Like many people, my instinct every time a mobile entry in a beloved series is announced is to recoil in distaste. That was certainly what I did when I first saw Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy. It’s the second mobile offshoot of Final Fantasy‘s Dissidia crossover subseries, following the surprisingly solid turn-based RPG Opera Omnia which was shuttered in 2024.
But getting another Dissidia game that’s a far cry from the original excellent PSP fighters was admittedly disappointing, and that’s before I even saw the questionable modern-day clothing attire for fan-favourite characters who were, for some reason, in Tokyo of all places. Having now played some of Duellum, I find my early concerns both unfounded and validated.
In terms of the positives, I was pleased to discover there is some inherent fun to the core gameplay, which focuses on a 3v3 battle arena experience. Where the trios-focused skirmishes of the decidedly disappointing Dissidia NT could feel clunky, the smaller, mobile-friendly scale of Duellum‘s arenas is a marked improvement. What’s more, the focus is now on PvPvE, as you have to contend with human opponents while attempting to take on a CPU-controlled big boss, like a Behemoth.
To do that, you’ll have to fight smaller grunts to smash Crystals, and clearing these areas will reward you with Bravery Points (BP), the Dissidia series’ signature mechanic. Once you have enough BP, you can head to the boss and enter a Bravery Burst mode which, for a limited time, lets you use more powerful abilities to damage the boss. The team that defeats the boss first wins.
It’s a simple premise that makes for some frenetic and fast-paced mobile-friendly battles. For one, it encourages teamwork, as you often won’t get very far if you just run off instead of making coordinated efforts to obtain BP. As a nice touch, you can also deplete the HP of opposing players to briefly incapacitate them and lower their BP. Naturally, this can create an engaging rhythm of teammates alternating between rushing the Crystals or boss and fending off other players. All the while, the boss can launch MMO-esque AoE attacks that can wreak havoc on all players.
The controls are also satisfyingly smooth for a mobile game, with you steering your character and the camera while tapping the screen to increase the speed of automatic standard attacks once you’re near and enemy. Your special abilities, meanwhile, are executed by flicking up on their icons.
There’s also a bit of depth in the abilities system itself, as you can unlock and upgrade more of them by using resources you’ll accrue while playing. (Naturally, this is where the microtransactions come in.) Enhancing spells like Fire and Thunder, as well as unique abilities like Cloud’s Omnislash, Lightning’s Blaze Rush and Zidane’s Swift Strike. These character-specific abilities, as well as the overall feel of each character, make it worthwhile to experiment with them. (I’ll always be partial to my boi Cloud, but I especially liked the ranged playstyle of XV‘s Prompto.)
With all of that said, I do have some major gripes so far. Admittedly, only ten characters at launch is pretty limited, although I do appreciate getting a bit more creative with some of each game’s representatives, like Rinoa for VIII or Gaia from XIV. Square Enix has promised six new fighters within the first two months of launch (including X‘s Rikku, XII‘s Balthier and XVI‘s Clive), plus more beyond that, so the quality and consistency of those new additions remains to be seen. It should also be noted that they’re pretty much all voiced by their original Japanese actors — a nice touch, but one I have no connection to since I’ve only ever played the game in English.
Duellum also has some frustrating design choices. For one, I really don’t care for the isekai premise that has these icons appearing in Tokyo looking like Hot Topic rejects. I’m all for alternate outfits, especially for characters like Cloud who have been around for nearly 30 years, but he doesn’t even feel like the same person wearing a baggy t-shirt, loose-fitting tie and ripped jeans. And because this is a mobile title, you’ll have to keep spending currency on loot boxes in the hope that you’ll unlock additional outfits for characters, like their original attire.
On the subject of mobile design, the story — which sees the characters working together to regain their powers and find a way home — is deliberately fragmented. Essentially, you’ll have to keep participating in regular battles to earn Season Points that can be spent on both main and side story content. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a quality narrative on the level of a mainline FF game, but I at least was looking forward to seeing the little interactions between the characters. Unfortunately, though, forcing me to grind just to see one more main cutscene or optional interactions does the opposite of encourage me to keep playing.
Overall, though, the core of Duellum is pretty entertaining, and I can certainly see myself picking it up here and there for the occasional match, especially when new characters are released. I’m definitely curious to see how Square Enix builds upon it in the coming months.
Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy can be downloaded for free on Android and iOS.
Image credit: Square Enix
