The soundtrack may not ever reach the extreme greatness of the Final Fantasy XIV music but there are lots of tracks worth adding to one’s playlist.Įven though there is plenty of jank, I rather enjoyed the game’s combat system, particularly when I started taking it less seriously. Longtime fans will probably constantly perk up as a familiar arrangement rings out and there are even renditions from games outside of the first entry. Thankfully, the music in these levels is often fantastic with new compositions of classic Final Fantasy songs. Levels are also easy to get lost in due to the lack of a map to fit the Dark Souls style but Stranger of Paradise lacks the meaningful level design that allowed Dark Souls to have memorable places and recognizable paths. There are a few vistas that are gorgeous but much of the game feels like changing the background and swatting away monsters, much like an arcade beat-em-up. Instead, the game is broken down into missions in small, rather boring dungeons and castles. Most of the dialogue is skippable but much of the background looks properly rendered, making it seem like there was more exploration planned. Rather than exploring a recreation of the game's world, players are trapped in a map of dull menus and weird instances of character conversations. This is where I felt that the game may have had development troubles. The game’s environments though just didn’t get the same attention or at least they feel lesser by comparison. The most interesting lore bits are found in random descriptions which is unfortunate considering how visual the game can be but I did appreciate the extra detail in the creatures. Each of these designs got a ton of visual detail and the bosses especially have layered designs with story implications. Seeing Garland, the Four Fiends, and memorable monsters like the Tonberry, Bomb, and Behemoth all fired off the parts of my brain that absolutely loves this franchise. Players take the role of Warriors of Light going through similar scenarios like that found in the original Final Fantasy, a game with an incredible legacy that has been remade several times. However, once I started playing the game like a brawler, I started to have more fun. This mostly seems to be due to the effectiveness of stun-locking, chaining together attacks, and the piles of enemies thrown at the party. Sure moves are performed with shoulder buttons and there are a few familiar maneuvers like a dodge or parry that can steal enemy spells and attacks but the weight and positioning are just not comparable, even to something like Nioh. Taking the Nioh formula and dropping that into the world of iconic monsters and big swords of Final Fantasy should have been a recipe for success but Stranger of Paradise just doesn’t hit the mark.įor starters, much of the game’s marketing implied that Stranger of Paradise leaned more into the Soulslike genre when in fact the game is closer to a beat-em-up. Granted, the reason the game feels so different is that this is an action game from Team Ninja of Koei Tecmo, the folks famously behind Ninja Gaiden and notably for this release the same team that created Nioh, a Dark Souls-style samurai game that got a well-received sequel. I guess we may likely never know the complete development history of the game but this one is so close to being truly awesome that I swing between a puzzling mix of emotions while playing. Of course, I am basing my feelings and critique merely on the work itself.
Stranger of Paradise feels like a game that could have been much more cohesive than it is but somewhere along the way it was shaped into something it was never made to be.
On one hand, it is exactly the sort of dumb fun that is catered to fans of the original game but on the other, it’s a fragmented mess of systems and conflicting designs. Playing Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin was one of the weirdest experiences of my life as a Final Fantasy fan. A Shattered Crystal of a Final Fantasy Game
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