When Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin was originally revealed, it’s probably fair to say that not a lot of people knew exactly what to think. The game is being marketed as something of a prequel to the original Final Fantasy that started the storied franchise, but is also about a group of characters from the “real world” falling into a fantasy world, and one of them is named Jack, Jack Garland. Apparently, though, we weren’t going to know that right away originally.
The game got new trailer today as well as a release date, and in it was revealed the main character carried the name of Garland. If you are unfamiliar, Garland is the antagonist of the first Final Fantasy, and the first named character in the series. In that game, he and Chaos are one and the same and uses a time loop to effectively become immortal. While it’s unclear exactly how this Jack Garland will play into that (whether this is the same Garland or if there is more to his story), at one time this was going to be a big twist. But according to Creative Producer Tetsuya Nomura, the reaction to the initial reveal shifted how they plan to market the game.
In an interview with Famitsu, Nomura said that western audiences seemed to figure out this twist pretty quickly, and due to that, it was decided that the marketing should focus more on ‘why does Garland become Chaos’ and less the original pitch of finding out who Jack is and how he finds his place in the world. Of course, there could be more twists and turns, as tends to happen in Final Fantasy games, but it seems for now we can assume this is meant to be a villain’s origin story.
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin will release on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC on March 18th 2022.