STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN
Developed in cooperation between Square Enix and Team NINJA (Koei Tecmo Games), STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN is a hard-core action RPG that takes the FINAL FANTASY series in a new direction. Experience the boldest and most merciless battles in FINAL FANTASY history.
STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN is a action, rpg and adventure game
developed by Square Enix, KOEI TECMO GAMES CO. and LTD.
and published by Square Enix.
Released on April 06th 2023 is available only on Windows
in 9 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 3,241 reviews of which 2,734 were positive and 507 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.1 out of 10. š
The game is currently priced at 19.99ā¬ on Steam and has a 50% discount.
The Steam community has classified STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN into these genres:
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Requirements
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Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: WindowsĀ® 10 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzenā¢ 5 1400 / IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i7-6700
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeonā¢ RX 470 / NVIDIAĀ® GeForceĀ® GTX 1060 6GB VRAM
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 90 GB available space
- Additional Notes: 30FPS (1280x720)
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
TL;DR: This is the best Niohlike to play with your friends if you are actually into fighting strong enemies. It is also the best Niohlike in terms of build options. The game is basically just about boss fights, everything else is pretty much filler. Below you will find a short distinction between story and endgame and a somewhat longer delve into how I recommend playing this game. Minor spoiler warning from here on out, (difficulties and abilities, but nothing concerning the story) <spoiler>SOPFFO is a fantastic game in its own right, but needs to be played the right way. This is a game with split opinions on it, due to it being split into two parts which appeal to different kinds of gamers: 1st part is its story mode (playing through the story, everything before unlocking chaos mode) 2nd part being the "endgame" (All difficulties and their addtional content. Chaos -> Bahamut -> Gilgamesh -> Lufenian) The story part of this game can appeal to any kind of gamer who just wants to play this game and basically beat it. There are a lot of people enjoying this game just for that. For people enjoying fights this is just the tutorial. Experienced Nioh/Soulslike Players will breeze through this, especially when playing this in multiplayer. Be aware that this game does not really have all that much story. It is still a great game to face some nice bosses, even if you are playing casually, but if you are looking for an epic tale of a final fantasy game - this is not it. If you are here for the second part: Beating up Badass Bosses with difficult patterns that will kill you including your homies over and over again - then this is the perfect game for you. SOPFFO does this better than any other Nioh or Soulslike game. It is the only game where you will have actually difficult fights which dont reduce down to just mashing enemies down (like in nioh). You will also need to make a working build later on in the game, which will consume dozens of hours to complete over the whole game (which is fun). Take the story as a tutorial and get used to the different weapons and classes and pick your favorites. Going on from Chaos difficulty you will need to actually make a working build to not get beaten to a pulp. I Recommend taking one of the guides to somewhat rush through all difficulties. This is actually the game. There is a lot content you will go through doing it this way. I played this game a total of over 100h this way. This boils down to: * Clear the story * Take some time beating the solo fights at the end of the story :) They will Tear you apart for a whole day :) -> Unlock Chaos difficutly * Up to Level 300 ASAP and go for Bahamut ASAP. There is need to linger on Chaos Difficulty (you can though and unlock class upgrades from missions if you want, but you can also do that on higher difficulties) * Beat Bahamut Difficulty * Gear Up - I don't remember when you actually need to first gear up. You might need some stuff to beat bahamut already. * Unlock Gilgamesh Difficulty -> Do the Gilgamesh Labyrinth until you unlock Lufenian difficulty * Clear anything you want to do on Lufenian. Definitely gear up and make a build on lufenian or while doing lab. Pump up the difficulty with Bahamut trials (the level+ thing) The experience is a bit scattered and bit of "build your own content", but if you are fine with that this game can deliver some of the best time you will have with your friends if you are into hardcore fights and building characters. Some General hints: * There are guides for how to advance to Lufenian difficulty which describe what I summarized above in even more detail. I highly recommend picking one of those up * Once you are through Story mode: Pick up the Spreadsheet. There is a Google Doc online with all kinds of informations about types of attackes, their strength, element, stat bonuses of classes, summons, etc. This is strongly recommended to use for endgame when you start making real builds * There is an active Discord for SOPFFO at the time of this review. I got someone to open a high level (150ish) Gilgamesh Lab for me so i could copy his level for example. * This game has HP damage and Break damage. You only need either of them to kill an enemy. Distribuing your multiplayer party across both options is senseless. I recommend settling on break damage as it is a lot more universally doable for most builds. Some Further Restrictions I recommend for the endgame: * Before going into these note: Play the game how you want. It is completely fine to just use everything the game has to offer if that is more to your liking. I personally think some options take away from the game though. * Do not use Knight 400% - This is probably the easiest way to generate an insane amount of defense if you know how to build it. Just never use it and you will still have to survive. You will know what this later on in the game. * Stay melee - The game has Options to play Ranged. I prefer Everyone to always need to watch his offense as well as his defense, which makes Soulslikes so interesting. By having a party and some people being ranged you can play more of a holy trinity (tank / dd / healer). Just note that this strongly lowers the overall difficulty. If you like that though, you do you, that's obviously totally fine. * Do not use taunt/invis: The game also offers skill to either draw more or less aggro from enemies. Same reasoning as above. Do it if you like, but don't if you are looking for real, authentic challenges * Do not use Reincarnate: Reincarnate is a spell of a white mage specialization that revives a fallen comrade as well as just picking him up the next time he dies. Guess what: This is reaaaaally good. Having a support character otherwise is fine. * Do not use Dimension bringer: After Clearing The Gilgo Lab you will get access to Dimension bringer. This is an alternate Form of Lightbringer which completely slows time around enemies during its uptime. Well, slowing down time meaning completely stunning the enemy, basically. You can spam this in the right setup. I recommend avoiding this at all costs. * Ninja Utsusemi - This makes you evade the next three hits your character would take. Bit too of a defensive layer in a multiplayer scenario for my taste. I recommend not using that as there are attack spams in the game with a lot of iframes (looking at you, daggers). Especially braindead of a combination when used together with High HP Sentinel. * Sentinel - Sentinel is bit of a tough one. Sentinel is a skill that gives you a shield based on your max HP. Thing is: you can have a second class with as much max HP as possible, cast sentinel and switch to your glass cannon main. Sentinel also prevents Stagger. In most phases of the game this can give you a bit too much of tankyness for my personal liking. Generally i would propose to just enable sentinel on your main class, but in the latest stages of the game (lufenian difficulty) lifting that restriction is fine and we used this as our main defensive layer. * Do not use large screen clutters - This probably mainly applies to Sage. Using Ultima is the ultimate screen clutters turning your mates screen into a black exploding mess. Not fun in a game where reaction is everything. I recommend not using sage... or playing sage without ultima if that is an option to you </spoiler>
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Right off the bat: this game is worth playing. You should probably look at the Community Hub and keep an eye out for posts on how to optimize the game's performance and graphics because Koei Tecmo or Square Enix or whoever was in charge of this port did not do a great job. Something else I want to say right away: the DLC sucks. To get to what little new content there is, you need to grind the same game you already beat but with insane debuffs with multipliers. Of the new content I was able to access, it's essentially the hardest possible recycled busywork the devs put there that I can only assume was made to turn players away. Well, it worked! There are a plethora of other problems with the DLC but they're too numerous for this review. I played this game on Hard mode. Was it Hard? Yes, very. Toward the end of the game, the only way I was able to beat most of the bosses and the final one was by using the Swordfighter's innate ability, Interception, which allows Jack to automatically counterattack every time you do a Soul Shield parry, or will trigger if Jack gets hit - but then the effect must be reapplied if this happens. I would also equip the ninja class and use Utsusemi, which makes Jack completely invulnerable to two or more hits. If you're looking for a game that will make you rip your nuts off and have fun doing it, this is one of those games. Trying to actually beat the game on Hard mode without some cheesy hoopla would take some serious dedication... or maybe I'm just a scrub. The jobs I enjoyed the most: - Swordfighter (Interception is just super good and scales with your ability to parry enemies, but even aside from that the moveset and abilities are just sick.) - Pugilist (swift fisticuffs combat - fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee!) - Marauder (very versatile in that all attacks can be charged - or not, if you need the damage now. I brought this to every boss fight after unlocking axes because Upheaval, while being super strong, also applies major debuffs at max charge) - Mage (satisfying in combat and abilities can all be different elements, so you're never at a disadvantage damage wise. Can cast spells before or during combat from a distance so you'll always have an upper hand) These are just the basic ones. The advanced ones you unlock later, like the aforementioned Ninja, are numerous and also fairly cool, but my picks are Breaker (evolution of Marauder, huge damage potential but on more than just axes) Tyrant (imbue weapons with chosen element power) and Sage (combination of White Mage + Black Mage with very minor tradeoffs) Every game with combat should have break gauges and unique finishers. I can honestly imagine Soul Bursts being the whole reason they made this game - just having a guy utterly obliterate the existence of every enemy in his path. It's cool every time it happens... except when it lags the game. The music is all good. Not great, though there are a few songs in there worth listening to. Get the game when it goes on sale.
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So off the rip, just know that this game's story is...well just alright I guess. It's written by Tetsuya Nomura so you should know what you're getting into. (Kingdom Hearts, FF7R1) >If you're a diehard FF fan or old enough to remember the story from the first FF game then this is an absolutely lovely prequel. I honestly hope this becomes a cult classic eventually, or gets sequel treatment. I think this game launching around the same time as Elden Ring might have killed what popularity this might have had. BUT there's weirdly an active community at least. But the truth is you aught to play this game strictly for its game-play and late-game co-op party shenanigans. For a souls-like, this game has a frankly absurd amount of build and gear customization, more than any I've seen outside of maybe Elden Ring. Especially when factoring party loadouts of either your two AI buddies or two friends. The looting is pretty much beat for beat just like Nioh, which makes sense since this team also made those games. Nioh 2.5 FF edition? I guess? Anyway the real meat and potatoes is when you fly thru this story and the DLC stories -with your buddies if you want- and get into the true game: RIFTS. It's like, what if Diablo 3's rifting wasn't shit? Novel idea! Anyway buy it on sale or full price I can't help you with your financial decisions. Cheers.
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Think third person, looter dungeon crawler ARPG, with missions that plays around the flavor of the original Final Fantasy. Choose a class, learn how to dodge, block, attack, and counter. Then be introduced to more classes, and figure your very own end-game build. Gameplay is close to Nioh combat-wise. There's a health/stamina gauge system for you/enemies. There's staggering when stamina is depleted, so mind your own while trying to wittle enemies down. Once enemies are staggered there's a super critical attack you can do that will auto-kill most enemies. The class system is a lot of fun, the story... it's cheesy. PC port has some problems. There are mods to fix. Buy on sale, lots of fun, grindy.
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STRANGER OF PARADISE is a fantastic Action RPG that continues the odd tradition of spin-off games being of wildly better quality than most of FFās main titles. From an atrocious story that wraps right around to being incredibly fun precisely because of the writing and likely the best character progression in the genre, it is an all-around phenomenal game. š© Pros š„ Cons āļø Enormous build variety due to a myriad of detailed progression systems that continue to unlock until the very late game throughout the three available DLCs. Coupled with the inclusion of an effectively endless dungeon, the game features enormous replay value. āEqually, however, SoP does a very poor job in the design of its interface and the communication of how these different progression systems work, which can be especially frustrating going into the DLCs, which are designed as higher and higher difficulty modes. āļø The game looks absolutely gorgeous in its environmental and enemy designs. Dungeons are designed after unique locations of other mainline Final Fantasyās, such as FF14ās Sastasha, FF12ās Tomb of Raithwall, or FF9ās Evil Forest. ā Sadly, the game can be quite inconsistent with its looks as well. Lip syncing and facial expressions in general are extremely weak, and on occasions, the environments you arenāt able to explore, such as the outside of Cornelia, but can see in the background, are extremely low in detail. āļø Combat is fast and snappy, and considering the aforementioned build variety, it is remarkably well-balanced. Especially prior to the DLC content. āWhile still balanced in the sense of all classes being inherently viable to play the game with, the late game becomes extremely explosive. The game offers an Extra Mode, enabling infinite Mana versus fewer rewards, but it is just a bit of a shame that there is no middle ground in terms of difficulty past basic Hard Mode. šØ Miscellaneous Thoughts SoPās writing is infamously atrocious. Mostly people know this from the myriad of Chaos memes, but those are funnily enough only really prevalent in the early hours. That does not mean, however, that the writing improves. Itās silly, at times nonsensical, and itās absolutely fantastic for it as long as you arenāt completely set on needing to take the gamesā story entirely serious. Technical Issues and Performance SoP ran perfectly fine all throughout my playthrough. I have encountered no crashes, bugs, glitches, or other issues. Likewise, I have not even encountered any lag or other framedrops, no matter how much action was going on. Overall, this was extremely impressive. Graphics and Sound Graphically, SoP usually looks fantastic. Enemy designs in particular are absolutely phenomenal and are supported by fantastic mid-combat sequences. The environments of the traversable dungeons are equally phenomenal; that being said, the game noticeably cheapened out on facial expressions and background environments such as Corneliaās surrounding grasslands, giving the impression that anything that isnāt immediately related to combat was a little bit neglected. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3137872783 The OST is, as with any Final Fantasy game, spin-off or not, absolutely fantastic and features a nice mix of original and remixed soundtracks. Overall, Strangers of Paradise absolutely strikes a wonderful balance between modern representations of nostalgic enemies and still maintaining visual clarity for its visceral combat. Story and Setting The player takes control of Jack, who, alongside Jed, Ash, and Neonāalthough these are not the only party membersāsets out to destroy Chaos, mimicking the events of Final Fantasy 1, although SoP diverts from said story very swiftly to become a prequel story full of genuinely interesting twists instead. While the general set-up of the story is good, the writing suffers mostly from one-dimensional characters and a raw lack of party interaction. One somewhat infamous scene is Jed stopping the party mid-dungeon and opening his dialogue with āYou know I like to speak my mind.āāthe scene, however, relies entirely on suspension of disbelief as any character has barely any development whatsoever. Jed doesn't like to speak his mind; it is, however, exposition we are supposed to assume about him during the travel between dungeons, which is generally not shown to the player. Jack, too, is well-known for being a quite one-sided character; even besides his early obsession with Chaos, Jack maintains a very simple personality that, honestly, works in the gamesā favor by becoming incredibly entertaining to watch over being a rehash of the same Heroās Journey told a thousand times before. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3134955663 Gameplay Stranger of Paradise is a fantastic Action RPG that shows some weaknesses in terms of the scaling of your party members and of gear later on. The basic gameplay loop consists of Jack and two party members navigating rather linear dungeons with a unique boss at the end of each one. Early on, the variety stems from being able to mix both a main-class and a sub-class, which make up your active skillset, but also continuously further unlocking more classes and abilities that arenāt tied to a specific job to use. In combat, players have regular attacks dictated by their chosen weapon type, which is further customizeable through leveling the different classes that use the same weapon, and a parry that taps into the gamesā Break system. Essentially, there are two ways to damage enemies: either by direct health or by depleting their Break gauge and then dealing a fixed amount of half their HP in damage. While the basic story does not require the player to tinker with their stats too much, once the endgame begins, Forging and the other different RPG systems come to the forefront as enemy damage and HP significantly increase. This is precisely where some people can put hundreds of hours into the gamesā various content, such as an infinitely randomly generated dungeon, which, however, requires a very special kind of player to remain interested in. This is by no means criticism, but rather that the gamesā longterm appeal does not rest with it being a Final Fantasy game per se, but rather in the sheer gameplay variety someone may engage in by mixing the over thirty different jobs and customizing every part of their kit. On the flipside, players that do not want to engage with these in-depth systems will be quite brutally outscaled since the lategame content is directly tied to higher and higher difficulty modes, with the caveat being that the game offers an infinite Mana Extra Mode to still allow for anyone to actually finish the game regardless of their investment in its mechanics. While this is reasonable, itās a bit of a shame that there is no further option to tweak the difficulty of this 'sink or swimā design, and leans further into being quite a grind when playing the game today behind all of its DLC content layered on top of it. Final Thoughts Stranger of Paradise is a game that I feel does great in everything it sets out to do. The gameplay is pristine and becomes a raw power fantasy by the end while still offering a decent challenge for those who seek it. The story, while not particularly well-written, is amazingly entertaining from start to finish and is best viewed as a love letter to the various Final Fantasy that have so obviously inspired the development of SoP. Whether or not players want to engage with the myriad of progression systems, even just for a single playthrough and the reinterpretation of Final Fantasy 1, SoP is a perfectly safe recommendation for anyone with just a passing interest in the game.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 17 November 2024 00:08 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 22 December 2024 14:54 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:37 |
| Steam reviews | 22 December 2024 09:48 |
Online players
146
Developer
Square Enix,
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
Publisher
Square Enix
Release
06 Apr 2023
Platforms
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