Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy: The Story of the new Roster Characters

Square Enix is about to launch another chapter in the long-running Dissidia spin-off series. Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy arrives worldwide on March 24, 2026 for iOS and Android. The game is co-developed with NHN PlayArt and is free-to-play with in-app purchases.

This time, the premise leans into classic isekai — except instead of waking up in a fantasy realm, the Warriors of Light find themselves in modern-day Tokyo. A massive crystal has appeared in the city, but a mysterious energy keeps summoning swarms of monsters that drain civilians' life force in a phenomenon branded "aggressions."

The Warriors of Light show up to fight the monsters and vanish just as quickly, leading locals to call them "Ghosts."

The latest trailer revealed the official release date and introduced the new characters joining the hero roster, now covering all 16 mainline Final Fantasy games.

Firion (Final Fantasy II)

One of the four heroes of Final Fantasy II, Firion grew up in Fynn alongside his adopted siblings. When the Palamecian Empire invades and burns the city, he and the other heroes try to flee but are attacked by imperial black knights. Waking up in Altair, headquarters of the Wild Rose Rebellion, Firion joins the resistance.

Firion was the first hero in the franchise with a fixed name, backstory, and motivations—a small revolution by 1988 RPG standards. He fights for freedom and carries a concrete ideal, but technical limitations kept him from being deeply layered. He embodies the archetype of a young man who takes up arms because he has nothing left to lose and believes the fight against a tyrant's oppression is worth the cost.

Characters in Final Fantasy II progress based on weapon and magic proficiency. Firion is a weapon specialist in Dissidia, wielding multiple weapons for varied attacks.

Onion Knight (Final Fantasy III)

Onion Knight represents Final Fantasy III. Much like the Warrior of Light, he isn't a fully fleshed-out character in the original game. The four heroes are anonymous orphans with no names, personalities, or character arcs. What defines them are the Jobs, and the Onion Knight is the class they start with.

The 3D remake for the PlayStation Portable gave the four heroes defined identities — Luneth, Refia, Arc, and Ingus — with distinct personalities. But the Onion Knight was created by Tetsuya Nomura for the original Dissidia games, where he became a young man who hates being treated like a child and constantly tries to prove his worth.

His role in Duellum hasn't been confirmed, but since the Job system is also a mechanic in Final Fantasy V (represented by Krile), it would make sense for the two characters to have complementary or similar roles.

Rikku (Final Fantasy X)

Rikku represents Final Fantasy X. She's another departure from expectations: Tidus and Yuna are the game's leads, and picking Rikku reinforces a pattern seen with Prompto in the previous roster of choosing characters who fit more naturally into the contemporary Tokyo setting.

Spira lives under the dominion of Yevon, a theocracy that rules through fear of Sin, a colossal creature that emerges from the ocean to destroy cities. Yevon's doctrine forbids the use of machina, claiming technological abuse created Sin. Those who reject the ban are treated as heretics. The Al Bhed are that heretical people, an ethnic minority with spiral-pupiled green eyes, their own language, and an open embrace of machina.

Rikku is an Al Bhed and Yuna's cousin on her mother's side. She finds Tidus when he first arrives in Spira. Later, she tries to kidnap Yuna to stop her pilgrimage, knowing summoners die when they call the Final Aeon. When that fails, she asks to become Yuna's guardian.

In combat, she uses claws and specializes in stealing and dismantling mechanical enemies. Her Overdrive combines two items to create unpredictable effects, from mass healing to instant victory. In Duellum, she'll likely be Agile, keeping the mobility and versatility that defined her in FFX.

Iroha (Final Fantasy XI)

If few people who haven't played Final Fantasy XI or other Dissidia titles know who Shantotto, the franchise's usual spin-off representative, is, even fewer know Iroha.

Like Final Fantasy XIV, FFXI is an MMORPG that's been active for over two decades, with lore spread across five full expansions and additional scenarios. Iroha is a core character from the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel storyline, released in 2015 to wrap up the first fourteen years of the game's story.

Iroha is the daughter of Tenzen, a samurai who appears in earlier expansions. She received the Phoenix's blessing from her father when she was near death and grew up in a world consumed by darkness until a goddess's spirit sent her back in time. But the world itself rejects her existence in that timeline and tries to correct it by killing her; only the Phoenix can keep her alive, resurrecting her each time the fabric of time causes her death.

She fights as a samurai in FFXI's system, with the ability to resurrect once per battle thanks to the Phoenix's power.

Balthier (Final Fantasy XII)

Final Fantasy XII traded the typical young, heroic protagonists for a political opera set in Ivalice, the same world as Final Fantasy Tactics but centuries apart. The kingdom is occupied by the Archadian Empire while a resistance centered around Princess Ashe of Dalmasca tries to regroup. The main character is Vaan, a street urchin who dreams of becoming a sky pirate. In practice, Ashe and Balthier drive the plot.

Calling himself the leading man, Balthier is a sky pirate who travels Ivalice in his personal airship alongside his partner Fran, a Viera. He wields a pistol and has an elegantly dry, ironic wit that never falters.

His real name is Ffamran mied Bunansa, though he'll deny it if asked—a reminder that he's the son of Dr. Cid, chief scientist of the Draklor Laboratory serving the Empire, and one of the key figures behind developing nethicite, the magical stones that sustain Archadia's military power.

Ranged is easily the role that best suits Balthier in Dissidia Duellum, where he'll join Prompto Argentum in attacking with pistols and other machinery.

Clive Rosfield (Final Fantasy XVI)

The most recent protagonist in the roster, Clive Rosfield is the hero of Final Fantasy XVI and firstborn son of the ruling House of Rosaria. Valisthea is divided among nations that sustain power through Mothercrystals and Dominants, human hosts for Eikons. At birth, Clive was meant to inherit the Phoenix, but it was his younger brother, Joshua, who became its Dominant.

Without an Eikon and scorned by his family, Clive swore to protect Joshua as the Shield of Rosaria, but he failed. During an attack by the theocratic Sanbreque Empire in what became known as "The Night of Flames," Joshua was killed by a mysterious dark Eikon. Transformed into a slave, Clive spent thirteen years swearing vengeance, only to discover that the Dominant of Ifrit he'd sworn to kill was himself.

Clive is one of the best-written main characters in Final Fantasy and the high point of FFXVI's story. In Duellum, he'll likely arrive as Melee, wielding his sword Invictus alongside the powers of Ifrit and Phoenix.

So far, Dissidia Duellum has had a mixed reception. Some fans are excited about a new spin-off entry and see the modern Tokyo setting as a fresh take on established characters. Others are skeptical. The gacha model, regional restrictions, and Square Enix's track record of mobile games shutting down within months or a few years have drawn heavy criticism.

The next logical step for the roster would be the villains. Dissidia wouldn't be complete without its antagonists, and plenty of them could make for great fits in modern-day Tokyo. The question is how Square Enix plans to bring them in and whether there will be enough player confidence left for Sephiroth, Kefka, and the rest to show up and hype the audience.