Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022; PC, PS4, PS5, XBONE, Xbox Series X/S)

[Koby 17,904]

Premise

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an action role-playing game in which players explore environments and fighting monsters of the Final Fantasy series. Combat takes place in real-time, with Jack being able to switch between two assigned jobs and use physical and magical attacks. Once an enemy's "break gauge" is depleted, Jack can perform a finishing blow that crystallizes the enemy, allowing Jack to harvest them and restore a portion of his magic meter.

 

It is set in a dark fantasy interpretation of the setting for the original Final Fantasy game, with a group of people drawn into it from another world. The main character is Jack, a man consumed by a need to destroy Chaos. He is accompanied by his companions Ash and Jed, and during the journey faces the knight Garland who has taken on the role of Chaos; while seemingly the foretold Warriors of Light, each has doubts as to whether that is their role.

 

Development

Final Fantasy Origin is being co-developed by franchise creators Square Enix and Koei Tecmo division Team Ninja. It is being co-directed by Daisuke Inoue, Hiroya Usuda and Nobumichi Kumabe; co-produced by Jin Fujiwara and Fumihiko Yasuda. The story and scenario are being written by Kazushige Nojima. Tetsuya Nomura created the original concept, and acts as character designer and creative producer. Nomura created the initial idea for Origin after production finished on Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, imagining an action-focused game about conquering locations. When later approached for a new Final Fantasy concept, he combined this initial concept with a different concept of a game series focusing on an angry older protagonist to create the final concept.

 

The aim behind the title was a mature, "brutal" take on the Final Fantasy series that would separate it from the rest of the franchise while retaining connections to it. The gameplay was designed to emulate Team Ninja's known style of challenging action combat; Team Ninja had previously worked with Square Enix on Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Commenting on the scenario, Nojima highlighted one line, "It's not a hope or a dream. It's like a hunger. A thirst.", as the mainspring of the story, saying it.

 

The game's existence was leaked by industry insiders in May 2021. It was announced during a Square Enix livestream forming part of E3 2021; its platforms are PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. A limited time trial version was also launched alongside the announcement, intended as a standalone demo to elicit feedback from players to fine tune the game prior to release.

 

The trailer met with a mixed response from journalists and fans due to its tone and characters designs. The demo was balanced so it was approachable using different playstyles, incorporating different job types and difficulty levels. At release, the demo was found to not launch due to corrupted files, prompting Square Enix to work on a fix. A patch released on June 15, fixing the corrupted files and allowing the demo to be played. The patch came included with first-time downloads.

 

 

[Koby 17,904]

 

Demo Gives a pretty good in-depth view of the mechanics, job system, skill sets, etc. Actually somewhat interested in the game after seeing this... versus that shitty trailer that made me think it was going to be complete garbage.

 

Shame no PC demo though.

 

One thing to note is one of the biggest gripes from the E3 presentation trailer was the very basic character design and shitty outfit, but turns out they were just showing us the non-equipment version in the trailer cause they're idiots. Every piece of equipment changes the character. Would've been smart to show off a decked out character instead of a raggedy shirt.

 

 

In the demo this is the only playable character. The other two guys just follow you around and are AI controlled. You don't even see their health bars though it does ask you to heal them when they're near death.

 

Seems equipment has it's own level too. Not something you can actually level up or nothing... but for example: Twilight Tunic (Lv. 3) and Twilight Tunic (Lv. 5). So you can find equipment that is the same but has better stats.

 

Also weapon type can change your job. Started off as a Swordsman, can unlock Warrior Job through the Swordsman Skill Tree, but then equipping a Mace type weapon turned him into a Mage.

[Koby 17,904]

Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin launches on Steam April 6th.