Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger in Paradise is a very strange Remake of the original Final Fantasy game on the NES. Developed by Team Ninja the developers of Nioh, they've taken a new direction for the Remake of this classic turn-based RPG. They made it a Nioh game. SoP is best described as Nioh but wearing Final Fantasy pants, the whole game is based off the framework of the Nioh games, with intense action based combat at the very core of the system. But other things like the mission layout on a world map, main missions, side missions, the way cut scenes happen. It's all pretty much Nioh.
So what I'll do from here is explain how the game is different from Nioh in terms of the combat.
First of all High, Med, and Low stance with weapons is gone and instead is replaced by a job system which is very Final Fantasy based. Essentially different weapons have different jobs assigned to them for example Great Swords make you a warrior and a Mace makes you a Mage. It's much the same way the system works in FF14. You can loadout your character Jack, to have two jobs equipped at one time, including two full sets of different gear (which i'll touch on in a second). During the missions you can tap Triangle to instantly swap between jobs allowing for you to open a fight by casting a big Mage spell which stuns all the enemies, instantly swap to warrior and charge in to smash them while they are still down. It flows exceptionally well and there are quite a few job classes in the game (at least 8 in the early game).
Every job also has a skill tree which unlocks combos and buffs for that job, some of these skill trees even unlock additional jobs like Palladin. At it's core it's similar to Nioh in the sense of leveling your skill with a weapon which unlocks more skills with that weapon. Functionally it's the same thing but with a Final Fantasy coat of paint. Each job plays drastically differently as well, a lancer will move and attack and combo differently than a duelist or monk. There is no shortage of combat options I feel which is good, though the jobs do level seperately so I feel like there will be a bit of grinding involved throughout the game to make each job viable for whatever mission you happen to be on.
Then there are the item drops which constantly rain down after every enemy kill, like Nioh. Jake the main character can equip two sets of full gear at the same time for job swapping. But you also have three companions that you can gear up as well, though I'm not sure if they can change jobs yet. Of the three companions you can bring two with you into a mission. It's like playing Nioh Co-Op with AI partners that are not super smart but they distract badguys and that's enough. They chat with you during the missions which keeps you company during longer dungeons so that's actually pretty nice.
However I have to say that this game is fucking ugly. Like the graphics are bad and there is this weird bad aliasing effect over everything. During gameplay it's fine, but cutscenes are hard to watch not only because they are cringy as fuck, but they are also terrible looking. After a couple of missions I noticed that the characters all wear whatever gear you put them in during the cutscenes so maybe it's a problem with having the cutscene models being dynamic to reflect all the gear possibilities in the game. Even still, it's terrible looking for a game in 2022. There is also an excessive bloom effect everywhat that is also quite dogshit.
That being said, they are adding the cringiest story to a game that didn't really have a story so that's a thing.
The other interesting thing about this game as opposed to the Nioh titles. Strangers in Paradise has difficulty options, four of them Story, Easy, Normal, and Brutal. I guess this is to give a buffer to Final Fantasy players who might not have ever played anything like Nioh or Dark Souls before. I would suggest playing on Normal at minimum because anything easier might as well be a walking simulator with how much of a fight the enemies put up. Brutal is exactly what it says and it's nasty. Many of the enemies have poor attack telegraphs making reacting a bit harder than in other action games, and on brutal some of the boss attacks are instant across the screen bullshit. So I'm sure people will have fun with that.
On the whole the game has promise as a fun Final Fantasy themed action game. However i think the story and the characters are not worth paying attention too unless you like self inflicted torture.
So what I'll do from here is explain how the game is different from Nioh in terms of the combat.
First of all High, Med, and Low stance with weapons is gone and instead is replaced by a job system which is very Final Fantasy based. Essentially different weapons have different jobs assigned to them for example Great Swords make you a warrior and a Mace makes you a Mage. It's much the same way the system works in FF14. You can loadout your character Jack, to have two jobs equipped at one time, including two full sets of different gear (which i'll touch on in a second). During the missions you can tap Triangle to instantly swap between jobs allowing for you to open a fight by casting a big Mage spell which stuns all the enemies, instantly swap to warrior and charge in to smash them while they are still down. It flows exceptionally well and there are quite a few job classes in the game (at least 8 in the early game).
Every job also has a skill tree which unlocks combos and buffs for that job, some of these skill trees even unlock additional jobs like Palladin. At it's core it's similar to Nioh in the sense of leveling your skill with a weapon which unlocks more skills with that weapon. Functionally it's the same thing but with a Final Fantasy coat of paint. Each job plays drastically differently as well, a lancer will move and attack and combo differently than a duelist or monk. There is no shortage of combat options I feel which is good, though the jobs do level seperately so I feel like there will be a bit of grinding involved throughout the game to make each job viable for whatever mission you happen to be on.
Then there are the item drops which constantly rain down after every enemy kill, like Nioh. Jake the main character can equip two sets of full gear at the same time for job swapping. But you also have three companions that you can gear up as well, though I'm not sure if they can change jobs yet. Of the three companions you can bring two with you into a mission. It's like playing Nioh Co-Op with AI partners that are not super smart but they distract badguys and that's enough. They chat with you during the missions which keeps you company during longer dungeons so that's actually pretty nice.
However I have to say that this game is fucking ugly. Like the graphics are bad and there is this weird bad aliasing effect over everything. During gameplay it's fine, but cutscenes are hard to watch not only because they are cringy as fuck, but they are also terrible looking. After a couple of missions I noticed that the characters all wear whatever gear you put them in during the cutscenes so maybe it's a problem with having the cutscene models being dynamic to reflect all the gear possibilities in the game. Even still, it's terrible looking for a game in 2022. There is also an excessive bloom effect everywhat that is also quite dogshit.
That being said, they are adding the cringiest story to a game that didn't really have a story so that's a thing.
The other interesting thing about this game as opposed to the Nioh titles. Strangers in Paradise has difficulty options, four of them Story, Easy, Normal, and Brutal. I guess this is to give a buffer to Final Fantasy players who might not have ever played anything like Nioh or Dark Souls before. I would suggest playing on Normal at minimum because anything easier might as well be a walking simulator with how much of a fight the enemies put up. Brutal is exactly what it says and it's nasty. Many of the enemies have poor attack telegraphs making reacting a bit harder than in other action games, and on brutal some of the boss attacks are instant across the screen bullshit. So I'm sure people will have fun with that.
On the whole the game has promise as a fun Final Fantasy themed action game. However i think the story and the characters are not worth paying attention too unless you like self inflicted torture.
