Developer: Team Ninja, Square Enix
Store Link: Epic Store, PlayStation, Xbox
Genre: Action-RPG
Release: 10th, March 2022
How do you normally define a Final Fantasy game? Is it the mysticism? The allure of regalness and opulent structures? The magic fantasy setting mixed in with other genre settings, that includes Final Fantasy 7 is what makes the worlds of Final Fantasy really stand out. Not Stranger of Paradise, though. No, this game is all about the action, it throws every single trope out of the window and just accepts itself for what it is.
There's not much of a story to talk about, no profound sense of wanderlust for its lore, narrative, characters, and setting. No, it's all about unleashing absolute carnage to wreak havoc for one man's simple quest. Find and destroy Chaos.
While it might be disappointing to some degree that there isn't much tangible of a Final Fantasy story out here, for me, it was Team Ninja's ability to create a hyper-stylized, fast-paced hack n slash gameplay that kept me playing. And no it isn't a Nioh reskin either. They have incorporated Final Fantasy DNA in the gameplay too and they all work incredibly well.
Somewhere in a kingdom at great peril, a prophecy has stated that warriors of light, those who hold dark egg shaped crystals, are destined to fight against a great evil and rid the land of their terrible plight. Starting off with Jack, Jed, and Ash, as the game goes on, new characters holding the crystals are also introduced and join the party.
The game wastes no time introducing the characters and story itself, but it's not a story that is giving you urgency when your main character acts like he honestly couldn't give a damn about anything else and is only out for his quest to beat Chaos. To surmise who Jack is, he's the stereotypical Saturday night cartoon version of a chad who cuts straight to the chase and doesn't like long-winded sequences of exposition and talking. Basically the sigma chad with a gruff voice.
If you're not lore savvy, this game is a prequel story to Final Fantasy 1. There are interesting nods to the first Final Fantasy as well, including how the main characters themselves being related, and how Stranger of Paradise's story plays into setting up for the main storyline of FF.
I didn't save screenshots for story bits, but maybe for the best because where the game truly shines is in the gameplay. There's no open world segments, just missions where I explore a level and take out main baddies, basically bosses to clear the levels out. It's not called an action adventure because there's nothing even remotely open-world about the level designs.
I was mindlessly destroying enemies before the 4th hour, realizing I have to handle gears and fit in rarer equipments for better stats, I even had to dismantle them because I was running out of space. There was a max capacity for inventory, and taking out enemies would drop a heck ton of loot to pick. A lot of micromanaging to be done regarding inventory, you don't even get to buy weapons, just upgrade or dismantle.
Missions would tell you the kind of loots they would drop, so that you pick and play them for farming. Tougher the missions, rarer the items with better stats.
Now, if you've played Nioh, the fast-paced, hyper combo based gameplay is largely similar here. But it isn't a Nioh game. No, it's a Final Fantasy game that feels like Nioh, because it's from the same developers of the former. Stranger of Paradise combat is challenging and nuanced in so many ways. Much like Sekiro, you have to learn how to time your blocks and parries.
Timing these are important, because they give mana. There are two kinds of blocking, one is with your weapon, which depletes your stagger meter but saves you from taking hits. The other is Soul Shield. Time this well, and you'll steal projectile abilities from other enemies and throw them back. It'll also increase your mana meter max to six slots when blocking attacks when well-timed. You'll lose your mana meter if you take damage or don't do anything to keep it up. It's urging you to play it like a bad-ass.
You'll need mana for both combo abilities, which are prompted from attack command, and command abilities, activated providing status like less mana consumption, protecting you from damage, and poisoning enemies from each attack. Attacking enemies till their health drops to zero or depleting their stagger meter to activate Soul Bursts, where enemies are killed quickly by animated takedowns, pushing others away while increasing max mana points.
All that understood, I would have assumed the game would been easier to play. It wasn't. No, SOP requires long time playing, practice with trial and error before you'll get used to it. Enemies have all different attacks, and they're mostly fast. They can stun and silence you even, before dishing out enough damage for a game over screen. I was constantly on edge each fight, and man it was so much fun, as expect from the guys who made Ninja Gaiden games and Dead or Alive. Culmination of fighting game and Final Fantasy mechanics embedded in this hack n slash.
While it would always seem like enemies have the upper edge because of their damage and coordination, I would at times stagger enemies down whenever I hit them in mid-attack sequence, even parrying turns the tide faster than you would think. This game has these ace card moves and I had to work my way knowing where they were. My teammates also help, but they aren't much active use other than activating this hyper attack mode where they dish out ridiculous damage around strategic points of the battle.
Every mission you play, has a boss battle. They're all pretty unique, sometimes just to throw you off, they'll finish it half way, and you'll be like "wait, that was it?". Then there's this boss battle you're seeing. Tiamat. Literally broke the game and I died from this guy like 17-20 times already. Super tough as hell, and I needed to remember every attack, especially the 2nd round because he starts to regenerate as well.
The other big reason to play this is the job tree system, this is where progression truly shines. Because you get to play as different classes which you have to unlock my maxing out each of them. Unlocking combo and command abilities. I went from Ronin to a Samurai, my teammates went from Rogue to Thief, and so on. Even for Mage classes, the higher you go, the stronger you stay. It's a complex system that can only work if you do the grind. Having items with class affinities increases damage, so the missions I mentioned having more drops are important for this.
Outside it's weird mission structure, claustrophobic level design, annoying camera, and glossy visuals, you got a game that tells you to push it to the limits. And if you're too frustrated, you can tone down the difficulty for a bit. Or better yet, use the co-op option and make your friends carry you in the game.
The story is underwhelming, but it isn't a big downer, overall it's the less disappointing aspect of the game. But I have a big issue to point out, I can't fathom why Japanese developers don't code the PC port well. There are serious stutters and sluggish performances I've experience through playing this. A patch came out, but that fixed half the issues.
For console, I heard it runs fine. I would wait till they've fixed the PC port problems entirely. Outside that, amazing game. Will rock your socks off.