There were rumours swirling before E3 of a souls-like Final Fantasy. At the E3 2021 Square Enix Presents livestream, it’s finally real.
Called Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, this game developed by Team Ninja at Koei Tecmo Games alongside Square Enix is “a bold new vision” of Final Fantasy.
The game stars Jack and his buddies Ash and Jed, with all three looking like totally normal dudebros rather than your usual ikemen cast of JRPGs. They are out here to defeat Chaos.
Stranger Of Paradise has a more action-oriented combat system, but still carries RPG, in particular Final Fantasy, elements. There’s a job system that includes familiar jobs like black mage, dragoon and warrior. And unlike most souls-like games, you will be fighting as a party of three.
The Final Fantasy allusions also can be seen in the story as seen in this teaser trailer. The trio calls themselves Warriors Of Light (which may or may not be true) and the big baddy at the end of the trailer looks a lot like Garland (but corrects the party by calling they want to be Chaos).
Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has a demo available right now on PS5 (that includes on PS Store Asia). For those that give the demo a go, you can also answer a feedback survey that can be accessed right from the demo’s menu screen.
There is also a difficulty select screen. So Final Fantasy fans with no prior experience to this genre of games don’t need to worry.
The Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin demo will only be available until June 25.
Team Ninja has established that they can do a souls-like action-RPG seen in the Nioh series (which also had a demo and feedback survey ahead of release). And the team have prior worked with Square Enix for the newer Dissidia Final Fantasy games.
We shall see if this new vision for Final Fantasy pays off when Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin releases on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S in 2022.