Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin’s story is a wild action RPG ride where players take on the role of Jack and aid in his endless battle to take down Chaos. It’s a bold entry in the Final Fantasy franchise and the development team behind it put a lot of work into creating the final product.
We had the chance to sit down with two members of the Stranger of Paradise team, the Producer of the project, Jin Fujiwara, and the Director, Daisuke Inoue, to ask a few questions regarding the game and porting it over to PC, giving the game a second launch after its initial release on consoles.
Launching Stranger of Paradise to the PC
When speaking with Fujiwara and Inoue about the team’s time bringing Stranger of Paradise to the PC, we were curious if the team overcame any unexpected challenges or obstacles. Thankfully, because the team had already supported the game on Epic, the process was relatively simple. However, there were a handful of limitations that they did encounter, and Inoue shared how these challenges were overcome by the joint team effort between Koei Tecmo and Square Enix.
Inoue: We have released the game on a variety of hardware, and naturally there were some limitations due to the different specifications between platforms. However, since this was a joint development project between KOEI TECMO GAMES and SQUARE ENIX, we were able to overcome these limitations by sharing our combined knowledge and insight. I think the most obvious example of a unique solution from a fused team comes from the fact that the two companies had previously worked together on the DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY titles.
For example, when we were developing the character Gilgamesh for the second expansion, Wanderer of the Rift, both companies had an idea of what we wanted Gilgamesh to do as a named/non-mob Final Fantasy character. So, even though it was a new resource, we were able to create a character that fit so well into the title within a short period of time, it was as though we had already prepared the character in advance.
The Final Fantasy Community Loves The Character Cast
Beyond the port itself, the Final Fantasy community and fanbase have had a little over a year to get to know Jack Garland and revisit his story in Stranger of Paradise. We asked the team how they felt about the community’s reaction to this character and his everlasting journey to slay Chaos.
Fujiwara: We were grateful for the many positive responses we received from players who finished the game. I remember I was especially delighted when some players responded that they felt Jack was one of the most fascinating characters in the FINAL FANTASY series as a whole, and thanked us for creating him.
Given the positive reaction and checking out the community responses, we were curious about what it was like to jump back into creating the port for Stranger of Paradise and returning to the story.
Inoue: The development itself has been continuous all the way through, and the porting itself was done while we worked on the season pass, so I didn’t think of it as a new undertaking. However, since we were still working on the season pass, I remember being newly determined to provide a suitable end and service for the players who love this game and its characters.
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Now, that the team has pushed this PC port for Stranger of Paradise, we asked what the team was most proud of with their final product.
Inoue: I think it is Jack Garland himself. Nomura-san designed the character, and Nojima-san came up with many of the lines and such, but within the development team, we considered how he would fight, how he would maneuver against this boss, and how he would think… So in that way, I believe we all worked together to construct the image of Jack Garland and create this character.
The last part of the season pass was not originally planned, but there were people in the team, including myself, who felt that the game should end with the fulfillment of his wishes, and that the fulfillment of those wishes should be made by the players themselves, so we decided to make the last part of the game the way it was.
The development of any new game can change a team and gives them additional insights they might have had going into the current project. We were curious about what challenges the team resolved during Stranger of Paradise’s development that they will take with them to future projects.
Inoue: Yes, there are some, but it is difficult to verbalize because there are many intuitive aspects… To put one of these in simple terms, I’ve come to realize that there are sometimes basic elements, which are actually very important, that we tend to overlook as development progresses, and we tend to become short-sighted. I’ve come to reassess the elements of the game from a broader perspective so that these are not overlooked on future projects.
Right now, fans can check out Strangers of Paradise on Steam to see the hard work the developers put together for the PC port. When we reviewed Strangers of Paradise, we played it on a PlayStation 5, and we enjoyed our time with the project, calling it a “truly unforgettable experience.”
