Jump to content
NEurope
Sign in to follow this  
Julius

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (18th March 2022)

Recommended Posts

In case you missed it: the game is getting three expansions, and they will only be available through the Season Pass. 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Early reviews are popping up and the game is reviewing about as well as you'd expect, currently at a 76 on Metacritic:

It's certifiably swimming in sevens :D

Don't know when I'll be picking this up, got so much on my plate in terms of games at the moment as it is, so I think I might put it off until the summer, or after I get the chance to play the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy (be it on the Switch or whenever my Steam Deck decides to turn up). 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Some platinums are fun, some are tedious but this one was CHAOS!

FPCja9VXoAcDfWL?format=jpg&name=4096x409

With Kirby done and dusted, I was able to put more focus on this. I picked this up on Friday as I was looking for a game to play on the PS5. After my initial wave of first games when buying the console, i've been good in only having 1 game to play at a time on my PS5. Once Hades was completed I was free to look for my next game on the console and this was it.

I'm not going to sugar coat it, the narrative is trash, the voice acting completely cheesy and over the top and the performance is a little rough at times. Strangely, I found that by knocking off the HDR settings that things seem to look and run smoother. It's a setting I don't usually bother with anyway as I can never be bothered to faff about with contrasts and brightness levels. I just want to play the game! Despite all of these issues the game is actually really fun to play.

Jack is flat out hilarious. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be intentional or not but I couldn't help but laugh at a lot of his lines. The way he acts just had me in stitches. There was a scene where one of the bosses does it's usual drawn out monologue. Mid speech, Jack tells it to shut the **** up, jumps in the air and punches the thing! I couldn't stop laughing. :D 

The job system and the fluidity of the combat is what really makes this game what it is. Being able to switch between two job types on the fly allows for some interesting combinations mid battle. My main focus at the start of the game was to level up every job to the max and then switch it out for the next one. As the game went on I changed this tactic and ran with a White Mage job alongside whatever other one I needed levelled up. This meant I was able to heal without using potions, as well as cast things like Protectga and Hastaga on myself and my party. Speaking of which, the party AI is very good in the game. During the post game missions I had to play on the highest difficulty level (Chaos) and my party members really took care of business. I would play the support role and give them the more aggressive job roles. It worked really well.

Game length wise it's shorter than I thought it would be, especially for an RPG. It took around 20 hours to finish which may be a good thing if you are looking for a shorter game to play. I think there was about 19 main missions and 20 odd side missions. Most of the extra missions are just variants of stages you've already played and they don't really offer anything new.

The game is VERY loot driven but thankfully everything is quick and easy to manage. In games that do feature lots of weapons and armour to play around with, I appreciate it when there's a simple button press that optimises your equipment and so you don't have to scroll through a host of collectibles. This game features such a system and it made it a joy to play. That's not to say you can't micro manage your setup. There are a crazy amount of options and systems within systems to play around with but I never really found any of it necessary, especially when you have maxed your job levels. You'll never be short of loot either. Enemies drop it in abundance and you'll find plenty hiding in treasure chests as well. If you do end up with far too many items that are clogging up your inventory you can quickly select a bunch, hit the button and it gets made into materials to use for other things.

In terms of it being a Final Fantasy game, I feel they could have leaned into the history of the franchise a little more. The game features enemies from the series, as well as a few bosses, but I think they should have been more variety in the game. You end up fighting a lot of the same things throughout the whole of the game. I know that's true in most FF games and JRPGs in general. You'll fight enemies who are just different colours/variants as the game goes on but with this game I think they could have went a little bit further. Fighting bats makes sense in caves and dark areas but seeing them in bright, open areas just didn't sit right when they could have featured a different enemy.

There are some decent tunes in the game, with a few Final Fantasy franchise references scattered throughout. To be honest, two of my favourite tracks were ones you hear all the time and those were the main battle theme and the map theme.

Very enjoyable experience. The game has issues and could have done with a little more care, attention and time in the oven but, as I said at the start, it's very fun to play. I think it's a strong 7 and a better than average game. Certainly one to pick up when on sale. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The game's first expansion, Trials of the Dragon King, launches on July 20th:

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Pretty epic intro :D

You'd think the game isn't a meme-factory with terrible writing. That is until Frank Sinatra starts singing. :laughing:

Edit: Oh my god, Jack is hilarious. I wonder if it's intentional :laughing:

Edited by drahkon
  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Currently farming the first boss for exp. Beating his first phase gives quite a bit. Just gotta die and repeat :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, drahkon said:

Currently farming the first boss for exp. Beating his first phase gives quite a bit. Just gotta die and repeat :D

You enjoying it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

You enjoying it?

Absolutely!
Still getting used to the battle system or rather the controls, though. Switching jobs isn't ingrained in my muscle memory, yet. And using magic as a mage is also a little cumbersome.

Other than that: it's great.

Dialogue and writing are a disaster, of course, but I think it's gonna be so bad it's good.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours in.

Haven't made too much progress because I keep laughing at the hilarious writing :laughing:

Weird dude: "You see, we elves have a long histo..."
Jack: "I don't care, just tell us about Chaos".

I wish more games had characters like Jack :D

Gameplay is quite nice, too. Combat is satisfying, expect when playing as a mage. The control scheme is simply too clunky. I'll probably use other classes from now on.
Loot is abundant. Thank goodness for the "optimize" button. Can't be arsed to deal with loot right now, because I know that post game is coming and loot will only become important then.

Anyways, looking forward to playing more (might put it on old, depending on whether FFXVI arrives today).

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this  

×