Stranger of Paradise - Final Fantasy Origin - A 2024 Review on PS5

[@J-gritty]

Despite the memes, the game is the most under rated game of 2022

[@TheCyclicGamer]

As if other FF games weren't memeable.

[@J-gritty]

@TheCyclicGamer yeah but those Chaos memes were diabolical...lol

[@TheCyclicGamer]

@@J-gritty Maybe, but keep in mind FF has always had weird shit like that, memeable or not. It's funny how seriously a lot of gamers take the stories of FF games when these are stories that often showcase a character taking swords to gunfights and winning.

[@lukasberman]

Pretty good review, I always kept thinking of trying this again (why I looked for video), but the story and characters just make it pointless to me since FF is characters - story - just enough gameplay too not be painful to earn the rights to see more character + story and this is gameplay - grind like you were trying to get top level needlessly - gameplay with 1 thrown in quip or line to give a quick break from gameplay. If I wanted this gameplay also I would just go play a souls like and maybe even mod it up since some of them really have great mods to make it however you want in gameplay/looks/loot

[@CasualConsoleGamerYT]

It has really great gameplay, but I can understand being turned off by the lack of story.

[@wc999]

hope they make a sequel, but make it a little less grindy, and get better optimization as those were my only complaints

[@mathewhosier9739]

I enjoyed the grind, but that's team ninjas speciality, they make grindy action RPGs with random loot, I love it, not every game is or should be for everyone, this is why I don't complain about games I don't like, I just dont play them and move on to something I do like

[@TheCyclicGamer]

So I'm going to advocate for this game's story and why it's good and not terrible. For starters, we need to talk about Stranger of Paradise's approach to storytelling, which is non-traditional to FF if not other stories of it's kind. This isn't a game where it's going to handfeed you every minute detail in excessive amounts of long expository cutscenes like other modern FF games would. This game's story is like FF1's in which you have to piece it together yourself. You don't even have to consult the in-game data files either to get the full picture, all the pieces you need are given to you in the in-game dialogues and cutscenes. For example, the history of the war between Cornelia and Lufenia (The latter being this game's true antagonists) is told to you by Neon, this makes sense as she isn't Lufenian like Jack and Co are, she's Cornelian. The second thing is the characters, which seem to be one of your major issues. Your issue with them stems from the lack of development on their part, but if you consider what the Dark Crystals does to them (Which is explained both in a cutscene and a file), it makes sense. Jack and Co are like house-cleaning robots that have been programmed by the Lufenians to carry out one goal, and that's cleaning Cornelia of darkness, and they do this by programming them with the overwhelming desire to kill Chaos. That's why a lot of their dialogue can feel "lifeless" or "cringe" as you put it, because in this case, it's not a bug, it's a feature. The Dark Crystals, which are basically highly-advanced data storage devices, also wipe their memories, which is why when you say that there is no history for the characters, it's because there actually isn't any for them to remember, and this game's story is all about it's characters forgetting and remembering something, it's tagline "With the memories of their struggles buried deep in their hearts" pretty much points to this. Even then, it's not like these characters are entirely cardboard like you say they are. You mentioned that Jack doesn't care for anything else other than killing Chaos. This is not true. His desire to kill Chaos just happens to be his dominant personality trait, but he does care for his comrades if they get hurt or even downed in a fight, both in and out of gameplay, he also cares for Princess Sarah's well-being despite not being romantically interested in her, at least not until Jack's previous Dark Crystal, who he gifted to Sarah before setting off with Astos to overthrow the Lufenians, breaks when Sarah dies and all of Jack's previous memories of him and Sarah being in love with each other comes flooding back to him. One of these memories also reveals that Jack taught Princess Sarah a song which she adapted to her lute, which you see her playing in the beginning of the game, which Jed at one point alludes to when Jack himself is humming that same song. There even comes a point when he begins to question where the desire to kill Chaos came from, and once he loses it he feels as if he has no purpose left, that he needs an opponent to fight and kill or he is nothing without it. As for the other characters, yea they don't have much going on for them. Jed is the unconfident goofball and is afraid of Lightning which foreshadows him to being Fiend of Water, Neon likes cats as she mentions in second mission and is quite stubborn, Ash is steadfast and level-headed but often feels like anxious about the battles to come, and Sophia... I honestly don't remember much from her, and that's ok. It's ok for characters not to be as fleshed out as one would think, again consider what these characters in particular are actually supposed to be. Besides, I notice often in both FF and in anime (Which FF barrows a lot from) that the writers think that the only way to flesh out a character is to given them quirks or trivial details. To be honest that doesn't work with me, and Stranger of Paradise takes that trope and kicks out of the effing window which is why I like it's characters a lot more, they're characters with a focus. Even if Jack is so aggressively one dimensional, the situations he finds himself in loops him back around to being interesting. Noctis disliking vegetables and liking fishing did nothing for his character or the story XV, nor did Prompto liking photography and crushing on Cindy, Ignis liking the Ebony coffee or Gladiolus liking Cup Noodles did nothing either. Those are trivialities, and as a wise but mentally unstable dark elf king once said, those who are to forge the future mustn't concern themselves with trivialities.

[@mathewhosier9739]

I play more for the combat and progression

[@lukasberman]

Too Simplify OP and even why this story and character are trash and made/called for low end casuals- Basically he even just says towards end-> "I notice often in both FF and in anime they do story and characters different (and while they are beloved and have thousands made and and are loved for their story and characters), they are not my thing (and prefer this failure massively simple type instead)".

[@TheCyclicGamer]

@@lukasberman You might as well say the Doom Slayer is also a massive failure type character too because we don't ever learn what his workout routine is. There is more than one way to write good characters, and Jack Garland is a fantastic character.

[@xen3588]

im probably gonna get this for xbox it looks like it has alot of depth and content worth the price

[@CasualConsoleGamerYT]

You can't go wrong playing it, it's worth it.

[@kermitwithamustache3885]

Loving the background music! This game is something special, never thought we'd get a modern version of those goofy nonsensical ps2-ps3 era action games The combat is unironically one of the best i've seen in an action rpg too, and does a lot of things better than FFXVI Glad that more people are slowly recognizing all the good this game has to offer

[@blahlbah8602]

Once upon a time, I had spent my entire summer just playing this game. And it was a shocker for me because I am not the targeted audience LOL. It was so much fun to play, with the online feature, got to play with others too so that was also fun. The difficulty does continues to scale especially if you had gotten the DLC content. I never in a million years saw myself ever reaching towards the highest difficulty, but there I was, doing just that. Story sucked, but overall it was a fun ride. Oh and just to be clear, the difficulty is built into the progression (I guess like Nioh, never played though, but I can assume). So once you've beaten the game, a new difficulty unlocks as better gear are presented to you and the scaling of enemies.

[@ItsAloneS]

I think most people disliked the game because the story is fragmented, Its just like a puzzle where They give You tiny pieces of it until You can put them all together( Which includes loading notes or just a simples conversation awhile walking around ) . I'm actually playing the game and I think the story is just amazing, I really liked ! All plotwist and everything else. I'm really hoping for a sequel.

[@TheCyclicGamer]

Yea, because it harkens back to FF1, which this game is a prequel to, where the story was also fragmented like a puzzle that you had put together. It's story is not bad anyway, just some people refuse to pay attention (Like this guy) to the subtilties and nuances and prefer to have hundreds of cutscenes about trivial crap, which this game gladly tells to screw off in the form of Jack.

[@mathewhosier9739]

I'm sorry but if you playing a team ninja game for story then your playing for the wrong reason, team ninja games focus on combat and progression, and I wouldn't change a thing

[@mathewhosier9739]

Level 30 cap? Ummm jobs can go all the way to level 300 in the final difficulty

[@CasualConsoleGamerYT]

Thanks for the comment, I didn't play it outside the normal difficulty through the main campaign and side missions.

[@ThePorkchopExpress975]

looks great!! i love souls and nioh games. lets be honest most Japanese games are written terribly. i can’t understand most souls games or metal gear games.

[@joaoluizkfsantos8392]

Not understanding is a you problem dude, don't blame the games. You wouldn't say Nietzsche is a terrible writer/philosopher just because 99% of people (me included) can't understand a single paragraph.

[@frequencyoftruth2303]

​@@joaoluizkfsantos8392Imagine claiming every story as not bad writing just because you're defensive dude you don't know what you're talking about a lot of these games are badly written no matter how you label it.

[@mathewhosier9739]

It's just an end to a means, square Enix wanted a nioh style FF game and that's exactly what they got, no complaints here, I don't play team ninja games for story, that's what JRPGs are for, SoP is a combat and progression focused action RPG with some light soulslike elements, I love both the job and loot systems in this game