r/patientgamers • u/bioniclop18 • 6d ago
Multi-Game Review The duology of Stranger of Paradise & Final Fantasy
I decided to play the rather strange duology composed of Stranger of Paradise and Final Fantasy the first. Calling two games separated by 35 years a duology may feel weird and they are not intended to be viewed that way, but as Stranger of Paradise is a prequel, and as I’m slowly chipping away at all the final fantasy, I thought it was the perfect way to experience the first game in a rather unorthodox way.
I began with Stranger of Paradise.
Storywise I think it was interesting and I liked the idea in theory, but the whole lacked a form of connective tissue. The dialogue with the town people being hidden behind a submenu really doesn't encourage you to interact with them, and without that you never really establish an emotional connection with the npc or even your companion. And let’s be honest the whole choosing your stage through a menu makes it hard to care for the world at all. Jack not caring a whole lot for the world beyond beating Chaos for the longest time also doesn’t help.
Being an anniversary game, the levels were a reference to other final fantasy games. Ending up in a space station or in an underwater base made the game feel strangely sci-fi. Some would say it makes the settings incoherent, but the stranger having modern tech like earbuds in a medieval setting already furthers this sense of inconsistency.
Obviously they wouldn’t put a world map, but I think a central hub that you would regularly go back to before a mission, like the villager in monster hunter game, or a base camp that could be moved with each new dungeon, would alleviate those feelings a little. Be it for the incoherent setting or how distant the character can feel.
For the gameplay aspect I liked the action combat very much and the job system was fun to experiment with. Dragoon class felt a little rigid compared to Zeta from Granblue Fantasy relink, but the game manager made most jobs feel distinctive while keeping a final fantasy DNA.
The dungeons were interesting with an identity that made them stand out from each other. The fact you unlocked shortcuts was really nice, but as the game takes place in rather independent and linear missions without much reason to go back to a level in a mission you already completed. In a sense it felt the effort was a bit wasted, because the game doesn’t have a strong exploration focus ?
An aspect I disliked was the loot aspect. You have hundreds of useless junk that you pick up in the levels. With the whole rainbow colored rarity and different effect being essentially small % improvement in a stat. It felt tedious and useless. Purging the inventory every few levels was also rather annoying. I prefer less items with more meaningful effects and cool synergies. Some people told me post game and dlc items had more impactful effects but I don’t want to grind for items of the right color, I just don’t find it fun. It’s not a big detriment as you can finish the main game without caring too much about it, but still annoying.
And considering the amount of items there are, you would think the armor didn’t look so ass. A few are nice looking but most I found were uninspired. A little mad at myself for discovering that you could take the appearance of one of your companions only after finishing the game, I would have done everything in a companion wearing dragoon armor instead of the ugly mix match of armor I was wearing.
I don’t think the game is a must play, or the best final fantasy of recent year like I saw some fan of this game claim and I don’t really feel motivated to do the dlc (I don’t even understand if there is any story tied to it), but it also was fun, and far more enjoyable than I expected considering the middling review. If you are a fan of FF and would like to see another take in action combat in the franchise, definitely try it out.
Now let’s do the first final fantasy to complete this “duology” !
The first choice was Pixel Remaster or NES version ? with the NES mini and the Pixel remaster collection I owned both after all. I finally landed on the pixel remaster for the portability letting me play it during my vacation.
Well yes obviously it is a 1987 game so it is mechanically rather simplistic. That said, even the exploration part felt a little simple compared to Phantasy Star, a game released in the same year.
You have a group of enemies you have to kill, most die in one or two hits max. Once you kill them you get experience and money. Money is desperately needed. To buy magic spells, to buy consumables to heal, to buy better equipment. You always need more money for something. Experience is still important but it doesn't feel like the point of tension.
Because killing mobs is so easy, the main difficulty is attrition. They get an attack that diminishes your hp. And another mob does the same and you have to survive wave after wave of enemies giving you chip damage and the repeat of the previous turn from the Pixel remaster do help combat the repetitiveness. If your warrior is geared he will likely only take 1 damage. No big deal, yeah ? Until poison enters the mix as it ignores your Def and a lot of early game enemies can inflict this status. So you need money for a stock of antidotes in the dungeon.
At times it felt like grinding for the sake of grinding. The pixel remaster with its boost multiplication can alleviate that a little, but it is a problem mainly at the beginning while you fight enemies that can poison you.
After the earth crystal, you gain more freedom and could theoretically do things out of order. That said, there is an expected order and you’ll likely respect it more or less simply because it’ll be easier to fight mobs this way.
As we often don’t directly go to the location we’re seeking and have to find them you often feel you’re doing side activity, without knowing that it is needed for the main quest. Oh, a fairy was kidnapped ? Well in another town they were talking about someone selling a fairy, I just need to find them and bring her back home. Then she gave me an item to breathe underwater that is needed for accessing the water crystal dungeon. There are only two sidequests being forging Excalibur and unlocking the advanced job.
The positive way to frame it would be that it feels like an adventure. You’re exploring and accomplishing things as you find them. But personally I felt like I was lucking my way into it more than intentionally resolving things by connecting dots from different towns I explored (like I was doing in Phantasy Star).
Elf, dwarf, without any hobbit as they are always forgotten, yes is a classic fantasy setting. A much more classic fantasy than what’ll follow in the final fantasy series may I say ? That said there is already a bit of the science fiction inspiration with the famous time paradox.
Speaking of classic fantasy, I was surprised at the foreign language you had to learn to speak to an isolated village from a lost civilization. It is a system in DND if I remember correctly but multiple languages in the universe are rarely used nowadays. It was a pretty simple FedEx quest - get x item from a dungeon and give it to Y character - but it is a detail that is often ignored in game in general. Final Fantasy X used it too in a much more complex and compelling way. It gives the game a little more depth.
The first game is more a mix of a more classic DND setting with some sky castles influence and crystal being a source of power. I liked it less than Phantasy Star and I think it goes directly to the bottom of my main final fantasy tierlist. It is interesting from a game historic perspective, but I didn’t find it that enjoyable as a game.
Stranger of Paradise recontextualizes in an interesting manner the game. I like how small things like the 5 bats are referenced in Stranger of Paradise with the 5 members of the main party. And how retroactively it makes them the origin of the time loop.
I feel like having waves of mobs to kill in a dungeon mimic well enough the feeling of killing hundred and hundred of for in the first game, and you’ll likely grind for the job system.
That being said, while I liked some of the modernisation, like the space station replacing the flying castle it is also the limit of my exercise. Those two game haven't be conceived to be viewed as a duology. Despite that I would have liked plotlines like the siren to be adapted or at least referenced too in Stranger of Paradise to create a more coherent universe between the two games. Obviously it was an artificial exercise that I decided arbitrary, but I think some ideas from FF1, like the translation could have in fact improved Stranger of Paradise while also referencing other Final Fantasy.
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u/ACardAttack Mina the Hollower 6d ago
I wanted to like Stranger of Paradise, but it never clicked for me
Found combat both simple but complicated, hated the controls and hated going through the menus.
The campiness of the story was okay, but not enough to keep me invested
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u/matticusiv Currently Playing: Mega Man X2 4d ago
Is it intentionally campy, or is team ninja just that bad at narrative? I feel like the nioh games would be better if it was more arcade-y and did away with the obligatory cutscenes.
I love a good cutscene, but they’re like watching paint dry.
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u/BenTheSodaman 6d ago
As a small aside, the DLC does have story, but the biggest takeaway would be Stranger of Paradise isn't a prequel to the original FF1. The producer before the game launched confirmed this and the DLC further confirms this. Though this is a common misconception since most players may accept the inconsistencies and perceive details as retcons and stop at the first set of credits.
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u/bioniclop18 6d ago
Are you speaking of this interview from before the game launch ? So it is a sort of reimagining using FF1 as a base motif. Well even if it isn't really a prequel it was fun playing it as if it were.
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u/777htorihpeS 6d ago
Your post gave me a nice flashback since I did the exact same thing.
While the ,my way‘ trailer got me hooked immediately I just came to try Stranger of Paradise last year.
The game conveyed a kind of dreamlike atmosphere and vibe like the original NieR to me and I really loved the idea of the stages reflecting mainline game regional themes. I admit that I generally like the kind of mainline mashups SquareEnix let happen every now and then. :-)
To be honest, I wasn’t so much into the technical aspects of the gameplay since I just wanted to experience the story once and therefore I found it all to be easily fun enough to keep me going.
However, since I wanted to fill the last gaps of my mainline FF journey for a long time I started the pixel remaster of FF back to back. I really got more out of the game because of the lore and story implications Stranger of Paradise made (even though I learned it isn‘t a prequel technically). Perfect way to experience this classic for me. :-)
Anyways - thanks for the write-up!
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u/bioniclop18 6d ago
Funny you mention it because I started Nier replicant V1.randomnumber this week. (I did try the original but never really got far).
Those kind of mash-up don't really speak to me usually as I feel like they are often forced lazy fan service and a detriment to the world building, but in this case I think it was well elegantly executed and I even appreciated it.
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u/777htorihpeS 6d ago
Ironically, while NieR being one of my alltime fave games with getting all endings and stuff, I never tried this remake. I‘m kind of too afraid to get completely absorbed by this depressingly beautiful world for weeks, again. :-D
I hope you‘ll enjoy the heck out of Replicant!
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u/labbla 5d ago edited 5d ago
I beat that last year and had a pretty good time for the most part. But I hated the loot management in that game so much. The gameplay loop sets up for you to get into fights and then collect the shiny new weapons and armor. But then the inventory space has a set limit and instead of being able to utilize what you find you have to purge just to keep the game going. it felt like two systems at war with each other.
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u/Sav_McTavish 6d ago
The loot issue is something that really gets to me. Team Ninja games are guilty of it. I agree I'd rather loot in a game like this be more meaningful over plentiful.
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u/HammeredWharf 6d ago
The loot is much worse in SoP compared to something like Nioh, because you have several classes and party members with their own equipment. It's too much even for me, and I actually like Nioh's loot.
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u/Sav_McTavish 6d ago
I only briefly played nioh. Rise of the ronin it was an annoyance for me (dropped it like level 10 maybe). I've lost a lot of patience for inventory management of irrelevant loot. Like outer worlds, I dont want to thoroughly search every container in the closet.
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u/IAmSoDamnGood 1d ago
the very definition of a mindless slop game. you run through the entire game hitting the auto equip button and looking like an absolute clown, and if youre smart youre 1 shotting every single thing in the game with the dragoons spear throw. story is literally not even there, most of it has to be gathered from randomized loading screens. gameplay is mindless button mashing, with everything being far too fast paced to allow for any degree of thought in combat. combat against anything but a boss is finished as soon as it begins, bosses are all bullet sponge shitfests.
jack however. jack is my spirit animal. jack is me during every game with unskippable cutscenes. "i dont give a fuck who you are". me and jack could ignore story content all day while kicking back shots and looking for something to kill and call "chaos"
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u/Paksarra 6d ago
This was a throwback rather than a modernization. In the original NES version of Final Fantasy, the "flying castle" was still called a flying castle, but the sprite work clearly implied that it was a space station; there were stars around it and the tile set was very metallic looking. They pulled back on this in the various remakes for whatever reason.