but if you're anything less than cockbutted for FF, it's a 5 or worse.
not one person in the world would care about dissidia if it didn't have the FF license
I take offense to this. The fighting system in 012 with the added assist system, balanced movelists, and greater variety in environments is a very solid arena fighter. Especially when you play Labyrinth mode which takes out stats/levels entirely and makes it a pure skill on skill fighter. I'd definitely put it above Powerstone and in the B-tier arena fighters sitting just below the cream of the crop like Virtual On/Phantom Dust (although...honestly I think 012 plays as well as PD, PD just has the addicting card collection element + great online + better atmosphere).
Honestly, I don't get where your hate for the gameplay is coming from. What exactly was your beef with the gameplay in 012? For everything you can dish, there is a punishment. The game is high risk/reward and has everything you'd expect from modern day fighting games like combo breaks, parries, dodges, homing dashes. Plus speeding up everything in 012 got rid of the long cat and mouse chases that plagued the original.
The only things lacking are a real online mode, a PD style (beat somewhere and earn one of their attacks at random), and maybe some more stage interaction, smaller stages in general, and larger movelists. Is it a 10/10 fighting game? No, but even without the FF branding, it'd easily be at least an Arcana Heart, 7.5ish, fighting game. With all the great FF music, visuals, and nostalgia it's easily an 8+