The upcoming Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin appears to be a gritty remake of Final Fantasy 1, in what could become a new spin-off series.

With the demo now available for Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, it seems the game is essentially going to be a gritty remake of the original Final Fantasy. Rumors of a Final Fantasy game inspired by Dark Souls had been circulating for weeks, finally confirmed with Final Fantasy Origins' announcement at E3 2021.

Stranger of Paradise is an action RPG with a Final Fantasy setting. It has many of the series' trappings, including a basic job system and familiar monsters like Bombs and Cactuars. The recent Final Fantasy games have shifted further into to the action RPG genre on their own, with gameplay that's more reminiscent of Kingdom Hearts than the classic, turn-based entries, but Stranger of Paradise is closer to Dark Souls than FF7 Remake, and the player moves more like Chris Redfield than an anime character.

The initial trailer for Stranger of Paradise was filled with references to the original Final Fantasy, and the demo makes it hard to deny it's a full-on remake. In many ways, Final Fantasy Origin is to Final Fantasy what FF7 Remake is to FF7.

How Final Fantasy Origin Retells The Story Of FF1

The Final Fantasy Origins demo takes place in the Chaos Shrine, the first dungeon of the original Final Fantasy. The enemies are mostly the same as the random encounters players face at the start of Final Fantasy, including goblins, wolves, and skeletons. The main characters even refer to themselves as the prophesied Warriors of Light, drawing a direct comparison to Final Fantasy's player party of the same name - the only difference being that there are three party members in the Origin demo and four in Final Fantasy (though it's possible one is being saved for the full game).

The boss of the Origin demo is Garland, who is also the first boss of Final Fantasy, and a voiceover flashback includes a character called Princess Sarah, which is the name of a major character in Final Fantasy who's saved from Garland by the player. In Final Fantasy Origin, Garland refers to himself as the person who will become Chaos, which also parallels Final Fantasy, as Garland/Chaos is the final boss of that game.

There are too many similarities to discount the connection between the titles, though it's likely Stranger of Paradise takes place in an expanded version of the Chaos Shrine, rather than using the entire setting of Final Fantasy. If Stranger of Paradise becomes a hit, perhaps Square Enix will use the same concept with all of the early Final Fantasy games, retooling their established characters, settings, and monsters for action games. A sequel to Stranger of Paradise set in the world of FF2 would have to try particularly hard to be gritty, as it's already quite a dark game to begin with.

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Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin will be released for PC, PS4. PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022. The Trial Version demo is currently available on PS5.