Gaudy and garish, Stranger of Paradise is everything I want from a Final Fantasy spin-off

At this point in the series’ life, what exactly is a Final Fantasy game? Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded, as we’ve been a couple of times in recently, it’s whatever the hell it wants to be: a colourful karter with chocobos and moogles going wheel-to-wheel across lysergic race tracks, or a dour action game smeared in early noughties edginess.

I’m not here to talk about Chocobo GP today I’m afraid – though good lord am I looking forward to trying that out – and rather to provide a brief update on Stranger of Paradise, Team Ninja’s muscular Final Fantasy spin-off that debuted to much bemusement at Square Enix’s E3 show back in June.

The concept’s simple enough to get your head around – this is Nioh in Final Fantasy cosplay, effectively, a solid core of combat put to use against griffins, harpys and elementals, all excused by some absolute nonsense about four crystals. I sort of adore how Stranger of Paradise leans into the nonsense, something which made it the target of much ridicule after its reveal but something that ensured this particular spin-off instantly earned a place in my heart.

The new demo that was presented to go alongside this week’s Tokyo Game Show – and that surely, in better times, would have been playable somewhere in the cavernous halls of the Makuhari Messe – showed a more traditional Final Fantasy backdrop to the action, and didn’t let up on the nonsense either. There’s a moment when our hero Jack is told something about chaos that he doesn’t want to hear, so he shouts ‘bullshit’, reaches for his Android phone and plays some nu-metal while skulking away – and I laughed out loud so much I was sort of grateful I wasn’t on a showfloor and was spared some blushes.

STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN | Release Date Announcement Trailer Watch on YouTube

What followed was just as entertaining, though for different reasons. Taking place in the Refrin Wetlands – a damp forest more typical of the series, and another of Stranger of Paradise’s nods to more classical Final Fantasy – this particular demo sees a fully fleshed-out party, and a wider array of jobs and skills to tinker with.