Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin is doing several things that Square Enix’s series hasn’t generally been known for, from its Soulslike structure to its alternate take on the original Final Fantasy’s world and story. Some things, however, are going to be more than familiar to series fans- like Jobs. Those, of course, fit perfectly with the class and build-driven gameplay that fits Soulslike games so well.
In a recent update published on the PlayStation Blog, the upcoming action RPG’s director Daisuke Inoue offered new details on the Jobs that players will be able to choose from. There will be a total of 27 Jobs in Final Fantasy Origin, with a mix of many that are spins on known series staples, and some that have been created especially for this game.
Inoue says the development team decided which Jobs to include based primarily on which weapons they’d be focused on. He wrote: “Early on, we defined the weapons that we wanted to include in the game. Once that was complete, we worked backwards to define which jobs and actions we could add that would support those different weapon types.
“For example, we had a spear so we thought about potential jobs that would use this weapon. If you’re talking about spear users in Final Fantasy, it simply has to be a Dragoon, right?
“From there, we had to think about the skills that a Dragoon would have, and the type of movement it should have. Once we had the general concept nailed down, we looked at the rest of the series to find actions and abilities that we could build into the game to give it that authentic Final Fantasy feel.”
Inoue went on to explain that the developers’ primary aim was to “choose jobs that existed within the Final Fantasy series and build on them in a more action-oriented way.” He added: “There are some things from classic jobs that just didn’t translate very well, but as much as we could, we tried to respect the spirit and techniques of the different jobs from the Final Fantasy universe.”
Of course, not all Jobs in the game are based on something that’s come before. The new Breaker class, for instance, takes inspiration from the Odin Summon, with the idea being to “let the player break and take out enemies in a single hit.” The Job uses Zantetsuken, Odin Summon’s sword, and is described as “difficult to use in some situations, but also very powerful.”
Another new job is Void Knight, which, interestingly, can counter magic in one of two ways- you can either absorb it and turn it into MP, or you can turn it into your own attack. Then there’s Tyrant, another newly introduced Job in Final Fantasy Origin, which allows you to imbue your weapon with elemental effects.
A few other classes are also detailed, all of which will be familiar to Final Fantasy fans. There’s Sage, which lets you switch to and fro between white and black magic; Dark Knight, described as a high risk/high reward job that increases your damage when your HP is low; Paladin, which restores your health every time you land a hit, and increases your damage when your health is maxed out; Ninja, a Job that allows you to use “ninja tools to divert and inflict ailments without consuming MP”; and Thief, which allows you to steal instant abilities from enemies.
Again, class and build variety is something that Soulslike games tend to emphasize a great deal, and that’s an area that Final Fantasy as a series has plenty of experience with, so it’s not surprising to see Jobs evolving the way they are for the purposes of the upcoming game. It should be interesting to see how well they’re implemented.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin is out on March 18 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
