Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin dev says its aim "isn’t to make games difficult"

gamesradar.com:

 Team Ninja has defended the difficulty of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, saying that its aim isn't to make games deliberately hard.

Speaking in the latest issue of Play Magazine, producer Fumihiko Yasuda said “you may not believe me, but our goal as Team Ninja isn’t to make games difficult. We just want players to feel a sense of achievement when they complete the game. We’ve put a lot of thought into ensuring there would be plenty of player freedom and range of strategies available to complete the game, whether that’s by making use of reflexes in a typical action-game approach, or by using the RPG elements more traditional to final fantasy games to get stronger and win.”

Team Ninja's involvement in the project might have raised some concerns with players worried about difficulty, as the studio's previous games - including the Ninja Gaiden and Nioh series - are known to be pretty tricky. In addition to Yasuda's comments, however, the team has previously outlined various Final Fantasy Origin difficulty modes - while its normal mode will satisfy any voracious gamer, for those perfectionists there is always Hard mode, and if neither of those appeal, then there is the option for a more casual Story mode. 

Yasuda is clearly trying to balance the game between the typical action title that Team Ninja is known for, while making sure that Final Fantasy fans are happy with it; the games’ mechanics have been updated and diversified to make the battle system seamless, and the added party members have been balanced out so as to not overpower main player-character Jack Garland.

After two betas and multiple trailers, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins, comes out on March 18th.

In the next 12 months, these are