Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin review — strange, ugly, fun
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Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is repulsive. Its story is so-bad-it’s-good levels of amusing at best and complete nonsense at worse. Its production values are well below normal standards for Square Enix’s best efforts, like Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Some have embraced Stranger of Paradise’s shlock. I never could. I love this series, and it bothered me to see a game fancying itself as some kind of retelling of the original Final Fantasy while acting like some kind of joke.
I thought I would hate Stranger of Paradise, which comes out on March 18 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. But I don’t. I actually like it.
Despite Stranger of Paradise’s ugly graphics, shallow characters, and nonsensical script, the game is fun. Team Ninja has created an interesting combat system that combines elements of trendy Dark Souls-inspired RPGs with classic Final Fantasy staples, like tier-based magic and job classes.
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The game’s job system is the real highlight. You start with a few basic classes, like mage or duelist. You can equip two of them at any time and switch between them whenever you want, even during combat. You don’t level up your character, you level up your jobs. As you do, you can unlock new abilities and perks from skill trees.
You can also unlock new jobs from those trees. That’s what makes progression so satisfying. You start off with basic classes, and the game encourages you to master them and unlock more complicated jobs. For the best, you’ll have to unlock nodes across different skill tress. To become a sage, for example, you have devote some time
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