An interview with the Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin team has given us more information about Team Ninja’s action RPG, including about gameplay and how it connects to Final Fantasy I. The interview with creative producer Tetsuya Nomura, producer Jin Fujiwara, and director Daisuke Inoue, which was originally published by Japanese gaming publication Famitsu, was translated and republished on the Square Enix website. Many of the details shared give us more clues about the spinoff game’s characters and story.
Most notably, Nomura confirmed that Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin takes inspiration from Final Fantasy I and shares many elements with it, but it does not actually occur in the same world. He clarified, “It’s a new story that uses FINAL FANTASY I as a motif, rather than being directly connected or an equivalent.”
Regarding the out-of-place appearance sported by protagonist Jack and his allies, Nomura said that this feeling of irregularity is intentional. The outfits are tied to the story, as are their surprisingly “normal” names. Moreover, there will be more total party members than the three seen so far, each with changeable equipment loadouts, but a party can only contain three characters at a time. As for combat weaponry, Inoue said there is a total of eight weapon types: one-handed sword, greatsword, club, lance, axe, knuckles, daggers, and katana.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin was revealed during the Square Enix E3 2021 digital presentation. Then a demo was released for free for PlayStation 5 players shortly after. However, the first version of the demo suffered a technical issue that kept players from accessing it. The demo was fixed just more than a day later, so to help mend the situation, Square Enix has extended the demo’s download availability from June 24 to June 26 at 14:59 UTC. The full experience is set to arrive sometime in 2022.
