An early Amazon listing has revealed today that a new entry in the Dissidia Final Fantasy series will be coming to the PlayStation 4. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is an enhanced port of an arcade game and will be released sometime in 2018. The early reveal was followed by an announcement trailer.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will feature twenty playable characters and ten stages upon launch. This is actually a step down from the last game in the series, which had thirty-one characters. Noctis from Final Fantasy XV was announced as being one of the new fighters to appear in the game. The arcade version of Dissidia Final Fantasy also features characters who weren't in the earlier games, such as Ramza Beoulve from Final Fantasy Tactics, Y'shtola from Final Fantasy XIV, and Ace from Final Fantasy Type-0. The roster of twenty characters means that we definitely won't be seeing the return of some of the characters from Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, though they could possibly be added in later through free updates or DLC.
The announcement trailer confirms that Chaos and Cosmos from the earlier games won't be returning. They were originally the architects behind the events of the story and the games followed the struggle between the two of them. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will focus on a new conflict, between two characters named Materia and Spiritus. The game will not feature a story mode and will mainly be focused on competitive play. There will still be some cutscenes that tell a story, though we are not sure how these will be integrated into the game.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will switch focus to team-based battles, rather than the one on one fights that took place in the earlier games. These will feature up to three fighters on each team, which will allow for larger conflicts and a more chaotic battlefield.
One of the new additions to the game is the ability to summon monsters to the field. The summons did exist in the earlier Dissidia games, though they acted more like abilities that could be activated at any time (or under specific circumstances). You will now have the ability to physically summon creatures like Bahamut and Shiva to the battlefield.
The arcade version of Dissidia Final Fantasy has received regular updates since its release. Square Enix has released character reveal videos on numerous occasions, though these have so far only confirmed the return of fighters from the earlier games. They intend to keep improving the arcade version of the game, which means that these additions will likely come to the PlayStation 4 game as well.
The first two Dissidia games were overlooked classics. This was due to the fact that they were both released on the PlayStation Portable, which never became as popular overseas as it did in Japan (due to games like Monster Hunter). The original Dissidia games offered a truly unique experience for fighting game fans, due to the freedom of movement that you were given in the 3D environment. The battles were modeled after the acrobatic combat seen in the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, which made them impressive to look at. Each of the characters was unique and had a wealth of customization options available to them so that no two players were using the same version of the fighter. The fact that a new game in the series is coming to the PlayStation 4 means that the Dissidia games might finally get the recognition that they deserve.
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is coming to the PlayStation 4 in 2018.