![]() Unlike other recent games in the action-adventure genre, Final Fantasy Origin has three difficulty settings: story, action, and hard. Although some layouts can feel a little too small for my taste, I didn’t come across one stage I outright didn’t like, which is impressive. The stages themselves aren’t too sprawling and mostly err on the side of linear akin to the original Phantasy Star Online at first, then some Devil May Cry design (with light puzzles) by the midpoint. Everything can be navigated through a text-based world map, where you can change the difficulty at will, chat with some NPCs, upgrade weapons, and either take on sidequests or go on to the next story mission. Like Nioh, it’s also level-based, with the ability to engage in “sidequests” (which you can view by pressing R1/RB while highlighting missions) that let you go back and accomplish some remixed task via a different route (with mostly the same layout). The same goes for cutscenes, which are acted out with the full current equipment for each party member. Nearly the entire game is fully voice acted, and little things like a king’s assistant jotting down the first line of a recount of your journey, or the party banter, can bring a smile to my face. There are a lot of character-based moments, and some light ones, all of which come together to shed some light on this particular universe. The core voice cast performs serviceably to great, even when they’re delivering some of the more over-the-top lines (which are mostly from Jack). ![]() ![]() It’s often silly, and the characters perhaps best encapsulate that silliness. The cast making light of him being a dick adds a lot of levity, and yes, there’s lots of talk about Chaos at first. In spite of the marketing, Jack isn’t nearly as insufferable as he seems. It takes some time to acclimate to their predicament, but a lot of you will get there, and the lack of upfront info does matter in the end. In another, I kind of wish it had a full King Arthur and the Knights of Justice setup (what a callback!) where we follow them from the very start, or close to it. In one way it adds a little air of mystery to it. You start off a little ways into Jack, Jed, and Ash’s foray into this fantasy land, which helps and hurts the framework of what comes afterward. Jack is obsessed with defeating chaos, and like many huffy anime heroes before him (notably Guts from Berserk), he gives everyone guff about it, even his closest friends. ![]() The gist is that protagonist Jack Garland and his band of heroes (at first, the stoic Jed and the quippy Ash) are tasked by the king to purge crystals of darkness and are potentially looking to take out “Chaos” - an evil which may or may not exist. It’s hard to really elaborate without talking spoilers, but like any game Nomura touches, there are conversations to be had at some point. ![]() It plays fast and loose with some source material, oscillating between elevating it and truncating it. The job system is intact, and it’s linked to frame-perfect dodging, blocking, and lots of other staple action mechanics. So Stranger of Paradise is kind of a re-telling of the original Final Fantasy, but with an action-first focus. It’s easiest to start with the whirlwind of story and concepts this game puts forth all at once. ![]()
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