Marking the 34th anniversary of FINAL FANTASY’s original release, Square Enix used the opportunity to showcase new gameplay and cutscene footage for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin – seeking to highlight “the connection between the upcoming action RPG and the first title in the FINAL FANTASY series”. As its name should imply, Stranger of Paradise is a spin-off title focusing more on the action RPG mechanics than more traditional RPG systems, doubly so given it is being co-developed by Team Ninja, who are known for their work on the Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden and Nioh franchises.
With the game offering an alternate retelling of the original Final Fantasy, and shedding light on the dark origins of Garland through the viewpoint of Jack and his comrades – the latest gameplay footage is headlined by the northern bridge scene from the original game. The footage also showcases some of the gameplay, which has been revised and adjusted based on player feedback of the second TRIAL VERSION released earlier in the year. The gameplay videos highlight several gameplay elements including: basic and advanced jobs, abilities, equipment, and multiplayer functionality.
You can see some of this new footage (and complementing screenshots) below:
New Cutscene Footage
Jobs
Job Switching
Square Enix also shared these statements from the original FINAL FANTASY developers, Hironobu Sakaguchi (Now CEO of Mistwalker Corporation) and Akitoshi Kawazu:
Co-developed by Square Enix and Team Ninja, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will be released on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC on 18 March 2022.