The soul of Final Fantasy, It's never a mercy to forget
In an era where video games have extremely super serious narratives, deeply complex characters and extremely dense world building comes a game like Stranger of Paradise that comes in like a breath of fresh air of a bygone era of Square's history. A new vision for Final Fantasy that comes closer to what it actually is than you might think too as Team Ninja manages to do the Final Fantasy name in good service here with the great and engaging gameplay, great soundtrack, the narrative that takes its time but pays off in spades and a one note protagonist with one of the roughest exteriors with a lot of heart: Jack Garland.
I've never really played any of Team Ninja's action games beforehand but I can say I love the pacing of the combat and how responsive it is. A less methodical approach and rewards perfect reaction: the mechanics all work in tandem and when it clicks, it truly clicks. Soul shielding is one of the most rewarding parrying mechanics along with it being pretty easy to use too which lets people that aren't versed in action games a feeling of accomplishment when you pull them off perfectly. I haven't really paid much attention to gearing in my playthrough but it'll probably be more important in the "endgame" activities but the loot system works like a traditional one seen in most games these days with enemies dropping loot with colored rarities. The job system which actually seen in much in Final Fantasy anymore makes a return here and the number of jobs and weapons is staggering. Almost every iconic job here bringing something different to the table with unique abilities each to the point I'm actually surprised they pulled off mages in an action game pretty well. The soundtrack is overall great here with some remixes to old familiar songs from the Final Fantasy series if you can hear them out and some of the combat themes remind me of XIII's music with the way the strings present themselves (you'll see in the main combat theme and the first boss fight). The story doesn't actually deliver much but it does deliver things in fragments but then when it all comes together makes for one of the best endings in a game and something you'll love if you played the original Final Fantasy and with that said, I really do recommend playing the first Final Fantasy to get the most of this story because what you'll appreciate here is really good and for someone that hasn't played it or at least know the premise, a lot of it will be lost on you.
One thing I'm sorta disappointed about is the levels in this game. As you may or may not know, each level or area in the game is based on a previous Final Fantasy title. While the areas visually look good, the levels themselves are sorta disappointing in terms of seeing them not as realized and not giving as much fan service as this title was willing to utilize areas from the previous final fantasies. I was hoping for a little bit more or some unique monsters from each game but the game other than the passing dialogue mentioning each area. I don't really care about graphics but the PC port is pretty bad and for what it gives, it's not worth the tradeoff at all but in my personal experience, I only really had slowdowns during the executions so it never really impacted my gameplay and the game ran at a smooth sixty frames a second 95% of the time but it's still not excusable so it's something to keep in mind. I still think the story is great but it does keep its cards close to its chest to the point some people might find it lacking for a good while and I can understand that even though the ending made up for it and especially if you're a Final Fantasy fan.
Stranger of Paradise isn't a perfect game and it won't be for everyone but honestly what is here is a fun action game in the end of the day. The story and ending hit really hard for me to the point I can't see this game as nothing more than a celebration of what Final Fantasy has become for a lot of people. It's really rough around the edges but the heart of the series is in full force here just like with Jack Garland.
He really did it his way.
In an era where video games have extremely super serious narratives, deeply complex characters and extremely dense world building comes a game like Stranger of Paradise that comes in like a breath of fresh air of a bygone era of Square's history. A new vision for Final Fantasy that comes closer to what it actually is than you might think too as Team Ninja manages to do the Final Fantasy name in good service here with the great and engaging gameplay, great soundtrack, the narrative that takes its time but pays off in spades and a one note protagonist with one of the roughest exteriors with a lot of heart: Jack Garland.
I've never really played any of Team Ninja's action games beforehand but I can say I love the pacing of the combat and how responsive it is. A less methodical approach and rewards perfect reaction: the mechanics all work in tandem and when it clicks, it truly clicks. Soul shielding is one of the most rewarding parrying mechanics along with it being pretty easy to use too which lets people that aren't versed in action games a feeling of accomplishment when you pull them off perfectly. I haven't really paid much attention to gearing in my playthrough but it'll probably be more important in the "endgame" activities but the loot system works like a traditional one seen in most games these days with enemies dropping loot with colored rarities. The job system which actually seen in much in Final Fantasy anymore makes a return here and the number of jobs and weapons is staggering. Almost every iconic job here bringing something different to the table with unique abilities each to the point I'm actually surprised they pulled off mages in an action game pretty well. The soundtrack is overall great here with some remixes to old familiar songs from the Final Fantasy series if you can hear them out and some of the combat themes remind me of XIII's music with the way the strings present themselves (you'll see in the main combat theme and the first boss fight). The story doesn't actually deliver much but it does deliver things in fragments but then when it all comes together makes for one of the best endings in a game and something you'll love if you played the original Final Fantasy and with that said, I really do recommend playing the first Final Fantasy to get the most of this story because what you'll appreciate here is really good and for someone that hasn't played it or at least know the premise, a lot of it will be lost on you.
One thing I'm sorta disappointed about is the levels in this game. As you may or may not know, each level or area in the game is based on a previous Final Fantasy title. While the areas visually look good, the levels themselves are sorta disappointing in terms of seeing them not as realized and not giving as much fan service as this title was willing to utilize areas from the previous final fantasies. I was hoping for a little bit more or some unique monsters from each game but the game other than the passing dialogue mentioning each area. I don't really care about graphics but the PC port is pretty bad and for what it gives, it's not worth the tradeoff at all but in my personal experience, I only really had slowdowns during the executions so it never really impacted my gameplay and the game ran at a smooth sixty frames a second 95% of the time but it's still not excusable so it's something to keep in mind. I still think the story is great but it does keep its cards close to its chest to the point some people might find it lacking for a good while and I can understand that even though the ending made up for it and especially if you're a Final Fantasy fan.
Stranger of Paradise isn't a perfect game and it won't be for everyone but honestly what is here is a fun action game in the end of the day. The story and ending hit really hard for me to the point I can't see this game as nothing more than a celebration of what Final Fantasy has become for a lot of people. It's really rough around the edges but the heart of the series is in full force here just like with Jack Garland.
He really did it his way.