Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Stranger of Paradise is a mechanically rich and satisfying action RPG marred by poor balancing and performance issues.

Take its unfortunate performance issues in your stride – which will hopefully be ironed out by Team Ninja post-launch – and you’ll have a hell of a lot of fun with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Its story may be ridiculous and not particularly easy to follow, but you’ll enjoy trying. And besides, the real draw here is the combat, which is not only highly entertaining but so, so deep thanks to the brilliant job system. This is a new type of Final Fantasy game, one that puts action at the front and centre, and it’s a blast from beginning to end.

Sometimes Square Enix gets weird, and when it does, we get games like Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. Yes, it is a Team Ninja-developed alternate take on the plot of the original Final Fantasy, and yes, that is as crazy as it sounds. It’s a game that’s far from perfect, but it’s not afraid to be flawed. In a world where many major games are designed by committee and optimized to appeal to the broadest audience possible, this AA title with spunk feels refreshing.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an incredibly fun game, filled with bombastic combat, which also expands on the existing lore of the original Final Fantasy.

Stranger of Paradise is a peanut butter and chocolate combination of Final Fantasy XV and Nioh. The beauty of it is that you don't even have to be a fan of Final Fantasy 1 to enjoy Stranger of Paradise. The story explains everything you need to know and anything you bring into it from previous knowledge is just extra. The combat is just spicy enough that you can feel like a powerhouse, but lets the players somewhat tweak the difficulty to their own desires if they'd rather face a tougher challenge.

Oddity ensues in Team Ninja's take on the original Final Fantasy.

“Final Fantasy Origin will enthrall players with its dumb, but awesome story and approachable Soulslike gameplay.”

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin seems to prove that the Final Fantasy franchise can thrive in the action game scene with this first franchise venture from Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo. The title isn't a true home run, but it is an exciting adventure that expands the franchise lore in a unique direction. The Final Fantasy Job system is as interesting and exciting as ever and adds a unique twist on the action game format as players grind through each challenging dungeon and fill in all the Job talent trees one by one.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a very engaging and entertaining game. It has a lot of technical and graphical issues when you want to play it but you don’t have to notice as you are focused solely on killing the agents of Chaos.

The first four minutes of the ludicrously titled Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin set the scene perfectly. There’s a cutscene of a dark knight annihilating a platoon of soldiers while he carries an unconscious princess on his shoulder. Then you’re in a boss battle against a multi-headed creature without context or justification that begins with a man shouting “Bring it!” and ends without resolution. Next there’s a scene of a man walking through a cornfield while Frank Sinatra’s My Way plays only for it to cut out right before he sings “My Way”. And then, finally, a tutorial where you...

Team Ninja’s Final Fantasy spin-off is awkward, ugly, dumb, and irritating. Yet, it also has this unwieldy, compelling charm.

Enjoyable Souls-lite combat can’t make up for the tedious loot system and laughably bad storytelling, in this misconceived Final Fantasy spin-off.