In what could be considered a blow to the Dissidia Final Fantasy fanbase, Square Enix has announced that the next update will be the last for both the arcade version of Dissidia Final Fantasy as well as the PlayStation 4 and Steam versions Dissidia Final Fantasy NT as they are ending support for the Dissidia Final Fantasy series. The Dissidia Final Fantasy series of games is a 3D fighting game that pits characters from the Final Fantasy universe against each other. Each player chooses three characters from the expansive character roster and they go to battle with either a live player online, in the same venue, or against computer players. Not only did the game have a robust combat system, it had a fairly engaging story mode on the PlayStation 4 and Steam versions as well. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t plagued by issues with online services, clunky battle, and overall confusing gameplay.
Dissidia Final Fantasy was initially released to Japanese arcades in November of 2015 with a home PlayStation 4 port happening on January 30th, 2018, followed sometime after with Steam in March of 2019. When the Steam version of the game released, the game shifted to a freemium model of the game where players could play the game with its initial roster free of charge and purchase character expansion packs at their leisure.
The final update of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will hit Japanese arcades on February 20th, 2020, followed by the PC and PlayStation 4 versions on March 5th. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT will have its servers remain online for players for the foreseeable near future, however, they will be shutting down eventually. For those of you who are thinking that this is signaling a new Dissidia Final Fantasy in the pipeline, don’t get your hope up as Square Enix has stated that there are absolutely no plans in the future for a new Dissidia Final Fantasy game.
I spent a little bit of time playing the Dissidia Final Fantasy NT game on PlayStation 4 and ultimately wasn’t impressed. Sure, the graphics were pretty and the effects were flashy, but the combat didn’t feel fun or engaging in any way, shape, or form. It’s a blow to a community who loved the game, but sometimes all things must come to an end.