Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins Review – One of the best 3/5 games I’ve played in years

I’m a big fan of the Nicolas Cage and John Travolta movie Face/Off. About the incredible dance between law enforcement officers and the illegal Freaky Friday – the incredible way they entered each other’s lives, and despite its shaky premise and questionable performance, it’s infinitely watchable. Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins Then it is likely to be the Face/Off of the game. It’s stupid, the performance is laughably poor, the levels are annoying, the gear system is intricate, and the bosses can go from forgetting to infuriating. Then why can’t I let it go?

I guess it helps Team Ninja know how to make a great action game. You can’t complain when it comes to how Stranger in Heaven feels in your hands. It’s like laughing at a high-calorie, low-nutrient snack — it feels good, but you know it’s bad for your health. When Jack searches Chaos, you deal with Jack – an angry, single-minded strongman who came straight from the roster of edgy video game men of the ’00s. Because he wanted to kill it. nature.

So you take your testosterone-filled avatar to the world (or worlds, plural – more on that later) and start smashing things with swords, axes, mace, fists, and whatever else is on hand. Weapon handling will be familiar if you’ve ever played Nioh, but now if your timing is right, you can modify each weapon with a Dynasty Warriors-like special move at the end of each combo chain.

Dark Souls, Elden Ring or Bloodborne this is not. It’s more awkward, a little faster, and definitely more clumsy. But it’s fun! It’s a lot of fun banging the flan with a mace and laughing as it is sent up in a tornado! It’s fun to stimulate a series’ main foe, like the Iron Giant, before parrying its sword swing and slicing it in half. You need moments of relaxation and humor like this, when you’re banging your head on the same level for an hour trying to find leverage and take on the cheap thugs who use magic and break in, you’re just trying to find an exit.

During boss fights, you can forget about all the gaffer tapes and spit to bring the rest of the strangers of paradise together. Confronting Tiamat, or the tank that looks like the beginning of Final Fantasy VII, or any other minion of short-sighted Chaos…that’s the beauty of the game. If FromSoft games make you feel like you&# 8217;re dancing with your enemies, Team Ninja makes you feel like you’re in a pit. It’s a melee of tentacles, limbs, weapons, magic. Time the shocks to counteract damage and pool MP, then unleash a powerful attack as your prey frees itself from a big special move, and it’ll be disrupted – it’s a power fantasy.

For some reason, Jake likes to use wrestling moves to finish off opponents, so put a boss eight times your size at low health, then throw it to the floor when it turns into a crystal and smashes, it’s you scenes that are often seen. And, lo and behold, it’s catharsis! It hits your cerebral cortex in a surprisingly severe way than anything in Nioh or Souls. Even better, once it shatters, all the gear will spill out of it. Adrenaline and higher level loot? You spoil me, Chaos.

It’s a shame that the valley between these peaks is so low and so dark. Every level in Stranger Things in Paradise is based on previous Final Fantasy games – whether it’s Mount Gagazet and its trials in Final Fantasy 10, Raithwall’s Tomb and its sentient walls in 12, Fire Cavern in 8 or Fire Cavern in 7 The Mako Reactor, each with its own gimmick (and a re-arrangement of the series’ iconic music). For Final Fantasy fans, it’s like catnip. It’s a shame that corridor-like levels, backtracking, enraging enemy locations, and only about seven different skinned enemy types spoil what it’s like to see your favorite FF4 tower in proper 3D. okay then.

Then there’s the story. Christ. Nioh fans know that Team Ninja is the exact opposite of From. It’s not subtle, non-verbal or player-oriented. Do not. It’s public and stupid. With all the depth you think a Final Fantasy spinoff has. It draws on deep lore (mainly rooted in the first game of the series), but doesn’t do anything meaningful. The plot is a crumbling structure that holds the boss fight’s totem poles together, and that’s it. Don’t expect this game to have good voice acting, good cutscenes, or even flashy graphics – sometimes it looks like a PS5 game, sometimes it looks like a PS3 game. This is very peculiar.

Then why can’t I let it go? Why do I so often stay up late and gobble through all the side quests until a few hours, smashing little Tunbury’s head, figuring out how to make Jack the best damn dragon rider he can be? Maybe the job system — basically a soul-like career system with stolen Final Fantasy tropes on it. Leveling up your swordsmanship to unlock berserkers, then leveling up berserkers to unlock (part of) the Dark Knight career tree is compelling. When you’re tinkering with a build that can counter an enemy’s attack directly tenfold, it makes wading through a poisonous swamp and ripping countless Marlboros to shreds worthwhile.

Or maybe it’s the satisfaction of having your allies — you can have two on the field at any one time — to help you bully your enemies. Unlocking their classes and letting them tear down enemies with you is something missing from the Strangers in Paradise stables (except maybe in co-op). Play Hard, use all your potions, then get last minute healing spells from your friends before your other allies team up with you, stagger it before the final boss unleashes the most devastating attack…  .It’s the kind of moment you crave to make the 35-hour death march to the finish line worthwhile in these games. almost.

Stranger in Heaven: Final Fantasy Origins is a B-movie game. It’s loud, silly, and fun. If you want to extract joy from its chaotic heart, you’ll have to ignore many — many — problems, but once you commit, play with weapons, penetrate its inexplicable mechanics and forgive Jack’s one-dimensional personality, you’ll get A part Devil May Cry, part Nioh and part Face/Off game. Honestly, who doesn’t want to play?

This review is based on the version of the game offered by Square Enix on PS5, played in quality mode only.