The final trailer for this game dropped today - it's age restricted but I linked it anyway - and this game looks like a beautiful mess. The stilted dialog. The strange character designs.. A final fantasy character walking around with an ear piece checking his phone. The musical choice at the end of the trailer.. It's fascinating. I don't know how many people remember or care who Garland was, much less how "Jack" Garland came to embody CHAOS and become the pixelated knight we all.. sort of remember? I'm not a huge Final Fantasy buff but this is one of those games I will absolutely never buy but am really excited to watch a full playthrough just for all the ham fisted dialog.

Honestly I can't wait to kill Chaos.

This game is going to be deeply stupid but also it's the Nioh team so playing it is probably going to absolutely kick ass and this is a combination I can always get behind.

I have not played every Final Fantasy, but of the ones I have played, I'm of the mind that they've always been a mess. I won't say a "beautiful" one, because I think the majority of them are just deeply boring, boilerplate, JRPG McGuffin gobbledygoo. The things I like in Final fantasy games are going to the moon, suplexing trains, J-Pop Charlie's Angels sequences, Sailor Moon outfit changes, and boys hanging out on road trips. I had a good enough time with the combat in the demos they did for this thing, and I welcome this thing to get as stupid as possible.

If it’s like other final fantasy games in the past decade, it’s be fun enough to play and pretty to look at and have an incomprehensible plot with multiple logic holes filled with unexplained Deus ex machina (magic did it!) and have a terribly unlikable protagonist when it could have starred one of its much more likable party members.

It's definitely going to be a... Unique retelling of FF1.

I enjoyed the recreation of the first "cutscene" and the fiends designs all look good. This might not be a day 1 pickup for me but I'll definitely grab it.

I ended up liking the demo a lot. The boss was a pain in the classic SoulsBourne sense, but once I figured out his attacks and was able to counter them, defeating him felt good. I'll likely play this one, after I finished Elder Ring and take a needed break, like I do with the SoulsBourne like games.

The more recent Final Fantasy trailers have always had great graphics and nonsensical trailers. Stranger of Paradise isn't exactly bucking the trend. The choice of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" is definitely something new though.

I don't know if that translates into a good game. I liked the dumb "GOT TO KILL CHAOS" trailer more.

I wonder if this is all a western issue in that the dialogue is translated like google translate. It seems too strange for them to think westerners will like this dialogue or plotting. I find western media very tempered, and this over-the-top stuff is on the side of western stuff that gets a side-eye from critics who want a slower-paced, character-driven, thoughtful piece that speaks on some trife of man or whatever is current. This all comes off as its own mess of a story we're supposed to care about without knowing why. If the gameplay is good it won't matter thou. I enjoyed FF9's story and can't remember it being too overwrought, and found the vivi i think thats his name, part on existentialism interesting. FF10 had a fun hook, FF4 was classic villain chasing, and so on. They did some tempered stuff in 12, so im not sure what's going on here.

The thing about FF1 is that it's sort of like.. someones meandering Dungeons and Dragons campaign. It's fantasy setting with orcs and elves and shit and eventually you're in a space station fighting robots culminating with a spot of Time Travel.

So it's all a pretty good vehicle to deliver some intentional nonsense.

First, here's the same trailer on IGN's YouTube channel for those who don't want to deal with the age gate nonsense:

Second, oh my God, I could NOT stop giggling in the second half when Frank's Sinatra's "My Way" started playing. What a wonderfully ridiculous song choice. It's that delicious combination where it almost feels like parody, yet clearly isn't intended that way. The "so bad it's good" sort of territory.

Look, I played the hell out of Nioh and Nioh 2, and have been known to like some of Koei Tecmo's Warriors games, and liked the gameplay in that demo back in June, so I was probably always going to pick this up eventually, whether at launch or on sale sometime down the road. I have never cared about story in these types of games, it's all about the gameplay for me, and it seems fairly promising for this one. Team Ninja knows how to make an action game.

But yeah, I have to admit, the song choice for this trailer alone has, I think, pushed me closer toward a launch purchase. What a delightfully dumb thing.

At this rate, Stranger of Paradise is going to spiral out of control and somehow become the greatest game ever made.

I really enjoyed it and call me a chump but I got a lil excited and intrigued when they recreated the opening scene from FFI with the Warriors of Light looking over the hill toward the castle.

I enjoyed the demo and the story seems 'out there' in a way I enjoy. 'Edgy' FF1 meets Malificent/Wicked? Yes, please.

I wish the production value was higher since the talky scenes are pretty atrocious in every way - direction, voice acting, dialogue... The fist bump thing reminds me of Other M, which is not something they would want, I imagine. I am definitely picking it up, though, as long as they fix the terrible frame rate, which they did mention in an Eurogamer interview.

Like a lot of folks here I really enjoyed the more off-beat Final Fantasies with their innovative combat systems - for better and worse. Really had a good time with FFXIII and FFXIII-2 for it's role management simulator and Pokemon-lite mechanics. As someone that doesn't like turn based combat all that much with the exception of Persona, it was a nice twist that kept things moving and meant I didn't have to cherry pick every single spell and attack.

FFXV I honestly can't remember how the combat system worked exactly except that it was very flashy and looked cool. I saw a lot of videos online going in-depth about how you were supposed to chain your different weapons for combos that were never surfaced in the actual game but I was able to get through it just fine without doing anything fancy. Definitely not my favorite combat in the world but once again the faster pace did a lot to keep me playing even when the story was exploding off the rails. That boss fight on the snowmobile as a giant train thing chases you down? They really went for it.

So this new iteration looks extremely goofy and has an active combat system so hey I'm down to try it out. Nioh was great and what I wanted from a sequel was small refinements to the mechanics and better, less monotonous level design. Unfortunately with Nioh 2 they just took Nioh 1 and gave you more of the same except SO much more. The combat system ballooned uncontrollably to the point where your skill trees started to resemble Path of Exile and stages continued to look rather drab. Not as bad as DMC5 but close. Hopefully this game is better about that cause I don't mind another nonsensical Final Fantasy story about believing in yourself but at least give me interesting locations.

For what is a man but a miserable pile of secrets?

I think the actual game will be mostly enjoyable, but i can't say i personally care for the over the top drama that showcases itself every time a character opens their mouth. But it's not a complete dealbreaker to me neither. That would be hypocritical since i love Final Fantasy 8 which has Squall cutting the air with his hand a lot and Zell acting like he wants to beat you up everytime he gets put in his place by someone. This game just oozes 7,5/10 energy.

I'm up for this. I hope the combat doesn't skill-gate me out.

@humanity: For me Nioh 2 was like taking the first game and sanding away all of it’s weird flaws. I don’t think I have a negative thing to say about it.

So I’m pretty excited to see where they go next with a similar format.

@efesell: You didn't think the levels were underwhelming? Kinda plain and boring? As a vehicle to facilitate combat they did the job but compared to like a Souls game they were very bland.

@humanity: No because the skills were the draw to improvement not stats. I also like how broad the stats are and how they feed into all the weapons because you can have some very diverse build combinations.

@efesell: Ok I get it - sort of like people that play DMC just to unlock Bloody Palace and endlessly beat up on stuff in an arena. I enjoy a good combat system but personally I want the game to be a full package otherwise I find it quite monotonous no matter how interesting the act of killing baddies has the potential to be.

What a goofy trailer. Love it. The dialogue is so hilariously bad, but I think they know and are going into it. For the most part I really liked the demo. Looking forward to it.

I feel like I'm into this. I worry that this is a 40 hour game that would become exhausting in practice, but these 4 minutes sure are a thing. I feel like best case scenario, this would be a Best of the Worst CG movie with a fun brawler tied to it. But the worst case scenario is pretty bad.

Well, if they're going to use a Sinatra song in their trailer, they should have gotten the rights for the song "Stranger IN Paradise". Tony Bennet sang a pretty good version of it. How fucked up would that have been?

I'm into it. I still can't tell from the trailers if the "so bad it's good" tone is intentional or an accident, but I'm excited to find out.

@efesell: Just a heads up its not exactly the Nioh team proper. Its some members of that team, some from Square Enix, and then another group at TN that made that Dissidia Final Fantasy NT that came out a few years ago, and did not get great reviews. Not saying this will be the same, but if it is then at least you know it wasn't exactly the Nioh team haha.

I'm in. Day 1 purchase. I'll probably be streaming this for the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run. I am down for the dumb.

Unironically my most anticipated release for the first half of this year. It looks like an absolute goat fuck of a narrative with challenging, mechanically solid combat. I'm all the way in.

The dude's name is fucking Jack Garland.

I enjoyed how some of the areas had interactive elements, like how puddles and ponds would damage enemies if you used lightning magic on them, and I hope they have more of that in the final release.

I wasn't sure about this game, but the Sinatra has sold me

I loved the heck out of Surge 2 so my standards for bad level design can get pretty low.

I realize above that I translated in my mind "levels" as character progression and not Levels levels.

I dunno I didn't find anything objectionable about the Nioh 2 level design. Decently varied and it all fits together well enough with its shortcuts and side paths. It all felt very comparable to normal Souls fare.

It was definitely one of the things I found improved from the first game because Nioh was choose your variety of Cave or Fucked Up Building and that was about it.

I am vaguely horrified to realize that this is out in a week.* Horrified because I'm still playing this Elden Ring thing, maybe you've heard of it. There already aren't enough hours in the day for that game, I almost don't want another big one on my plate. But I can't resist, it looks delicious.

2022 is definitely looking like a hell of a year for games from where I'm sitting. Between the two already mentioned, plus Salt and Sacrifice, Rogue Legacy 2 hitting 1.0, the Monster Hunter Rise expansion, Hitman 3 year 2... and that's just the first half of the year or so.

*Technically it's out on the 18th, but you get 72-hour early access for digital pre-orders, so in actuality it's midnight next Tuesday.

I think I might get into this but then I realize I still have to play Intergrade and I guess a few rounds of First Soldier. It might seem silly to prioritize considering they shouldn't be connected at all. However this is Nomura's world, we're just living in it.

As was discussed in a different thread I'm just really curious if this ends up being "so bad it's good" with goofy cutscenes or if it's just going to be flat out bad. The combat should at least make it somewhat interesting.

it's absurd. it's just absurd. it's so cringe lmao. i love it so much.

Welp, there's now a demo available on PS4 and PS5 that will let you play the first three stages and carry over your progress to the full game:

https://blog.playstation.com/2022/03/09/new-stranger-of-paradise-final-fantasy-origin-demo-lets-you-carry-over-progress-to-full-game/

PS Store link:

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-PPSA06684_00-SOPFFODEMO000000

So it's... sort of out now, really?

Downloading now, I'll probably mess around with it a bit before I go to bed.

@atheistpreacher: I won't be able to try it out until tomorrow. How's the performance? That was the disappointing aspect of the earlier demo.

@theonewhoplays: There's a "performance mode" that seems to make everything run fine? I'm admittedly not super sensitive to framerate stuff though.

I'm loving the hell out of this game so far. The opening of it is paced SUPER weird story wise but it's damn satisfying to play. It also seems like it might be easier from the previous demos? I beat the first boss on the second try, but I'm not sure if that's just me getting better.

I had that same impression. Oddly enough, I also beat that first boss on the second try, playing on hard. It seems almost disappointingly easy for a hard mode. And I doubt me getting better had much to do with it, it had been 8 or 9 months since I played that first demo (never played the second one) and I definitely wasn't playing as well as I was back then.

There was also a really tough flying, gargoyle-like elite enemy right at the end of that first demo before the boss that would be respawned each time you rested (just like everything else). I remember enjoying being able to do that tough fight repeatedly to both practice the combat and level up somewhat quickly and get some high-tier gear. Well, now in this version, that enemy was replaced by a Tonberry who was easy by comparison (beat on first try) and he didn't respawn, you can only fight him once per run. Boo I say.

Anyway, I'll have to try more today, I only did that first stage last night before bed and it left me more skeptical about the game than I'd been previously. It didn't help that the story/cutscenes didn't come off as "so bad they're good," but rather just bad, period. The graphics also give the impression of an up-res'd PS3 game. The framerate seemed fine on PS5 FWIW, though to be honest I'm not actually all that sensitive to performance issues.

They probably adjusted the difficulty. A game where people have major trouble with the first (possibly?) boss doesn't really sound like FF, and I would bet lots of people complained about Garland in the demo surveys. I'll check out the performance mode.

@atheistpreacher: The metal griffon/gargoyle is now at the end of the secondary mission you can do in the Chaos shrine. It's still kinda tough, especially since they throw it in a room with a bunch of bombs now.

I'm gonna "finish" it on normal and then go back through stuff on hard and see how I fare with that.

It's hard to call any of story/cutscenes objectively "good" but I find them weirdly charming. I'm completely unironically hyped for this still.

I feel like I need to be completely done with Elden Ring before I play this or I will become totally hopeless at both games if I try to balance it.

I played through the rest of the demo. And after I was finished... I cancelled my pre-order.

I dunno, it seemed way more compelling when I played that first demo. Then I played this, and it seemed disappointingly easy, and I became more conscious of some of my minor gripes, like the loot management being kind of a nightmare (this was a problem in Nioh, as well), and the fact that the game is sometimes so dark that I can't actually see enemies.

I didn't *hate* it, but it just started to feel very meh, like a mediocre Souls knock-off. I'll probably pick it up down the road when it's on sale, but when I've still got Elden Ring to play and other good games are coming out soon, I just can't justify paying full price for this thing.

@atheistpreacher: What a turn of events in only 24 hours! Don't you think the difficulty will probably ramp up as you keep playing or was this more a death of a thousand paper cuts rather than any one specific thing that seems to have completely turned you off of it?

@humanity: I think very much the latter. It isn't any one thing, though the fact that it doesn't seem that challenging even on hard is definitely disappointing. I wouldn't call myself a masochist or anything, I do like hard games and like Souls and Nioh, etc., but I don't even always opt for the highest difficulty settings in games anymore like I used to when I was younger. I did it for this because they tell you that the loot drops are better at higher difficulties, and it seemed like the combat mechanics would shine best with content that's actually challenging, otherwise you could potentially just ignore a lot of the systems, you know?

FWIW I did actually find the final boss of the third area--the last of this demo--to be harder than anything else, but not in a particularly fun way. It was this guy riding a horse who did all sorts of unblockable charging attacks and couldn't be stunlocked at all (actually none of the bosses can be stunned as far as I can tell, except maybe once per fight). Then in phase 2 he'd periodically summon a bunch of adds that would show up for about 30 seconds and disappear... I found that it was more efficient when he did that to just run around in a circle until they went away than actually try to kill them.

It took me four or five tries, but in the end I did it by just playing the most boring way possible, not using any of my class abilities (which all take took long and leave you open) and just whacking him with a few light hits when there was an opening. It meant the fight took a long time but didn't feel particularly satisfying. I remember being pumped when I beat that boss of the first demo after something like two dozen attempts. It felt nice and precise and like I'd really gotten better at the combat over that stretch. Whereas this boss just felt chintzy.

But aside from all the bosses who can't really be staggered by attacks, all the other encounters were just fairly bland and easy. Meanwhile there are the other problems I mentioned: bad graphics, too dark/can't see enemies, equipment/loot management is a pain, writing is terrible, the game is bad at communicating when you'll take chip damage, etc. It has its good points, I like the system of absorbing opponent's attacks, and the job system seems to have some promise, but... yeah. Definitely a "pick it up down the road for half price" type of game for me.

I'm sure it also doesn't help that I've now been playing Elden Ring for over a week, and boy does this game suffer in that comparison.

Game clearly needed another 12 -18 months of polish based on first demo so it's nutty to me they are releasing it during Elden Ring hype season. Wonder how much of Nioh team were moved on to this to get it out the door or if all the Nioh peeps are doing something else.

I have one Souls game in me a year so I'll try this next year unless something more interesting like Surge 3, Jedi Fallen Order 2, or Bloodborne remastered come out.

The third demo really is insanely dark even with HDR on. Wonder why they changed it.

Edit: had to fiddle around with the settings a bit but now the lighting looks pretty decent.

I watched a long stream of the demo in action and it’s mostly what I expected. Absolutely bizarre dialog, voice delivery, story and editing backed by what looks to be a fairly lackluster game that is bogged down by Nioh’s insane clusterfuck of mechanics without being elevated by the Final Fantasy set dressing. The opening levels looked pretty boring and drab which is how I generally felt about the Nioh games. I thought with this being a FF tie-in we would at least get some better locations. Hard to judge the entire game based on three missions but if this is the grand opening what does the inevitable middle-slog portion look like?

The cutscenes themselves look acceptible but the overall presentation is a trash fire. The story doesn't flow at all, there is zero effort to actually introduce the characters properly, and there are some completely bizarre decisions being made here. You can't walk around cities but you CAN talk to random NPCs through the menu (complete with loading times to load in a city background). Just bizarre.

I know Team Ninja suck at everything that doesn't involve fighting (I've never beat Ninja Gaiden or Nioh because the story/characters/presentation are so bland/off-putting I'm not motivated to put in the time to beat those challenging games.

I hoped they had learned something with Nioh 2 and that them working with S-E would result in something more well put-together, but this has almost all of the issues Nioh has.

I do still think the story has some potential, but apart from Jack's extreme surliness the characters feel extremely generic, and I'm afraid Jack and the FF music and enemy models won't be enough to save this.

I'm torn on it. There is something here but it is rough.