Generally speaking, the plot of Final Fantasy games advances at the will of the player, as they plough headlong through trivial tasks and quests. Throughout games like Final Fantasy 7 all the way through to 15, the plot is generally advanced at a fairly tempered pace, with the rare exception being if the player runs up against a boss they can't best for a while, or if they choose instead to take time away from the main story to focus on side content. This is going to be quite the challenge to overcome for players who are used to Final Fantasy's typical narrative structure. This is typical of Nioh games, that set up their missions with a simple paragraph or two of text in the game's hub zone, before sending you on your merry way to slaughter and be slaughtered in turn.

Throughout the Stranger in Paradise PS5 demo that we played earlier this week, there's no expositional story dialog in the slightest – instead you're left to worm through a dank dungeon with zero background information or knowledge (except from killing CHAOS, of course). This will still very much be the case in Final Fantasy Origin. 'The final boss of the new demo was no pushover, and represents a rude awakening for those experiencing their first taste of Team Ninja's action-packed games' These expositional moments almost act as a reward, a way of the developer patting you on the back and saying 'good job' for overcoming the quest and its subsequent boss fight.

It might be a look at how the death of a boss impacts the overall story, or a scene deepening the bonds between the player character and their allies. At the culmination of a quest, when the player has bested a tough boss, a story segment will typically play out, advancing the overall plot of Nioh and setting up any subsequent missions. Nioh put players through crushing combat gauntlets against towering and tough foes in equal measure, with checkpoints few and far between and healing items more than worth their weight in gold.Ĭrucially though, Nioh saves all of its storytelling scenes for after any given mission. For those unfamiliar with the new Final Fantasy game, announced at the Square Enix E3 2021 presentation, Stranger in Paradise is being developed by Team Ninja, the studio behind the Souls-esque Nioh games.

Nioh crack