[5] 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 Dissidia Final Fantasy and adds multiple side-stories.

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 Final Fantasy world map.

Tetsuya Nomura, producer and character designer for the game, has said that both storylines played together would result in approximately 60 hours of gameplay.

[10] It features the entire cast of the original Dissidia with new and tweaked abilities, and introduces nine new playable characters for a total of thirty-one.

[15] However, Cosmos does not foresee Chaos's forces employing an unworldly army of crystalline soldiers known as Manikins, which pose a threat due to their ability to negate the gods' power to revive the warriors after they are killed.

[17] Lightning opposes this plan and leads the other active warriors—Vaan, Yuna, Laguna, and Tifa—to stop the Manikins once and for all by sealing the portal from which they emerge, with Kain eventually joining them as well.

[20] From there, the game retells the events of Dissidia Final Fantasy where returning warriors for Cosmos participate in the thirteenth cycle that ends the conflict between the gods.

Ideas for a sequel to Dissidia Final Fantasy were already conceived shortly after its release in Japan with creative producer Tetsuya Nomura wishing to feature Kain Highwind on it.

[23] Development of the game started in August 2009 shortly before the release of Dissidia Final Fantasy Universal Tuning, the international version from the predecessor.

The Assist feature was made to add more entertainment to the fights,[24] as well as to act as a counterbalance to the EX Mode that was the strongest area from the first game.

[30][31] Three other Square Enix games, Final Fantasy Trading Card Game, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, and The 3rd Birthday, give players access to downloadable content in the form of alternate outfits for Vaan, Cloud Strife, and Lightning, respectively.

[32][33] As of June 2011, the PlayStation Network has featured downloadable content for Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, including character costumes, avatars, and BGM packs.

The American band Kidneythieves also sang the second part of the Feral Chaos' boss theme song, "God in Fire".

[35] Square Enix released the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Original Soundtrack on March 3, 2011, featuring a total of three discs with the first one having 44, the second one 20, and the third one seven.

[36] Track list Upon its first week of release Dissidia 012 sold 286,117 units in Japan, topping the Media Create's charts by replacing Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity.