'Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin' Revives '90s Trash Trends (In A Good Way)

Following up on Sony's State of Play showcase, the company released a demo for Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, the new Dark Souls-inspired Final Fantasy title that'll either count as a spinoff or canonical origin story depending on its success. Stranger Of Paradise deserves a lot of attention not because it looks particularly revolutionary, but because it tries so hard to reach never-seen-before levels of edginess that one just needs to sit back and enjoy the ride. And how does one come up with the edgiest game of all time without exploring the origin of all edginess: dudes and how much they rock? 

Players spent every waking minute from the release of the first trailer of 2016's Final Fantasy XV to the release of the actual game tirelessly mocking its cast and style because a bunch of dudes just being bros while camping and saving the world is supposedly weird in a bad way.

But there were two things haters didn't know. The first was that the relationship between the main cast would end up being the only genuinely great thing about FFXV, and the second was that their dumb criticism would seemingly awaken the manliest of all dragons who just so happened to be slumbering inside the offices of Square Enix. Instead of a heroic J-Pop group, the main cast of the upcoming Final Fantasy consists of the JRPG avatars of the characters from Hackers.

And what's the story between these men who've clearly tinkered with the stats to get their manliness at lvl 99? Are they together because they've shared a bond for a while like the Final Fantasy XV road trip party? Nope. These men are brought together on the spot by some McCrystalGuffins.

It's so awesome that the game leaves no room for players to suspect there could be anything other than just the male urge to save the world going on. If you loved the ‘90s and you’re failing to resist the game's accidental charm, that might be because this is the closest we'll ever get to an edgy reboot of Captain Planet.

 Don't like it? Then feel free to complain as loudly as you want because the main character won't be able to hear your annoying crap over the sound of some sweet nu-metal, the music genre everyone totally wants to see making a comeback.

You may not like it, but this is what peak male fantasy looks like.

Top Image: Hot Topic Square Enix