Japanese gaming magazine Dengeki PlayStation, through PSPHyper, finds out why Final Fantasy Dissidia's nature is to be an action game. According to the report,  this was because it was thought that a 3D action game using the expertise of the team of Yousuke Shiokawa was "the best way to gather all the characters from the Final Fantasy series."

Who is Mr. Shiokawa? Square Enix's Yousuke Shiokawa was the lead programmer for boss battles in Kingdom Hearts II. He is now directing Final Fantasy Dissidia.

Anyhow, it was also revealed that the PlayStation Portable was the chosen one as the platform for the game because of the handheld's ad-hoc mode.

Nomura noted that if they went for aiming at a large user-base, they would have gone for the PS2 instead of the PSP. However, that route would mean that they would be forced to use split-screen for multiplayer, and they are of the belief that split-screen gaming would significantly diminish the fun factor.

It was also revealed that the game's battle system will take a lot of inspiration from the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but will introduce some new concepts. As mentioned in one of our previous reports, Shiokawa confirms that FF mainstays like levels, class, equipment, and weapon upgrades will all be in the game. What's more is that there are some character customization options available as well.

As for the game's setting, Shiokawa mentioned that the development team is concentrating on making each location as "natural" as possible. There may be plans for destructible environments, but the focus for now is more on making each location true to the original. From the images and scans we've seen so far, it was noted that some appear to be from Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy IX.

As mentioned before, this is a 20th Anniversary title, so even though there isn't an official date yet, most expect the game to hit retail this year.