Game:

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (2018)

Duration: 25:24

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"School of Ragnarok" was a somewhat short-lived, fairly experimental online 1-on-1 tactical Arcade fighting game (or in this case, a simple MOBA) developed by Dimps and co-produced by Square Enix. Early in the game's development, it inspired the gameplay that would be seen shortly afterwards in "Dissidia Final Fantasy NT" (which also released in Arcades shortly after this but also saw ports to other platforms). It's also notable for its involvement with Kazutaka Kodaka of "Danganronpa" fame as well as Takamasa Shiba who worked on the "LORD of VERMILION" series and Kimihiko Fujisaka who handled character designs (who spent the majority of his tenure with Cavia and Mistwalker and is known for his designs on the "Drakengard" series as well as "The Last Story"). The popular CEO of MONACA, Keiichi Okabe, also handled some of the music (He is rather prolific prior to MONACA, but is best known for his work on "Dancing Eye", the "Taiko no Tatsujin" series and "NieR:Automata").

The game takes place in an era when the states and local government lose power and influence in a world where powerful "Academies" seize control. Among the numerous academies, the academy known as "Jugaku" had its own ideals and, in attempt to separate from the rest and monopolize the situation, rebelled and fought between the others. However, as a result of the schools struggles against each other for hundreds of years, not only the academies but the whole world becomes devastated, and Jugaku decides to settle things once and for all with a special duel, the "Conquest Battle", by utilizing the school's final weapon, the "Gakuen Gods" (School Guardians). Since every Academy has agreed to participate, the final decisive battle is declared in a bid for ultimate control and power. Each school guardian is a living, breathing entity that the students worship and are influenced by completely which ranges from good to evil, and everything in-between. Some desire peace, some pursue knowledge, some want to change the timeline, and some simply want to fight and kill.

The game touts itself as a "5D" game by seamlessly switching between 2D and 3D during gameplay and uses a character creation system (male and female). It's a bit fiddly, but works okay for the most part. When characters create a certain amount of distance from each other, the game adopts an over-the-shoulder view where the player can move in 3D and shoot projectiles as well as find landmarks, the "Kinjirou Statues", which follow turf war / capture the flag rules. When a player occupies the area of a Kinjirou Statue for a brief period, the statue will lend its power to the player which is derived from the school guardian and offer more special abilities in the form of buffs, debuffs, or spells that can damage, heal, etc. Naturally, these can be taken back and aren't super important to get, but they will increase your power even more if you can occupy all three, so it adds a bit to the game's meta. When the player is close enough, the game shifts to a 2D fighting plane. In this view, the majority of the fighting will take place as players can execute different combos but utilizing the different attack buttons.

On this subject, the player has four primary abilities: Guard, Jump, Action and Shot. They're pretty self-explanatory, but Action and Shot can have different properties depending on the timing, direction pressed, and whether the player charges the button. However, the game is not strictly 1-on1, as the school guardian also occupies the field and acts independently, although you can also issue them commands. Each school guardian also has a "Divine Work" gauge which, when full, can force the guardian to execute a special move. Lastly, the guardians have a "God Gakari" gauge which fills when fighting or taking damage. When it is 50% or more, the player can directly draw the guardians power into their weapon which transforms it into a God Weapon and increases their power temporarily... or they can execute their ultimate ability, the "Ragnarok Drive". This one-time move follows a pass-fail system (so if it misses, there's no second chance and it can't be activated again until the next round) and is a powerful skill meant as a finisher.

The game, on the surface, is a rather attractive spectacle and quite nice for an Arcade game released back in 2015. While the player avatars are a little dull, the amount of customization is decent, but everything else looks spiffy. The game has a multitude of tracks for the stages and for each school guardian, which is also a nice touch, and the voices are pretty standard stuff. The game saw a few updates and ended with "Re:Boot" in 2017, where it was eventually stopped and left unfinished (the character on the far right will crash the game). As the game was primarily online as a service game, you also lose a lot with the game's offline mode... converting the whole game to offline would be worthwhile. This is a video showing different things. Enjoy.