came in expecting something absolutely awful. went out desperately wanting more. cast was fun music was great combat was incredible whats not to love honestly
Haven't actually played this game.
It's probably funny as fuck.
It's probably funny as fuck.
I really enjoyed my time playing through this game. There’s just something about how the game doesn’t take itself seriously that I really enjoy. It’s just a fun power fantasy essentially, where you go around as Garland and his crew and absolutely demolish everything in your path. And there’s so many different jobs, or classes, you can use that it doesn’t feel boring after a few hours. I would definitely recommend this game.
This is one odd game. So odd that it's hard to talk about it critically. It's junk food. Is it arrogant to critique junk food? Do you treat McDonalds like you'd treat a restaurant, fine dining or not? Of course it's not the same thing, this used to be an AAA priced game on launch that got price-dropped afterwards, but it still isn't set out to wow you with its amazing story and visuals or whatever do AAA games promise nowadays, and that is fine.
That being said, it succeeds. It's a fun game with deep systems and engaging combat that makes you feel powerful, segmented by competent dungeon-crawling segments, each loosely based on a different numbered game in the series (which is unfortunately too subtle to be impactful). This is all accompanied by a story that is fun to experience and doesn't take itself seriously, but at the same time is a bit hard to follow and is not as meme-y or as satirical as it might seem for those who watched clips of it online. These funny moments are actually part of main character Jack's oddly compelling character development, something that is one of the game's biggest charms and gives the journey more meaning. Other than that, there's the in-depth job system that allows for a lot of customization and the amazing and surprisingly free co-op, which is by itself the ultimate way of experiencing this gem.
Overall, it's a relatively short soulslike experience that can be straight-forwardly played with friends, and that is something that I'm partial to. It being a Final Fantasy game with a Final Fantasy story is just icing on the cake.
That being said, it succeeds. It's a fun game with deep systems and engaging combat that makes you feel powerful, segmented by competent dungeon-crawling segments, each loosely based on a different numbered game in the series (which is unfortunately too subtle to be impactful). This is all accompanied by a story that is fun to experience and doesn't take itself seriously, but at the same time is a bit hard to follow and is not as meme-y or as satirical as it might seem for those who watched clips of it online. These funny moments are actually part of main character Jack's oddly compelling character development, something that is one of the game's biggest charms and gives the journey more meaning. Other than that, there's the in-depth job system that allows for a lot of customization and the amazing and surprisingly free co-op, which is by itself the ultimate way of experiencing this gem.
Overall, it's a relatively short soulslike experience that can be straight-forwardly played with friends, and that is something that I'm partial to. It being a Final Fantasy game with a Final Fantasy story is just icing on the cake.
It may be objectively the most 7/10 FF of this decade, but what I've played was a banger. Jack made me genuinely laugh by how he acts as an over the top chad, gameplay is a mix of lootfest and Nioh. A guaranteed fun for me.
Chaos game is good game.
Combat system is fleshed out with the job system and there is a ton to do with it. My favorite was monk, I used it the whole game and there is even more too. On top of the special moves you get, and the ability to steal spells, I struggle to understand how people can call this repetitive. How fun the game is depends on how much you choose to interact with it. I think people on this site just don't like action games that much. They'll complain that this 10-hour game is too repetitive and then talk about a 50-hour jrpg being the best game ever made. I also see a lot of complaints against the Team Ninja games that they have bad level design, and I personally don't see that. All of them kinda hit the same notes that souls games do, with the exception of Nioh 1 that is a game where the developers intentionally try to make to hate it.
This game is also a love letter to the FF franchise. So many levels are modeled off of areas in mainline games. There's an area that's based off the first big FF12 dungeon with walls that push you into pits. Sunleth waterscape, a song from FF13 gets repurposed. There's a FF15 level, and so much more.
The story is fine, I like seeing jack do the chaos things and talk about chaos and being chaos and destroying chaos. It's kind of a big task to make a prequel to a 40-year old game. If you hate it, you probably take stories too seriously. Team Ninja has never done stories well, and I still don't know why people expect some masterpiece from them. A small complaint from me is that I don't like having to choose difficulties. I like having just one and you have to deal with it. But I also understand that this is a Nioh game for babies so it is what it is.
Chaos good, Game good, and now I am CHAOS.
Combat system is fleshed out with the job system and there is a ton to do with it. My favorite was monk, I used it the whole game and there is even more too. On top of the special moves you get, and the ability to steal spells, I struggle to understand how people can call this repetitive. How fun the game is depends on how much you choose to interact with it. I think people on this site just don't like action games that much. They'll complain that this 10-hour game is too repetitive and then talk about a 50-hour jrpg being the best game ever made. I also see a lot of complaints against the Team Ninja games that they have bad level design, and I personally don't see that. All of them kinda hit the same notes that souls games do, with the exception of Nioh 1 that is a game where the developers intentionally try to make to hate it.
This game is also a love letter to the FF franchise. So many levels are modeled off of areas in mainline games. There's an area that's based off the first big FF12 dungeon with walls that push you into pits. Sunleth waterscape, a song from FF13 gets repurposed. There's a FF15 level, and so much more.
The story is fine, I like seeing jack do the chaos things and talk about chaos and being chaos and destroying chaos. It's kind of a big task to make a prequel to a 40-year old game. If you hate it, you probably take stories too seriously. Team Ninja has never done stories well, and I still don't know why people expect some masterpiece from them. A small complaint from me is that I don't like having to choose difficulties. I like having just one and you have to deal with it. But I also understand that this is a Nioh game for babies so it is what it is.
Chaos good, Game good, and now I am CHAOS.
Personally, I was struggling with the hack-n-slash combos mechanic and changing classes during mid-battle. This is my personal "Dark Souls" game moment. The story itself doesn't offer much aside of it as a pseduo-prequel to the original Final Fantasy. The dialogues have some cringe-worthy moments with cheesy lines. This game was intended and designed to be a serious game while some of the scenes and the line delivery was unintentionally hilarious and meme-worthy materials.
Yeah, guys... it's a good game.
Gameplay is Nioh and I fw that (a pretty good Nioh tbh, maybe a bit too easy), but I get why it isn't for everybody. The weapons have a nice variety of moves, the jobs system adds a good layer of customization and the Sekiroish posture bar + different attacks with specific responses compliments everything pretty well.
I was just expecting your average bs writing because of how infamous this game became, but it's just and enjoyable silly game, and that's fine. You get the goofiest and most unhinged scenes (and i mean it in a good way), you can have a laugh at the clichés of the IP, you get a healthy dosis of fanservice/tribute to the whole franchise, you get a compelling ending to nicely wrap the story (even if it isn't anything mind blowing) and most importantly, you get CHAOS. Did people just miss half the game being satirical? Did they expect a life-changing plot? I know FF has some dense fans, but c'mon, it's so explicitly meant not to be taken too seriously.
Gameplay is Nioh and I fw that (a pretty good Nioh tbh, maybe a bit too easy), but I get why it isn't for everybody. The weapons have a nice variety of moves, the jobs system adds a good layer of customization and the Sekiroish posture bar + different attacks with specific responses compliments everything pretty well.
I was just expecting your average bs writing because of how infamous this game became, but it's just and enjoyable silly game, and that's fine. You get the goofiest and most unhinged scenes (and i mean it in a good way), you can have a laugh at the clichés of the IP, you get a healthy dosis of fanservice/tribute to the whole franchise, you get a compelling ending to nicely wrap the story (even if it isn't anything mind blowing) and most importantly, you get CHAOS. Did people just miss half the game being satirical? Did they expect a life-changing plot? I know FF has some dense fans, but c'mon, it's so explicitly meant not to be taken too seriously.
class building / combinations 💯💯
So far, it's the best game I've been able to dig into this current year. An explosive game with no shortage of fun combat, a play-your-way attitude, and an overall awesome story, even if it takes a little bit to spread its wings.
To start with the most important part of a game like this, the gameplay. It's truly phenomenal what they've been able to do with this. Most games do dive into the whole break-bar vs. HP mechanic so many times now, but Stranger of Paradise just does it differently, based on what kind of player you are. You can be the HP-draining goon spamming high-level attacks at a boss and overwhelming them with pure skills. You can be the break-master, using parries and exploiting spell weaknesses to pop their shields quickly, then come in with a satisfying crush. Speaking of crushing enemies - did they grab some YouTube ASMR artist to work sound for these kills? Popping enemies with Jack's crystal-power will NEVER get old as long as you play, and there are plenty of satisfying moments to keep you playing. I didn't even get into the parry mechanic that allows you to steal an enemy attack, stock it, and unleash it on another enemy going forward. If that's not demonstrating how this game is absolutely fire, I don't know what is. This game is already taking insane liberties my brief time with FF7R failed to take, and is nailing down combat to make it less repetitive than something like FF16. It is definitively, the best feeling action-based FF game ever.
To venture more into the awe-inspiring class building of FF Stranger of Paradise, almost every Final Fantasy class is here for long-time fans of the JRPG to enjoy. You'll be spoiled quickly for choice when things really start to unlock, and it's easier to earn job XP. There's maybe 8 base classes that devolve into another 8 advanced classes, with another 8 or so expert-level classes that continue to give players more choices as they enter deeper. It's fun as well because basic does not necessarily mean bad. Job affinities keep the system in check, pairing strategy with job selection.
The story is pretty good. I think there are some times the game really has nothing to say, so it doesn't, and I applaud the game's designers for doing that as it works towards a really satisfying build and conclusion, but it does leave me feeling awkward for about 40-60% of the game as you're really just going level by level. Speaking of which, level design could be a bit better, as most are just three checkpoints in a linear fashion and then a boss battle, but I applaud them for still finding ways to branch paths, and explore ways to hide loot and enemies like the Cactuar and Tonberry for mega-XP and loot.
This amazing game loops in elements from a ton of my favorite franchises: Borderlands, Diablo, strokes of the right stuff from FF15/16, and presents this in a masterful, wonderful game that doesn't take too much time of yours from bloat, as most AAA games seem to do nowadays whenever you hear "RPG".
Stranger of Paradise is the best Final Fantasy game I've played in my life, and it should be a much, much more recognized game amongst the community and game-reviewers as a whole. Give it a shot on a sale if you're curious.
To start with the most important part of a game like this, the gameplay. It's truly phenomenal what they've been able to do with this. Most games do dive into the whole break-bar vs. HP mechanic so many times now, but Stranger of Paradise just does it differently, based on what kind of player you are. You can be the HP-draining goon spamming high-level attacks at a boss and overwhelming them with pure skills. You can be the break-master, using parries and exploiting spell weaknesses to pop their shields quickly, then come in with a satisfying crush. Speaking of crushing enemies - did they grab some YouTube ASMR artist to work sound for these kills? Popping enemies with Jack's crystal-power will NEVER get old as long as you play, and there are plenty of satisfying moments to keep you playing. I didn't even get into the parry mechanic that allows you to steal an enemy attack, stock it, and unleash it on another enemy going forward. If that's not demonstrating how this game is absolutely fire, I don't know what is. This game is already taking insane liberties my brief time with FF7R failed to take, and is nailing down combat to make it less repetitive than something like FF16. It is definitively, the best feeling action-based FF game ever.
To venture more into the awe-inspiring class building of FF Stranger of Paradise, almost every Final Fantasy class is here for long-time fans of the JRPG to enjoy. You'll be spoiled quickly for choice when things really start to unlock, and it's easier to earn job XP. There's maybe 8 base classes that devolve into another 8 advanced classes, with another 8 or so expert-level classes that continue to give players more choices as they enter deeper. It's fun as well because basic does not necessarily mean bad. Job affinities keep the system in check, pairing strategy with job selection.
The story is pretty good. I think there are some times the game really has nothing to say, so it doesn't, and I applaud the game's designers for doing that as it works towards a really satisfying build and conclusion, but it does leave me feeling awkward for about 40-60% of the game as you're really just going level by level. Speaking of which, level design could be a bit better, as most are just three checkpoints in a linear fashion and then a boss battle, but I applaud them for still finding ways to branch paths, and explore ways to hide loot and enemies like the Cactuar and Tonberry for mega-XP and loot.
This amazing game loops in elements from a ton of my favorite franchises: Borderlands, Diablo, strokes of the right stuff from FF15/16, and presents this in a masterful, wonderful game that doesn't take too much time of yours from bloat, as most AAA games seem to do nowadays whenever you hear "RPG".
Stranger of Paradise is the best Final Fantasy game I've played in my life, and it should be a much, much more recognized game amongst the community and game-reviewers as a whole. Give it a shot on a sale if you're curious.
You don't often get video games that are so bad they're good in the way that you get Steven Seagal movies or something because unfortunately you have to play them, but Stranger of Paradise fits the bill - it's a genuinely entertaining total fucking mess.
This review contains spoilers
Being a fan of the final fantasy series. I wanted to at least give each game its fair share to see what exactly they all have that special to them. Which is why it's funny enough that I am starting with one of the newer titles that is a prequel to the original game.
In concept Stranger of Paradise is an interesting attempt to give a story to the character Jack Garland who spoiler alert, is the first boss of final fantasy one. So there's not a lot you can try to come up with there. But to their credit Square Enix and Team Ninja tried to at least do something.
The problem is it's very hard to get attached to a character that in the original game exists and gets defeated by 4 level 5 characters. Throughout the entire time with the story, I found it very hard to believe that this guy is the same person that I had to fight in the chaos shrine within the first maybe half an hour of final fantasy one.
I played through the whole game with a friend and tried to keep an open mind to the story and to try and let it all get into my head. So I could have my own opinions and see how good this story could possibly be. The only words I can say before I come back to it is anyone who says that Jack Garland is the best protagonist we have ever had in final fantasy is a liar. The story felt like it was beating me over the head for even trying to understand it and really only became good within the final hour maybe.
Combat wise the game is incredibly fun. Setting up classes however you want. Each having different abilities that make them viable and combing abilities from some classes makes the experience even more fun. For example, I played Dark Knight which allowed you to use your health to deal more damage so a risk vs reward. I would then add in abilities from other classes to recover HP so I wouldn't lose as much.
Graphically the game looks great. Each location is based off a location from all the past final fantasies up to that point so from 1 to 15, each places has a location tied to it. It was a love letter in the sense. Each location also used a motif from the original games so you could have part of the original song included in and it sounded so good. My favorite was 15's rep.
Now the actual story. The entire time you're getting these moments that are supposed to make Jack and his comrades seem as though they know each other very well but we never get to see them actually do anything together, and all these are just weird moments that make no sense until the very end. And even then it's still done poorly to the point that you still don't understand.
The game ends how you expect if you've played Final Fantasy. Jack has to become Chaos. However, the way in which they do was interesting, but feel flat for me. You find out that basically the world of Final Fantasy is being reset by another race of people to keep trying to balance light and dark within it to help with their own world??? It was kinda vague even then. And Jack has been sent in multiple times to keep the balance. By the time you take control of him, he has secretly set in motion the means to stop this reset and to have the world act in its own way and can't be controlled anymore.
The plan of course being, become Chaos. But due to the world being reset, they keep losing their memories. So Jack gets someone on the inside and basically says, "Hey, lead me and I will make sure this doesn't happen again." The rest of the party slowly gets their memories back but it takes Jack the longest to get it back so for the entire game you're as in the dark as he is. The second to last mission has the party remember what to do and fight Jack so he can kill them and regain more memories and corrupt himself to become chaos as you are now forced to kill your comrades which maybe would've made someone emotional but because of how it is handled you're kinda meh about it.
The final mission itself has you go and blast your way through the chaos shrine to go and take the fight back to the lufenians to take the world of FF1 back. You invade and fight Darkness Manifest which is Amano's art of Chaos turned into a 3D model and it looks fantastic. The game ends with Jack taking up the mantle of Chaos, his "friends" becoming the 4 fiends, and them saying we'll train the warriors of light ourselves as the game fades to black and begins the timeloop before cutting ahead the beginning of FF1 with Jack, officially in the Garland armor sitting on the throne in the chaos shrine as the Warrior of Light and his party enter. You see them wrapped in light before.... and I'm not joking... fucking Frank Sinatra's My Way starts playing and credits role.
The moment the credits hit, the bits I was starting to enjoy and even looking forward to immediately turned sour. I felt angry, annoyed, and felt like I was played for even trying to enjoy the story.
All in all. Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origins is great with combat, cool outfits, but horribly captured characters that have no reasons for you to care about them till it's to late and a story that beats you up for trying to understand it.
I can not in good faith recommend this game unless you just want to ignore the story and beat the shit out of stuff.
While there is DLC for it I'm not sure when I'll get to it after how the story made me feel. But when I do this review will be updated.
In concept Stranger of Paradise is an interesting attempt to give a story to the character Jack Garland who spoiler alert, is the first boss of final fantasy one. So there's not a lot you can try to come up with there. But to their credit Square Enix and Team Ninja tried to at least do something.
The problem is it's very hard to get attached to a character that in the original game exists and gets defeated by 4 level 5 characters. Throughout the entire time with the story, I found it very hard to believe that this guy is the same person that I had to fight in the chaos shrine within the first maybe half an hour of final fantasy one.
I played through the whole game with a friend and tried to keep an open mind to the story and to try and let it all get into my head. So I could have my own opinions and see how good this story could possibly be. The only words I can say before I come back to it is anyone who says that Jack Garland is the best protagonist we have ever had in final fantasy is a liar. The story felt like it was beating me over the head for even trying to understand it and really only became good within the final hour maybe.
Combat wise the game is incredibly fun. Setting up classes however you want. Each having different abilities that make them viable and combing abilities from some classes makes the experience even more fun. For example, I played Dark Knight which allowed you to use your health to deal more damage so a risk vs reward. I would then add in abilities from other classes to recover HP so I wouldn't lose as much.
Graphically the game looks great. Each location is based off a location from all the past final fantasies up to that point so from 1 to 15, each places has a location tied to it. It was a love letter in the sense. Each location also used a motif from the original games so you could have part of the original song included in and it sounded so good. My favorite was 15's rep.
Now the actual story. The entire time you're getting these moments that are supposed to make Jack and his comrades seem as though they know each other very well but we never get to see them actually do anything together, and all these are just weird moments that make no sense until the very end. And even then it's still done poorly to the point that you still don't understand.
The game ends how you expect if you've played Final Fantasy. Jack has to become Chaos. However, the way in which they do was interesting, but feel flat for me. You find out that basically the world of Final Fantasy is being reset by another race of people to keep trying to balance light and dark within it to help with their own world??? It was kinda vague even then. And Jack has been sent in multiple times to keep the balance. By the time you take control of him, he has secretly set in motion the means to stop this reset and to have the world act in its own way and can't be controlled anymore.
The plan of course being, become Chaos. But due to the world being reset, they keep losing their memories. So Jack gets someone on the inside and basically says, "Hey, lead me and I will make sure this doesn't happen again." The rest of the party slowly gets their memories back but it takes Jack the longest to get it back so for the entire game you're as in the dark as he is. The second to last mission has the party remember what to do and fight Jack so he can kill them and regain more memories and corrupt himself to become chaos as you are now forced to kill your comrades which maybe would've made someone emotional but because of how it is handled you're kinda meh about it.
The final mission itself has you go and blast your way through the chaos shrine to go and take the fight back to the lufenians to take the world of FF1 back. You invade and fight Darkness Manifest which is Amano's art of Chaos turned into a 3D model and it looks fantastic. The game ends with Jack taking up the mantle of Chaos, his "friends" becoming the 4 fiends, and them saying we'll train the warriors of light ourselves as the game fades to black and begins the timeloop before cutting ahead the beginning of FF1 with Jack, officially in the Garland armor sitting on the throne in the chaos shrine as the Warrior of Light and his party enter. You see them wrapped in light before.... and I'm not joking... fucking Frank Sinatra's My Way starts playing and credits role.
The moment the credits hit, the bits I was starting to enjoy and even looking forward to immediately turned sour. I felt angry, annoyed, and felt like I was played for even trying to enjoy the story.
All in all. Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origins is great with combat, cool outfits, but horribly captured characters that have no reasons for you to care about them till it's to late and a story that beats you up for trying to understand it.
I can not in good faith recommend this game unless you just want to ignore the story and beat the shit out of stuff.
While there is DLC for it I'm not sure when I'll get to it after how the story made me feel. But when I do this review will be updated.
nah
Caos
started to play because of the memes, kept on playing because the game is actually good
also jack is fucking awesome
also jack is fucking awesome
I love the magic system and how monster hunter kind of this is.
And the lore expansion, my god, this is so cool overall and reveals so much of the entire final fantasy universe without sounding too off the tracks.
Before we only had things like Gilgamesh as a unifying point (in fact, I think he is the only one, as in the Dissidia games he's the only one who retains memories and it's due to his capabilities of swapping between realities and universes, while other recurring characters or names like Cid are different on each universe) BUT NOW we have all this shit that explains a bunch of stuff, and on a kind of good game, with coop even. Nice.
And the lore expansion, my god, this is so cool overall and reveals so much of the entire final fantasy universe without sounding too off the tracks.
Before we only had things like Gilgamesh as a unifying point (in fact, I think he is the only one, as in the Dissidia games he's the only one who retains memories and it's due to his capabilities of swapping between realities and universes, while other recurring characters or names like Cid are different on each universe) BUT NOW we have all this shit that explains a bunch of stuff, and on a kind of good game, with coop even. Nice.
-Played it just to have more of nioh and was surprised of how complex and fun the game is.
-platinum✔️
-platinum✔️
I genuinely have no words to describe the absolute peak that this game is. Probably my favorite version of the FF job system, a story that, while short and simple, really lends itself to its gameplay and characters, and most importantly, is an amazing love story to the entire mainline FF franchise (up until this point at least).
The game's world is based off the world of Final Fantasy 1, but with two major deviations. The biggest deviation is that our main cast members are not the Warriors of light from FF1, and our protagonist, jack Garland, was the easiest one to notice out of the bunch. Its not really a spoiler, the game never hides his name and pretty much every trailer and developer interview after the first one pretty explicitly said "yeah this is an alternate universe telling an origin story of this world's version of Garland". And it does a great job. For as much as some people found Jack's attitude and nature worthy of joking with, the game directly acknowledges why he is the way he is, explains it, and runs with it. They not only explain who he is, why he and his friends all dress so modern compared to the otherwise fantasy characters in the game, but also his memory problems, thirst for violence against Chaos and most importantly, how he becomes the Big Bad of FF1 when he's the protagonist of this title. And its all done very well despite this not being your traditional FF game. The other major change from FF1 is that every stage in this game is based off a previous Final Fantasy title, called "dimensions" in this game. The Sunken Shrine holding the water crystal is a mako reactor from FF7. The pirates in Pravaoka, instead of being in the town like in FF1, are instead in a nearby cave modelled after Sastasha from FF14, etc.
The gameplay is what you would expect from Team Ninja's action rpgs like Nioh, fast paced and stylish combat with a high skill ceiling, grindy postgame and a lot of build variety, combined with the traditional FF job system. Every job has a unique action that can only be used while playing as that job, like the Thief having the "steal" command that lets you steal an enemy's ability (this is in addition to already being able to steal certain abilities by soul guarding, meaning Thief can be used to create a character built around using enemy skills), or the mage classes being able to use magic. There are also, in addition to the starting jobs, more advanced jobs that you unlock by levelling up the existing jobs, like levelling Lancer to unlock Dragoon, but these advanced jobs aren't just "better" versions of the basic jobs either, as using the previous example, the Dragoon job can use the jump ability, but not the spear throw ability that the lancer has. Dragoon can also use axes, in addition to spears, giving you variety in how to play. You might like to fight with a sword and shield, but as several jobs can use swords and shields, you'll need to pick which job compliments your playstyle the best. This is of course, not even getting into the postgame gear and level grind, or the extra changes made to the combat system with each dlc, (which I will review separately) all of which add to the already expansive buildcrafting that the game has.
There are a few downsides here, some of the sidequests (that can either unlock more sidequests, or crafting options) are hidden within the levels of the game, and while some of them are easy to find, there were two or three that were hidden fairly well, and when the postgame is basically nothing but grinding for better equipment and levelling your jobs to create builds, not having the full crafting system available can seriously affect you. If you don't have the dlc, there's no extra story after you beat the game, you can replay previously completed stages at increasingly difficult difficulties, but that's it. Having some secret bosses or mission modifiers would have made this grind significantly go down better (which the dlc does fix btw, although you'll probably want level 200 gear and nearly maxed out job levels before starting). There's no hub area in the base game, which isn't usually an issue with a game like this, but since the game has optional dialogue with npcs after major story beats, needing to go into a menu to hear it instead of just walking through town is a minor downside. Especially if it would have allowed you to actually see the changes to the world being spoken of.
Without the dlc, this is an AMAZING love letter and tribute to the entire FF series, ending where it all began, with four Warriors of Light setting off to the Chaos Shrine to rescue Princess Sarah from the clutches of the villainous Garland. Closing off the game's story with an amazing conclusion that wraps up jack's storyline and ties it all back in a way that, if they ended it right there, i'm sure nobody would complain.
but WITH the dlc... This might become one of my favorite action games of all time.
The game's world is based off the world of Final Fantasy 1, but with two major deviations. The biggest deviation is that our main cast members are not the Warriors of light from FF1, and our protagonist, jack Garland, was the easiest one to notice out of the bunch. Its not really a spoiler, the game never hides his name and pretty much every trailer and developer interview after the first one pretty explicitly said "yeah this is an alternate universe telling an origin story of this world's version of Garland". And it does a great job. For as much as some people found Jack's attitude and nature worthy of joking with, the game directly acknowledges why he is the way he is, explains it, and runs with it. They not only explain who he is, why he and his friends all dress so modern compared to the otherwise fantasy characters in the game, but also his memory problems, thirst for violence against Chaos and most importantly, how he becomes the Big Bad of FF1 when he's the protagonist of this title. And its all done very well despite this not being your traditional FF game. The other major change from FF1 is that every stage in this game is based off a previous Final Fantasy title, called "dimensions" in this game. The Sunken Shrine holding the water crystal is a mako reactor from FF7. The pirates in Pravaoka, instead of being in the town like in FF1, are instead in a nearby cave modelled after Sastasha from FF14, etc.
The gameplay is what you would expect from Team Ninja's action rpgs like Nioh, fast paced and stylish combat with a high skill ceiling, grindy postgame and a lot of build variety, combined with the traditional FF job system. Every job has a unique action that can only be used while playing as that job, like the Thief having the "steal" command that lets you steal an enemy's ability (this is in addition to already being able to steal certain abilities by soul guarding, meaning Thief can be used to create a character built around using enemy skills), or the mage classes being able to use magic. There are also, in addition to the starting jobs, more advanced jobs that you unlock by levelling up the existing jobs, like levelling Lancer to unlock Dragoon, but these advanced jobs aren't just "better" versions of the basic jobs either, as using the previous example, the Dragoon job can use the jump ability, but not the spear throw ability that the lancer has. Dragoon can also use axes, in addition to spears, giving you variety in how to play. You might like to fight with a sword and shield, but as several jobs can use swords and shields, you'll need to pick which job compliments your playstyle the best. This is of course, not even getting into the postgame gear and level grind, or the extra changes made to the combat system with each dlc, (which I will review separately) all of which add to the already expansive buildcrafting that the game has.
There are a few downsides here, some of the sidequests (that can either unlock more sidequests, or crafting options) are hidden within the levels of the game, and while some of them are easy to find, there were two or three that were hidden fairly well, and when the postgame is basically nothing but grinding for better equipment and levelling your jobs to create builds, not having the full crafting system available can seriously affect you. If you don't have the dlc, there's no extra story after you beat the game, you can replay previously completed stages at increasingly difficult difficulties, but that's it. Having some secret bosses or mission modifiers would have made this grind significantly go down better (which the dlc does fix btw, although you'll probably want level 200 gear and nearly maxed out job levels before starting). There's no hub area in the base game, which isn't usually an issue with a game like this, but since the game has optional dialogue with npcs after major story beats, needing to go into a menu to hear it instead of just walking through town is a minor downside. Especially if it would have allowed you to actually see the changes to the world being spoken of.
Without the dlc, this is an AMAZING love letter and tribute to the entire FF series, ending where it all began, with four Warriors of Light setting off to the Chaos Shrine to rescue Princess Sarah from the clutches of the villainous Garland. Closing off the game's story with an amazing conclusion that wraps up jack's storyline and ties it all back in a way that, if they ended it right there, i'm sure nobody would complain.
but WITH the dlc... This might become one of my favorite action games of all time.
Gameplay is coo I wish the story was in the whole game and not the last hour and the characters actually got development so I could care about any of them throughout the game and the soundtrack is pretty mediocre for a final fantasy anniversary game
Nioh só que pior
I was curious by this game for the memes and ridiculous voice acting. Destroy Chaos. That is all I knew we had to do but this game went from a laugh fest to a heart-wrenching tale that made me cry.
First off, if you've played Nioh. Welcome to Nioh with a Final Fantasy skin. The gameplay, the mission layout, the currencies. It's flat out, Nioh and it's awesome.
The Nioh layout was a more accessible souls game and Stranger of Paradise does a fantastic job at being both easy if you want it to be and hard as freakin nails if you choose to play it's harder difficulty setting once you beat the game.
Our main character is Jack, a normal dude who has one goal. Destroy Chaos and that is his whole personality. The plot starts off very simple but then as you play, the hidden reports, the hidden meaning behind characters words. You begin to realise, that it's convoluted and way more intense than you think.
I can't stress enough how this game takes ridiculous over the top acting and gameplay and blends it in the end with the first time I have ever genuinely started crying in gameplay. Not just a cutscene.
This game IS ridiculous. This game IS over the top. However it manages to weave a fantastic ending and is just a huge throwback to how I felt playing a PS3 game for the first time in my parents lounge room.
First off, if you've played Nioh. Welcome to Nioh with a Final Fantasy skin. The gameplay, the mission layout, the currencies. It's flat out, Nioh and it's awesome.
The Nioh layout was a more accessible souls game and Stranger of Paradise does a fantastic job at being both easy if you want it to be and hard as freakin nails if you choose to play it's harder difficulty setting once you beat the game.
Our main character is Jack, a normal dude who has one goal. Destroy Chaos and that is his whole personality. The plot starts off very simple but then as you play, the hidden reports, the hidden meaning behind characters words. You begin to realise, that it's convoluted and way more intense than you think.
I can't stress enough how this game takes ridiculous over the top acting and gameplay and blends it in the end with the first time I have ever genuinely started crying in gameplay. Not just a cutscene.
This game IS ridiculous. This game IS over the top. However it manages to weave a fantastic ending and is just a huge throwback to how I felt playing a PS3 game for the first time in my parents lounge room.
Applies half-learned lessons about level design and class-based customization from the Soulslike genre with junky looting and spammy battle systems from the MMO genre and creates a pretty hysterical mutation out of the two of them. Likely more fun to get a group to laugh at/with but also just on the side of being too easy and silly to feel embarrassed to be playing this in this day and age (even if just because you have a PS+ Extra account for now) to try even random rooms. The type of game where you can discover a wind spell will blow away poison gas, but the arbitrary lava you have to get across isn't affected by spells but instead stopped by destroying the statue it's pouring out of.