We talk with Stranger of Paradise’s director about fashion, Final Fantasy, and My Way

destructoid.com:

Stranger of Paradise was a very different lens into the world of Final Fantasy than we’re accustomed to. Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo partnered with Square Enix to reimagine the story of the first Final Fantasy, creating a lovably irreverent protagonist with Jack Garland in the process.

It was, by all accounts, a solid vision of an action-driven, alternative take on Final Fantasy‘s origins. The team continued to build on it over time, with more downloadable content and jobs, adding some classic pieces of Final Fantasy mythos in the process.

With the recent release of the Steam version, we got a chance to catch up with director Daisuke Inoue and ask some burning lingering questions about Stranger of Paradise, now a little over a year since its launch. We’ve previously talked with him about updates and feedback, so with this interview, I went a little more broad picture. We talk about adapting Final Fantasy into the action realm, the fashion, and of course, the use of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” How could we not?

What was your design goal with Jack? Did you want players to connect with him right away, or later as more is revealed about both him and the story at large?

I didn’t necessarily want people to connect with Jack right away. Rather, for this production, instead of emotionally connecting with the character, I wanted people to ultimately understand why Jack was saying the things he was saying and why Garland ended up the way he did, while tracing things back to the world of the original FINAL FANTASY.

Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” plays early on in Stranger of Paradise, and appeared in the promotional material. What was the reason you chose this song, especially when it’s pretty tonally different from the music we hear