And So Their Journey Begins…
The Final Fantasy series defined a generation of gaming, constantly pushing the boundaries of graphics and storytelling through the medium of video games. Now, Square Enix have announced at their E3 presentation that they’ll be taking a new look at the roots of their smash-hit series with Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a bold new take on the original Final Fantasy Game.
Developed by Team Ninja, Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will tell the tale of the very first Final Fantasy title: the Warriors of Light journey across the land to restore the power of the Crystals and do battle against the fallen knight Garland. However, there are plenty of twists to the tale this time around – not least, that rather than four Warriors of Light, Final Fantasy Origin will star three: Jack, Ash and Zed.
Seeing as Team Ninja have previously worked on the Final Fantasy-based fighting game Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT, it may not come as a surprise that Stranger Of Paradise will be ditching the originals’ turn-based combat in favor of a Dark Souls-like combat system. We’ve had a small glimpse of the title’s gameplay – you can check it out here!
The official description of Stranger In Paradise seems to suggest that there may be more to the title than meets the eye: “Jack and his allies, Ash and Jed, burn with resolve to defeat Chaos as they throw open the gates to the Chaos Shrine. Yet doubts remain—are they truly the Warriors of Light the prophecy foretold?”. This may mean that Jack, Ash and Jed are not, in fact, the counterparts of the original game’s Warriors of Light, and that Stranger Of Paradise could be taking some bolder turns with the plot of its source material. Of course, Square Enix are no strangers to taking liberties when re-working older titles – the plot of Final Fantasy VII Remake wound up significantly different from its PlayStation 1 counterpart.
Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC in 2022. A demo for the game will be launching on PS5 soon.
