Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy Preview: Trendy Factions

The Dissidia Ultimate Fantasy spin-off sequence is making a return, however in an entire new type, as Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy is a free-to-play sport coming to Android and iOS units on March 24, 2026. DualShockers had an opportunity to preview Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy forward of launch, which meant hands-on time with the brand new Ultimate Fantasy crossover.

Dissidia has turn into a subseries of the Ultimate Fantasy sequence, through which characters from throughout the franchise face one another on the battlefield. Normally, these are combating video games, translating the mechanics of every hero and villain into that style, resembling Tifa from Ultimate Fantasy 7 as a quick brawler, or Terra from Ultimate Fantasy 6 as a ranged character who blasts individuals with spells.

Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy is extra of an motion sport, being closer to Ever Crisis than the unique Dissidia Ultimate Fantasy. Maybe the largest shake-up is the setting, because it’s someplace the Ultimate Fantasy sequence has seldom gone earlier than.

Dissidia Duellum Brings Ultimate Fantasy Characters Into the Actual World

Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy begins out by asking the participant’s favourite Ultimate Fantasy, citing a completely gargantuan record of names. Sadly, this solely appears to find out one of many titles in your character profile.

As soon as the profile is about up, the intro film begins, and to the shock of nobody, Cloud Strife from Ultimate Fantasy 7 kicks issues off, following Sephiroth by way of a portal. As a substitute of ending up in Kingdom Hearts or Tremendous Smash Bros. Final, the 2 enter the real-world, or, extra particularly, modern-day Japan.

The intro pits Cloud towards an Iron Large, one of many recurring elite monsters from the Ultimate Fantasy sequence. Thus begins a prolonged tutorial for the battle system, which is mentioned in larger element under. As soon as Cloud is victorious, he is joined by the Warrior of Mild from Ultimate Fantasy (sadly, not Jack from Stranger of Paradise), Terra from Ultimate Fantasy 6, and Lightning from Ultimate Fantasy 13, and he is rapidly recruited into their group.

The Ultimate Fantasy characters work together with a human baby, who refers to them as “Ghosts.” The story segments largely include messenger sequences, because the Ultimate Fantasy forged be a part of the identical faux-WhatsApp group and begin sharing GIFs with one another.

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Who’s Who In Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy

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The preview construct of Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy has ten characters, with extra confirmed for the longer term. These characters are:

Every character has an outfit primarily based on their look of their supply sport, in addition to a contemporary outfit with a number of colour variants. These trendy outfits look nice, with a stunning deal with vogue over fanservice, one thing that appears to have fallen to the wayside with Ever Disaster.

Characters are earned by way of Character Tickets, with their costume variants classed as separate entities. There are 4 separate fight roles which are tied to them, and whereas they do not have distinct gear, they do have sure unique assaults that solely they will use in battle.

Dissidia Duellum Pits Gamers In opposition to Every Different (and a Boss)

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So, how does the fight work in Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy? Every match options two groups of three gamers going through one another on small maps. There are a number of crystals unfold throughout the map, that are guarded by monsters. As soon as a crystal’s radius is freed from enemies, a participant can declare it, incomes Bravery factors.

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A boss monster will seem on the stage, such because the Behemoth. To win the match, a workforce must kill the boss throughout the time restrict. Nonetheless, it is resistant to assaults until the Bravery meter is crammed out, which they should do by claiming crystals, all whereas the opposite workforce is competing for a similar crystals. As soon as the Bravery meter is crammed, characters can carry out a Bravery Burst, the place their assaults can injury the boss, which has a separate well being meter for every workforce.

Gamers can (and will) assault the opposing workforce, because it’s doable to kill them. That is solely short-term, nonetheless, as they will respawn on the fringe of the battlefield, the place they will have to waste time returning to the battlefield.

The controls in Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy are finicky in touchscreen mode. The sport is performed vertically, with the participant in a position to transfer the digital camera and the character by touching varied components of the display. Fortuitously, there are auto options that make it simpler to focus on issues, but it surely takes some getting used to.

The visuals in fight are surprisingly beautiful for a cell sport, with the extra life like Ultimate Fantasy 7 Remake/Ever Disaster aesthetic modified out for a cel-shaded search for the characters. The degrees are primarily based on actual areas of Japan, and so they look first rate for what they’re attempting to painting. The soundtrack consists of Ultimate Fantasy hits, together with some new remixes, and nothing else must be stated about its high quality.

How the Gacha Mechanics Work in Dissidia Duellum

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The principle fight gimmick in Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy entails the Capacity system. A personality can take 5 Talents into fight, a few of that are shared amongst all the similar sort, and a few are unique. For instance, Terra from Ultimate Fantasy 6 can use the Fira spell shared by all Ranged characters, however Meltdown is unique to her.

Every Capacity has a cooldown timer when utilized in fight, which implies they can not be spammed. Whereas Talents are highly effective instruments to make use of towards different gamers, they deal much more injury to bosses as a part of a Bravery Burst, which means gamers need to be very cautious about once they use them.

It must be famous that not all Talents are assaults. There are some which are movement-based, resembling Minwu’s Teleport, which places a personality subsequent to the closest crystal, whereas others heal or buff allies.

So, what in regards to the Gacha mechanics? The participant does not get entry to all of the Talents immediately: they’re drawn utilizing a, you guessed it, particular foreign money. This implies the extra highly effective strikes are locked behind random likelihood, or, you recognize, paying cash for the possibility of getting them. It is also doable to boost Talents utilizing Development Eggs, that are one other useful resource the participant wants to trace.

The Capacity system drastically modifications how every character works, which means the probabilities of taking part in opponents with equivalent builds are slim. The distinctive Talents of every character imply there’ll virtually actually be a tier-list of heroes, particularly when extra are added to the sport sooner or later, however the choices provide all types of thrilling choices for builds.

The Specter of Dissidia NT Hangs Over Duellum

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After taking part in the Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy preview, there was one burning query left in my thoughts — will it have the identical drawback as its non secular predecessor, Dissidia Ultimate Fantasy NT?

The primary two Dissidia video games have been 1v1 combating video games, which means gamers had solely themselves accountable in the event that they misplaced. Dissidia NT modified the method, turning it right into a 3v3 sport. This resolution killed the sport, because it meant there wanted to be six gamers of roughly equal talent to maintain matches balanced and enjoyable.

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If one participant was a beginner or in the event that they stop mid-match, it was mainly a loss for his or her workforce, as the opposite two members have been outnumbered. This was the largest design flaw with Dissidia Ultimate Fantasy NT, and it appears like Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy is making the identical mistake, particularly as it is a cell sport.

This brings me to the second main problem with the preview — we by no means truly killed the bosses. Every sport led to a loss as a result of the groups have been too centered on killing one another and utilizing up Talents simply to outlive. A ton of cooperation is required to take down a boss, and the timer turns into the largest enemy, as a result of matches simply preserve operating out the clock.

Dropping the boss, the opposing workforce, and all of the common monsters/crystals into such a small enviornment implies that it may be straightforward for issues to get complicated, particularly when attempting to focus on foes with particular Talents.

Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy will be performed utilizing AI companions towards AI opponents, however many of the content material is tied to aggressive modes. I concern individuals attempting to play it like a solo sport are going to get annoyed once they’re dropping towards opponents who’re actively speaking, which, to be truthful, is a matter with numerous multiplayer titles.

All that being stated, the Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy preview was performed with a small group of individuals in a brief time frame. If a aggressive scene does construct up across the sport, then this will probably be much less of a difficulty. When there are six gamers with absolutely optimized builds battling it out, Dissidia Duellum Ultimate Fantasy will be an thrilling multiplayer expertise. It simply wants these particular circumstances to get the place it must be.

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Methods

Launched

March 31, 2026

Developer(s)

NHN PlayArt Corp., Sq. Enix

Writer(s)

Sq. Enix