Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

[Wol]

It will be just an interpretation of the original they've said... Wait, is that a Whisper!?

Never trust SQ with their vague descriptions..

 

[Odysseus]

My brain dearly desires that cellphone scene to be canon to FF1. Because it's stupid.

 

[Phantasia]

¿Did you guys already play the demo?

I really tried to like the game, I really did...

 

[Strangelove]

i am out all day but i set it to download and it’s ready to go

i am oddly excited

 

[Wol]

 

[Makoeyes987]

According to an interview I read yesterday, it's supposed to be only heavily inspired by FFI, not to be seen as a prequel or continuation of the original.

Well going by common sense, what we see and what we hear with our own senses, the story clearly does connect itself to FF1, by the simple fact of telling a story about Garland, his descent into becoming a demon, and the lead up to FF1 itself. It builds from that text, no one can deny that.

The "unconnectedness" then, is the fact it's a game adaption that subverts the traditional themes, scenario, overall depiction and style of FF1 to create something that is so tonally 180 degrees from the original, you wouldn't think of FF1 immediately unless you looked carefully or heard the protagonists name. Origin clearly serves as a sorta "what if" story that allows us to examine what's behind Garland's character from FF1, except from the perspective of a reimagined setting that frees itself at points from the trappings of the original.

So in the sense of a creative work, it clearly is a unique and standalone adaptation. However, it most definitely is connected to FF1 in the sense that it's showing us a look at who/what Garland is and expects the audience to see a connection to how Garland becomes Garland and evolves into the Chaos we've known for 30 years.

 

[Theozilla]

It’s basically connected to FF1 in the same way the book/play Wicked is connected to the Wizard of Oz film. It’s a “what if”/alternate perspective pseudo-prequel, not literally canon to FF1, but using it as its basis to draw from for its story/setting.

 

[Ite]

It’s basically connected to FF1 in the same way the book/play Wicked is connected to the Wizard of Oz film. It’s a “what if”/alternate perspective pseudo-prequel, not literally canon to FF1, but using it as its basis to draw from for its story/setting.

That's how I'm seeing at as well, particularly because of the artistic direction.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

i am going to be super contrarian today

i don’t think it needs to be an alternate timeline or dimension or whatever. i don’t think it needs to explain itself and how it fits into a continuity or canon. it can just be a story that remixes and reinterprets classic elements from the original game and which stands alone without connecting to a grander scheme. i think more things can do well to not be fixated with forming part of an expansive universe and instead take those shared elements (if you’re going that route) to create something that is its own thing and not bound by trying to slot in to previous work.

I think we both know that after this thing comes out, when Nomura is asked "Is this the origin story of the first FF?" -- he's going to respond "Well, what do you think? If you imagine that Garland's actions in this game do, in fact, lead into those at the beginning of FFI, that is one answer. SoPFFO was made so that it can be seen that way, but you might have fun discussing other ideas about it with friends. Perhaps the player was Garland and Chaos all along. (laughs)"

<_<

 

[Makoeyes987]

If you were take out the cheeky, "perhaps the player was Garland and Chaos all along," your answer would sound so much like a translation of Nomura's interview dialogue, I'd have no reason whatsoever to doubt the origin of that quote. It sounds exactly like something he'd say, which goes to show how you hit the nail on the head.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Not to mention that ever since either Kingdom Hearts 2 or Final Fantasy XIII-2 that some of the recent Square Enix games have gone for alternate timelines and realities and things like that. Especially since how they've added the similar thing in FFVII Remake as well as Final Fantasy XV and it's DLC episodes, or at least in both Episode Ignis and Arydn and used the cancelled final DLC ideas for the Dawn of the Future book.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Don't forget that the *ending* of FF1 was making sure the events leading up to the entire game never happened. The WoL lose their memories of their old timeline, everyone forgets them, there's no need for a WoL to exist at all, a couple thousand years of history get rewritten, etc.

Final Fantasy has been doing alternate timelines/realities and time-travel from *Day 1*.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

If you were take out the cheeky, "perhaps the player was Garland and Chaos all along," your answer would sound so much like a translation of Nomura's interview dialogue, I'd have no reason whatsoever to doubt the origin of that quote. It sounds exactly like something he'd say, which goes to show how you hit the nail on the head.

Gracias.

I could see him saying that last line as well, though, in cheeky reference to the original FF's ending narration that suggests the player was one of the Warriors of Light ("For you are the warrior who crossed time").

 

[ph14basicbitch]

¿Did you guys already play the demo?

I really tried to like the game, I really did...

I thought the gameplay and combat was fine. The characters and story were pretty much as advertised. I find stuff like losing mana on death or soul shield reducing your break gauge annoying, but I understand it's so you don't just hold down circle forever to preempt attacks.

The game really needs some polish though. Sometimes triangle, circle, etc inputs get eaten. My Ps5 was stuttering in certain environments too. I played the first demo as well; they definitely made the environment brighter and easier to see.

The magic casting wheel definitely sucks though and idk how they'll ever fix that lol

 

[Torrie]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1444041737970802688

I'm not sure how serious this game is going to be, but it's already cemented itself as an awesome joke/meme/parody material.

 

[Wol]

As if the game needed to get weirder, jesus lmao.

 

[FFShinra]

I just view it as an Elseworld. Same with Dissidia as a seperate Elseworld. More specifically a villain focused Elseworld, much like Maleficent is an Elseworld to Sleeping Beauty.

If it succeeds, I sort of want all the mainline FFs to get the treatment. Imagine, pre-Magitek Process Kefka....or Ultimecia before she became obsessed with Time Compression....

 

[Shademp]

Ultimecia before she became obsessed with Time Compression....

I have long wanted this story to be told.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I have long wanted this story to be told.

They've explored the past of Final Fantasy VII twice and are doing it again with First SOLIDER coming out soon, they kind of done it with Type 0 at least twice (with first prequel Agito having been shut down) and they're doing it now(somewhat) with the first Final Fantasy game in existence. So a prequel to Final Fantasy VIII could be possible in the future...no pun intended in the game's story world.

 

[Strangelove]

i actually really enjoyed it so far

i played on story difficulty and safety mode to get a feel for the game, and then when i went up to action it kicked my ass lol. i haven't got the hang of some of the moves (took me ages to do the mace tutorial because i couldn't get the back+r1 thing down). also i'm not a big fan of the magic casting either. i assume it's something to do with the network play thing not letting you stop the action but the wheel menu is kind of annoying. i'm sure some is down to my own lack of skill, though. even on the easiest setting i died a couple of times.

thinking of using the feedback form to ask for a bestiary so you can look up enemy info so i don't have to try to remember weaknesses. also i kind of missed stuff like having a bit of flavour text for equipment, it felt a little empty without it.

i've not made my mind up on the loot system, kind of hoping for some way to either sell unwanted items or enhance them.

it didn't really give much story to work with but i still laughed at the scene with the music. although there seemed to be even less in the second area. unless other stages build on it, it felt like filler or just to show off a new area. also the battle dialogue when you're fighting 'garland' being all like, "aren't his moves similar to jack's?" and i don't know if it's just because i know they aren't trying to hide it now but it does seem like they weren't really trying to make that subtle lol.

i have liked the art direction for the locations and enemies.

i played on the graphical quality mode, and while the chaos temple ran fine, the second stage lagged a lot at the start. it eventually got better but that first part was really rough.

there were a lot more ffxiii references than i thought there'd be. obviously the visuals, weather gimmick, and the musical motif. the location name is 水郷 which is the same as sunleth in ffxiii. the area names sound very ffxiii with stuff about rebelling, lightning, flash of light, branded. i even thought the boss was a bit reminiscent of ffxiii's shiva.

made me wonder if there will be other areas based on different games, it would be weird if it was just ffxiii. i thought the equipment you get for the extra mission at the chaos temple looked like ardyn? from ffxv as well (i should really get around to playing that lol).

anyway i've enjoyed it more than i thought it would and was pleasantly surprised. still don't have super high expectations for the story/characters and i'm not very hyped that it's an isekai story from the looks of it, but i enjoyed playing it. although i did see a season pass on the game listing, don't like that.

also minor annoyance, but using name initials on menu screens and having two characters with names starting with j.

also minor amusement, i played with the japanese voices for kentaro tsuda and when you dodge sometimes he makes a little 'ssss' sound and it made me laugh.

 

[Tetsujin]

Not!Chaos kicked my ass a lot. Didn't even bother beating him in the first demo but finally did it here. Magic was actually really useful for burning through his HP in the second phase. Played on Action difficulty. If I get the full game I might swallow my pride and drop to Story difficulty instead, I usually don't have patience for dying a lot
But yeah, the magic wheel doesn't feel good to use. I kinda need to select what I want before I start the battle basically.

 

[ph14basicbitch]

i just played on action, but i might try hard when it comes out. i've never played souls or nioh so the combat was a learning curve for me. i also wound up being the first person on twitch to stream the first demo after it was patched, and i promptly had hundreds of people in chat flaming me for not knowing how to play nioh lmao. the second boss, in the Not-Sunleth area, was a struggle. i thought the tells for their moves were kinda wonky lol. elemental core's fuse, for example - i would often block the 1st 2 hits w/o issue, then the 3rd hit seemed to be... slightly delayed?

i think there's a lot of struggle involved when you have multiple enemies at once. individually, or like, say 2 goblins at once, is whatever. but i tried the crimson bonus mission that opens up after you beat Not-Sunleth, and that was terrorizing cause 5 things spawn at once and attack you lol. what the hell are you supposed to soul shield w/that many things? tho i did find that your soul gauge is actually tied to your weapon... meaning you can have 2 of the same class as your battle sets, but with different weapons equipped, and triangle to swap from 1 to the other after depleting your gauge to quickly regain it. you're sacrificing the flexibility of having 2 jobs equipped, but if you're really good or comfy with one...

overall, i feel like the game will be carried on its combat and memes entirely... based on fujiwara and nomura's reactions to "gaijins figured out jack = garland!!!", it seems this is an Honest product...? not something the devs consider campy or "black comedy"? so uhhh i expect the plot and characters will continue to be unintentionally hilarious.

 

[Makoeyes987]

There's no way they thought a dude playing Limp Bizkit in 2021 on their smartphone, after boldly refuting someone's angst ridden dialogue, all while walking out of a dungeon and then hitting stop on the music player upon leaving the premises of the dungeon and reaching the road ahead (as if giving themselves a dramatic musical send off) was not humorous. That's not possible.

There's no playing that scene as "straight" or "serious." It's never been done like that in FF. That's them playing up some hilarity with Kenjiro Tsuda hamming it up hard. Like something straight out of Yu-Gi-Oh!

 

[ph14basicbitch]

there are bits where you want to believe it's tongue in cheek and self-aware: neon confirming the element core is not chaos after the fight, then turning back to the guys and seeing they are literally already walking off in the fucking distance like it's the "cool guys don't look at explosions" meme, then i read nomura's interviews about the work and im like, "hmm".

edit: the japanese collector's edition comes with a 272 page script book. i will only believe this was intended as a campy, tongue in cheek product if the script book is 272 pages of "chaos".

 

[Strangelove]

why am i thinking about buying that just for the book lol