Thirty-five years and we are still talking about a game that was born under the worst auspices: a Final Fantasy, the swan song of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Japanese video game creator not too successful, at least until then. The result was an RPG that later became a legendary saga, one of the most loved and long-lived (still) in circulation. A last attempt so brilliant and innovative that it carves out dozens and dozens of episodes, parallel chapters, comics, novels, and even more than one film.
And if on the one hand the saga continues, with Final Fantasy XVI coming (hopefully) this yearon the other hand, Square-Enix pays tribute to its past with a curious spin-off, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. It is in fact an experiment: it is basically a remake, but also a reinterpretation of the events of that first chapter that started the saga, due to its being developed by an external studio, renowned more for action games where you fight, than for refined magic and tactics. Team Ninja, the authors of Ninja Gaiden e Niohin fact, they took the trouble to modernize the first Final Fantasy, taking themes and narrative guidelines, and shaping them in their own way.
The result is a love letter to the saga, perhaps not too successful, especially in technical and narrative termsbut which can be pleasantly played thanks to a really well thought out gameplay.
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The story of Stranger of Paradise
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin sees the same Knights of Light of yore, armed with dark crystals that indicate their unique and special nature, engaged in the mission of restoring order and saving the world from misfortune. Evil is called Chaos, a figure (or perhaps an entity) that the protagonist Jack wants to eliminate at all costs. Supported by a group of heroes, as foreseen by Lukahn’s prophecy, he will face terrible threats to restore light to the crystals and hope to the kingdom of Cornelia.
Names and places are the same as always, with the addition of citations and references to other chapters clearly designed to surprise the most die-hard fans, but events and dynamics change: going from a handful of pixels to completely 3D graphics, Team Ninja was able to re-imagine places, weapons and characters, reconstructing events and granting themselves licenses for each genre, making sure to keep fixed points linked to the original narrative, but putting his own. Sometimes you find them convincing, but in other cases the authors seem to have trodden a little too much with the modern cut, creating moments at the limit of embarrassing, in which the attempt to create pathos is dampened by genuinely ridiculous curtains: why should a knight walk away listening to a mix of rap and rock in his ears after receiving an important revelation about the villain of the moment? It is a question that still haunts us today.
How the gameplay works
The real revolution, however, is in the playful setting, which recalls one of the sagas that made Team Ninja famous, namely Niohpersonal reinterpretation in salsa action dei soulslike (for those wishing to know more, here is our Elden Ring test). The open world has been replaced by a globe and single self-conclusive missions in which the level structure recalls Dark Souls (but in a small way), thanks to shortcuts and intertwining, but not only: by dying, for example, you return to prisms that call out bonfires, which restore health potions but bring all nearby enemies back to life. If before, in short, we moved freely between forests and caves, here you move from a menu in which each area has its own specific identity, tasks to be done, but also secret places and objects to be recovered. Each mission can also be replayed, with the aim of unlocking new weapons and armor, available in industrial quantities (the bulk of the differences will however be right in the values or bonuses they bring, otherwise they will be quite similar to each other), but also and especially to level up by eliminating enemies.
The progression system is perhaps the most interesting element of all, though it too linked to the first Final Fantasy and the class system: Jack and the remaining members of the party will be able to specialize in real different roles, from wizard to warrior, passing through the samurai, unlocking skills and upgrades and keeping them even changing class to your liking, so as to create mixtures and synergies unique and always new. A gimmick that gives no little variety to the gameplayencouraging the player to focus on favorite classes, but also to try new ones to enhance the protagonist and discover new attack combinations, which are many and offer multiple approaches to combat.
We dodge blows and defend ourselves, but depending on the class, the way to attack changes: spells require more precision and attention to the elemental weaknesses of enemies, but are more effective; Swords, hammers and katanas offer a more physical and satisfying style, but the short distance requires quick reflexes to avoid succumbing to the blows of the opponents. What is certain about the combat system is that the turn-based battles of yore are a memory: Stranger of Paradise it is pure action. All embellished, at least on PlayStation 5 (where we tested it), by an excellent support for DualSense, between haptic vibration and adaptive triggers that emphasize every shot, inflicted or immediately.
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In conclusion
The result, as mentioned, is better to play than to see: partly why from a technical point of view it does not shine, despite really well-finished settings from an artistic point of view, partly because the plot is sometimes not so well written. But once you become familiar with the fighting, it is really difficult to break away, to the point of lightening and not just the 20 hours needed to complete the main mission. But thanks to extra difficulty modes and the ability to replay each mission in the company of friends, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin manages to keep the player busy even longer. Provided, however, of turn a blind eye to the graphics and the story.