VideoGame A Fun & Surprisingly Emotional Mess
Before I get into the story, I would like to discuss this game’s biggest strength: the gameplay. Whilst I haven’t played the Nioh games, it is clear that Team Ninja did take a lot of cues from what they’d done in that series when designing this game. Subsequently, while Dark Souls & Elden Ring comparisons are inevitable, Stranger of Paradise is pretty different & much faster paced than those games. Instead of mostly dodging until you can attack enemies from behind, Stranger of Paradise mostly encourages you to either block attacks or use the game’s Soul Shield ability to parry them and gain additional MP slots for using abilities (with the occasional attack you have to dodge, but those are signposted clearly). Stranger of Paradise also emphasizes running down an enemy’s stagger gauge to perform instant takedown moves. The default controls are reminiscent of other Souls-Likes, but you can switch to a more Nioh/Devil May Cry-esque control scheme in the options menu. My biggest issue with the combat really is just that the game is so generous with weapons & armour that in the late-game you have to dismantle a bunch of old gear every couple of missions. It’s a time consuming process & in my experience the auto-dismantle feature Team Ninja added in a post-release patch doesn’t work. Overall, unless you’re looking for a pure Souls-like experience, Stranger of Paradise offers a dynamic & fast-paced combat system that nevertheless takes inspiration from Dark Souls. And if you aren’t into the high difficulty of Souls-Likes (or are just here for the story and/or memes), the game does have lower difficulty settings to make the game more enjoyable for you.
As for the story (co-written by Final Fantasy VII, FFVIII & Kingdom Hearts 2 writer Kazuhige Nojima), it is an… interesting experience. At first, it feels like so bad, it’s good edgy throwback to the 2000s wherein the protagonist seemingly drops more curse words than every character in the rest of the Final Fantasy series combined. But as you get closer to the end the story starts to become actually good. The edgy exterior starts to give way to an unexpectedly emotional story about the folly of anger & the importance of memory. Similarly, the dialogue also goes from meme-worthy to good as the game goes on (ex: the “Bullshit” scene takes place in the first couple of hours). On a related note, the music (mainly composed by FFXIII-2 co-composer Naoshi Mizuta) is pretty good and calls back to previous Final Fantasy games in subtle, but appreciated ways.
Speaking of references to previous Final Fantasy games, Stranger of Paradise, being the game released to mark the 35th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, has numerous references & call backs to previous FF games. Most of them take the form of dungeons being inspired by (and implied in-universe to pulled from the worlds of) previous Final Fantasy games (ex: The Crystal Tower from FFIII (also a prominant location in FFXIV), Sunleth Waterscape from FFXIII, Sastasha from FFXIV & the Citadel from FFXV), but outside of that, there are plenty of classic Final Fantasy elements included (ex: Chaos, Warriors of Light & a Job system reminiscent of FFV & FFXIV). These references aren’t so all-consuming that they detract from the story being told, though.
Moving on to the technical & visual aspects, Stranger of Paradise is a mixed bag. On one hand, the art direction is as good as should be expected from a Square Enix game. Sure Jack looks like a generic video game protagonist from the late 2000s-early 2010s, but that feels intentional given the direction the story goes in & the rest of characters do have designs that fit their characters. The only one I can really question is Neon wearing a school-girl outfit. Is it meant to signify how she’s younger than the rest of the cast? Maybe, but she’s supposed to be 18 according to the Final Fantasy Wiki (or at least her physical appearance is). Most likely explanation is that someone at Team Ninja and/or Square Enix wanted one of the characters to wear a school girl outfit and didn’t care how little sense it made.
As for the technical side of things, this game is a mess. It’s been patched to improve performance, but the game’s visuals still aren’t up to par for a PS 5 game. The anti-aliasing solution Team Ninja are using can’t keep up with this game’s environment design & causes the game to look like a shimmery, blurry mess at times (and this is with the game set to resolution mode!). And it’s not a case of Team Ninja not putting much effort into the PS 5 version. The PS 4, Xbox One & Series S versions are even worse in this regard & people found at launch that the PC version’s framerate tanks whenever there is fur or hair on screen. Yes, seriously. That issue has been fixed, but these issues & the fact conversations with Cornelian citizens is in a menu rather than an explorable area indicate that this game’s budget was slashed in development & was rushed out the door to kick off the anniversary (which given how greedy & questionably competent Square Enix’s management are wouldn’t be surprising).
Conclusion: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a game that balances engaging yet challenging Souls-meets-Devil May Cry combat & telling a surprisingly tragic & emotional story about the folly of anger and the importance of staying true to yourself & doing things on your own terms in a more proficient manner than I expected going in. If you’re a fan of games like Nioh or Dark Souls, but want something you can occasionally laugh at after Elden Ring that still has tragic undertones, I can’t recommend Stranger of Paradise enough. Just don’t expect a polished masterpiece from this game (it certainly didn’t seem to have the budget for it); embrace Jack’s wild ride, and you’ll be fine.
Ratings: Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 8.5/10 Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 7/10 Business Practices score: 7/10 (Fine, aside from the limited time demos) Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, doesn’t consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience): 8/10
VideoGame A Great New Direction For An Old Franchise
Final Fantasy is the posterboy for JRP Gs and infamous for spawning or defining many of the cliches of the genre, regardless of how each individual title handles them. On top of that, the storyline of "save the world from threat X" being repeated and tweaked over and over has probably gotten old for a lot of people by now, as has turn-based combat or the recent shift to MMORPG shenanigans for XIV. So what does Stranger of Paradise do? Shake up everything.
To be clear, I don't really have any quarrels with Final Fantasy as a whole (I grew up on Kingdom Hearts, how could I?), BUT if you want some fresh blood in a series that's otherwise a dead horse to you, this is the game you've been waiting for. One of my favorite entries in all of FF, and there's no changing that.