Legends of the Dork Knight: How Each New Dissidia Character Plays

Kain Highwind

Being that Dissidia is a fighting game in a completely 3D environment, and there are bonuses to slamming enemies into walls or the ground, it was only natural that Kain the Dragoon was given the ability to control an enemy's placement on the battlefield. Each of his main attacks has three direction choices, up, straight, or down. After those attacks, the players can then further choose to either initiate a chase sequence or air dash to the opponent, something no other character can do. Unfortunately, Kain's true potential is hampered in small stages like Edge of Madness or the Phantom Train. Where Kain truly shines is his ability to do massive bravery damage with his HP attacks if they are a great distance from a wall or the floor.

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh doesn't really have anything unique to offer and (normally) plays as a fighter with tons of close range physical attacks and a few long range magic attacks. What makes Gilgamesh stand out however, is his nature at randomly picking one of 8 weapons to strike his enemy with. Gilgamesh has the following weapons:

In EX Mode, Gilgamesh will randomly select one of 8 weapons for his 8 hands and keep all of them out for the entirety of EX Mode. He also gains the benefits of every single weapon that is out and will attack with all 8 weapons. Because of this, Gilgamesh is a fighter whose true potential is unlocked in EX Mode, similar to Terra, Kefka, and Vaan, but not like Gabranth. Unfortunately, there is a random chance that Gilgamesh can wield 8 Excalipoors, turning Gilgamesh's attacks into crap beyond crap for EX Mode. Thankfully, his EX Burst is quick to execute, if not a bit hard to accurately pull off. Gilgamesh almost falls into the category of Lethal Joke Character since his magic attacks are very hard to avoid and do consistent damage and even picking Excalipoor in EX Burst still causes HP damage.

Tifa Lockhart

Tifa brings a concept started by Jecht in the last game and expands on it somewhat. At first glance, Tifa simply punches and kicks opponents with combos that can all be executed regardless of whether they hit their target or not, similar to how Jecht plays in EX Mode. Tifa has an added bonus though; she can actually cancel the vast majority of her attacks, including HP attacks, and then warp a short distance to resume attacking. Because of this, Tifa can become unpredictable and extremely devastating. Tifa's EX Mode shares similar properties to how she played in FFVII; her attacks do more damage the fuller her EX Gauge is. Because of that, and the limited benefits of being in EX Mode as Tifa, one should use EX Burst as quickly as possible to gain the maximum benefit.

Laguna Loire

Laguna excels at mid to long range combat above all else. He has one close range attack, but it knocks the opponent back for a wall rush, just so he can keep using long range attacks. Although his attacks generally hit multiple times and execute very quickly, Laguna has a lot of downtime after attacking and must pause for a while. In EX Mode, this lag is cancelled by simply using another Bravery attack, allowing him to attack enemies relentlessly. He's a very simple character in concept and also very easy to use for beginners.

Yuna

Surprisingly enough, Yuna is not a long range fighter. Rather, she calls her Aeons to fight for her and some attacks actually require Yuna to be in very close range. She has attacks of every single range at her repertoire, including HP attacks. Where Yuna stands out among other characters is that once she connects with an attack, it is incredibly hard to dodge since they all execute extremely quickly, again including HP attacks. In EX Mode, Yuna calls a 2nd Aeon for all her Bravery attacks, effectively doubling the damage for every single attack. Yuna is a surprisingly top-tier character and character of choice for most people to fight Feral Chaos since Hellfire is incredibly difficult for the AI to avoid.

Prishe

Originally planned to be FFXI's representative in Dissidia, Prishe was rejected in favor of Shantotto, who is more popular among Japanese gamers. Prishe finally makes her debut here and it is beyond godly. Seriously, the wait was worth it, Prishe is easily the best new character out of the bunch. Prishe is the 2nd character after Onion Knight with BRV->BRV combos, but she has expanded greatly on that concept. Prishe's 2nd Bravery attack can be chose from one of 8 followup attacks which allow the user to customize Prishe to a very large extent. If two attacks (the Monk weapon skills from FFXI) are compatible with each other, they will create a Skillchain, which does not do damage, but will further direct the opponent in a direction based on the last WS used. In EX Mode, Prishe can do 2 follow-up attacks, making all of her combos longer and allowing her to do a Double Skillchain with a few select combos, allowing her to choose whether to cut a combo short or not. Prishe is by far the best character out of the newbies.

Vaan

Wow, if there was ever a character I desperately did not want in Dissidia, it was Vaan... And yet, despite all that, Vaan is a top-tier character and one of the most enjoyable to play as. Vaan uses a variety of weapons to attack, each Bravery attack using a different weapon. When Vaan switches from one weapon to another, the next weapon uses a stronger, but slower attack than it would had the weapon already been out. The downside to these stronger attacks is that they can be very easy to to avoid. In EX Mode, all of his weapons are buffed to the point that some weapons gain additional attacks, making them even more lethal. But the real bonus is that in EX Mode Vaan can unequip a weapon whenever he wants, allowing him the ability to use the same weapon's "Switch" combo over and over again. Even outside EX mode, Vaan is similar to Bartz since you can't see what weapon he will use until he summons it. Vaan is a lot of fun to play as and I hate every second of it, despite the fact his voice actor got a hell of a lot better in 6 years.

Lightning

The one character no one expected to be left behind, Lightning can change her role through Paradigm Shift (Optima Change in Japanese) into the roles of either Commando, Ravager, or Medic, each corresponding roughly to distance; Commando excels at close range combat, Ravager is mid-range, and Medic is best when used far from the enemy. This ever changing nature allows Lightning to be effective no matter where she is, but she has a very steep learning curve. She may be pretty difficult to use, but once you master her, she's actually a very good character.

Feral Chaos (Desperado Chaos in JP)

Feral Chaos finally gives us a playable version of Chaos without hacks! Unfortunately, it's not the "real" Chaos, and thus his moveset is totally different. While Feral Chaos possesses unbelievably strong attacks, her starts off extremely limited: his Bravery constantly depletes and his EX and Assist Gauges do not charge. Not only that, but his abilities cost a mountain of CP, require immense amount of AP to master, and you have to equip abilities just to make him not limited. In addition to all that, Feral Chaos is a massive target and is very bad at dodging hits. Because of all these limits Feral Chaos has, he's not the greatest character in the world and is primarily used for novelty purposes, somewhat similar to Gilgamesh.

Legends of the Dork Knight