History DissidiaFinalFantasy / TropesNToZ

* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains: 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 [[WalkingShirtlessScene only pants and boots]], Jecht whose ''[[WalkingShirtlessScene normal getup]]'' is key to his MemeticSexGod 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.

* PantyShot: As you might expect, Tifa and Terra provide these in some outfits. Also as expected, the in-game manual for the model viewer [[LampshadeHanging comments on this]]:

* OffScreenMomentOfAwesome - The Official Quests are full of unseen events that amount to this -- [[spoiler:Gilgamesh got to fight Exdeath, Vaan got to fight Gabranth, and Shantotto managed to escape the cycle by ''outright destroying Gateways'' until she de-stabalized their portals enough to get a passage to the Rift to open. Garland warns her that if she enters the Rift she can never escape -- [[ShutUpHannibal Shantotto laughs about the fact that he had said the exact same thing about the cycle itself]].]]
* OhMyGods - Or rather: "Sweet Cosmos!"
* OldSaveBonus - Having a save file from the first ''Dissidia'' will allow you to transfer character levels and accessory slots to ''Dissidia 012''.
* OminousLatinChanting - 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmo584truz8 Cantata Mortis & God in Fire]].

* OmnicidalManiac - 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 [[TakeOverTheWorld take it over]].
* [[OneSteveLimit One Cloud Limit]] - [[AvertedTrope Averted]]; this game features both [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII the Void]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Strife]].
* OneHitPointWonder - 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.

* OneManArmy - The Warrior of Light. It's possible to write off his [[spoiler:holding off an entire army of manikins as large as the one Lightning, Vaan, Yuna, Laguna, Tifa, and Kain are fighting for as long or longer than they do]] as ConservationOfNinjitsu, until you find out that [[spoiler:among every warrior in the [[MindRape nightmare universe]] Shinryu plunged Cid into, of Chaos and Cosmos alike, the Warrior of Light held out the longest against Feral Chaos.]] 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.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou - The sort of relationship the heroes and villains of each game tend to have. Complete with "LeaveHimToMe" included.

* OneHitKO - 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."
* OrgasmicCombat - 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 UpToEleven -- Terra, [[EvilIsSexy Cloud of Darkness]], and [[HotBlooded Firion]] are particularly notable in this regard.

* PaletteSwap - The Manikins, the base enemies of the game, are mono-colored clones of the playable cast.

* ThePollyanna - Bartz, ''so much''. His optimism is downright infectious. Onion Knight and Zidane also count, although they're a bit more realistic and reflective.
* PostEndGameContent - 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.
** AnotherSideAnotherStory - Inward Chaos and Confessions of the Creator are this, as well as BrutalBonusLevel.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep - 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 Villain Threat, and every hero has been upped to face any one of them.
* PreAssKickingOneLiner - 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.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits - They got either unclear goals, [[LonersAreFreaks poor social skills]], or simply [[ItsPersonal personal scores to settle]], and some of them [[ObfuscatingStupidity either look or act immature]] or [[ImprobableAge are too young to even be warriors]]. Nevertheless, the Warriors of Cosmos are still the [[BunnyEarsLawyer best]] [[BadassCrew team]] you're getting for this war!
* RainbowPimpGear - What everyone logically ''would'' look like if characters' appearance actually changed with their equipment, given some of the very weird stuff you can equip.
* RandomDrop - they have some conditions, but more often than not you'll fulfill them easily and you'll get items to craft after your battles.
** RareRandomDrop - 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.

* RazorWind[=/=]SwordBeam - 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.

* RegionalBonus - 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 SNKBoss. All this, of course, came back to Japan via the ''[[UpdatedRerelease 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.
* RememberTheNewGuy - ''Dissidia 012'' focuses heavily upon the new characters that were added, who of course were never mentioned in the original game. {{Justified|Trope}} with the explanation that the characters of the first game lost their memories of the twelfth cycle upon being revived for the thirteenth.

* {{Retcon}} - ''Dissidia 012'' expanded on the momentary opposition Exdeath showed to Golbez and Cecil by making him Kain's ArchEnemy and by proxy to Golbez and Cecil, while the Emperor's role in Jecht's defection is expanded into him being Yuna's ArchEnemy and the mastermind behind a scheme with Tidus and Jecht. As a result, their rivalries with Bartz and Firion are actually footnotes to their ''real'' conflicts with the mentioned characters, and looking at their confrontations with this new backstory in mind, there's no real rivalry between Bartz and Exdeath as much as Exdeath just happened to be the one Bartz fought at the end of the story. As for the Emperor and Firion, [[spoiler:for the purposes of his plan, the Emperor plays himself up as Firion's designated nemesis to him on purpose, since Firion needs to have his views challenged in order to assert them fully and get the CharacterDevelopment needed to manifest the Crystal]].
* RewardingVandalism - Not only do you often get new trade accessories for destroying large pieces of the scenery, it's often the only way to get those particular items.
* {{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.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething - Cecil [[spoiler:The King of Baron]] FTW!
* RPGElements - What else did you expect from a ''Final Fantasy'' title?
* RubberBandAI - 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.
* RuleOfCool - 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 ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]''.

* SailorEarth - 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 ThemeNaming for their titles if you're unsure what to call your story.
* SchmuckBait - 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! [[spoiler:OhCrap! Simultaneous ambush by two ridiculously high-leveled enemy pieces (out of four placed ''just so'')! ''[[SarcasmMode GEE, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED!]]'']]

* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains - 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 [[WalkingShirtlessScene only pants and boots]], Jecht whose ''[[WalkingShirtlessScene normal getup]]'' is key to his MemeticSexGod 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.

* SequelDifficultySpike - 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. As well, the original game's story mode tended to hand you Potions before each boss, fully healing you and giving you a full charge of your EX Gauge. ''D012'', Potions are more scarce, and unless you bring the Cure skill with you, if you get weakened to only a few hundred HP in a gateway before you make it to the boss, you're going to have to make do with that. 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.
* SequelHook - A rather odd example of a Prequel Hook, ''Dissidia: Final Fantasy'' is set in the 13th cycle of the war, [[spoiler:that ends up breaking the cycle of conflict]]. ''Dissidia 012'', its "[[{{prequel}} sequel]]", shows what happened in the ''12th'' cycle of the war, which had a few more characters [[spoiler:that didn't make it to the 13th cycle]].

* SetSwordsToStun - 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.

* ShipTease - A couple of scenes in ''Dissidia 012'' hint at a pairing between Lightning and Firion. He actually [[SomethingAboutARose 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.

* ShoutOut - Practically everything in ''Dissidia'' is a ShoutOut of some kind.

* SingleStrokeBattle - 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.

* SNKBoss - [[spoiler:Chaos.]] And [[spoiler:Feral Chaos]] in ''Dissidia 012''.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness - 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.

* SoundtrackDissonance - if you pick one of the three bonus eight-bit tracks. A PSP fighter with NES chiptune music. Although to the longtime fans this is RuleOfCool for the sake of pure and unadulterated fanservice.

* SpaceWhaleAesop - The entire point of the Destiny Odyssey/Light to All storylines where the ten heroes get their Crystals is that the Crystals manifest when they prove their determination and will to fight, and this is done by having them undergo some form of CharacterDevelopment. This is usually done by the character finding a proper reason to fight, or acknowledging the truth of why they fight for that cause. However, sometimes the aesop they're supposed to learn isn't conveyed very well, resulting in this trope.

* StatusQuoIsGod - 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.
* StealthMentor - 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 killing them. [[FridgeBrilliance Turns out this is completely justified]] because a good portion of the villains were [[spoiler:in on the plan to kill Cosmos by letting the heroes earn the Crystals]]. It isn't until Shade Impulse that they start "[following] the naked desires of [their] hearts", rather than acting like emotional obstacles.
* SuicideMission - 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' [[UncannyValley 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.

* SuperMode - The heroes' EX Modes. Terra's and Zidane's are the most traditional ones, Warrior of Light and Onion Knight [[ClassAndlevelSystem change class, Bartz masters own his job class]], and the rest just get out their respective {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s). For the villains' EX Modes, see OneWingedAngel.
* SwordLines - The second type.

* TakeThat - [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII 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.

* TinTyrant - Garland, Golbez, Exdeath and Gabranth.
* TitleDrop - All over the place, indirectly. [[spoiler:The strongest attack of the end boss, Chaos, is called "Final Fantasy". Though sadly, it was [[{{Woolseyism}} changed to]] "Brink of Delusion" in the US release, meaning you'll have to wait for the Secret Ending Cutscene for the proper ''FF'' Title Drop.]]

* TooAwesomeToUse - The Summonstones [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Ultima Weapon]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Omega]]. The first auto breaks the enemy after a set period of time, no matter what, and the latter reduces the enemy's Brave by half every 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.

* TheUnreveal - In the mognet sidegame, one of your moogle correspondents talks about [[ShowWithinAShow the opera]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''. The letter teases the reader about how we've never seen the end of the story:

* TooLongDidntDub - The French subtitles are half Engrish half French.
* TurnsRed - 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 GlassCannon 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.
* TrueCompanions - It's totally obvious where they got "comrade" from.

* UndergroundMonkey - 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, etc). 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. This can also sometimes apply throughout the game, only excusing enemies that are low-power and so deliberately have weaker equipment than others. Largely justified since for many characters the moves not being used aren't worth using -- Garland's manikins, for example, always seem to have the same six Bravery attacks, but when you look at his other ones, you can understand why they prefer that build.
* TheUnfavorite - In a meta sense. There were plenty of characters available from ''FinalFantasyXIV'' by the time ''Duodecim'' came out, and a number of people were even calling for Gaius Van Baelsar to make it in as at least the game's overall representative, if not the villain rep. ''XIV'' isn't even ''mentioned'' during ''Duodecim'' - despite having been out for half a year by the time ''012'' came out, on either side of the Pacific.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment - Almost entirely averted, which is very impressive when you consider that this is a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' 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 [[{{Mook}} 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 [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules the same as those available to the player, but more so]], a quarter being gimmicky, stat-reducing equips, and the remainder being [[GameBreaker utterly godly]] -- Initial Bravery +2000%, anyone? Or, if that isn't enticing enough, ''Dissidia 012'' comes with the GameBreaker variant in [[spoiler:a single accessory that adds FIFTY THOUSAND hit points to the new resident SNKBoss. Or his x90 booster accessory that kicks in after one minute.]]. Taking the absolute cake, though, is [[spoiler:the true Feral Chaos's accessory that gives him "+???" HP - really [[UpToEleven 115,000 HP]] - for a total of 125,698. Good luck, you'll need it.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight - 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.
* UpdatedRerelease - ''Universal Tuning''. However, ''Dissidia 012'' won't have one due to how close the international version will be released to the Japanese one.

* UselessUsefulSpell - 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.

* VFormationTeamShot - Done by the ''villains''!
* VictorGainsLosersPowers - As a RareRandomDrop, you can get the equipment the enemy was wearing. It's especially notable with the Genji Equipment, as it's very hard to craft by yourself.
* VictoryQuote - 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.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential - 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.

* VillainsBlendInBetter - All the villains are a lot more on the ball about what's going on than the heroes are.

* VillainousBreakdown - After the 13th cycle, [[spoiler:Shinryu traps Cid in a MindRape dream, wherein Chaos ends up losing each subsequent war until he goes insane thanks to the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity power given to him by Shinryu]], becoming [[OneWingedAngel Feral Chaos]] and killing both sides' warriors.]]
* VillainSong - Chaos Last Battle.
* VillainTakesAnInterest - Kefka towards Terra.
* VocalEvolution - While fans are split between which ones are good or appropriate for their characters or not, it is generally agreed that the less-than-standout vocal performances in ''Dissidia'' were improved upon for ''Dissidia 012''.

* WallJump - 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.
* WalkingShirtlessScene - 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.
* WarriorPoet - 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.
* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou - 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, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist as long as you keep retrying, but still...)

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer - 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.
* WhereItAllBegan - In ''Dissidia 012'', the final battle with Chaos and the end of the cycles occurs at the Edge of Madness in the Edge of Discord gateway. [[spoiler:Report 12 implies it was the Edge of Discord where Cosmos, Chaos, and Cid first entered World B.]]
* WhiteAndGrayMorality - 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 Villain}}s, but several of them are also {{Anti Villain}}s 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 [[spoiler:a literal DesignatedVillain who isn't really evil at all, he just happens to oppose Cosmos for the sake of the pact made between them, Cid, and Shinryu. His ''minions'' are certainly evil, but Chaos himself is not.]]

* WordSaladTitle - The sequel, ''Dissidia 012 [Dissidia 012]: Final Fantasy.''
* TheWorfEffect - 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''. [[spoiler:This is later subverted as the heroes come back from the brink of total defeat, triumphing over the Warriors of Chaos and Chaos himself, helping to bring the conflict to a hopeful climax.]]
* WorldOfHam - While the villains like to get [[EvilIsHammy hammy]] and [[BraggartBoss boisterous]], the heroes get tend to get {{Narm}}y and [[{{Melodrama}} melodramatic]].

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing - 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.

* YouKeepUsingThatWord - "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.

*** Strictly speaking, the moogle is calling the ''original opera'' forgettable. Remember, [[CombatTentacles Ultros]] tried to drop a 4-ton weight, ended up ''dropping himself'' along with Locke and whichever team members he has on him, and initiated Boss Battle. Then Setzer dropped in and kidnapped Celes. None of that was part of the opera itself.

* TinTyrant - Garland, Golbez, Exdeath, and Gabranth.

** 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.
* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe as {{Mythology Gag}}s--if a character had a particularly embarrassing moment in their original game, like [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII Firion's]] near-seduction by the Lamia Queen or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII 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''.

** To their defense, [[spoiler:she sent them on their mission knowing fully well that this would happen. Her plan was to let them each get part of her power so that they could remain and defeat Chaos. And know "True Darkness", which would be utter despair at the world apparently being screwed, yet having the willpower to get up and keep going. Given [[KnightInShiningArmor Warrior of Light's]] mentality alone, [[BatmanGambit this was practically guaranteed to work.]]]]

* NotDrawnToScale and[=/=]or YourSizeMayVary - The ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series already takes a "more like ''guidelines''" approach to official heights and weights. Thing get even worse/better in ''Dissidia'', as [[http://community.livejournal.com/ffchaoticcosmos/271197.html this rip of the renders shows.]] [[note]]While we don't know if there are any "official DFF" canon heights, we do know that WOL is canonically 189cm, [[NoExportForYou thanks to Ultimania]], so the chart is fairly congruent.[[/note]] 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 191cm[=/=]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.
* NotQuiteFlight - 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.

* NotSoDifferent - 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 BladeSpam, Ultimecia relies on BeamSpam, and in ''Dissidia 012'' third wheel Laguna adds in MoreDakka. 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.
* NotSoHarmlessVillain - The manikins, in their entirety. In the original ''Dissidia'', manikins were your basic {{Mook}}s, 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 ZergRush that terrifies the forces of Cosmos, not only because of their power and numbers but also [[UncannyValley their nature]], being soulless duplicates of living people. And then, we find out that while DeathIsCheap due to ''Dissidia'''s GroundhogDayLoop, they keep fighting even when you're already down and will push you past the point you can be revived, resulting in you getting KilledOffForReal if you get overwhelmed by them. Clearly these are no longer mooks to be trifled with.

* ObviouslyEvil - Pretty much all the villains except for Golbez and Jecht fit this trope. And the only reason Golbez ''doesn't'' fit it is because [[spoiler:he's not actually evil, not because he doesn't ''look'' it]].

* OneManArmy - The Warrior of Light. It's possible to write off his [[spoiler: holding off an entire army of manikins as large as the one Lightning, Vaan, Yuna, Laguna, Tifa, and Kain are fighting for as long or longer than they do]] as ConservationOfNinjitsu, until you find out that [[spoiler:among every warrior in the [[MindRape nightmare universe]] Shinryu plunged Cid into, of Chaos and Cosmos alike, the Warrior of Light held out the longest against Feral Chaos.]] 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.
* OneWingedAngel - The Emperor (in his [[spoiler:Emperor of Hell form]]), 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, ''[[VisualPun 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.

* OrgasmicCombat - 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 UpToEleven--Terra, [[EvilIsSexy Cloud of Darkness]], and [[HotBlooded Firion]] are particularly notable in this regard.
* OutOfTheInferno - 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 ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and more specifically, the flashback in ''Advent Children.''

* PaintingTheMedium - 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.

** When an [[LimitBreak 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 [[MythologyGag a manner reminiscent of]] the [[RandomEncounters Random Encounter]] {{Fight Woosh}}es 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 [[HotBlooded burning]] [[ArrowsOnFire arrow]] that "hits" the screen and causes it to shatter, Terra [[BlackMagicianGirl 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'', [[spoiler: Feral Chaos's]] 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 [[spoiler: Feral Chaos]], erm... [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown does his thing]]. At the climax, the screen breaks yet ''again'' to show the silhouette of the victim being ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice, then it switches to a static-y JitterCam depicting [[spoiler:Chaos]] pulling back to finish off the victim, ''from the victim's point of view'', before--the screen [[NothingIsScarier goes black, cutting out exactly like a deactivated (or destroyed) TV set]]. ''Brrrrr.''
* PantyShot - As you might expect, Tifa and Terra provide these in some outfits. Also as expected, the in-game manual for the model viewer [[LampshadeHanging comments on this]]:

* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling - 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.
* PointThatSomewhereElse - 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.

* PostEndGameContent - 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.

* PosthumousCharacter: [[spoiler: Cid's wife]] who is mentioned in the Cosmos Reports.
* PowerCreepPowerSeep - 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 Villain Threat and every hero has been upped to face any one of them.

* RashomonStyle - Due to SimultaneousArcs.

* RegionalBonus - 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 SNKBoss. All this is, of course, came back to Japan via the ''[[UpdatedRerelease 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.

* {{Retcon}} - ''Dissidia 012'' expanded on the momentary opposition Exdeath showed to Golbez and Cecil by making him Kain's ArchEnemy and by proxy to Golbez and Cecil, while the Emperor's role in Jecht's defection is expanded into him being Yuna's ArchEnemy and the mastermind behind a scheme with Tidus and Jecht. As a result, their rivalries with Bartz and Firion are actually footnotes to their ''real'' conflicts with the mentioned characters, and looking at their confrontations with this new backstory in mind, there's no real rivalry between Bartz and Exdeath as much as Exdeath just happened to be the one Bartz fought at the end of the story. As for the Emperor and Firion, [[spoiler:for the purposes of his plan the Emperor plays himself up as Firion's designated nemesis to him on purpose, since Firion needs to have his views challenged in order to assert them fully and get the CharacterDevelopment needed to manifest the Crystal]].

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething - Cecil [[spoiler: The King of Baron]] FTW!

** 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 SchmuckBait and more like TrialAndErrorGameplay.
** In ''Dissidia 012'', at the end of the tutorial a Moogle asks if you've mastered the game. Answering yes pits you against [[spoiler:a max-level Feral Chaos with 9999 Brave and 125,698 HP.]] And you're still at Level 1. Have fun.

* SensibleHeroesSkimpyVillains - 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 [[WalkingShirtlessScene only pants and boots]], Jecht whose ''[[WalkingShirtlessScene normal getup]]'' is key to his MemeticSexGod 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 MagicSkirt, 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.
* SequelDifficultySpike - 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. As well, the original game's story mode tended to hand you Potions before each boss, fully healing you and giving you a full charge of your EX Gauge. ''D012'', Potions are more scarce, and unless you bring the Cure skill with you, if you get weakened to only a few hundred HP in a gateway before you make it to the boss, you're going to have to make due with that. 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.
* SequelHook - A rather odd example of a Prequel Hook, ''Dissidia: Final Fantasy'' is set in the 13th cycle of the war, [[spoiler: that ends up breaking the cycle of conflict]], ''Dissidia 012'', its "[[{{prequel}} sequel]]", shows what happened in the ''12th'' cycle of the war, which had a few more characters [[spoiler: that didn't make it to the 13th cycle]].

** 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 [[LimitBreak 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.

* ShipTease - A couple of scenes in ''Dissidia 012'' hint at a pairing between Lightning and Firion. He actually [[SomethingAboutARose 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 BodyguardCrush territory when ''Dissidia 012'' revealed [[spoiler:The Warrior is a Manikin made in Cid's image and infused with his memories, while Cosmos is a Manikin infused with the memories of Cid's wife who also looks exactly like her.]] Even without that hint, the two are very close.
** TheSmurfettePrinciple results in Terra getting ShipTease 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 ShipperOnDeck, takes the Knight's vow to protect her as a sign of affection.

'''OK:''' "Huh? It's because--She's been uneasy since we met, so I thought I needed to protect her."\\

** And of all pairings, ''Firion x [[CuteMonsterGirl 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.

*** In Feral Chaos' Nexus Ultimus, the swords impaling his opponent seem to array in a shape suspiciously similar to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_of_Chaos this]]

** In ''Dissidia 012'' one of the cutscenes is named "Those Who Converge Upon [[KingdomHearts Castle Oblivion]]"
** Sephiroth's Oblivion attack is the opener he used during [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII his second fight with Sora.]]

** 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. Furthermore, the world map is based on the ''Final Fantasy'' world map to amazing detail, right down to numerous land formations and and shapes being the same. Several areas differ but it's usually for gameplay reasons (the continents being connected for example), as a whole the two are identical.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple - 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 [[NoBiologicalSex sexless]]...

** ''012'' seems to be mitigating this a little bit, since it's added {{Action Girl}}s Tifa, Prishe and Lightning, WhiteMagicianGirl Yuna, and Shantotto is now officially on Team Cosmos. The boys will still outnumber the girls, but it's certainly better than nothing.

** 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.

** An example that overlaps with MusicalSpoiler is found in ''Dissidia 012'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCPt-jGWBA Jecht has kept his Chaos fanfare]] while [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXk-Snnl4mE Cloud kept the Cosmos fanfare,]] despite having switched sides.

* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler: Cid and his wife would definitely qualify for this trope. Cosmos and The Warrior of Light may also count as well.]]

* StealthMentor - 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. [[FridgeBrilliance Turns out this is completely justified]] because a good portion of the villains were [[spoiler:in on the plan to kill Cosmos by letting the heroes earn the Crystals]]. It isn't until Shade Impulse that they start "[following] the naked desires of [their] hearts", rather than acting like emotional obstacles.

* SummonMagic - All the traditional faces plus {{Shout Out}}s, though they function differently from typical entries in the series.
* SuperMode - The heroes' EX Modes. Terra's and Zidane's are the most traditional ones, Warrior of Light and Onion Knight [[ClassAndlevelSystem change class, Bartz masters own his job class]] and the rest just get out their respective {{Infinity Plus One Sword}}s). For the villains' EX Modes, see OneWingedAngel.

* TakeThat - [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII 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 TheUnreveal) quip about the opera subplot in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' is a TakeThat--the entire scene is famous, and considered by many fans to be a CrowningMomentOfAwesome accompanied with CrowningMusicOfAwesome. The moogle calls it "pretty forgettable."
*** Strictly speaking, the moogle is calling the ''original opera'' forgettable. Remember, [[CombatTentacles Ultros]] tried to drop a 4ton weight, ended up ''dropping himself'' along with Locke and whichever team members he has on him, and initiated Boss Battle. Then Setzer dropped in and kidnapped Celes. None of that was part of the opera itself.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: 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. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce9tp9RBhVk 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 [[spoiler: Feral Chaos]], who impales the [[strike:opponent]] victim on his claw, adds eight enormous swords and then finishes them off with a punch that breaks the screen, FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE!
* [[spoiler: ThroughTheEyesOfMadness]] Done to ''fantastic'' effect in Scenario 000: Confessions of the Creator in ''Dissidia 012''.

* TooAwesomeToUse - The Summonstones [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Ultima Weapon]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV 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.

* UndergroundMonkey - 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, etc). 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. This can also sometimes apply throughout the game, only excusing enemies that are low-power and so deliberately have weaker equipment than others. Largely justified since for many characters the moves not being used aren't worth using -- Garland's manikins for example always seems have the same six Bravery attacks, but when you look at his other ones, you can understand why they prefer that build.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment - Almost entirely averted, which is very impressive when you consider that this is a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' 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 [[{{Mook}} 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 [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules the same as those available to the player, but more so]], a quarter being gimmicky, stat-reducing equips, and the remainder being [[GameBreaker utterly godly]]--Initial Bravery +2000%, anyone? Or, if that isn't enticing enough, ''Dissidia 012'' comes with the GameBreaker variant in [[spoiler: a single accessory that adds FIFTY THOUSAND hit points to the new resident SNKBoss. Or his x90 booster accessory that kicks in after one minute.]]. Taking the absolute cake, though, is [[spoiler: the true Feral Chaos's accessory that gives him "+???" HP - really [[UpToEleven 115,000 HP]] - for a total of 125,698. Good luck, you'll need it.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight - 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.

* UselessUsefulSpell - 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.

* VictorGainsLosersPowers - As a RareRandomDrop 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.
* VictoryQuote - 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.

* VillainousBreakdown - After the 13th cycle, [[spoiler: Shinryu traps Cid in a MindRape dream, wherein Chaos ends up losing each subsequent war until he goes insane thanks to the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity power given to him by Shinryu]], becoming [[OneWingedAngel Feral Chaos]] and killing both sides' warriors.]]

* WhereItAllBegan - In ''Dissidia 012'', the final battle with Chaos and the end of the cycles occurs at the Edge of Madness in the Edge of Discord gateway. [[spoiler:Report 12 implies it was the Edge of Discord where Cosmos, Chaos and Cid first entered World B.]]
* WhiteAndGrayMorality - 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 Villain}}s, but several of them are also {{Anti Villain}}s 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 [[spoiler:a literal DesignatedVillain who isn't really evil at all, he just happens to oppose Cosmos for the sake of the pact made between them, Cid and Shinryu. His ''minions'' are certainly evil, but Chaos himself is not.]]
** Could ''vaguely'' be considered GreyAndGrayMorality, considering the heroes on Team Cosmos includes [[AntiHero Anti-Heroes]] such as [[SociopathicHero Shantotto]], [[KnightInSourArmor Lightning]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Kain]] and [[PunchClockHero Cloud]]. And of course [[spoiler:Cosmos is just as much responsible for the cycles of war as Chaos is]]. Still a very light shade of Grey though.

** The funny part comes later when you realize that the scenario's title [[spoiler: The Duel of Dreams!]] is actually more literal than you think, and [[spoiler: that the whole event was a dream of Gilgamesh's as he fantasizes defeating Bartz, who then begins to hammishly praise him as an ultimate warrior. Then it fades, and you see Gilgamesh floating in the Rift, muttering to himself. Then, Gilgamesh actually appears to Bartz and challenges him, and Bartz response is one words: "Weird."]]

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing - 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. To compensate somewhat for the above, mastering the abilities that allow you to wear more types of equipment also teaches them another skill that gives them an additional stat boost when wearing that kind of equipment.

* ShownTheirWork: There are so many nods and in-jokes to the original games it could fill a page all its own listing them. See MythologyGag/DissidiaFinalFantasy for some of them.

* ShownTheirWork" There are so many nods and in-jokes to the original games it could fill a page all its own listing them. See MythologyGag/DissidiaFinalFantasy for some of them.

* ShownTheirWork - 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.

* TheOtherDarrin - 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.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda - 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 ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', as a playable character in the [[UpdatedRerelease Universal Tuning]] version.

* VillainousBreakdown - After the 13th cycle, [[spoiler: Shinryu traps Cid in a MindRape dream, wherein Chaos ends up winning each subsequent war until he goes insane thanks to the [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity power given to him by Shinryu]], becoming [[OneWingedAngel Feral Chaos]] and killing both sides' warriors.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

* NoExportForYou: ''Dissidia Final Fantasy - Universal Tuning'', yet another example of Square's tradition of Japan-only [[UpdatedRerelease 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.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat - Done with Firion and Onion Knight in the first game. Their personal enemies throw terrible attacks at them during certain cutscenes, yet [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome they survive and continue fighting.]]
* NonLinearSequel - Driven home when [[spoiler:the ending effectively brings the entire series back to the beginning, with Warrior of Light [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyI walking towards Cornelia Castle with his Crystal in hand]].]]
* NonStandardCharacterDesign - Seemingly to keep them true to original form (''FFIX'' had SuperDeformed character designs), Zidane and to a lesser extent Kuja are much more cartoony compared to the other characters. Zidane is also the third shortest Cosmos warrior, while Kuja is the shortest for Chaos.

* NarniaTime - 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:

* NeverLiveItDown - In-universe as {{Mythology Gag}}s--if a character had a particularly embarrassing moment in their original game, like [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII Firion's]] near-seduction by the Lamia Queen or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII 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''.
* NiceHat - Or better said, ''Nice Helmets'', Warrior of Light and Onion Knight, as well as those listed under MaskPower above.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero - [[spoiler:The only reason Chaos is able to kill Cosmos is because the heroes collected the crystals, which hold her power.]]

* NintendoHard - [[BonusLevelOfHell Inward Chaos.]] You essentially fight every character in the game in a row, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard 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.

* NoExportForYou - ''Dissidia Final Fantasy - Universal Tuning'', yet another example of Square's tradition of Japan-only [[UpdatedRerelease 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.

* NeverLiveItDown - In-universe as {{Mythology Gag}}s--if a character had a particularly embarrassing moment in their original game, like [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII Firion's]] near-seduction by the Lamia Queen or [[FinalFantasyVII 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''.

* [[OneSteveLimit One Cloud Limit]] - [[AvertedTrope Averted]]; this game features both [[FinalFantasyIII the Void]] and [[FinalFantasyVII Strife]].

* OminousLatinChanting - 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmo584truz8 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 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4SeUIb_zRI somber, heavy Latin chant.]] Jarring and when creepy when compared to the overworld songs that went before.

* OneSteveLimit - [[AvertedTrope Averted]]; this game features both [[FinalFantasyIII the Void]] and [[FinalFantasyVII Strife]].

* NamesToKnowInAnime - Hoo boy, where do we start?
** AkioOhtsuka - Gabranth
** AkiraIshida - Kuja
** AtsukoTanaka - Ultimecia
** Creator/AyaHirano - Prishe
** Creator/HideoIshikawa - Squall Leonhart
** Creator/HikaruMidorikawa - Firion
** HiroakiHirata - Laguna Loire
** JunFukuyama - Onion Knight (Not using his [[CodeGeass Lelouch]]-style MagnificentBastard voice, but his good ol' straightforward KidHero voice)
** KazuyaNakai - Gilgamesh ([[TheOtherDarrin In lieu of]] the late DaisukeGouri)
** KenjiUtsumi - Garland
** KenyuuHoriuchi - The Emperor
** Creator/KoichiYamadera - Kain Highwind
** MaayaSakamoto - Lightning and DLC Assist Aerith
** MasakazuMorita - Tidus (reprising his StarMakingRole from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'')
** MegumiHayashibara - Shantotto
** NorioWakamoto - Chaos
** Creator/RomiPark - Zidane Tribal
** ShigeruChiba - Kefka (who previously voiced another [[SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker Joker]]-{{expy}}, Jakoh from ''FistOfTheNorthStar'')
** SoichiroHoshi - Bartz Klauser
** SumiShimamoto - Cosmos
** TakahiroSakurai - Cloud Strife (another reprise)
** ToshihikoSeki - Warrior of Light
** ToshiyukiMorikawa - Sephiroth
** YukariFukui - Terra Branford

** HideoIshikawa - Squall Leonhart
** HikaruMidorikawa - Firion

* {{Retcon}} - ''Dissidia 012'' expanded on the momentary opposition Exdeath showed to Golbez and Cecil by making him Kain's ArchEnemy and by proxy to Golbez and Cecil, while the Emperor's role in Jecht's defection is expanded into him being Yuna's ArchEnemy and the mastermind behind a scheme with Tidus and Jecht. As a result, their rivalries with Bartz and Firion are actually footnotes to their ''real'' conflicts with the mentioned characters, and looking at their confrontations with this new backstory in mind, there's no real rivalry between Bartz and Exdeath as much as Exdeath just happened to be the one Bartz fought at the end of the story. As for the Emperor and Firion, [[spoiler:for the purposes of his plan the Emperor plays himself up as Firion's designated nemesis to him on purpose, since Firion needs to have his views challenge in order to assert them fully and get the CharacterDevelopment needed to manifest the Crystal]].
* ReturnToWhereItAllBegan - In ''Dissidia 012'', the final battle with Chaos and the end of the cycles occurs at the Edge of Madness in the Edge of Discord gateway. [[spoiler:Report 12 implies it was the Edge of Discord where Cosmos, Chaos and Cid first entered World B.]]

* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler: Cid and his wife would definitely for this trope. Cosmos and The Warrior of Light may also count as well.]]

** The relationship between the Warrior of Light and Cosmos creeps up on BodyguardCrush territory when ''Dissidia 012'' revealed [[spoiler:The Warrior is a Manikin infused with Cid's memories, while Cosmos is a Manikin infused with the memories of Cid's wife and apparently looks like her.]] Even without that hint, the two are very close.

** KoichiYamadera - Kain Highwind