Wait…deja vu. Didn’t we do a review of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin before?! Fear not gentle reader, you’re not in a parallel universe, multiverse or alternate timeline. We did do a review of the game on the Playstation 5 and now we’re reviewing it on the PC for Steam.

Why you ask?

Simply because we want to see what the game’s truly capable of if it was unleashed from the constraints of consoles and after a whole year of patches since its original release on the Epic Games Store.

So…how does the newly amped up game fare?

Read on to find out!

What is Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin?

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is a third person ARPG in the vein of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and the like. It’s developed by Team Ninja (of Ni-oh and Wo Long fame) and published by Square Enix.

It’s available right now on the PC, Playstation and Xbox consoles.

Our copy was provided by the kind folks over at Square Enix! Thanks for the review code guys and gals!

Since we’ve already reviewed the Playstation 5 version of the game, we won’t go over the nitty gritty. Nothing’s changed for the PC version with regards to gameplay, which is (mostly) a really good thing. The original was tough as nails and the PC version is just as relentless.

Sure, the game’s nowhere as near as tough as other Souls-like, but it’s still no pushover…unless you play on the easiest setting.

I’ve always loved how the Dark Elves in the game has this weird neon fetish.

One thing I noticed though is that the AI allies seems to be much improved over the base PS5 version. They now fight as a unit (on Normal difficulty) and are generally smart avoiding danger. But I digress, that’s not the best thing about the game.

The best thing about the game is how it looks.

As always, we’re reviewing the game on our PC gaming rig.

For the review, we were running a rig off these specs:
– MSI B550M Mortar
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 3080Ti Suprim X 12GB
– 64GB DDR4 RAM (Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 16GB x 4 @ 3600MHz)
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD

Settings were all set to the maximum, at 4K resolution.

A side mention; both our motherboard and GPU were awesomely sponsored by the great folks at MSI. I can honestly say the MSI GeForce RTX 3080Ti Suprim X 12GB is a hell of a GPU and more than worth its asking price. Great performance in games, looks damn cool with its RGB stylings too!

With our setup, I had no problem playing the game on Max settings at 4K resolution with a stable 60FPS, without using DLSS (which is present). The slowdown issues (which occurred sometimes on the PS5 version) are nowhere to be seen.

Even better, on the PC version of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, the maximum settings make the game look incredible. The character models looked great, the environments looked great and the particle effects look great. It’s great news all around!

Looks a bit like Ninja Gaiden doesn’t it?

Everything flowed like butter, with no slowdowns or weird hitches. It was honestly a joy to play.

Another joy I found was with the near instant respawn.

It takes a few seconds (less than five!) to be resurrected back at the last checkpoint if you die. It’s a godsend when you’re getting your ass handed to you. Team Ninja did a phenomenal job optimizing this for fast SSDs.

Even regular level loads are much faster than they ever were on the Playstation 5 version of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.

Texture pop-in that was a minor niggle on the PS5 is completely gone on the PC version. Everything looks as it should at all times.

The weird bugs that were prevalent (I once got stuck in the 2nd mission’s cave because I rolled onto a rock on the PS5) are all gone from the looks of things, which is a testament to how much better the game is now.

The Bottom Line.

I love this shot for some reason…would love to get a poster of it. You hear that Square Enix? Make one please.

If you had a choice between all the different versions of the game, get the Steam PC version of Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Nobody games on the EPS platform.

Yes, it’s late to the party on Steam. That’s irrelevant however because it provides the best possible version of the game. The console versions are no slouches, but if you have the hardware to run this on the PC, it’s not even a close call.

Technical issues that were Sky (and I) noticed in the Playstation 5 version are gone. Whether they’ve been patched (possible since I never replayed the game on the PS5) or it’s a totally new fix that’s due to the beefier PC hardware I have no idea.

I really love the near instant loading when you die and respawn. It’s not that much faster than the PS5 version, but it all adds up over time. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is definitely worth playing on the PC, even if you’ve played the PS5 version.

TLDR:

Stellar PC port with incredible visuals and great gameplay.

The Good:

  • The fighting mechanics.
  • The visuals.
  • Lightning quick loads.
  • The job system.
  • Finally on Steam at a cheaper price!

The Bad:

  • The potions are still a pain in the ass.
  • Nothing new added to the Steam PC version.

Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.