There’s no sugar coating it – Stranger of Paradise’s story is the greatest most concentrated illustration of “so bad it’s good” which i think I’ve ever familiar with a relevant video game. Jack himself is comically overwritten, and most from the game events occur with little link between them. The outlet scene where the major characters meet seems like it’s missing dialogue and context. It’s entirely cringe-worthy, but enough where it was incredibly entertaining. I can tell the plot and characterisation of Jack, especially being divisive amongst players. However, even though this is abhorrently bad when it comes to video game storytelling, it’s still remarkably entertaining.
It’s extremely fortunate, then, that Stranger of Paradise is an excellent action game underneath it all. Similar to Nioh before it with Dark Souls, many have been quick to compare farmville to Nioh. While both are action RPGs, Stranger of Paradise carves out its very own niche to offer something entirely its very own. However, it’s similarly structured to Nioh. Each level is chosen from a world map and offers a dungeon to crawl and a killer boss at the conclusion. Some locations have more than a single mission to offer too.
This means that Stranger of Paradise is comprised mainly of the items it will best – combat. It’s certainly one of the fastest Team Ninja games I’ve played (second simply to Ninja Gaiden itself) and has all of the features you’d expect from a bet on this ilk. There’s parrying, evading, and blocking, and there are regular attacks and special attacks too. The most unique aspect is Soul Shield, a special block that depletes your stamina meter but recovers your MP.
The crux of the combat is around managing your MP pool, which powers both magic and special abilities that you’ll learn while you gain levels. Stranger of Paradise isn’t like other games in the genre – dying won’t lose you any experience. Instead, as you finish off enemies, you’ll be able to expand your maximum MP pool. Dying in Stranger of Paradise merely resets your maximum pool to the base levels, with an opportunity to return where you died to restore it too. It’s a much gentler method to punish players than games like Nioh, Dark Souls, as well as Elden Ring did.
It’s all pretty standard stuff for an action game, though Stranger of Paradise does its better to fold Final Fantasy into that mix to provide up something much cooler.
Enter the jobs system. You will find over twenty-five of these in Stranger of Paradise, and then any Final Fantasy fan will be acquainted with how they work. The task you select for Jack governs what weapons he is able to use and what abilities he has access to. Many of these are pulled from classic Final Fantasy games – think the warrior, dragoon, or black mage. Each of them has their very own skill tree that improves their abilities and grants bonuses regardless of which jobs you've equipped. It’s a friendly system that encourages you to definitely mix things up, and, better still, you are able to hot-swap between two jobs at once around the battlefield.
What I really liked about the jobs system in Stranger of Paradise is when much flexibility it offers a superior in combat and just how much depth there's to it. I’d often spend time with the Sage – an expert of both monochrome magic – but additionally change my second job and among the games many physical options too. Dragoons are masters of spears and can make use of the series signature “jump” move, while the Monks can buff themselves to provide more damage per hit, for example. There’s a heap on offer here, or being able to mix and match from the pool well over twenty jobs means there’s bound to be something here for everyone.
Similarly, although some abilities are associated with your job selection, others are bound to whatever weapon you have too. Learning among the weapon-based abilities in one job unlocks it for just about any other job as long as you have that same weapon type equipped. These abilities are wonderful, too – they may be slotted among your family attacks to alter your combos and make combos that be perfect for your playstyle. Top this with abilities that you could absorb from certain enemies and throwback at them, and you’ve got an excellent pool of options at any point in combat to drag from.
If I’ve not provided it clear – the combat in Stranger of Paradise has greater depth and scope than I could have ever hoped for, and it’s why it’s such a joy to experience regardless of your playstyle or skill level.
The enemies and locations are similarly pooled from classic Final Fantasy lore. It’s fun to determine all these classic creatures be tweaked to better suit the faster paced gameplay in Stranger of Paradise, and also the boss battles can get especially hectic. Locations are similarly, while not just as they seem in other games, inspired through the classic games’ locations. It’s a bit of a shame then that about two thirds of the way with the game, the enemy variety is stifled considerably – you’ll fight pallet swapped versions of enemies you’ve already seen, though with various abilities.
Most would quickly take the mental shortcut and think that Stranger of Paradise is as hard as games like Nioh or Dark Souls. While Stranger of Paradise could possibly get pretty tough – it not only has selectable difficulties but even a casual mode that does a lot of the heavy-lifting for you personally. I’m all for more people playing this game how they want – despite the fact that I switched to Hard about a third of the way through to give myself more of challenging. That being said, I never found myself stuck on the games’ numerous boss battles for more than an hour at a time. If you’re less stubborn as me, you are able to lower the problem quickly on a per-mission basis at the save points in the game.
Following completing the game, there’s a brand-new mode called Chaos Mode, which feels like a brand new game plus mode of sorts that’s more difficult and tuned more with end game progression. Similarly, your work trees can be “mastered” to improve their benefits. So even though Stranger of Paradise will take most players between twenty-five to thirty hours to accomplish, there’s more to keep coming back for. Even cooler, two other players can tackle the game’s numerous main or side missions. People who join their friends’ game will earn more than usual EXP through a consumable called anima shards, so there’s a pleasant incentive there to do this too.
The game isn’t without its faults, though. While it’s fantastic to be able to see all of your collected gear appear on your character, Stranger of Paradise does fall victim to the dreaded looter-shooter mentality. I acquired over fifty items once, all with marginal stat variations in one level. To the game’s credit, it’s effortless to pick multiple and discard them or dismantle them for components that may improve other weapons. However it feels pretty unfocused and, without a doubt, is among the game’s weakest aspects. I rarely ever selected my equipment and just used the series-standard “optimise” option instead.
The game’s biggest bad thing is also the most obvious – its presentation. Stranger of Paradise looks efficient at times, nevertheless its production values feel remarkably low typically. I opted to experience the sport in performance mode, which meant an apparent decrease in resolution to get the game running as smoothly as it was. The worlds themselves are beautiful and well realised, just like most cinematics; it’s exactly that the sport is lacking some type of shine or polish to make it look just like it can be. Actually, it’s advanced significantly since the demo, with clear alterations in lighting so that they can allow it to be brighter and colourful, but it’s still a bit of a strange-looking game. It’s good the music is excellent Final Fantasy fare, composed of entirely original pieces and joyfully remixed pieces from older games.
THE PLAYSTATION 5 VERSION WAS PLAYED FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. A DIGITAL COPY From the GAME WAS Supplied by THE PUBLISHER.
