STRANGER DANGER
Stranger Of Paradise turns back time
Final Fantasy Origin is weird, but is it art?
You might expect a tome of complex lore to accompany a Final Fantasy game, but Team Ninja’s approach in Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a spin-off/ prequel to the very first game, has a premise as simple as it gets: kill Chaos. New hero Jack might look like he opened the wrong door for the beer garden and ended up in the world of Final Fantasy, but in true Team Ninja style he’s got plenty of violent moves to get the job done.
Pals Jed and Ash look a bit more believably Final Fantasy, and join Jack for the ride. Between them, they’ll be able to take on different jobs to use the spells and abilities of classes like the Warrior, Black Mage, Dragoon, and more. The subjects of their rage are classic-style
Final Fantasy enemies that nod all the way back to that first game, like little goblins.
GROUNDHOG KNIGHT
And enemies don’t get more classic than the evil knight Garlmand, who is pivotal to the plot of that first Final Fantasy game. Extremely powerful, he’s an avatar of Chaos, so it seems that Jack will come up against him in order to fulfil his goal, perhaps clashing with him multiple times. If Team Ninja’s Nioh games are anything to go by, the fights will be spectacular.
Here’s where the Final Fantasy complications seep in: that first game is all about time travel, and Garlmand himself creates a time loop as part of it. So is this new game really a simple prequel? And from what time do Jack and his friends actually hail? Could they be the Warriors Of Light, that first game’s heroes, or is there more to it? Given the mature tone and grim atmosphere, it’s bound to not be all roses whatever the truth of the situation, and if the dev’s history is anything to go by, there will be plenty of combos to pull off before you’re done. The game is due out on PS5 and PS4 in 2022, so all mysteries will be solved then.