When I previewed the first demo for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin a few months back, I was surprised at how decent it was following the very rough trailer. With this second trial version of the game, I’m even more impressed with what’s been presented, despite some bumpy areas. Plus, there are a few unintentionally(?) hilarious cutscenes, which make it all worthwhile.
This second demo includes the entirety of the first demo, plus a whole second area. I could have done without the whole first portion given I’ve already played it, but since it was a limited-time demo, it makes sense that it would be included for anyone who missed the original release. The first part is pretty much the same as it was in the first demo, though there seems to be some new equipment available.
For this second demo, I tried out the Pugilist class– meaning I was all about slugging monsters with my fists, rather than the greatsword-wielding berserker I was in the first demo. For some reason, Jack keeps his gloves on his belt and puts them on when he punches instead of just…wearing them at all times, but otherwise, the up-close and personal Pugilist class was quite fun to use. Swapping between light and strong attacks, all while staying super close to enemies, was a whole different experience to swinging my sword at them from mid-range.
The second area of the demo was based in a forest, and had me changing the weather to navigate through the flooded areas. Suspiciously, these are mechanics from Final Fantasy XIII, which are accompanied by straight-up track remixes of the Sunleth Waterscape from the same game, so take that as you will. The area looks quite sharp and the music is great, which I hope stays true for the full game.
My main issue with what I played is that the bosses are insanely hard compared to the regular enemies. Obviously there needs to be a decent gap between grunts and bosses when it comes to difficulty, but bosses can swat you in a couple of hits with little warning, and that’s on the normal difficulty. I like being challenged as much as the next guy, but I think the bosses could use a bit of balancing to either make them less extreme or to make enemies a bit harder to make the flow between them feel less abrupt.
“I think it could use a bit more general difficulty balancing, but overall, it presents an intriguing alternative to the standard Final Fantasy experience.“
The best part of the demo genuinely was the cutscene where, after being told Chaos might not exist, Jack simply says “bullshit,” pulls out his phone, and turns on some badass music as he walks away with airpods in. It’s accidentally brilliant and I can’t believe this insanity is in a Final Fantasy game. The characters seem pretty standard so far outside of that,
So Stranger of Paradise has managed to make me feel pretty optimistic about the full game with its two demos. I think it could use a bit more general difficulty balancing, but overall, it presents an intriguing alternative to the standard Final Fantasy experience. I look forward to trying out the full game when it releases on March 18th, and I hope it has many more airpod moments.
