Stranger of Paradise arrives with Final Fantasy ‘Unique’ screening

From the first trailers of Stranger’s Paradise: The Origin of Final FantasyWe knew protagonist Jack would be anything but funky. Although considered generic by many fans, the sullen warrior only wants to know one thing: defeat Chaos once and for all.

No smiles, no charisma, no time for small talk. Jack doesn’t care what other people think and does what he wants, for example, turning his back on a little girl and rudely turning away while playing a rock song (very reminiscent of Limp Bizkit, but it’s not) on the cell phone – but not without sending “bullshit” first. This isn’t nearly the same level of seriousness or bad mood we find in Noctis or Cloud, by Final Fantasy XV And the Seventhrespectively.

Jack is just one of the “differentiated” aspects of Stranger’s Paradise: The Origin of Final FantasyThe action RPG game arrived on March 15th for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. In an interview with Canaltech Via email, the game developers talk about the challenges of creating an unprecedented experience for the franchise and the features that set the game apart from others. Final Fantasy.

Take care of yourself, mess!

First, let’s resume talking about Jack. Without remembering his past, the hero finds allies with the same goal: to take on the role of the Guardian of Light to find and destroy chaos. Mysteries regarding the character’s origin are spelled out throughout the story, but the game is not meant to be the “good guy” as the protagonist.

Producer Jin Fujiwara explains that one of the properties it makes strange paradise Unique in the series Final Fantasy is that Jack is not a hero – or rather, he is not the keeper of the light, but rather a villain. How and Why? You will have to play the game to understand it, but if you know the story of the first Final FantasyYou’ll know what we’re talking about.

For Fujiwara, this “changes the perspective of what has always been expected of the franchise (“an adventure to save the world”) and in some way serves as a new suggestion on how to enjoy the series. Final Fantasy“.

Final Fantasy Like Souls?

Developed by Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo in partnership with Square Enix, strange paradise It brings an unprecedented level of difficulty to the franchise by improving some of the common mechanics of soul-like games. Patience and strategy are essential to defeating the bosses, while the cubes scattered across the maps act as fire pits. Evil spirits.

Betting on this style of play is new to the series that was born in 1987 and which for many years has been a role-playing game. Fujiwara comments on the challenge of taking Final Fantasy For another genre, especially when there are a lot of ardent fans: “The hardest part was deciding whether people would accept Final Fantasy in this new genre. As a brand with such a long history, each fan has their own answer to the question about what all this is about. Final Fantasy“.

The producer continues: “In this context, we have developed some aspects of the game so that people can feel the familiar essence of the series. With other aspects, we are trying to prove that this is our unique version of Final Fantasy“.

However, contrary to what it might seem, strange paradise Not as hard or punitive as a Evil spirits – We’ll talk more about that soon in our game review. One of the reasons for this is the presence of the controversial Easy mode, which significantly reduces the damage received and increases the damage dealt to enemies.

For the game team, adding this difficulty level is an opportunity for those looking to have a narrative-focused experience. At the same time, playing in easy mode can be an opportunity for the player to learn the basic mechanics of the game more easily, and then raise the level of difficulty, if he so desires.

Daisuke Inoue, Director strange paradiseHe justifies this idea: “There are many players who are interested in history and the world, but they cannot play because they are not good at action games. But even if action is not their strong point, maybe they can still enjoy the game if they can understand the system better.” [de gameplay] Or timing on a lower difficulty level, making it easier for them to tackle higher levels of difficulty and a sense of accomplishment. “

To bring a lot of new items to the game Final FantasyThe development team relied on Team Ninja’s extensive experience, which includes the participation of Fumihiko Yasuda, who served as the game’s producer. According to him, having worked in titles such as Nioh And the jaden ninja Help the reimagining process Final Fantasy Like an action game in strange paradise. “For this game, I was able to utilize my knowledge regarding boss battle tuning to ensure that [ao jogador] sense of accomplishment,” Yasuda says.

He also states that the difficulty level settings and the ability to play alongside other characters were “new challenges that Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja hadn’t faced before”, but that this came with the goal of “improving accessibility”.

And what does the future hold for the great Square Enix franchise? Final Fantasy XVI It will be the next game in the main series, but its release date has not yet been determined. Will we see the fantasy world transform into other genres? what about Final Fantasy musou, this style is Koei Tecmo’s specialty? Fujiwara does not rule out the possibility, but does not go into details: “I will not deny this possibility. There is not yet Final Fantasy In a musou style, so if it can be produced as a franchise game, there is a chance that it will.”