The release of Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin’s (SOPFFO) is just around the corner on March 18. For those who are too excited to wait, we’re pleased to announce that a free demo is available for download right now. Your save data will carry over to the full game once it’s out, but even better, this demo supports three-player co-op, so there’s no reason why you and two friends shouldn’t get a head start on the action-packed battles to come.
To get your blood pumping, we wanted to shed some new light on how multiplayer is handled in our game.
Multiplayer Overview
Kumabe-san: In SOPFFO, the host player will control Jack, and the guest players will control the two companion NPCs which the host selected ahead of time (between Ash, Jed, Neon, and Sophia). Jobs and equipment will not be restricted by character for your companions during multiplayer, allowing you and your friends to freely determine your ideal party composition.
To make multiplayer enjoyable for everyone involved, mission progress will carry over for all players. Furthermore, the MP from performing Soul Burst on enemies, gear dropped by enemies and experience points earned will all carry over to each individual player, ensuring once the multiplayer session is over, everyone leaves feeling rewarded for their efforts.
Inoue-san: Our in-world explanation for the multiplayer system is that your friends are sort of like Garland’s thoughts from a parallel world who are coming to save Jack in the host player’s world. Teamwork is a big theme for SOPFFO, so even with more utilitarian systems like multiplayer, we were keen to have a lore-based approach, too.
On balancing multiplayer
Kumabe-san: We approached balancing both single and multiplayer together in parallel to ensure that both gameplay experiences would be fun for players. Even during solo gameplay, players have their NPC companions, so we aimed for a balance that gives a sense of the fun that awaits in multiplayer. At the same time, we aimed for a balance that ensures that the difficulty isn’t mitigated too much in multiplayer, so we made quite a few adjustments while having various staff try out the game.
Developing multiplayer and the team’s inspirations
Inoue-san: From the very start of development, we knew we wanted to include multiplayer in the game. I had experience working on past games that also incorporated multiplayer, so from the get-go I was motivated to create something that would be enjoyable to play with friends. Early on, though, we did consider the idea of a four-player co-op since we see a party of four in the original Final Fantasy, and it’s fun to romp about in multiplayer, but we found that the space could also get too chaotic when there are too many players. We also considered a two-player co-op at one point, but felt that players would sense a high risk towards participation since the responsibility of failing a mission will unilaterally fall on the guest when participating, so ultimately, we decided three players would be best.
Kumabe-san: The team drew inspiration from various sources for SOPFFO’s multiplayer, including Nioh, where the high difficulty in single player can be mitigated through multiplayer. Personally speaking, I was a core player of Final Fantasy XI, so that was a big reference for me