E3 2021 has come to a close, and though it wasn't without controversy, the return of the premier nerd-culture convention after a two-year hiatus felt like the homecoming of a long-lost friend. This year it was the press show blunders that caused the most buzz, and few game reveals provoked more chatter than that of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
Teased just before the start of the expo, Origin was said to blend Final Fantasy 1's story with gameplay inspired by the Soulsborne series. Even if expectations hadn't been through the roof, Origin's unveiling still would've fallen somewhat flat. If dated graphics and crunchy voice acting were a sundae of sadness, then the cherry on top was Origin's demo, which was corrupted on the PlayStation Store and completely unplayable for about a day. It's a shame because the demo was kind of fun once it was fixed, but the damage was done, and the internet wasn't pulling any punches...
10 The Chaotic Timeline
Although it's not a jab at Final Fantasy Origin directly -- and more so a roast of E3 2021's entire keynote lineup -- Square Enix doesn't escape the ridicule in this play on one of Community's best episodes.
This well-worn, but by no means worn-out, format comes from the third episode of the fourth season of Dan Harmon's sitcom. Six vignettes demonstrate how rolling a die creates six parallel timelines corresponding to each possible outcome. In "the 'one' timeline," Troy leaves to fetch his pizzas and returns mere seconds later to find his apartment ablaze and Pierce bleeding out. It's how Nintendo must've felt when merrily unveiling Zelda and Metroid Dread before an audience acutely agitated by the preceding days' lack of intriguing game reveals.
9 Tech-No-Colour
In gaming, as in film, audiences will attribute everything they love and hate about a work to the most prominent creator on a team, and Tetsuya Nomura has long been that creator to FF fans. Shifting away from Yoshitaka Amano's art as a source for inspiration -- and towards Nomura's edgy, belt-clad character designs -- FF7 and FF8 marked the beginning of the series' emo phase.
In all fairness, Nomura was also involved in the vibrant FF9 and FF10. Even if that hadn't been the case, he shouldn't be solely criticized nor praised for the artistic direction taken by the immensely populous corporation that is Square Enix. Unfortunately, Nomura didn't do himself any favors by taking on the gratuitously grimdark Origin. Now countless Redditors are pointing out his over-reliance on black and grey palettes with this Top Gear riff.
8 Good Times With Weapons
Origin's trailer features eight uses of the word "chaos" in its modest 153-second runtime. That's an average of one "chaos" every 19.1 seconds. If you've heard one thing about this year's E3, you've probably heard "CHAOS."
In the history of entertainment, only one other character has ever lusted over chaos with such a dangerous passion... Butters Stotch. South Park's Butters is the butt of the joke in nearly every scene in which he appears, until he dons his signature tin-foil helmet, of course. Butters' alter-ego, Professor Chaos, is a recurring character in his own right, with his most notable appearance being in "Good Times With Weapons." The episode parodies a shounen anime, with Professor Chaos playing the lead antagonist.
In Final Fantasy 1, Garland is revealed to be a simple puppet of the true villain, Chaos. Reddit users hope that Final Fantasy Origin will reveal a greater threat still, the prime evil... Butters.
7 Blue Oyster Chaos
After the term "meme" was coined in the 1970s, but before internet culture was widely understood, punchlines to jokes from cable TV achieved meme-status by word-of-mouth alone. Led by Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken, Saturday Night Live's famous "More Cowbell" sketch features what is likely the most quoted cable TV dialogue of all time. It's not uncommon to find someone who's familiar with the "more cowbell" line but doesn't actually know that the joke originated on SNL -- "more cowbell" is that transcendent.
Ferrell takes the role of a cowbell player in a fictitious depiction of the recording of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper." Walken plays a cowbell-obsessed producer, Bruce Dickinson. When Origin's protagonist Jack utters the wince-inducing line, "I want to kill Chaos. I need to... it's like a hunger," one Reddit user couldn't help but be reminded of the producer's craving for "more cowbell."
6 Wazzzuuuupp
Elegant in its simplicity, this Reddit post highlights the uncanny dude-bro aesthetic of Origin's main cast, who are (somehow) meant to exist within an overtly gothic setting.
Mr. T? Gackt? Charlie Sheen in Platoon? Pfft. Who needs them? A couple of unremarkable frat boys on their way to a kegger is plenty of inspiration for Final Fantasy Origin.
5 Think, Garland
Unless you've been on a wilderness sabbatical since May, you've probably come across some iteration of the "Think, [character], think!" format referenced in this tweet. To explain the origin of the meme is to spoil the climax of the wildly successful Invincible animated series. In general terms, the crux of the joke is that the named character has just earned an otherwise avoidable beat down, if only they had just listened to the aggressor's reasoning.
There's a lot wrong with Origin's dialogue, but just one example is the exchange where Jack declares, "we're here to kill Chaos," to which antagonist Garland replies, "I have become Chaos." The trailer also shows Garland getting his helmet punched in so there's little mystery as to how the confrontation unfolds.
4 Earl Henley-Shirt
This Reddit post references a sketch from the Adult Swim comedy series Loiter Squad (viewer discretion advised). Helmed by Tyler, the Creator and fellow rapper Earl Sweatshirt, Loiter Squad focused on mocking popular TV series like the self-serious teen drama, Degrassi, or the prison reality show, Beyond Scared Straight. A parody of the latter, this sketch shows Earl playing an unhinged inmate as he tries to scare kids out of a life of crime.
The sketch takes Beyond Scared Straight's tropes and turns them up to the point of absurdity. At one point Earl shouts, "it smells like ***** in here!" as he challenges the troubled youth. Remarkably, Origin's dialogue manages to be more laughable than the sketch, with henley-shirted Jack claiming to hunger and thirst for chaos throughout.
3 Who Wore It Best?
Level design and fashion choices weren't the only artistic decisions with which keynote viewers took issue. Many of Square Enix's Twitter followers couldn't ignore the striking similarities between Origin's cast members and those of other FF titles.
In this case, sidekick Jed conspicuously resembles FF15's Prompto, and the proto-Prompto that appeared in the defunct Versus XIII. Jed is what you get when Prompto improperly applies his hair bleach, and to make matters worse, the two seem indistinguishable in terms of personality. Even Jack appears to be recycled from Cor Leonis concept art. For a series that birthed some of the most recognizable heroes in the JRPG genre, the lack of originality displayed in Final Fantasy Origin was disappointing.
2 With Apologies To Death Note
There's no shortage of riveting content on Netflix, but when it comes to adaptions (particularly of Japanese intellectual properties), the streaming service is known for being the place where beloved series like Death Note and Ghost In The Shell go to die.
Square also announced HD pixel remakes of Final Fantasy 1 through 6, which Twitter users almost unanimously agree look better than Final Fantasy Origin.
1 Peanut Butter & Jill
It's hard to improve on a classic, as Final Fantasy Origin's developers are learning right now. The same is true for an exquisite, vintage meme -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it. This Reddit post refers to another timeless example of a meme that was born before internet memes came into vogue. "You were almost a Jill Sandwich," is a notorious example of hokey localization and poor voice acting brought to you by the original Resident Evil.
Blockbuster games such as The Last of Us and Final Fantasy 7 Remake demonstrate just how far video game voice acting has come in the last 25 years. However, with its insistence on awkwardly jamming "chaos" into every line, Final Fantasy Origins seems intent on undoing some of that progress.