than in the first game. For a direct comparison, Destiny Odyssey I Part 5 in ''Dissidia'' had four enemies under level 10, one at 14, one at 15, and the boss was level 18; ''Dissidia 012's'' equivalent level has four enemies at level 20, and the boss is level 26. The ''Dissidia'' storylines were very generous with Potions, so you often had the choice to grab a full heal and a full charge of your EX Gauge if you were having trouble and didn't care about your score, and there was always one for you to take before challenging the boss; ''Dissidia 012'' is rather stingy with Potions all-around, so if you're struggling through a gateway and are left with low HP before the boss, you're out of luck unless you have a Cure skill. Additionally, equipment is much more expensive and money is scarcer, so you're going to have to sell off some stuff or rely on calendar bonuses to boost your fight winnings if you want to afford to keep your characters properly equipped.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Though the story mode of ''012'' still isn't very difficult, enemies are at higher levels and have better equipment and accessories than in the first game. For a direct comparison, Destiny Odyssey I Part 5 in the first game had four enemies under level 10, one at 14, one at 15, and the boss was level 18. ''D012's'' equivalent level has four enemies at level 20, and the boss is level 26. As well, the original game's story mode tended to hand you Potions before each boss, fully healing you and giving you a full charge of your EX Gauge. ''D012'', Potions are more scarce, and unless you bring the Cure skill with you, if you get weakened to only a few hundred HP in a gateway before you make it to the boss, you're going to have to make do with that. Additionally, equipment is much more expensive and money is scarcer, so you're going to have to scrimp or rely on calendar bonuses to boost winnings if you want to keep your characters properly equipped.

* DesignatedHero: Warrior of Light and Kain in ''Dissidia 012'' keep backstabbing most of their allies so that they wouldn't fight the mannekins. The two are EasilyForgiven even though Lightning and the other survivors don't approve their methods and never receive karmic backlash.
** Unless you count Kain basically dying before the 12th cycle is finished, and the Warrior nearly dying himself (he would have if Cosmos hadn't interfered), {{Karma}} perhaps?

** The cutscenes can start to get silly after a while because of how simplistic and stiff the character models are. Most cutscenes in the first game consist of the characters (often just two of them) standing in place talking and only occasionally walking around. Further, the characters very often recycle the same movement animations several times[[note]]Terra raising a hand to her chest, the Emperor raising his staff, Ultimecia crossing her arms, etc[[/note]], occasionally several times ''in the same scene'', and they all make liberal use of {{Head Bob}}bing when they talk. This creates an almost UncannyValley effect where it's quite obvious you're just watching character models go through animation sequences. ''Dissidia 012's'' new cutscenes makes characters quite more expressive and they show a larger degree of movement than before, but these problems are still quite apparent, and even more glaring when you replay the original storylines and see the original cutscenes after viewing the new ones.

** It's hard to interpret Garland's victory pose as anything ''but'' him accidentally getting his sword stuck in the ceiling and then quickly trying to save face. He tosses it upwards, it simply vanishes, he seems ready to catch it for an awkward amount of time...and then he seems to give up and go for a different pose.

** The cutscenes can start to get silly after a while because of how simplistic and stiff the character models are. Most cutscenes in the first game consist of the characters (often just two of them) standing in place talking and only occasionally walking around. Further, the characters very often recycle the same movement animations several times[[note]]Terra raising a hand to her chest, the Emperor raising his staff, Ultimecia crossing her arms, etc[[/note]], occasionally several times ''in the same scene''. This all together creates an almost UncannyValley effect where it's quite obvious you're just watching character models go through animation sequences. ''Dissidia 012's'' new cutscenes makes characters quite more expressive and they show a larger degree of movement than before, but these problems are still quite apparent, and even more glaring when you replay the original storylines and see the original cutscenes after viewing the new ones.

** Chase in ''Duodecim'' being sped up to unplayable levels, to the point that you basically have to pause the game to dodge attacks with anything resembling consistency.
** '''COSMOS JUDGMENT'''. In short, it benefits whoever's losing the fight, which sounds fine on the surface, but in the Duel Colosseum/Labyrinth, you will VERY QUICKLY get sick and tired of the AI, who especially in the former case in higher levels is always brokenly overpowered in the first place, constantly getting handouts in what is very likely an uphill struggle to seize victory in the first place, and even when it's not like that, if you're at all competent, you'll see your opponents getting freebies CONSTANTLY. A real "the rich get richer" sort of situation at the worst of time, and even at the best, hideously aggravating.
** Grinding for armor and equipment. The original had it too; and while there were some items that were annoying to go after, they could all be reasonably obtained. In Duodecim, there are a lot more weapons and armor to make with just as many complex items and Gil became a hell of a lot stingier to obtain in comparison to the original. It will be a timely process until you have what you need to get better armor to stand a chance later in the game.

** [[spoiler:Possessed Terra]] in Onion Knight's story and Vaan's story. They spend the attack perpetually in EX Mode and you have no Assist to knock them out of it, and they continuously spam [[spoiler:Tornado]] to keep you away lest you suffer a lot of HP damage -- and this isn't an exaggeration, it's the ''only'' attack they have. Due to its damage priority neither Vaan or Onion Knight have an attack that can hit through it, so you have to stay away from them until the attack ends and carefully nail them with a ranged attack, which seriously limits your options and damage output.

** Tidus, the Warrior of Light, and Firion have to face the Emperor in Pandaemonium, the stage designed to best benefit his Trapmaster fighting style. Prepare to be blindsided by a lot of bouncing projectiles hitting you from behind while you're busy avoiding Flares and mines in close corridors. The terrain also means limited stretches of wide-open ground, which these three characters do not like since it leaves less room to reliably attack and land combos.
** Ultimecia in Firion's story. Because of the [[AntiGrinding Bonus Line]] on the Gateway, you're incentivized to enter with Firion at Level 8 or your KP earnings are reduced; Ultimecia is Level ''20'', so even if your Firion is just naturally at Level 8 and levels up from fighting in the Gateway, he'll still be at a severe level disadvantage so she'll get a boost to her base Bravery. Ultimecia rivals Kuja as one of the most float-y characters in the game and will spend her time flying around launching long-range magic attacks, ''and'' you fight her in the World of Darkness, a large wide-open area with only destructible pillars as platforms to try and fight on her level vertically. And again, your character is Firion -- the fighter who relies on slow, close-to-mid range ground attacks because in the air he only has a handful of supportive magic attacks. Have fun.

* ThatOneLevel: Very few people are fond of the Pandaemonium, Planet's Core, and Ultimecia's Castle stages, particularly the Omega versions:
** Pandaemonium features very small corridors with narrow walls. Attacks that explode can hit through these walls unexpectedly, and the small areas can make moving around and avoiding attacks difficult. Of course, for [[TrapMaster The Emperor]], this arena is just perfect. To make matters worse, the camera simply can't cope and will often get stuck on walls and ceilings, blocking your view of the fight. The Omega version adds pressure-sensitive spikes that alternate between the two sides of the stage, sapping bravery and forcing both opponents into the air.
** Planet's Core is a large vertical arena with few platforms. Its Omega version, after a period of time, has ''no platforms at all'', leaving you with an entirely vertical stage with no footholds but Lifestream grind bars. Oh, there's some platforms -- that are destroyed if you dash into them, which you will since EX Cores usually spawn on top of them. This itself isn't so bad, but the AI tends to grind on the bars endlessly for no reason, turning them into a GetBackHereBoss.
** Ultimecia's Castle is also a small, vertical arena. It has a Banish Trap all along the ceiling, which can disrupt ''a lot'' of attacks if you accidentally knock opponents up too high and they teleport to safety and break your combo. It also routinely spins its gears, damaging you and knocking you around.
** In ''Dissidia 012'', Sky Fortress Bahamut Omega. The place looks awesome, the airship flying at full speed through a field of glowing gold Mist, but the gimmick is that the wind constantly pushes you towards the back of the stage, and if you get up in the air, a ''blast'' of wind will quickly knock you back, draining a bit of your Bravery. Hit the back of the stage, and it's a banish trap that warps you back to the center, taking even more Bravery. The Bravery drain is irritating enough, but the stage basically makes any form of aerial combat impossible because the characters will constantly get knocked out of the other's range.
** For a more standard example, the later parts of Shade Impulse Chapter 3 are punishing, especially for new players.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** Some characters have "wind-up" delays in their animations before and after they attack; Squall and Cloud are the obvious ones, with Tidus an iffy example because all of his attacks start with ''dodges'', making them hard to time but also hard to counter. Others have ''no'' delay and just drop their attacks on the spot: Onion Knight and Zidane, who have the NecessaryDrawback of relying on DeathOfAThousandCuts, and... just about any Team Chaos character, who [[LightningBruiser don't have that drawback at all]]. And, of course, the computer is adept at dodging just about anything, especially if it's telegraphed. You can see where this is going.
** Firion. In a game designed around mostly aerial combat, he's designed to be a grounded character with strong combos on the ground but poor aerial attacks. This resulted in a character who while powerful on the ground, is at the mercy of most if not all the rest of the cast. Ignoring poor aerial, he also was slow and clunky, so he was predictable and easy to counter as well. ''012'' buffed him with some better aerial skills, but while he was better, he still suffered from poor combos thanks to, again, poor aerial combat. The only use he can have is in specific maps where aerial combat is limited, but even then if the enemy hangs in the air, he can fall behind quickly.