The developers of Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin have revealed that the game's combat won't leave behind the old school Final Fantasy fans, who are used to turn-based RPGs. The mainline Final Fantasy series consisted of turn-based RPGs until the PS2 era, where it started to experiment with different gameplay styles.

The first Final Fantasy game was heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and the original Dragon Quest, both of which featured turn-based combat. The lack of animations needed for the characters in combat allowed the developers to create stunning (for the time) character sprites in the series. As time went on and the hardware on offer improved, this became less of an issue, and the Final Fantasy series started to shift to more action-oriented gameplay.

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Stranger of Paradise is an action RPG that takes inspiration from games like Dark Souls and Devil May Cry. As such, the combat might be too much for people who are used to the older entries in the series. Square Enix has added options to the game to make it easier for old-school fans. Stranger of Paradise director Daisuke Inoue told Famitsu (in an interview translated into English for the official Square Enix website) that the game is intended to be challenging, rather than punishing, in order to make it as accessible as possible.

Inoue clarified that the punishment for dying isn't as severe as it is in similar games. This can be seen in the Stranger of Paradise demo, where the only penalty for death is being sent to the last save point. All of the job points the player acquires are instantly banked and aren't lost upon death. There is also a Casual mode available as part of the Easy difficulty. Inoue recommends players raising the difficulty as they become accustomed to its gameplay.

This isn't the first time that Square has offered difficulty options in a Final Fantasy game. FF7 was a turn-based RPG, while FF7 Remake was an action RPG. That game had access to both an Easy mode, and a Classic Mode, which automated the combat (outside of issuing commands). Stranger of Paradise will have a number of difficulty options, in order to satisfy the people who aren't fans of action games, as well as those seeking a challenge.

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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.

Source: Square Enix