Final Fantasy Origins of Strangers in Heaven Review: Dark Fantasy Created by Deep Motion Systems

As an action adventure game developed by Team Ninja, Final Fantasy Origins of Strangers in Heaven (hereinafter referred to as Final Fantasy Origins) has been jokingly referred to by players as "Renwang Fantasy" or "Final Fantasy Renwang" since its release. This selling point has even overshadowed the title of the origin of this game, and some players find it difficult to recall it at the first mention. This is a work based on the original Final Fantasy worldview and launched on the 35th anniversary of the series.

To be honest, I first started paying attention to Final Fantasy Origins because I was attracted by the action gameplay of this game - although I am not very familiar with the Final Fantasy series, I am a fan of two generations of Renwang, so I am looking forward to Team Ninja making any improvements to Renwang's combat system through the theme of Final Fantasy in this game.

After actual gameplay, I found that the fun and playable content of this game in combat far exceeded my imagination. There are too many contents worth carefully studying in the excellent combat system of this game. At the same time, the elements related to Final Fantasy in this game are also quite rich, which can arouse the interest of players who have not been familiar with this series, and also make series fans feel satisfied.

*This review is a media pre evaluation based on version 1.01 of the PS5 platform. The descriptions and viewpoints included in the review only represent the subjective opinions of the reviewers, and the actual game experience varies from person to person.

A refreshing and unique combat experience

Due to the official release of various familiar dark scenes and high-intensity battles during the promotion process, many players have been worried that the gameplay of Final Fantasy Origins will still feel like "King of Ren". In fact, although some of the weapons and actions have a similar operating feel, the combat system and strategy of this game form a unique style while ensuring pleasure and depth, which is completely different from "King of Ren". If we were to make an analogy, the commonality between the two is as insignificant as the similarities between "King of Humanity" and "Soul" games.

From the most obvious perspective when getting started, this game eliminates the energy system, so players no longer need to constantly consider whether to use high difficulty operations to ensure that they can continue to play various combos like in King Ren. Instead, they can focus more on the enemy's state and the player's attack actions themselves. This design allows players to have a faster combat rhythm and a more enjoyable fighting experience when facing miscellaneous soldiers.

But this does not mean that players can attack without thinking in the game. As a substitute for energy, this game is designed with magic points, where players need to expend magic to achieve higher damage "action skills". Some special skills also consume the upper limit of magic points. If the magic is insufficient, players can only use regular attacks to scratch, so during battles, players need to consider how to accumulate magic points to maintain output.

action skill can quickly reduce BREAK points, but it will consume magic points

This work also draws on and expands on the "BREAK" system from Final Fantasy 13. The BREAK system in this game is similar to the stance slot in "Only Wolf". Players need to continuously reduce the enemy's BREAK value by attacking or blocking enemies, using correct attributes to cause damage, completing part damage, and other methods. After clearing them, they can launch a "soul explosion" to ignore their health and kill them with one strike, while restoring the player's magic value and magic limit. But if the player's own BREAK slot is emptied, in addition to being trapped in a great rigidity, they will also lose their magic limit.

If you can attack enemies from behind, or knock them flying and causing them to collide with walls, or damage them through scene destruction, it will greatly reduce their BREAK value; Launching a soul explosion can also cause chain damage to surrounding enemies, giving players the opportunity to instantly clear a large group of enemies. In addition, the design in this game where there are often three or more enemies in a single small scene and pulling monsters is no longer feasible, on the one hand, the game system encourages players to actively attack, and on the other hand, it also promotes players to consider strategic aspects such as positioning and pulling monsters.

After clearing the BREAK slot, execute enemies regardless of health

There is a rebound ability called "Soul Shield" in the game. Although using this ability will quickly consume the player's BREAK value, if it successfully bounces back to the enemy's attack, it can simultaneously have the effect of dealing a hard blow to the enemy, providing quick pursuit opportunities, restoring the player's magic value, and increasing the player's magic limit; If a soul shield is used to block some of the enemy's magical attacks, players can also temporarily incorporate this skill for their own use. Therefore, actively using soul shields has become one of the core combat methods in this game, and players should continuously accumulate advantages and enhance their combat capabilities through this.

Using a soul shield to resist enemy attacks can increase the player's magic value and maximum magic limit

In this way, this game has formed a new combat concept of reducing the BREAK value of a single weak enemy through regular attacks and rebounds, accumulating magic, consuming magic, using action skills that cause higher damage to the BREAK to attack large or powerful enemies, and triggering chain soul explosions to instantly kill multiple enemies. In addition, because the enemy's actions are no longer limited by energy, the "energy suppression" gameplay in "Ren Wang" is no longer effective, which indirectly encourages players to explore new combat ideas and think about how to achieve stable high output when facing a single strong enemy.

The design that revolves around elements such as posture and magic is not unique to Final Fantasy Origins, but when paired with Team Ninja's consistent and solid combat feel and intense execution animations, the battles in this game are incredibly satisfying, making it difficult for me to stop once I get started, and I just want to constantly fight monsters. Even the NPC in the game has roast about the protagonists: the brutal way of fighting is not a warrior of light, you are just chaos.

Present the classic career system of Final Fantasy through action games

After all, the title of this game is "Final Fantasy Origins", so even the most interesting combat system still needs to reflect the characteristics of this IP in order to be accepted. In this game, Team Ninja combines multiple classic professions and their unique skills from the Final Fantasy series to create a highly flexible and in-depth gameplay.

In this game, players have a total of 8 weapons to choose from, which can form different combat styles. There are also 28 professions available for players to play in the game, including classic professions such as Black and White Red Demon, Dragon Knight, and Martial Monk, as well as Void Knight who can absorb enemy spells and counterattack, Assassin who can mark enemies for additional critical strikes, and Tyrant who can freely attribute attacks, among other new professions.

In the process of cultivating proficiency in specific professions, players can gradually unlock various unique action skills and form unique gameplay that suits them: you can become a warrior, engage in battle roars and face to face battles with enemies to fight one enemy ten; You can also become a sage and have your NPC teammates T-block it, then hide in the back row, stack up all the buffs, and unleash powerful magical attacks. It can be said that as long as operated properly, there is no profession in the game that is useless.

After unlocking the action skills in the game, players can decide which ability to set in which key position according to their preferences, in order to create unique moves based on their combat habits and the enemies they will face. For example, if you like to run away with just a little damage, you can add a quick action skill after a single light attack; If you are confident that you can fill a set of moves on slow moving enemies, you can set a powerful derivative with a long duration and multiple attack stages after multiple light attacks.

What kind of combo to add after entering a few commands, what kind of action to push the joystick in all directions, and what type of attack can be achieved by long and short press combinations... This custom move list for players has a certain flavor of the PS2 platform action masterpiece "God's Hand". In addition, players can choose two professions at the same time and switch instantly during battles, in order to better deal with enemies with different equipment and moves. Various professions have common or unique skills and gains, and there is still a lot of content to explore in the action system of this game.

However, it should be noted that for every new content unlocked in this game, there will be several pages of documentation posted on the player's face, which may confuse players who have just started their adventure. This situation is particularly evident in the early stages of the game: players will unlock a large number of new weapons and professions in a short period of time, and will also be exposed to new operations. If they do not have a clear idea of what genre they want to play with, they will inevitably feel at a loss.

But in fact, although the system of this game is rich enough to make people dizzy, it is not too complex, and can be quickly understood after getting started. Although players may even forget to use some of the content during the gameplay due to the multitude of selectable operations and abilities, I believe this excellent system will not disappoint action game enthusiasts. One of the biggest fun points of this game is to fill various professions and build cool gameplay.

At present, I have completed all the main and side quests of this game in 25 hours, and have temporarily reached the full level of 22 out of 28 professions (new upgrade elements will be added to unlock higher difficulty after completing the level). However, I still do not believe that I have mastered the combat skills of this game, I can only say that I have roughly understood some basic concepts. It can be foreseen that after the official release of the game, there will definitely be videos of various skilled players showcasing their ultimate action operations, nude quick kill bosses; As in "Bloodthirsty Code," studying the RPG system and using various command skills to stack buffs to achieve a one shot kill of the boss may also be an exploration direction for players in this game.

I won't make things difficult for players, nor will I force them to brush

Although the action system of Final Fantasy Origins, as I described earlier, can be complex and has a lot of research space, it is still a spin off of Final Fantasy, and its purpose is to expose more new players to the Final Fantasy series itself. Therefore, in reality, this game does not have any intentionally challenging elements for players. Although some enemies may suddenly release their dominant body skills to disrupt the player's attack rhythm, the double boss battle that is deeply detested by players of King Ren does not appear in this game, and there is only one consecutive boss battle.

, but I'm really scared every time I see this damn thing, Dongbei

If you are a player who loves action games, you can choose to play this game in either normal or difficult mode from the beginning, so that you can experience the combat fun of "life and death on the front line" in the middle and later stages of the game; But if you are not good at high difficulty action games, or just want to experience the plot of this game, you can also choose story mode and activate the "safety" setting, so that the enemies in the game are not too strong, and the protagonist will not be punished with a deduction of the magic limit after death.

Meanwhile, in most of the process of this game, the protagonist is accompanied by teammates. Therefore, as long as caution is maintained during battles and timely instructions are given to teammates to actively attack, the pressure of the battle will not be too great.

In addition, some players may have heard of the collapse of values in King Ren, which requires a large amount of equipment and leveling. However, based on the existing game content, Final Fantasy Origins currently does not force players to brush and brush.

This game has removed the character level system, so players no longer need to brush souls or engage in battles with burdens. The strength of players is generally evaluated by their equipment level, and each task in the game will come with a recommended level, which means that if the player's equipment level is higher than this value, they can easily challenge.

Is this game about players brushing powerful equipment? Actually, it's not necessary either. High difficulty tasks will naturally drop high attribute equipment, so theoretically, as long as you can successfully defeat a few small monsters at the beginning of the task in high difficulty levels, you can achieve the goal of "relying on war to sustain war" and directly obtain a divine outfit, reaching the recommended strength of the task.

If players are willing, of course, they can still brush and brush in the game. However, whether it is higher professional proficiency or more powerful equipment, these contents will only be opened after the game is completed for a week, and the process of brushing these things is not as straightforward as in Renwang. Therefore, players only need to pick high panel or visually appealing equipment to use in a week. If you're too lazy to study various terms and bonuses, the game also thoughtfully provides the function of one click switching to the strongest equipment.

Qualified spin off, the origin of fantasy

As a player who only entered the game after Final Fantasy 15, I dare not say that I have too much knowledge about this series. So I asked the fans of Final Fantasy around me, wanting to know what exactly gives them a sense of Final Fantasy. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a simple and clear answer in the end. However, in my opinion, this work can be considered a qualified spin off of this great series.

From the perspective of atmosphere and worldview shaping, the story background with crystal as the theme, classic monster images such as cacti and Besimos, and wonderful technology trees such as airships in the magical world can be said to be quite complete in Final Fantasy Origins.

In a more intuitive way, this work also pays tribute to the works of Final Fantasy throughout history. The inspiration for many levels in the game comes from important scenes in the 15 original works of the Final Fantasy series, such as the Crystal Tower in the 3rd generation, the Mausoleum in the 7th generation, the Leicester Tomb in the 12th generation, the Shastaxia Cave in the 14th generation, the King's City in the 15th generation, and so on. These classic maps are presented in a new posture in this work, accompanied by variations of BGM in the corresponding works, which should evoke many memories for fans of the series.

The Underwater Temple of Final Fantasy Origins (Part 1) and the 1st Magic Furnace of Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 2)

In terms of plot, the worldview of this work is based on the first installment of Final Fantasy, telling the story of how Jack Garland, a hero dedicated to fighting against chaos, became the chaos itself. Although this game has not solved all the mysteries left by the first Final Fantasy, it can still be regarded as a prequel to the first game, and overall, this game still lives up to its name of origin. Players who have not played the first installment of Final Fantasy do not need to worry. This game tells a complete story that even new players can understand.

However, I am somewhat dissatisfied with the narrative rhythm of this work. In the middle of the game, the protagonist's teammates will discover an important secret related to the key plot, but they all choose to be riddlers; In such a situation where players really want to know the truth, the protagonist doesn't care at all about it, and even doesn't allow his teammates to mention related things, which makes me feel both anxious and disconnected. As the ending approached, the game densely presented a large amount of information with continuous long performances, which actually increased the energy and time required for players to streamline the plot. Even after watching the final cutscenes, I couldn't get over my doubts.

epilogue

Since the first generation of "Ren Wang" in 2017, the optimization performance of Team Ninja's games has been criticized - black areas are invisible, bright areas are blinding, and sometimes a large amount of light pollution combat effects can cause the game's resolution and frame rate to decrease simultaneously. This situation is particularly evident in Final Fantasy Origins, where I often doubt whether I am playing a game from the early or even late stages of PS4 while playing.

Players can choose to run the game in either screen mode or frame rate mode on the next-generation console. Unfortunately, it seems that there is not much difference in performance between the two modes, and the visual effects of the mode can only be considered average. The official has recently made changes to this setting option without warning. Currently, players using 4K screens have indicated that they can still make this setting, while players using 1080p resolution screens will no longer be able to see this option. The specific situation remains to be explained by the official in the future.

If you can withstand the torment of bad visuals and are interested in the theme of Final Fantasy, or want to explore some secrets that were not revealed in the first installment of Final Fantasy, then why not give this work a try. If you are interested in action games, want to challenge yourself, or enjoy researching unique equipment and combat strategies to create various gameplay, then this game is not to be missed.