Game:

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022)

Duration: 31:30

210 views

8

This is the start of my Stranger of Paradise playthrough. Playing blind after it was released free for PS+ users. I had a passing interest in this game, being an FF fan and generally liking action games. This one was made by Team Ninja. And boy does it show. If you're familiar with Nioh or Wo Long, you'll notice a loooooot of similarities gameplay wise, right down to the menus. It's basically like a Nioh game with a Final Fantasy skin.

We don't see too much of the gameplay yet because it takes a bit to get going after the cutscenes and the game just kind of expects you to dick around in the practice missions to learn how to play, which...isn't very immersive or fun. I got bored of doing that pretty quick. I can summarize the basics of the gameplay quickly by saying "it's like Nioh" but obviously there's some nuances, some make it better, some make it worse. There's no stamina, but you can only do heavy attacks if you have MP, and you have to build up MP per stage so it's basically just a different kind of stamina management. On one hand, this means you can use regular attacks, block, and dodge as much as you want, but on the other, you just can't use half of your moveset if you run out of MP. And the game will take away some of the MP you built up if you die to something, so if you get stuck on a boss, the fight just gets harder, which is really annoying. So you see, it's really a mixed bag gameplay wise.

I can say the same for the story as well, without spoiling anything. It does a lot of really cool things, but it could have done them way better. Overall, I did enjoy experiencing it though, so there's that. It's relatively short compared to the other Nioh-ish games too, I finished my playthrough in about 20 hours. So at least it doesn't overstay its welcome.

The game also uses Frank Sinatra's "My Way" as it's theme, and boy does youtube's copyright detector not like that, so this part isn't monetized. I cut out the only other time it's used, in the game's credits.