Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise PS5 Tips

Anytime a new game comes out, tips can be very helpful in easing you into the world, combat, and menus, especially when playing a game like Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise (SoP). Much like Team Ninja’s previous stamina-based action games – Nioh 1 and 2 – a lot is going on. Luckily, SoP has a lot of tips in-game, but some can be hard to understand, and sometimes you just need a little extra help.

After putting over 7 hours into the demo and a few more on the full release on PS5 and scouring the web, I realized some players had questions for certain elements that they couldn’t find elsewhere or didn’t understand. With SoP being a game I’ve been looking forward to for months, and what may end up being one of my top games, I figured why not try to help others with a list of tips! As of writing this, most of my gameplay has been on the demo as the game just got released early. That said, not much should change, and if something has, I will update this list.

1. System Settings: Where I go over what may be the most important settings.
2. World Map Main Menu: Important Main Menu options accessible on the World Map
3. Online: What to do when you have friends or want friends!
4. World Map: You’ll be here a lot, so let’s see what matters
5. Combat: A few fun things to help you defeat CHAOS!
6. Enemies: There are a lot that what to kill you!
7. Equipment/Battle Settings: How to wear clothes and feel pretty as well as tough!
8. Jobs: You may not love your real-life job, but you’ll love these!
9. Story: Or how I learned to make friends and kill CHAOS!
10. General: I honestly can’t think of a title here, so let’s say I couldn’t find a place elsewhere!

I played on PS5 with controller setting 1, so please keep that in mind.

System Settings: Where I go over what may be the most important settings.

• If you don’t feel like going through and equipping Jack and all your Allies, under Menu Settings go to Optimize Equipment and you can set to All Ally Battle Sets. This makes it so you only press the Auto Equip once and it goes to all characters.
• There are two Optimization options, these being Performance and Resolution. Not much info has been released about this. But in past games, Resolution usually means 4K and 30 fps, with Performance lower than 4k and 60 fps.
• Control Settings gives you the option to change the Control Type. Team Ninja has included two types, but the ability to completely customize the controls as well.
• Basic Settings includes a lot of options where you can really customize your game.
  • Display Headgear. Do you want to show your fashion on your head or not?
  • Skip Events. Lets you skip already seen cutscenes. Perfect if you’re stuck on a boss.
  • Blood Spatter. Want it bloody?
  • Automatically Reassign Target. Once you defeat an enemy it automatically goes to the next.
  • Short Soul Burst Animation. This should be ON as you will be using Soul Burst more than anything else and having to constantly watch these add up.
  • Dash Controls. Here you can change the dash to pressing L3, or Holding X.
  • Item Pickup. If you are getting tired of equipment at low levels this setting is amazing. Here you can change from 1 – 4 stars or all items. Whatever item level you pick you will only be able to automatically pick that number and above up. But, you can still pick up lower equipment, you just have to manually.
• Display Settings, Motion Blur. I keep this off. Never looks good with it on.

World Map Main Menu: Important Main Menu options accessible on the World Map

• You access this by pressing the Pause Button on the World Map.
• Job Tree. Here you can look at all the Jobs you’ve acquired and level them up.
• Battle Settings. This is where you put your equipment on.
• Edit Party. You have four other teammates and this is where you pick who you want. You can have two other teammates at once, or go solo.
• Change Preset. Have a favorite layout of equipment, teammates, and jobs? Save it here!
• Items. See your items here.
• Tips. Need even more in-depth tips? Look here! Or hopefully, read more of what I wrote!
• Archives. Wanna relive some of the award-winning cutscenes? Archives is what you are looking for! Plus, you can find “notes” about the world that you find scattered around.
• System Settings. You should know about this by now!
• Save. SoP autosaves, but here you can do so manually.
• Return to Title Screen. Done with the game? Go here. But are we ever truly finished?
• Pressing R1 tabs you to the next menu.
  • Smithy. Here you can Upgrade Special Effect, which lets you upgrade your Equipment Effects with Materials obtained by playing, beating enemies, and beating missions. Then you have Dismantle where you can Dismantle equipment for Materials. By pressing Triangle you can select multiple to Dismantle.
  • Talk. Here you can talk to a bunch of different characters.
• Pressing R1 brings you to the next menu, which is Online. Here you have Create Room and Search for Room.

Online: What to do when you have friends or want friends!

• Create Room. Here you can create a room with the option to change the difficulty, specify the mission, alter the playstyle of who you want, and set a password.
• Search for Room. This has the same options as Create Room instead of creating a room, you’ll be joining other created rooms.
• When playing with others, if someone goes to the next area with a cutscene all players will be warped there.
• You cannot pause the game in any way when playing with others online.
• When the mission is over, you will still be with the people you previously played with so you can continue with them as a team.
• You get more Anima Shards when playing Co-Op, especially if you’re using Search for Room.
• Pressing Up on the D pad gives you a quick chat option. Not that many options but can come in handy.
• Only the Host can use “soul burst” on “dark vents” and bosses.
• Story – Each mission has Stranger Orbs, this are purple Orbs hidden in set locations. When found a small dialogue of the Stranger withen will play, so that you know you found it. Finding these are the only way to unlock certain side missions.

World Map: You’ll be here a lot, so let’s see what matters

• When looking at a mission the blue rhombus is a Main Mission and a yellow rhombus is a Submission.
• Mission Level. The recommended level for said mission.
• Avg. Equipment Level. This is the average level of your currently equipped level/job.
• Completion Rewards. This is what you get for completing the mission. Every time you beat the mission you get these items, even if beating more than once. Also, the higher the difficulty the better the equipment and more anima shard received.
• Main Item Drops. The items you can expect enemies to drop.
• To swap between Main Missions and Submissions you need to tab over by hitting  R1 or L1.
• On the top right, you see your current Difficulty.
• To Change Difficulty press the touchpad.
• If you go to the very first mission and tab to the Submissions there are tutorial missions for different weapons that go over their special moves and such.

Combat: A few fun things to help you defeat CHAOS!

• First off, YES, there is fall damage! Absolutely don’t trust falling, even a little.
• Resonance. If you press Right or Left on the D-Pad your Allies will use their abilities more often for a short duration. Great in a pinch, or to pinch the enemy.
• Break Gauge. There isn’t per se a “stamina gauge” it’s more of a staggered/stun-lock/poise gauge.
  • Goes down when blocking, using soul shield, and taking damage.
  • Once empty you get knocked down and have to wait for it to fully recharge before moving, so be careful.
  • Recharges when not doing any combat actions such as attacking or blocking.
  • Enemies have this as well, and back attacks are Critical and do more Break Damage.
• Soul Shield. Press and hold O. The longer held the more it drains your break gauge.
  • I used this more than blocking/parrying. The benefits are amazing, so learn to perfect this move. I honestly can’t recall using Block or Parry because of how great this is.
  • Benefits:
    • You don’t receive damage when using.
    • Gives MP.
    • When the enemy uses Instant Attack (Purple Named Attack) it steals the attack and you can attack back using square.
    • If you press your attack button (R1) right after absorbing an attack it moves you forward and attacks.
    • Works on every attack except the unblockable Red Attack.
    • Can cancel out of some attacks.
  • Disadvantages:
    • Can easily drain your break gauge by a lot when holding down the button and mistiming!
  • TIPS:
    • DO NOT PRESS AND HOLD. That’s how you back baby in a corner, and that’s a bad idea. When you press and hold it drains the break gauge so fast next thing you’ll know is you’re dead. So try to time it to where you hold it the least amount.
    • You can only have 1 Instant Attack at a time.
    • You want to use it in most cases because even soul shielding a normal attack earns you MP you can usually only use these 3, sometimes 4 (if amazingly executed) times before your break gauge is empty. Most boss combos will push this to the breaking point.
• Parry. Instead of holding down block, quickly press right when an enemy attacks. This move reduces the damage taken and makes you act faster with your next move.
• Chain Cancel. Press your job change button (in my case triangle) right after using an action ability to quickly swap jobs and regain your break gauge.
• Once you break the enemy’s break gauge you will have the option to Soul Burst (pressing O (the same button used for soul shield)). You can think of this as a violent finishing move. Soul Burst is one of your most important moves that has no disadvantages I can think of.
  • It costs nothing and the benefits are amazing.
  • Gives you MP when used.
  • Sends a shock wave that when used around a group knocks them back and is sometimes so powerful it destroys their break gauge and lowers their health.
  • Seems to have a few seconds of I-Frames (Invincibility Frames).
  • This move should become so much a part of your routine that you do it without even realizing it.
• Dark Vents. These are the enemy that looks like a huge mouth that are attached to walls/pillars that you need to defeat to move past the area. This enemy spits out other strong enemies but doesn’t attack you itself. When you defeat the enemies the Dark Vent spawns its break gauge lowers. However, if you attack the Dark Vent itself you can lower its break gauge. I found that attacking it directly and ignoring the other enemies works best, especially because the other enemies instantly die when the Dark Vent is defeated.
• The Magic system is what you’d call unique. It’s very much an all-or-nothing style type of playing.
  • You Charge/Pick magic by pressing and holding the action abilities button (R2). This opens up the magic wheel that you use to select your magic.
  •  To quick cast magic, you quick press the action ability button.
  • When charging/picking magic YOU CAN NOT MOVE, no seriously, YOU CAN NOT MOVE. The left analog stick chooses your magic, while your right analog stick moves your aim around the battlefield.
  • You can quick cast most magic, so be wary as some magic needs to charge to use. Holy is a good example as you need to charge all the way.
  • If you’re charging magic but want to get out, you can press X or O.
• With so many jobs try them out! There is no “wrong” job. All jobs can beat enemies and bosses. It all depends on what you enjoy! So have fun and test all of them!

Enemies: There are a lot that what to kill you!

• Some enemies drop potions, it seems random, but I will update when the knowledge of the prerequisites is known.
• Try to mess around and find weaknesses. Chaos and Skeletons are very weak to Light/Holy magic. Sahagin’s are weak to Lightning magic. Everyone has a weakness, and sometimes this can come in the form of different weapons, even bosses have a huge weapon/magic weakness that can easily beat them.
• Try not to get ambushed. If you get too many enemies on you try to run away as in most cases an ambush can easily kill you.
• Enemies do have a limit for how far they chase you, so RUN FOR THE HILLS if you need to.
• Bats are absolutely annoying. That’s all. I always try to kill them fast. I hate them.

Equipment/Battle Settings: How to wear clothes and feel pretty as well as tough!

• Equipment Level.
  • 1 Star is Blue, with an Affinity will be a darker Blue.
  • 2 Star is Yellow.
  • 3 Star is Green.
  • 4 Star is Purple.
• When choosing equipment you want to care A LOT about job affinity.
  • Job affinity is the little bright logo that you see with a percentage. The logo matches the jobs available.
  • You want your equipment to always have a job affinity attached to it. Even if you have equipment that’s higher in most aspects a piece of equipment with high job affinity matters more. Honestly, if no job affinity most cases i get rid of the equipment.
  • Job affinity matters because once you get so much you unlock a job’s passive benefits. These range for each job but always helps your character build. You can view this by pressing the button (in my case it was square) that says show affinity bonus on the bottom of the screen.
  • Most times I chose lower level equipment due to it having a higher job affinity for my jobs equipped.
  • If you want the benefits of another job just equip gear with said job affinity. You then view the other job benefits by hitting show affinity bonus then tabbing over with R1/L1. You also gain XP for other jobs if you have equipment with said jobs affinity.
• If you are changing your equipment you can tab through the different equipment screens by pressing R1/L1. This means if you are in the menu for a helmet and want to go to the upper body equipment without going back, just tab over with R1!
• When changing your job your equipment DOES NOT CHANGE EXCEPT YOUR WEAPON. So you need to be ready to change all your equipment if changing job. This is where change preset factors in. Make sure to save your favorite builds here. Trust me, you’ll save time!
• On the equipment menu (this is called Battle Settings) you will have a section titled, Abilities. Here you’ll find Combo Abilities. This is where your action abilities (R2) combo list lives. Here you find what button combos you need to execute a combo ability and you have the ability to change the combos.
  • You unlock combo abilities by leveling up your jobs. Then you can go and pick and choose what combos you want!
  • You can see the name and logo of the combo ability when out in the field fighting on the bottom left near Jack’s health.
  • These use MP. If not able to use it’ll be grayed out.
• Underneath the combo ability is the Command Ability.
  • Command abilities are unlocked via leveling up your jobs as well.
  • Unlike combo abilities, command abilities are shared between all jobs.
  • These are used by holding L2 and hitting the corresponding Face Buttons button.
  • These use MP and when selecting they show you how many MP Bars. If not able to use it’ll be grayed out.
  • You can see the rhombus with the command abilities above the combo abilities while out on the field.
  • This can easily boost Jack and you should read through the ones you have as it helps your build a lot!
• Don’t stress about dismantling equipment because you will constantly be getting so much that within minutes you’ll find even better equipment.
• To select multiple pieces of equipment press and hold triangle (or whatever your select/deselect button is) and go up or down. If you are holding the button it will continue to select. This makes it go by insanely fast!
• Try to go through your equipment quite often as you can only hold 500 on you at a time. So every (at least) 2 missions go into your items in the main menu, press square (or whatever button says menu), and move your items into storage where you can hold up to 4500. And trust me, you get a lot of equipment.
• Some weapons have a extra “combo ability that can only be used when it’s equipped. You can find this under the equipment effect on said weapon with it being a yellow text instead of the usual white.
• If you’re only 5 levels under the mission level still do the mission. In most cases you’ll run by the correct leveled equipment quickly getting you up to par.
• As of now, the first equipment you own (Stranger Gear) cannot be dismantled, so to save space put these in the item box.

Jobs: You may not love your real-life job, but you’ll love these!

• When looking at unlocking a new move set in the job tree menu you can view it by pressing the touchpad.
• Play around with Jobs, there are 27 announced jobs and there will probably be more, so there will be a lot of different playstyles. I usually always have one Magic based job at all times.
• Don’t stress if you don’t like a Job that you have active! You can easily go to the pause menu and change out your Job.
• Anima shard.
  • Press triangle to use.
  • These give you 4000 XP.
  • Most mission completion bonuses include at least one of these. You get more depending on the difficulty completed.
  • It seems at times some enemies drop one anima shard.

Story: Or how I learned to make friends and kill CHAOS!

• Don’t worry about what allies you take, as the dialogue and cutscenes do not change whatsoever.
• Multiplayer does progress the story! So you can beat the whole game with your two best friends.
• You can pause during single-player gameplay/cutscenes.

General: I honestly can’t think of a title here, so let’s say I couldn’t find a place elsewhere!

• As of now, it hasn’t been confirmed that Crossplay between PC, Xbox, and Playstation is possible. At the moment only CrossGen (PS4 can only play with PS5, and Xbox One with Xbox Series X/S ) is possible.
• The Main Menu at a save cube has only a few different menus than usual.
  • Change Difficulty. Here you change difficulty, when in a mission you CAN NOT raise the difficulty. You can only lower it.
  • Abandon Mission. This lets you leave the mission. You lose all mission progress but keep all items you have got thus far.
• If you aren’t finding the game difficult enough you can rid yourself of the AI and play with Jack online! This mode is pretty fun, and you won’t miss out on the story as the AI still talks to you.
• Are you feeling like 5 potions aren’t enough? Or that the AI keeps dying? Well, be a white mage and you can heal yourself, or even raise your dead allies!
• Whenever you die you lose your built-up MP. On the lower difficulties you lose less, and the harder you lose more. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, because if you’re using the soul burst (as I said you should) you’ll never be stressed about MP.
• If you are having trouble, don’t stress and take the difficulty down. Or you can always Create a Room to get others to help you! I am also always willing to help!
• The limit of potions held is 9.

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Going into this list of tips for Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise I wanted to write what seemed most important. As you can see, there was a lot. But as someone who feels like they are never done with their work, I feel like I can always add more. That said, if you need more help, please reach out! Or if you need help on Multiplayer I am willing to help you beat missions/bosses. Not only that, but as I promised if I find more, or if anything changes when the game fully releases, I will update this list. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed it, and that this helped, even just a little! Now go fight CHAOS!!