5 Tips For Thriving Against Chaos – Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin

With Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin now being fully available worldwide, we have compiled 5 notable tips beginners can benefit from before diving headlong into this stellar action title. For as well-implemented as the tutorials are, equally parsing every mechanic can be a bit much, so the following tips should be kept in mind while progress is made.

Utilize Party Member Resonance

Party members in Stranger of Paradise are not consistently helpful, but they can provide a slew of hefty damage at various points if you get lucky with their AI. Alongside the party members having their own specific Jobs and gear loadouts, a mechanic called Resonance enables them to be temporarily more aggressive. A transparent bar on their HUD gauges depicts Resonance’s availability, and using it at opportune times when enemies are open can result in swift decimations. This tip can also be applied during boss battles to make quick work of them.

Be Mindful Of Your Equipment Quantity

Jack can only hold a certain quantity of equipment throughout the game, making it so that future potential gear acquisitions will not occur if at the max amount. To counteract this scenario, remember to check your equipment amounts before heading into missions. If you’re at or near the maximum quantity, you can either move these items into a generous storage menu or dismantle them for components aiding in equipment enhancement. Considering how plentiful gear in this game is, tidying up your menus should be a natural part of your gameplay loop.

Eagerly Use Anima Shards/Crystals

Unless you’re aiming to perform a challenge run, it’s always in your best interest to use the Anima Shards and Crystals you gather to empower your Jobs. These items grant you Job experience to aid in unlocking more skill panels. While they may seem like a cop-out, the number of Jobs can be overwhelming, and not every Job is particularly gratifying to use until specific skill panels are unlocked, like with Dragoon. As a completionist, one strategy I enforced was using the Anima items on Jobs I rarely found myself utilizing. You can also grind for these items and stock them up on mission replays, so be sure to note them as you play around with your Jobs.

Take Equipment Job Affinity Into Account

A gameplay element I’ve been seeing overlooked is the affinity granted by equipment. The most distinguishing factor of equipment is how each piece can possess a certain affinity percentage for a specific Job. Reaching certain affinity levels provides bonuses for that Job, such as increased Stats or empowered techniques. I wouldn’t stress over min-maxing affinity levels, but it’s simply a facet to keep in mind as you alter Jack and the rest of the cast. Further, equipping a piece of gear housing affinity for a Job you don’t currently have equipped will provide experience for that Job.

Soul Break Is Your Best Friend

Soul Break is the mechanic you should be utilizing in battle the most. It’s essentially a more effective Guard that can potentially stun enemies while increasing your maximum MP. Every ability in this game, even if not seemingly magic-inclined, requires MP, and since Soul Break grants a continual stream of MP, learning to implement it into your playstyle is ideal for increased effectiveness. Soul Break’s window of availability is relatively generous, so it doesn’t require strenuous practice. Just be sure not to constantly hold it in place, as it lowers Jack’s break gauge.

And those were 5 tips any Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin beginner can benefit from. Advanced tips you can try to keep in mind are canceling abilities mid-use for optimized movement and knowing that some enemies are weaker on specific parts of their bodies. Regardless, I implore you to check out the Tips menu in-game because it’s genuinely well-written and transparent with its points. Any pressing questions you have will likely be answered there.