Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

I have never played a “souls-like” game before. With that said I immediately started a play through on the hardest difficulty. Why? I hate myself obviously. 

The good:
Gameplay is pretty good. You get punished for being sloppy even by freaking goblins. Combat was fun and addicting and when I died I wasn’t mad, but more determined to figure out a good strategy for the next time.
Enemy design is great. The artistic freedom given really shows. I faced a few staple enemies here: goblins, bombs, and even a tiny little cactuar. They were recognizable, yet original compared to previous designs.
Armor and weapon design was cool.
The class system/skill tree system is a nice touch.

The bad:
Oh boy…. Well writing is dismal. Half the sentences had the word “Chaos” in it. It’s funny but annoying.
Menu’s were clunky and would double register button presses.
Lack of variety in physical attacks. Physical attacks also felt extremely underpowered compared to the massive AOE damage of magical spells. Fighting the final boss of the demo, I used a mage because physical attacks between the mage and warrior classes felt the same damage wise. Also the mage had a faster attack so I was better able to dodge and block.
Animations are really wonky with overly excited flapping half capes and pants that waved at me. I chose to play on the graphics mode that favored resolution but the graphics still felt late PS3 early PS4 to me. Also things were too shiny and reflective in places.
Your teammates do jack shit. Sometimes they attack. They never heal you. They mostly are diversions for enemies. Meat bags one might say. You don’t even get to see them on the menu. Can’t equip them, change their classes or set abilities.

What I hope to see in the future:
More storytelling. Why does Jack, the main character, wear a t-shirt and pants? Is he from the future? Time travel is plot device in the original Final Fantasy. 
Be able to customize the classes and actions of your two teammates.
A fourth teammate. There are four warriors of light, not three.
Cleaned up graphics.

Overall I was happy with what I saw, but without any storytelling in the demo I won’t be buying this at launch. It was a nice show of the work the developers have put in to the gameplay but that’s about it. Don’t judge it by the launch trailer, give it a shot. It’s free, so why not?

One last thing….. CHAOS!