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A Phantasmal Harlequin manikin is defeated.

Manikins are cursed mockeries of men that crawled forth from the Rift, and now befoul this realm. Their masters do no more than pull the puppets' strings.

Cloud of Darkness to Laguna

Manikins (イミテーション, imitēshon?, lit. Imitations) are the main enemies encountered in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. They appear as crystalline palette-swaps of the playable characters. In-game they are represented by various Battle Pieces on the map board.

Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Dissidia Final Fantasy posits manikins were created by Cid to give physical form to the consciousnesses that came from other dimensions, after viewing how Chaos and Cosmos "acquired pawns". His failures became manikins, incomplete puppets, which were sealed in the Rift. The successes are implied to be some of the warriors of Chaos and Cosmos, as the "created pawns" "questioned their very reason for living", and after a purification began to remember things from "their previous lives". Who of the warriors are summoned or created is unknown, but it may be that the only summoned warriors are Garland, Gabranth, and Shantotto, while any of the other 19 may be created.

This is retconned in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, where it is told the nation of Onrac from World A discovered a door to the Rift and retrieved a sample of crystal ore for study. The ore acts similar to an organic lifeform and grows as a living creature. Research on the sample resulted in mass production of simulated lifeforms made from the crystal ore, the first manikins. They remained formless until approached in their containment cell, at which point they took on the forms of the researchers observing them. They were but mindless puppets, and Cid was recruited to transplant memories into them to give them a sense of self.

Though it proved impractical for widespread use, Cid could implant a manikin with memories of ten other individuals, resulting in a manikin that resembled a grotesque monster but was the size of, and acted like, a human child. The child was placed in Cid's care for observation, and would grow up to become Chaos. Research continued with the manikins, and eventually the successful transplant of a complete set of memories to one was successful. This manikin was named Cosmos, and took the image of Cid's wife.

Most of the manikins failed to take on memories and were sealed in the Rift. After Cosmos, Chaos and Cid were transported to World B, Cid resumed his attempts to implant manikins with memories. He created the Warrior of Light from an infusion of his own memories, and sent him to fight in the cycles of war to observe his growth. Cid's failures prior to the Warrior's creation were disposed of in the same location as the other manikins.

During the twelfth cycle of the war Exdeath releases the manikins as foot soldiers for Chaos. Due to their nature as mindless automatons, Garland remarks they will continue to fight even when their opponent is defeated and weak. Thus, if one is overwhelmed by manikins, they can be pushed to the brink of death and risk not having the strength to be revived in the next cycle. Though initially few in number, a massive horde of the creatures eventually sweeps across the land, separating the heroes as they fight to try and manifest their crystals, and their attention turns from the crystals to their concern for the deaths of their comrades at the hands of these new enemies.

After the Cloud of Darkness tells Laguna where and how the manikins have crossed over, he, along with Lightning, Kain, Tifa, Yuna, and Vaan, decide to track down the portal the manikins are using to enter the world and close it. An army of manikins marches on Order's Sanctuary to kill Cosmos, and save for the warriors seeking the portal, only the Warrior of Light remains to defend her.

Locating the portal in the Empyreal Paradox, the team defeats a few Warriors of Chaos who try to stop them, and engage the manikins in a final battle, ultimately fading away, presumably to their respective worlds, but successfully closing the portal to the Rift, preventing any more manikins from emerging. Cosmos uses her power to save the Warrior of Light from the manikin army sent to destroy her, weakening her, but drastically reducing the number of manikins left.

Some members of both the Warriors of Cosmos and Warriors of Chaos have suspected that they may be advanced manikins rather than the real deal during the twelfth cycle: Onion Knight and Zidane in particular discuss the possibility, and Sephiroth commits suicide to test whether he is indeed a manikin or the actual Sephiroth. It is unclear whether the various warriors are advanced manikins or not, although it was confirmed that at least the Warrior of Light is one.

Spoilers end here.

Gameplay

Manikins are colored in a manner reflective of their original counterpart or their counterpart's game of origin—Terra's manikin is red, Kuja's is purple, Warrior of Light's is blue, and so forth. Some manikins, like The Emperor's, use two colors. Manikins of different characters from the same game are the same or almost a similar color. Their voices are garbled, distorted versions of their counterparts, and their icon is that of the Battle Piece icon that represents them on the board.

Their naming system consists of an adjective alluding to their nature as transitory imitations, and a noun that describes their counterpart—Cloud's manikin is "Imaginary Soldier", while Golbez's is "Delusory Warlock". The exceptions to this rule are Prishe, Shantotto and Gabranth, who have the naming system "[noun] of Antiquity". The adjectives that describe the manikins are synonymous and all manikins of characters from the same game share the same adjective, except for Final Fantasy XII, where Vaan's manikin has a different naming scheme to Gabranth's.

In battle, the manikin's power changes according to the type of Battle Piece that represents it. Manikins can perform any attack their original counterpart knows, but can execute them even if they are not a high-enough level to legitimately know them. The same goes for equipment: manikins may potentially equip any equipment piece they like regardless of its level requirement, even if their character counterpart cannot equip the item innately. They can also equip any number of the same accessory regardless of the accessory's rank, though they still may not equip more than ten. Manikins can equip support abilities, and all manikins have the basic Block, Dodge and Free Air Dash abilities.

Manikins can utilize EX Mode, and as such can pick up EX Cores and absorb EX Force. Manikins share a single EX Mode titled "Powered Up!" in which they gain the Regen effect and have a greater likelihood to score critical hits. They do not gain any special abilities or attacks usable by their counterparts, cannot use EX Bursts, and keep the same appearance as their normal mode save for a glowing aura. The sole exception is Gabranth's manikin, which changes its appearance while in EX Mode and gains a different moveset like Gabranth himself does, but its EX Mode is still called "Powered Up!" and it still cannot use Gabranth's EX Burst.

In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy manikins use Assists, and are vulnerable to Assist Lock, Assist Break and EX Break. Manikins' Assists are other manikins, and in storyline battles Assists used by the Warriors of Chaos are manikins. Usually during the last battle of each Warrior of Cosmos, the ones that each Warrior of Chaos use, are manikins of their respective opposing Warrior of Cosmos.

In Dissidia Final Fantasy, some manikins give the player a chance to win a Destiny Point by fulfilling a requirement, such as scoring a critical hit within a time limit or preventing the opponent from picking up an EX Core. Manikins represented by Strange and Expert Battle Pieces always give the player a Destiny Point for winning in the Destiny Odyssey story modes, but in the other story modes they may not. In all story modes, defeating an Ultimate Battle Piece-level manikin awards two Destiny Points. In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, as Destiny Points are replaced by KP (Kupo), manikins allow the chance to win KP by fulfilling a preset requirement depending on the gateway shared across all manikins in this gateway.

In both games, depending on the stage, defeating a manikin may cause other items, including extra Battle Pieces, to appear on the stage. In Dissidia Final Fantasy defeating a manikin may unlock a locked area, while in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy defeating them may cause previously vacant tiles on the board to appear and allow passage to new sections of the board.

List of manikins

Introduced in Dissidia Final Fantasy

Name Counterpart Color Image Name Counterpart Color Image
False Hero Warrior of Light Blue Manikin-WoL False Stalwart Garland Blue Manikin-Garland
Imitation Liegeman Firion Yellow and brown Manikin-Firion Imitation Despot The Emperor Yellow and orange Manikin-Emperor
Counterfeit Youth Onion Knight Dark green Manikin-OK Counterfeit Wraith Cloud of Darkness Light green Manikin-CoD
Delusory Knight Cecil Cobalt blue/Silver Manikin-Cecil Delusory Warlock Golbez Cobalt blue and silver Manikin-Golbez
Fallacious Wanderer Bartz Turquoise Manikin-Bartz Fallacious Tree Exdeath Turquoise Manikin-Exdeath
Phantasmal Girl Terra Red Manikin-Terra Phantasmal Harlequin Kefka Red Manikin-Kefka
Imaginary Soldier Cloud Light blue Manikin-Cloud Imaginary Champion Sephiroth Light blue Manikin-Sephiroth
Transient Lion Squall Purple Manikin-Squall Transient Witch Ultimecia Purple Manikin-Ultimecia
Capricious Thief Zidane Indigo Manikin-Zidane Capricious Reaper Kuja Light purple Manikin-Kuja
Ephemeral Vision Tidus Orange Manikin-Tidus Ephemeral Phantom Jecht Orange Manikin-Jecht
Lady of Antiquity Shantotto Brown Manikin-Shantotto Warrior of Antiquity Gabranth Gold Manikin-Gabranth

Introduced in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy

Name Counterpart Color Image Name Counterpart Color Image
Delusory Dragoon Kain Cobalt blue and silver Manikin-Kain Fallacious Giant Gilgamesh Turquoise Manikin-Gilgamesh
Imaginary Brawler Tifa Light blue Manikin-Tifa Transient Gunner Laguna Purple Manikin-Laguna
Ephemeral Summoner Yuna Orange Manikin-Yuna Horror of Antiquity Prishe Brown Manikin-Prishe
Idle Sky Pirate Vaan Gold Manikin-Vaan Fleeting Flash Lightning Pink Manikin-Lightning

Other appearances

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call

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Theatrhythm CC Manikin

These imitation warriors take on the form of famous heroes of the ages. While they have no souls of their own, they do possess all of the originals' power and skill. There will be no rebirth for these shells, only annihilation.

Manikin's CollectaCard

Sephiroth's manikin, the Imaginary Champion appears as an enemy, mainly fought in Battle Music Sequence from Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.

Pictlogica Final Fantasy

Template:Sideicon The False Hero, Imitation Liegeman, Delusory Warlock, and Phantasmal Harlequin appear as enemies in the Dissidia Final Fantasy special events.

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Baknamy FFTA2This section about an enemy in Pictlogica Final Fantasy is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Final Fantasy Artniks

Template:Sideicon Manikins appear as character cards.

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Impresario-ffvi-iosThis section in Final Fantasy Artniks is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Final Fantasy Wiki by expanding it.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game

Template:Sideicon Several manikins appear as trading cards. Reflecting their roles in Dissidia Final Fantasy, they act as support for Exdeath's cards, able to be summoned en masse by him and being powered up by him or vice versa, and they can bypass the standard rule that states only three copies of a single card can be in a deck. Many have abilities that mirror the effects of their original counterparts, but with less potency—for example, one of Bartz's cards makes all the player's Wind Forwards active when played, while the Fallacious Wanderer makes up to two Wind Forwards active.

The trading card for Fallacious Wanderer depicts it wielding the Brave Blade, but as manikins do not share their counterpart's EX Mode, there is no way for the Fallacious Wanderer to wield the weapon in-game.

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Etymology

Manikin, also known as mannequin, is an articulated doll or dummy used mainly by artists, tailors, and dressmakers. The name is befitting to the role of these characters as crystal embodiments.

Trivia

Manikin Comparison

Comparison of Jecht's manikins for cutscenes and battle.

  • The manikins seen in cinematic sequences use different models from those normally encountered, and have smoother textures with duller coloring and a lower polygon count.
  • Vaan's and Lightning's manikins are the only ones with a unique adjective in their titles (Idle and Fleeting, respectively).
  • It is possible to play as a manikin in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy using CWCheat codes and CFW. These manikins cannot enter EX Mode.
  • Various manikin models include aspects of their original counterpart's EX Mode in their data files, many having their counterpart's EX Mode weapons despite manikins not gaining these weapons when entering EX Mode in battle. Said weapons are even being recolored to match the manikin's color scheme. Bartz's manikin, the Fallacious Wanderer, also has Bartz's EX Mode cape and the stars over its head.

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