Dissidia Final Fantasy/Tropes N to Z

This page covers tropes found in Dissidia Final Fantasy, tropes N to Z. You can find tropes A to M here.

N

 * Nakama - The dialogue in the Japanese version beats you over the head with this term. And so does the English version, to a point. It's totally obvious where they got "comrade" from.
 * Names to Know in Anime - Hoo boy, where do we start?
 * Akio Ohtsuka - Gabranth
 * Akira Ishida - Kuja
 * Atsuko Tanaka - Ultimecia
 * Aya Hirano - Prishe
 * Hideo Ishikawa - Squall Leonhart
 * Hikaru Midorikawa - Firion
 * Hiroaki Hirata - Laguna Loire
 * Jun Fukuyama - Onion Knight (Not using his Lelouch-style Magnificent Bastard voice, but his good ol' straightforward Kid Hero voice)
 * Kazuya Nakai - Gilgamesh (In lieu of the late Daisuke Gouri)
 * Kenji Utsumi - Garland
 * Kenyuu Horiuchi - The Emperor
 * Koichi Yamadera - Kain Highwind
 * Maaya Sakamoto - Lightning and DLC Assist Aerith
 * Masakazu Morita - Tidus (reprising his Star-Making Role from Final Fantasy X)
 * Megumi Hayashibara - Shantotto
 * Norio Wakamoto - Chaos
 * Romi Park - Zidane Tribal
 * Shigeru Chiba - Kefka (who previously voiced another Joker-Expy, Jakoh from Fist of the North Star)
 * Soichiro Hoshi - Bartz Klauser
 * Sumi Shimamoto - Cosmos
 * Takahiro Sakurai - Cloud Strife (another reprise)
 * Toshihiko Seki - Warrior of Light
 * Toshiyuki Morikawa - Sephiroth
 * Yukari Fukui - Terra Branford
 * Narnia Time - Apparently, in the world where the war takes place, time is "not steady", meaning that the warriors can spend ages fighting for the gods in countless cycles of war, but are still able to return to the time and place from which they were summoned.
 * Nerf - Almost every aspect of gameplay was nerfed for Dissidia 012, with the net result that characters do less damage, equipment and accessories are less-important, battles last longer and skill is more critical:
 * Equipment pieces had their abilities nerfed. In Dissidia the Ragnarok gave +25% physical damage and the Zwill Crossblade gave +30% initial EX Force. Dissidia 012, +10% physical damage and +20% initial EX Force. Booster accessories are now one each, and some had their multiplier reduced. Basic accessories had their effects heavily nerfed in addition to mostly being one each. For example, in Dissidia, you could equip a Gaia Ring (+15% damage), two Muscle Belts (+15% physical damage), and a Champion Belt (+25% physical damage). In Dissidia 012 you get one Muscle Belt (+7% physical damage), and the Gaia Ring and Champion Belt no longer exist.
 * EX Cores and EX Force charge the EX Gauge less, and EX Mode lasts less time (especially since the main equipment pieces used to extend EX Mode duration were nerfed with everything else).
 * Stage Bravery is lower and Wall Rush damage is less. In Dissidia, if you inflicted Break that was an instant +4000 Bravery (usually, give or take), and with a Wall Rush HP attack that's 6000 damage plus your Bravery when you got the boost. Dissidia 012, Break will give around +2000 Bravery, and with wall Rush that's 2500 damage. Exact same circumstances, less than half the damage.
 * A nerf that doesn't sound as drastic on paper as it is in practice, dodging no longer "recharges" your jumps - once you exhaust your jumps you can't jump again until you land or use Quickmove on something. Thus, staying in the air for extended periods of time is harder.
 * And that's all in addition to the various buffs and nerfes individual characters got. Terra in particular is widely considered to be one of the most heavily nerfed characters.
 * Never Live It Down - In-universe as Mythology Gags—if a character had a particularly embarrassing moment in their original game, like Firion's near-seduction by the Lamia Queen or Cloud's cross-dressing in Wall Market, Dissidia will reference it for a laugh. In Dissidia 012, Vaan got this worst of all—his infamous "how old are you" line pops up four times.
 * Nice Hat - Or better said, Nice Helmets, Warrior of Light and Onion Knight, as well as those listed under Mask Power above.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero -
 * To their defense,
 * Nintendo Hard - Inward Chaos. You essentially fight every character in the game in a row, with most of them being over level 100 and able to perfectly predict your moves. To best simulate the experience, place the most sensitive part of your body in a vice and tighten it.
 * Also, Duel Colosseum's Blackjack Course. Prepare to get thrown around excessively For Massive Damage by CPU's that range from level 100-150 and can button read... not to mention Chaos can pop up anytime at level 130 to ruin your day... Have fun with that.
 * Good luck getting Feral Chaos as a playable character. The dungeons leading to his are decent enough, the enemies max out at your level normally. Feral Chaos's level? The STARTING enemies are level 120, with max equipment on them, not to mention how stupidly dodgy and accurate the enemies are. You've got five levels of this before meeting the level 130 Feral Chaos with almost 160,000 HP.
 * No Export for You - Dissidia Final Fantasy - Universal Tuning, yet another example of Square's tradition of Japan-only updated re-releases. However, in an interesting situation some people prefer the North American and European release over Universal Tuning, as numerous characters had their ability to cancel certain attacks removed, resulting in the combo potential of some characters being shattered.
 * As of Dissidia 012, the Official Quests, which is disappointing because as short as they may be there's a lot of plot holes they fill, such as how and why Sephiroth killed himself in the 12th cycle, the travels of the original cast during the 12th cycle, and the continuing exploits of Gilgamesh, Shantotto and Gabranth. This is possibily due to an oversight with the Quest mode though; each text screen is limited to 25 characters, not a problem for the Japanese due to their writing systems, but a big problem for English speakers. Thus converting a quest to English with all the dialogue intact could simply be impossible. On the other hand though, thanks to the Quest system there's nothing from stopping fans from trying it and releasing them for download.
 * No One Could Survive That - Done with Firion and Onion Knight in the first game. Their personal enemies throw terrible attacks at them during certain cutscenes, yet they survive and continue fighting.
 * Non-Linear Sequel - Driven home when
 * Not Drawn to Scale and/or Your Size May Vary - The Final Fantasy series already takes a "more like guidelines" approach to official heights and weights. Thing get even worse/better in Dissidia, as this rip of the renders shows. Most jarring, likely, of the changes are Cecil, who has become the tallest Cosmos-side character by shooting up over half a foot, to roughly 194cm/6'4", and Kefka, who's had a growth spurt of roughly the same amount, winding up somewhere around 191 cm/6'2". Some fans theorize the changes made to Cecil were intended to make his many scenes with the roughly 2.5m/8' giant Golbez somewhat less... awkward, since Golbez is Cecil's brother, but as there are no potential explanations for the other changes, no one really knows why.
 * Not Quite Flight - Kuja has the ability to Glide, and Sephiroth, Terra and Kefka get the ability to Glide in their EX Modes. It's just what it sounds like—by holding the jump button they can float around the stage, albeit they lose altitude steadily. Certain characters are also allowed to float while using certain attacks.
 * And then there's the various Air Dash skills, which allow a quick dash in any direction straight to the sides in the air. In Dissidia 012, Omni Air Dash+ allows you to not only dash in any direction in the air, but you can direct your character to turn in the air as well.
 * Not So Different - Taking a moment to examine the fighting styles of different characters reveals that many of the hero-villain pairs fight similarly. For example, Firion is a ground-based character, while the Emperor, with Bombard, Thunder Crest and Flare, prefers fighting on the ground as well. The Onion Knight's weak Bravery attacks means its best to have him spam HP attacks, which is the speciality of the Cloud of Darkness. Squall relies on Blade Spam, Ultimecia relies on Beam Spam, and in Dissidia 012 third wheel Laguna adds in More Dakka. Zidane and Kuja are both aerial masters that excell in airborne combat. Tidus relies on dodging when an opponent attacks and then countering, Jecht's low range means the most reliable way to hit with him is to Jecht Block and hit while the opponent is staggering.
 * Not So Harmless - The manikins, in their entirety. In the original Dissidia, manikins were your basic Mooks, existing to be mowed down near-thoughtlessly and with barely a comment from the heroes. Sure, a couple of the manikins were fierce on a gameplay level, but even so, it was clear that the manikins were strictly small-time. Then Dissidia 012 came out, and the manikins were transformed from regular mooks to a Zerg Rush that terrifies the forces of Cosmos, not only because of their power and numbers but also their nature, being soulless duplicates of living people. And then, we find out that while Death Is Cheap due to Dissidia's Groundhog Day Loop, they keep fighting even when you're already down and will push you past the point you can be revived, resulting in you getting Killed Off for Real if you get overwhelmed by them. Clearly these are no longer mooks to be trifled with.

O

 * Obviously Evil - Pretty much all the villains except for Golbez and Jecht fit this trope. And the only reason Golbez doesn't fit it is because.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome - The Official Quests are full of unseen events that amount to this --
 * Oh My Gods - Or rather: "Sweet Cosmos!"
 * Old Save Bonus - Having a save file from the first Dissidia will allow you to transfer character levels and accessory slots to Dissidia 012.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting - Left out of the original Dissidia save for remixes of old tracks with it, but busted out with such force in Dissidia 012 that One-Winged Angel looks underplayed. Behold Cantata Mortis & God in Fire
 * As you get closer to the final gateways in the Confessions of The Creator story, the overworld music permanently changes to a somber, heavy Latin chant. Jarring and when creepy when compared to the overworld songs that went before.
 * Omnicidal Maniac - The villains on Team Chaos who want to destroy the world are a matter of some concern to the other villains on the team who just want to take it over.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder - Gold Manikins usually come in at low HP but have either a huge amount of Bravery or summonstones to increase it, or to decrease yours. They usually wear the enemy-only accessory "The Rotten" which saps their HP to 1.
 * The player can make their own character this too. The "Strong Against Adversity" booster in fact counts on it, giving you a 3.0x multiplier when you have 1 HP. Combined with the Ensanguined Shield and Back to the Wall accessory so you start the battle this way, toss in a couple more boosters that will trigger for being near death, and add in the Back to the Wall ability. The result is a character with only 1 hit point, but a huge booster multiplier to power up their other accessories, an increased critical hit ratio, and the power to instantly charge their Assist gauge by dodging and countering attacks.
 * One-Man Army - The Warrior of Light. It's possible to write off his  as Conservation of Ninjitsu, until you find out that  So yes, he is just that good. He also fights far more villains in his story than any other character, taking down Ultimecia, Sephiroth, the Emperor, and Garland (twice), along with of course all the Manikins barring his path in-between.
 * One-Winged Angel - The Emperor (in his ), Golbez, Kefka, Kuja, and Jecht (though a more normal human-sized version). Weirdly enough, the trope namer Sephiroth doesn't go all One Winged Angel on us (except that literally speaking, he does). Because his final boss form would require loading a whole 'nother character model mid-battle, his EX Mode is merely his one black wing from Advent Children and the Kingdom Hearts games.
 * Exdeath and Ultimecia both get their penultimate forms rather than their final, "true" One-Winged Angel ones (Exdeath in a more humanoid version of his "magical tree" form, and Ultimecia with Junction Griever), probably for similar reasons to Sephiroth. Exdeath also has a reskin based on the horned "figurehead" of his Neo-Exdeath form in the sequel.
 * And technically the final boss is.
 * And with the addition of
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You - The sort of relationship the heroes and villains of each game tend to have. Complete with "Leave Him to Me" included.
 * Subverted by Ultimecia, who seemed to have no problem with letting Garland help her against Squall.
 * In fact, if you specifically use the appropriate character to finally defeat a particular Chaos minion, you get a special cutscene before and after the battle.
 * One Hit KO - Quite often possible if you can get your Bravery high enough. Also, some Mooks in story mode have only 1 HP, but make up for it with huge Bravery boosts, turning the fight into "first attack wins."
 * Orgasmic Combat - Some of the characters sound like they may be doing... something other than fighting when they get hit. Running through their voice files in the Museum, in rapid succession, can take the effect Up to Eleven—Terra, Cloud of Darkness, and Firion are particularly notable in this regard.
 * The Other Darrin - In Dissidia 012, Vaan is voiced by Kensho Ono rather than Kohei Takeda. Square-Enix said they couldn't finalize a deal with Takeda but didn't want to cut Vaan, but some fans suspect that Takeda was dropped because he "spoiled" the surprise by reporting on his website that he was going to be in a new Final Fantasy game.
 * Out of the Inferno - The villains walking out of lava. In yet another Mythology Gag, Sephiroth poses in front of the fire exactly the same way he did in Final Fantasy VII and more specifically, the flashback in Advent Children.

P
"Sabin: I don't get it since I spent so much time training, but I don't think you'll be able to rotate the characters in the direction you want. But my brother mentioned something about battle replay in creation being useful... What could he have meant?"
 * Palette Swap - The Manikins, the base enemies of the game, are mono-colored clones of the playable cast.
 * While not really "palettes", in the same storyline enemy types will often share the same moveset, equipment list and accessories between them (ie, all the Ephemeral Phantoms are the same). In "Confessions of the Creator" in Dissidia 012 there's only a dozen or so set-ups for equipment and accessories that all the enemies use.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall - Each character uses the command-window style from their own game when using an HP attack, presumably to distinguish commands from each character in the heat of battle.
 * In addition, when facing off against Chaos, the battle screen says "Shape The Future!" (previously used as Dissidia's exclusive story mode opening effect) instead of "Battle Start".
 * When an EX Burst is performed, the "map screen" of the fight breaks away and the characters enter the generic EX Burst screen/dimension/whatever. The screen breaks away in a manner reminiscent of the Random Encounter Fight Wooshes throughout the original series—except this time, it's the character performing the EX Burst that causes the break, each in a different way: Firion shoots a burning arrow that "hits" the screen and causes it to shatter, Terra fires a blast of Blizzard that shatters it, Cecil simply punches the center of the screen, Cloud and Squall destroy it with their blades... the list goes on.
 * And then, in Dissidia 012,  EX Burst compounds the above. First, he charges through the screen, shattering it to reveal the EX Burst screen/dimension/whatever, then flings his hapless victim straight up, where they hit the EX Burst screen and make it break away to reveal the little hell-dimension where , erm... does his thing. At the climax, the screen breaks yet again to show the silhouette of the victim being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, then it switches to a static-y Jittercam depicting  pulling back to finish off the victim, from the victim's point of view, before—the screen goes black, cutting out exactly like a deactivated (or destroyed) TV set. Brrrrr.
 * Panty Shot - As you might expect, Tifa and Terra provide these in some outfits. Also as expected, the in-game manual for the model viewer comments on this:

"Garland: "I will grant you true and utter annihilation!" Lightning: "Bring it on! I don't need a second chance!""
 * Kuja is one constant panty shot—especially when he loses—and in Dissidia 012, Yuna's second alt outfit means a panty shot every single time she goes up a wall. Every. Single. Time.
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling - Certain gateways in Dissidia 012 can be used to grind easily. One notable gateway has 5 battles straight away from a accessories protected spot allowing the player to make full use of accessories that boost Exp and AP gain, but usually break after battle.
 * Point That Somewhere Else - During Cloud and Sephiroth's second battle, Cloud points the Buster Blade at Sephiroth when he becomes angry at him for something he said. Sephiroth just smirks and calmly moves it aside.
 * The Pollyanna - Bartz, so much. His optimism is downright infectious. Onion Knight and Zidane also count, although they're a bit more realistic and reflective.
 * Post End Game Content - when you end the game you'll gain access to a lot of new things to buy in the catalog. And whenever you end a character's storyline you can repeat it again, and this time you'll be able to get some rewards you couldn't get before.
 * Another Side, Another Story - Inward Chaos and Confessions of the Creator are this, as well as Brutal Bonus Level.
 * Power Creep, Power Seep - As seen in Adaptional Badass above, every villian has been placed on even terms with each other villian despite where they lie on the Sorting Algorithigm of Villian Threat and every hero has been upped to face any one of them.
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner - More or less all the pre-battle introductory quotes. Dissidia 012 added in unique two-part encounter quotes for storyline battles where they actually banter.

"Exdeath: "Prepare to disappear into the Void!" Zidane: "Like hell if I take a curtain call here!""

"Emperor: "Grovel before my unrivaled power!" Bartz: "Try saying that after I get through with you!""

R

 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits - They got either unclear goals, poor social skills, or simply personal scores to settle, and some of them either look or act immature or are too young to even be warriors. Nevertheless, the Warriors of Cosmos are still the best team you're getting for this war!
 * Rainbow Pimp Gear - What everyone logically would look like if characters' appearance actually changed with their equipment, given some of the very weird stuff you can equip.
 * Random Drop - they have some conditions, but more often than not you'll fulfill them easily and you'll get items to craft after your battles.
 * Rare Random Drop - some of them have very low chances to be created. The equipment of the enemy can be obtained too, but it's also very difficult to get.
 * Rashomon Style - Due to Simultaneous Arcs.
 * Taken to its most logical extent by each Destiny Odyssey having an epilogue that, more often than not, doesn't even concern them. Thankfully there's a cutscene theatre in the bonus features so that you can absorb the plot in order.
 * Razor Wind/Sword Beam - Cloud gets his Blade Beam as a Brave attack, Sephiroth also has a couple of Brave attacks like this. Warrior of Light has one for a HP attack, as does Squall.
 * Bonus points for the Warrior of Light in that his sword beams are acually shaped like swords.
 * Recovery Attack
 * Regional Bonus - For once in Squeenix's history, it's also an NTSC-US Bonus. Included in the American and EU versions of the game are tweaked movesets, new cutscenes, and an extra Duel Coliseum mode where every other encounter is an SNK Boss. All this is, of course, came back to Japan via the Universal Tuning edition. Some fans though, actually declare the American and EU versions better than Universal Tuning, as UT slowed down a lot of the Dash-type abilities, and removed the ability to dodge cancel a lot of moves thereby giving several characters a lot less combo potential.
 * Remember the New Guy? - Dissidia 012 focuses heavily upon the new characters that were added, who of course were never mentioned in the original game. Justified with the explanation that the characters of the first game lost their memories of the twelfth cycle upon being revived for the thirteenth.
 * In addition,
 * Roboteching - Some of the "homing" projectiles; Terra/Bartz's Holy and Warrior of Light's Radiant Sword being the clearest examples. In fact, Kefka's entire moveset practically revolves around this trope.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something - Cecil  FTW!
 * RPG Elements - What else did you expect from a Final Fantasy title?
 * Rubber Band AI - In Dissidia 012, the higher one character's Bravery, the higher the critical hit multiplier for the other character is. When near death, if you successfully dodge and counterattack, your trigger Assist Charge to instantly fill up your gauge.
 * Rule of Cool - A hero and a villain from almost every Final Fantasy get together and beat the crap out of each other. Come on. Also, a phrase commonly used to describe the gameplay is that it's like playing Advent Children.

S
"Cecil: "Say, why did you desire to protect Terra?" OK: "Huh? It's because--She's been uneasy since we met, so I thought I needed to protect her." Cecil: "So you've fallen for her, I see." OK: "Tha-that's not the reason!"
 * Sailor Earth - The two games cover the 12th and 13th cycles. There's still Cycles One-Through-Eleven, and the events that occur in them are left very, very ambiguous. Pick a cycle number, pick your new additions to the roster, and have fun. Dissidia 012 even conveniently provides canon explanations on why no one will remember your additions in the later cycles and what could happen to them that they aren't around in such. The two games also provide Theme Naming for their titles if you're unsure what to call your story.
 * Schmuck Bait - Shade Impulse map 3-5. Hmm. Well, let's see; the map screen for this level is big, open, and totally empty, save for the boss square containing Garland and a single treasure chest. Let's open the treasure!
 * Speaking of, if you don't learn quickly to check the stats on enemies before attacking them in story mode, your first encounter with a High Level Enemy piece will go like this: "Wow, made it to level 3! Hey, high level treasure chest, and it's only one piece in front of it, Let's fight it! [twelve tries later] FINE! Have my fucking destiny points, ya cheap bastard!" It's even more likely if you pick the wrong starting level because one level has the High Level piece be a fucking ambush—meaning, if you even walk up to it, prepare to lose your points—and other levels have the pieces hidden until you attack them - Meaning you won't know it's a High Level Piece until you die. Mind you, that's less Schmuck Bait and more like Trial and Error Gameplay.
 * In Dissidia 012, at the end of the tutorial a Moogle asks if you've mastered the game. Answering yes pits you against And you're still at Level 1. Have fun.
 * And if you beat it (hard as that is to do so without hacking), the game doesn't believe you beat it, and you get exactly the same dialogue.
 * Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains - The majority of the Cosmos-side characters are fully covered—Terra has a minidress and tights in her default (no tights in the alt), and Tidus has his trademark teeny shirt, but that's the extent of bared skin. Chaos-side has Ultimecia, who wears a dress with a front slit up to the crotch and a neckline so low one can make a good guess as to her, erm, grooming habits, Kuja the Thonged Wonder, Sephiroth whose alt wears only pants and boots, Jecht whose normal getup is key to his Memetic Sex God status, and the Cloud of Darkness, who is wearing, essentially, body paint. Chaos himself is only wearing a loincloth, but as he's not precisely human, he doesn't really qualify.
 * Not as apt in Dissidia 012 with the addition of Tifa's Magic Skirt, Vaan in his shirtless-vest get up, and Prishe in her third outfit (read:practically a bikini). Tidus' third outfit leaves him shirtless, while Terra and Squall get third outfits that are more revealing than their previous outfits. Terra and Tidus's third alts are their outfits while fighting for Chaos, but they're never really villains.
 * Sequel Difficulty Spike - Though the story mode of 012 still isn't very difficult, enemies are at higher levels and have better equipment and accessories than in the first game. For a direct comparison, Destiny Odyssey I Part 5 in the first game had four enemies under level 10, one at 14, one at 15, and the boss was level 18. D012's equivalent level has four enemies at level 20, and the boss is level 26. Additionally equipment is much more expensive and money is scarcer, so you're going to have to scrimp or rely on calendar bonuses to boost winnings if you want to keep your characters properly equipped.
 * Sequel Hook - A rather odd example of a Prequel Hook, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is set in the 13th cycle of the war,, Dissidia 012, its "sequel", shows what happened in the 12th cycle of the war, which had a few more characters.
 * Set Swords to Stun - Everyone's beating the crap out of each other with giant swords and explode-y magic, the same ones that can reduce monsters into a pile of ashes in the original games, yet nobody seems worse for wear because of it.
 * On the issue of that explodey magic, many spells that were shown to have world-devastating effects in their original games—like Kefka's Light of Judgement, Sephiroth's Black Materia/Meteor, and Kuja's Ultima—are just EX Bursts or powerful HP attacks in Dissidia. And depending on everyone's BRV levels and equipment, it can be quite possible for the target to survive them, shrug it off, and keep fighting.
 * Heck, it's possible not to take any damage from them at all. If the enemy has 0 Brave, then Meteor (you know, the thing that was a threat to the entire planet?) will do nothing to you. At all.
 * Ship Tease - A couple of scenes in Dissidia 012 hint at a pairing between Lightning and Firion. He actually just wants his rose back and talks to her about it when he finally asks for it, but the subtext is very thin—Cecil even appoints himself Firion's wingman and quite obviously believes his interest in her is romantic.
 * The relationship between the Warrior of Light and Cosmos creeps up on Bodyguard Crush territory when Dissidia 012 revealed Even without that hint, the two are very close.
 * The Smurfette Principle results in Terra getting Ship Tease with Onion Knight, Cloud and Vaan. Onion Knight and Vaan protect her and encourage her to follow her heart, while she and Cloud reflect on their hopes for the future. Cecil, again acting as a Shipper on Deck, takes the Knight's vow to protect her as a sign of affection.


 * And of all pairings, Firion x Shiva. In both games she entices him, giggling at his embarassment, and the trade accessory "Shiva Veil" has a description that again implies Firion's embarassment.
 * Shout-Out - Practically everything in Dissidia is a Shout-Out of some kind.
 * Some things are shout outs to things that aren't Final Fantasy, or even Square Enix. For example: The Accomplishment titled "Battlegenesis Does". Hell, there's a shout out to Miss Cleo, she of the fake-Jamaican-accented psychic hotline, in the theater's tutorial menu.
 * Mr. Clio originated in FFV, actually. Still hilarious, though.
 * And speaking of Sega, how about equipping those Sonic Knuckles?
 * Though that one is actually a fairly common weapon in the series.
 * In Feral Chaos' Nexus Ultimus, the swords impaling his opponent seem to array in a shape suspiciously similar to this
 * In the first Squall/Ultimecia battle cutscene, and in Ultimecia's EX Burst: Ultimecia stops time with a word, sends out blades that freeze just in front of her opponent, then restarts time to send them flying at him. Hmmm...
 * Taken to the logical extreme here.
 * Even so is Gabranth's EX Burst, on some other parts. It's also explained here.
 * Auron's Jecht Ghost holds an Al Bhed Primer, which, when translated, says, Give my regards to Y, R, and P. Even though they don't appear in the game at all.
 * Kefka, at one point in Destiny Odyssey, says to Terra "Hello, my pretty!"
 * The Dissidia 012 version of Mognet has, among its letters, one from a Moogle named Sablè titled "This Is Big, Kupo". The very first line says: "Hey, [player name]! Listen, kupo!".
 * In Dissidia 012 one of the cutscenes is named "Those Who Converge Upon Castle Oblivion"
 * Sephiroth's Oblivion attack is the opener he used during his second fight with Sora.
 * Shown Their Work - There are so many nods and in-jokes to the original games it's amazing the devs did their research to fit them in, and to retain elements of the originals. For example, with the exception of Cloud's Ultima Weapon every character's weapon(s) look just how they did in their original game and/or the character's original artwork. This is particularly impressive with Vaan, who wields a total of eighteen different equipment pieces, and every one of them is completely identical to how it looked in Final Fantasy XII. And for each alternate outfit, consider the developers had to go looking for artwork, sprites, renders, etc, for inspiration on what outfits to base them on—and then the promotional images of these outfits are usually posed in a manner reflecting a render or artwork piece of that character. Even subtle things such as the way characters pose when attacking mirror the original game, and there's so many pieces of dialogue taken or alluding to the rest of the series you could fill a page here just by listing examples.
 * The World map in Dissidia 012 isn't just based on the map of Final Fantasy, but numerous gateways and teleport stones are actually named after towns and dungeons in the original game and lie in the same approximate locations.
 * Single-Stroke Battle - Some enemies use an equipment setup that greatly boosts their stats, but sets their HP to one. Therefore, the best way to win is quickly rushing them and hitting with a HP attack.
 * The Smurfette Principle - Terra is the only female hero, though Shantotto is technically on Cosmos's side as well even if she's a secret character. And just like everything else, it's referenced in the game. Technically, it's the same deal with Ultimecia on Chaos's side, since, apparently, Cloud of Darkness is supposed to be sexless...
 * Lampshaded by Zidane in Dissidia 012, who asks the player's character if he/she thinks that "there aren't enough females in this world".
 * 012 seems to be mitigating this a little bit, since it's added Action Girls Tifa, Prishe and Lightning, White Magician Girl Yuna, and Shantotto is now officially on Team Cosmos. The boys will still outnumber the girls, but it's certainly better than nothing.
 * SNK Boss - And  in Dissidia 012.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness - Theoretically you can buy any weapon you want at any time, but stronger weapons need rare trade accessories to trade in to get them, and these accessories aren't likely to be acquired until much later in the storylines. You're also hampered by each equipment piece having a level requirement, and if you're at a lower level you can't use it.
 * As characters level up their starting moves will probably be phased out in favor of new attacks. Perhaps the best examples are Terra's Holy and Holy Combo, the latter doing everything Holy does and tacking on the Ultima chainable attack to the end, and Exdeath's block attacks, with each outclassing the last, though High Block still has some uses compared to Omni Block (the main advantage being Omni Block requires precision timing).
 * The move examples are subverted somewhat in 012. Holy has significantly greater speed and tracking over Holy Combo and doesn't disperse if you dodge after using it, though the Ultima chain still makes Holy Combo superior. Exdeath's blocks meanwhile are entirely reworked—his first two blocks only block magical or physical attacks, while his level three block blocks both but can't block certain high-priority attacks they can. His level four Omni Block still blocks everything, but also still requires precise timing.
 * Subverted with Cloud's Fire spells. Firaga is a medium-range low-powered damaging spell with limited uses since if you can land a Firaga you can just as easily land Climhazzard or Sonic Break, while Fire is a long-range low-power damaging spell, but has strong homing and stays out a long time and so is an effective distraction, letting you punish your opponent's attempts to dodge or block it with another attack.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance - if you pick one of the three bonus eight-bit tracks. A PSP fighter with NES chiptune music. Though Your Mileage May Vary—To the longtime fans this is Rule of Cool for the sake of pure and unadulterated fanservice.
 * Then in Dissidia 012, many of the new tracks included are simply not battle tracks, like Theme of Love, Fleeting Dream, and various mixes of the Chocobo theme, all of which can be used during fights.
 * An example that overlaps with Musical Spoiler is found in Dissidia 012 Jecht has kept his Chaos fanfare while Cloud kept the Cosmos fanfare, despite having switched sides.
 * Status Quo Is God - For the heroes at least, since it's greatly suggested that most, if not all of them, cannot remember the past cycles, so everytime they are summoned to fight, it's again a whole new thing for them.
 * Stealth Mentor - Golbez and The Emperor, though for different reasons. On a whole most of the villains act more like they're interested in taunting the heroes and getting them to confront their personal doubts than actually killign them. Turns out this is completely justified because a good portion of the villains were . It isn't until Shade Impulse that they start "[following] the naked desires of [their] hearts", rather than acting like emotional obstacles.
 * Suicide Mission - The six Warriors of Cosmos in Dissidia 012 who didn't appear in the 13th cycle of the conflict give themselves to cut off the source of Chaos' Manikins that had been overwhelming their side, so that the remaining ten would stand a fighting chance in the next cycle. Whether they actually died or were simply freed from the cycle of conflict isn't totally clear, but they all acknowledge that, in doing this, they wouldn't be part of the next cycle, for better or worse.
 * Summon Magic - All the traditional faces plus Shout Outs, though they function differently from typical entries in the series.
 * Super Mode - The heroes' EX Modes. Terra's and Zidane's are the most traditional ones, Warrior of Light and Onion Knight change class, Bartz masters own his job class and the rest just get out their respective Infinity Plus One Swords). For the villains' EX Modes, see One-Winged Angel.
 * Sword Lines - The second type.

T
"After dancing with Draco, Celes had her solo, and I can't tell you how well it went! ...Seriously, I can't; it was pretty forgettable, kupo. I'd wanted to watch that opera to the end, too..."
 * Take That - Penelo gives this to several characters in the in-game manuals. She declares Cloud not interesting, Sephiroth not attractive, tells Squall to "go talk to a wall," hates Kefka for dancing and annoying people while he fights, finds Zidane too flirtatious, dislikes Kuja because "boys shouldn't be prettier than I am," she hates the fact that Gabranth is in the game and not Vaan, and so forth. In fact with a few exceptions, it seems the more popular characters are the ones she doesn't like.
 * The below-mentioned (under The Un-Reveal) quip about the opera subplot in Final Fantasy VI is a Take That—the entire scene is famous, and considered by many fans to be a Crowning Moment of Awesome accompanied with Crowning Music of Awesome. The moogle calls it "pretty forgettable."
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Most notable instance of this would be use an EX Burst on an enemy after depleting their HP, yes you can do that. With the patience to set such a thing up, you can do 9999 damage, + 9999 damage for Wall Rush, then initiate an EX Burst to do 9999 damage again. Take a look. There's also nothing stopping you from spamming Brave attacks on the opponent as long as you like, even if you already have 9999 Brave.
 * Special mention goes to the EX Burst of, who impales the opponent victim on his claw, adds eight enormous swords and then finishes them off with a punch that breaks the screen, FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE!
 * Done to fantastic effect in Scenario 0000: Confessions of the Creator in Dissidia 012.
 * Tin Tyrant - Garland, Golbez, Exdeath, and Gabranth.
 * Title Drop - All over the place, indirectly.
 * "Edge of Madness" itself qualifies as well, and at one point Chaos references "the end of the dream". Plus, all the manikins have names that reference 'fantasy' in some way.
 * There's also the Emperor's line, "You should have disposed of your fantasy and accepted me as master."
 * Too Awesome to Use - The Summonstones Ultima Weapon and Omega. The first auto breaks the enemy after a set period of time, no matter what, and the latter reduceds the enemy's Brave by half ever 3/4 of a second or so while it's active, making guys like Leviathan obsolete. The problem? They only have one charge each, and they take the most battles to recharge out of any of the summons. Use them wisely.
 * The breakable accessories are in a similar boat—sure, you can make more of them, but it requires an investment of time and effort...so many players are prudent with their use of Resins.
 * The Un-Reveal - In the mognet sidegame, one of your moogle correspondents talks about the opera in Final Fantasy VI. The letter teases the reader about how we've never seen the end of the story:


 * One of the Reports in Dissidia 012 written from Garland's perspective alludes to his becoming Chaos, noting that he is summoned into the past to become Chaos, who then summons his human self from the future, much as it was in Final Fantasy. In a subtle lampshading of the Timey-Wimey Ball at work in this, Garland notes that this infinite loop had to start somewhere, and thus originally another entity other than Chaos must have called him into the past for the cycle to begin. However, he has no idea who, and the game offers very few solid clues otherwise.
 * Too Long; Didn't Dub - The French subtitles are half Engrish half French.
 * Turns Red - Characters literally glow red when low on health. In an actual invoking of the trope, many of the best booster accessories activate when you're about to die, and in Dissidia 012 your Assist gauge fully charges if you manage to dodge an attack and land one of your own when you're at critical health. This allows for Glass Cannon builds with a low-HP character that'll die in one hit, but has a huge booster multiplier and can keep their Assist gauge charged up for combo attacks.

U

 * Unusable Enemy Equipment - Almost entirely averted, which is very impressive when you consider that this is a Final Fantasy game, moreover one with over 1000 pieces of equipment and accessories. Only a handful of these of these aren't available to the player: The three "broken" pieces of armor used by Mooks in the story modes (and quickbattle, if the CPU strength is set low enough) that actually reduce stats, Chaos' equipment set, and a dozen or so (out of over 500) accessories exclusive to enemies, one half being the same as those available to the player, but more so, a quarter being gimmicky, stat-reducing equips, and the remainder being utterly godly—Initial Bravery +2000%, anyone? Or, if that isn't enticing enough, Dissidia 012 comes with the Game Breaker variant in . Taking the absolute cake, though, is
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight - In the original game, none of the characters remarked on the fact that the Manikins look exactly like the playable cast, and quite often a character would be stuck fighting a Manikin that looked, sounded and fought just like them. Rectified in Dissidia 012, where the origins of the Manikins are explained and several characters are shocked and confused by their physical appearances. In the remake of the original story, Bartz even reveals that he's able to mimic the attacks of people that are not in their group, like Laguna and Lightning, which confuses the hell out of Zidane, but Bartz, being Bartz, just thinks it's kind of cool.
 * Updated Rerelease - Universal Tuning. However, Dissidia 012 won't have one due to how close the international version will be released to the Japanese one.
 * Arguably Dissidia 012 itself could be seen as one for the original Dissidia, as besides its own story it includes basically every feature of the original game, adjusted slightly, including the original's story adapted to the new gameplay mechanics and a scenario called Confessions of the Creator that replaces Inward Chaos and Distant Glory.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda - In the grand Final Fantasy tradition, it's accumulated a few, including claims of Chaos being playable without hacking the game (and his summon Shinryu being usable by the player). It was also (briefly) the subject of a widely believed hoax by a French gaming magazine, which created fake screenshots of Lightning, from Final Fantasy XIII, as a playable character in the Universal Tuning version.
 * Useless Useful Spell - The Ultima Weapon summon, which charges energy to instantly inflict Break on the opponent. However, this charge time is a full minute, so you're better off trying a summon that may not work as well but won't take sixty seconds to take effect—Lich drains the opponent's Bravery to 0, which is almost as good as inflicting Break, and it only takes 20/15 seconds to work. Also, Ultima Weapon has only one charge, so once you summon it you need to fight more than a half-dozen battles to power it back up for another summoning.
 * The Zalera summon instantly inflicts Break on the opponent if their Bravery is 9999. You will never see this occuring in any serious fight until your opponent is using a very unorthodox build.

V

 * Vendor Trash: 012 brings the Silver and Gold Angels, which sell for 50,000 and 100,000 gold. The Gold Angels appear all over the world map in Confessions of the Creator, and with the prices of high-level equipment being what they are, you will need the cash to prepare your characters for the northern regions.
 * V-Formation Team Shot - Done by the villains!
 * Victor Gains Loser's Powers - As a Rare Random Drop you can get the equipment the enemy was wearing. It's specially notable with the Genji Equipment, as it's very hard to craft by yourself.
 * Victory Quote - Each character has four generic ones, two for enemies the same level as them, two for enemies of a lower level, two for enemies who are stronger and two for when they finish a fight in low health.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential - You can attack your allies on the world map, and they recoil when struck. You can also corner them against cliffs and shorelines and wail on them mercilessly.
 * Some characters (those with upward attacks) can do the same to those darn stingy floating Moogle shopkeepers. And you'll want to do that.
 * Villains Blend in Better - All the villains are a lot more on the ball about what's going on than the heroes are.
 * Slightly inverted as well, in that the villains have no clue what some of the other villains are up to, but their good counterpart usually knows them well enough to guess. The biggest example is definitely Golbez and Cecil. All the villains assume Golbez is just playing along with the heroes, and only Cecil suspects that Golbez has different goals.
 * Villainous Breakdown - After the 13th cycle,
 * Villain Takes an Interest - Kefka towards Terra.

W
"Bartz: How long, I have waited, for this chance! Gilgamesh: AT LAST, let battle be joined!"
 * Wall Jump - EVERYBODY can run up walls using Quickmove, and then leap into the air from it. An actual Wall Jump ability is introduced in Dissidia 012, which allows a very high jump up if the character jumps while using Quickmove.
 * Walking Shirtless Scene - Jecht, naturally. His son Tidus takes after him in 012. One of Sephiroth's alternate outfits is his topless appearance at the end of FFVII. Vaan wears only his little vest.
 * Warrior Poet - Because of their wise advices to one another, their strong beliefs, their discussions about dreams and their views of life, practically all the heroes come off as Warrior Poets.
 * We Cannot Go on Without You - No matter how many people are ostensibly in your party, you will have access to only one Warrior of Cosmos during each character's story. The other characters are apparently supposed to be fighting other Manikins while you fight yours; but it's still jarring when all ten heroes gather to fight Chaos, and it's still all over if the one you're controlling fails to beat him single-handed. (Granted, due to the end sequence having no Destiny Points to earn/lose on each map, Death Is a Slap on The Wrist as long as you keep retrying, but still...)
 * Dissidia 012 plays this straight sometimes (the Assist characters will never take your place if you fall in battle), but in some storylines you form a party of five, and when the leader falls the next person in line takes their place, all the way down to the fifth person if the enemy is that tough. And they will be.
 * When All You Have Is a Hammer - Cloud of Darkness; who has about a dozen variations on her classic Particle Beam to make up her HP Attacks, and Kuja; who uses absolutely nothing but variants of Flare(star), Holy, and Ultima.
 * White and Gray Morality - Has shades, largely in the underlying concept that dark and light, and harmony and discord, are just arbitrary concepts used to draw distinctions where otherwise there are none, and as such you can't define someone solely by which side they serve. It's somewhat easy to overlook this theme since many of the Chaos warriors are Card Carrying Villains, but several of them are also Anti Villains who don't want to serve Chaos, or are fighting for personal reasons and don't care which side wins as long as they get what they want. Even Chaos himself is
 * Could vaguely be considered Grey and Gray Morality, considering the heroes on Team Cosmos includes Anti-Heroes such as Shantotto, Lightning, Kain and Cloud. And of course . Still a very light shade of Grey though.
 * Word Salad Title - The sequel, Dissidia 012 [Dissidia 012]: Final Fantasy.
 * The Worf Effect - The intro to Dissidia spares no time in showing just how outmatched the Warriors of Cosmos are, with the heroes only being able to match their opponents blow for blow at best.
 * World Map - Yup.
 * World of Ham - While the villains like to get hammy and boisterous, the heroes get tend to get Narmy and melodramatic.
 * In Dissidia 012, this is taken to hilarious extremes when Gilgamesh and Bartz have their second duel, with Bartz even using a fake, overly dramatic voice to match Gilga's.


 * The funny part comes later when you realize that the scenario's title  is actually more literal than you think, and
 * If you don't feel like reading the whole spoiler, here it is without the fight.
 * A Worldwide Punomenon - Most of The Accomplishment titles.

Y

 * You Have Researched Breathing - Your characters can't even block or dodge attacks without the ability to do so equipped, fortunately all characters begin with those abilities. No such luck with the various Dash abilities, you learn those as you level up. Yes, you need to learn the ability to dash in a particular direction at a particular speed.
 * You also need to buy the ability to use different types of equipment. Sometimes that makes sense—you wouldn't expect little guys like Onion Knight or Zidane to know how to use a Greatsword innately. On the other hand, they also need to learn how to wear hairpins and carry a shield.
 * You Keep Using That Word - "Dissidia" does not mean "conflict" in Latin. "Dissidia" doesn't mean anything, it is a Neologism. Dissidia is likely derived from "dissido" and "dissideo", Latin words which refer to disagreeing with someone, or opposing something. These Latin words are the root of the English word "dissident", as well as similar sounding words with similar meanings in other languages.