Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy’s first closed beta test has run its course, and after spending some time in the game, it’s clear that it has a lot of potential with fun, quick combat, though its gacha system may hold it back.
Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is a combat-focused mobile game that centers around six players battling it out in three-versus-three matches. Players can obtain characters from across the Final Fantasy franchise in the game’s gacha system.
It’s not just pure combat – there’s a story that starts with Cloud appearing in a modern-day Tokyo, where monsters have started appearing from crystals. He quickly meets up with others who have been summoned to Tokyo, fighting with them and hiding away after the battle.
This leads to the characters being dubbed as Ghosts by the people of Tokyo. The story that was available during the closed beta test explored how the characters attempt to blend into society while secretly taking care of the mysterious monsters. Most of it focused on the interactions between characters, which were pretty cute even for a Final Fantasy newcomer like myself.
The combat is where Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy shines. Players build up Bravery by either taking out opponents or small zones of weak monsters. Once their Bravery hits max, players can activate it to use abilities against the major boss in the area. The team that takes down the major boss first is the winner, and there’s a short timer for doing so.
Characters have different abilities they can use against both the boss and opponents, which players can swap out and upgrade outside of battle. Each character has both a Main skill page, which affects what abilities they can use on the battlefield, and a Support page, which boosts their overall stats.
Winning means balancing offensive plays against enemies and building Bravery to focus on the main boss.
This kind of quick, easy-to-play combat is a great setup for mobile. The matches don’t last long, making them perfect for those moments in life where you’re standing around with nothing but your phone.
It’s even better because the combat is genuinely fun. While the camera angle can be problematic at times (mostly because of the limited field of view a vertical orientation has), using abilities and taking down enemies is satisfying and leaves you wanting more.
However, it has its flaws. Like any other team-based game, it’s very reliant on teammates. This can make or break the experience, and it’ll take time after Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is released to see how Square Enix handles things like AFK players.
With that said, there are a lot of social and community-focused features. Players can use a plethora of tags on their profiles to show off their playstyle and their personality, and players can follow each other. After following, there’s a community board where players can post thoughts and questions, which their followers can then respond to.
This feature was more akin to a social media site than a mobile gacha game, and it actually felt really nice. Online, multiplayer games are fueled by community, and this was a great way for players to create their own community.
Everything above would point to Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy being a great mobile game, but there’s one area that could pull it down: the gacha system.
Not only do players need to pull on the game’s gacha system (or wish, or pull, whichever terminology you use for interacting with the gacha banners in games), but there’s also a need to pull for character abilities.
When a character is unlocked, players don’t automatically get their abilities. The ability banner holds all of the abilities for all of the characters across various rarities. Each character has several abilities to get, including Ultra Rare abilities that strengthen the character greatly.
As if that wasn’t already a bit of a downer, abilities are capped at certain levels unless players pull multiples of them.
The difference in having these abilities versus not having them is pretty massive and can easily make the difference between a win and a loss in combat. Because of this, the gacha system is incredibly pay-to-win, which could cause the game to struggle.
However, Square Enix’s attitude towards this could help greatly. Because of certain features in the closed beta test, like rerolls and special rewards, it’s hard to tell how generous with resources Square Enix will be when Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is released. However, if the rewards for playing are consistent and give people a chance at pulling what they need, the gacha system could be less of a problem than it looks on the surface.
If Square Enix can make the gacha system feel fair, whether through consistent and high rewards or a focus system for finding the abilities for characters players have, then Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy has good chances to be a great game. However, if the gacha system makes it impossible to compete without swiping your card often, then it’ll be hard to enjoy.
The combat is delightful as well as easy to play and easy to learn, and the character interactions are charming. Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy nailed what makes a mobile game both fun and engaging, though only time will tell if the gacha system makes or breaks it when the game is released.
Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is set to release in 2026 on mobile devices.
