Stranger Of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin Ending Explained
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is an action RPG that was initially billed as being a new take on the original Final Fantasy. It was later revealed that there was more to the story than anyone realized, as the Chaos-hating Jack of Stranger of Paradise was was actually Garland, the villain of FF1 and the architect of a complicated time travel storyline.
[Warning - Spoilers for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin ahead!]
In FF1, Garland is the first boss of the game. He was once a noble knight, but his heart fell to darkness and he kidnapped Princess Sarah of Cornelia, taking her to the Chaos Shrine. The four playable characters are the Warriors of Light, who are destined to restore the four broken elements of the world, which are being affected by the Four Fiends: Lich (earth), Marilith (fire), Kraken (water), and Tiamat (wind). The Warriors of Light kill Garland, who is sent back in time by the Four Fiends in the past, where he eventually turns into Chaos. The Warriors of Light kill the Four Fiends in the present, then go back in time to kill them again, before destroying Garland/Chaos, and closing the time loop he had created. This creates a new timeline where the Warriors of Lights' deeds have been forgotten, but the world is at peace, and Garland may have been reformed.
This overly complicated plot might seem like a Final Fantasy standard, but it was rare for a game to have a story this complex during the NES era. Stranger of Paradise tells a story outside of the boundaries of FF1, offering a possible explanation for the time loop and for Garland's downfall. 2022 marks the Final Fantasy series' 35th anniversary, and an FF1 prequel with a bizarre twist on the story is as good a way to celebrate the history of the franchise as any.
In FF1, there is an advanced race called the Lufenians, who live in a remote part of the world. They once resided in the Flying Fortress, but they were forced to leave their home by Tiamat. In Stranger of Paradise, the Lufenians possess incredibly powerful technology that allows them to manipulate time. They discover that the balance between light and darkness is shifting in the land of Cornelia and could lead to its destruction in 2000 years' time. They created the Stranger Project to prevent this from happening. The Strangers are humans who are sent through time to try and maintain the balance of light and dark. The Lufenians have access to a dimensional crystal matrix, which lets them reset time to a chosen point, giving them endless opportunities to use the Stranger Project to fix things. The same FF1's original characters are reborn each time. The Strangers are given dark crystals, which drastically increase their combat abilities while wiping their memories with each reset. The protagonists of Stranger of Paradise are the Strangers.
The balance was shifting in the direction of light, so the Lufenians pumped darkness into the world, but this had the possibility of allowing a human to transform into Chaos. This led to an issue, as one of the Strangers was transformed by the Chaos energy into a monster. Sophia turned into Tiamat, which is likely the battle seen during the tutorial mission in the game. This transformation allowed her to maintain some of her memories in the next cycle.
Jack and the other Strangers are drawn together by their dark crystals. They are filled with a desire to destroy Chaos, yet over the course of the game, there are many characters who question whether Chaos even exists. The common people believe in the legend of the Warriors of Light, who are four heroes who will save the world from Chaos. Jack and his friends initially believe that they are the Warriors of Light, but their crystals do not match the description of the orbs of legend.
The Lufenians have an agent in the world, in the form of FF1's Astos the dark elf. In one of the previous timelines, Jack formed a plot with Astos to try and regain his memories in a future cycle, in an effort to free the world from the Lufenians' control. This is due to Jack and Astos believing that the Lufenians will eventually have no more use for Cornelia in their coming utopia. Astos was secretly guiding Jack and his friends, trying to help them regain their memories and put them onto the path to breaking the cycle. Cornelia is attacked by monsters the royal family is slain, filling Jack with despair and rage. The death of Princess Sarah is notable, as she carries a sixth dark crystal that gathers all of the darkness of Cornelia to her. Jack's friends force him into a fight to the death and he absorbs the power of darkness from their bodies.
Jack fully embraces the power of Chaos (to the point of Stranger of Paradise's Chaos being meme-worthy) and he returns to the Chaos Shrine, which acts as a conduit to the "Station", the staging area for each reset. The Lufenians panic at the sight of Jack drawing on Chaos' power, so they cut off the timeline he is present in from their reality, preventing them from influencing the timeline anymore, and leaving their agents behind. Before Jack is wiped from reality, he is pulled back through time 2000 years by his friends, who have transformed into the Four Fiends. They had been plotting to turn Jack into Chaos, based on their own fragmented memories, and the hints given by Astos.
Once they were all in the past, the Lufenians could no longer reach them, so Jack hatches a plot to create the mythical Warriors of Light, starting the plan that would eventually become FF1's complicated time loop. This event creates the world from FF1, with Jack and his friends actively seeking to cause the Warriors of Light to appear, kicked off by Jack kidnapping Princess Sarah. There is a scene near the end where Jack is sporting his classic Garland armor, as the four Warriors of Light enter the shrine.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.