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I still can’t believe that Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin exists, or how such a project was ever greenlit in the first place. A Soulslike in the JRPG universe is a fantastic idea, especially one helmed by the team behind Nioh, but to see it expressed in such a batshit and unconventional way has me reeling in the most unexpected sense.
This week saw the final story trailer for the game arrive, and it leaves us with just as many questions as it does answers, inviting us to strap in for a ride that will be anything but predictable. I’m not ready in the slightest, but you can count me in.
If you haven’t been keeping up with this Limp Bizkit of a video game adaptation, Stranger of Paradise follows a very angry man called Jack Garland who is consumed by the need to destroy Chaos. He is violent, blunt, and somehow isn’t from the modern world despite sporting a smartphone that blasts generic nu-metal and a love of telling people to go fuck themselves. I must have missed the Final Fantasy game he spawned from, but his character is so ridiculous that somehow it manages to mesh with whatever Team Ninja is going for here.
He isn’t alone though, he’s accompanied by the Warriors of Light, a group of eccentric misfits who find themselves becoming allies under increasingly bizarre circumstances. All the characters look silly, outfitted with melodramatic backstories and appearances that are just as unusual as Jack’s. Previous playable demos allowed you to dress each party member up in ridiculous outfits that reflect the game’s discordant tone, unsure if it wants to be dark, funny, lighthearted, or an unparalleled mixture of the three. How does this exist?
The latest trailer focuses heavily on Jack’s relationship with a young woman, with the two suggested to be sickeningly smitten with one another, a relationship that is abused by darker forces and is possibly the key motivation behind our hero’s drive to kill Chaos. They have absolutely no chemistry at all, which isn’t helped by the iffy voice acting, but for some reason I found myself drawn to how obscene it all is. I don’t care about any of these characters, and the environments seem like an unsightly collage of beloved locations across the series’ history with little rhyme or reason. But somehow, I find myself ready and willing to dive in.
If you thought the trailer was a little wild already, it takes a sharp turn into the unknown as it suddenly transitions to Jack walking through what I can only describe as a field of wheat as Frank Sinatra’s My Way begins to play. I don’t know why they didn’t use Limp Bizkit’s track of the same name instead given how Jack is clearly a massive fan. Some people have decried the trailer for being filled with spoilers, but I challenge anyone to watch this thing and claim they have any idea what the fuck is going on. It represents a wholesome element of silliness that Final Fantasy doesn’t really have anymore. So much of it is mature, nuanced storytelling with a tinge of silly spread around the edges, especially in games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16.
Stranger of Paradise harkens back to the days of Dirge of Cerberus and World of Final Fantasy, unafraid to take this series’ legacy and have some shameless fun with it. None of this nonsense is going to be canon, and it even surpasses Kingdom Hearts in how absurd it is willing to be when combining different worlds and labeling them with a grim dark aesthetic that wouldn’t feel out of place in 2006. Like seriously, where the heck did this come from?
It will either be a beautiful masterpiece or an unmitigated disaster, and I really don’t mind which at this point. Just give me whatever this trailer is selling, and I’ll eat it all up.