Final Nioh 2, Prepare To Kill Chaos Edition. I love it. As a Nioh, FF and Soulsborne fan I'm pretty biased but FFO goes far on the sheer charm of its ludicrous premise and sticks the landing with a good story, cool ideas and strong combat, if not the best and most polished version of all of those things. But hey, when you wait 2-3 years between headline releases in other series then why not enjoy a good 8/10 experience?
About 40 years ago FF1 graced us. My first was FF4 but all the same pardon me while I crumble into dust. Four heroes fought to save a princess from a dark knight and defeat the four fiends causing the planet to wither. Alongside some surprise sci fi elements it ended with a banger of a plot twist for the time: a stable time loop rebirthing the fiends and their lord until darkness took the world. Stranger of Paradise is a deconstruction that follows a man named Jack who erupted from the womb with one purpose: he must kill Chaos. It follows the story while things are noticeably off where-in characters openly discuss constant memory loss, see spooky specters glitching out and an outside point of view writes the loading screens. What starts as a near-parody with Jack Finalfantasy telling bosses to screw off before he suplexes them and listens to Linkin Park actually goes on to deliver a sincere story.
Past a gorgeous intro cutscene FFO is a pretty game, recent enough to hit those big boy graphics standards but just old enough to not try to kill your toaster. There's a mix of fantasy and more overt sci fi environments, bouncing between the ruins of a technological wonder to a magical forest to a forlorn mountaintop before entering high tech base or crystal tower is the norm. Combat flows smoothly and the spectacle looks great with FF standard effects polish and over the top delivery, lots of impact for attacks and a great feeling of nailing big hits that knock monsters off their feet before delivering finishers. The music is what you'd want from FF with a bunch of orchestral bangers, especially the regular battle theme keeping your blood pumping until you reach a unique boss track. Sometimes levels can feel a bit redundant with hallway design or some limited environments and a few areas look washed out but that's pretty irregular and otherwise presentation is as smooth as silk. Even the UI is a class act, which is nice as you'll be spending a good bit of time looking at build options.
Combat is close to a 1:1 with Nioh 2 with modern 3D FF elements. You can tackle virtually the entire game as Jack Darksouls and trade hits with enemies while rolling through their attacks but FFO gives you a party with combat that rewards using them, including building them to synergize with you and timing when they should pressure. Weapon types dictate the flow of your attacks and there are a lot of class/build options that spice up how Jack wants to punch Chaos. The core is to pick two classes for your active abilities, weapon options and some passives and then level up for weapon/command skills that can be used outside that class. Otherwise your stats passively rise as you improve your gear and stack affinity, or <class> spices and seasoning for passives/stats outside of that class. Basically you're not locked to a class unless you want their tree passives and their big skill and you can flick between your two seamlessly mid-fight.
There's some good shake-ups to the usual Soulsborne formula. There's break(stamina) but reserved for guarding and soul breaking, guarding works until you do it too often and have to take a knee, dodge rolling is actually nearly infinite(but the i-frames aren't generous so skill prevails) and the real juice is in mana points/soul shenanigans. Soul break is a super stamina draining guard that restores MP on block and can eat advertised enemy projectiles, absorbing them to be used. Then MP becomes the true stamina, dictating use of combo abilities(weapon spells), class abilities(buffs, spells) and commands(game changers/build enablers.) A pseudo-turn based "feel" where everything gets a pop-up announcing its ability use gives more of a predictable FF pace, though you can still learn all the animation tells too. Every enemy has HP and their own break, with break often folding first if you exploit weaknesses. Make them take a knee and you can soul burst all over their face, executing enemies and forcing bosses to their next phase. That's right, now we're Elden Sekiroing! When playing well Jack can rush enemies down, break them fast and execute to trim the field and then have a more intimate duel with beasties strong enough to survive an alpha strike. Add in other FF mainstays like chasing elemental weaknesses and the classic class gimmicks(and there's dozens of 'em) and even the average sized mook roster stays entertaining for a long time, training you for the robust boss roster.
Now I have the fatal personality defect that makes me enjoy sorting ARPG loot but FFO will spit out dozens of drops at you at a time, though you can get used to this numerical abuse with practice. I want this affinity stat, higher level is generally better stats, then look at(and freely swap later) the passive boosts on the gear, mulch most of what you're not wearing or putting in alternate gear sets. You can care as much or as little about this as you want, though stacking affinities and passives will be necessary to push higher difficulties. It takes until end game/replays on higher difficulties before the gearing blooms as much as the classes in making builds.
To get back to the story FFO also has tight writing and good voice acting. There's something real cozy about the group dynamic between the heroes, everybody aware of the strengths and shortcomings of their friends, poking fun and joking to relieve tension, values clashing a bit, generally a healthy back and forth. Even the combat banter is chill. Jack's the ultimate meathead but absolutely reliable and supportive of his friends, the others get focus often tied to the current fiend-centered area you're building up to, there's a great supporting cast with charming characters as well, really something better than the sum of the parts. The star of the show is this dynamic keeping pace all the way until the end, resulting in good emotional payoff for a plot about I'M HERE TO KILL CHAOS!!! Considering the simplicity of the source material I was really pleasantly surprised by the quality and the approach the story took, even with as much open foreshadowing as the game does so early on. FFO beautifully compliments FF1.
All this and it's got co-op! I'd be happy getting FFO for full price. It's a rock solid title and even when repetitive the moment to moment combat kept me focused for the next boss, my next build possibility, the next story beat, I wanted to see how things unfolded real bad. I was happy with what I got and grabbed the season pass DLC while it was still on sale, so lemme tell you that getting this game for less than half price is a can't miss for fans of FF and/or those Souls-likes, especially Nioh. The DLC looks to be high quality but is undeniably of the post-end game variety with lots of fighting and a bit of extra story. FFO end game can last you a looooong time with huge grinds to continue building your numbers and fight the next unfair boss. With this much quality game who could resist the call to face Chaos?
