Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Is So PS2 It Hurts

The article makes fun of that picture but if it was DMC they wouldn’t have said nothing and that’s exactly what that looked like.

@dark_knightmare2 We expect this from Devil May Cry, though. This is mental by Final Fantasy's standards.

This game looks more and more like the dumbest sh*t imaginable and I can't wait to give it a go.

@ShogunRok Same - looks ridiculous, ugly and fun

That trailer was so "strange" that its actually peeked my interest a bit in the game

Ah, the usual amusing English voice-over 😂

I actually thinks this looks like a dumb fun retelling of the first game. Yes, it seeps with early 2000's edge but to so fully revel in it makes it charming for me. Team Ninja is a good studio and I trust that the combat will be a ton of fun. I like FF enough, I love 6, 8, and 15 (go ahead boo me) but I think this is just different enough to be something new and interesting.

He won’t forget!

I don't care, this looks great. I love how sincere it is in it's tone. Usually something like this would be pretty self aware about it's silliness.

So it's time travel foolery and the main guy Jack is really the big bad guy?

This is so batshit... using one of the greatest songs of all time to market this weird ass terrible looking game has somehow succeeded in endearing me to it. This is a game out of time, a new classic in the genre of utterly bizarre Japanese games. I'm going to kill Chaos.

@True_Jehuty
Just a friendly correction. The actual word is "piqued" and NOT "peeked" when using it to convey an increase in interest. Peeked means you looked quickly and piqued means your interest was aroused.

@dark_knightmare2 Except that this looks more like that attempt at a DMC reboot. The main DMC series was knowingly campy and goofy. The reboot actually thought it was cool.

To me this looks like a long lost PS3 title instead of PS2. Maybe it would be friends with that Bomberman reboot or alone in the dark Inferno.

I can believe square would sink this low with FF, but I can't believe Team Ninja would. It's just so.... so.... dank. Like a fanfic that somebody decided to make cannon and attach it to a late PS2 button masher.

Although they made an FF game in under 10 years, so thank goodness for small favors?

This really made me smile. It's on my list of games to watch.

@OneWingedAngel whoop whoop it's the sound of the police. Haha

Well as long as the gameplay is good. Nioh was amazing. Team Ninja have never been good at creating a story. Remember what they did to Samus in Metroid: Other M. The story was embarrassing but the Metroid gameplay was still very good.

I am expecting the same with this. Apart from FFXIV there has been no half decent story in a FF game since FFXII on PS2. The franchise has been completely bastardised.

Team ninja fell from grace when Itagaki san left. Nothing they made since was of interest to me except for Nioh which as it turns out was based on a famous directors script. So...yeah.

I watched the trailer before reading the article and when Frank Sinatra started singing my jaw simply fell to the floor.

You say it's so PS2 it hurts but all I feel is pure hype for what looks like the weirdest game I've seen in a long time. Chaos!

Inb4 actual 7/10's because it's actually really guilty-pleasure enjoyable.

Never been a Final Fantasy guy but this looks stupid fun and my kinda gameplay hopefully! Definitely looking forward to this and the silly tongue in cheek humour seems great to me!

Crazy Japanese cheesy crap,count me in 😁

The newer age Team Ninja really recovered when they made the excellent Nioh games (2 of the best games in the past 5 years). I haven't looked at this game much but played (and was bored by) the demo. Shame to see them dip back down.

This promo feels very Japanese. The Western style of advertising is much more cohesive but I commonly see Japanese marketing doing this — a couple dozen random 2 second cuts of dialogue that all have nothing to do with one another and don’t tell you anything about the story or what on earth is going on. They often have this random pause in the middle where it looks like the ad is over, then they start part 2 with some kind of 2 minute musical montage like that which has nothing to do with the first half of the ad. So weird to watch it targeted to a Western audience without adjusting it to our usual style of what a trailer is. Add the cheesey dialogue and the wooden character animations and it’s just so very PS2 JRPG.

The game is probably going to be good, but after watching that I feel zero hype. Despite it having the first human-elf fist bump in the history of media. 🤜🏼🤛🏼
J.R.R. Tolkien is rolling over in his grave.

Looks phenomenal. I'm in!

@ATaco mmm.... I don't know about that. I'm more of the mind that the Capcom games are wearing their heart on their sleeve and presenting themselves without irony and the Team Ninja game is subverting that to some degree. There's not a lot of outward irony and cynicism in Japan and you just need to look up J-rock or J-pop to see that the presentation may look campy and goofy but the intent to look cool or cute is sincere.

Hi there fellow gamers.
I played both demo previews of the game for about 4 hours each, finishing them in normal and hard.
No, I´m not boasting. I just really enjoy these kind of games.
Anyway, I quite liked the first demo, even though the level design and environments were so lackluster and empty, that it hurts the game. But the gameplay was good, so there is that.
Then played the second demo and both level design and environments were even worse..... Plus some really bad frame drops... On the PS5 version! I couldn´t believe it.
I did enjoyed the new weapons (job classes) and how you can switch between two of them and the whole combo system, but.... I don´t know, it didn´t grab me as I though it would.
And then I saw this trailer....
I gotta be honest, that´s a really good trailer. Shows story moments, combat, diverse and multiple Bosses (my favourite thing in games like these) and Frank´s Sinatra MY WAY.
Quite frankly, it doesn´t get better than this. I might give it a go.
Cheers, stay safe everyone and happy gaming to us all

@Shepherd_Tallon Hey there friend.
Nice to see a fellow Baiten Kaitos fan.
Loved that game on Game Cube. It was the last rpg I played on it.
The card combat system was so unique, different and fun to me as well as the world of the game itself.
They don´t make games quite like these anymore, do they?
Cheers, stay safe and have a good one

Although I do think this will suck, hasn't Dark Souls proven that graphics are second to gameplay?

To be honest, that's exactly what I love about it.

This game looks so good! Can't wait.

What a weird and funny trailer. I enjoyed the demo, so I'll definitely buy this one, although not day 1.

Btw, FFXV had Stand By Me and that was perfect. Let Strangers have My Way. 😄

I personally can't wait for it. Looks like it will be a blast!

I think SquarEnix is taking the Deadly Premonition route of "so bad it's essential" school of game design.

And it's working. Full on cheese with a side of CHAOS!

Looking good, now all that's left for them to do is just rename it to Final Fantasy XVII. Then we don't have to wait ten more years for a new entry.

wait, so let me try to understand how and why this thing exists. s-e was too busy wtih ff7r and kingdom hearts 4, so they decided to hand over the reigns to team ninja — a studio that is known for it's awful storytelling and complete lack of engaging narrative, to create a final fantasy game? well, gosh darn, aren't we all so fortuate for this masterpiece!

that kraken, though lol ... what kind of ***** IS THIS? are we supposed to accept this game with open arms or something? is the final fantasy branding warranted for a game that looks to throw everything it stands for out the window? is this a cheap cash grab that is banking on a once successful brand?

but yes, this game takes me back to the ps2 days when dirge of cerberus was released out of left field. a game nobody asked for nor wanted. stranger of paradeise fits that bill perfectly! s-e needs to be applauded for further dividing the ff community and destryoing its brand to the point it is no longer recognizable to the naked eye sigh

judging by the somehwat positive reception of this, the gaming community is either too young to know what final fantasy used to be or the mainstream gamer is at the point now where mediocrity is more than enough to create hype and sales. my, how far gaming has fallen (and the gamers with it).

dumpster fire in 3, 2, 1... let's jam.

This game looks horrible, same for the new final fantasy, i just don't like the medievil artstyle, wich is like ff12. I hope they add a great story, and please make those guardians more impressive and as important like in ff games 1 till 10.
I don't have any connenction with them.

@Porco "so they decided to hand over the reigns to team ninja — a studio that is known for it's awful storytelling and complete lack of engaging narrative, to create a final fantasy game?"

In your opinion.

@Porco Whoaa there, let's bring it down a notch. Firstly, Team Ninja made Nioh - two incredibly challenging and rewarding games - this is basically that. It's a spinoff so I give it a pass for not being exactly like the mainline entries. And like Nioh, this is all about the gameplay; the story merely plays second fiddle and is there to lay the framework for which to smash monsters into crystals

Hopefully the combat and gameplay harkens back to those old days as well. I could use a good fun button-masher nowadays.

@naruball dude, we are talking about final fantasy here — not some run-of-the-mill action game. are you going to tell me that metroid other m and the ninja gaiden games are shakespheare or something? team ninja has no business touching the final fantasy IP. unless, of course, s-e has given up on it and doesn't even know what direction to take it anymore (which may in fact be the case judging by this trailer).

@JB_Whiting who knows, the gameplay might deliver so i will keep an open mind about that... but once upon a time the final fantasy developers emphasized and put a lot of care into the narrative. s-e was the leader of the gaming industry in this regard. to see what the franchise has become, especially with final fantasy xv and this latest spinoff is cringe inducing and outright depressing man. if you were with the series since the 90s you might feel the same way. the franchise has been stripped of its identity and is an empty shell of its former self

Old FF used to be like medieval fantasy style but after Nomura they switched to some modern steampunk style! I don't know why a retelling of FF one need to follow that style!
I don't know why some putting the blame on Team Ninja when it's co-developed with Square!
I think people should prepare for FF games to be more linear action games with RPG elements and forget about world exploration!

Look I may not have a ps5 because I’m not made of money, but I play mine on my xbox series s and the graphics wonderful and not at all horrible. Anyone on ps5 should know that they have a decent graphic card despite Xbox series x and s have more up to date graphic card’s, and need to remember Sony consoles are more about high definition than decent graphics you get what you are paying for. graphics as well as a decent story blending is what makes or break a games and whoever said it’s ps2 graphics gta vice city, gta 3, and gta sanandrés as well as gta 4 are all graphics from ps2 and Xbox 360. And clearly you never played on those systems or you’d have the iq to tell the graphic differences. And people who haven’t played it shouldn’t judge it judge it after playing it I’ve played it and love it the game is nothing comparable to ps2 period PlayStation and ps2 final fantasy games had far better graphics than any other games for Sony at that time