PS5 “Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin” trial version first-hand evaluation

Although the name “Final Fantasy” has become popular, after all, this series has more than 20 years of history, and it needs some stimulation beyond role-playing to increase brand sales. In the past, “Final Fantasy” has launched music category games and fighting battle games. This time, I chose to use the popular “Death Reincarnation” in recent years and “High Difficulty” actions to pass the game. Whether the new attempt will bring a positive or a negative impact, I believe this experience version can provide a little answer: The rumored “Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin” was officially first announced at E3 not long ago, and the PS5 experience version will be launched immediately after one day. It’s a pity that we encountered various technical problems, and it was not until June 15th that everyone could successfully launch the game.

This game was developed by Koei Tecmo Games’ “TeamNINJA”. In the past, it has been produced such as the “Ninja Gaiden” series, “Nioh” series, etc., all of which are known for their super difficulty The action game, it is conceivable that this work also adopts a similar style, allowing you to keep rolling in the cycle of death.

After all, the work is currently only an experience version, and many places will be very different from the official version, especially in the picture quality, the extremely low artificial intelligence of the two companions, and the “difficult” difficulty of challenging one-shot death when the level cannot be raised too high. It should be improved in the official version. The painting style of the work tends to be dark, and it is darker than “Nioh”. With the protagonist’s set of black clothes, although it is not enough to hear the sound and the shadow, sometimes it can only be based on feeling and position. For the time being, the game picture quality is probably at the PS4 level, and I believe the quality of the real next-generation machine version should be improved in the future.

If you have ever encountered the “Nioh” series, you should be familiar with the operation of this game, including the gameplay of hitting the enemy to “Break Armor” and then launching the finishing skills at close range. This game is called “Soul Broken”. “Soul Broken” can not only make a one-hit kill effect by ignoring the enemy’s health, it can also restore and increase MP-the biggest difference between this work and “Nioh” is the addition of “MP” (magic point) From the setting of “Final Fantasy”, many special moves require MP to be activated, and MP recovery methods are limited. Breaking the enemy with “Soul Broken” is one of the major techniques.

Similarly, since it comes from the production team of “Ninja Gaiden” and “Nioh”, this work also has an “instant counterattack” design: press the circular button at the moment the enemy hits the protagonist, and the enemy attack can be bounced. In addition to not damaging any health points (some health points will be deducted for defense), players can also immediately press the attack button to rush forward and counterattack, which is an integrated offensive and defensive gameplay. Of course, if the time prediction is not accurate, the “counterattack” will not come, but will cause blood loss, so this is a master-oriented style of play.

The trial version provides about 1-2 hours of play content, and there are six types of occupations, of which three are elementary and three are advanced. The profession of the game is determined according to the type of weapon obtained. The protagonist who has a great sword at the beginning has a profession of “Great Swordsman”. When the player raises his profession level and puts a certain level of skill points, he will start the upper profession ” warrior”. Later, the player will get the “Magic Short Knife” in the board. At this time, the “Magic” career will be opened, and its superior position is “Black Sorcerer”; finally, when the weapon and equipment of the “Axe Spear” are obtained, Will open “Lance Warlock”, and its upper class is “Dragon Knight”. As seen from the names of various higher-level professions, the sources all come from “Final Fantasy”, among which “Dragon Knight” has a very well-known special skill such as “jumping”.

After all, “Final Fantasy” is a role-playing game, so this game also has a very complicated calculation method in the equipment design: including each piece of equipment has its own level, the higher the level, the better the value; in addition, the equipment is also set There is a “rarity”, represented by “white”, “green”, “blue”, “purple”, and “yellow” in order. The rarer, the higher the ability provided (the equipment with the white note has the lowest rarity) . In addition, each piece of equipment may also have additional abilities, such as increased attack power, increased MP recovery, etc.; the last thing is that the equipment has the opportunity to attach “professional fit”, such as weapons with “Great Swordsman +10%” “”, then if the player uses a profession like the Great Swordsman, the overall ability value will be increased by 10%. After reading the above information, if everyone still feels puzzled, I can only say “I feel the same,” which is even more annoying for people who hate numbers.

Although it is only an experience version, the author is convinced that the game’s system is not perfect, but the two uncontrolled computer operation partners beside the protagonist are really annoying. Not only do they have low attack power and low defense power, but they also don’t come when they need to help. They occasionally block the player’s path forward, and even use their own body to block the protagonist’s instant counterattack… I hope that when the official launch is officially launched, the system will Add a “command” link, let them perform actions such as “wait”, “long-range magic”, “defense”, or provide an option to directly let them disappear.

There is a “crystal” in the game, which will automatically restore the life and mana of the protagonists after activation, and will also replenish the number of healing potions. The disadvantage of activating the crystal is that the destroyed enemies in the territory will be reborn immediately, just like the bonfire of the “Dark Soul” series. Of course, if you want to practice kung fu and practice all kinds of professions, it is also a good way to constantly activate the crystal to regenerate the monster.

At the end of the trial version, the protagonist will face the boss-level enemy to “become the chaos”. As the protagonists of the “Warrior of Light”, they once asked him if he was “Garland”. Garland is the final boss of the original “Final Fantasy 1,” I believe this is just adding a little more “FF” color to the work. The boss battle is divided into two phases. The first phase is centered on physics and fire swords. Because the moves are hard and straight, counterattacks are easier. As long as you calculate the time and press the circular button, you can simply hit him to the “breaking armor” state. After successfully “breaking the armor”, the battle enters the second stage. At this stage, he knows how to cast fire, thunder, and ice magic, and his moves have become more frequent. If he is worried that it will be difficult to counterattack, perhaps dodge or defense is the better way. The game will end after successful “Sunder Armor” again.

“Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin” will be available on PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and computer platforms within 2022.