Despite the confusing wording, the story difficulty on default makes this the easiest Soulslike ever, yet the fighting is still rather deep.
I’m afraid you won’t find any logic or purpose behind the protagonist Jack’s constant rage when he pulls out a smartphone-style gadget to play nu-metal from the aughts during a sincere moment. (The song is never heard again.) Stranger of Paradise, a dark retelling of the original Final Fantasy, is odd, to be sure, but it leaves you completely perplexed as to how it came to be rather than surprised or amazed.
This is more complex than simply Tetsuya Nomura’s worst protagonist in a long time. The most of what Jack says can be summed up as “I have to kill Chaos” and “Where is Chaos?” with barely a trace of personality or humor to make up for it, even if the game’s creators may squirm at the memes that have been going viral since the game’s announcement. I am Jack’s total absence of character. However, his friends don’t do much better in his defense.
Stranger of Paradise is a B-tier film in comparison to the opulent production standards of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Although I can tolerate a campy, trashy comedy, a large portion of the presentation made me chuckle unnecessarily. Despite being an action game, I advise sticking with Resolution Mode because Performance Mode’s graphics are distractingly blurry and struggles to maintain a steady 60 frames per second. There are also poorly edited cutscenes where audio cuts abruptly, poor audio mixing where dialogue is overpowered by the music, and other issues.
And then there’s the script itself, which is comically awful. Either vague jargon or confusing grunts and false-start umms and hmms are employed by characters to communicate; the latter is a typical but equally annoying voice-acting technique in Final Fantasy. To be honest, the first 8-bit JRPG was scarcely renowned for its intricate plot, with four Warriors of Light teaming up to purge Chaos from the planet (though Stranger of Paradise ultimately gains five). But if you render the same scene in incredibly lifelike 3D cutscenes, you’ll have to suspend disbelief over the tallest mountain when our original Strangers first meet, give them no character growth or purpose, and then immediately go to cheesy fist bumps like best friends.
The gameplay is Stranger of Paradise’s savior, though. Although the mainstream Final Fantasy games have already begun to focus more on real-time action, this spin-off is dedicated to the intense, Souls-style combat that is the hallmark of developer Team Ninja, the company that created Nioh and Nioh 2. Yes, Stranger of Paradise’s fighting is essentially the same as Nioh’s, albeit with a few tweaks that make it less savage. After all, this is the first game in the genre with customizable difficulty, offering an additional casual option in addition to the normal “story mode.”
It is refreshing to have the option to complete Stranger of Paradise’s campaign in a fraction of the time of a typical Soulslike, as someone who has enjoyed spending countless agonizing hours in Elden Ring’s harsh and dangerous world and believes that conquering those challenges is essential to its design. That time would have been spent on a slow and brutal journey of death and mastery. You may argue that God of War is more similar to Dark Souls, especially when it comes to killing enemies with extravagant finishing moves. I am also the seething, crystallized fury of Jack.
It is not only a reworking of Nioh’s Ki gauge that powers these fanciful glory kills thanks to the Break system. It’s also employed in an interesting Soulshield technique where you may hold for a much larger window at the expense of your Break gauge, rather than parrying with precise timing. When you parry successfully, you can instantly charge in with a counterhit and replenish a magic meter used for special attacks (which is assigned to the right trigger by default and replaces a standard powerful attack). It’s unfortunate that while playing in story mode, this tactical rhythm of parrying, countering, and special strikes is quickly undermined by the ability to just carelessly hack and slash.
In addition to other concessions, a Soulslike’s typical brick barriers are lessened regardless of difficulty setting. Like in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, text alerts you to opponent special attacks so you may prepare without having to watch their animations closely. These are also color-coded; purple text may be absorbed with Soulshield to provide a limited instant ability, while red text indicates unblockable assaults like grabs.
Character progression, on the other hand, is an interesting fusion of Final Fantasy’s job system—which features deep skill trees that lead to even more jobs being unlocked—and Monster Hunter, where your power is based on your equipped gear rather than your level—allowing you to switch between two jobs at any time. If you choose the former, you can start a quest much below the suggested level and still have a chance of finding the necessary gear that the first few monsters you face will drop. Though the latter does necessitate leveling up, you don’t have to worry about losing runes or souls upon death, and you may even use the anima crystals that are rewarded upon mission completion to fast-track career levels.
I find it almost admirable how reckless Square Enix is when it comes to its own past, and I’m not sure how much of Stranger of Paradise was meant to be humorous. Is it only laxity or is it irreverence?
Given the advantages of multiplayer, comparisons to Capcom’s game make more sense. Parties have the added benefit of sharing a pool of three phoenix downs, which allows you to auto-revive (teammates may also revive each other with a spare potion), making fights much more forgiving. While playing solo, you already have two competent AI companions.
But Stranger of Paradise has some of Nioh’s drawbacks as well, such as an excessive amount of stuff that you’ll have to constantly change out and disassemble between missions. Nothing endures, and even the goofy costumes lose their appeal as soon as you notice the same armor types being reused in larger quantities or with different colors.
Not to be outdone by FromSoftware’s worldbuilding, the mission-based stages also have a set format and you can always see a door or ladder that will come up as a shortcut later on. Each of the dungeons is actually based on environments from games across the series, despite the fact that this is a reimagining of Final Fantasy 1 and shares some of that game’s beats, such as the trek to the four crystals guarded by four fiends and the recreation of the iconic title screen where silhouettes of the Warriors of Light look back over at Castle Cornelia in the distance (your sojourns in the city itself are less inspired, unfortunately). Though it also makes this universe much less logical than it already is, it’s a pleasant touch of fanservice when you identify a dungeon matching the themes of Final Fantasy 7’s Mako Reactor, or an underground tomb with similar traps as Final Fantasy 12’s Tomb of Raithwall.
I find it almost admirable how reckless Square Enix is when it comes to its own past, and I’m not sure how much of Stranger of Paradise was meant to be humorous. Is it only laxity or is it irreverence? Even if you felt the Final Fantasy 7 Remake departed from the original storyline, there appeared to be a reason and a plan behind it. In contrast, Stranger of Paradise seems like a poorly thought-out fiction that has been allowed to plunder the back catalog.
But for those who are only interested in the fighting, there’s still enough of colorful and trashy action to be enjoyed, particularly if you play it like a ride at a Final Fantasy theme park and get to bash a recognizable bestiary (Bombs! Courels! Malboros!) for brightly colored goodies. If anything, it may argue in favor of Soulslikes (Soulslites?) who are less demanding and more accessible. You may also simply think, “Bullshit,” and turn away, just like Jack did.