Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originhas released, with reviews praising the firstSouls-inspired gameplay found within it. However, many players and critics have voiced issues with the game’s narrative, whichfocuses on Jack Garlandand his party, who only know that they wish to kill Chaos. As strange as it is that the trio, soon to gain new members in Neon and Sophia, don’t remember much beyond their drive to destroy Chaos, Jack in particular doesn’t want to explore the truth of their situation for a long stretch of the game’s story.
Luckily for Jack, he holds a special crystal that points him in the proper direction. These crystals can sense those he’s supposedly destined to work with to stop Chaos, and each member of the party has one. However, things can get rather confusing as the story inStranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origindeals with not one, but two sets of powerful crystals. Jack and the rest of the party keep a set of crystals, while the game also features bigger elemental crystals that control the balance of Cornelia. The game doesn’t entirely make the difference between these crystals distinct, and knowing the difference plays a role in how each of the crystals operate.
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The Role of Cornelia’s Crystals
Early on into the game, players are treated to a prophecy regarding four Warriors of Light coming to save Cornelia from darkness. It’s quickly made clear that the story most people know isn’t the true version of this tale. Jack, Zed, Ash, and Neon are quickly told that as the Warriors of Light, they need to traverse Cornelia to save the elemental crystals that bring balance to the land. This displeases Jack, as there’sno talk of killing Chaosas part of their quest at first.
However, once all four crystals associated with the elements of wind, water, fire, and earth are purified, it’s made apparent rather quickly that the now purified crystals cause Cornelia to be caught in even further disarray. The elements that once kept Cornelia balanced are now re-shaping the land to where things seem unsustainable, such asCaptain Bikkefalling to Chaos as a result of being unable to live on the seas. This is the first big implication to players that things aren’t what they seem at all.
The Crystals the Party in Stranger of Paradise Hold
Themain cast of characters inStranger of Paradisealso carry crystals on their person, and these crystals are important to them for numerous reasons. At the start of the game, these crystals are all they have when Jack, Jed, and Ash only understand that they feel a need to kill Chaos and nothing else. The items can also sense the other crystals, and this is how most of the party meets. These crystals would be revealed to not be native to Corneria, but Lufenia, as the Lufenians wipe the group’s memories.
Due to the fact that Jack proclaims that he doesn’t need to remember his past, the party runs away from their memories despite thequestionsFinal Fantasy Origins’characters continued to ask. However, the crystals hold the group’s memories while they’re wiped, and the strange device has limited storage. To combat this, the Lufenians asked that the “Strangers” request a “pick up” once their crystals were full. This is because once storage was full on the crystals, the dark mist that Jack and the others were fighting would reveal their true memories, and those memories slowly help the main cast remember their true goal.
The True Purpose of the Crystals
There’s a reason as to why the party’s crystals ran out of space so quickly. Astos, theCornelian Elf who seems to clash against the sceneryfound in the game, is revealed to be an ancient elf brought back from the dead to ease the Strangers into the cycle of helping the Lufenians manage Cornelia’s balance between light and dark. Despite being told not to see Astos as a companion, Jack grew to see the elf as his friend as he grew tired of the Lufenians meddling in Cornelia’s existence. Thus, the group asked Astos to help him assist in a coup against the cycle.
Astos helped prime the entire party to be the perfect group to break the system the Lufenians created to keep Cornelia under control. Having Jack, Jed, Ash, Neon and Sophia regain their memories slowly was the perfect way to ensure that would happen as theyfight the Fiends of Chaos. The darkness that the Lufenians inject into Cornelia for the Strangers to fight back, as Warriors of Light, could take control of someone who is too emotional. The Lufenians believe that memories are the root of all emotion, and enough negative emotions could drive a Stranger to be “lost to Chaos.”
As the group slowly remembered their memories, this naturally made them remember their secret plan and their aggression towards the Lufenians as well, which was perfect for having them fall into darkness and chaos. Jack’s friends remember towards the end of the game that Astos' last mission for them was to fight Jack, riling up his emotions and have himbecome Chaos himself. With Jack lost to darkness, the Lufenians only had one choice to keep the balance of light and dark in check.
The only option the Lufenians had was to reset the world of Cornelia entirely and eject Jack away from their world and onto the reborn Cornelia. With Jack no longer being a Stranger, he kept his memories and became Chaos on the new world, planning to raise the next Warriors of Light himself in theending ofStranger of Paradise. This was only possible through the way that the Lufenians used the crystals, and how Astos went behind their backs to keep the crystals full of the necessary memories to stage the coup.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.
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