Universal Tuning Impressions

Well, I’m back with some more Universal Tuning updates. Having played the game for around 10 hours today, I believe I’m ready to show my impressions.

Much to everyone’s dismay, those Famitsu scans of Lightning being added were both fake, part of a Halloween prank from some user on GameFAQs. It was definitely a lot of work for a prank, though. According to various sources, the person who made this would have had to create his/her own artwork of Lightning, as well as hacking into an ISO of the Japanese version of Dissidia and creating the character themselves for the cutscene and EX Mode screens. That’s a lot of work for a prank that lasted less than a day, though not as much as other pranks, such as the Legend of Zelda movie trailer IGN pulled a few years back on April Fool’s Day.

Now, on to the real deal: Universal Tuning. The game is crammed into about 1.25 Gigabytes (GB) of space, which all you PSPgo users will have no problem giving up if you were to import this from the PlayStation Store. Let’s dwell on the PlayStation Store for a moment, since a lot of people may be in the dark as to how you could go about getting the game with an American or PAL PSP system.

The process is basically in three steps; Create a Japanese PSN account, buy a Japanese PSN Ticket/Card (5,000 Yen Card needed for the 4,000 to buy Dissidia: UT), and adding Yen to your wallet. Making a PSN account is no hard task. Simply log onto the PlayStation Store website (or select Sign up for a New Account from the PSN store via Media Go software), then select Japan as your country, and sign up like you would for a normal account. Kanji is hard to read, so the tutorial below is very easy to understand, and is what I used:

Http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment/how-to-create-a-japanese-playstation-store-account/

Once you have your account, just log in and you’ll find yourself at the Japanese PSN Store. Next comes the hard part: adding Yen to your wallet. The Japanese PSN store does not accept American credit cards, so you’re stuck buying the PSN Cards from various web sites. I would recommend NCSX over Play-Asia, as they will send you your code via email, sometimes within a few minutes of your purchase.

Then you have to log in to your account and go to Account Management. Once at that page, you need to select the “Add Funds” link. This is all in Kanji, so what I would suggest is open the page in a web browser that shows a text preview of a url by hovering the mouse over a link (Google Chrome is a good choice). Find the link that has “VerifyCode” in its name, and go into it. Then just input your code, hit the button below that area and you’ll have yourself money to go and buy Dissidia. All that’s left is to find it on the store (It’s featured right now, so there isn’t a problem, and you could always search for it, since the title is in English on the store)

As stated earlier, Universal Tuning is about 1.25 GB in size. If you’re on standard high speed, expect the download to take a good 2 hours to process, so be sure to have a good charge on your PSP and/or have your AC cable in your computer (If you’re using Media Go). Afterwards, you’re ready to check out Universal Tuning.

NOTE: Downloading something from PSN Japan will deactivate any other PSN account for your system and activate the Japanese one. That means that any and all PAL or North American games will not be accessible until you download something from their respective version of PSN.

Now, let’s take a look at Dissidia: Final Fantasy Universal Tuning. The title screen comes up, just like the other versions, but with that fancy Universal Tuning logo near the bottom. When you start a New Game, you have a choice to either start a new file, or import a save file from the original Japanese version of the game. I have tried both, and have yet to see very much good in importing save files.

You may bring character levels over, but the game will still make you pass through all the standard prologue battles before you can access the main menu. The main point of doing this is that you can import it in a couple different ways, two of which are where your characters go back down to Level 50 or even down to Level 1.

Once you get into the game, it’s just like the NA/PAL versions of Dissidia, except the fact that there is Kanji everywhere. There are a lot of minor changes they made to the game, which may or may not make you want to buy it. Let’s break it down to the pros and cons compared to the original Japanese version.

Positives

• Faster load times with the entire game being a download
• A choice between English and Japanese voice acting in battles
• Characters are more balanced in fighting
• New abilities are available
• Arcade Mode has been added

Negatives

• Missions have been stripped down (Ex: Mission 56 now only requires 10 Shade Impulse chapters to be complete, rather than 30)
• Story Mode Shortcut – You can now access Shade Impulse after completing one hero’s Destiny Odyssey, cutting the story down to ¼ of what it originally was
• Japanese Voice-Overs are not available for cutscenes

Miscellaneous changes (Too minor to really make a difference in your sales choice)

• Save File icon is now bevel-shaped, with Universal Tuning’s logo
• The transition from the Story Mode chessboard to a pre-engagement screen has been changed, making it slower and smoother
• UT logo is on the title screen and main menu

Universal Tuning has made a few changes, but it’s largely what everyone has been saying that it is: the Japanese version with the additions made to the localized release, along with a couple other little surprises along the way. If you liked the Japanese version of the game, but not the American version so much because of some of the English VA’s, then Universal Tuning is a nice way to get a more comfortable experience from the additions of the localized release.

I see this download version mostly targeted at the PSPgo audience, since Dissidia is nowhere to be seen on the North American PlayStation Store. While there’s a little bit of hope that Dissidia may come to American PSN shores, it is unlikely it will be anytime soon, especially since Final Fantasy VIII and Vagrant Story still remain exclusive to PSN Japan.

If you upgraded to a PSPgo and don’t mind dealing with Kanji, the English audio is still here. Come and enjoy Universal Tuning on that sleek little piece of technology you got your hands on. While you’re on PSN, you may also want to look into some other Japanese titles, such as the Phantasy Star Portable 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker demos as well as Persona 3 Portable.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. I’ll be back soon with some updates, hopefully with some friend card passwords for those of you whom are also importing.
~Trent~

FFXIII’s Lightning confirmed for UT [Halloween Prank]

It’s been a long time since our last update, and we’ve got one heck of an update for you. You all know that Dissidia: Final Fantasy Universal Tuning comes out tomorrow, right? Well, anyone who enjoyed the Japanese version of the game are really going to want to get a Japanese PSN account and download that sucker, because it has one thing that all other editions didn’t, as shown in the scans via the link below:

http://thelifestream.net/final-fantasy-dissidia/5146/lightning-confirmed-as-universal-tuning-new-character/

Yes, that’s Lightning. It’s frigging LIGHTNING from Final Fantasy XIII! She’s going to be a part of the story and will be available only in Universal Tuning. I’m prepared to download that this week and try her out.

Universal Tuning is going to come out tomorrow, so let the hype rise for her special debut (Before FFXIII even comes out. Go figure)

I’ll be back with updates soon.
Trent

UPDATE:

The Lightning scans turned out to be a hoax. The article listed in this has been removed. If you still want to see the fake scans, view them below:

http://valhallaforums.nulani.net/picture.php?albumid=46&pictureid=1297
http://valhallaforums.nulani.net/picture.php?albumid=46&pictureid=1296

Universal Tuning Site Update – Villain CG Artwork

It’s been awhile since we’ve had an update on Dissidia itself, and that’s what I have for you today!

The Universal Tuning official website has gotten another update. This consisted of CG renders of the ten villains, in coalition with the ten heroes’ cg artwork which was already on UT’s website. The web site can be found via the link below:

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dissidia_ut/

If you’d rather just look at the renders without loading the site, they are viewable from The Lifestream, where I found my initial article via the link below:

http://thelifestream.net/final-fantasy-dissidia/4976/4976/#more-4976

Enjoy the artwork! I’ll be back with more updates soon!
~Trent~

What-Will-You-Fight-For? Winners Announced

Awhile back, Square Enix Members hosted one of their many contests. This one pertained to everyone from their special Dissidia web site to pledge allegiance to either Cosmos or Chaos. Five people were said to be winners of this.

First Place prize for four of those winners are awarded a Dissidia: Final Fantasy PSP bundle, and the Grand Prize winner would get that along with a canvas of the ten heroes signed by the Dissidia Team themselves. They have just announced the results…

Grand Prize
Toddifer

First Prize
Spesophon
rainefayt
plomerooss
strigun82

Congratulations to all of them for winning the contest and getting their free Dissidia bundles! I’ll be back with more updates soon
~Trent~

http://member.square-enix.com/na/blog/2009/10/what-will-you-fight-for-winner.php#more

Amazon drops Dissidia Price for 1 Day

What do Amazon buyers want? Price-drops! What do PSP Final Fantasy fans want? Dissidia: Final Fantasy! If you were lucky to roam Amazon on October 1st, you could’ve have both of those wishes fufilled.

In celebration of the PSP Go’s debut on the North American market, Amazon sold Dissidia for $27.98, only for a day. This was for UMD only, since Dissidia wasn’t included in this week’s massive PSN update, but here’s hoping that Sony sees this opportunity and decides to throw the game onto PSN sometime soon!

I’ll be back with updates soon
~Trent~

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/10/01/dissidia-drops-to-28-for-a-day/

Dissidia Tops UK and US Charts this Week

Gamasutra has recently shown an article listing the top 5 sellers on every gaming platform. This week’s sales had Dissidia taking a lot of top positions.

While no numbers were mentioned, Dissidia grabbed the #1 spot in North America, as well as grabbing 2 spots in UK’s chart. Regular Edition got the #1 spot, and Special Edition got the #2 Spot. The Sales are as follows:

North America
1. Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix)
2. God of War: Chains of Olympus (SCEA)
3. Resistance: Retribution (SCEA)
4. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix)
5. Madden NFL 10 (EA Sports)

UK
1. Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix)
2. Dissidia Final Fantasy — Special Edition (Square Enix)
3. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (Capcom)
4. Lemmings — Platinum (SCEE)
5. MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (SCEE)

People are loving Dissidia, so let’s hope the sales keep going up in the months to come to inspire Square Enix to make us a sequel!

I’ll be back with updates soon!
~Trent~

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25408

Trading Arts Volume 1 Coming to UK

Early this year, Volume 1 of the Dissidia: Final Fantasy Trading Arts collection was released in Japan. These included an impression set of small figurines around 4-5 inches in heights of five of the heroes of the game: Warrior of Light, Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus.

It’s unfortunate that North America seems to not be getting these anytime soon, but UK collectors will be happy to see that Volume 1 is coming to the UK soon. However, the UK Volume 1 does not include Warrior of Light, but they do still have the four others.

The UK Recommended Retail Price is set at £17.99

I’ll be back with more updates soon!

Source
http://electronictheatre.co.uk/index.php/articles/3155-dissidia-final-fantasy-trading-arts-vol1-coming-to-the-uk

Staff Tournament – The Final Battle

Last we checked, everything was set for the ultimate match at the end of Square Enix’s Staff Tournament.

On one side, hailing from Final Fantasy III’s World of Darkness, we have the Cloud of Darkness.

On the other side, hailing from Final Fantasy XII’s Ivalice is the EXecutioner, Judge Magister Gabranth.

Both fought hard to make it to the final round, and here is where everything they fight for is put to the final test. Who comes out on top? View the clash via the link below and find out!

http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=183

Well, that’s the end of the tournament. I hope you enjoyed this final, epic fight. I’ll be back with more Dissidia updates soon!
~Trent~

Staff Tournament – Round 1 and Semi-Finals

Let the battles continue! Here’s an update on Square Enix’s Staff Tournament, which is progressing quite nicely, if I do say so.

The Tourney So Far (With Links to each Fight):

Preliminaries

Warrior of Light (Aace12) vs Gabranth (FruitsMedley) – Gabranth proceeds to Round 1
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=156

Cloud of Darkness (RAMBO4LIFE) vs Kuja (timotarou) – Cloud of Darkness proceeds to Round 1
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=155

Round 1
Shantotto (LoLa) vs Cloud of Darkness (RAMBO4LIFE) – Cloud of Darkness proceeds to Semi-Finals
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=162

Squall (Johnny Debug) vs Firion (TROJ4ND4N) – Squall proceeds to Semi-Finals
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=163

Terra (Axior) vs Gabranth (FruitsMedley) – Gabranth proceeds to Semi-Finals
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=169

Cloud (captainsubosa) vs Jecht (PunkSlime) – Cloud proceeds to Semi-Finals
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=170

Semi-Finals
Cloud (captainsubosa) vs Gabranth (FruitsMedley) – Gabranth proceeds to the Final Round
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=176

Squall (JohnnyDebug) vs Cloud of Darkness (RAMBO4LIFE) – Cloud of Darkness proceeds to the Final Round
http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/dissidia/tournament.php?mid=175

Now, all that’s left is the final round. Who will be the victor, Gabranth or Cloud of Darkness? I’ll be back with the update soon
~Trent~

Square-Enix handing out Free Dissidia Goodies

Are you a member at Square Enix Members? Do you have enough points to be a Bronze Tier? Do you want some free Dissidia stuff?

If you answered “Yes” to all three of those questions, then you’re in for a treat. Square Enix Members has started their Rewards program today, and are giving away lots of Dissidia goodies for no cost whatsoever to all of their Bronze Tier members (Until they run out, of course)

First, let me explain the Bronze Tier. On Square Enix Members, you gain points for being active on the site, as well as for registering your games. The Bronze rank is not hard to achieve. All you need to do is register one game, which is worth 50 points.

If you don’t know how to register, then owners of Dissidia: Final Fantasy should look inside their UMD case for a Product Registration Card, containing a 16 unit code for the Members website. You then log onto Square Enix Members and below your name is a link saying “Register and Get Points” You then put in your Registration Code, click “Submit” and you get your 50 points, which is more than enough to get someone to the Bronze Rank.

Back to the Rewards Program. Square Enix Member’s Blog posted today that all of their Bronze Tier (or Higher) members can submit for some free Dissidia accessories, which include a brochure from the E3 2009 Game Expo, Dissidia Postcards from Comic-Con 2009, and handheld fans, depicting Cosmos and Chaos’s warriors. The Rewards Program can be found via the link below:

http://member.square-enix.com/na/points/rewards/?present_id=1

If you qualify, you submit your address (If you don’t already have it on your Members account), and tell them what you want of the three reward items (You can select all three if you so wish).

The Rules of this are as follows:
* You must be a resident of the United States or Canada.
* We cannot deliver to P.O. boxes.
* You must be a Bronze or higher tiered member.
* Submission is limited to once per account.
* You may claim up to three items but only one of each type.
* Rewards are limited and will be distributed while supplies last.
* Successful submission does not guarantee delivery of requested items.
* Partial rewards packages may be given if supplies are depleted.
* Rewards will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.
* Please wait up to 10 weeks for delivery.
* Members will be contacted if they are not receiving rewards.

There’s a lot going on over at Square Enix Members. If you haven’t already, you should go and register for an account to take advantage of all this free stuff they’re giving away.

I’ll be back with more updates soon!
~Trent~