Il gioco consiste in primo luogo di battaglie uno-contro-uno.

The game consists primarily of one-on-one battles.

The game initially focuses on the twelfth war between the gods Chaos and Cosmos who have summoned several warriors from parallel worlds to fight for them. Upon ending the twelfth cycle, the game remakes the thirteenth war from the original Final Dissidia Fantasy Fighting and adds multiple sidestories. Fights in Dissidia 012 were given the ability to counteract enemies' strongest attacks by using assisting characters, while navigation is now done through a traditional-styled

The game consists primarily of one-on-one battles, taking place on what is known as a battle map where the two characters duel. Players are able to perform two types of attacks: a Bravery attack and an HP attack. Both characters start with a set amount of Bravery points, the number of Bravery points being equivalent to the amount of damage dealt by an HP attack. Thus, the player must perform several Bravery attacks to steal Bravery points from the opponent so as to increase the power of their HP attack, as Bravery attacks do not cause any damage.

Single-player mode

The biggest addition is within the single-player story mode of the game, taking place on a traditional-styled Final Dissidia Fantasy Fighting world map, with players being able to experience a story while exploring a world with scenarios and events taking place as the story progresses. Players traverse the 3D world map with parties consisting of up to five characters, with players being able to interact in conversations with the characters. When roaming the map, players will encounter enemies known as Manikins; when attacked by an enemy, players will be transported to a battle map where battles will take place.

Alongside the game's new story mode, the game also includes the first game's story, which has been remade with the 3D world map as well as additional elements added for the new storyline. Tetsuya Nomura, producer and character designer for the game, has said that both storylines played together would result in approximately 60 hours of gameplay