Stranger of Paradise teaches Final Fantasy fans to enjoy Souls-likes

Stranger from Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, the new action game from Team Ninja and Square Enix by Koei Tecmo, immediately feels different from its Final Fantasy predecessors. Barely an hour into the game, I found myself traversing a magical forest as its protagonist, the manly man Jack, killed a handsome griffin by grabbing it by the head and then slamming it to the ground with a timely finisher. . When the beast died, blood-colored crystals shot out of its body and then the creature evaporated into the air. A Final Fantasy game has never felt so brutal.

This high-difficulty Souls-like spinoff will be a “bold new vision” for the Final Fantasy franchise, according to producer Jin Fujiwara, and one that will take the franchise’s tone in a noticeably darker direction. The result is a compelling gameplay challenge and a first for the Final Fantasy franchise. Polygon played a preliminary version of PlayStation 5 that allowed us to explore Stranger from paradiseThe first two maps: one, a dark and winding castle, the other a magical forest. We were then able to speak with three developers at Team Ninja to learn more about their approach to making Final Fantasy’s toughest game yet.

Stranger from paradise assigns Final Fantasy fans a new kind of challenge: Mastering Dark Souls-style combat. This isn’t the first action game between the main series or Final Fantasy spinoffs, but it’s the first to be so deliberately difficult. During the preview, I was quickly thrown into action after a short tutorial explaining how to time my blocks, stop attacks, and use the in-game Soul Shield. I soon discovered that thanks to my Soul Shield, at least I didn’t need to time everything perfectly. The shield provided a small cushion that helped me perform more precise attacks, such as a quick block and parry.

Initially, the developers weren’t sure how such an action-driven title would be accepted by both Final Fantasy fans and others who might not be as skilled with action games. “We definitely had a lot of conversation about it,” said game director Daisuke Inoue. “And one of the answers we came up with was to have separate difficulty levels to suit different players.” There are three levels of difficulty, one of them a very light “story mode”.

Image: Square Enix

From there, the developers brainstormed other ways to incorporate more Final Fantasy elements and themes into Stranger from paradise. Eventually, the team landed on a job system, where players could take on roles like White Mage, Monk, or Dragoon, just like they would in other franchise games like Final fantasy 14. So while combat is new to them, players are still familiar with the powers that each role will bring.

Still, the team didn’t always agree on how to make the new entry feel like a Final Fantasy game. “When creating some of the stages, like the Shrine of Chaos, apparently there were fights between the developers,” Yasuda said. “Because they grew up playing Final Fantasy, like the original Final Fantasy, and they had their own vision of what this sanctuary should be like.”

Yasuda understood that Final Fantasy is special to fans, on a very personal level, for very different reasons. Therefore, there were many ways to do Stranger from paradise feel part of the Final Fantasy universe for them. In one of the dumbest moments in the preview, a vibrant plant collided with me in the middle of the forest and then ran across the screen. I quickly realized that it was the Cactuar, a fan-favorite Final Fantasy enemy. I tried to chase him, but he hit me and then he was gone.

“Even for past titles, like the FF titles that I’ve been a part of, people have told me ‘Oh, you just incorporate some fun with Cactuar,’” Yasuda said. “So with that, with the game being a very dark game, we made an exception for our Cactuar.”

In my time with the preview, if there was only one moment when Stranger from paradise It really felt like a Final Fantasy game, that was it. Not the elaborate roles, and certainly not the tough fights. The fact Stranger from paradiseThe creators who thought of including such a wacky moment made me feel more viewed as a Final Fantasy fan.