Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Square Enix introduced Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin from Team Ninja a few months ago. The play entered the public consciousness with a rather ridiculous trailer full of the word “chaos”. The spin-off of the very first part of the famous Japanese series has since received a pair of demos and the announcement of the release date at the Tokyo Game Show.
Team Ninja is not exactly a typical studio for Final Fantasy – it became famous for its own series of Dead or Alive fighters or hack-and-slash action adventures Ninja Gaiden. But the 35-year-old brand can afford to experiment, so we have a darker action spin-off.
His combat system borrows much of the previous work of the ninja team, from Nioh. And through the attitude mechanism a bit also from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, although it does not aspire to the bar of difficulty FromSoftware. Stranger of Paradise wants to teach Final Fantasy to think while fighting and not just memorize combos, but it still offers three levels of difficulty, including one with an emphasis on the story and minimal challenge, if you just want to enjoy the crystallization of enemies and tear them to pieces.
The system of classes, between which you can switch smoothly, is reminiscent of Final Fantasy XIV, whose players will be relatively familiar with the roles of dragoons, mages and berserkers.
But even the second demo will leave you in doubt whether you should feel their roughness, embarrassment, or something in between. The title hero, Jack’s “Angry Man”, has already entered Internet history. It remains on your interpretation, whether as a fighter or as a jerk.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is released on March 18, 2022 for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, with a free upgrade from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5 and Xbox Series X | S. If you are interested, you can also pre-order the digital deluxe edition, where you will find extra missions along with a digital artbook and soundtrack. If you use pre-orders, you will get into the game three days earlier than the others.
