Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin-Becoming the Villain
This piece will have major spoilers for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin.
Stranger of Paradise is a game I always go back to play in-between major games. I play a few missions, try to grind a few more class upgrades so I can get more levels and then jump to my next big game. I have already beat the main story so this gaming is leveling in chaos mode and hoping to get good enough to play the Bahamut missions. Final Fantasy I is a game with a very minimal story and Stranger of Paradise is an imaginative prequel to Final Fantasy I. Jack, the main hero wants to kill Chaos. His desire has been memed to death online. His journey to kill Chaos helps him discover his world and find his own solution.
What is Chaos?
Jack has a thirsty determination to kill Chaos and he is joined by three other characters: Ash, Jed, and Neon. This journey takes the characters through many dungeons, castles, and enemies. They journey through the game hoping to become the four warriors of light and save their land from darkness. This is a pretty basic hero story for most of the game. Characters level classes, upgrade equipment, and gain new skills in a lighter version of souls combat. Chaos is formed in different areas and releases different monsters throughout the world. Every major boss fight fuels Jack’s rage to kill Chaos. However, there is no indication of what Chaos is. Chaos is an image to justify the monsters being created but does not actually exist it seems. The first boss attempts to convince the party that there is no chaos but Jack is convinced Chaos exists.
This is a common storytelling trope in media to personify evil on one character. In many narratives, causing harm to one character brings a temporary peace. Hence, this is part of Jack’s desire to kill Chaos. He is entrusted to bring peace though everyone has fuzzy memories about the larger reasoning of why they are in Cornelia (the world of FF1). The easy answer for peace is to cause harm to one who is disordering the community. However, as gamers, many of us have had experiences of being blamed for chaos/disorder/difference. Bullying, harassment, and assault often has its root in viewing someone as different and thus needing to possess or control them. These desires are common to human nature and managing these desires are a key part of building a peaceful disposition.
Jack defeating a Chaos Advent, but not the True Chaos.
The Lufenians
Chaos is created in various forms but no pure Chaos. Chaos Advent is a form of Chaos where Jack seeks to gain more information about the team’s past. As the characters travel throughout the game, they gain more memories from their past. They find out that they are Lufenians, an intergalactic race of humans who are able to travel between time and space. They are the guardians of Cornelia who try to balance out the light and dark in the world. As the team figures out they belong to a race trying to possess and extract resources from Cornelia, they start to plan how to respond. As they go back to Cornelia, the town is under attack from Chaos. The team rushes to the castle and they are too late. Princess Sarah of Cornelia was murdered and dies as Jack approaches.
Reflecting on our memories is important to continue to learn lessons. Stranger of Paradise is a great lesson in critical engagement to learn new information. Jack is not always great with the critical engagement, but the other party members pose good questions and help the party members think about their own purpose and what is going on in the world.
Jack Garland is the Garland in Final Fantasy 1.
The Resolution
After Sarah dies, Jack becomes outraged and starts to absorb in the darkness emanating from town. His teammates also reveal their purpose, Jack is supposed to kill them to become Chaos itself. The friends all say that they have repeated this same cycle over and over again because the Lufenians have reset the world everytime Chaos has overtaken the world. Jack is hesitant because they are his friends, but they all start to attack him. Jack kills them all and then leaves Cornelia. He journeys to a tower to the West of Cornelia and unleashes his full dark power. Once he clears the tower, his friends appear and Jack makes them his fiends. Their final goal is to be a training path for the future Warriors of Light which will be heroes grown from Cornelia itself. Jack became the thing he sought to kill but in greater service to the people of the world he inhabited. And thus he waits with his four fiends to wait for heroes to triumph.
It is a critical decision to choose to become the villain on behalf of people of the future. Saying no is the power of breaking cycles. Jack’s no to the Lufenians placed him in a cycle waiting for heroes to emerge. Thinking critically about the world leads people to change their behavior. This is why I emphasize the importance of critical engagement to reflect both on how to critically think and how people personally respond to what they are learning through their critical engagement. We may learn things which are difficult when we choose to continue in a process of engagement, reflection, and community sharing, but those lessons help us grow and be better participants in the game of life.
Next week we will start our reflections on Final Fantasy XVI and we will be recording an episode about Death Stranding focusing on critical engagement and meaning making with @HighleyGinger sometime in the next week or so. My schedule is back to normal now so I will be posting regularly. Thanks for everyone’s patience.
