Trials of the Dragon King is one of three planned DLC expansions for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, which is an action RPG developed by Team Ninja and published by Square Enix. The bulk of the content in Trials of the Dragon King is a lazy rehash of the content from Stranger of Paradise, which is locked behind a punishing new difficulty mode that ignores the accessibility options from the base game.
Stranger of Paradise is a retelling of the original FF1, where the player takes on the role of Jack Garland, who was the first ever Final Fantasy villain. The ending of Stranger of Paradise ties into the beginning of FF1, with Jack sitting on his throne, waiting for the Warriors of Light. In this version of the story, Jack wants the Warriors of Light to help break the world free from a cycle that had been created by the advanced Lufenian race, so he has embraced the power of Chaos, in order to spur the creation of Warriors of Light. The story kicks off with Jack defeating an iteration of the Warrior of Light, which awakens Bahamut from his slumber, who offers to help Jack and his friends for a price.
Trials of the Dragon King adds the Bahamut difficulty setting, which contains all of the new content in the game. The player must earn Dragon Treasures in order to progress through the story and these are earned through Bahamut's Trials. The Bahamut Trials are penalties that the player can add to a mission, such as reducing maximum hit points or maximum potion amount, which increases the chances of Dragon Treasures and rare items dropping. Unfortunately, this means just playing harder version of the stages from Stranger of Paradise that the player has already finished, which is 95% of the content in Trials of the Dragon King.
One of the best aspects of Stranger of Paradise was its difficulty modes, as it meant that players of all skill levels could enjoy the game. Trials of the Dragon King locks all of its content behind the Bahamut difficulty, which means that only highly-skilled players can engage with the DLC. There is one new thing that makes things easier, as there is now an Extra mode that can be accessed in the Chaos difficulty mode and above, which puts Jack permanently under the effects of chaosbringer. The Extra mode makes the regular enemies a lot easier, but it doesn't help a great deal against the bosses due to their speed and strength.
What hurts Trials of the Dragon King the most is the lack of new content. A new difficulty mode might have been appreciated if it was tied to all-new stages and enemies, but the only new additions to the game are boss fights against Bahamut and the Warrior of Light. The bosses from Stranger of Paradise (which need to be fought again at the end of missions) have also been updated, with some new moves and strategies. The problem, is that many of the bosses have had their difficulty increased in a frustrating manner, as they are now a lot faster, can perform actions quicker, and have gap closers that can one or two-shot players. The fact that bosses have massive health bars means that boss fights are now arduous affairs, where the player slowly chips away at them, only for their progress to be undone in a flash.
In order to stand a chance against the new enemies and bosses, the player needs to grind for high-level gear and use Master Points to boost stats. This means the difficulty in Trials of the Dragon King is just about tedious grinding, rather than experimenting with different class builds against challenging boss fights, which was the case in Stranger of Paradise. The only highlights of the Trials of the Dragon King are the three new jobs (Pilgrim, Evoker, and Summoner) all of which are fun to play, and fighting Bahamut himself, which is one of the most impressive-looking bosses in the game.
It's notable that all of the DLC for Stranger of Paradise can only be purchased as one complete Season Pass, rather than being sold individually. This is a shame, as Trials of the Dragon King will appeal to the most hardcore action RPG fans, but not have much to offer the rest of the fans. This would have been fine if Trials of the Dragon King had been promoted as a brutally hard new challenge for dedicated players and if it was sold on its own, but it's part of one package and its content is going to be off-putting to people who enjoyed Stranger of Paradise on the lower difficulty settings. The brutal difficulty, the lack of new content, and the forcing players to replay stages from the base game to see the slivers of new content means that the Stranger of Paradise Season Pass currently isn't worth buying. It's possible that the upcoming Wanderer of the Rift and DIFFERENT FUTURE updates will change that, but Trials of the Dragon King isn't worth the price of admission, save for people desperate for more Stranger of Paradise content.
Trials of the Dragon King is available now as part of the Season Pass for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, which is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.