Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Reviews
Stranger of Paradise, despite its poor story presentation, manages to be a great spinoff for the Final Fantasy series, with gameplay beyond my expectations. It's time to destroy the Chaos! Wherever it is!
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Stranger of Paradise is a good game, but it had the potential to be a great game. Its self seriousness backfires to a genuinely endearing degree, but also leaves the story poorly fleshed out and possibly hard to follow. The combat may be fun, fluid, and visceral, but issues with the PC version should make players look to other platforms.
To my delight, I had an impressive amount of fun with Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. Thankfully, its awesome stage designs and intricate character customization component ended up shining brighter than the humdrum story and disappointing visuals.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a flawed, but actually quite enjoyable action RPG. The story is surprisingly good, combat is incredibly satisfying and the excellent character customization goes very deep. Graphics are a major sore spot, as was the disappointing end-game content, but overall I'm glad I got to experience this game.
The story of Jack begins with him forgetting about himself. “Stranger of Paradise” is a drunken, belligerent game in both concept and design, and would’ve been better served if it was less adherent to its Final Fantasy origins, and, well, did things its own way, like Ol’ Blue Eyes sang. Despite its level design flaws and a crowded gear system that adds little to the experience, it was hard not to find Jack’s testosterone-fueled journey charming and full of surprises. Just don’t be surprised if it also farts in your face every once in a while.
I honestly don’t know whether you’ll dig Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. It can be weird, funny, and janky, but tremendously fun, exciting, and even moving all at the same time. Final Fantasy fans will get the most out of it, as they’re more likely to look past the dated presentation and seemingly nonsensical early plot, but if you stick through it, I think you’ll be surprised at how much goofy and honest fun Stranger of Paradise can be.
As much as I want to love this game as a whole, the story lets it down. That being said, the combat and build up to the various boss fights were unarguably brilliant.
Memes aside, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an aggressively ridiculous action-RPG with surprisingly deep combat and subpar performance.
Stranger of Paradise is a mechanically rich and satisfying action RPG marred by poor balancing and performance issues.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has a very good combat system, but it suffers from a variety of problems.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a brainless character action game that somewhat retells the events of the original Final Fantasy in a fashion that’s very Team Ninja, read: really silly.
This game tries to do a lot. It re-tells the story of the very first Final Fantasy, but is also an Origin story. It tries to pay homage to 35 years of FF games, but also provide a new experience. It wants to be a Souls game, but without the Souls difficulty, a hacker-slasher and a loot game. Against a backdrop of sub-par graphics, some choices work, some don't. The combat is pretty good, while the graphics, level design and story let down. This entry to the Final Fantasy multiverse won't be for the ages.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
An inconsistent experience, but one that for better or for worse is also an unforgettable one. Come for the Job system, stay for the bonkers story
Review in Arabic | Read full review
I have to wonder if the gaming audience is quite ready for the kind of metatextual experience that Stranger of Paradise presents. It’s not only a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, but it outright challenges players’ expectations on how games are made and how they should be played. It’s hugely entertaining and as experimental as Final Fantasy at its best, but I do wonder how well something so reflective will click and be remembered as a great in the longer term. I only hope that people realise that the nonsense of Jack, his iPod, and his obsession with Chaos is just the surface of this brilliantly smart, layered thing, and they then take the time to dig into what Stranger of Paradise is really saying as a work of metatextual satire.
On top of the surprisingly stellar story that takes a bit to move into place, Strangers of Paradise is just entertaining from start to finish. Jack grumbling about memories and wanting to kill Chaos offers plenty of meme potential and the core action is always satisfying. It also delivers on its subtitle as this is a meaningful Final Fantasy origin story that adds a lot of significance to its least plot-heavy game.
I have mixed feelings with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a game that makes constant Final Fantasy one winks, a magnificent Combat of Team Ninja and a sublime soundtrack, but all this is tarnished by a poor technical section and an absurd plot. I don't know if I recommend the game, I leave that to your discretion. What weighs more for you, the combat or the story? If it is the second, I do not advise you to compare it. That's right, it's not a bad game as a whole, but I can't encourage you to buy it when you're only going to enjoy 10 minutes of it. Not to forget its missions, well, be prepared to walk endless corridors with non-existent lighting.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a great addition to the list of numerous titles and genres already presented by the franchise over 35 years of history. The game unites mythology and gameplay in a strange way, but it works. It lives up to the reputation of Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo Games when it comes to action, delivering a product that has the responsibility to honor the franchise. Yes, it is unlike anything that has been done with the franchise and has its reasons for being a Final Fantasy game that only has its name on the cover. However, in the end, the game is audacious and it's able to leave the franchise's comfort zone.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Stranger of Paradise does indeed feel like a stranger in the Final Fantasy series, but mostly succeeds because of it.
Mixed feelings with this prequel to the Final Fantasy saga which seems to be not well polished and unfinished. The narrative and the poor technical level (low res textures, flaw animations and strange shadows) does not help to create an inmersive atmosphere. Only the combat part seems to be enjoyable with different combos that allows different strategies to face our enemies.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Stranger of Paradise is at its best a mediocre game that becomes boring and tiresome in many cases. It's a bad moment for Team Ninja that reminds me of Ninja Gaiden's 3. The only satisfying thing in this game is its gameplay which is inspired clearly from the Nioh franchise. If Team Ninja had more time in its hands to perfect it maybe we'd have a much refined game but it's not the case for this one.
Review in Greek | Read full review