What would be ideal for summoners is the FFX/FFXII route where the summoned beast has a role in the party. Tha way, instead of the summoner having skills, they summon, let's say Ifrit, right at the start of the battle. It is Ifrit who is fighting, not the summoner, but the summoner would be in danger too. If the summon is dispatched, then they lose 50% of their health, and they cannot summon Ifrit again, they have to summon something else.

This is what I would want from a potential Dissidia 2:

-Improvements made to the game engine itself ie ground/wall ukemis, perhaps a little leeway to make up other combos, the dodging mechanic to be changed, more uses for the EX meter, make the combat itself more complex and even giving characters unique subsystems and meters ala Guilty Gear.

-Console release with good online play with lobby support, DLC, system-link support, perhaps even stat-tracking.

-Characters from non-Final Fantasy properties would be pretty nice, but could they still call it "Dissidia: Final Fantasy"? They'd have to think of another name.

-As an extension to the online play suggestion, NO FORCED LEVELLING TO LEARN MOVES. Levelling systems in fighting games in the first place are anathema to a lot of fighting game players, and being forced to grind levels just to have a basic moveset didn't sit well with me or a lot of other people. In multiplayer, players should have the option of either using preset characters with fully-fleshed out movesets or their own customised versions. Ranked matches should be restricted to the presets. And besides, having a levelling system in a fighting game inherently takes the focus away from player skill and puts it onto time spent on the game. Levelling would be fine in the single-player, but not in MP.

-I like the suggestion for a fully-fledged RPG singleplayer on the last page, I agree with that.

The first one could work, but really only for Rydia. All the other summoners are white mages, rather than red mages (Rydia also gets white magic IIRC). Again, I don't think allowing healing spells in a fighting game is a good idea, especially if it replaces nuking capability.

The second one could work, I guess, but reduces the power essentially to cosmetics, and then you have to worry about the power balance. Summons are already IN, after all, in a way totally different from their previous functions ever. To reduce them to essentially the weakness of any other spell comes off as an excuse, and while I see how it could work, I really don't see it as being the best choice just so they could include a few different characters.

The problem I see with this is twofold. First, it takes away from the character in the first place, which defeats the point of having them in there. Second, it means that like in FFX, you'd need to worry about the level of your summons more than the level of your character. It would be an absolute nightmare to have to keep track of, unless the summons didn't grow, which would mean their stats would have to be derived from the summoner's, and, well, that just doesn't strike me as the greatest choice, either.

You could have them use brave and give healers less HP to balance it out.

Why not?

Healers would probably work if implemented properly. Elena in SF3 had a healing super and she wasn't anywhere near broken. MVC2 itself has supports that heal and they're generally not used in tournament play because there's usually better options. Gill in SF3 also had a healing super but he was banned from serious play so he doesn't really count. Ragna in BlazBlue drains health from his enemies with his D attacks but his low HP balances that out. And considering how this game works any healing could be swiftly mitigated by a Brave attack with lots of Brave stacked up, especially if the healing takes place near the attacker.

Well, you only have a couple options. Either you have low (1.0x - 1.x range) multipliers and make it almost pointless to summon at all, or you go for 2x or higher and effectively cripple the summoner while alone.

Another factor would be the A.I. in that one or the other would have to be either CPU or take commands or "suggestions" a la the Magus Sisters. In the obvious case of this, you'd end up playing as the summoner, trying to avoid any and all combat while you shouted out orders to your monster. That's less fighting and more running away and letting the game fight for you, which pretty much defeats the purpose.




On the white mage front, I suppose if balanced well, it could work, but I'd worry about someone like Aerith, whose skills revolve around healing and support, yet whose weapon isn't long-ranged. You could give her generic magic, sure, but then she has nothing to offer offensively that anyone else didn't have. If you stuck with just her healing, battles would be either long and annoying or short and easy. The only real things she has going in terms of offense are Holy and the Lifestream, although those could both potentially be twisted around into some badassery, I suppose.

Thinking about it, I guess with enough creativity and disregard for canon, you could do pretty much anything. I'll be the first to admit I'd love to see Aerith in this thing, if only so I could watch her beat the stupid out of Sephy with her staff. XD

Perhaps summoners and Summons could be controlled simultaneously? Fighting games have done things like that before. However, the characters have usually turned out to be difficult to use effectively but really awesome, borderline broken characters when used by an expert. Eddie in Guilty Gear is essentially two characters controlled simultaneously. He's hard to play, but excellent when played well. Or perhaps they could be implemented like the Stands in Capcom's Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure, with a dedicated button and actions that depend on the current state of the Stand.

It could be interesting if implemented right, but I doubt that S-E are up to something like that.

I still want Absolute Virtue as a secret boss, if only so when people try to use cheats to beat him since he's literally impossible to beat without some Gameshark or whatever, the game crashes.

That and fighting game forums to speculate crap like Ebon panels and YOU HAVE TO STOP ITS REGEN.

And then Nomura says it's working as intended.

The issue is that it's only really possible in 2D fighters due to space concerns. In a giant field like this, you'd absolutely require split-screen to keep track of them both, which also decreases your view on a screen that's tiny as it is. Implementing it would be nearly impossible in terms of playability simply due to the space and view restrictions. Unless you keep the two together, it would just be too visually busy, and even if you did, it would take up a fair share of the view.

It would work a little better if it was a console game I expect. Yeah, I meant to keep the two close together, maybe have the summon be transparent so the other player can see through it. But no matter what it would be something that would be hard to implement right.