this morning I played the japanese beta for several hours and I was so surprised that the beta told me that it was over right up to last beta match I played! I didnt expect to play for the full length of the beta. was just expecting to play it like 1 hour, but played over 4 hours of it and it has ultimate potential and definitely the #1 pick for ultimate fighting game of 2018! Dissidia deserves its own ongoing series on PS4 and PS5. I always knew the series would have greater quality on console and I am right. while Duodecim has more depth in areas, the overall fighting in NT raises the standards with more accessibility, yet new depth that the classic Dissidia games don't have, especially with the revolutionary 3 vs 3 foundation (yes games like Xenoverse have 3 vs 3, but Dissidia NT actually has more technical skill based depth and team synergies instead of spamming). it also has 1 vs 1, but NT proves that Dissidia style combat is better with a 3 vs 3 format, plus it adds to the nostalgia from FF games that have a 3 member party in fights.
even the single player rush mode is addicting. even though there's no open overworld like Duodecim has, the Dissidia games were always weak in storytelling (some people even hate things like Terra's tropey personality compared to how she was in FFVI. So better for Dissidia to focus on the fighting than storytelling, cause even the fans tore apart the plot of the PSP games and realized how dumb it was. )
as Street Fighter II has proven, a fighting game doesnt need to center on story to have a great game thats played over the generations. stories in fighting games are just an afterthought and the games really are evaluated on their gameplay, selection and gameplay related content (and we seen how Star Wars Battlefront 2 sacrificed a chunk of its budget for AAA story campaign production values, and see how that went. even Battlefront 1, which didnt have story, was better received).
well I can type all day about how great Dissidia NT's fighting system and 3v3 format is, though fighting fans can see the proof in the pudding, Dissidia NT is shaping up to a masterpiece, and the only area where it may be lacking, is dependant on which characters, how many, and how soon they will be added to the core game, cause we know there's still a lot of missing favorites, including the ones in Duodecim, so NT has a lot of expectations to deal with as well as beyond that. it is said they plan at least 50 characters for the game, perhaps they could surpass expectations in the total roster selection and overall quality picks for various tastes.
while I dont agree rushing its launch and adding characters later, they could do a Mortal Kombat XL thing later and have all added characters in a new definitive edition later. in a way, releasing it early can be a good thing cause overall the beta shows its very polished, the selection is better than Dissidia 1, and NT launch sales could push SE to get more characters completed sooner since profits would add incentive to add more in less time and can generate a growing fanbase as the game itself grows and stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTKwaxo3BD5MrN3q9xQQqRMQGkKtVujNq