If you’re able to look past all of the chaos memes – which I know might be a tall order – Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins is actually shaping up to be a very promising looking action/soulslike spin on the Final Fantasy franchise. I thought this back when I played the first demo back in June, and after playing through a second demo that is now publicly available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, I’m even more intrigued by its inventive combat that combines the typical Team Ninja style of fast and smooth, reflex driven action, with a JRPG job system and other quintessential Final Fantasy tropes.
For those that didn’t get a chance to check out the first limited time demo, Stranger of Paradise is a loot driven action/soulslike where you play as a man named Jack, who as everyone knows all too well at this point, is on a mission to kill chaos. While its combat may initially seem very similar to Team Ninja’s other action/soulslike, Nioh, there are actually a couple of key differences that cause the games to be played very differently. For one, there’s no stamina meter in Stranger of Paradise, so you can swing your weapon and button mash to your heart’s content without worrying about running out of stamina. Whether or not that’s a good idea, is another story entirely.
In lieu of a stamina meter is a Soul meter, which depletes as you get hit, block, or use your Soul Shield, which is a special barrier that drains the meter extremely quickly, but can absorb enemy powers and cause enemies to recoil if timed correctly. If your Soul Meter runs out, you will stagger and be completely vulnerable to enemy attacks until it fills back up, which makes it a vital meter to manage carefully. Enemies can be staggered as well by draining their own meters, which then opens them up to an execution. Then there’s also an MP meter which governs your usage of special skills, along with a job system that determines what those special skills are.
The interplay between these three mechanics – the Soul Meter, your MP meter, and the job system – is what makes Stranger of Paradise’s combat sing. Properly timing Soul Shields to deflect enemy attacks builds up your MP meter, which allows you to use your special job abilities more frequently, which are needed in order to more easily stagger and execute enemies, which then helps increase your max MP until the next time you die. Not only that, but certain jobs are better suited for dealing with certain enemies, so it becomes important to mix up your combat approach depending on which enemies you’re fighting.
Ultimately it all amounts to a combat system that requires a lot of know-how in order to survive. You won’t get far just relying on your reflexes and skill. You’ll need to learn enemy weaknesses, when to use your Soulshield versus when to simply dodge or block, and how to best make use of your job’s unique abilities.
Speaking of those jobs, let’s talk about the job system. When you begin the game, you’ll have access to a limited number of basic jobs that each come with their own weapon type, special move, and playstyle that gets defined by their own unique skill tree. The more you play with that job, the more you level it up, which gives you points to spend on that skill tree. Once you gain enough experience with a job, you'll unlock an advanced job that builds off the same playstyle, but comes with its own unique ability and a whole skill tree that adds more new powers and further improves your stats while using that job.
The demo that I got to play gave me a chance to test out some of the advanced jobs that weren’t available in the prior demo, such as Red Mage, Monk, and Dragoon. I was a big fan of the Red Mage job, which trades in the big powerful spells of the Black Mage for the ability to rapidly cast spells with its chain spell ability. The Dragoon was also a favorite, as its special ability was a jump attack that let me leap out of a bad spot, and then crash down for big damage and immediately go back on the offensive.
I also got to play around with the Pugilist basic job, which lets Jack fight with his own two fists and features a moveset full of lightning fast attacks that get stronger by continuously landing without getting hit. It’s a tricky job to get used to, as it requires you to get super close to your enemy, and it also features some really lengthy combo attacks that are highly committal, since you can’t cancel the attack with a dodge in the middle of them. Still, if you can overcome those challenges, the damage output of this class is extremely high, especially with its special ability that lets you just wail on an enemy for as long as you’re holding the right trigger down, and as long as you have the MP to sustain it.
The new level itself was pretty lengthy, featuring a bunch of new, challenging enemies, and capped off by a great boss fight that really encouraged you to hot swap jobs in the middle of the fight in order to deal with two separate enemies with different strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to test out the newly revealed multiplayer mode, which allows two other friends to take control of your party members, which is sure to be a fun challenge that will no doubt make the White Mage job a more appealing pick, with its focus on healing magic.
Despite me not being all that into the story so far, I’m extremely stoked to jump back in for more Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. My only real concern so far is that the sheer amount of loot that drops leads to a lot of downtime going into menus and constantly adjusting gear, an issue that Nioh fans will be all too familiar with. You can take it for a test drive yourself right now with the free demo, available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Then we’ll just have to wait and see how the full game turns out when Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin releases sometime in 2022.