Dissidia: Final Fantasy Character Spotlight Finale – The Secret Characters

Now that Dissidia has hit shelves in the US, it’s time for us to bid the Character Spotlight a fond farewell; this week’s issue is special, focusing on the two secret characters in the game.  Click on, but of course…beware of spoilers.  

Like any self-respecting fighting game, Dissidia: Final  Fantasy features secret characters; two, to be exact.  While the focus of the game’s story is on the heroes and villains from the first ten Final Fantasy games, the secret character slots are both filled by characters outside of this bracket; most notably from Final Fantasy XI‘s world of Vana’diel and Final Fantasy XII‘s Ivalice.  The two secret characters are Shantotto, the Black Mage mistress of FFXI, and Gabranth, the leader of the Archadian Judge Magisters.  Read on, as we close out the Character Spotlights with quick looks at the two secret characters in the world of Dissidia.

First up on the docket is Final Fantasy XI‘s Shantotto, the Tarutaru Black Mage with the annoyingly distinctive laugh.  Like all characters in Dissidia, Shantotto’s moveset is largely culled from her source material; being a Black Mage, Shantotto has access to a wide variety of magic spells fitting her job class and her setting.  What makes her unique, however, is the fact that most of her magic takes the form of her special attacks, whereas most other heroes get magic spells as Brave-damaging normal moves.  Perhaps most interestingly of all, though, her HP-damaging Black Magic actually grows in power as she gets stronger; the more Brave she has when she casts a spell, the more damaging it becomes.  Here’s just a few of her attacks.

• Retribution: One of Shantotto’s default attacks, this attack allows her to throw her staff at an opponent like a boomerang.  Depending on when it hits the opponent, it can produce one of two outcomes.  If it hits on the initial throw, the staff will knock Shantotto’s opponent back; however, if it misses, the staff will arc back around, and if it impacts on the way back, it will initiate an aerial Chase Sequence, as seen in the video above.
• Stun: One of a myriad of non-damaging Black Magic spells usable by Shantotto, this spell allows her to stop her opponents from attacking with a temporary paralysis.  It doesn’t last long, but it can interrupt an enemy mid-attack or cancel out a combo if timed right.
• Bio: Just like it does in just about every Final Fantasy game, Bio fires out a small glob of slime out that, if it connects, inflicts the Poison bad status on Shantotto’s opponent, slowly draining away their Brave points over time.  It does no direct damage, however, and can only damage opponents if it poisons them.
• Bind: Another paralysis spell, this move instead freezes an enemy’s movement; a Bound opponent can still attack, so beware of using this spell on characters with a variety of projectile attacks.
• Spirit Magic: As mentioned before, Shantotto’s HP-damaging special attacks all take the form of the cardinal Black Magic spells.  She has access to Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Aero, and Ice, and can chain the spells together in a similar manner to a Final Fantasy XI Skill Chain.  When her Brave stat is below 3000, she’ll cast the default versions of the spells; from 3000 to 6000 Brave, she’ll cast the more powerful -ga variants, and from 6000 to 9999 Brave she’ll unleash the supremely powerful Ancient Magic variations of her spells instead.
• Play Rough: When Shantotto accesses her EX Mode, Two Hour Ability, her armor upgrades to a much more powerful set and she gains the Manafont ability; this skill allows Shantotto to use her HP-damaging spells without consuming her Brave points for as long as she’s in EX Mode.  When she activates her EX Burst, Play Rough, Shantotto launches into a full-on Skill Chain; players will be given the option to choose from all of her available Ancient Magic spells; if cast in the correct order, she will complete a full Skill Chain and detonate the opponent with a large explosion; failing to use the correct order simply results in less damage done.

As a Dissidia character, Shantotto is unique in a number of ways; she starts with all of her HP-damaging attacks unlocked right off the bat, she has access to a number of attacks that do no damage at all, and she’s a frustratingly small, quick target.  Because of her diminuitive size, players fighting Shantotto should expect to whiff quite a few attacks and be punished with a counter of a Black Magic spell.  However, one of her greatest weaknesses is that she cannot move while casting spells, which leaves her quite open to a beatdown if a wise player is able to dodge her magic’s effects.

On the other side of the secret character rift is Gabranth, the ill-fated Judge Magister who finds himself shackled once again to a master he has no love for.  Gabranth hails from the world of Final Fantasy XII, largely regarded as one of the more “gimmicky” FF titles; it’s no small surprise, then, that Gabranth is also a bit of a gimmicky character.  Interestingly, Gabranth has access to absolutely no HP-damaging skills in his default form; his only Square button attack causes him to stop moving and charge up his EX Gauge, similar to a Dragon Ball Z character.  However, once his EX Bar is full, Gabranth puts on his helmet, and it’s all business from there.  Check out a few of Gabranth’s special attacks in the video above and read on.

• Sentence/Aggressor: Gabranth’s default ground combo; this attack is a four-hit slashing combination.  In normal mode, the attack comes out relatively slow, but in EX Mode, it’s upgraded to a relatively quick series of eight slashes that does considerable damage and allows him to move slightly forward while attacking.
• Judgment/Judgment Master: This attack allows Gabranth to spin around with his blade extended, knocking opponents back.  In EX Mode, the attack lets him spin several times and move around while spinning; the last hit initiates a chase sequence.
• EX Charge: This move does exactly as it’s described; Gabranth charges his EX Gauge.  He can’t move while using it, but it’s essential to accessing EX Mode.
• Innocence: Gabranth’s default special attack on the ground has him stand still for a moment, before firing out a series of boomerang-shaped waves of energy that lightly track his opponent’s position and fire directly forward; these beams don’t home in directly, but they can cover a lot of ground and will generally strike an opponent if they’re not dodging.
• Hatred: Gabranth’s default aerial attack, this move allows Gabranth to charge up for a moment before emitting a 360-degree wave of energy that deals HP damage; the explosion comes out quite quickly, but unless it’s used as a counterattack, it’s difficult to have an opponent not wise enough to dodge it.  It’s a very cool-looking attack, however.
• Quickening: As mentioned previously, using Gabranth’s EX Mode, called Mist, is absolutely essential to victory.  His EX Burst attack, Quickening, is a chain of (obviously) Quickening attacks from Final Fantasy XII; notably, these attacks were culled directly from his brother Basch.  As in XII, players will be prompted to hit the R button repeatedly until the next level of Quickening attack becomes available, at which point they hit the X button.  Depending on how many Quickenings Gabranth chains together, he’ll unleash a different Concurrence attack to finish them off.

Gabranth is a strange character; he can’t deal any HP damage at all outside of EX Mode unless he’s in a chase sequence, and none of his attacks can initiate one unless he’s in EX Mode.  Essentially, Gabranth is useless outside of EX Mode; despite this, though, he’s actually a very aggressive, dangerous character to fight against once he puts his helmet on.  He’s not likely to be anyone’s main character due to the difficulty of keeping a continued offense going without a large set of EX Gauge-extending accessories, but Gabranth is a fun character to play, and his stylish, well-designed attacks definitely make him worth looking into when you unlock him.

And now, with the secret characters revealed, we’ve hit the end of our Character Spotlight.  Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this multiple-week look at the world and the characters of Dissidia; the amount of thought and effort put into differentiating each character is truly quite staggering, and each one’s worth at least a few tries, even if they aren’t for you.  We now return to our regularly scheduled OLC programming, and I’ll be bringing you more reviews, news, previews, and interviews as time goes on.  See you again soon.