LogFAQs > #970775906

28. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/4/5/AABKTfAAEFGF.jpg

I dunno, maybe I'm overrating the game a bit, but I basically had fun with it the whole way through. When it was announced, it didn't really appeal to me. The plot/characters looked dumb, and it being a soulslike seemed like a bad thing, since the genre had more misses than hits for me. But then it came out and a few people seemed pretty into it (plus I played FF1 in the meantime to prepare myself :p), so I figured it'd be worth trying out. Turns out it's a fun game! The combat isn't really as soulsy as was said at first - it's much more fast-paced and you can be a lot more casual about it. Having two AI companions makes a big difference here, since they can draw the enemies' attention from your mistakes. At the level I played it at, the combat wasn't that deep, but it was enjoyable. It's kinda funny that I played this right after Xenoblade 3, since both games benefit from having job systems with a bunch of jobs to keep combat varied throughout the game. Each job has different special abilities and weapons, and swapping after mastering jobs kept fighting from getting old. I love an RPG with good systems/menu management, and SoP has that in spades. Managing equipment can be a little much, since you get so much of it and the auto-equip function isn't very smart, but it was still fun to manage when I cared to.

Of course, that's just the gameplay. The story was as dumb as I expected, but it's also pretty entertaining? Jack's responses to everything are generally over the top and hilarious. The rest of the party can be pretty matter of fact when dealing with stuff too. Some of the line delivery still isn't great, but it mostly works when it counts. The system of talking to NPCs is pretty silly (all from a menu rather than walking around talking to actual people), but the dialogue with them generally ties into the plot of the game well enough, and it's nice that there isn't a ton of it. The ending was quite good, too. These five feel like better friends than, say, the FFXV crew ever did. One weird thing is that Jack's last name was mentioned in a lot of trailers and pre-release content, but in the game itself it's treated like a plot twist. Very strange.

The final cool thing about the game is that the levels are based on areas from other FF games, from a Mako reactor to the Floating Continent. The music for those locations is good too. Sometimes I found myself getting lost (there was no map), which was annoying, but otherwise I enjoyed the level designs. Lastly, the game's use of Frank Sinatra's My Way had me laughing a lot. Cannot believe Nomura loves the song so much that he decided to create a whole game based on it, and this is what we got.

Next game hint: gamers only want one thing and it's disgusting (2022)