Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

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JaySevenZero
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Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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DaMonth
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Re: 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by DaMonth »

This was my 2022 GOTYIERHACO (Game of the Year if Elden Ring Hadn't Also Come Out).

It's a bit of a shame all the first impressions of chaos memes and Limp Bizkit had people writing it off, me included. Wouldn't have tried it if my friend didn't sit me down to. Once I did, there was a bug in my brain that didn't go away until I finished it. I love the soul block and how visceral the combat is. The job system is incredibly rewarding and I'm glad I just happened to stumble into the best one in the game, Tyrant. Even if I had to fall back on Breaker for harder encounters.

Complains-wise, the menu could stand to be 30% less scary and god does this game need a map. Lots of same-looking things to get lost in.

Been informed FF16 is maybe looking to play like this and if so, hopefully it doesn't say chaos too many times so people aren't ashamed to call it an all-time great.

P.S: It's not Limp Bizkit. People just made that up.
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Tolkientaters
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Re: 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by Tolkientaters »

This game is extremely confident in how stupid it is and I love it for that. It's certainly not perfect, often the character models and environments can look like they came from a 360 game, but honestly that almost works for the dumb goofy vibe this game is going for.

Jack saying "I don't give a f*** who you are" and "bullshit" before playing Limp Bizkit is going to stay with me for a while. It's an out there confidence that you don't see too often and it's refreshing for that. What other final fantasy game could end with My Way by Frank Sinatra?

The combat is also really fun, an easier take on Nioh's combat with a cool iteration of a jobs system with absurb finishers. I think the level design is a little bland, but that fun combat and stupid story with a hell of a payoff drives you through it.

It's a weird game, but if what's it's doing works for you, it's a hell of a time.
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Megadirt
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Re: 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by Megadirt »

I just finished this last night and its the worst game I've ever enjoyed.

The colours are so over saturated and visually sickening and I feel as if the story is delivered like they had been having all the exposition conversations when I was at work. Any dialogue we were privy to is written right on the line between bad, and "so bad it's good". The effect of this is that if it is supposed to be sincere it's terrible, and if it's supposed to be hyperbolic and silly then it feels smug and stupid. However, I do think the best lens to view Jack through is the lens given to me by the Doom (2016) protagonist. He's not here for your bullshit story exposition he's here to rip and tear Cactuars and take kitchen knives away from bald green lantern children.

This isn't the only comparison to Doom I could make, the game mechanics in the battle system remind me of Doom much more than the FromSoftware-esque aesthetics would imply. In Doom the genius of the mechanics were creating a game loop within a game loop that encouraged full use of your arsenal. Similarly in SOPFFO:
  • You risk your stamina to increase MP with soul shield.
  • This allows you to break the enemy stamina more easily and get more MP.
  • Which allows you to negate your stamina with Lightbringer at the cost of your maxMP.
  • And when that wears off you go back to the beginning.
The huge quantity of jobs and upgrades made this a great motivation to experiment with all the different elements of the game that I may have otherwise overlooked. The weapons upgrades however are next to useless, you essentially have to grind to upgrade them and will immediately walk into a new level and find something twice as tantalising sticking out of a Pirate's booty.

It is very unique in many ways, but in the respect that it feels like it hasn't quite evolved into a finished project. It's not entirely unfair to accuse it of having a Souls Borne Identity, a vibe that I think caused this game some damage having wandered into the fight after Elden Ring, but it reminded me much more of a mobile game than a PS5 title and I wouldn't be surprised if it was later to revealed to have initially been exactly that. Overall I finished it, enjoyed it, and would play a sequel, but I would not recommend it to anyone. Everything good about it is available elsewhere in better games. Not quite Nioh enough, not quite Final Fantasy enough, but not bad.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I picked this game up strictly for the podcast and played for a few hours whilst sick yesterday... And I can describe my feelings as both "bored" and "overwhelmed." For a game that purports to be a loud, dumb prequel to FF1, I found the combat to be incredibly convoluted, with menus buried in menus and way too many mechanics introduced all at once. I found myself wandering through dungeons and actually falling asleep from the monotony.

The story, what little I saw of it, is incredibly threadbare as well. You and your fellow burly men show each other their crystals, and Jack really doesn't like Chaos. I'm sure all this gets explained later, but the way the narrative is presented did absolutely nothing to compel me to keep playing. The edgy overtones of the dialogue and art direction came off as incredibly juvenile as well.

I have heard this game gets really good toward the end, and I look forward to the podcast episode to learn more. But for me, life is too short to meander through a game I don't enjoy to experience a strong finale. I had some degree of hope this game might represent an interesting change of pace for Square-Enix, but it's really more of the same. I describe the last decade or so as the "instant ramen" era of Final Fantasy - cheap, empty calories, lacking flavour, and a poor imitation of the real thing.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (1.4.23) - 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by Wuqinglong »

Light spoilers for the ending of the game and all 3 DLCs contained.

I knew SoP was up my alley and went in expecting to like it. However, I did not imagine it would become my favorite entry in the franchise. It is though for a myriad of reasons. The combat is the closest to what my young self thought FFXV would play like from trailers back when it was still called FFXIII Versus, the music rocks, and the story is both enjoyable as a surface level over-the-top romp but when you delve into it contains metatextual elements that make for a deeper experience. I have seen some reviews touch upon the metatextual nature of the game, unfortunately I can no longer locate the one I wanted to reference when sitting down to reference so I will do my best to highlight the points it made from memory. I like Jack as a stand in for players of a certain disposition that just want to get past the story and kill the big monsters. I love the level referencing FFXIII with this verdant lush environment that funnels you through claustrophobic narrow passageways when the setting seems to logically suggest you should be able to explore more freely, all while FFXIII's main refrain is hinted at in the accompanying track. I literally did a double take when I heard it, past hallway-induced video game trauma bubbling up.
And that's the real core of why I love this more than any other final fantasy game I've played in the past 20+ years, sappy as it may sound, it made me feel things with much more regularity than most games do. Seeing locations from pre-3D titles in the franchise rendered in loving detail was sheer joy. The floating continent from VI and the crystal tower were some favorites to see imagined in 3D to name a few. I was laughing at the surface level silliness of the plot while also impressed how they managed to make Jack not only come off as a grumpy goof that everyone loves for no reason(max charisma stat I guess) but also somewhat of a selfless clever planner who manages to orchestrate a scenario to overthrow deity-like powers while constantly forgetting everything over and over again. This desire instigated by meeting someone in an even worse situation than himself that he wanted to help. The sensation of conquering some of the iconic bosses, especially when I was very poorly geared, was exhilarating. As a big fan of the original Final Fantasy some of the bosses were quite nostalgic on a personal level. The DLC had some wonderful fanservice battles as well, FF1 Bahamut, Gilgamesh, Warrior of Light, and the freaking Emperor from FFII. Good 'ol greg is even a summonable ally who performs one devastating attack in the final DLC. The final ending even ties into Dissidia which makes me want to echo a sentiment I've heard on Cane and Rinse before: it feels as if the game was made for me.
Alas, nothing is perfect and there is one aspect of the game I feel could be improved to make it a better experience for any player. The gearing system is very fun once you understand it but poorly explained. Arguably not even explained at all. After completing the base game I had to make liberal use of extra mode to clear the story portion of the first DLC. I then had to do my homework for an hour or so to learn how to make a build and how to farm it. I've clocked over 2600+ hours in Path of Exile and even I felt the barrier to engaging with the game's deeper systems was far too obtuse. It wasn't anywhere near enough to dampen my love for this game but it did give me a good reference for understanding why many people bounced off it so hard.

TLDR: I love this game and think it's the best.

3 Word Review: Best Final Fantasy
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Re: Our next podcast recording (1.4.23) - 563: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by AndrewElmore »

Jim Jarmusch's Strangers In Paradise: Final Fantasy Oranges is the kind of game I fall in love with at first sight. What a beautifully, gleefully stupid work of art. A celebration of the PlayStation 3, and 35 years of Final Fantasy. I don't care for fan service one bit, but Stranger of Pair Of Dice won my heart anyway, by turning all of its levels into such clever abstractions of their respective game themes, that it became less a series of references to previous games and more a series of angles on this fractured multiverse of temporal paradoxes, woven together with chaotic abandon.

Crucially, I feel a bit too emotionally close to this game to be able to talk about it with any kind of potency in the acceptable length of a forum post, so instead I'm going to share the lovely final paragraph from Jackson Tyler's brilliant review of the game for Paste magazine.
Ultimately Strangers of Paradise is perfect, not because it’s the greatest game or one of the richest and most exciting tales they’ve ever told, but because it’s a clear eyed reckoning with the limits and faults of the series. It’s just a mid-budget 7/10 JRPG with some of the worst level design you’ve seen in your damn life, some characters you really like, a few moments that’ll make you sad and a few moments that’ll make you cheer. The Final Fantasy fandom often devolves into factional war about when the series started being good, stopped being good and started being good again. Stranger of Paradise is a needle to pop that bubble, showing the series in the light of day as just some pretty good videogames made by a company. There’s just a hero in a silly hat, and at the end they play a great song. What could be more Final Fantasy than that?
https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/str ... giness-its

Three word review: Go wild, Jed.
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raisinbman
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Re: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by raisinbman »

Very interesting stuff on this podcast. I think this is why C&R is such a credit to people's gaming experiences - I follow the industry, as I'm sure many do, but the only thing I've really heard from the talking heads is that: "7/10, Chaos", and while the memeability of all this is apparent, getting the actual breakdown of their (failed) vision for some sort of Final Fantasy...anniversary celebration game and/or crossover series, I just did not know all that was under the hood.

Considering the amount of weird titles, strange business decisions, and the financial reliance Squeenix has had on FF14, the docuseries would be amazing if squeenix ever keels over or maybe sells.

Especially as someone who's a kingdom hearts fan, it's interesting to see there's another game which screwed the pooch in a similar manner.

I might still grab this but, it is interesting to think what would this be if it actually had the full force of Squeenix behind it, but much like them saying Dissidia would be part of Esports, that's probably far from the reality.

Listening to the pod was like not being able to take your eyes off an impending car crash. Could not keep my metaphorical eyes off of it, lol.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Yeah I really enjoyed this podcast too. While I will 100% never go back to this game due to how profoundly obnoxious it is in its own numetal stupidity, and because the gameplay just isn't my jam, I do respect their attempt at an ambitious storyline that attempts to link the Final Fantasy worlds. The gameplay seems to be very deep too, for folks that enjoy that sort of thing. I am not one of those people, but I respect the depth of the mechanics from afar.

If you look at a lot of recent Square games - KH Melody of Memories, this one, World of Final Fantasy, Dissidia, FF7R... There seems to be a unified plan within Square-Enix to present Final Fantasy and related properties as a sort of multiverse, rather than isolated games. Lots of lore mechanics around time travel, dimension hopping, all sorts of fourth wall breaking meta-commentary... I suspect Nomura and co are trying their damndedest to make Kingdom Hearts make sense. Plus they want to build a commercial empire like Marvel. I broadly feel like the great writing and scenario building of 90s Square has been abandoned in favour of, "Woah, look how meta!" spectacle. I can't say I'm here for it, but I see it.
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