Dissidia's arena is opening once more, but this comeback might not play out the way fans have hoped for.
After eight long years, Dissidia Final Fantasy is finally making a comeback. Square Enix has confirmed that a brand-new entry in the long-dormant series is in development, but there’s a catch that has left the fighting game community more than a little disappointed.
Once a beloved arena fighter that brought together iconic heroes and villains from across Final Fantasy’s sprawling history, Dissidia earned cult status on the PSP before fading into silence. Fans had hoped the next revival would return to consoles with the same flashy 3D duels that made the originals shine. Instead, the upcoming Dissidia Final Fantasy is headed exclusively to mobile.
A new teaser site calls the game the “next evolution” of the series and promises more details during a livestream on October 14th, which is when Square Enix will officially unveil gameplay and details.
At the moment, all that’s been revealed is a shadowy teaser featuring ten familiar silhouettes. Fans are confident that they’ve recognised Final Fantasy XIII’s Lightning, VII’s Cloud, and XV’s Prompto, while others believe X’s Auron, IX’s Zidane, and VIII’s Rinoa could also be part of the line-up.
Dissidia fans want more than another gacha experiment
While the announcement should have been cause for celebration, not everyone is happy. Square Enix’s track record with mobile titles has been rocky, especially after shutting down multiple live-service spin-offs, including the Kingdom Hearts and Nier mobile games, within just a few years of release.
On Reddit, the reactions were mostly negative. Redditor lukeshef said that they thought Square Enix would take it easy with their mobile games “after the [Kingdom Hearts] Missing Link fiasco.”
Another Redditor Alilatias claimed that an insider said that the new Dissidia Final Fantasy wasn’t exactly born from a fresh concept. Instead, they suggested it “began life as one of the projects scrapped during Square Enix’s major restructuring over the past two years” before being resurrected and reworked into its current form.
They went on to speculate that Missing Link, another mobile title that struggled to take off, was “likely deemed unsalvageable,” leaving this retooled Dissidia as “the best thing the mobile division is capable of putting out for the foreseeable future.”
However, their outlook wasn’t optimistic. The source added that the game “is already dead on arrival outside of Japan,” arguing that its lack of console or PC support puts it at a major disadvantage compared to the wave of Chinese gacha games dominating the mobile and live-service scene.
With the backlash spreading across social media, the new Dissidia mobile entry could face an uphill battle in winning fans over. Still, there’s plenty left unknown, and Square Enix’s full reveal on October 14th, along with the game’s overall direction and development, will ultimately decide whether this revival can build any real momentum.
More information on Square Enix's new Dissidia Final Fantasy will be shared on 14 October at 6:00PM SGT.
