Final fantasy origin plus#
Final fantasy origin series#

The Samurai, meanwhile, is all about up-close-and-personal sword combos. As a Dragoon, my melee attacks become slower in exchange for more range, including the ever-slick ‘Jump’ ability to launch myself towards an enemy. While there’s some overlap between jobs and their more advanced counterparts (like “Sage” being an amalgamation of White Mage and Black Mage), the majority each have their own satisfying feel. On a visual level, it’s neat to have such stylistically different classes available, but Team Ninja has also done a stellar job in fleshing out their respective abilities to keep gameplay fresh. This means that on top of classics like the sword-based Warrior, restorative magic-focused White Mage or offensive spells-centric Black Mage, you can assume the role of a Samurai, Dragoon and Paladin. The coolest way it does this is through 27 different playable jobs pulled from several Final Fantasy games, as well as a few new ones.

Final fantasy origin series#

On top of recontextualizing one of the most important games in history, Stranger of Paradise pays tribute to the long-running series that sprung out from it. So many stories - in gaming or otherwise - are about the hero, so I adore getting a thorough, albeit uneven, exploration of a villain’s journey. And the final few hours, in particular, somehow bring everything together in a largely cohesive and satisfying way. The relationships between his comrades, particularly the Dark Elf Astos (another minor character from the original FF), also unravel in some shockingly emotional ways. There’s an undeniable layer of tragedy to Jack once you learn more about him, and it proves to be genuinely compelling. The pacing also feels off, with large stretches focused more on monster-slaying than story development.īut looking past all that, Stranger of Paradise has also got a surprising amount of heart. Yes, there are still unintentionally hilarious moments like Jack listening to Limp Bizkit or interrupting a long-winded monologue to shout “I don’t give a f*** who you are!” Without question, there’s some hard tonal whiplash in this game, brought on in no small part due to a fair share of clunky dialogue. To take that same generic antagonist and lean into the wild time travel plot elements to give him a full-blown, complex backstory for him 35 years later? It’s nuts, and I love the game for that. While we’ve had prequels like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Square Enix’s own Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII that flesh out villains, I can’t think of a game that does this to such a degree as Stranger of Paradise.Īfter all, Garland was a villain who maybe had five lines in the original Final Fantasy, which, as a whole, had a rather barebones narrative. Stranger of Paradise, as conceived by Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy veteran Tetsuya Nomura and written by Final Fantasy VII scribe Kazushige Nojima, is a villain’s origin story. That’s the most interesting thing about Stranger of Paradise, and it’s something that differentiates it from a lot of games. On top of that, Square Enix has been very clear going into the game about who Jack, surname Garland, really is: the villain of the original Final Fantasy. Notably, it’s actually set in the world of the original Final Fantasy from 1987 follows a group of warriors who set out to stop the villainous Chaos. In case you’re unfamiliar, Stranger of Paradise is an action-RPG by Team Ninja, the developer of Ninja Gaiden and Nioh.

However, it is, undoubtedly, a fascinating one. I wouldn’t ever say that Strange of Paradise is by any means a great game.

Final fantasy origin plus#

To be clear: all of the aforementioned issues, plus several more that I’ll get into, are heavily prevalent in the final product. Having finally beaten the game, though, I’ve come away downright obsessed with it.