Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a third person action game developed by Team Ninja. It is a loose reimagining of the original Final Fantasy, with a dark fantasy setting and fast-paced action gameplay inspired by Team Ninja's previous title Nioh.
==Story==
Final Fantasy Origin is set in a reimagined version of the original Final Fantasys world, in which Jack Garland and his party undertake a quest to defeat the dark monster Chaos while harboring doubts about their supposed role as Warriors of Light.
===Setting===
* Chaos Shrine: A dark shrine allegedly spawned from the future. Based on the Chaos Shrine from Final Fantasy.
* Pravoka Seagrot: A port town besieged by the captain Bikke's band of pirates. Based on the Sastasha Seagrot from Final Fantasy XIV.
* Western Keep: An ancient castle destroyed by war, which houses the dark elf prince Astos. Based on Castle Palamecia from Final Fantasy II.
* Refrin Wetlands: A jungle with strange weather-altering devices. Based on the Sunleth Waterscape from Final Fantasy XIII.
* Crystal Mirage: A translucent tower in the woods, with several devices that react to magic. Based on the Crystal Tower from Final Fantasy III.
* Flying Fortress: A high-tech castle in the sky founded by an ancient civilization. Based on the Tower of Babil from Final Fantasy IV.
* Hallowed Massif: A snowy mountain once home to a warrior tribe's holy grounds. Based on Mount Gagazet from Final Fantasy X.
* Mount Gulg: An active volcano, hard to traverse due to gas pockets and molten lava. Based on the Fire Cavern from Final Fantasy VIII.
* Wicked Arbor: A poisonous forest shrouded in dark energy. Based on the Evil Forest from Final Fantasy IX.
* Cavern of Earth: An underground tomb filled with traps. Based on the Tomb of Raithwall from Final Fantasy XII.
* Ruins of Machina: A dungeon filled with high-tech weaponry, including a giant laser cannon. Based on the Ronka Ruins from Final Fantasy V.
* Sunken Shrine: An underwater industrial facility harvesting an unknown energy source. Based on the Junon Underwater Reactor from Final Fantasy VII.
* Ancients' Tower: A marble building with magical traps and bizarre floating urns. Based on Delfkutt's Tower from Final Fantasy XI.
* Vigilia Court: A metropolitan building loaded with high-end security systems. Based on the Citadel from Final Fantasy XV.
* Terra Tortūra: A flying archipelago littered with bones, kept afloat by enigmatic statues of gods. Based on the Floating Continent from Final Fantasy VI.
===Plot===
The world is plagued by the darkness of the monster Chaos, which has dimmed the light of the four Crystals that bring balance to the elements of nature. According to a prophecy by the sage Luhkan, four Warriors of Light are destined to restore the Crystals, defeat Chaos and bring peace to the world; as a result, every time the Crystals lose their light, the kingdom of Cornelia sends out four warriors armed with crystals of their own to restore them.
Jack, a lone wanderer who feels an inexplicable drive to kill Chaos, arrives in the kingdom of Cornelia to offer his aid to the King, accompanied by Ash and Jed. Minister Lagone points out that Jack's band does not match Luhkan's prophecy, as they only make three instead of four and their crystals are pitch-black. Despite his skepticism, the King's court sends Jack's team out to the Chaos Shrine to defeat Chaos.
At the Chaos Shrine, Jack's team finds the armored fiend purported to be Chaos is actually Neon, a Cornelian girl with a dark crystal who was also an aspiring Warrior of Light, but realized that Chaos is just a myth to explain away the darkness in the world. Neon explains that she tried to become Chaos by absorbing all the darkness in the world, in the hopes she would be defeated by a band of heroes and bring peace with her sacrifice. Jack does not believe her, still firmly convinced that Chaos exists. Neon joins Jack's party, aiming to find out for herself if Chaos is real. While returning to Cornelia, Jack, Ash, Jed and Neon reveal they all have lost their memories, which Jack rationalizes is to prevent their duty from being hampered by personal attachments. The King of Cornelia sends Jack's party out to restore the four Crystals - of Wind, Fire, Earth and Water.
On directions from Pravoka's ruler Bikke, Jack's party meets with Astos, the King of the Dark Elves, who points them towards the Wind Crystal. They find the Wind Crystal in the Flying Fortress, a space station orbiting the planet. There, they defeat the Fiend of Wind Tiamat, who reverts into another defeated hero: Sophia, a woman with an overwhelming urge to kill Chaos like Jack. With the Wind Crystal restored, Sophia joins Jack's party, making it a band of five.
Jack's party goes on to look for the Earth and Fire Crystals. Along the way, they slowly recover their memories as they absorb darkness from the monsters they defeat, which is otherwise absorbed by their dark crystals. They remember that all of them, except Neon, came from a faraway land beyond Cornelia's boundaries. They defeat the Fiends of Earth and Fire, Lich and Marilith respectively, and restore the Crystals they guarded. As the party goes on to look for the Water Crystal, Neon remembers she was born in Cornelia and received her dark crystal from Astos. They defeat the Fiend of Water, Kraken, and restore the Water Crystal.
Having restored the four Crystals, Jack's party returns to Cornelia to find the darkness has only gotten stronger. While the city is attacked by monsters and pirates infected by darkness, the citizens accuse Jack's party of being servants of Chaos. After fighting off the monsters, Jack demands answers from Astos. Astos explains that he is an observer left behind by the Lufenians, a high-tech civilization capable of interdimensional travel tasked with keeping the balance of light and darkness in Cornelia. Astos fights Jack's party, and upon his defeat, they regain more of their memories.
Jack's party learns that, except for Neon, they are all Lufenian agents known as "Strangers", sent to destroy the excess darkness Lufenia leaves in Cornelia. Jack's party has been sent to Cornelia several times before, but their memories were erased before every deployment; and if the Strangers failed to destroy the darkness, Lufenia simply reset the world. It is revealed that in previous cycles, Jack's party secretly plotted to break Cornelia free from Lufenia's control, but Jack forgot about the plan every time his memories were erased. In his final moments, Astos reveals that Lufenia fears the darkness because if it combines with raw human emotion, it creates chaos, which is the only force they cannot control; and upon his death, the darkness he has absorbed into his body will be released and cover the entire world.
Jack's party rushes back to Cornelia, but are unable to save the citizens or Princess Sarah. As Sarah dies in his arms, Jack remembers that he and Sarah had fallen in love in previous cycles, and that he had given her a dark crystal in a previous cycle. Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia suddenly attack Jack, forcing him to kill them in self-defense and absorb their collected darkness so he can become Chaos. Enraged, Jack returns to the Chaos Shrine and forces open a portal to Lufenia. The darkness absorbed by Jack and the despair felt by his party converges into Darkness Manifest, a monster made of chaos. Jack defeats Darkness Manifest in a duel and absorbs all its chaos, becoming the true Chaos. Lufenia severs its connection to Cornelia due to chaos infection, but they warn Jack that Cornelia will create Warriors of Light to defeat him. Jack realizes he can use his newly-gained powers to create conditions that will allow real Warriors of Light to bring peace to Cornelia without Lufenia's interference.
Jack is transported 2000 years into Cornelia's past by Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia, who have become Fiends of Chaos, and together they plot the creation of the true Warriors of Light. Having embraced his family name Garland, Jack spends the next 2000 years carrying out his plan, until the true Warriors of Light arrive at the Chaos Shrine's throne room to challenge him.
====Trials of the Dragon King====
Jack easily defeats the Warriors of Light in battle. He goes to the Cardia Islands for ways to make the Warriors of Light stronger in future cycles; there he meets with the dragon king Bahamut, who offers his power in reward for Jack completing a series of trials.
In his conversations with Jack, Bahamut reveals he came from another world where he was worshipped as a god by humans. He tried to purge all the darkness in his world and make it into one of pure light, but was betrayed and killed by two humans; his regretful spirit wandered between dimensions until it landed in Cornelia, where he was greeted by a moogle who tasked him with helping Jack.
Jack defeats the Warriors of Light again in another cycle, but they last far longer against him due to Bahamut's blessing. Jack is glad that the Warriors of Light have grown stronger, and remains hopeful that they will defeat him in a future cycle.
==Development==
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin was co-directed by Daisuke Inoue (Square Enix), Hiroya Usuda and Nobumichi Kumabe (Team Ninja), and co-produced by Jin Fujiwara (Square Enix) and Fumihiko Yasuda (Team Ninja).
The concept for Final Fantasy Origin was merged from two separate game concepts by Tetsuya Nomura: an action game about conquering locations, created after the release of Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy; and one for a sub-series centered on an older, angry version of Final Fantasy villain Garland. Origin was developed with a darker tone and aesthetic to reflect Garland's villainous character.「STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN」開発チームインタビュー GAME Watch. January 25, 2022. Nomura initially pitched his concept as an original game due to its tone, but it was turned into a Final Fantasy spin-off at the request of Daisuke Inoue and Jin Fujiwara. Writer Kazushige Nojima stated that Origin's story sprung out of the line "it's not a hope or a dream. It's like a hunger. A thirst".Square Enix and Team Ninja announce Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Gematsu. June 13, 2021.
Team Ninja was chosen to develop the game due to its previous collaborations with Square Enix on Dissidia Final Fantasy NT and Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia. The game's job system was directly inspired by Final Fantasy V; Inoue claimed there are more jobs in Origin than in V.
As part of the Final Fantasy series's 35th anniversary, Origin's locations deliberately emulate or reference places from other Final Fantasy games.
==References==
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