Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an unusual kind of Final Fantasy spin-off, albeit one with familiar characters, jobs, and pitfalls. Furthermore, this is an action game with input from Team Ninja who created Nioh series. To help better understand how it came to be and how it works, Siliconera spoke with Director Daisuke Inoue and Producer Jin Fujiwara about the title.
Jenni Lada: How was it Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin come to be? What does the pitch look like and how is Team Ninja involved?
Jin Fujiwara: The idea was first conceived by Tetsuya Nomura when he was discussing how he wanted the story to depict how the villain in Final Fantasy Garland series was born. He also wanted an action-oriented game where you’re adventuring through different locations or dungeons. So ideas have been proposed.
We had a relationship with Koei Tecmo’s Ninja Team when we worked on Dissidia Final Fantasy. So when we think about, “Yes, we really want to make an action game. Who should we turn to? “Because we really wanted this to be a good action game. We approached Team Ninja. We felt that they would be the best fit. That’s why we decided to partner with them.
While Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins pull the word of course Final FantasyHow much did you do? Nioh and its sequel affect it? How did it and its sequel prepare developers for this?
Daisuke Inoue: Of course as we progressed on the project, we had the directors from Square Enix, plus the ninja side of the Koei Tecmo team come together and discuss what we wanted to do. There are several factors that I have thought of, coming from Final Fantasy background. There are different things that I want to bring to the table. Then of course Team Ninja will [offer] responses like, “We also want to include such and such elements.” It’s just a very nice collaborative environment where we discuss with each other and make sure what we’re trying to do brings out what we do best for each other.
In the original Final Fantasy, people had six starting jobs and six advanced classes. Original screenshots available shows additional work like Duelist, Marauder and Ronin. How past entries influenced and shaped the jobs available in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin? Is there any work that is completely new to the series?
Inoue: To be sure, we’ll cover some jobs that aren’t usually found in Final Fantasy series. So you might be surprised. Like, “Oh, is that the weapon this person would use?”
Is there a job you would like to join? Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, but it ended up not matching somehow or due to some technical problem?
Inoue: Yeah sure. There were a lot of ideas that popped up that we unfortunately had to discard. There are many conditions that we have to meet. Some of them were unsuccessful. I’m sure you want to know exactly what those jobs are. Let me see if I can think of an example.
There was a job that was very related to the main characters, but we had to give up the implementation for certain reasons.
How does the team handle work balance in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins, and are there any characters better suited for certain roles than others?
Inoue: So, in terms of work balance, the types of work are separated into three different categories. Do you have basic or beginner type of work. Then you go into advanced and then more advanced. There are three levels. Now, just hearing the name can make you think “Oh, it gets stronger as you get better”. But that’s not correct. Those are some of the higher level jobs that are considered higher level. It’s just more complicated how they move. I think some of them are almost more unique or edgy. They are classified, but in terms of strength we have tried to make them equal. So that’s how we balance the jobs.
As for the different types of content that players engage with, I think what works well really depends on how the player wants to play the particular content. So if you’re more comfortable with doing ranged attacks, you might want to pick a job with better skills with ranged attacks. Or if you want to do something more close-range attack, there’s a lot of work for that. Or if you still want melee, but not at close range, there’s also a “back row” melee type of job. So I think it really depends on how the player wants to tackle some of the stuff.
I don’t think there’s any particular type of job that’s particularly well-suited to certain roles and content.
How much freedom is the team given to change and develop the characters, work and story for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin? Are there any characters that are particularly interesting to re-imagine and remake?
Inoue: With characters that don’t appear in the original Final Fantasy, we certainly have the creative freedom to take different approaches. And then for characters that do exist in the lore, we have to include our reinterpretation of them. When it comes to creating these characters and reading the script as it becomes available, what really intrigues me is Astos’ character.
Fujiwara: It’s very interesting to watch [Astos] and how, as the story progresses, this character is being interpreted.
So far, people have had very interesting reactions to the online game, like when they saw Jack’s clothes for the first time and things like that. We saw that the dev team had fun with that by going ahead and having a segment with Limp Bizkit music in the trailer. Are there any such callbacks in the proper game that people can expect in response to a response?
Fujiwara: I think the way in which some of these elements are presented in the information we have disclosed has been surprising and highly unusual to those who viewed it. They are excerpts from the niche story and the final product. It will start to make sense that Jack and some of the other characters have the means to approach things that we might think are more modern and closer to real life. I don’t think we’ll have elements where people will be surprised? There are some random things that pop up in the story.
But at the same time, with the story itself, we’re trying to create it so that there are twists and turns that people will be surprised. So, in a good way, will betray their expectations. We hope that people will come across those and we hope that they will enjoy them.
We will see some characters from Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia? And does that finally mean a Jack meets Garland story?
Fujiwara: So you happen to be talking to the manufacturer [Fujiwara] and director [Inoue] belong to Opera Omnia. Well, the possibility is definitely there. We would love to have Jack and other characters appear in Opera Omnia are from Origin of Final Fantasy. And I’m sure players will be excited to see how this confrontation between Garland and Jack will play out. Or if that’s even possible. I’d say the possibility is definitely there. I’m afraid I can’t guarantee when it will happen, but we hope it will in the near future.
So maybe even a global first, since that happens sometimes?
Fujiwara: We will think about it.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will come PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC via the Epic Games Store on March 18, 2022. Those who pre-order a digital copy will get early access on March 15, 2022.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
