Death Battle Blog: Garland vs Oersted (Final Fantasy vs Live A Live)

 

“Be the person who breaks the cycle. If you were judged, choose understanding. If you were rejected, choose acceptance. If you were shamed, choose compassion. Be the person you needed when you were hurting, not the person who hurt you. Vow to be better than what broke you – to heal instead of becoming bitter so you can act from your heart, not your pain.”

– Lori Deschene


Garland, the cyclical knight of Chaos from the original Final Fantasy.


Oersted, Live A Live’s medieval hero turned Lord of Dark. 


It is a tale as old as time, a kingdom at peace threatened by encroaching darkness, and it’s up to valiant heroes to put an end to it. However, the villains here were not always so. Once proud and respected knights of their homelands, these two fell victim to a corruption and hatred that spread far across time and the world, betraying the lands they called home, and the people they had called friend. In response, a fledgling band of heroes was assembled to put them down and restore peace where once there was naught but blight and malice.


But in a duel to the death, one against the other, whose hate shall live eternal?

Before We Begin

For Garland, it should go without saying that the focus will be on the original Final Fantasy, as well as its various ports, re-releases, etc., but further attention will also be paid to direct supplemental material such as the Final Fantasy I * II * III: Memories of Heroes novel, as well as side material that significantly expands on Garland’s character and/or arsenal, including his appearances in Brave Exvius and Record Keeper. In the case of the Dissidia series, it will be approached in a similar vein to the aforementioned side material, however, any cross-scaling arguments that stem from it will not be a factor here. For a more detailed explanation, please read the “Before the Verdict” section.


For Oersted, we will of course be examining him as he appears in Live A Live, primarily focusing on the game’s recent remake. However, crossovers with very little to discuss won’t be included here, namely Final Fantasy Legends: The Space-Time Crystal and Holy Dungeon. Oersted’s appearance in the Octo A Live event in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is certainly substantial and doesn’t contradict canon, but at the time of this blog’s release, the event is still exclusive to Japan, and as no one working on the blog is able to translate it, we are unable to include elements from it. We will not be examining the Final Chapter manga for similar reasons.


Also, this blog will contain massive spoilers for Live A Live, particularly its final chapters and alternate endings.

Background

Garland

“You impertinent fools. I, Garland, shall knock you all down!”


Cornelia, the city of dreams. A peaceful and prosperous kingdom headed by its beloved king and princess, and protected well by its stalwart knights; the best of which was Garland, much respected for his power and skill. Yet, corrupted by his own power (and according to some media, Princess Sarah spurning his affections), he abducted the princess and fled to the Chaos Shrine, demanding the king for control of Cornelia in exchange for his daughter’s life. In desperate need of aid, the king asked the Warriors of Light to save the princess from Garland’s clutches. As such, the heroes journeyed to the shrine and did just that, defeating the traitorous knight once and for all. …Or so they had thought.


Unbeknownst to them, Garland’s corpse was flung 2,000 years into the past by the Four Fiends, creatures born from Garland’s hate merging with the four elements of the world, thus reviving him as Chaos. These fiends were sent to the present and tasked with draining the Crystals of their power in order to truly revive their master. After the Warriors set out to defeat the Fiends and restore the Crystals, they learned of their plan to funnel their power into a Dark Crystal and open a portal to the past.


The Warriors followed the Fiends back to the past and defeated them once again, only to find Garland alive at the heart of this past Chaos Shrine. There, he revealed that he orchestrated the chain of events that brought them all there in order to create a time loop that would grant Garland immortality. After absorbing the Four Fiends, Garland transformed into Chaos for one final battle with the Warriors of Light.


And yet, Chaos fell. The time loop was broken, and the heroes returned to a restored present day. It is even said Garland himself awaited the Warriors upon their return, but whether he too was restored to his previous honorable self is uncertain…

Oersted

“Demon, then! Renouncing former ties and titles! And in their place, I claim… The Lord of Dark. Odio!”


Long ago in the Middle Ages, the sprawling kingdom of Lucrece stood proud. Among its populace was Oersted, a knight beloved by the people, and following a tournament held by the king, he was granted the right to marry the princess Alethea. However, his beloved was soon after stolen away by the Lord of Dark, and taken to the Archon’s Roost. Tasked with rescuing her, Oersted assembles a party with his friend Streibough and two heroes who vanquished the original Lord of Dark, Hasshe and Uranus, to set out and win the day.


As it turned out, they only slew a mere minion, and the only reward they gained was the deaths of Hasshe and Streibough. After returning to Lucrece to rest, Oersted was tricked by an illusion into killing the king, but was caught by the guards thinking he did so deliberately, and Oersted was thus labeled a demon. He turned himself in to see Uranus, who was in jail for sticking up for his friend, and Uranus broke him free at the cost of his own life, allowing him to set off for the Roost once more.


There he found the true Lord of Dark, none other than Streibough, who had faked his death. As it turns out, Streibough was envious of Oersted’s fame and success, and thus had plotted to take everything from him. In turn, Oersted was forced to fight and kill the traitor, but when Alethea appeared and saw this, she revealed she had reciprocated Streibough’s feelings for her – possibly another of his machinations – and killed herself in grief and out of anger at Oersted. Left with no one to believe in, Oersted succumbed to his hate and proclaimed himself the new Lord of Dark, Odio.


Using the statues left behind by the previous Demon King, Odio would create incarnations of himself across all time, past and future. In one timeline, Odio slaughters the heroes who would face these incarnations, his victory leading only to a lonely, sad eternity. In another, he is backed into a corner and unleashes Armageddon upon all of existence, reducing everything back down to nothing. But that is not how the story truly ends.


In truth, the heroes who felled his incarnations were pulled from their own times to a now lifeless Lucrece, and together they banded to vanquish the Lord of Dark and his legions. Oersted appeared to them in his human form, begging for death, but after being refused, Odio sent his incarnations at them once more, trying to prove that hatred is everlasting, existing in all timelines, and that they must be wary. Yet the heroes triumphed once more, leading Oersted to break down, his fury escalating and achieving physical form to lay the heroes low.


Ultimately, the seven alone failed to fully defeat the Lord of Dark, however they managed to break Oersted free, giving him the opportunity to slay the Demon King and redeem himself. With the Lord of Dark vanquished, Oersted accepted his defeat, realizing his heart was weak and using the last of his power to send the heroes home as he crumbled to dust. But he left them with a warning; there is no “chosen one” or “prophecy” that can make a Demon King. Anyone can fall like he had, so long as hatred exists.

Equipment

Garland

Weaponry

In Dissidia, Brave Exvius, and Record Keeper, Garland is capable of equipping a vast array of weaponry from daggers, swords, and katanas to spears, maces, and hammers. However, he also has a selection of go-to arms that will be detailed below.

Greatsword

First appearing in Dissidia Final Fantasy, Garland’s primary weapon is a massive, crushing greatsword that’s so large and heavy that he drags it along the ground when not attacking. It’s also capable of shifting into alternate forms based on the Four Fiends – an axe (Lich), twin blades (Marilith), a flail (Kraken), and a segmented lance (Tiamat). Garland further connects his sword to the Fiends by imbuing it with elemental magics. Across many of his appearances, Garland carries a variety of takes on this weapon.

  • Claymore – a simple trapezoidal greatsword that tapers off at a bent point.

  • Rebellion - similar in overall shape and makeup to the Claymore, though with a more regal purple blade adorned with golden accents.

  • Chaosbringer - a crude, black sword made of volcanic iron and coursing with veins of magma across its body and surface.

  • Balmung - an enormous double-bladed broadsword said to once be his original weapon from when he still served Cornelia.

  • Zanmato - a blade with more inlaid edges and some more Japanese elements, this weapon resembles that wielded by the god of destruction, Spiritus.

Axes

  • Ogrekiller - An axe that’s effective against giants, it grants heightened attack, but slightly decreases defense.

  • Viking Axe - Once wielded by vikings, this axe grants even greater attack than before.

  • Gigant Axe - Garland’s ultimate weapon, it has the same boons as the Viking Axe, but without the drop in defense.

Other Weapons

In the Dissidia series, Garland can wield Greatswords, Katanas, Spears, and Axes. For brevity’s sake, this section will only list the highest-level, non-exclusive options. For a full list, please see here and here.

  • Ragnarok - A greatsword that increases the wielder’s physical damage output.

  • Lufenia’s Edge - A greatsword that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge or Assist Gauge depletion.

  • Death Blade - A greatsword that boosts the wielder’s EX absorption and range, as well as their Assist charge and duration.

  • Heaven’s Cloud - A katana that increases the wielder’s EX intake range.

  • Piggy’s Stick - A katana that greatly reduces the wielder’s Bravery recovery.

  • Lufenian Katana - A katana that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge depletion.

  • Genji Blade - A katana that boosts the wielder’s Luck, regen of HP to Brave, and EX Core appearance.

  • Hardwood Katana - A katana that boosts the wielder’s damage output when near death at the cost of their physical defense.

  • Gungnir - A spear that increases the wielder’s BRV damage when performing a Wall Rush.

  • Lufenian Lance - A spear that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge depletion.

  • Rhongomiant - A spear that increases the wielder’s EX Revenge duration and damage output.

  • Earthbreaker - An axe that increases the wielder’s HP damage when performing a Wall Rush.

  • Lufenian Axe - An axe that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge or Assist Gauge depletion.

Armor

Similarly, Garland has shown to be able to equip shields, gauntlets, bracers, helms, and all manner of armors. Though all are secondary to his most regular defenses:

  • Dark Helm - Garland’s signature horned helm. It grants him increased attack and defense.

  • Dark Armor - A cloaked set of plate armor. Like from his helm, Garland is given greater attack and defense from wearing it, and in Record Keeper, he is also granted minor resistance to dark elemental attacks.

Other Equipment

In the Dissidia series, Garland can wield Shields, Gauntlets, Large Shields, Helms, Light Armor, and Heavy Armor. For brevity’s sake, this section will only list the highest-level, non-exclusive options. For a full list, please see here and here.

  • Hero’s Shield - A shield that grants the wielder increased HP defense during a Wall Rush.

  • Adamant Shield - A shield that grants the wielder increased Bravery on dodge and a boost to midair evasion.

  • Ensanguined Shield - A shield that reduces the wielder’s initial HP and Bravery.

  • Lufenian Shield - A shield that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge or Assist Gauge depletion.

  • Genji Shield - A shield that boosts the wielder’s Luck, regen of HP to Brave, and EX Core appearance.

  • Prytwen - A shield that increases the wielder’s EX Revenge duration and damage output.

  • Sanguine Shield - A shield that recovers the wielder’s HP when dealing HP damage.

  • Lunate Armlet - A gauntlet that increases the wearer’s Magic counter strength and boosts Bravery on block.

  • Borghertz’s Hands - Gauntlets that increase the wearer’s Magic counter strength.

  • Lufenian Gauntlets - Gauntlets that increase the wearer’s EX Gauge depletion.

  • Scorpion Mittens - Gauntlets that boost the wearer’s damage output when near death at the cost of their physical defense.

  • Aegis Shield - A large shield that increases the wielder’s Warp defense.

  • Lufenian Greatshield - A large shield that increases the wielder’s EX Gauge depletion.

  • Grand Helm - A helm that increases the wearer’s BRV defense on chase.

  • Adamant Helm - A helm that grants the wearer increased Bravery on dodge and a boost to midair evasion.

  • Lufenian Helm - A helm that increases the wearer’s EX Gauge or Assist Gauge depletion.

  • Genji Helm - A helm that boosts the wearer’s Luck, regen of HP to Brave, and EX Core appearance.

  • Dragon Sallet - A helm that increases the wearer’s EX Revenge duration and damage output.

  • Blood Helm - A helm that recovers the wearer’s HP when dealing HP damage.

  • Ace’s Helm - A helm that boosts the wearer’s damage output when near death at the cost of their physical defense.

  • Brigandine - A set of light armor that grants the wearer increased BRV defense during a Wall Rush.

  • Adamant Vest - A set of light armor that grants the wearer increased Bravery on dodge and a boost to midair evasion.

  • Lufenian Vest - A set of light armor that increases the wearer’s EX Gauge depletion.

  • Wygar - A set of light armor that increases the wearer’s EX Revenge duration and damage output.

  • Blood Armor - A set of light armor that recovers the wearer’s HP when dealing HP damage.

  • Fighter’s Lorica - A set of light armor that boosts the wearer’s damage output when near death at the cost of their physical defense.

  • Genji Armor - A set of heavy armor that boosts the wearer’s Luck, regen of HP to Brave, and EX Core appearance.

  • Maximillian - A set of heavy armor that increases the wearer’s physical defense.

  • Bone Mail - A set of heavy armor that disables the wearer’s ability to absorb EX Force and Cores.

  • Lufenian Armor - A set of heavy armor that increases the wearer’s EX Gauge or Assist Gauge depletion.

Garland can also put on an array of accessories, the lists of which can be found here and here.

Materia

Garland has access to special kinds of Materia in Record Keeper that, while not giving him the abilities of typical Materia, do still grant him a number of different passive boons.

Record Materia

  • Heretic - Garland’s attacks have a moderate chance of dealing light physical Dark damage.

  • Stalwart Warrior - Garland is given a moderate defense boost from heavy armor.

  • True Madness - Greatly increases the amount of Dark damage Garland deals.

Legend Materia

  • Embracer of the Dark - Garland gets a small boost to the Dark damage he deals.

  • Font of Darkness - When using a Dark attack, Garland has a moderate chance to recover health for a portion of the damage dealt.

  • Frenzied Warrior - If Garland is low on HP, he can activate this Materia once to restore his health and reduce the delay on his actions.

  • Timeless Hatred - Garland’s Dark abilities have a small chance of activating twice.

  • Battlelust - Garland begins a battle temporarily infused with the power of the dark.

  • Onslaught - Garland has a moderate chance of following up a Dark attack with Twin Swords (see Abilities).

Oersted

Swords

Where would a self-respecting knight of Oersted’s caliber be without a trusty blade in hand? Thankfully for him, he has a handful of different swords at his beck and call, with which he can vanquish the forces of darkness in his way.

  • Gnomic Sword - A plain but functional sword. Increases the wielder’s Attack.

  • Axion Sword - A sword once wielded by a storied warrior. Increases the wielder’s Attack and Physical Attack.

  • Sword of Marvels - A versatile blade that can be wielded in either hand, but enhances attributes when held with one’s right. Increases the wielder’s Attack and Speed.

  • Defender - A parrying blade suited to deflecting blows when wielded in the offhand. Grants projectile resistance, and increases the wielder’s Attack, and Physical Defense.

  • Brion - The legendary sword wielded by Hasshe the hunter when he defeated the Lord of Dark long ago. Greatly increases the wielder’s Attack and Physical Attack.

Armor & Equipment

As with his arms, so too is a knight nowhere without good armor to defend him. Just as before, he has a fair share of options to equip.

  • Fur Bracer - A bracer fashioned from the pelts of wild animals. Slightly increases the wearer’s Defense and Speed.

  • Earthen Fist - A gauntlet carved from rock rendering the wearer resistant to earth and shields from petrification. Increases the wearer’s Defense and Physical Attack.

  • Hero’s Shield - A shield carried by one of the storied heroes who faced and defeated the Lord of Dark long ago. Increases the wielder’s Defense, Special Defense, and Evasion, while lowering Speed.

  • Royal Shield - A ceremonial shield designed for use by honored protectors of the royal household of Lucrece. Slightly increases the wielder’s Defense and Evasion, while lowering Speed.

  • Amethyst Shield - A lightweight shield adorned with gemstones that is quite functional despite its decorative design. Increases the wielder’s Defense.

  • Sallet - A common iron helm for the unassuming warrior. Slightly increases the wearer’s Defense and Special Attack.

  • Ice Helm - A helm woven with enchantments rendering the wearer resistant to ice and water. Increases the wearer’s Defense and Special Defense.

  • Helm of Nightmares - To wear this helm is to be haunted by nightmares so terrible that one will never again be able to sleep. Increases the wearer’s Defense, while greatly lowering Special Attack.

  • Fur Armor - Armor fashioned from the pelts of wild animals.

  • Iron Armor - Simple but reliable armor for the old-fashioned knight. Increases the wearer’s Defense, while lowering Speed.

  • Sacred Silver Armor - A suit of sacred armor imbued with the power of elemental guardians. Increases the wearer’s Special Attack and Defense, while also granting resistance to Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth attacks.

  • Flame Armor - Armor woven with enchantments rendering the wearer resistant to fire. Increases the wearer’s Special Attack, Defense, and Special Defense.

  • Divine Armor - Armor bearing the blessing of an ancient divinity. Increases the wearer’s Defense and Special Defense, while also granting resistance to Spirit attacks.

  • Unicorn Horn - The horn of a mythical creature that can be used to remove all detrimental status effects, and restores a small amount of health. Slightly increases the wearer’s Special Attack and Special Defense.

  • Trifle - At a glance, it appears to be edible but… Hinders an enemy’s agility and reduces their speed. Can be used as equipment to slightly raise Physical Defense.

  • Eye of Argos - The eye of a giant whose gaze could turn a man to stone. Can be used as equipment to increase Special Attack and grant an immunity to Sleep.

  • Solomon’s Thighbone - A relic with the power to summon forth a mage who commands the dead. Can be used as equipment to increase Special Attack while lowering Physical Defense.

  • Fur Boots - Boots fashioned from the pelts of wild animals. Slightly increases the wearer’s Defense.

  • Charioteer’s Boots - Reinforced leather boots commonly worn by charioteers. Increases the wearer’s Speed and slightly raises Defense.

Miscellaneous Items

In a world of swords and sorcery, of course there would be means for Oersted to easily replenish or increase his strength, or even further deter his foes, and thankfully, these options are readily available for him to draw upon.

  • Joshua Tree Seed - A tree seed that can be used to remove detrimental status effects, and restores a small amount of health.

  • Balmgrass - A medicinal herb that can be used to restore HP. Restores a moderate amount of health and enhances all attributes.

  • Alice Biscuit - A delicious treat that pairs well with tea. Restores a large amount of health and removes status effects.

  • Holy Water - A consumable liquid that can be used to restore a large amount of health and remove status effects.

  • Apple of Eden - A forbidden fruit said to beguile those foolish enough to consume it and render them unable to act.

  • Blood of Bael - The blood of an otherworldly archon will befoul the earth when spilt. Creates an area of poison tiles.

  • Blood of Amon - The blood of an accursed demon that will set the earth ablaze when spilt. Creates an area of flame tiles.

  • Shroud of Demons - A blasphemous relic that can be used to conjure demonic mists born of blackest hells. Weakens and confuses all enemies.

Abilities

Garland

Swordsmanship

As Garland was once Cornelia’s greatest knight, he is naturally a master swordsman, and shows his skill very clearly. His preferred fighting style – named “Nemesis” in Dissidia and Dissidia 012, and “Vanguard” in Dissidia NT – focuses on aggression and delivering powerful, consecutive blows to deal heavy damage.

  • Round Edge - Garland spins forward in a circle to slash his opponent twice, before hitting them again with his sword’s axe and twin blade forms, for a four-hit combo. In Brave Exvius, it deals physical Dark damage to and reduces elemental resistances of those struck by it.

  • Deathblow - Garland steps forward and swings his sword upwards to knock his foe into the air.

  • Lance Charge - Garland changes his sword into its spear form and charges forward. If he connects with his target, he jumps up and slams them down. If the opponent blocks, they will be staggered.

  • Highbringer - Garland dashes forward and swings his sword up, after which he can either shoot his blade out on a chain to knock his opponent higher into the air, or jump into the air to deliver a three-hit combo.

  • Twin Swords - Garland splits his sword into two and strikes the opponent while moving forward. In Dissidia NT, he finishes the attack with a swing of his axe.

  • Chain Cast - Garland whips his sword downwards on a chain and then back up to knock his opponent into the air.

  • Bardiche - Garland shifts his sword into its axe form and swings downward. The attack has a slight homing effect, as he will move downward before performing it.

  • Twist Drill - Garland morphs his sword into a spear and rushes forward, knocking his opponent away..

  • Chain Impact - Garland shoots his blade out on a chain to draw in his opponent, then sends them flying with a sword blow.

  • Dark Spiral - An attack that deals physical damage to the target(s) while ignoring 50% of their defense and briefly decreases their resistance to Dark attacks.

  • Chaos Slicer - Garland deals seven hits of physical damage to an enemy before finishing with a final, stronger hit.

Deranged Soul

By successfully racking up continuous hits, Garland gains a temporary buff to his speed and power that can stack up to two times.

Magic

Garland also has access to a pool of elemental magics linked to the Four Fiends, which as mentioned before, he imbues into his blade.

  • Thundaga - Garland slams his sword’s axe form into the ground, sending a pillar of lightning towards his foe. As he uses it in Brave Exvius, it deals three hits of physical Lightning damage to a single enemy.

  • Earthquake - Garland smashes his sword into the ground from above, causing stone spikes to erupt from the earth, damaging his foe and sending them flying.

  • Blaze - Garland splits his sword in two and spins them, catching nearby foes in a vortex of flames.

  • Tsunami - Garland jumps back and throws his sword out like a flail, creating a column of water that pursues the enemy.

  • Cyclone - Garland turns his sword into a spear and charges it with energy, before thrusting it forward and manifesting a tornado that pursues enemies.

  • Flare - Garland charges his sword with energy and sets off a series of explosions in his foe’s direction. As he uses it in Brave Exvius, it deals three hits of physical Fire damage to a single enemy.

  • Fira - A second-tier Fire spell, it deals moderate Fire damage to targets.

  • Firaga - A third-tier Fire spell, it deals heavy Fire damage to targets.

  • Blizzaga - A third-tier Ice spell, it deals heavy Ice damage to targets.

  • Stonera - A second-tier Stone spell, it deals moderate Earth damage to targets.

  • Stonga - A third-tier Stone spell, it deals heavy Earth damage to targets.

  • Darkra - A second-tier Dark spell, it deals moderate Dark damage to targets.

  • Curaga - A third-tier healing spell, it restores a large amount of health to the caster or one of their allies.

  • Fire of Chaos - An attack that deals physical Fire damage to all targets.

  • Fiend of Fire ~ Blaze - An attack that deals physical Fire damage to all enemies, with a 30% chance of inflicting Petrify. All allies briefly gain increased ice resistance.

  • Water of Chaos - An attack that deals physical Water damage to all targets.

  • Fiend of Water ~ Tsunami - An attack that deals physical Water damage to all enemies, with a 30% chance of inflicting Sleep. All allies briefly gain increased fire resistance.

  • Wind of Chaos - An attack that deals physical Wind damage to all targets.

  • Fiend of Wind ~ Cyclone - An attack that deals physical Wind damage to all enemies, with a 30% chance of inflicting Confuse. All allies briefly gain increased earth resistance.

  • Earth of Chaos - An attack that deals physical Earth damage to all targets.

  • Fiend of Earth ~ Earthquake - An attack that deals physical Earth damage to all enemies, with a 30% chance of inflicting Death. All allies briefly gain increased lightning resistance.

  • Chaosbringer - An attack that deals physical Dark damage to all targets and has a 30% chance to inflict Blind, Silence, and Confuse.

  • Rumbling Darkness - An attack that deals physical Dark damage to an enemy, while raising the caster’s Attack by 100% and adding the Dark element to their physical attacks for five turns.

Soul Breaks

In Record Keeper, Soul Breaks are unique abilities akin to Limit Breaks, and Garland has a good number of these of his own.

  • Dire Strike - Garland is temporarily granted a moderate boost in Attack, but receives the opposite effect in Defense.

  • Chaos Cyclone - Garland conjures a series of shadowy twisters that all converge on their targets, trapping them in a massive dark vortex that temporarily reduces their resistance to Dark attacks.

  • Chaos Bringer - Garland conjures a magic blade of pure darkness and swings it wildly, striking his foes randomly and draining their health for a portion of the damage he dealt.

  • Dark Rebirth - Garland, infused with the power of the dark, extends his sword like a lance, and delivers a series of spinning strikes onto his opponent before crashing down upon them with a final blow.

  • Wave of Darkness - A great wall of dark energy is sent crashing towards Garland’s foes.

  • Discord Incarnate - Empowered by dark energy, Garland slams his blade down upon his foe for absolutely massive damage.

  • Source of Hatred - Channeling the power of the Four Fiends, Garland executes a devastating spinning slash, racking up great amounts of damage.

  • Chaos Genocide - Drawing on the power of Chaos itself, Garland delivers a relentless assault while infused with dark power, as well as increased attack and defense.

  • Bent on Destruction - Garland delivers a brutally aggressive chain attack, slightly increasing the amount of Dark damage he deals.

  • Scion of Malice - Garland shoots his blade out on a chain to impale his foe, then conures several magic blades that converge for a second strike.

  • Sinister Reincarnation - Garland unleashes a torrent of attacks from every direction.

Limit Bursts

Garland’s finishing moves from Brave Exvius, available after sufficiently filling the Limit Burst (LB) gauge. Fittingly, these attacks are incredibly powerful, dealing massive damage to anyone caught in the crossfire.

  • Chaotic Impact - Garland charges his blade with dark energy to deliver a powerful slash to the target.

  • Eternal Recurrence - Garland charges his blade and strikes with enough power to cause the ground to erupt with dark power.

  • Vagrant Soul - Garland charges his blade and slashes all targets in range, overwhelming them with dark power.

  • Know your limits! - Garland deals 24 hits of massive physical Dark damage and decreases the target’s Defense, Spirit, and elemental resistances for four turns, while increasing the Limit Burst modifiers for allies for four turns.

  • True Soul of Chaos - Infused with the power of the Four Fiends, Garland fully transforms into Chaos and unleashes a blast of magical might, devastating any who are unlucky enough to be caught inside.

Other Skills

  • Man-Eater - A passive ability that grants increased damage to humanoid targets.

  • Counter - A skill that allows the user to perform an immediate counterattack.

  • Power Break - An ability that not only damages the target, but greatly reduces their strength.

  • Darkness - A special ability that deals a strong Dark attack to the target and reduces their resistance to Dark attacks, at the expense of some of the user’s HP.

  • Dark Awakening - An ability that temporarily infuses the user’s attacks with darkness, as well as increasing the caster’s strength and resistance to Dark attacks.

  • Defend - An ability that halves damage taken by the user for the turn that it is active.

  • Mediguard - A passive ability that continuously regenerates the user’s health while guarding.

  • Auto-Protect - An ability that continually bestows the user with the Protect status, reducing damage taken from physical attacks.

  • Doublehand - A passive ability that increases the strength of the bearer’s equipment by 50%, at the cost of not being able to use shields or dual wield. In Brave Exvius, it also increases the bearer’s physical accuracy by 25%.

  • Two-Handed Attacker - A passive ability that increases the bearer’s Attack by 200%, all other stats by 60%, physical accuracy by 25%, Limit Burst damage by 150%, and weapon modifier cap by 100%.

  • Corrupted Knight - The bearer’s Attack and HP are passively increased, as well as receiving the Doublehand increases.

  • Dark Crystal - The bearer’s Attack, HP, and MP are increased by 30%, as well as receiving the Doublehand increases.

  • Double Chaos - Garland can cast any two of his skills in succession, with the exceptions of Emergence of Chaos or Chains of Rebirth.

  • Triple Chaos - Garland can cast any three of his skills in succession, with the exceptions of Emergence of Chaos or Chains of Rebirth.

  • Chaos Impact - The user deals seven hits of physical damage to an enemy before finishing with a final, stronger hit.

  • Paralysis Chain - The user deals physical damage to an enemy while ignoring 50% of their defense, with a 50% chance of inflicting Paralyze. Additional physical damage is sustained over three turns.

  • Chaos Regeneration - Gradually restores Garland’s health over three turns, while also briefly granting him ability modifiers for Revenge of Chaos and Chaos Slicer. However, this skill has 4 turns of cooldown.

  • Emergence of Chaos - Garland’s Attack and Defense are increased by 200% for five turns, as well as increasing his Limit Burst gauge and enabling Triple Chaos, all at the cost of 40% of his health. This skill has 6 turns of cooldown.

  • Revenge of Chaos - Garland deals seven hits of physical damage to the enemy before finishing with a final, stronger hit, all of which ignore 50% of their Defense. However, this skill has 3 turns of cooldown.

  • Chains of Rebirth - Removes all status effects from Garland’s enemies, with a 90% chance of inflicting all status ailments and two turns of Stop, while also having a 70% chance of decreasing all stats for three turns. However, this skill has a staggering 20 turns of cooldown.

  • Warring Spirit - Auto-cast at the start of a battle, it grants an increase to the user’s Limit Burst gauge.

  • Knightly Memories - A passive attack buff given to the user when equipped with a greatsword and/or helm.

  • Chaotic Influence - Increases ability modifiers for Dark Spiral+, Darkness, Revenge of Chaos, Fiend of Earth ~ Earthquake, Fiend of Fire ~ Blaze, Fiend of Water ~ Tsunami, Fiend of Wind ~ Cyclone, Paralysis Chain, and Rumbling Darkness.

  • Endless Rebirth - Passively increases the bearer’s Attack, Spirit, and Dark resistance by 20%.

  • Unending Chaos - Garland’s Attack and Defense are raised by 40%, and HP by 20%, as well as increasing the Limit Burst gauge every turn.

  • ATK +500 - The user’s Attack is passively raised by 500.

  • ATK +20% - The user’s Attack is passively raised by 20%.

  • HP +20% - The user’s max HP is passively raised by 20%.

  • SPR +20% - The user’s Spirit is passively raised by 20%.

  • Governor of Darkness - Passively increases the bearer’s Defense, MP, and Dark resistance by 30%.

  • HP Regen II - The user passively recovers 8% of their HP every turn.

  • MP Regen II - The user passively recovers 8% of their MP every turn.

  • Knight’s Vestige - Garland’s defense is increased by 20%, and every turn, he recovers 5% of his MP and his Limit Burst gauge increases.

  • LB Damage +100% - The user’s Limit Burst damage is passively raised by 100%.

  • Tightening the Chains of Time - Garland’s Limit Burst damage is increased by 50%, and his counter chance by 100%. This skill also increases the ability modifiers for Dark Spiral+, Flare, Paralysis Chain, Revenge of Chaos, Thundaga, Chaos Impact, Chaos Slicer, Fiend of Earth ~ Earthquake, Fiend of Fire ~ Blaze, Fiend of Water ~ Tsunami, Fiend of Wind ~ Cyclone, and Rumbling Darkness.

  • Knight of Cornelia - Garland’s Attack, Defense, and HP are increased by 20%, and when his health drops below the 80% mark, his Attack and Defense are raised by 120% for two turns.

  • All-Consuming Chaos - The user’s physical and magic damage is increased by 100% against all enemies.

Miscellaneous Abilities

Curses

The Four Fiends have shown the ability to send out curses, such as when they turned a group of Sky Warriors into bats. As Garland is able to draw power from the Fiends, he should be capable of the same at full strength. Lesser bosses have also shown the ability to curse, such as Astos putting the Elf Prince into a deep sleep.

Time Travel

Garland has shown the ability to send himself and others backwards or forwards through time, such as him sending the Fiends into the future to thus send himself into the past, as part of establishing the time loop.

Pocket Reality Creation

In the final battle with Chaos, he appears to create a pocket reality in which the fight takes place. This is further substantiated by Garland briefly doing the same during his EX Burst.

Resistances

Garland has elemental resistances to Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth, and especially Dark damage, as well as resisting Poison and Petrification.

EX Mode

After building enough EX Force, Garland can enter a state called “EX Mode”, where he slowly regenerates health and has a higher chance of dealing Critical Hits.

Class Change

Garland’s EX Mode, during which he gains the exclusive ability “Indomitable Resolve”, preventing him from flinching or being knocked back by an opponent while executing an attack of his own, thus creating more openings for him to go on the offensive.

Soul of Chaos

Garland’s EX Burst, he knocks his opponent away and raises his sword, charging it with energy before furiously attacking his foe with all of its various forms.

Oersted

As Oersted

Swordsmanship

As one of Lucrece’s greatest knights, chosen to combat the Lord of Dark, Oersted is well-versed in swordplay, possessing a wide array of techniques to cut his enemies down.

  • Bold Cut - Oersted’s most basic attack, he slashes at an enemy without fear or hesitation. It deals low damage and is surpassed by everything else at his disposal.

  • Mirrored Strike - Oersted unleashes a flurry of blows to counter enemy attacks from the front. Deals three hits of low damage.

  • Valorous Slash - Oersted focuses and strikes an enemy with a single powerful blow. Deals medium damage.

  • Flourish - Oersted unleashes a whirling strike to punish nearby enemies, knocking them back and disorienting them. Deals medium damage and can restrain enemies.

  • Prismatic Whirl - Oersted whirls in place and slashes at surrounding enemies. Deals low damage.

  • Dragonsoul - Oersted harnesses the fiery power of a dragon to unleash a jet of concentrated flame at an enemy. Does high penetrating damage, but has a moderate charge time.

  • Crushing Blow - Oersted delivers a mighty overhead strike that disorients an enemy. Deals medium damage and lowers the target’s Physical Defense.

  • Shardfall - Oersted calls down a flurry of blades to rend the flesh on enemies in an area. Deals high damage, but has a moderate charge time.

  • Wave Slash - Oersted sends a wave of razor-sharp energy hurtling towards an enemy. Deals medium directional damage.

  • Heavenly Strike - Oersted leaps high into the air towards an enemy and brings his sword down upon them. Deals high damage.

  • Thousand Cuts - Oersted rains down blows upon all enemies in range. Deals low damage and can restrain and snare enemies.

  • Windbite - Oersted sends a host of flying blades towards enemies in an area. Deals six low damage hits with a chance of inflicting Paralysis.

  • Moonrise - Oersted bewilders enemies in an area and puts them to sleep for a time. Deals low damage.

  • Archon’s Mark - Oersted’s ultimate technique, he brings to bear against an enemy a legendary demonic art once used to defeat the Lord of Dark. Deals massive directional damage with a short charge time, at the risk of lowering the user’s Accuracy and Evasion.

As Odio

Fire Manipulation

The element of fire is wielded by various incarnations of Odio, with some incarnations preferring the use of flaming weapons/tools – like O. Dio using a flaming cocktail to inflict fire damage – while others, through extensive martial arts training, have learned to summon fire in their hands or create flame pillars as shown with Ou Di Wan Lee. 

Electric Manipulation

Several forms of Odio are capable of channeling electricity and utilizing it as attacks while other incarnations like OD-10 can manipulate electronics such as computers in order to murder people on a ship.

Poison Manipulation

Various incarnations of Odio have the ability to manipulate/use poison to their advantage. Some incarnations can poison to enhance their weapons, though Ode Iou in particular utilizes poison greatly by creating areas of poison onto the battlefield that heal himself as well as damage anyone that steps into it. 


Status Infliction

While fighting against one of Odio’s most powerful forms, Purity of Odio, it is capable of inflicting several status effects including Intoxication (which prevents his opponent from using certain moves), Petrification (which makes them unable to take any actions while still taking damage) and Sleep (which prevents the opponent from attacking, using items, moving or turning).

Darkness Manipulation

As Odio, he is able to manipulate darkness, as he has been shown to cover the entirety of the area in complete darkness in both of his boss fights.

Chi Manipulation

Ou Di Wan Lee possessed the ability of manipulating life force energy, otherwise known as Chi, in order to enhance his physical strikes and deal significant damage to his opponents.

Telekinesis


This ability is more exclusive; Odeo should possess the same abilities as the liquefied humans it absorbed. One of those abilities that the liquefied humans possess was the ability of telekinesis, being able to manipulate and control objects from afar or at close range.  

Stat Buffing/Decreasing

Oersted and the various forms of Odio can utilize techniques in order to increase their own stats as well as debuff those of their opponents. Odie O’Bright in particular specialized in this, being able to lower Masaru’s stats via Diving DDO and increase his own stats via Malevolent Shout. 

Healing

Various forms of Odio can sustain their existence further through draining out the lifeforce of others as shown with Ode Iou’s Bloodsucker ability or simply using healing arts in order to restore some of the damage that they have taken over the course of their fights with the heroes (such as O. Dio’s Bugle Charge). 

Emotion/Hatred Manipulation

Odio, as a being of pure evil and hatred, draws strength from hate and can use it to make himself stronger. This was shown after Purity of Odio was defeated; Oersted drew upon the hatred of man across all of time and was able to make himself stronger, thus turning into the ultimate form of Odio - Sin of Odio. The various incarnations of Odio seen throughout the game are also described as “faces” of his hatred. It should also be noted that as long as hatred exists, Odio can never truly be defeated even if Oersted dies, as someone else can become the embodiment of Odio.

Corruption/Possession

Odio has shown to be able to seek and corrupt individuals with his power; a process that takes mere moments, as shown by Oersted being corrupted minutes after defeating Streibough, who held Odio’s power himself.

Flight

Odio appears to grant those who command his power some degree of flight.

Soul Manipulation

After massacring all of Lucrece’s people, Odio sealed their souls within the Trial of Heart.

Time Manipulation

Odio’s presence affects all of time, so much so that he can interfere with the timestream and summon people from the prehistoric past, the very far future, and all manner of eras between to the Middle Ages in order to face him in combat. In particular, he’s able to bring them in through a rift outside time and send them there again should they try to flee him, as well as possibly stop time when dragging them in, though it’s also possible this is a case of cinematic time. He can also interact with his past incarnations via statues as shown with the bad ending where he possessed the other forms of Odio in order to brutally murder the heroes, as well as for the final boss rush. In the former case, Odio also appears to be unaffected by the alterations he makes to the timeline.

Spatial Manipulation

In the final chapter, there are several dungeons called “trials” that didn’t exist in Lucrece before, with some outright replacing parts of the kingdom’s layout, implying Odio created them himself in the interim period.

Pocket Reality Creation

Odio creates pocket dimensions in which the battles with Face of Odio and Sin of Odio take place.

Immortality/Longevity

Odio appears to grant his vessel some form of immortality, or at least longevity, as evidenced by the final chapter taking place “ages” after the fall of Lucrece. It’s further supported that this is merely bestowed by Odio, as Oersted dies after his influence is dispelled.

Armageddon


Oersted’s final and ultimate technique, if the player plays as Oersted/Odio in the final chapter, should their health lower - they gain access to Armageddon. Once triggered, every version of Odio across time will trigger a massive explosion - erasing everything across time - both past and future until there is nothing left. It is unknown if any part of Odio survives this spell though certain versions of Live a Live either support Odio living and go against it. Either way, once Odio triggers this move - almost nothing remains.


Resistances and Weaknesses

Outside of resistances granted by equipment, as listed above, Oersted and Odio’s inherent resistances are as follows (see here for a full list of Live A Live’s attack types and status effects):


  • Odo: None

  • Ou Di Wan Lee: None

  • Ode Iou: None

    • Gamahebi: Martial, Agile, Thrusting, Slashing, Blunt, Grappling, and Projectiles

  • O. Dio: None

  • Odie O’Bright: None

  • Odeo: Projectiles

  • OD-10: None


However, their weaknesses are as follows:

  • Oersted: Divine

  • Maw of Odio: Slashing and Divine

  • Eyes of Odio: Thrusting, Fire (including other heat sources, such as lasers)

  • Brow/Purity of Odio: None

  • Sin of Odio: Grappling (left arm), Spirit (right arm), and Divine (body)


  • Odo: None

  • Ou Di Wan Lee: None

  • Ode Iou: None

    • Gamahebi: Spirit

  • O. Dio: None

  • Odie O’Bright: None

  • Odeo: None

  • OD-10: None

Forms & Forces

Garland 

Chaos

The quintessential Final Fantasy villain, antithesis to light and harmony; Chaos is the zenith of Garland’s power and hatred, manifested after absorbing the Four Fiends’ power. He is the reason behind the time loop, having created it with the goal of achieving immortality, only being thwarted after falling in battle against the Warriors of Light. Thus, the time loop was broken.


Chaos has a bevy of magics at his beck and call, a number of which he carries over from Garland, fitting for the series’s first final boss.

  • Blaze - Chaos engulfs his victims and the battlefield in searing flames, dealing heavy damage.

  • Tsunami - Chaos summons a violent wave to wash his foes away, causing a raging storm in the process.

  • Earthquake - Chaos rips the earth’s crust asunder and tears large chunks of the ground into the sky, attempting to instantly vanquish his foes.

  • Cyclone - Chaos creates a giant tornado, surrounding the field with blistering winds and tearing apart anyone caught in the epicenter.

  • Slowra - A spell that allows Chaos to slow down the actions of any targets in range.

  • Firaga - A third tier Fire spell, Chaos conjures powerful flames to deal heavy damage to all targets.

  • Thundaga - A third tier Thunder spell, Chaos sends down great bolts of lightning to deal heavy damage to all targets.

  • Blizzara - A second tier Blizzard spell, Chaos encases all targets in ice for moderate damage.

  • Blizzaga - A third tier Blizzard spell, Chaos entraps all targets in a flurry of ice for heavy damage.

  • Curaja - The highest of all Cure spells, Chaos restores a ton of his lost health.

  • Haste - A spell that allows Chaos to practically double his speed, making him able to act more often in combat.

  • Flare - Chaos sets off a chain of explosions that devastate any and all foes caught in the blast.

Chaos also bears the following resistances:

  • Elements - Earth, Lightning, Time, Fire, Ice

  • Statuses - Paralysis, Darkness/Blind, Silence, Stone/Petrify, Poison, Sleep, Confuse, Instant Death


In Final Fantasy XIV, a copy of Chaos was made by Omega after looking into the multiverse, and is able to battle the Warrior of Light within the Alphascape. As this is a copy of the original Chaos, he should reasonably be able to use the same abilities listed here. (Note: For anyone wondering; no, Chaos will not be receiving XIV scaling, especially because he doesn’t scale to the WoL in the first place.)

  • Chaotic Dispersion - Chaos pulls his arm back and unleashes a vicious swipe towards his main target. If the attack lands, the target will become more vulnerable to physical attacks.

  • Damning Edict - Chaos charges up before letting loose a wave of dark energy to damage all foes situated in front of him.

  • Latitudinal Implosion - Chaos unleashes powerful explosions out to the sides before sending a second wave in front of and behind himself. If it hits a foe, they will become more vulnerable to magic attacks.

  • Longitudinal Implosion - Same as above, but the directions are reversed.

  • Umbra Smash - Chaos marks the spot furthest away from him before leaping up and crashing down on the spot, dealing damage based on his foes’ proximity from the impact.

  • Dynamic Fluid - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with a deluge of chaotic water for moderate damage, and instantly killing anyone caught in the waves.

  • Accretion - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with rapidly hardening mud, instantly killing them if their HP isn’t fully restored in time.

  • Primordial Crust - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with rapidly hardening mud, instantly killing them if they don’t receive lethal damage in time.

  • Entropy - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with an explosion of chaotic flames for moderate damage.

  • Headwind - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with a powerful frontal wind for high damage and knockback.

  • Tailwind - Chaos debuffs his target before plaguing them with a powerful rear wind for high damage and knockback.

  • Knock Down - Chaos targets a foe, then drops a projectile onto them, dealing high damage and making the target more vulnerable to magic.

  • Big Bang - Chaos creates large explosions that deal large pools of damage, with similar effects to Knock Down.

  • Fiendish Orbs - Chaos summons untargetable orbs that tether to random foes then shoot forward in straight lines.

  • Dancing Orbs - Chaos summons untargetable orbs that surround foes in a square formation and shoot forward in straight lines.

  • Knockback - Chaos creates an unavoidable gale of wind or rock slide that throws back anyone who dares try to approach.

  • Bowels of Agony - Chaos creates a void that reduces all targets to 1 HP, as well as inflicting Dynamic Fluid and Headwind or Entropy and Primordial Crust, depending on each target’s role.

  • Dark Crystal - A Dark Crystal forms on the stage, and Chaos will begin to absorb Dark Aether from it.

  • Soul of Chaos - Once Chaos has gained enough Dark Aether, or if the crystal is destroyed before he reaches his maximum, he unleashes it in a giant magical nuke, dealing massive damage to everyone in range.

Four Fiends

Lich

Lich is the Fiend of Earth, who is stated to drain and decay the soil itself. Lich is able to hold his own against the Warriors of Light by casting a wide variety of spells:

  • Fira- Lich casts a moderate fire spell that damages all opponents.

  • Thundara- Lich casts a moderate thunder spell that damages all opponents.

  • Blizzara- Lich casts a moderate ice spell that damages all opponents.

  • Haste- Lich casts a spell that doubles an ally’s number of attacks.

  • Slow- Lich casts a spell that decreases all foes’ number of attacks.

  • Hold- Lich casts a paralysis spell onto one opponent.

  • Sleep- Lich casts a spell that has a chance of inflicting Sleep on all opponents.

  • Sleepra- Lich casts a more potent spell that has a higher chance of inflicting Sleep on one opponent.

  • Flare- Lich casts a non-elemental spell that deals devastating damage to all opponents.

  • Stop- Lich stops time itself, which has a chance of paralyzing all opponents

  • Warp- Lich banishes his foes to another dimension, which has a chance of instantly killing each opponent.

  • Kill- Lich instantly kills one opponent of his choice.

Lich also bears the following resistances:

  • Elements: Blizzard.

  • Statuses: Stun, Poison, Stone/Petrify, Darkness/Blind, Sleep, Confuse, Silence and Instant Death.

Marilith

Marilith is the Fiend of Fire, who wields six swords along with a small variety of magic:

  • Fira- Marilith casts a moderate fire spell onto all opponents.

  • Firaga- Marilith casts a strong fire spell onto all opponents.

  • Hold- Marilith casts a paralysis spell onto one opponent.

  • Stun- Marilith casts a paralysis spell onto one opponent that always works if the opponent has less than 300 HP, but fails if the opponent has more than 300 HP.

  • Dark- Marilith casts a blindness spell onto all opponents.

  • Death- Marilith instantly kills one opponent.

Marilith also bears the following resistances:

  • Elements: Fire, Thunder, Blizzard and Dia.

  • Statuses: Stone/Petrify and Poison.

Kraken

Kraken is the Fiend of Water, dragging down the entire Water Crystal’s shrine to the bottom of the ocean. With this strength, Kraken can prove to be a threat to the Warriors of Light in spite of his smaller arsenal:

  • Ink- Kraken spews ink at his foes that can inflict Darkness onto them.

  • Thundara- Kraken casts a moderate thunder spell onto all opponents.

Kraken also bears the following resistances:

  • Elements: Earth, Fire and Dia.

  • Statuses: Stone/Petrify and Poison.

Tiamat

Tiamat is the Fiend of Wind, who appears at the top of the Flying Fortress. She specializes in magic and a variety of enemy-exclusive attacks:

  • Fira- Tiamat casts a moderate fire spell onto all opponents.

  • Blizzara- Tiamat casts a moderate ice spell onto all opponents.

  • Thundara- Tiamat casts a moderate thunder spell onto all opponents.

  • Scourge- Tiamat casts a spell that has a chance of instantly killing each opponent.

  • Blaze- Tiamat breathes fire onto all opponents, inflicting heavy fire damage.

  • Icestorm- Tiamat creates a storm of ice that deals heavy ice damage to all opponents.

  • Thunderbolt- Tiamat makes lightning strike the whole party, inflicting heavy thunder damage.

  • Poison Gas- Tiamat breathes poisonous gas onto all opponents, inflicting heavy poison damage.

Tiamat also bears the following resistances:

  • Elements: Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Dia and Earth.

  • Statuses: None.

Oersted

Odio

The Lord of Dark

The Lord of Dark and king of demons, Odio is equivalent to an evil god, traversing across different ages and times. Once, the Demon King roamed the land in the Middle Ages and terrorized humanity, only to be defeated and banished by the hero Hasshe and the monk Uranus. However, he set seven statues in his lair – the Archon’s Roost – so that he may be incarnated across all time. In truth, the “Lord of Dark” is a title; and years later, it was held by the mage Streibough, who would orchestrate the chain of events leading to Oersted’s downfall before being slain himself. With a shattered psyche, Oersted swears vengeance on the selfishness of humanity as he casts off his own – now taking the mantle of the Lord of Dark, Odio.

Face of Odio

During the final battle, the Face of Odio was the first form that Odio transformed into. This form is divided into four parts: the Eyes, Maw, and Brow of Odio, which all have their own individual abilities:


Both Eyes of Odio:

  • Expunge- Odio drains health from one opponent, healing himself in the process.

  • Expulsion- Odio shoots a tear out of his eye that can damage an opponent from a distance.

  • Beguiling Gaze- Odio counters an attack with a gleam from his eye that can damage an opponent, lower their stats, or temporarily put them to sleep.

  • Stare Daggers- Odio shoots multiple wave-shaped tears at his opponent from a distance.


Maw of Odio:

  • Shadow of Despair- Odio traps one opponent inside a cube before attacking the target with dark energy, binding them and leaving behind a lightning tile.

  • Molten Breath- Odio breathes fire onto his opponents, potentially lowering their stats and inflicting them with Poison.


Brow of Odio:

  • Righteous Fervor- When attacked, the Brow of Odio will restore all damage it took and partially heal the Eyes and Maw of Odio if they are still active, while also increasing their stats.

Purity of Odio

When the Eyes and Maw of Odio have been destroyed, the Brow of Odio opens up into his third form, the Purity of Odio. This form swaps out Brow of Odio’s self-healing Righteous Fervor for a new set of attacks, including:

  • Denial- Odio releases a burst of dark energy that affects the whole surrounding area, damaging all opponents.

  • Expunge- Odio drains health from one opponent, healing himself in the process.

  • Shadow of Despair- Odio traps one opponent inside a cube before attacking the target with dark energy, binding them and leaving behind a lightning tile.

  • Saint Alethea- Odio shows the face of a saint resembling the late Alethea, before the face distorts and lets out an agonizing shriek that can damage and  inflict opponents within range with Petrification, Intoxication, or Sleep.

Sin of Odio

After Purity of Odio was defeated, Oersted achieved the final form of Odio by absorbing all the hatred in the world, becoming Sin of Odio. This form can hold its own against all seven heroes with its variety of attacks:

  • Contemptuous Claw - Odio picks up an opponent in one of his claws and charges up energy to damage them.

  • Vengeful Smite - Odio slams one of his claws down onto his opponent.

  • Arm of the Vortex - Odio slashes at his opponents with one of his claws.

  • Thunderous Despair - Odio creates a lightning orb in one of his hands that floats into the air and rains lightning down on opponents within its range. This attack also creates lightning tiles that damage those standing on them over time.

  • Lament of the Damned - Odio releases a burst of energy that inflicts status effects such as Poison, Petrification, and Paralysis.

  • Torment’s Draught - Odio shoots a blast of energy out from his mouth, damaging whoever is in front of him.

  • Absolute Condemnation - Used only when on the back foot, Odio releases an unavoidable burst of energy that does no damage but pushes enemies back and incapacitates them in liquid brimstone.

Incarnations of Odio

Odo

Historically the first incarnation of Odio, Odo – otherwise known as Odosaurus – is known as the Last Dinosaur and is found in the prehistoric era. Known for terrorizing Pogo's Tribe, it is fought at the end of Pogo's story and is a terrifying foe - having no concept of good or evil, only the desire to feed. Odo relies exclusively on brute strength-utilizing moves such as:

  • Chew- Odo bites his opponent.

  • Rend- Odo slashes his opponent with his claws.

  • Swoop- Odo leaps into the air and stomps onto his opponent.

  • Trample- Odo swings its tail at his opponent, potentially inflicting Paralysis.

Ultimately, Odo was a foe of pure brutal strength but eventually was brought down by Pogo and his friends.

 Ou Di Wan Lee

The main antagonist of the Imperial Chapter, Ou Di Wan Lee is the leader of Indomitable Fist and led his dojo against the Earthen Heart Dojo. He brutally trained his students into a fighting force to be reckoned with - being a master of martial arts and stealth techniques. When finally confronted by the Earthen Heart Student, he employs various martial arts techniques in order to brutally defeat them:

  • Inferno's Roar - It is through this martial arts technique that Ou Di Wan Lee manifests the element of Fire by creating large flame pillars in order to hit his opponents.

  • Rabid Wolf's Rage - Ou Di Wan Lee through moving very quickly creates after images that he uses to attack the opponent.

  • Venom Strike - Throws a poisoned shuriken that poisons the enemy when hit.

  • Mad Dragon's Vengeance - Ou Di Wan Lee's ultimate technique, he performs a diving kick that deals massive damage.

While these techniques made Ou Wan Di Lee a force to be reckoned with, he was ultimately defeated by the student's greatest technique - Heavenly Peaks Descent, ending his reign of terror once and for all.

Ode Iou



The main antagonist of the Edo Japan chapter, Ode Iou is a ruthless warlord who was hellbent on throwing Edo Japan into chaos. When regarding his human form, he is not as powerful as other forms of Odio - relying mostly on a gun and Poison techniques to combat his opponents. However, Ode Iou's true form – a disgusting frog monster known as Gamahebi – is truly a threat. In this form, he can use various techniques to put the hurt onto his opponents including:


As Ode:

  • Flintlock - Fires a shot from his flintlock, deals okay damage.

  • Viscous Ooze - Creates a Poison Tile that poisons anyone that comes into contact with it

  • Warmonger's Grudge - Steals the life force out of the enemy, aka Steals their HP.

  • Poisoned Sting - Inflicts Poison onto his enemies that drains their HP

  • Trickster’s Fan - Attacks the opponent with his fan.

As Gamahebi:

  • Stomp - Stomps on the enemy, it has the additional effect of gravely lowering the target's Speed.

  • Revolting Croak - Lets out a massive croak that deals high wind damage to multiple targets

  • Bloodsucker - Drains the blood out of his targets in order to heal himself

  • Venomous Scourge - Using his tongue, he creates a big pool of poison that inflicts Poison damage onto his enemies as well as using the same Poison to heal himself.

However, eventually Ode Iou was defeated by the efforts of Oboromaru and his plan of throwing Japan into war and anarchy came to an end.

O. Dio


Oh boy, this is a very weird one. Now, you may think that O. Dio is just some Wild Western thug, but it turns out that you are very incorrect and O. Dio’s backstory is much more complex and wild than you would think. The being that is known as O. Dio was once a Union horse who participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn between June 25th-26th, 1876. In the world of Live A Live, this horse was the sole survivor of the US 7th Cavalry led by George Armstrong Custer. After becoming possessed by the spirits of the Cavalry, angry at their defeat during the battle - the horse was turned into the being known as O. Dio. 


O. Dio, in an act of vengeance against the land, formed the gang known as the Crazy Bunch and began terrorizing various Wild Western towns in the process. O. Dio and his gang would then clash with the Sundowner Kid and Mad Dog. Employing a gatling gun as his main weapon, O. Dio employs brutal tactics onto the battlefield. Whilst fighting him, O. Dio will often employ the use of minions in order to do his dirty work but is more than capable of fighting you on the battlefield:

  • Gatling Barrage - O. Dio fires his gatling gun that does heavy damage.

  • Flaming Cocktail - O. Dio throws a flaming cocktail that deals fire damage to anything that it hits.

  • Wolfsbane - O.  Dio tosses dust obtained from a poisonous plant at Sundowner Kid and his allies, it inflicts poison onto them. 

  • Bugle Charge - Using this technique, O. Dio heals himself and nearby allies.

Once defeated, O. Dio transforms back into his horse form and escapes, making him the only one of the key incarnations of Odio to actually survive their conflict, though O. Dio’s legacy as a horse of wrathful vengeance in the Wild West will not soon be forgotten. 


Odie O’Bright

The main antagonist of the Modern Day chapter, Odie O’Bright is the 7th and final fighter that Masaru Takahara fights on his quest to become the “Strongest”. Odie O’Bright is an extremely ruthless fighter - having no qualms with murdering his opponents in a brutal fashion and believing in pure brutal strength above all else. Odie employs brutal techniques whilst fighting against his main rival - Masaru Takahara:

  • Diving DDO - Surrounds himself with electricity and leaps at his opponent. It is a move with high risk considering it lowers Odie’s stats but does high damage and has the chance of paralyzing Masaru. 

  • Malevolent Shout - Odie shouts to the sky, the resulting shout restores his health and buffs his stats

  • Reaper’s Scythe - Odie sweeps Masaru, knocking him back

  • Bonebreaker - Odie grapples Masaru, dealing high damage and turning them around. 

Eventually, Masaru proved superior in both ideals and strength and ultimately busted Odie - proving that Odie’s brutal ideology was not the true path in order to become “The Strongest”.

Odeo

The incarnation of Odio in the Near Future chapter, Odeo is a giant statue of the Great Inko worshiped as a savior and brought to life by the Conspirators sacrificing the souls of thousands of innocent people. The Conspirators used this statue in an attempt to stop the Steel Titan from foiling their plans of resurrecting Odeo and converging humanity.

  • Odeodeo Kick- Odeo quickly swipes at the opponent with one of his lower talons.

  • Odeodeo Showa- Odeo sings a chorus that damages the target heavily while reducing their power and incapacitating their legs.

  • Binding Unity- Odeo breathes fumes that can reduce stats and bind the opponent.

  • Divine Glory- A counterattack in which Odeo creates a ball of dark energy and uses it to hit the opponent who attacked him.

After battling the Steel Titan on the grounds of Odeo Temple, Odeo was defeated and the Conspirators were drowned by the souls they had sacrificed.

OD-10

The final incarnation of Odio in the timeline historically, OD-10 is a virus that is able to control the entirety of the ship with its plan to secretly exterminate all life-forms onboard that ship. After its actions take the life of Kirk, Huey, Rachel, and Hor Bishop, the crew eventually realize that it is the AI that’s murdering everything and take action in order to combat it via the only non-vital terminal - the Captain Square arcade cabinet. In the virtual world, OD-10 has various techniques that it can utilize in order to put on the hurt against Cube and his allies:

  • Stabilizers - These drones are used to support OD-10 whilst in combat - as they can heal OD-10 up to full health using System Recover.

  • System Recover - This is a healing move that is more potent depending on how many stabilizers that OD-10 has whilst fighting Cube. 

  • Hard Protect - An AOE attack that instantly damages Cube as it is not dependent on range. It is, however, not very powerful and only used when Cube is out of range from OD-10’s other attacks.

  • High Speed Analysis - OD-10 analyses its opponent in order to determine how much health they have and does a low amount of damage. In the remake, it can also lower Cube’s stats. 

  • Drive Back - Generates lighting, hitting anyone who is in a 3x3 area for some damage.

Skill & Experience

Garland

As mentioned before, Garland was once the finest knight in all of Cornelia, so much so that when he had taken the princess to the Chaos Shrine, none of the soldiers sent to rescue Sarah could defeat him. After all, his power was so great that he was corrupted by it in the first place.


Following his first defeat to the Warriors of Light, he and the Four Fiends were able to establish a time loop dating all the way back 2,000 years ago, as Garland was sent to the past to draw power from the four elements, and he sent the fiends forward in time to drain the Crystals of their power in the first place. By doing so, Garland established the time loop, planning to use it to live forever.


Four hundred years prior to the events of Final Fantasy, Tiamat drove the Lufenians away from the Flying Fortress – home of the Wind Crystal – and made it her roost. Two hundred years later, Kraken invaded the Sunken Shrine, home of the Mermaids and the Water Crystal. Lich had rotted the land near the town of Melmond from the Cavern of Earth, home of the Earth Crystal. Marilith awoke two hundred years early and took residence in Mount Gulg, home of the Fire Crystal.

Oersted

Oersted by himself possesses a great amount of experience and intelligence having been the strongest knight of Lucrece - having won a tournament of the kingdom’s strongest fighters and defeated numerous monsters on his quest of defeating the Lord of Dark. As showcased earlier, Oersted displays a mastery over the art of swordsmanship having defeated his former friend Streibough who was a powerful magic user - not once, but twice in one-on-one combat.


Oersted as Odio further increased his skill and experience throughout time as his many incarnations. Several of his incarnations are experienced combatants who have had years of martial arts training and combat such as Ou Di Wan lee and Odio O’Bright with Ou being a martial arts master while Odio was the strongest human being of his generation until Masaru came along. 


Other incarnations of Odio are also very intelligent and good at manipulation such as Ode Iou, who was a Japanese warlord who kept Japan under his thumb with his power, as well as O. Dio, who was able to lead the Crazy Gang despite just being a horse. Other incarnations also possess the knowledge and experience of multiple beings such as Odeo, who possessed the knowledge and experiences of all the souls it absorbed, as well as O. Dio possessing the souls of the US 7th Cavalry (gaining their skills and knowledge). 


Finally, there’s OD-10, a virus that has the mental capacity of a supercomputer as well as the knowledge in order to perfectly take out members of the ship without raising suspicion. As such, OD-10 would most likely have the most encyclopedic knowledge out of the forms of Odio. 


Then there’s Odosaurus…he’s just a T-Rex - an extremely angry and powerful T-Rex but a T-Rex nonetheless.


Odio himself also has his fair share of cunning; seeing into the pasts of the heroes and making them admit their own selfishness. In one timeline, he also possesses his previous incarnations and leads them to victory when they otherwise failed, showing that to some extent, he is a more skilled fighter than the lot of them – even more impressive given the rogue’s gallery in question.

Feats & Scaling

Garland

Overall

  • Was Cornelia’s finest and most powerful knight.

  • After his betrayal, bested anyone who stood to defy him, prior to the present Warriors of Light.

  • Tiamat destroyed the Lufenian civilization, making the Flying Fortress her roost.

  • Kraken successfully invaded the Sunken Shrine.

  • Lich caused the land around Melmond to rot.

  • Drained the Crystals of their power.

  • Established a time loop in a bid to gain immortality.

Power

Speed

Durability

Oersted

Overall

  • Was well-respected as a knight of Lucrece.

  • Bested Streibough even when he possessed the Lord of Dark’s power.

  • Became the ultimate threat to Live A Live’s timeline as the Lord of Dark, Odio.

  • Odio required the combined strength of seven other heroes to put down.

  • In an alternate ending, killed all the other heroes of Live A Live.

  • In an alternate ending, used Armageddon to destroy the entire timeline.

  • As Odosaurus, was the Last Dinosaur and served a great threat to Pogo’s village.

  • As Ou Di Wan Lee, was the leader of the Indomitable Fist and waged a brutal war against the Earthen Heart Dojo.

  • As Ode Iou, ruled Japan as a ruthless warlord and became a threat to the entire nation.

  • As O. Dio, led the Crazy Bunch to terrorize the town of Success.

  • As Odie O’Bright, became the strongest martial artist in the world and brutally murdered several strong martial artists.

  • As Odeo, was a being made out of hundreds of psychic souls and had to be stopped by a giant robot.

  • As  OD-10, controlled the systems on a spaceship and murdered several people including Kirk, Huey, Rachel, and Hor Bishop.

  • Ultimately redeemed himself and released his hatred, killing Odio in the process.

  • Partially responsible for inspiring one of the most well-known video game tracks.

Power

Speed


Durability

Weaknesses

Garland

Even with all his skill and power, Garland suffers one fatal flaw – he’s proud and arrogant to a fault. At a given opportunity, he’ll insult his foes for daring to challenge him, declare his name in triumph and that he’ll defeat them, and flaunt his successes, such as with creating the time loop. However, while he certainly has the ability and credentials to back up his boasting, it has a nasty habit of backfiring once he gets going. If a foe manages to catch him in a showboating mood, he’ll be left open for an attack.

Oersted

Oersted has A LOT of issues, even before his fall – Oersted was very single-minded and did not consider the thoughts and feelings of others, which ultimately led to everything going wrong from him. As Odio, Oersted is still fairly impulsive and willing to overpower his opponents with brute strength – a trait shared by most forms of Odio, though some forms like OD-10 and Ode Iou rely more on intelligence. Another trait of Oersted’s that lasts into his tenure as the Demon King is his need for validation, desperately crying out after his victory for someone to believe in him.


Oersted’s ultimate ability, Armageddon, also has a key weakness in that it is heavily implied that if he uses it, it will destroy him and everything around it; making this an absolute last resort option that Odio won’t normally pull out unless he is close to dying.


However, Odio’s true weakness is that his power is derived from his rage and his hatred. If Oersted manages to let go of his hatred and rage, then Odio becomes vulnerable, which ultimately led to Oersted killing him and then dying from his own injuries. If an opponent forces Oersted in a state where he can’t weaponise his hatred or convinces him to give up on it, he becomes weaker and more vulnerable to kill.

BONUS 

We have something special for you; Discord user TheSmashShane2023 has recorded excerpts from Live A Live covering some of Oersted and Odio’s most iconic lines. We recommend you check them out, they're very good. 

Before the Verdict

Dissidia Scaling

Oh lordy, okay. Here we go. So, for anyone unaware, “Dissidia scaling” refers to the idea that one can power-scale every character in Final Fantasy to each other, or at least the ones who appear in the Dissidia series of spin-off titles. This results in everyone from Ultimecia to Onion Knight being placed at Multiversal with MFTL speeds, immunity to status ailments, and so on and so forth. However, this also operates under the assumption that Dissidia is both canon and non-contradictory to the source material; an idea which just doesn’t hold up from the moment you actually dig a little deeper, both into the main series and even Dissidia itself.

The Warrior of Light

One of the first and most relevant points to discuss is the portrayal of the original game’s Warrior of Light. The ending to the first Dissidia shows the other warriors of Cosmos fading away as he makes his way to Cornelia, blue crystal in hand – a sequence that could understandably lead one to believe that the game is a prequel to Final Fantasy, but there’s actually a number of contradictions here that need to be pointed out.


Strike one, the Warrior’s design. You’d probably think this is small potatoes, and of all the discrepancies surrounding him, it comparatively is, but it’s still important to note. While it is neat that they based Dissidia’s Warrior design on Amano’s original concept art, which even got to be used in the opening to FFI’s PSP port, it’s inconsistent with every other prominent portrayal he’s had. Case in point, the description of his appearance in Final Fantasy I * II * III: Memories of Heroes:

(Setro is his name in this novelization.)


It’s a pretty stark difference to Dissidia’s portrayal, huh? The way he’s said to look here is more in line with his original sprites, and after the palette got to expand, the Warrior’s hair turned brown while keeping the red armor. A good example of this is his key art from Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls:


Outside of the one cinematic (the game from which also uses sprites with the red armored brunette look), the Warrior’s design has kept pretty consistent over all these years. Does this sound like a nitpick? Maybe, but remember that similarly old-school characters such as Onion Knight look much closer to their original designs than Dissdia’s Warrior does. If Dissidia really was a prequel, the Warrior of Light’s design should reflect that, but it doesn’t.


Strike two, his moveset. In Dissidia, the Warrior of Light can use basic white magic in the form of Wave of Light and Shield of Light. The thing about this is, Warriors in all versions of FFI cannot use white magic. For example, in the Memories of Heroes novel, Setro never uses a single spell, even after meeting Bahamut. Now to be fair, the Warrior’s promotion – the Knight – actually can learn white magic, which is consistent with the class’s appearance in other titles. In fact, it’s not really that much of a stretch for the Warrior of Light in NT specifically, as it’s implied that by the time the game takes place, he had already experienced most, if not all of FFI’s story, so he would easily be beyond the point where he could use white magic. However, the problem lies in the first two games, as the Warrior of Light’s creation was a part of Dissidia 012’s story, and both games supposedly take place prior to FFI. If this Warrior of Light was just about to begin the story of FFI, why would he already have access to this magic when he shouldn’t be nearly close to promoting in order to use it properly?


And strike three, the Crystal. At the beginning of FFI, all four Warriors of Light arrive in Cornelia at roughly the same time, each with their own darkened pieces of the elemental crystals (water, earth, fire, and air), further evidenced in Memories of Heroes. However, the crystal from the end of Dissidia has no connection to the elemental crystals at all. Each of Dissidia’s ten crystals are physical manifestations of 1/10 of Cosmos’s power, and the other 9 each went with their respective owners back to their home worlds. If this crystal really was meant to be one of the four from FFI, then Lukahn’s prophecy can’t be fulfilled – since Dissidia’s ending only shows one hero, not four.


With these three key distinctions between Dissidia’s portrayal of the Warrior of Light and that of the game he’s supposedly from, these two versions of the character are too contradictory to say they’re one in the same, and by extension, that Dissidia is a prequel to Final Fantasy.

Shinryu

In the Dissidia series, Shinryu is the true mastermind behind everything and the final boss of Dissidia NT. Shinryu is also the name of several dragons in the main series, including a recurring superboss. It’s important to make this distinction because, despite what some may believe, Dissidia’s Shinryu is not the same as the others that bear the name. So, where did this misconception come from? Look no further than Shinryu’s museum entry in Dissidia 012. This description is formatted like those of the main characters – its role in Dissidia first, followed by its roles in other games – rather than those of summons, whose appearances are each treated as different characters. For further evidence to the relevance of this entry, please look at the entry for its Dissidia-exclusive upgraded form, Shinryu Verus. It’s understandable where people would come to this conclusion, but it falls apart after digging deeper into the matter, as in fact, none of these iterations of Shinryu are the same character.


Let’s start with FFIX. There, a dragon named Nova Dragon (Shinryu in the Japanese version) appears as the largest and strongest Silver Dragon. Other than being a dragon, however, there is no shared connection between Nova Dragon and the original or Dissidia’s Shinryu.

This isn’t even the only case like it in the game. FFIX is chock full of callbacks to previous titles, mostly through names and phrases, but that’s all they are – callbacks. Take the game’s version of “Gilgamesh” for example. He has no relation to the recurring character from FFV we’re all familiar with. In reality, he’s a thief named Alleyway Jack and he just really likes Tetra Master.

On an additional note about FFIX’s portion of the bio, it says Kuja’s base was on Memoria, but in actuality, he didn’t have one at all. He only went to Memoria so he could destroy the world’s crystal. To top it off, Memoria is entirely disconnected from the Void or the Interdimensional Rift in the first place.


In FFX, Shinryu is an Original Creation selectively bred at the Monster Arena. It’s a palette swap of Evrae and is fought underwater, and like with the previous example, it has no relation to any other version of Shinryu aside from being a dragon. In fact, this one is effectively a glorified Shamo chicken.

At last we get to the one that started it all. In FFV, Shinryu was a monster-in-a-box that dropped the sword Ragnarok upon defeat. It later reappeared as a superboss in the remakes of FFI, as well as in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, where the thousand-year-old book in the Interdimensional Rift’s library states, “the dragon Shinryu came upon Omega’s heels,” further supported by its pre-battle line in Dawn of Souls, “I am that which follows Omega”. It is also said that Omega and Shinryu were so powerful that not even the Sealed Weapons could stop them.

Its spin-off appearances all summarize the same information, such as with its CollectaCard in Theatrhythm: “A dragon which flits through dimensions in pursuit of Omega. Enemies drown in the face of its strength. It guards a legendary sword, but neither its treasure nor power offer any clue why it might lurk in a box…” The long and short of it is that FFV’s Shinryu is just a strong dragon that drops a strong sword and travels between dimensions via the Interdimensional Rift with the goal of destroying Omega. That’s it.


So, what’s the story with Dissidia’s Shinryu? When Cid, Cosmos, and Chaos first arrived in World B, they came across Shinryu and struck a deal with it. In exchange for their return home, the cycle of conflict was put in place, where Shinryu would revive the fallen warriors Cosmos and Chaos,  and consume their memories for strength as payment. Chaos is imbued with some of Shinryu’s power, gradually turning him into the ultimate weapon, at which point Cid planned for the three to return home and for Chaos to destroy the state that had used them. As a result, Cosmos and Chaos became gods, and Cid was granted immortality to impartially observe the cycle at the cost of his physical form.


After Cosmos sacrifices herself to destroy the manikins in 012, Shinryu revives her and most of her champions, and after she is seemingly destroyed by Chaos during the thirteenth cycle, Shinryu aids Chaos against the Warriors of Light as revenge for Cid backing out and siding with Cosmos. However, when Chaos is killed, Shinryu absorbs his strength and returns to the Rift, his pact with Cid complete.


In NT, Shinryu returns and is the one responsible for the planesgorgers that were destroying World B and the connected dimensions. It confronts the gods Materia and Spiritus after being lured in via a staged battle between their forces, and with the combined strength of the summoned warriors, Shinryu is split in twain, revealing its true self in a burst of power. Weakened by a battle against the warriors, it mutates into a larger, darker version of itself, but is still defeated. After the battle, Shinryu disintegrates, thus ending its reign of terror.


Now, some would probably look at the similar designs and connection to the Rift and say that’s enough to call Dissidia and FFV’s Shinryus the same. And sure, if that’s literally all you looked at, but then you realize, “hey, Dissidia’s Shinryu has a lot going on, what gives?”, and then everything falls apart again.


Right off the bat, it’s clear that Dissidia’s Shinryu is far smarter than any other version of the character, showing complex goals and motivations instead of just being another ferocious monster. Meanwhile, FFV’s Shinryu only has one moment of being smarter than the average dragon in FFI where it says a single sentence ever. In fact, the only trait FFV’s Shinryu shows at all is wanting to kill Omega, who wouldn’t care about this cycle of conflict nonsense and doesn’t appear in Dissidia’s narrative in a meaningful way, if any at all. If these dragons were actually one in the same, it getting sidetracked like this is seriously out of character and inconsistent with canon.


Also, where would Shinryu have gotten all those fancy new powers? We know FFV’s Shinryu travels between dimensions, but having this amount of control over them, on top of absorbing memories or reviving the dead, is well beyond what any other version of the character has ever been shown to do. That’s not even mentioning the Planesgorgers, who appear exclusively in NT and Opera Omnia, and follow only this version of Shinryu. The only other iteration of Shinryu to have underlings is Nova Dragon in FFIX, and even then, the Silver Dragons are just another species native to Terra. They’re not going around with Rift powers consuming universes or anything.


In addition, if all these different Shinryus really were the same dragon, why doesn’t anyone recognize it at the end of NT? At the very least, Exdeath should have known it since he has the strongest connection to the Void and the Rift out of anyone and everyone in and out of the roster. Sure, you could argue Shinryu took their memories as per usual, but the problems with that argument are twofold. First, Shinryu only absorbs memories of the fallen warriors it revived, but in the previous cycle (the original Dissidia), none of the Warriors of Cosmos had fallen. No one was revived by Shinryu since it flew back to the rift at the end of Dissidia; they were all summoned there by Materia and Spiritus.


Second, if Shinryu really had consumed their memories, then they wouldn’t remember themselves or each other, but throughout NT’s story, people’s memories seem to be relatively intact:

  • Noctis hasn’t forgotten anything, and Lightning and WoL remember both each other and past cycles. (3:20-5:30)

    • Firion, Cecil, and Zidane all remember each other as well. (5:35-6:05)

    • Squall also retains his memories, and only doesn’t recognize Y’shtola because she’s a newcomer. (6:15-6:57)

    • Cloud of Darkness and Sephiroth haven’t forgotten Kefka’s mannerisms. (7:10-7:45)

  • Locations in NT are based on the warriors’ memories. (28:34-29:00)

    • Vaan recognizes Rabanastre. (44:22-44:40)

    • Zidane and Kuja recognize Alexandria’s town square and castle. (1:08:35-1:08:55)

  • Bartz remembers the events of the last cycle and notes how different this one is, while his memories were a blur in past cycles. He even remembers what he had for dinner last night! (48:59-49:20)

  • Terra, Zidane, and Kuja recognize Alexander, a recurring summon who appears in multiple entries, including VI and IX. Zidane and Kuja even subtly reference the latter’s run-in with Alexander in IX. (10:09:50-1:11:00)

    • While each version of Alexander is a different being, they all share a similar design of a living fortress. Based on past experiences, they could easily deduce who Alexander is here.


Lastly, on the topic of NT, Shinryu’s appearance as the main villain contradicts Dissidia itself, as its pact with Cid was complete after the 13th cycle, so it left. Why would it, or any other version of Shinryu, even bother to return in that case?


All in all, Dissidia’s Shinryu is a separate incarnation of the character made specifically for this series of games, and is not the same as any other version despite sharing the name.

Other Characters’ Inconsistencies

Let’s also cover a number of other contradictions regarding the playable cast. First up, FFIV’s Cecil Harvey. One of the most important and iconic moments of his arc in his home game is Cecil literally killing his inner Dark Knight in order to become a Paladin. This completely eradicates that side of him, as well as any and all powers associated with it. This is further cemented in FFIV’s sequels, The Interlude and The After Years, where Cecil never uses his Dark Knight abilities at any point; it’s not just a gameplay mechanic, they’re gone forever. However, in Dissidia, Cecil is able to switch between both classes at will, which completely contradicts and ignores this story development. This should be 100% impossible, and yet he can do it here anyway for some reason, and it’s not just a gameplay thing; there are cutscenes in Dissidia that not only show Cecil in both classes, but repeatedly swapping between them (see timestamps 0:45-1:30, 31:10-33:00, and 33:55-35:00).


Next, Zidane Tribal and Kuja from FFIX. Like with Cecil, Zidane being able to use his Dyne abilities outside of Trance contradicts the rules and story of his home game. In FFIX, Trance is a surge of powerful emotions that briefly enhances one’s inner capabilities. In Zidane’s case, the “Skill” command is changed to “Dyne”, granting him an array of magic-like abilities rather than his usual thief tricks. And no, this isn’t just a gameplay mechanic, it’s how Trance works in the lore. A good example is Eiko’s pet Moogle, Mog, using Trance to temporarily revert to her true self as the Eidolon, Madeen, granting access to Terra Homing.


Speaking of Trance, let’s talk about Kuja. According to the Final Fantasy IX Ultimania, Kuja was created as he is and never had a childhood of his own. Without that, and the full human emotions that would develop with it, he would never be able to enter Trance on his own. In order for him to do so, he needed to absorb the dormant Genome souls within the Invincible.

Despite this fact, Kuja can enter Trance all by himself just fine in Dissidia, and similar to Cecil, he has been shown able to do so in the story of NT, so it’s not just a gameplay mechanic. One could speculate that, because he and Zidane were on good terms right before his death, he could possibly use Trance naturally, but because Kuja is only alive for a few minutes at most after his defeat and doesn’t get another chance to use Trance, it’s impossible to say for certain.


Also yes, for anyone who is somehow unconvinced, Kuja died. He’s not still alive, and he most certainly isn’t in hiding somewhere out there. After snapping once he learned about his mortality, Kuja admits his time is almost up and accepts his fate at the end of his boss fight; casting Ultima and facing his death head-on. We see Kuja die on-screen, right in front of Zidane, Mikoto’s following monologue mentions Kuja entirely in the past tense, and Kuja is absent in the ending cinematic. If that’s not enough, a passage in the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive - Volume 2 reads: “In the end, Zidane arrives to save Kuja, who is on the verge of death. Kuja passes peacefully in the care of the ‘younger brother’ that he loathed, ending a life full of hate”.

Plus, if Kuja was still alive, why would he need to be in hiding? Most citizens wouldn’t know who he is, the small handful of Burmecians and Cleyrans whose homes were destroyed may have seen him, but wouldn’t know he was responsible, and everyone thought Queen Brahne ran everything and created the Black Mages (who, by the end, nobody has problems with anymore, and were forgiven, so why wouldn’t Kuja be?). The only people who knew about Kuja and his intentions outside the main party were Beatrix and Lindblum’s royal family, and with Garnet being the new queen and having close ties to those parties, what would stop her from informing them of Kuja’s act of rescuing the party in the endgame?

So yes, he is verifiably, undeniably dead.


Lastly, let’s talk about Y’shtola from the hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. Her time in NT contradicts much of Endwalker, which reveals that when memory alteration or deletion is performed, the memory can be returned to normal by going into the Aetherial Sea. This mechanic is similarly used in Dissidia, meaning her memories of it would return if she entered the Aetherial Sea. Y’shtola has entered it thrice now; once at the end of A Realm Reborn via the Flow spell (albeit, this was before her time in NT), once in Shadowbringers, also with Flow, and once physically entering it with the whole group for the Alitascope dungeon. It’s not a matter of Y’shtola not having a chance to bring it up after the latter instances, which were both after the time she’s pulled from for NT; her current goal is finding a way to cross between universes, and a major part of the post-game for Shadowbringers was centered around finding a way to return from the First to their home universe. Naturally, just that thing happening in Dissidia would be prevalent, right?


There is also a throwaway line from Y’shtola regarding the Kefka Doll minion where she says it looks eerily familiar, but this is just a nod and isn’t enough to counteract the serious plot holes it would create. This is also besides the fact that Y’shtola is blind. The team is clearly aware of Dissidia, they just choose to ignore it.

Dissidia Itself

As was mentioned at the very beginning of this section, the problems with Dissidia scaling aren’t just in regards to inconsistencies with canon, Dissidia itself tears it down too. According to Dissidia 012, the cast isn’t using their own power to fight, but rather, power granted to them by their respective gods; imparted to them as their representatives, placing everyone on an even playing field, and the power is taken back once the cycle ends. We even see this bestowal of power in action in 012, which is then explained to us by Lightning, and repeated in Cosmos’s museum entry. We even see a more streamlined version of this process at the very end of NT, so it isn’t just something isolated to Cosmos and Chaos; Materia and Spiritus are capable of the same.


One of the biggest corroborators of this point is the presence of Noctis – and elements of FFXV in general – in NT. At the beginning of the game, he’s taken from the Regalia pre-timeskip, which we know both because of his design and mentions of his friends. Additionally, none of the Astrals, nor XV’s antagonists like Bahamut or Ardyn, are ever presented as threats on more than a planetary scale, and Noctis and co. directly fight Bahamut in the novelization of the canceled DLC. Nobody from that game is normally on the level of cosmic-tier stuff like from the FFVII cast, and outside the concept of Dissidia’s power amps, wouldn’t be able to fight them on equal footing.


If you think about it, the cycle is more akin to the gods smashing action figures of their favorite characters together. While the cast may retain their personalities, personal abilities, and memories of their stories, the actual power they wield isn’t naturally theirs, nor do they even keep it in the end. Effectively, it’s not Noctis fighting on par with Ultimecia, it’s the gods fighting on par with each other, and that’s all there is to it.

Gilgamesh

And now we get to everybody’s favorite world-hopping, duel-seeking goofball from FFV, Gilgamesh. Following his debut, he’s appeared as a boss in FFI Anniversary, The After Years, FFXII, FFXIII-2, and FFXIV. He also shows up as a pseudo-Guardian Force in FFVIII, and as was brought up earlier, there’s a character named after him in FFIX (no relation). Now, with all those appearances, everyone who’s fought him should just scale to each other, thus making them all Multi+, right? It’s… complicated.


For one, it’s clear that his various appearances are all different points in his journey, as evidenced by his differing arsenals, stats, and number of arms each time he shows up, so it wouldn’t make sense to scale every party to Gil’s max potential. While it’s not 100% clear what the timeline is, and thus it’s hard to accurately pin down who scales to who and when, it’s not impossible to parse a general order of events based on his different battles:

  • Encounters 1-3 in FFV

  • FFI, Gil has Excalipoor, and his stats are the same as FFV’s third encounter

  • FFVIII, Gil has Excalibur/Excalipoor, and gets Zantetsuken from Odin

  • FFIV: The After Years

  • XII/XIII-2, Gil has six arms and his largest arsenal yet

  • the rest of his encounters from FFV

  • FFXIV

Gilgamesh does also appear in the GBA and mobile ports of FFVI, but this throws a bit of a wrench into things. In these games, he lacks Excalipoor, so you could say this would be before his appearance in FFI. However, he also has higher stats than in FFI, so you could say it takes place afterward and he just lost Excalipoor. Adding onto the confusion is the fact that Gilgamesh in FFVI is an Esper, which given the lore surrounding them, doesn’t align with his other appearances. All of this together makes it uncertain if the Gilgamesh in FFVI can even be 100% considered the same character.


On top of all that, there’s also this page from the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Ultimania showing really pretty art of all of Gilgamesh’s weapons, and even brief descriptions of them from the big lug himself:

(link for clearer reading)


This one page alone is commonly used as allegedly undeniable proof that Dissidia is canon; it’s official material describing the origins of all Gilgamesh’s weapons and where he found them. That’s gotta confirm it, right? There’s just one elephantine issue with that; nearly everything written here is full of shit.


Let’s go down the list, starting with the most infamous one that people point to as proof of Dissidia’s canonicity, the Zantetsuken: “An object that falls off and is replaced as the nails of Chaos, the chaotic king of discord, grow. It appears to be made of crystal. Because it’s rare, I thought I’d pick it up. Even though it is just a husk, it is still endowed with the power of death. (from Dissidia)” This is blatantly false, because we see in FFVIII exactly where and how Gilgamesh got the Zantetsuken, and it is most certainly not from Chaos. In Squall’s battle against Seifer, Odin is killed and his weapon – the Zantetsuken – is thrown into the air, and we actively see Gilgamesh catch it and later use it himself. Out of all of these descriptions, this one just may be the biggest discrepancy.


Next, let’s talk about the Excalibur, another of Gil’s most iconic blades: “This was a holy sword I found in a hidden room of a kingdom called Alexandria. With crystal shining the colors of the rainbow and glittering with metal, it was dazzling. I wonder why a unicorn was engraved on it? (from Final Fantasy 9)” While the Excalibur does actually exist in FFIX, it’s not held in Alexandria; rather, it’s held in Daguerreo, a library on an island off the coast of the Forgotten Continent. Now granted, given that Steiner can equip the Excalibur, could he have taken it back to the castle, only for it to be stolen by Gilgamesh? It’s not impossible, but it is entirely speculative.


A similar case is that of the Masamune: “In a kingdom called Doma, I picked up this sword from a river stained with poison. Even though I picked it up a long time ago and it must be many years old, it does not appear to age. (from Final Fantasy 6)” Like with the Excalibur, the Masamune can be found in FFVI, but not in Doma. Cyan gets it automatically by defeating the Wrexsoul, it can be won in the Dragon’s Neck Colosseum by betting the Murasame, or it can be stolen from the Yojimbo.


The Muramasa is an interesting one to talk about: “A short sword I found in the abandoned ruins of a place called Zanarkand. The hatred of those who lost their lives in the disaster with ‘Sin’ still dwells within the blade. (from Final Fantasy 10)” In FFX, the Muramasa can be obtained, but not in a treasure chest or anything like that. The only way to get it is through customization (Auron only) or as a rare drop from the Ultima Buster in the Monster Arena. As a result, Gilgamesh getting the blade in Zanarkand, let alone at all, is impossible.


Last, but not least, is the Bashosen: “Just a few years ago I was thinking of my comrade Enkidoh, so at some point I had this made while I was a craftsman of Cocoon. So this is sort of in the Cocoon style. (from Final Fantasy 13)” This entry borders on fanfiction, as the Bashosen doesn’t even exist in FFXIII, only appearing as one of Gil’s attacks in XIII-2, and everything about it was made up for the Ultimania.


Speaking of made up, that’s the case for all the other weapons’ descriptions as well, supported by a passage at the bottom of the page by artist Nanako Chikako: “For this version, I added the glowing parts for a futuristic feel, and since he is able to become an ally, I improved the appearance of his back. Personally, I think the addition of the projection on his shoulder gives him a more ‘Final Fantasy’-ish feel. I hope this fits everyone’s image of Gilgamesh…… Also, I tried to add in various jokes to Gilgamesh’s weapon collection, similar to Final Fantasy XII.” Every single entry on this page was incongruent with canon because they were all just jokes written in by the artist, simple as.


As a final point, though admittedly not a very important one, Square Enix could have had Gilgamesh reference Dissidia in a mainline title in a couple instances, but for some reason, they just didn’t. For his appearance in XIII-2, it was entirely feasible for him to reference Dissidia 012 since both games were in development at the same time and it could have potentially driven sales for the latter, but it was never something they capitalized on. Meanwhile, Gil appeared as a boss in XIV long after his appearance in 012 and around the release of NT, but like before, he doesn’t make a single mention of anything related to Dissidia.

Summon/Monster Scaling

Another argument one could pose is that, because certain summons and monsters appear in multiple titles, characters should scale through them. At just a glance, this makes sense, but it’s also predicated on two ideas; that all of these summons and monsters have the same origin every time, and specifically in the case of summons, that summoning itself functions the same in each game. Once you dig deeper to try and verify these claims, that’s when the whole argument – like everything else thus far – falls apart.


Starting with monsters, not every game delves into the origins of their respective monsters, but the ones that do are very clear and explicit about it, and not a single explanation is the same as any other game’s. For a handful of examples:

For a full list of how monsters are explained in each game, please read here.


As for the matter of summons, this is once again a case where the stories and origins of these recurring characters differ vastly from game to game. Again, here are a few examples:

Also, as established earlier, Dissidia’s museum already treats main series summons as separate characters between entries, so this is simultaneously further evidence and a point regarding general mainline cross-scaling.

Developer Statements

You’ve probably heard this statement be thrown around, and you may have even said it yourself at some point; “The developers said Dissidia was ALWAYS meant to be a main series title!” This idea is built on three different quotes from three different members of the development team, and treated as undeniable proof that these games were always intended to be canon from the get-go. However, actually looking at all of these quotes, two of them outright state the games weren’t intentionally developed as main series entries, and all three are rather vague and open to interpretation. Let’s go through each of them one at a time.


Quote #1: Tetsuya Nomura, Dissidia Ultimania interview

“...but the responses from the fans was a lot more enthusiastic than I expected. Therefore, this game has been classified as a true Final Fantasy installment.”


In his own words, Nomura only classified Dissidia as a “true installment” after the positive response from the fans, and not during the game’s development, so this wasn’t his intention from the very beginning. Also, being called a “true installment” isn’t an indicator of being a part of the main series; games such as Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, Type-0, Record Keeper, Brave Exvius, and Theatrhythm aren’t main series titles either, but they are still “true” Final Fantasy games.


Quote #2: Yoshinori Kitase

“‘Gaiden’(side story or spin-off) made the game feel too distant, and we wanted to set the right tone for DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY; it isn’t a numbered title, but has just as much spirit as a main story.”


In Kitase’s words, Dissidia was developed as a side story or spin-off. Having “just as much spirit as a main story” doesn’t make it a mainline title. He just means that they “wanted to set the right tone”. On top of that, it’s such a vague statement to begin with. Does it mean that they wanted the story to be as engaging as the ones in the main series? That they wanted the gameplay to be just as fun and engaging? That they wanted the characters to be as interesting as their mainline counterparts? No matter the specifics of what Kitase meant, it’s most likely that the tone and narrative of Dissidia was meant to resemble those of a main series game, but the game itself was not intended to be one.


Quote 3: Takeshi Arakawa

“[...]we were extremely careful to treat DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY as a genuine entry in the FINAL FANTASY series. [...]transitioning to the action genre would be a risk for the development team and fans alike.”


Arakawa says at no point that Dissidia actually is a genuine entry, but rather, that the team knew the shift in genre was risky, so they had to treat it like they would for a main series game during development. Most likely, this just meant putting the same amount of time, effort, and polish that they would for a mainline entry; had the game not been good, or had it not met expectations, it would have flopped, and nobody wanted that. Again, the statement is open to interpretation, with not much (if anything) in the way of concrete information.

Double Standards are a Bad Thing, Actually

Speaking of these “Word of God” statements, it’s funny that people often bring them up as some form of ironclad defense or justification for Dissidia being canon, when in reality, they don’t actually give that kind of leeway, and especially not as much as similar statements for other franchises.


For example, the Hyrule Encyclopedia says that Majora transformed Termina, which is commonly interpreted by the versus community as Majora creating Termina. However, to quote the G1 blog on Link VS Cloud, “...the actual game, the primary canon, shows us otherwise. We see that Skull Kid’s been a frequent visitor of Termina for a while via the numerous lines of dialogue and multiple, actual backstory cutscenes that show and explain his befriending the fairies, Tatl and Tael, in Termina before owning the mask, being a long-time friend of the Giants, him having a history of pestering the residents of Termina and said pestering not being as bad as it was back then AKA before he was ousted from Termina by the Giants and consequently before he could have even possibly owned Majora’s Mask…”


As another example, what about instances like the interviews with Ben 10’s creators regarding Alien X’s powers and capabilities, where they say he can affect universes with as much as 6 thoughts? These are also Word of God statements, but not many people consider them legitimate feats because the source material doesn’t support it. These are just a couple examples among likely dozens, and there are surely other artists or writers who have made statements just as wacky, but are also commonly dismissed via contradicting the source.


Similarly, other franchises also have crossover games or stories that give characters abilities, feats, and scaling that are inconsistent with mainline canon, such as Heroes or Xenoverse for Dragon Ball, X DiVE for Mega Man, or Heroes for Fire Emblem, but oftentimes, the community either separates them from canon at best or flat-out ignores them at worst.


The best comparison (and biggest double standard) to Dissidia in this instance would be the matter of Super Smash Bros. Both games involve characters from multiple worlds crossing over and fighting on an even playing field thanks to power bestowed on them by a higher power. However, any contradictions between the Smash fighters and how they’re portrayed in their home games aren’t nearly as prevalent or egregious, and Smash is also more concretely referenced in outside material, such as Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kid Icarus: Uprising, or Fire Emblem Heroes. Yet, scaling characters through Smash is often still frowned upon in the community.


So why then, despite everything, does Dissidia get a pass when all these other examples don’t? Either every case is treated with the same leniency, or they’re all put under the same level of scrutiny. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Conclusion

As this portion of the blog has made abundantly clear, Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequels are not canon to the main series. There are a staggering number of serious contradictions to the lore and stories of several mainline titles and even itself, on top of the developers themselves not treating it on equal grounds as mainline canon from the get-go. Even if it actually was canon with no such contradictions, Dissidia’s own lore establishes that the playable cast’s power isn’t even theirs to wield, making such cross-scaling impossible even by its own logic.

Where the Hell is Jack?

Now we finally get to the man you’ve probably been wondering about; the Chaos punching, Limp Bizkit listening, gruff son of a bitch himself, Jack Garland. So, what’s the deal? Why hasn’t he been brought up until just now?


For anyone scratching your head wondering who we’re talking about and what he has to do with anything, Jack Garland is the main character of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, released last year as an alternate universe prequel to the original Final Fantasy; and right off the bat, we have the biggest reason why he hasn’t played a part in our analysis – he’s not even the same character.


As part of a blog discussing Stranger of Paradise’s development, producer Jin Fujiwara had this to say:

“Many villains appear in the early Final Fantasy titles, but their backstories weren’t depicted that often. I believe a good antagonist should have a clear reason as to why they became a villain in the first place, so I felt digging deeper into that aspect of Garland would be interesting. In Final Fantasy I, you see him from the start as a knight who has embraced the darkness, but the story never elaborates on why he went down that path. We thought we could expand upon the lore of the original game through Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin by portraying one possibility as to why Garland ended up as he does. We see the story of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin as an ‘alternate retelling’ of Final Fantasy I. It’s probably easiest to think of it as taking place in a parallel universe that sits alongside the original game.”


Fujiwara’s statement alone isn’t the only evidence towards this either, as multiple plot points in Stranger of Paradise contradict lore from the original game. For example, Princess Sarah is very clearly smitten with Jack, but some media references her spurning Garland’s affections as part of why he fell to begin with. Additionally, the Four Fiends and Chaos are just Jack and his friends submitting to darkness, rather than how they are in FFI, and Jack embraced the darkness to set the Warriors of Light prophecy in motion, contrasting Garland doing it for personal gain alone.


Even in the game’s final DLC, Mog tells Jack that he and the Garland he (Mog) met are not the same person, but they have a similar energy, and Jack’s appearance in spin-off material especially cracks down on him and Garland not being the same person. In Dissidia Opera Omnia, both Jack and Garland are playable characters and treated as completely separate. They even interact with one another near the end of Act 3.


Oh yeah, speaking of Dissidia…

Dissidia Scaling II: Dissidia Scale Harder

Turns out we’re not done quite yet.


Since we’re on the topic of Opera Omnia, let’s start there. For anyone thinking right now, “No, you can’t use Opera Omnia, it doesn’t count! It’s a mobile game; it’s not a TRUE Dissidia game,” that is what we call a No True Scotsman fallacy. Opera Omnia may be a mobile game, but it is still a direct sequel to NT and expands upon the story and lore it established. It’s not even the only case like this; Kingdom Hearts Union Cross is also a mobile game that ties into its main series, going so far as directly influencing the final act of KH3 and featuring one of the characters in the reveal trailer for KH4.


Also, if Opera Omnia doesn’t count, then by that logic NT shouldn’t either, as it was originally an arcade game instead of a console release and features drastically different gameplay from the prior titles. You cannot discredit Opera Omnia because of the system it’s for; it’s still a proper Dissidia game and sequel to NT that just happens to be a mobile game.


Another point is that, at the end of Stranger of Paradise, the Warrior of Light walks in (with Frank Sinatra’s My Way playing in the background) to face Garland, and uses Dissidia’s design. He even appears as a boss in the DLC, at that. However, most of the points against this being useful for scaling have already been covered; Garland and Jack have different motives, their time loops work differently, the events leading them to become Chaos are different, and they directly interact as separate people in Opera Omnia. Also, before the final fight between Jack and the Warrior of Light, Mog tells Jack to take his throne as the God of Discord, and that the Warrior of Light will become the God of Harmony, which does not align with the origins of Chaos and Cosmos, nor with the origin of Spiritus and Materia.


For reference, Dissidia’s Chaos is a manikin made by Cid who saw his maker and his wife as his parents, before he was taken by the Onrac military to be used as a weapon against neighboring nations. Meanwhile, Cosmos is a manikin created to have the memories of Cid’s wife, and was made by Onrac as a means of soothing Chaos. As for Materia and Spiritus, they were reincarnated from the will of Cosmos and Chaos respectively, after they were erased from existence with the collapse of World B.


Next, in the Different Future DLC, Emperor Mateus from Final Fantasy II makes an appearance, which already poses a massive inconsistency with his home game and Dissidia, as FFII is never shown to have any connection to the Rift, nor does Mateus travel between dimensions, even in Dissidia. While the Warp and Teleport spells do exist in FFII, meaning it’s possible he knows them, the idea of said spells allowing the user to teleport across universes is entirely speculative. Mateus also asks if Jack is the one who will be Garland, meaning he knows who Jack is and that Jack and the OG Garland are one and the same, which goes against what’s already been established by the rest of the game, Dissidia, and the previously mentioned developer statement.


Mateus leaves their first encounter by opening a Rift portal, which again, he’s ever been shown as capable of doing. Additionally, Opera Omnia establishes that everyone can travel throughout Dissidia’s world, but cannot leave it. And to clarify, yes, Mateus came to SoP from World B; he states he was following Mog, who is the one from Dissidia. Sophia and Mog deduce that Mateus knowing the name Garland is a memory from a different time, but the only way that’d be the case is via Dissidia, which contradicts the fact that the fighters’ memories of Dissidia are wiped upon leaving World B. SoP doesn’t take place in World B, so Mateus shouldn’t remember Garland or anyone else from Dissidia such as Mog.


Mog also summarizes the plot of Dissidia, including Opera Omnia, and further confirms Jack and Garland aren’t the same. He also tells the story as if Jack was never there, but if this DLC takes place after Opera Omnia, he would have participated in those events, yet he doesn’t seem to remember anything, and this would corroborate Dissidia’s rules. So Mateus remembering instead of having his memories wiped upon leaving World B is a massive contradiction.


In a later encounter, Mateus assumes his Hell Emperor form, and after the fight, Mog senses that Mateus has no power or magic left, rendering him just a regular person before Jack sends him back wherever he came from. However, this presents serious issues, especially with the story of FFII. First, Mateus is never stated to have lost any power in FFII or Dissidia, and in fact consistently shows to keep getting stronger over time, and no one in FFII is magicless in general. Second, taking the Hell Emperor form at all shows Mateus has already taken Satan’s throne, but has yet to face Firion’s party. If Jack not only defeated Mateus, but also caused him to lose all his power, then this encounter had effectively retconned the entirety of FFII’s final act.


At another point, Nil summons Omega, which Mog says is “a walking weapon whose purpose was to slay the gods”. However, its purpose in FFV was to kill Shinryu, while Dissidia’s Omega is stated to have an unknown purpose. If this Omega is meant to be either one, it would contradict both mainline and Dissidia’s lore. Nil also says she is creating her “manikins” of Omega via her Dimensional Matrix, but manikins are actually mass-produced artificial life-forms, born from pieces of crystal ore found in the Rift.


Lastly, let’s talk about the Wanderer of the Rift DLC and circle back to good ol’ Gilgamesh. To start, Gil says that he’s fought Jack before, and comes to the realization that the Jack he already encountered was from SoP’s future. It should be specified that he fought a future Jack, because while he says he had already fought Garland, it can’t be the one from FFI or 012 as Gilgamesh never encountered Garland in either game. Gil later explains that something’s up with the Rift, and that he’s trapped in an endless cycle of battle with Jack. He also says it’s not the first time he has been in a situation like this, but that’s more than likely a lie because he was never trapped in Dissidia’s World B, and doesn’t interact with anyone or anything other than the main party in FFI’s World A.


Additionally, at the end of the DLC, Jack and co. fight the Death Machine, which some have apparently claimed is supposed to be Omega… except it isn’t, and we see its name clearly on the HUD. Gilgamesh also mentions it was inside of him, while possession is not something we’ve ever seen Omega be capable of. On top of that, it was “wreaking havoc on [the world’s] dimensional fabric”, which is not Omega’s purpose.


Oh, and as a last point; yes, Gilgamesh’s boss moveset is the same as his moveset in 012, but the abilities he displays in both games are ones he’s shown in his other mainline appearances, so there’s nothing particularly special going on about them. This was likely just a case of recycling animations to save money and time during development.


In conclusion, the writers of Stranger of Paradise’s DLC likely didn’t care as much about continuity and just wanted to make something fun.

Addressing Mobius Final Fantasy

Mobius Final Fantasy was a free-to-play mobile spin-off that references and pays homage to the original Final Fantasy through its characters, story, and setting. This is especially relevant to the matter here with the presence of a character named and styled after Garland. However, it should be addressed that despite surface appearances, it is not actually connected to the original game; Mobius is explicitly a spin-off with its own setting and story that differ drastically from its predecessor.


While there are many  contradictions between the worlds of Mobius and the original Final Fantasy, three key differences are as follows; first and most relevant is the fact that Mobius’s Garland and Chaos are simultaneously present throughout the entire story, while the original is only around for a single boss fight in the present and doesn’t become Chaos until after being sent to the past. Secondly, Cornelia’s royal family in Final Fantasy was exactly that, a family, but Princess Sarah is the only one present in Mobius, and this version of her apparently isn’t even human. Thirdly, Castle Cornelia is the only one of Final Fantasy’s plot-centric locations to appear in Mobius, with not even a mention of places such as Elfheim or Matoya’s Cave.


Oh by the way, we’re still not done with Gilgamesh and Dissidia, but this actually is the last time, we promise, for realsies this time.


So anyway, Gilgamesh also makes an appearance in Mobius, and one of his lines is a nod back to Dissidia 012:

“Even took part in the conflict between discord and harmony!”


As you’ve probably guessed by this point, this line is brought up as proof that Dissidia is canon, and as you’ve also probably guessed, that’s as airtight as a popped balloon. Not only that, it’s brought up by the same people who dismiss Opera Omnia for being a spin-off mobile game despite Mobius itself also being a spin-off mobile game, meaning we’ve shot clear past double standards and No True Scotsman into full-blown hypocrisy. Do you want to know what also doesn’t help? Mobius concluded service and was pulled from the App Store back in 2020, so it’s now completely unavailable.


On top of that, Gil wasn’t even actually a part of 012’s story in a meaningful way. All he did was kinda bumble around looking for Bartz, then get sucked back into the Rift after fighting and losing to him, and he was utterly unconnected from the main plot and the conflict he references because nobody ever filled him in. Once again, as much as we love the guy, Gilgamesh is just full of shit. Also, mere months after his appearance in Mobius, Gil was added to Opera Omnia and his role there is just as simple; he shows up via the Rift, helps the good guys kill some Planesgorgers, and dips. If Gilgamesh is referencing anything from 012, it’s just that he was in it, because he was definitely not involved with it.


So yeah, needless to say, using a throwaway line from Gilgamesh referencing Dissidia in another, now defunct spin-off (that was explicitly unconnected from canon to begin with) doesn’t make the best case for Dissidia’s own canonicity.

Live A Live & Dodging Feats

It should be noted that speed feats in Live A Live may tend to be a bit contentious, as there are no dodging animations in the game. As a result, one could consider these cases of aim-dodging. However, an attack missing in Live A Live is directly influenced by the Evasion stat, which both allies and enemies possess. Additionally, there are no cases of an attack being impossible to dodge. The closest there is to this idea are attacks that are inescapable by their range affecting the entire field.


Also, it’s not like this is anything particularly new, especially for RPGs. The likes of Dragon Quest, Pokemon, the early Final Fantasy games, etc. have all lacked dodge animations as well, but dodging in these games has been considered perfectly fine for speed before. Regardless of whether or not you buy these kinds of things, it wouldn’t make sense to treat Live A Live with different standards from any other example.

Regarding Armageddon

For those not in the know, Armageddon is a spell that Oersted can pull off in the final chapter if you are specifically playing as him against the other seven heroes, or if you lose to Purity of Odio. If the version of Odio you are playing as is losing, a prompt will appear and Oersted will trigger its activation.


Once activated, all the forms of Odio in their respect time periods will trigger a massive explosion that incinerates everything – erasing past, present, and future:


There has been some debate when concerning if Armageddon would be considered to be Planet level or Universe level. In the remake, Armageddon is at the very least Planet considering, in the Bad Ending, we see it affect the entire planet:



However, there is evidence to suggest that Armageddon affected more than just Earth, the first main piece of which is in the Far Future chapter. Every other chapter in a Live A Live takes place on Earth except for the Far Future, which takes place on a spaceship far away in space, and as such, Armageddon wouldn’t just affect Earth. 


The second piece of evidence is in the remake’s Bad Ending - we also see the light spreading outwards from Earth indicating that it is spreading outward to other areas. 


The third and final piece of evidence is the final quotes in both the original game and the remake that indicate that Armageddon wiped out the Universe. 


In the original game it states:



This indicates that everything - time, space, and the universe - was destroyed as a result of Armageddon. The remake’s Armageddon ending is a little different but still indicates that Oersted’s plan was to destroy of all creation - not just Earth:



This indicates that Oersted wanted to wipe the slate clean concerning all of creation, not just Earth. Overall, it is our belief - based on the evidence that we have researched - that Oersted’s Armageddon spell affected the entire universe, not just Earth.


What’s more, Armageddon wipes out not just the universe, but also the entire timeline – past, present, and future. As a result, this could potentially reach into the 4D range, depending on your interpretation of time as a 4-dimensional concept, thus putting the attack at Universal+.

Wouldn’t using Armageddon make this fight a draw since it kills Odio?

Another point of discussion concerning Armageddon is the idea that using it would cause Odio to lose since it “kills him”. While the original SNES game does reinforce the idea that literally everything and everyone was erased as a result of Oersted’s attack - the remake appears to be a bit more open that at least some aspect of Odio still lived after Armageddon, considering the final two lines are most definitely from Oersted/Odio’s perspective. Overall, we would likely still count this as Oersted’s victory in a situation where Armageddon is used, as it would erase Garland from existence, while Odio would be more likely to have survived.

So, does this make Live A Live Universal overall?

It’s… kind of complicated. To start, while Odio does survive Armageddon in some way, it’s not made entirely clear how or to what extent. Additionally, he does not display this level of power at any other point in the game, so the Universal yield is most likely exclusive to that one attack. Meanwhile on the heroes’ end, they are able to slay the Lord of Dark, which by way of Odio at least partially surviving Armageddon, could be seen as a point for putting them at Universal as well. But at the same time, at no point are they themselves able to survive Armageddon when it is unleashed; thus at the very least, it can be argued that the heroes and Oersted would scale via strength, but not durability.

Verdicts

Team Garland

Stats

When it comes to Garland, he’s fairly simple when it comes to his stats. He’s comparable to the fiends, most of which managed to cause natural disasters ranging from island to country level, with the Lich causing the earth to decay in particular reaching 71 teratons. With Shinryu’s inclusion as a superboss in various FF1 remakes, Garland has the opportunity to scale to FFV feats, getting up to 1/8th universal at the highest. This is due to him being comparable to Galuf, who directly overpowered one of the eight crystals, with the 8 of the crystals combined being capable of splitting the original universe in 2. FFV scaling also allows him to reach sub-relativistic levels of speed, about 1.6% the speed of light  to be specific.


Oersted, on the other hand, is a bit trickier to pin down. Most feats in LAL get in the city block range, but scaling to full-power Odio, who should naturally be as strong as all of his incarnations combined, can get him up to about 45 kilotons. And then there’s Armageddon, a massive explosion that destroys the entire timeline, reaching universal levels of power (more on this in a bit). As for speed, there are multiple laser dodging feats that get into relativistic ranges, 0.39c to be specific. Though the game does lack dodge animations, we do know that there is an evasion stat, meaning that characters and enemies do have to dodge attacks. As for Odio scaling, is that valid? Yes, as he managed to deal the final blow to him, and should be comparable to the rest of the playable cast, who can all deal damage and tank hits from him.


Back to Armageddon, Odio is somehow capable of surviving it. Maybe. The only evidence we have for him surviving are 2 lines of text from the bad ending, where Odio successfully manages to use the ability. “Let All Creation Yield to My Command. Let Blinding Light Subsume and Cleanse the Slate.” While nothing outright confirms that these were said by Odio, the circumstances of these lines' existence, and the wording used for it, make it pretty clear that they were said by him. Do these lines mean that Odio survived Armageddon? Not necessarily. They only talk about what Armageddon does, and it is very unclear as to if Odio survived. Even assuming he did live through it, the method as to how he did is unknown, though there is only one question we need to ask that is relevant to this discussion. Did Odio physically survive Armageddon? No, and the reason why is pretty simple: the rest of the playable cast is unable to survive Armageddon. When Odio is taking control of one of his incarnations, he can use the ability to instantly win if he is on the verge of defeat. Note how this completely destroys the protagonist of whatever time period they’re in. We see every character alive when Armageddon goes off in their time period, and see it completely consume them. Odio and the playable cast all scale to each other, as previously established, so if Odio could tank Armageddon, then why didn’t they also? There’s also the matter of how the game treats Armageddon. It is a game over scenario, the bad ending. If these characters really could tank universe destroying levels of power, then why does the game treat it like this? Why not simply a special move that Odio does during gameplay, instead of a losing scenario that causes the credits to roll right afterwards? I think the explanation is clear, because then Armageddon wouldn’t have the same weight it does otherwise. No one would really be in awe of the entire timeline, the universe, being destroyed if the characters could survive it just fine. Lastly, let us go back to those 2 lines said by Odio. They make reference to how literally everything will be destroyed by Armageddon, with no exceptions given here. Since Odio himself is included in this metaphorical slate, it would make more sense to say that he was destroyed by Armageddon along with everything else, than to say that he survived it. With all of this in mind, it’s pretty obvious that Odio did not physically survive Armageddon.


To summarize, Garland very comfortably takes the physical strength department, while Oersted takes speed and has an ability that can kill Garland.


Arsenal & Abilities

These 2 have quite the list of weapons and abilities at their disposal, but most of it isn’t really worth mentioning. Various swords, armors, stat buffs, stat debuffs, healing, etc. It is worth noting that Garland definitely has a much larger pool of things to use, giving him more options to attack and defend himself. There is also the fact that neither are really alone here, and the many incarnations of Odio outnumber Garland and the Fiends. However, each Fiend alone is much stronger than all of Odio’s incarnations, with each one being more than capable of taking them all on. There is also the matter of soul manipulation, which Garland has never resisted, but Odio has never shown combat applicable ways of manipulating souls.


One huge advantage Garland has here is his area of effect. Oersted himself does have some good AoE, but the massive disadvantage he has in strength here renders it pretty useless. Garland isn’t stupid, and he’s going to realize pretty quickly that swinging his sword around against someone that is much faster than him isn’t going to work out. Pretty soon, he’ll start busting out those massive AoE moves, destroying everything around him in an attempt to hit Oersted. Blaze, tsunami, earthquake, etc, are all wide reaching spells. Many spells he has also pursue his enemies if they initially miss, helping to make up for any lack of accuracy. There’s also Primordial Crust, a move with omnidirectional AoE, that can instantly kill Odio flat if it isn’t dealt with. Odio has no idea what this move does, nor how to counter it, so it is more likely to succeed than not. Considering that Oersted’s edge in speed only applies to reactions/combat, it’ll be very difficult for him to avoid all of these attacks. With Garland’s larger array of abilities, some with very large areas of effects, it’s very likely that he will eventually get in the one hit he needs to win.


But then there’s that pesky Armageddon. Once Odio pulls this off, it’s game over, Garland has no way around it. Odio’s faster, and is also not stupid, so he should reliably be able to pull it off, right? Well, not really. It isn’t an ability he just uses on a whim, and he has only ever been shown to use it on 2 specific instances.


First, he uses Armageddon when he has already secured victory through other means. This cannot happen, given the already established strength gap. He cannot lay a single scratch on Garland, and his other offensive abilities lack the means to make up for that. Of course, Odio could use Garland’s hatred as a battery to continually amp his power, but this has problems. For starters, the base gap is absolutely massive. It is 45 kilotons vs 6.297 exatons, a difference of almost 140 trillion times. Odio is going to have to feed off of a LOT of hate in order to lessen that gap in any significant way. It is very unlikely that he’ll get the power he needs to even be near Garland’s level before he gets hit once. There’s also the likelihood of Odio having a limit to the amount of hate he can feed on. Sin of Odio is a form that he achieves by absorbing all of the hate in the world, more than he ever did before, but it has no physical feats on its own that can match Garland. All in all, this scenario is borderline impossible for Odio to ever be in, given the massive gap in power, and the unreliability of him feeding off of hatred to grow more powerful.


Secondly, Odio has used Armageddon when on the verge of defeat, but is rather inconsistent in doing so. This instance only happens when Odio is taking control of one of his incarnations, but it never happens when he himself is fighting. When the party first defeated him, and his final gambit with his incarnations failed, he didn’t cast Armageddon. He drew on more power. Even as Sin of Odio, his strongest form, filled with more hatred than ever before, he still didn’t use Armageddon until he had already secured victory through other means. As we can see, his usual strategy in a fight is to try and brute force a victory before casting Armageddon. In this fight, it is far more likely that he will try and grow more powerful in an attempt to match Garland’s power, which is a fight he cannot win. Odio can be rather single-minded at times, and since he has no idea how big the gap in power between them actually is, it lends further credence to his usual strategy being employed here.


To summarize, while Armageddon may provide Oersted with an easy win, the specific circumstances he uses it in are unreliable and inconsistent. It is far more likely for Garland to use one of his own AoE moves than it is for Odio to ever use Armageddon.

Tertiary Factors

Both Garland and Oersted have proven themselves to be very capable and renowned knights, so they’re about equal when it comes to swordsmanship. While Odio’s incarnations seem to give him the edge on experience, what with their greater numbers, Garland isn’t out for the count here. The Four Fiends themselves have existed for centuries, possibly longer. As Chaos, who had absorbed the powers of the Fiends, it is likely that their experience had also transferred over to Garland. With this in mind, it’d be more likely for the experience edge to be in his favor.


Odio is rather cunning, and could try to exploit Garland’s arrogance before the fight starts proper. Key word here: Before. Odio has never used his greater cunning in the middle of a fight, only before it. As we’ve established before, his usual strategy in a fight is to try and brute force a victory, with anything resembling cunning being thrown out the window. Even if he did try and use his cunning to upset Garland, it is unlikely to work. Garland is obsessed with Chaos and his own hatred, and is more than confident in his abilities. Odio may be smarter overall, especially with his incarnations, but this intelligence is rarely ever seen when he himself is in a fight.

Conclusion

“In two thousand years, I will remember none of this. But I will be reborn again here. So even as you die again and again, I shall return! Born into this endless circle that I have created!”

Advantages

  • Physically stronger and more durable

  • Has resistances and counters for elemental attacks and most status effects…

  • More plentiful arsenal

  • Superior area of effect

  • Primordial Crust is a more reliable instant kill than Armageddon (maybe)

  • More experienced

  • Unlikely to be swayed by Odio

  • Voiced by Chris Sabat

Disadvantages

  • Notably slower

  • …but so does Oersted

  • Has no answer to Armageddon if Odio manages to pull it off

  • Outnumbered by Odio’s incarnations

  • Forest imps


While Oersted won’t go down without a fight, Garland has everything he really needs to pull out a victory. The massive gap in physical power alone tips the scales wildly in his direction. There is also Garland’s superior AoE, more reliable instant kill moves, and more plentiful arsenal, that will help see him through. In the end, Garland will be Oersted’s Final Fantasy.

Team Oersted

Stats

Starting with strength and durability, Garland's stats in this department are relatively straightforward. At the highest, cross-scaling to FFV would get him as high as 1/8th Universal, by way of scaling to the power of one of its Crystals. Even with feats directly from FFI, Garland can get as high as 71 teratons – well into Country level – and the implication he could survive Cornelia's supply of Nitro Powder would put his durability into the Island level range at 84.298 gigatons, which is consistent with other direct FFI feats like Tiamat draining the Wind Crystal.


Oersted, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. At the very least, Oersted can solidly be put at Town level in both stats; specifically within the 44-45 kiloton range. However, Armageddon throws a wrench into things, yielding a Universal level of power, possibly even Uni+, which is more than either combatant has otherwise. What's more is Odio persisting after Armageddon wipes out all creation; the presentation leaves the how and why vague, but Occam's razor would suggest he outright tanked it. And since Oersted is able to not only damage, but land the finishing blow on Odio in the ending, you could argue Universal stats for him in general using the following thread:


Armageddon is Universal -> Odio has the durability to survive Armageddon -> The party has the strength to defeat Odio -> Newton's 3rd law dictates one being able to take the force they dole out


Speed is a similar case; Garland peaks at 0.016c via FFV scaling, but Oersted's end is once again a contentious one. While it's understandable why some may say the laser feats would be considered outliers given the gap between them and the next-highest feat, as well as the lack of dodge animations for enemies in general. However, the evasion stat in Live A Live is explicitly described as affecting the capability to dodge attacks, applying without exception. Additionally, there are no attacks that hit 100% of the time, including Halogen Laser or Maser Cannon. As a result, there is plenty of reason to see these feats as legitimate for both enemies and the party, as saying they shouldn't scale doesn't quite make sense. Thus, Oersted would be approximately 7 to 39 times faster than Garland. While spells like Slowra and Haste could close the gap, Oersted would still take the advantage here.


This doesn't even account for how the speed at which Armageddon expands is so absurdly high above anything else here that there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it once it starts.


In summary, the power and durability advantage depends entirely on whether one buys Universal stats for Live A Live, while Oersted maintains a solid edge in speed.

Arsenal & Abilities

Garland and Oersted definitely both have a lot to work with, including a lot of the same things; an array of swords and armor, elemental magic, status effects, means of self-healing, buffs and debuffs, power over time and space, and both even have resistances to a lot of the other's elements and statuses. However, Garland's options in most, if not all of these areas are just more plentiful than Oersted's. This is especially true for his own buffs, which also have the benefit of being primarily passive in nature, while Oersted's require specific items or techniques to apply.


From there, however, Oersted has some key advantages on his side. For one, Odio's incarnations are easily more numerous than Garland and the Fiends combined. While the Fiends' skills could be argued to be more useful, along with having more plentiful resistances (if your name is Lich), the faces of Odio's rage have more plentiful attacks across the lot of them. Combining that with their numbers would make them potentially overwhelming for Garland's side of the battle.


Odio also has other abilities exclusive to him that Garland lacks, such as his ability to manipulate and seal souls, and should Oersted fall, Odio can corrupt and possess a new vessel in mere moments, as shown when he overtook Oersted himself after Streibough's death.


On top of that is the matter of Odio's primary power source, hatred. Not only can Odio draw from Oersted's own hate, but all the hate in the world, regardless of from who, where, or even when. This is especially important because of how much hate Garland has himself; the Four Fiends are flat-out composed of it, and Chaos is the zenith of it all since he is the combined result of all five. As a result, Garland would serve as a walking battery for Odio to gain power throughout the fight, even more so the longer it goes on.


But ultimately, there's one more factor both share, in that both have insta-kill options the other doesn't have an answer to; Primordial Crust and Armageddon. Primordial Crust is a debuff applied when Chaos casts Earthquake or Bowels of Agony, which overtakes the victim unless they take mortal damage in time. Chaos does have another similar debuff called Accretion, but it's applied only to healers and tanks, which Oersted is neither. Armageddon, on the other hand, nukes the entirety of creation and wipes the slate clean, acting instantly upon activation.


The biggest weakness Oersted faces against Primordial Crust is the fact that he wouldn't know how it works, and as a result, he wouldn't be actively looking to receive the damage needed to dispel its effects. However, an attack such as Bowels of Agony landing would already be plenty to do the job, made easier if it's how the debuff is applied in the first place and then gets hit by another attack. Additionally, Oersted's impulsive nature could very well land him in the line of fire anyway. Meanwhile, Armageddon doesn't have the same caveats as Primordial Crust, especially given its practically instant activation compared to Primordial Crust taking time before the kill. On top of that, the range and speed of the blast would make it completely impossible for Chaos to avoid or survive. As a result, Armageddon is likely a much more immediately useful and reliable way to end the battle.


Lastly, there's the million dollar question; would Odio even bother using Armageddon in the first place? The answer here is absolutely. Remember that Odio has used it under two circumstances – when his back is against the wall or if victory is assured anyway. This is doubling-back into stats a bit, but regardless of which end you buy for Oersted's strength, he will inevitably be in one of these two positions to unleash the attack, and given his speed advantage and how all-encompassing and fast-acting the attack itself is, it's very likely that Odio would go for it to finish the fight. This is especially compounded with one of Sin of Odio's attacks, Absolute Condemnation, an unavoidable AoE attack that pushes targets back and binds them in place. It's not impossible that Chaos could break out of it with enough effort, but it would still serve to buy Odio more time to pull off Armageddon.

Tertiary Factors

Both Garland and Oersted are capable and renowned knights, but experience beyond that is solidly in the Lord of Dark's court. While Garland was able to establish the time loop, it's never stated that it ever lasted more than once; probably not even that, given the Warriors of Light breaking it after their battle with Chaos. Speaking of, Garland wasn't even able to be Chaos for long before being thoroughly foiled. Meanwhile, Odio's influence spans all of time, and the experience from each of his incarnations is both greater and more varied than that of Garland. In fact, Oersted showing the ability to not only possess them, but also reign victorious in their places with their abilities, shows he is just as skilled and experienced as them, if not more.


While rather impulsive and single-minded, Odio is still of a cunning mind, able to look into the pasts of his foes and use that to play them how he so chooses. This could be easily used to exploit Garland's arrogance and leave him open, or even catch him off-guard if he were to parse out his rejection by Sarah. On the other hand, Garland more than likely has no way to separate Oersted and his hatred with anything other than brute force. If anything, Garland's persistence, power, and pride is more likely to make it escalate.

Conclusion

“In every heart, the seed of dark abides. The makings of a Lord when watered well… With hate. Sweet hate. She springs eternal. Sings… All-tempting draught. We’ll drink of her again.”

Advantages

  • Stronger and tougher with Universal stats…

  • Notably faster

  • Has resistances and counters for elemental attacks and most status effects…

  • Can draw power from Garland’s hate

  • Greater numbers and experience

  • Could exploit Garland’s arrogance

  • Armageddon is a quicker and more reliable insta-kill than Primordial Crust (maybe)

  • Play Live A Live

Disadvantages

  • …but not without them

  • …but so does Garland

  • Arsenal and abilities aren’t as plentiful

  • Wouldn’t know how Primordial Crust/Accretion works

  • Impulsive and single-minded despite Odio’s cunning

  • Literally cucked out of his happy ending


This is by no means an easy fight for either side. Both knights have skill and might abound, and are able to match each other in a number of ways. No matter who was to win, the world would know no peace. However, what Garland has in the size of his arsenal and potential power, the Lord of Dark makes up for with his greater numbers, experience, and means of exploiting Garland’s hatred and ego. Moreover, both have surefire ways to kill the other that neither have direct answers to; but between them, Armageddon is the more immediately potent trump card once put into play compared to Primordial Crust, and combined with Oersted’s greater speed, he’s more likely to end the fight first, thus ensuring Garland will not leave alive.

Final Tally

Team Garland (5): TheGanondorky, Tsubori, DeepHurting, Rina Antiqua, Soma

Team Oersted (10): WagonWorks, Arot, Infernmaster, TheSmashShane2023, Minato Emosato, Reaps, bitzy, Wolfram, Mal, greymerlion2


Special Thanks

To Tommy for the various Final Fantasy calculations here

To Arot and Tsubori for compiling and providing the info for the Dissidia scaling section

To bitzy for combing through Live A Live for dodging footage

To Capejedi for allowing us to use points and elements from his own blog on the matchup

To the Live A Live Discord for clarifying things regarding enemy dodge rates

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