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Gargravarr
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New entry: Tuesday 13th October
I've actually had this written up for a while, but there we go.
Character Impressions 10 – Kefka and Garland
Kefka
I’d like to start by quoting Kefka himself and saying that I now hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE Terra. I’ve discovered why the Kefka boss fight in Destiny Odyssey VI was so easy: because Terra seems to have been designed in this game specifically to make things as tough as possible for Kefka users. Or maybe Kefka’s been designed specifically to lose to Terra, I’m not sure. Maybe I just suck at playing as him, but between her irritating battle quotes (“Get away!” “Get away!” “Malevolent Winds!” “Malevolent Winds!” “Sorrowful Waters!” “Get away!” “Malevolent Winds!” etc.) and CPU attack-spamming, the fights against Terra were some of the most annoying ones I had to play while levelling him up. But enough about that…
Kefka’s villain gimmick is that the vast majority of his Brave spells have erratic attack patterns, making them harder to avoid. Unfortunately his attacks tend to have a lag when used or leave him stationary while he performs the attack, making him a fairly easy target. However, his moves seem to have very high attack strength, especially if they score a critical hit. The attacks all have weird names to go with their patterns such as “Waggle-Wobbly Firaga” (Kefka shoots a slow-moving fireball that homes in on the enemy in an erratic way and damages their BP repeatedly when it hits), “Zap-Trap Thundaga” (Kefka conjures lightning bolts around the enemy. The more you press the O button, the more bolts are cast), and “Twisty-Turny Blizzaga” (Kefka shoots a ball of ice that travels along the ground and bounces off walls). Like many other mage characters, all of Kefka’s considerable number of Brave attacks can eventually be used both in the air and on the ground. I found the best way to use these attacks was to fire off as many of them as you can in various combinations as fast as you can to really put pressure on the enemy and eventually trick them into dodging straight into the path of another attack. Also, if you’re feeling brave, you can wait to block a melee attack and counter with one of his faster moves (I found Twisty-Turny Blizzaga to be the best for this). My main complaint about his attacks is that, like so many other mages, it’s fairly hard to gather a decent amount of EX Force from his moves. Also, though this is a movement issue, it might just be me, but Kefka seems to fall very quickly. This is irritating on levels that don’t have “floors” like Dream’s End, Planet’s Core and Crystal World.
I only got to try out two of Kefka’s HP attacks: Havoc Wing and Trine. Havoc Wing is a close-range attack that involves Kefka flipping around and sprouting his EX Mode wings to stab the opponent. It’s fairly fast-moving and he can jump up to hit opponents a fair distance above him as well. I found it to be a good attack to use if you’re brave enough to attempt a close-range “block and counter” manoeuvre. Trine is an attack that, as far as I’m aware, can hit from anywhere on the stage. Kefka summons three triangles to converge on the enemy, the main downside being that the triangles move fairly slowly and your opponent could potentially just jump or dodge out of their reach.
Kefka’s EX Mode is one of the best I’ve used thus far. His main bonus, “Exhilarating Magic” causes all of his attacks to become even more erratic and hard to dodge, which is bad news for the enemy. Projectiles multiply, spells rebound in different ways, and Trine gets cast twice from just one attack, making it harder to dodge. This puts even more pressure on the opponent and makes it more likely that they’ll make a mistake. His attacks also get a boost in power and he scores critical hits more often as well, but those are just general bonuses shared by all characters. His EX Burst, Light of Judgment, is one of the easiest ones to pull off, IMO. All you have to do is memorise the three commands that flash up on the screen then enter them in order. Of course, some people prefer to mess the attack up deliberately as they feel his “failed” attack, Forsaken, looks cooler than Light of Judgment. I’d like to finish by saying that I think Kefka has been very well portrayed in Dissidia. His voice was always going to be one of the hardest to get right, but Dave Wittenberg pulls it off excellently, IMO. Kefka also seems to have developed a Deadpool-esque level of insanity during the years since FFVI’s release, as he now breaks the fourth wall by humming the Final Fantasy victory theme as one of his victory quotes.
Garland
After playing as the fairly technical Kefka, not to mention lots of other mage characters, it was nice to cross over to just smashing things with Garland. While most other villains cast spells or have a weird play style, Garland just beats the hell out of his opponents with a giant sword-thing. It’s a satisfying thing to see. He also seems to be the most basic of the villains, with a playstyle not very different from most of the heroes, just straightforward attacks. Only two of the attacks I tried out had anything technical about them, and that was just a matter of pressing the O button again at a certain point in the attack.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, Garland is the pretty much heavy-hitter of the villains, kinda like Cloud is for the heroes. If he manages to land an attack, it’s going to hurt, especially if it’s a critical hit. A couple of times at later levels, I actually ended up Breaking the enemy with just one critical strike. A lot of his attacks can cause Wall Rushes as well, so that just adds to the hurt. Of course, the payoff for this is that he’s a pretty slow mover (though not nearly as slow as Exdeath, thank god…) and his attacks are reasonably easy to dodge unless used right. He also has no ranged attacks apart from his Blaze HP attack, though he has some physical mid-range options, either by swinging his weapon on a chain like a flail or suddenly charging pretty quickly with his weapon like a lance. Still, it’s pretty satisfying once you do get close enough to crush mage characters. Especially Terra.
One of my favourite attacks of his ended up being Lance Charge, the aforementioned move where he suddenly dashes forward with his weapon pointy-end first. The move by itself usually does very little damage, but if you follow it up with another quick press of the O button, Garland will follow the charge by quickly turning his weapon into a sort of deformed axe and slamming them into the ground, adding Wall Rush damage every single time. Voila, possibly his weakest move becomes one of his best. There was also Round Edge (the Brave attack I mentioned at the end of the first paragraph), a basic three-hit combo unless you press O again right after the last hit, upon which he’ll split his weapon in two and serve up a further combo, often causing wall rush damage if you’re close enough to one.
Garland’s HP attacks could be a bit better, though I did only really try out two of them. I was a bit disappointed with Blaze, as I found it pretty hard to avoid whenever I faced Garland myself, though that was probably just me trying to avoid it the wrong way, as most CPUs seemed capable of dodging it just fine when I actually used it. I must try harder… The other HP attack, Earthquake, was a bit more reliable provided I was close enough to hit the opponent with it. I thought it was quite a good block-and-punish move, even if it was only to hear Garland shout “IMBECILE!” as he countered with it after blocking the opponent’s attack or using the EX-Guard manoeuvre.
Garland’s main EX Mode bonus has a pretty awesome concept, IMO. Indomitable Resolve, for that is its name, allows Garland to pull of all of his attacks even if he’s interrupted mid-flow by your opponent’s attack. He still takes damage, but he doesn’t stagger, flinch or get knocked back unless it was an HP attack. This made Blaze a bit more useful against mage attacks, as I could wait for them to use a ranged move (like Terra’s Blizzaga, for example) and use Blaze while they were still casting. I’d still get hit by their attack, but it’s a small price to pay for damaging the opponent’s HP and possibly going into an EX Burst. Garland’s EX Burst, Soul of Chaos, is another one that’s pulled off by hammering the O button, like Cloud and Sephiroth. If you get a Perfect, Garland strikes the enemy with each form of his weapon (twin swords, flail, lance, axe, and finishing with the basic “sword”), and he finishes it all off by calling his opponent a “miserable insect” while performing the final strike.
I’ve become a bit of a fan of Garland after playing as him. This is partly because of his great look (redesigned from the ground up for Dissidia) and so-ridiculous-it’s-awesome weapon, but also because he’s a breath of fresh air amongst the mage-filled villain side. I know there’s Jecht and Sephiroth as well, but they’re just not the same (though still awesome in their own way). And it doesn’t hurt that he has a great voice actor as well. My only main complaint about him? As far as I’m aware, at no point in the game does he ever say he’ll knock anyone down.
So there we have it. That wraps it up for the villains. I’m not really sure what to do about the blog now, since I won’t be attempting Shade Impulse for a fair while. It could well be that I simply won’t post any new entries unless something significant happens. Significant to me, anyway.
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