Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy?* is the prequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy. It is currently in development for the PlayStation Portable and in the Spring of 2011, it will be released within Japan, and sometime in 2011 for the rest of the world.
Dissidia Duodecim's gameplay will be very similar to the original's, featuring all of the original gameplay elements, characters and arenas. Fighters have Bravery points that increase when they use Bravery attacks and decrease when they are hit with a Bravery attack. Depleting an opponent's Bravery to zero inflicts a Bravery Break on them, boosting the player's Brave greatly and preventing the opponent from inflicting Brave damage until their Brave regenerates. When an HP attack is used, the opponent takes damage equal to the attacking player's Brave. By collecting EX Force characters can enter EX Mode, boosting their strength and letting them execute EX Bursts similar to Limit Breaks. Several characters have gained new attacks since the original Dissidia, and Firion's fighting style has been entirely redone. New summons, arenas, music tracks and characters will be included. Characters will be able to have more than 9,999 HP, but it is unknown if attacks and Brave will also be able to break this limit.
The main new gameplay feature shown thus far is the "Assist" system, represented by two bars underneath the HP gauges. The bars fill during battle and can be used to call a pre-set ally into battle to perform an attack, depending on how many bars are filled. This allows new combos to be executed by combining the skills of different characters. The player can execute an "Assist Lock" by attacking the opponent's ally when they are called to attack, temporarily disabling the opponent's ability to use Assists. An "Assist Change" allows the player to call an ally into battle when being attacked to take the brunt of the attack and protect them. Finally, an "Assist Charge" is executed when blocking and attacking the opponent when low on HP or close to Brave Break, and instantly charged the Assist gauge to full.The Assist attacks break enemy combos, and thus entering EX Mode, commonly called an "EX Guard" no longer does this. Instead, a new feature called "EX Revenge" blocks the opponent's attack, but consumes the entire EX Gauge without allowing EX Mode. Because EX Bursts are intended to be Limit Break-like attacks used to end battles or do heavy damage, Assists are meant to act as an opposite mechanic to them by doing minor damage over time and being used repeatedly. To accommodate this new system many equipment pieces and attacks have been re-balanced.
Save data from the original Dissidia will be able to be transferred to Dissidia 012, but the effects of this are currently unknown. The game will feature a story structure similar to the Destiny Odysseys of the original game, and will include Chaos story modes as well
In a recent interview with Tetsuya Nomura it has been stated that all characters will return. In addition, three new characters have been announced: Kain, Lightning, and Tifa. Also, bundled with the first shipments of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix and The 3rd Birthday are access codes that can be used to unlock Cloud's Kingdom Hearts and Lightning's Aya Brea attire as alternate costumes, respectively. It is not currently known whether or not there are more upcoming games that will have access codes for other costumes, or if the known games have more access codes that are not yet revealed. It has been stated that more than just a handful of new characters will be included, but there will not be an equal amount of characters per game or per faction.
According to the fansite Final Fantasy Network , all of the Arenas return, with two new additions confirmed: Orphan's Cradle and Sky Fortress Bahamut. The last floor of Pandaemonium has been seen, but it is currently unknown if it is its own arena or an extension of the original Pandaemonium arena. Also, the extended trailer shows a new arena that resembles the Prima Vista.