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Final Fantasy Souls-like ‘Stranger in Paradise’ arrives March 18th
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Final Fantasy Souls-like ‘Stranger in Paradise’ arrives March 18th

Team Ninja’s dark, wild spin on Final Fantasy needs some taming

‘Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin’ looks like a messy, gory spin on RPG history.

Mat Smith
M. Smith
June 16th, 2021

There were leaks: Square Enix was going to reimagine the first Final Fantasy game as a Dark Souls-esque adventure RPG, with an appropriately moody aesthetic. And that’s what Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is trying to be. Team Ninja, known most recently for its work on the Nioh series, is creating something based on Final Fantasy lore, but with a darker twist.

It didn’t get off to a good start. The trailer was rough, and possibly the most meme-able video at this year’s E3. Sometimes that’s good. Usually, it’s bad. Almost half of the lines uttered in the trailer included the word ‘chaos’, which seems to be some sort of evil antagonist and not the concept of chaos in general. (Then again, this is the Final Fantasy universe, so it could be one, both or neither.) Then there were the characters.

The main character, Jack, was dressed in a tee and looked entirely unprepared for laying siege to a castle filled with magical beasts and crystalline monster mouths. Meanwhile, his allies seemed to fit better with magical armor already equipped. (Now, it might be that all three are from our world / a more modern world, given that images show all three of them wearing contemporary clothing and Converse.)

Square Enix announced that a demo would be available later that day, so you could stomp on goblins and tear apart crystalline wolves for yourself. Then the demo crashed for everyone during its first day of release. So, a couple of days later than scheduled, I’ve finally had time to get to grips with a very different take on the world of Final Fantasy.

Despite the demo setting up a gentle run of enemies and tutorials to get you up to speed with the game’s base (but not basic) controls and fights, Stranger of Paradise is hard at times. I played the demo for a total of about three hours, which included a break before eventually defeating the end boss, Garland. (Or possibly Chaos? I’m still not sure. The demo is available to play until Thursday June 24th.)

My first impression, though, was how rough everything looked. While some attention’s been paid to the environment (the Chaos Shrine, a location from the original Final Fantasy, looks.. OK when you reach the higher levels), but the characters, enemies and battle effects seemed grainy, unremarkable and lazy. Some heavy shadow effects often obscure your moves and finishing blows. While the game may have been made for PS4-era hardware, it’s not a good-looking game even by that standard.

As is the case for most Soulslike titles, the game often boils down to trial and error. As you and your two team-mates battle your way into the castle entrance, you won’t come across anything particularly challenging until you reach a bomb monster gauntlet, which pepper you with high-damage fire spells and — worse still — set fire to the grass you’re stood on, compounding the threat and limiting your movement.

One of your teammates (they’re both largely pointless in battles, mostly serving as bait for bigger monsters as you recover), will suggest dashing to an outside balcony, circumventing these enemies altogether. You really should just do that, instead of dying a lot trying to will your way through the corridor.

Final Fantasy Souls-like 'Stranger in Paradise' arrives March 18th | DeviceDaily.com
Square Enix

Not if, but when you die, Jack, his henley tee and the rest of the team will respawn at save point-styled cubes. These can also be used to restock your health, potions and missing MP (magic points). If you use your soul burst attack on weakened enemies (there’s a stagger bar alongside HP), you can increase your base level of MP, which is a tempting enough reason to kill most enemies, where possible, with the burst attack. At the same time, die in a fight, and you’ll have some of these taken away. The challenge is balancing the risk of more damage by chasing soul burst kills, against more easily killing monsters outright. This magic gauge can be used for more powerful combo attacks, some special moves specific to job roles (the demo includes three), and magic outright while playing as a mage. 

Controlling magic attacks is a good example of how the game’s controls need more refinement. While you can charge your move by holding down the button, you select different elements with a spin-wheel control which is a little over-sensitive. New combos unlocked for your weapons have to be assigned, and can only be unleashed when set combos are used. This means there’s an awful lot of move customization possible, but as Soulslike games often do, there’s minimal exposition and hand-holding to it all. And like Dark Souls, Bloodborne and the rest, the bosses seem to be the biggest hurdles — especially in this demo when you feel you’re not really utilizing all the moves and equipment available to your hero. And yes, Jack soon decks himself out in armor and shields pretty soon into the demo. He even gets a bandana!

The parts I do like are those that remind me of the Final Fantasy universe. The original game is very old, but the character design of antagonist Garland still works well — it’s a character that’s already been resurrected in Dissidia games and other FF spin-offs. The Chaos Shrine melody is also imposed onto the soundtrack at points of the demo, while most of the monsters (barring demonic monster-spawning holes) will be familiar to most gamers that played a Final Fantasy game. It’s still jarring that Jack stomps in skulls and tears demons apart with his hands, though.

Despite the laundry list of things that need improving and addressing, I like the idea that Stranger of Paradise might subvert Final Fantasy as we know it. There’s minimal story in this demo — and Jack only says the C-word four times throughout the entire thing. 

We don’t know exactly how these supposed “warriors of light” and the world of Garland and Chaos fit in with each other. I’m hoping that the awkward trailer is a portent of a game that’s almost camp in tone — think Bayonetta — one that willfully throws angry contemporary men at the lore and monsters of Final Fantasy. I want to see which side wins. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics 

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