Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Reviews
There’s no denying that Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin has its unintentionally awkward moments when it comes to the story, but at its core it’s a solid experience from both a gameplay standpoint and in terms of how it links back to the entire Final Fantasy universe. In fact, fans of the franchise will certainly be blindsided by nostalgia when it comes to music and settings, so I encourage newcomers to the series to try a few of the mainline entries first if they want to get the most out of this one. As for me, I found myself enjoying Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin in the same way that I enjoyed Final Fantasy X-2: preferring combat to story. Simply put, as long as you set your expectations accordingly, you’ll have a good time.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin shines in its combat system and its class system, leaving the story in something more anecdotal.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Your assessment of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a deep and serious story, you'll be severely disappointed. Even as it holds some Easter eggs for longtime fans of the series, the dialogue and characters and haphazard way it's all told will only appeal to fans who love bad but ultimately lovable cult classics. If you enjoy action games, this is a surprising treat that takes the Nioh base mechanics and loosens things up to make it more appealing. It's a fun title that's worth trying out - despite what the initial trailer might have led you to believe.
All in all, I don’t think I can recommend Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Maybe if you have a dedicated gaming PC and don’t care about lackluster narrative presentation, you’ll enjoy it. As it is, I can only shake my head and go back to Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion.
All in all, for players who desperately want more from Stranger of Paradise it is not a horrible DLC, but it certainly does not respect the player’s time with its drip feed of content to keep the player going through an extremely long and boring grind of already cleared content.
Like a good dad joke, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin may not be for everyone, but it grew on me and in the end, I loved every minute of it.
With a bigger focus on story, new challenging content, a new weapon type and Jobs that add more combat and customization possibilities, Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Different Future is, without a doubt, the best DLC released by Team Ninja for its game. While the jump in difficulty from the previous DLC isn't as big as it was in the previous expansions, Lufenia difficulty will still wreck unprepared players, making playing the expansion's new content in Extra Mode the only viable way for those who do not want to spend hours upon hours grinding for gear and materials.
With little additional story and gameplay content, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Wanderer of the Rift is yet another endgame expansion that doesn't introduce enough new features to make most players return to the Strangers' world worthwhile. Only hardcore players who want to explore the maximum potential of the game's mechanics will find some value in an expansion that feels even more disappointing than the one that came before it.
If you are looking to play a Final Fantasy game for the story, you should definitely skip Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. But if you are looking for a fun action game with fun monster designs, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin would be the game for you. Maybe we will eventually see a sequel, perhaps a retelling of Final Fantasy 2? That would be pretty awesome, don’t you think?
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins - Trials of the Dragon King is a DLC aimed at those who have played the base game beyond its ending, providing new customization options, a new difficulty setting, new difficulty modifiers and more. Beyond this, the expansion doesn't provide a lot of new story and gameplay content, making it a worthy purchase only for those who have found Chaos mode too tame, and are ready to get challenged again by the base game's foes and a few new ones.
Trials of the Dragon King gave a great boost in difficulty that will challenge the end game players, but as a whole, it felt empty and seeing how the DLC can not be bought separately, it did feel like a bit of a letdown for the story driver players as they would’ve bought the season pass to find that the new content is locked behind a massive grind before they can even start it. I personally don’t mind a grind in games but the lack of new bosses and areas is a big letdown in my opinion, but hey, at least we got a summoner job, so there has been some hope from this for all players to enjoy.
The Trials of the Dragon King DLC for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is lazy and locks its content behind punishing difficulty.
For fans, this is a wild ride of nostalgia but don’t expect it to be the next great spin-off from the franchise. For players outside of the Final Fantasy scene, it’s an okay beat-em-up with laugh-out-loud scenes that might make for an unforgettable weekend.
It’s somewhat fitting that in this topsy-turvy action spin-off, the only thing that’s truly upside-down is the presentation of the original game’s story. Even as the narrative stumbles, the core gameplay is strong enough to motivate to see this story through to completion, no matter how chaotic.
It would be better if instead of this Team Ninja made another Dark Souls clone, which they do great.
Review in Russian | Read full review
If you're a Final Fantasy fan, are more into the series's lore, and are looking for a Souls-like game where you fight to the death, I recommend this title. However, if you are a non-Final Fantasy gamer who wants to try something similar to Dark Souls, I cannot recommend this title.
Review in Czech | Read full review
This is not full-fledge Final Fantasy as you know it, but good spin-off to remember. It gives you another shot at Souls genre and is accessible to more players. Action hack-and-slash system is solid and you can spend 30-40 hours in dungeons, fierce battles, grab plenty of loot ' and it is fun!
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Those who love action RPGs and have fun with Team Ninja games, will undoubtedly have a good time with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
Review in Greek | Read full review
The writing team at Square Enix fed the 1987 Famicom classic Final Fantasy through a wood chipper running on a neural network forced to watch Army of Darkness more times than I did in high school. This game’s scenario popped out and it’s wild, awesome and hilarious.