Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an action RPG game that was released in March 2022 across multi platforms. It was released to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Final Fantasy and what better way to do it than to have a game that is a prequel to the very first Final Fantasy, first released all the way back in 1987. A little over a year ago, I played the demo of it and now I’m back to finish this thing. Or, as our protagonist Jack Garland would put it, to ‘kill Chaos’ – because as I described in my thoughts of the demo, you will hear this a lot and it is still true of the full story. Stranger of Paradise is a dark fantasy, where Jack is consumed by his need to destroy Chaos, and he meets his companions along the way – Jed, Ash, Neon and Sophia. Together, they possess the crystals and are the Warriors of Light and travel the world in order to get to the Chaos Shrine to kill Chaos. There are familiar places from the first Final Fantasy in this reimaging, like the town of Cornelia, where the King and Princess Sarah reside.
The story revolves around the journey of the Warriors of Light – Jack, Jed, Ash, Neon and Sophia. The four fiends they must defeat to restore the crystals are Lich, a Fiend of Earth, Tiamat, a Fiend of Wind, Kraken, a Fiend of Water and Marilith, a Fiend of Fire. Not to mention, the ultimate villain, Chaos, who is afflicting their world. To find these crystals, they meet with a man named Astos, a dark elf who points them in the right direction for the crystals. In the background are the Lufenians, who create the Strangers (basically the four characters from FFI) and send these humans throughout time to sort conflict each time it happens. When that happens, the Strangers come back into the world with the dark crystals and no memories of their past in a type of cycle. Astos tries to help them be free of the Lufenians control. Spoiler for towards the end, in case you think it’s strange that there’s five party members, despite only traditionally four Warriors of Light… Well, each one represents a fiend with Ash (Lich), Neon (Marilith), Jed (Kraken), Sophia (Tiamat) and lastly, Jack becomes Chaos after absorbing the darkness from Cornelia.
Ultimately, the dialogue and characters aren’t quite as unintentionally funny as the first impressions gave, although believe me it is still there. There is a lot more swearing than in your average Final Fantasy game (albeit, it is a spin off) and Jack does just cut to the chase a lot of the time which is quite funny like when Jack interrupts boss Lich’s speech by declaring “I don’t give a fuck who you are”. Sometimes he does say what we are thinking. However, it can get annoying at points. There’s a scene where Jed says to the group “Hey, you might not like this, but you know I like to speak my mind” and Jack just retorts with “Let’s go” and he and the group carry on. Bit harsh – I wanted to know what he had to say but Jack is literally skipping the cutscene. There also seems to be a lot of communication in the form of grunting, the scene where Jack, Jed and Ash meet, they just hold out their crystals and acknowledge each other by grunting. A lot of the dialogue feels stunted and as a result, I didn’t particularly connect with any of the characters.
While the focus is on the first Final Fantasy, there are many references across the series as you travel to different places on the world map. There are 15 levels and each location is based off a well-known location throughout the series. The Chaos Shrine is based on the Chaos Shrine from FFI. Pravoka Seagrot is based on FFXVI and on the town in FFI. Western Keep is based on Castle Palamecia in FFII. Refrin Wetlands is based on the Sunleth Waterscape in FFXIII. Crystal Mirage is based on the Crystal Tower in FFIII. Flying Fortress is based on the Tower of Babil in FFIV. The Wicked Arbor is based on the Evil Forest in FFIX. Mt Gulg is based on the Fire Cavern in FFVIII. Hallowed Massif is based on Mt Gagazet in FFX. Cavern of Earth is based on the Tomb of Raithwall in FFXII. Ruins of Machina is based on Ronka Ruins in FFV. Sunken Shrine is based on the Junon Underwater Reactor in FFVII. The Ancient’s Tower is based on Delkfutt’s Tower in FFXI. Vigilia Court is based on the Citadel from FFXV. Terra Tortura is based on the Floating Continent in FFVI.
The battle system is in real time, characters can have various jobs and abilities, there is a lot of equipment you will acquire and of course, you’re casting magic and using offensive attacks, meaning there’s a fair bit of variety here. I quite like the combat, there’s three characters in your party, it is fast-paced and a lot of the time I just used offensive attacks for ease. Movement is fluid throughout and while dodging, blocking and parrying attacks. Both Jack and the enemies have a Break Gauge, this is indicated by the yellow bar the bottom of the screen. Once an enemies break gauge is depleted then Jack can deliver the final blow through using a Soul Burst and crystalise the enemy. Some of the animations are pretty brutal, like forcibly opening jaws and generally lots of crushing and smashing. After they’re crystalised, they break as they are smashed to pieces. This can also be used during boss fights to deplete their health quicker, rather than chipping away. Jack is a tough dude. You can also use the Soul Shield, which depletes your break gauge but allows you to absorb enemy spells and use them back at them.
The soundtrack is an interesting one. The main theme is My Way by Frank Sinatra, which we first hear when Jack is stood in the wheat field at the start of the game before getting into the tutorial and we hear it as the credits roll. I am a Sinatra fan and I love that kind of music, so to see it featured in a Final Fantasy game is quite unexpected. During the credits, Jack’s Theme bursts on afterward My Way which is a mood whiplash, but it’s pretty epic, especially the opening part. It really does symbolise how Jack does not come into a situation quietly. Then there’s the little musical throwbacks, for example, the theme for Mt Gulg contains the motif from the Fire Cavern in FFVIII. I was quite fond of the regular battle theme too. Normally I get bored of battle themes just from overexposure no matter how good they may be, but I this one is really good as it was equal parts epic and had a really nice violin hook to it, which felt a bit FFXIII inspired. A lot of the music didn’t really stick with me, but there were these standouts.
Stranger of Paradise is very much a different Final Fantasy experience, but there is a lot of fun in it through the combat and customisable options with jobs, skill trees and weapons. There’s also lots of customisation with what the characters wear. Unfortunately, it falls flat in the writing, as the story is not the easiest to follow and characters lack development, which makes it feel more restricted. Though I like the fact that we have an older protagonist who isn’t just your pretty guy in his late teens to early 20s. I just wish he could have been more relatable or believable as a person. The game isn’t as long as I thought it would be either, I thought it would easily be a 20+ hour venture, but managed to do the main campaign in about 10 hours. If you’re after a Final Fantasy spinoff where you can punch things to the point of crystallisation, get ridiculous amounts of equipment to the point where your inventory is bursting and having some throwbacks throughout the series to boot, then it’s easy to recommend Stranger of Paradise. Don’t expect paradise, but expect some fun in amongst Jack Garland’s dark world.
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