"An active and cheerful thief, Zidane exhibits fondness for women and is easily elated. But he has a strong sense of justice beneath that cheerful exterior, and cannot help but aide those in need."
Zidane Tribal is one of the heroes fighting for the side of Cosmos in Dissidia Final Fantasy. Lithe and graceful, Zidane excels at midair battling, and can run rings around foes in arenas with few footholds. During his quest to find the Crystals, he befriends Bartz and Squall. However, his nemesis Kuja lays traps for them with the intent to make Zidane feel powerless and break his spirit.
Zidane's appearance is based on his original concept art, but keeps a resemblance to the anatomic style from the designs of Toshiyuki Itahana. He wears a teal vest over a white sleeveless shirt and white jabot with blue cargo pants and layered belts. He has grey gloves with large blue cuffs and two-toned grey and white boots. He has a distinctive prehensile, monkey-like tail. His weapons of choice are two Mage Mashers, which can combine into the thief sword The Ogre.
Zidane's first alternate outfit, "Navy Gilet," is based on his Yoshitaka Amano artwork. His clothes are dark purple; his Mage Mashers are dark green to appear closer to The Ogre's color scheme; and his hair is a lighter shade of blond. His EX Mode form in this outfit is a gray palette swap.
Zidane's second alternate outfit is "Pluto Uniform," the uniform of the Knights of Pluto he disguises himself with in the opening scenes of Final Fantasy IX. He wears a single piece chestplate with pale gray and green shorts and brown boots. He bears a sword sheath strapped over his torso, and a small round shield on his left arm. His EX Mode form in this outfit is purple.
Zidane's third alternate costume, "Marcus's Cloak" (listed in some regions as "Marcus's Hood"), is available as DLC. It is an original design by Hideo Minaba, Final Fantasy IX's art director and the original character designer of Zidane and Kuja, and is based on the cloak he wore to disguise himself during the game's ending. Zidane wears a black cloak and hood with light brown patterns over pants that are a darker shade of blue than his default attire. His ponytail hangs out of the hood over his shoulder, and his tail is gone. Zidane's EX Mode in this outfit gives him silver fur and green eyes, but this time, he remains mostly clothed, removing only his gloves and boots, lowering his hood, and tearing his pants at the knees. His Mage Mashers are black.
Zidane's Crystal is light orange and yellow, based on the Crystal in the Final Fantasy IX logo. Its shape is similar to the pink crystal that appears in the Crystal World, said to be the progenitor of life on Gaia.
Zidane's manikin version, Capricious Thief, is indigo.
Zidane is first seen with the rest of the Cosmos warriors, receiving powers from Cosmos herself. When everyone sets out, Zidane is surprised to run into Kuja. Having been through several cycles of war and recovered all his memories, he is on good terms with Kuja, who seeks to betray Chaos and lead Zidane and his friends to Chaos's throne, so they can defeat him together.
However, Kefka derails Kuja's scheme and summons manikins to attack Zidane, Bartz, and Squall. To save face with the Warriors of Chaos, so as not to be persecuted for his betrayal, Kuja feigns that he had been deceiving the Warriors of Cosmos and reluctantly defeats the three; however, he does allow them to escape. During the purification process at the end of Cycle 12, Kefka implants false memories into Kuja's psyche, causing him to attack Zidane in Cycle 13.
In Chapter 4, while searching for Tidus and Jecht, Yuna runs into Zidane. Sensing her sadness, he accompanies Yuna for a little while before scouting ahead for more manikins to defeat.
Later on, Kain attacks Zidane and leaves him unconscious. After a battle in Chapter 7, Ultimecia points out Zidane to Tifa, warning her of Kain's acts of betrayal. Before Tifa can help Zidane, Kain returns, disappearing with Zidane in his arms. Later, Kain explains to Tifa that he attacked Zidane so that he may "sleep" for Cycle 13, thus restoring Zidane's strength to defeat the endless horde of manikins. In Report 15, Zidane comforts the Onion Knight, who is worried that they are merely advanced manikins with false memories, and assures him, "How we're born into this world doesn't matter. It's what we do with ourselves afterwards that counts". In Report 11, when Laguna is talking to Squall, he mentions Zidane. Thinking that Zidane's tail was fake, he yanked on it, which Zidane "sure wasn't happy" about. In Chapter 4, Zidane tells Yuna that "some idiot" decided to pull on his tail.
Bartz and Zidane are attacked by a group of manikins while looking for the crystals, and Squall comes to assist them. After the battle, the two invite Squall to join them, but Squall declines their offer, stating that he prefers working alone, which leads to Bartz giving him a chocobo feather as a good luck charm.
Bartz and Zidane propose a contest to see who obtains a crystal first, but their "treasure hunt" is cut short when Bartz disappears in front of Zidane's eyes, having fallen for a trap meant for him. Zidane is ambushed by Kefka, who helped Kuja set up the trap, and the two fight to a standstill. Zidane finds out Bartz has been captured by the forces of Chaos and has been taken to their base.
Zidane later finds Squall cornered by both Garland and Ultimecia. Zidane rushes to his aid, tackling down Garland and fighting him, while Squall fights Ultimecia and receives his Crystal. After the fight, Garland laughs at Zidane and vanishes, leaving him to join up with Squall as they go on to look for Bartz. They eventually find him, and Bartz reveals that he escaped on his own, obtaining what appears to be a Crystal. It turns out to be another trap set by Kuja, warping Zidane to his nemesis, who taunts him by telling of the fall of his friends.
Cosmos pays Zidane a visit, and Zidane laments that there is nothing he can do to help them. Cosmos reassures him that his friends believe in him, and he should believe in them in return. Taking it to heart, Zidane encounters Kuja once again. Zidane wants to go back to his friends, and Kuja believes it is pointless to believe in "strangers". But after infuriating Kuja by asking about his relation to the other Warriors of Chaos, Zidane fights and defeats Kuja. Zidane then receives his Crystal, which teleports him back to Bartz and Squall.
Later on, he talks with Firion about his reason for fighting. When the weapon-master gives "The Wild Rose" as an answer, Zidane asks him if that is what he calls his "princess", in reference to Princess Garnet of Final Fantasy IX. Before Firion can reply, they suddenly hear something behind them and run off to investigate.
After all the Crystals have been collected, Chaos appears out of nowhere, who not only subdues the heroes with his power, but also incinerates Cosmos in front of them. After the Warriors have overcome their own erasure, they set out to defeat the Warriors of Chaos once more. Along the way, Zidane cheers up the disillusioned Onion Knight when he questions their existence.
Zidane looks at his Crystal before he returns home.
Zidane runs into Kuja, who is bent on his envisioned finale. However, Zidane wins the fight, and as result, Kuja is lamenting over how he lost everything as he asks Zidane to finish him off. However, Zidane instead extends his hand to Kuja, with the latter refusing it as he asks Zidane if there is something else he would rather seize. When fading away, Kuja comments that "he will return there someday", with Zidane agreeing in belief that they will both one day, return to their home. Zidane, along with the other heroes then battle Chaos. When the Warriors of Cosmos emerge victorious, Zidane ends up in World A before fading back to his homeworld as he tells his friends that they are going back to their promised places.
Zidane is an Aerial Ace. While he does not have that many ground attacks, many of these attacks launch the opponent into the air, easily taking the battle airborne. He has one of the largest pool of aerial attacks in the game, and can easily chain his attacks into each other. His attack list consists of his Dyne techniques and various dagger attacks and throws, and he has several Bravery to HP combos. He also has a very fast ground movement. A downside to Zidane's speed is that his attacks are rather weak, and he is most proficient fighting with melee techniques as his few ranged attacks are weak and easy to block.
Zidane's EX Mode is his Trance form from Final Fantasy IX. While in EX Mode, Zidane gains the abilities "Aerial Jump" and "Dodge Jump". The former allows Zidane to jump ten more times than usual, in addition to any jump boosting abilities he has equipped, while the latter makes Zidane invincible to some attacks while jumping. In Dissidia 012, Zidane also regains his jumps after dodging, which other characters normally no longer do.
Zidane's EX Burst is Reverse Gaia. The player must rapidly press the button to fill up a power gauge as Zidane dashes past the opponent from multiple angles to attack. Zidane ends the EX Burst by circling the opponent attacking multiple times. Failing to press the button quickly enough will result in Zidane skipping to the end of the attack, minimizing the Bravery damage done.
While performing Zidane's EX Burst, two planets, one red and one blue, are seen merging with each other, a nod to the merging of Terra and Gaia in Final Fantasy IX. In further reference of his allegiance with Gaia, the blue planet emerges as the dominant one in the fusion.
Ozma's Splinter, Zidane's strongest weapon, is named after the optional superboss in Final Fantasy IX. The Sargatanas and The Tower are also weapons Zidane uses in his original game.
In the ending, Zidane leaps towards the sun to return to Gaia, similar to how the party returns to Gaia in the Invincible when Terra is destroyed.
When Squall asks Zidane why he attacked Garland, Zidane replies with, "What? Do I need a reason to help someone?" a reference to his motto of Virtue from Final Fantasy IX. He also speaks this line upon defeating Kuja in Shade Impulse, offering his hand in assistance much like during Kuja's final scene in Final Fantasy IX.
When battling Garland, Zidane declares, "This is gonna be your grave!" the same line he tells Garland's Final Fantasy IXnamesake. The line was translated in the English release of Final Fantasy IX as, "I am the new angel of death! Yours!"
If Zidane is defeated, he protests, "There's a place I have to go back to..." referring to the recurring theme song of Final Fantasy IX, "The Place I'll Return to Someday". A line of his from Destiny Odyssey IX, "I'm going back... to where I belong", also recalls this. In Dissidia 012, when against Feral Chaos, he will exclaim, "We're not going home 'someday', we're going now!" further referencing the song. Sephiroth's encounter line against Zidane in Dissidia 012 further references the song, "There is nowhere to return home to". Zidane's final line in Shade Impulse is "We're not vanishing. We're returning. To where we're supposed to be."
Zidane's line towards Shantotto when battling her, "If I win, you owe me a date!" is what he says to Garnet before the Festival of the Hunt.
In the English release, Destiny Odyssey IX is subtitled "Melodies of Life", the name of the Final Fantasy IXMain Theme.
After being kidnapped by Kuja, Cosmos appears to Zidane in Pandaemonium and convinces him to keep fighting. This mirrors the events of Final Fantasy IX, when Zidane wakes up alone in Pandemonium after his confrontation with Garland and fights his way past Garland's servants to reunite with his friends.
When Zidane is defeated, his pose is similar to when he and the others were defeated in Burmecia. The Onion Knight, Tidus, Prishe, and Vaan also assume this pose when defeated.
Garland's specific quote when he battles Zidane is, "I will erase you and your soul", a reference to what the Garland of Final Fantasy IX said. Sephiroth's quote to Zidane is, "Your planet is an illusion", a possible reference to Gaia being an assimilation for Terra.
When facing Zidane with a female character, Zidane will usually flirt in his opening quotes towards them. In his original game, he was a heavy womanizer, as he flirts and stares at most pretty females he meets. Furthering this, in Dissidia 012, Tifa will ask "What are you looking at? Focus!" as part of his womanizing nature.
In Dissidia 012, Zidane encounters Gilgamesh and said to him that if he had more arms, he would probably recognize him. This is an allusion of Gilgamesh's appearance in Final Fantasy IX, where he is a multi-armed character that went by the alias, "Alleyway Jack".
In one of the reports in Dissidia 012, Zidane comforts the Onion Knight, who is questioning himself. The Onion Knight wonders whether they are all manikins that have progressed somewhat. This is similar to Zidane's comforting of Vivi, who went through a similar process upon encountering the Black Mages.
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Added by BurstDragon
Added by Born from Darkness
button to fill up a power gauge as Zidane dashes past the opponent from multiple angles to attack. Zidane ends the EX Burst by circling the opponent attacking multiple times. Failing to press the button quickly enough will result in Zidane skipping to the end of the attack, minimizing the Bravery damage done.
In-game render of Zidane.
Alt outfit EX Mode.
Third outfit EX Mode.
DLC outfit EX Mode.
CG render for Dissidia.
CG render for Dissidia 012.
Zidane's manikin, Capricious Thief.
Zidane's Mage Masher and its four designs.
Zidane's Ogre and its four designs.
Zidane's Crystal.
Concept art of third outfit.
Concept art of DLC outfit by Hideo Minaba.
Artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.
