Well, here is my first article in quite some time, and with its publication I can verify that I’m still breathing. And with it I can also verify that I’m still very much in the business of stirring crap up, as you’ll soon see.

With the recent announcement of Dissidia Duodecim, I thought it might be a good idea to offer some predictions for where I expect the story to go, and to address some controversial elements of the overall plot that have seen a resurgence in debate since fans learned of the impending prequel. Something of a follow-up to the Dissidia Plot Analysis FAQ that MakoEyes and I wrote for the first Dissidia, this article will touch on some elements of the story discussed there, but in different detail.

Click “Read the rest of this entry” below for my thoughts on these fan debates, the overall story for this sub-series of the Final Fantasy franchise, and what we can possibly expect to see from its upcoming new entry.

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Cloud_S has again graced us with renders pulled from the UT website, this time of the characters’ alternate costumes such as Green-haired Terra and Squall’s SeeD uniform. These aren’t quite as high quality as the last set but appreciated nonetheless.

As a reminder to anyone interested Dissidia Universal Tuning is identical to the Western release of Dissidia save for the ability to switch between the Japanese and English battle dialogue.

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As if it weren’t apparent from our site’s coverage, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is a game that’s very close to my heart. And as it turns out, it’s a game that’s very close to Squall_of_SeeD’s heart too.

So it was only natural that the two of us would geek out and combine our resources and compile a FAQ of the most commonly asked questions regarding the game that celebrates Final Fantasy’s 20th Anniversary. Below you’ll find this site exclusive FAQ, the fruit of our research and understanding. Enjoy, and hopefully it’ll allow you to further enjoy the game and it’s storyline!
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The Dissidia Final Fantasy: Universal Tuning site has been updated with new CG character artwork for the 10 warriors of Cosmos. Cloud_S was able to extract these new artworks from the site, and we offer them to you below to use for your own nefarious creative purposes! With this current update, it’s almost certain the villains will be soon to follow. You can visit the official Janapese Dissidia site by clicking on this link. Oh, and take a look at the pretty cover while you’re at it.

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Gamestop has made a contest available on their website for Final Fantasy merchandise in celebration of Dissidia’s American release.

1st Prize: One person will win a full-size model of Judge Gabranth’s helmet from Final Fanatsy XII. The sweepstakes page makes a note to warn you its not to be worn.

2nd Prize: 10 people will win a Play Arts figure from the Summons/Monsters set featuring Gilgamesh, The Magus Sister, and both Shiva’s and Yojimbo’s normal and “heretic” forms.

3rd Prize: 10 more people will win a Play Arts figure from the Dissidia set popular in Japan consisting of Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus (The Warrior of Light is strangely absent).

No purchase is necessary and you only need to fill in your email address and phone number. (And live in the US)

So be sure to not enter so that I can win it!

For all those fans waiting for Dissidia Final Fantasy, the E3 demo of the game has been added to the Playstation Network today. As with all PSN demos, it’s free to download and play. So charge up your PSPs, and make sure you’re at least running Version 5.50.

For our friends in the Europe, it appears that the demo isn’t available for download due to region differences, however, we do have a link to the Demo file for those that would still like to get to try it out. You’ll have to drop the eboot.php file into the PSP/GAME directory to get it to work. Here’s a diagram of the directory to put it in.

EDIT: Thanks to user comments we’ve realized that the license is also necessary to play the demo as well. Sorry about the confusion. Below you’ll find the download link for the license to put in your PSP “LICENSE” folder. You can find the folder in the “PSP” folder.

License Download

Final Fantasy Dissidia Demo Download Link

The game features the following five playable characters.

So if you want a look at the game yourself, or want a heads up mastering the gameplay, definitely give this demo a try.

Square Enix really, really wants you to get on board and pre-order Dissidia, apparently. They want you to buy it so much, that they’ve even offered a coupon code to their mailing list that will allow you to get 5 dollars off the price through amazon.com. The promotional code becomes valid on Friday, July 24th at 12AM PST.

EDIT: Actually, the promotional code is now valid, a day early! Not only that, but the price for the game hasn’t increased at all. So with the discount and excluding shipping, you can get the game for $31.99.

And the coupon code is:

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That’s right. You can now stalk..I mean…follow one of the creators of FFVII on 1UP.com.

Yoshinori Kitase has set up a blog in honor of Dissidia’s Western release where it will talk about the development and creation of the game.

Check out his blog right here and read up on it.

Square has given us a look at the US release of Dissidia, and in the trailer are some scenes showcasing the english dialogue. Enjoy!

The ESRB site has confirmed that the original Final Fantasy VII will be added to the Playstation Network store for purchase. A big thanks to forum user Shar and Tetsujin for letting us know!

EDIT: In fact, it just came out today, June 2nd, 2009!!!

Also, S-E USA has officially announced the release date for Dissidia Final Fantasy in their announcement regarding E3. It will hit the streets on August 25, 2009. A big thanks to FF_Compilations for the news!

After announcing three Entertainment Packs this year (Rock Band Unplugged, Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show and Assassin’s Creed), Sony announced today that will bundle Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children along with a Mystic Silver PSP 3000 and a 2 gigabyte Memory Stick Pro Duo. The Package will be GameStop exclusive and will cost U$199,99, shipping on August 25th.

Pré-order link (thanks BWAngel) -> http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=74864

Source: Kotaku

In an interview with Final Fantasy Union, Director Takeshi Arakawa and Producer Yoshinori Kitase reveal some of the new additions and changes for the US version. One of them being new character appearances and abilities for the playable characters.

Final Fantasy Union: You’ve mentioned there are some differences between the Japanese and Western versions; will there be any other differences?

Takeshi Arakawa: You can see new abilities for the characters, which are only available in the overseas version. Also there are some characters which don’t appear in any events in the Japanese version but they do in the western version.

FFU: So there will be a few more cameos?

Takeshi Arakawa: Yes, that’s right.

You can read the rest of the interview here.