How does Final Fantasy 1 relate to Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin? According to Tetsuya Nomura, it's not "directly connected" to the game, instead using it as a "motif" for a new adventure.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an upcoming game in the Final Fantasy franchise that gives off serious Dark Souls vibes. Aside from a meme-worthy trailer, it also launched a broken demo (that was later fixed) which is pretty darn fun. This short demo raised a lot of new questions, though — and the legendary Tetsuya Nomura was more than happy to answer them in a recent interview with Famitsu.
How is Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Related to Final Fantasy 1?
Let's ask the big question: we have a bunch of heroes fighting what looks like Garland, the major villain of Final Fantasy 1. How does Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin related to the NES game that kicked off the franchise?
"It’s a new story that uses [Final Fantasy 1] as a motif, rather than being directly connected or an equivalent," the game's Creative Producer Tetsuya Nomura told Famitsu in an interview republished on Square Enix's website. "The trial version covers the Chaos Shrine, which you’ll visit towards the beginning of the game – which is similar to the progression in [Final Fantasy 1] as well."
So, it's a game in the same setting, but not necessarily the same characters. That raises another question — were the three guys we saw in the demo the Warriors of Light? That one is going to require a little explanation.
"Jack and his allies have the mission to defeat Chaos, but we needed them to be characters that people would think of as totally separate to the Warriors of Light." – Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Creative Producers Tetsuya Nomura
The Warriors of Light in the original game were four heroes who were charged with restoring the power of four crystals by defeating the Four Fiends. Final Fantasy 1 players could select from various different classes for each of the Warriors of Light — they weren't defined characters as we see in most of the later Final Fantasy games.
Stranger of Paradise, however, definitely has defined characters — a major departure from the first game. That brings us to this question: are these guys the Warriors of Light or not?
"[One] of our concepts was to create something that looked completely different to what people might picture when they think of the Warriors of Light fighting Garland in [Final Fantasy 1]," Nomura explained. "Jack and his allies have the mission to defeat Chaos, but we needed them to be characters that people would think of as totally separate to the Warriors of Light."
There you have it — these guys are "totally separate" to the Warriors of Light from Final Fantasy 1. They won't be alone, either — Nomura indicated that there will be other playable characters in the game.
There are still a lot of mysteries to uncover, though! You can read the full interview on Square Enix's website to see everything he said about this upcoming game. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is launching sometime later in 2022 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox; you can learn more about the game on its official website.
What did you think of the Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin demo? How do you think this game will be different from Final Fantasy 1? Let us know in the comments below!
