History YMMV / StrangerOfParadiseFinalFantasyOrigin

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The game lines up fairly well with ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' by expanding the lore of the Lufenians and revealing [[spoiler:they became a trans-dimensional civilization that recreated locations from other ''Final Fantasy'' worlds in their homeworld, and they purposefully inject darkness or light into the world to keep things balanced]]. With the Lufenians taking such a major role and providing more connective tissue between the original ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dissidia'', one would think that Cid of the Lufaine would appear. He isn't even so much as alluded to. Not even when [[spoiler:the end of the base game and the ''Trials of the Dragon King'' DLC feature ''Dissidia''[='s=] very own incarnation of the Warrior of Light, who was established in ''012'' to be [[ArtificialHuman based on]] Cid]].

** [[spoiler:The ending shows the iconic Warrior of Light, and for the first time shows the ''other'' three who accompany him on his quest, but they're all in silhouette. Who are these other warriors and what are they like?]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The final trailer for the game unexpectedly veers into Creator/FrankSinatra's "My Way". Out of place for a Final Fantasy game? Possibly. Awesome? '''Hell fucking yeah.'''

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Some fans don't care for the gameplay and are only interested in how the game expands the lore of the original ''Final Fantasy'', which over numerous ports across the years is still a ClicheStorm ExcusePlot with not much depth to it.

** Using a Soul Burst on a Cactuar has Jack pick it up by the leg where it... just sprouts crystals as he tosses it in the air to explode. Given the crystals only typically show up when he deals a killing blow to an enemy, it's likely the Cactuar was literally ''scared to death'' about what Jack was going to do to it otherwise.

* HilariousInHindsight: The subtitle "''Origin''" becomes this when Creator/MonolithSoft, a studio headed by former Creator/{{Square|Enix}} employees who worked on the older ''Final Fantasy'' games, [[spoiler:had the final dungeon of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' -- which released only four months after ''Stranger of Paradise'' -- named "Origin".]]

** [[Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil "No, Jack. You are Chaos".]] [[labelnote:Explanation (Spoilers!)]]The entire plot of the game, where Jack seeks to kill Chaos only to become it bears a hilarious similarity to the ''DOOM: Repercussions of Evil'' fanfic, where the main protagonist fights demons only to [[AndThenJohnWasAZombiefind out he's a zombie himself]].[[/labelnote]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Does the game's ending {{Retcon}} that Garland and the Four Fiends were GoodAllAlong? Or, after 2000 years of waiting and immersing themselves in the power of darkness (along with the memory wipes caused by death and world resets), did they experience a LossOfIdentity and [[BecomingTheMask became genuinely evil]]?]]

* MemeticBadass: Jack's single-minded goal of killing Chaos, him fist-bumping his friends, generally manly appearance, foul mouth (including being the first ''Final Fantasy'' character to drop an F-bomb), and habit of interrupting monologues have earned him this status. In the eyes of his fans, he is an absolute chad, the epitome of the sigma grindset and the most badass protagonist in ''Final Fantasy'' who skips cutscenes so he can get to the part where he gets to kill things. The typical [[SelfImposedChallenge challenge]] of the genre to go around wearing no armor and beating enemies up with your bare hands only adds to the effect.

* MemeticPsychopath: Jack is often portrayed as a violent templar [[IrrationalHatred who kills anything related to Chaos or is named Chaos]] (like the entire Chao population from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' or the mutated Chao, Chaos). The fact that he canonically makes many a [[SlasherSmile manic grin]] during several boss battles and describes himself as a BloodKnight looking for the next enemy to fight only adds to this perception.

** [[RunningGag Naturally]], Garland's presence saw ([[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy yet]] [[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015 another]]) resurgence for his [[GoodBadTranslation immortal]] "I, Garland, will [[NeverSayDie knock you all down]]!" And much like ''Dissidia'', [[AdaptationalBadass he's more than capable of making good on that claim here]], though he doesn't say it in the demo much to people's disappointment. [[spoiler:The classic meme mutated further with the reveal that Jack ''is'' Garland, for reasons iterated in MemeticBadass above.]]

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Fans of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and the additions to its lore and characters in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' were not amused to see that the setting and the [[TheParagon faithful]] and [[IdealHero forgiving]] Warrior of Light were seemingly replaced with a generic main cast in a ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry''-styled reboot, with the only carryovers at the time being Garland/Chaos, common ''Final Fantasy'' monsters, and the Chaos Shrine itself (plus a voice-only cameo from Princess Sarah). Other fans, however, were more cautiously optimistic (if still skeptical), expecting the game to throw in some kind of ProphecyTwist centered around the title ("'''stranger''' of paradise") so as to not invalidate the original game. Some on the more optimistic side noted that the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' version of the Warrior of Light wasn't in any way present in the original game outside of the promotional artwork, with all four characters in-game never having a speaking role or given any sort of characterization or suggestion of personality outside of what the player planted. There was also hope that Jack and his team would get equipment reminiscent of the classic promotional artwork. Thankfully, it turned out that [[spoiler:by the end of the game, the main characters are revealed to be the ([[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain eventual]]) villains from the first ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' on a quest to engineer that game's StableTimeLoop [[AdaptationalHeroism for altruistic purposes]]]], which managed to soften the blow a bit.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: [[spoiler:Does the game's ending {{Retcon}} that Garland and the Four Fiends were GoodAllAlong? Or, after 2000 years of waiting and immersing themselves in the power of darkness, did they experience a LossOfIdentity and became genuinely evil?]]

* FountainOfMemes: Jack has been a massive source of memes ever since the game was announced and every reveal, trailer and demo up to and including the game's release saw him spawn more and more memes. Variations of Jack saying Chaos are especially popular for meme creation. [[spoiler:The reveal that Jack is Garland ([[Memes/FinalFantasy memetically known for knocking you all down]]) furthers this, as the same character has been making new memes decades after his original appearence.]]

** [[PlayerCharacter Jack]] [[spoiler:[[WhamLine Garland]]]] is a snarky agent sent by the Lufenians to [[spoiler:act as a "[[FakeUltimateHero Warrior of Light]]" and]] fight against the darkness of Cornelia. In reality, the Lufenians are [[spoiler:[[ForeverWar trapping Cornelia in a constant cycle of darkness and light to keep it under their control]]]], so Jack decides to [[spoiler:break the cycle after [[LoveRedeems falling in love with Princess Sarah of Cornelia]]]]. Knowing his memories get erased during every cycle which ends with [[spoiler:a time revert]], Jack convinces [[spoiler:his friend Astos to allow him to get his memories back since Astos is immune to the effects of the time revert]]. Eventually [[ObfuscatingInsanity playing at being an insane psychopath to take the Lufenians off guard]], Jack [[spoiler:seizes their time reversion crystal]] and [[spoiler:becomes the new embodiment of the darkness, Chaos]]. Jack reveals at the end he [[ZeroApprovalGambit plans]] to [[spoiler:shroud the world of Cornelia in darkness]], all so that he can [[spoiler:train Warriors of Light from Cornelia to break the cycle themselves and stop the control that Lufenia has over them for good]].

** [[RunningGag Naturally]], Garland's presence saw ([[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy yet]] [[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015 another]]) resurgence for his [[GoodBadTranslation immortal]] "I, Garland, will [[NeverSayDie knock you all down]]!" And much like ''Dissidia'', [[AdaptationalBadass he's more than capable of making good on that claim here]], though he doesn't say it in the demo much to people's disappointment.

** Jack skipping cutscenes \ "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHO YOU ARE" [[labelnote:Explanation]] In the third demo, Jack cuts off Astos's monologue and tells him to just get to the point and tell them what they want to know. Then when early copies of the game were released, a clip of him cutting off the Lich's introduction by exclaiming "I don't give a [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] who you are!" went viral. This has spawned the joke that Jack is the kind of person who plays video games and skips the cutscenes, or that he's ''skipping cutscenes in-universe''. He also stops Kraken's conversation and went straight to the attack, confirming that the full game contains more of the cutscene skipping.[[/labelnote]]
** [[Fanfic/DoomRepercussionsOfEvil "No, Jack. You are Chaos".]] [[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers)]] The entire plot of the game, where Jack seeks to kill Chaos only to become it bears a hilarious similarity to the ''DOOM: Repercussions of Evil'' fanfic, where the main protagonist fights demons only to find out he's a zombie himself.[[/labelnote]]
** "The real Chaos was the friends we made along the way."[[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers)]] It turns out that Jack's four comrades become the Four Fiends, and they were in on the plan to turn Jack into Chaos. Thus, the old "real <X> was the friends we made along the way" meme is a totally accurate way to summarize TheReveal.[[/labelnote]]
* MemeticPsychopath: Jack is often portrayed as a violent Templar that kills anything related to Chaos or is named Chaos like the entire Chao population from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' or the mutated Chao, Chaos.
* MisaimedFandom: Ironically, despite his personality being, explicitly, a [[spoiler: horrible obsessive corruption of the person he actually was, and both incapable of actually solving the problem and a pawn of the real villains of the story]], Jack has many unironic fans who see him as a MemeticBadass.

** Later with the release of the second demo, the developers have actually [[WordOfGod gone on record]] stating that the story of ''Stranger of Paradise'' is meant to be taken 100% seriously. This is in spite of Jack's behavior and fight scenes taking another level in crass and craziness that seems intended to persist throughout the full final game -- attracting attention to drama and plot is difficult when the main character's ''default reaction'' is TalkToTheFist.
** The trailers repeatedly showed enemies turning to growths of red crystal that Jack shatters, variably by slamming them on the ground, delivering a FinishingStomp, or in one case, grabbing a wolf by the jaws and headbutting it. These death animations are obviously part of the game's attempt at being DarkerAndEdgier, but the trailer showing the same thing several times as though it's supposed to be impressive and badass made it instead come off as silly to many viewers. This isn't helped by Jack yelling at his (already dead) enemies that ''you're done'' or ''say goodbye''.

** The combat banter is not only repetitive, as you'd expect from combat banter, but it's recycled throughout the game and thus is irrelevant to what's actually happening in the fight, making it seem like the characters are shouting at each other just for the sake offering generic encouragement and warnings instead of saying anything actually helpful. This problem only gets worse when you fight [[spoiler:the possessed Bikke and Astos]], which should be epic and emotional moments for the party, but they keep spouting the same banter as if it was a normal monster fight, and the banter is now ''very'' out of place.
--->'''Sophia''': It does not fear us! \\
'''Jack''': Just keep hitting them!
* NarmCharm: The main appeal of the story. While few would call the plot and characters "good", many consider them SoBadItsGood, and happily embrace themselves in the memes and cheese of it all.

** The full song ''Shadows Rising'', the song that gets played after the ''bullshit'' scene, is so edgy that it reminds you of a hybrid ([[IncrediblyLamePun theory]]) of Music/LimpBizkit and Music/LinkinPark. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRGC4TpKslc Observe]]. For those who lived throughout the late 90s and the 2000 decade, this makes them relive that nostalgic factor of listening to the radio.
** Early in the game Jed points out Jack has a cut on his face, and he replies "nothing a little spit can't fix." At the time it comes off as incredibly lame and another expression of Jack's overblown machismo. [[spoiler:Later in the game when he regains his memories of Astos, we see Astos give Jack the same line when he's injured as a joke to lighten his mood. Jack's use of the line demonstrates that he still remembers Astos after multiple memory wipes, making it almost a TearJerker.]]

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: The opinion expressed by many reviews. The dialogue is corny, the characters are underdeveloped, the plot is very convoluted, and the ways in which it expands the setting of the first ''Final Fantasy'' are controversial. If you can't get into the [[SoBadItsGood mindset necessary to enjoy the story]], it won't have much to offer you. On the other hand, Team Ninja's gameplay is still fun enough to make the game worth playing.
* PortingDisaster: The PC port of the game has some big problems. Firstly, it only supports a handful of resolutions, potentially forcing you to play at a much lower quality if your monitor resolution happens to not be supported. It is also very poorly optimized, using up disproportionate amounts of power from the graphics card and CPU for a game that shouldn't be nearly that intensive. And worst of all, for many people it struggles to keep a smooth framerate and dips noticeably in many situations even with powerful pc hardware, especially during crystal attacks. Modders investigating the issue found that one major source of these problems comes from non-optimised hair & fur, and turning such models bald or removing their fur coats completely solves the frame issues for those specific characters.

* ShockingMoments: The end of the ''Trials of the Dragon King'' DLC. [[spoiler:After fighting the Warrior of Light at the start of the DLC and dealing him a curbstomp battle, you'd expect the rematch now to be the time the Warrior won and defeated Jack. And it seems to be going that way, as Jack goes to deal the final blow only for the Warrior to knock him back and dive at him -- and then Jack stops him in midair and ''impales him on a spear of dark energy and crystallizes and shatters him''. Seeing Jack deliver the same kind of brutal execution to the face of ''Final Fantasy'' in the same manner as he has so many other monsters is bound to make your jaw drop from the sheer audacity of it.]]

* SoBadItsGood: The story and writing is so ridiculously edgy and over the top that it becomes completely entertaining to the point of calling this game a '''video game shitpost''' or simply '''chaosposting'''.
* TaintedByThePreview: On top of the extremely mixed reaction to the trailer, the release of the demo was utterly botched, with it being unable to even boot up until a patch arrived three days later. This was especially problematic due to the timed availability of the demo and the game being exclusive to the infamously-understocked [=PS5=]. However, those were able to get their hands on it generally came back with good impressions.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Fans of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and the additions to its lore and characters in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' were not amused to see that the setting and the [[TheParagon faithful]] and [[IdealHero forgiving]] Warrior of Light were seemingly replaced with a generic main cast in a ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry''-styled reboot, with the only carryovers so far being Garland/Chaos, common final fantasy monsters and the chaos shrine itself (plus a voice-only cameo from Princess Sarah). Other fans, however, were more cautiously optimistic (if still skeptical), expecting the game to throw in some kind of ProphecyTwist centered around the title ("'''stranger''' of paradise") so as to not invalidate the original game. Some on the more optimistic side noted that the ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'' version of the Warrior of Light wasn't in any way present in the original game outside of the promotional artwork, with all four characters in game never having a speaking role or given any sort of characterization or suggestion of personality outside of what the player planted. There was also still hope that Jack and his team would get equipment reminiscent of the classic promotional artwork. Thankfully, it turns out that [[spoiler: by the end of the game, the main characters are revealed to be the (eventual) villains from the first Final Fantasy]], so that managed to soften the blow a bit.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** The game lines up fairly well with ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' by expanding the lore of the Lufenians and revealing [[spoiler:they became a trans-dimensional civilization that recreated locations from other ''Final Fantasy'' worlds in their homeworld, and they purposefully inject darkness or light into the world to keep things balanced]]. With the Lufenians taking such a major role and providing more connective tissue between the original ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dissidia'', one would think that Cid of the Lufaine could appear. He isn't even so much as alluded to.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments: The intro scene, where Garland single-handedly slaughters his way through the knights of Cornelia to abduct Princess Sarah, with darkness roiling off of him all the while as he leaves a trail of blood, bodies, and crimson crystals behind him. With Sarah slung over one shoulder he still kills anyone that comes at him with one swing -- or in the case of one poor sap, Garland just grabs their helmet and flings them into the ceiling, crushing them and leaving their blood to drip onto him. By the time he's at the castle entrance and the few stragglers are there waiting for him, they see what he did on the way in and don't even ''try'' to fight him, they're so terrified that they just step back and let him pass. The scene makes it clear that when the characters in ''Final Fantasy'' talk of Garland as a OneManArmy who none but the Warriors of Light could hope to stand against, they weren't exaggerating.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The final trailer for the game unexpectedly veers into Creator/FrankSinatra's "My Way". Out of place for a Final Fantasy game? Possibly. Awesome? '''Hell fucking yeah'''.

** The main party declares themselves the Warriors of Light, but as any ''Final Fantasy'' fan knows, there are '''four''' Warriors of Light in the original game, yet the first trailer and demo had just Jack, Ash, and Jed. This prompted much speculation if there would be a fourth Warrior of Light after all and what role they could play in the story. There's also the matter of ''who'' they may be; an original character like the others is plausible, but it's also been theorized that it could be Garland, the ''Dissidia'' Warrior of Light, or another character like Princess Sarah. The TGS 2021 trailer managed to both [[{{Jossed}} Joss]] and confirm this -- [[spoiler:the fourth Warrior of Light is a young woman named Neon, but Jack's full name is Jack ''Garland'', and it is heavily implied that he is/will become '''the''' Garland.]]
** Another theory holds that the other four warriors [[spoiler: will become the Four Fiends. Specifically that Ash will become Lich, Neon becomes Marilith, Jed becomes Kraken, and Sophia becomes Tiamat. [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FAm7WJIWEAQ4-JP?format=jpg&name=large This piece of artwork]] adds some fuel to this theory as each of those four characters are associated with the color that corresponds to the respective Fiend. Come the official release of the game, [[IKnewIt this theory ended up being correct]].]]
* EvilIsCool: Astos has his role considerably expanded from the original ''Final Fantasy''. His backstory and motivations actually make him rather sympathetic and complex, even tragic, and his new design is ruggedly beautiful while still maintaining an air of power and danger. Oh, and he [[spoiler:transforms into the ''Ultima Weapon'']]. The result is that he's one of the most interesting and well-received characters in the game. Not bad for someone who started out as a FillerVillain FlatCharacter with barely any dialogue.
* FanficFuel

* FountainOfMemes: Jack has been a massive source of memes ever since the game was announced and every reveal, trailer and demo up to and including the game's release saw him spawn more and more memes. Variations of Jack saying Chaos are especially popular for meme creation. [[spoiler: The reveal that Jack is Garland (memetically known for knocking you all down) furthers this, as the same character has been making new memes decades after his original appearence.]]

** In the area just before you confront Chaos Advent, one finds a treasure chest guarded by... a single Tonberry. This tonberry, however, is exactly as ferocious as they've always been, and to see Jack and his crew laid low by a tiny fish-man stabbing them with a chef's knife can be quite a sight to see. In addition, Jack's Soul Burst on the tonberry has him simply pet it like a small dog only for it to explode seconds later.

* HoYay: Some of Astos' behaviors towards Jack dip into this. [[spoiler:Much moreso when Jack regains his memories and realizes they were friends through all his previous adventures, and the only friend Astos ever had and his only hope to derail the Lufenians' plans.]] Take this excerpt from one of the Fool's Missives (written by Astos):

* HilariousInHindsight: The subtitle "''Origin''" becomes this when Creator/MonolithSoft, a studio headed by former Square employees who worked on the older ''Final Fantasy'' games, [[spoiler:had the final dungeon of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'' named "Origin", released only four months after ''Stranger of Paradise''.]]

** [[PlayerCharacter Jack Garland]] is a snarky agent sent by the Lunfenians to act as a "[[FakeUltimateHero Warrior of Light]]" against the darkness of Cornelia. In reality, the Lufenians are trapping Cornelia in a constant cycle of darkness and light to keep it under their control, so Jack decides to break the cycle after [[LoveRedeems falling in love with Princess Sarah of Cornelia]]. Knowing his memories get erased during every cycle which ends with a time revert, Jack convinces his friend Astos to allow him to get his memories back since Astos is immune to the effects of the time revert. Eventually [[ObfuscatingInsanity playing at being an insane psychopath to take the Lufenians off guard]], Jack seizes their Time reversion crystal and becomes the new embodiment of the darkness, Chaos. Jack reveals at the end he [[ZeroApprovalGambit plans to shroud the world of Cornelia in darkness]], so he can train Warriors of Light from Cornelia to break the cycle themselves and stop the control that Lufenia has over them for good.
** Jack's Party--Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia--are [[TrueCompanions loyal companions]] that nonetheless guide their leader on his dark path. Working together with their fragmented memories and Astos' guidance, they subtly push Jack into regaining some of his memories and all his strength. When Astos dies, Darkness veils Cornelia which finally results in [[LoveInterest Princess Sarah's]] death. The four friends are pleased with this result, attacking Jack and forcing him to kill them to fully push him past the DespairEventHorizon. Even after death, they are reborn as the Four Fiends--Lich, Kraken, Marilith and Tiamat respectively--and are happily complicit in Jack's plan to cover Cornelia in Darkness to bring about the True Warriors of Light.
** Astos, King of the Dark Elves, is Jack's [[UndyingLoyalty loyal]] and committed co-conspirator. Bred by the Lufenians to serve Strangers, Jack earned Astos' undying friendship, asking him to help him defeat Lufenia by [[WellIntentionedExtremist any means necessary]]. After being direct proved fruitless, Astos became more duplicitous. Tipping the scales in his favour by giving Neon a Dark Crystal so she could attempt to become Chaos, he went on to guide Jack and his party, offering just enough advice to help them along, so that they'd defeat the Fiends, restore the Crystals and recover their memories. At the same time ensuring their safety and having his bats guide them, Astos goads Jack into [[SuicideByCop killing him]], ending his miserably lonely existence while also releasing the Darkness within his Heart, ensuring the Destruction of Cornelia and Jack's rebirth into Chaos.
* MemeticBadass: Jack's single-minded goal of killing Chaos, him fist-bumping his friends, generally manly appearance, foul mouth (including being the first ''Final Fantasy'' character to drop an F-bomb), and habit of interrupting monologues, have gotten him this status. In the eyes of his fans he is an absolute chad, the epitome of the Sigma Grindset and the most badass protagonist in ''Final Fantasy'' who skips cutscenes so he can get to the part where he gets to kill things. The typical challenge of the genre to go around wearing no armor and beating enemies up with your bare hands only adds to the effect.
* MemeticLoser: [[spoiler:The Warriors of Light]] quickly got this reputation when the ''Trials of the Dragon King'' DLC released, as three of them are [[spoiler:thrown back and either knocked out or killed in one wave of darkness from Jack and he faces the iconic Warrior one-on-one]]. This has gotten them labeled {{Jobber}}s who only exist to fill out the team's ranks.

* HilariousInHindsight: The game has surprising parallels to the famous web comic ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'', which had the premise of four "heroes" that were actually incompetent and foolish at best and selfish and villainous at the worst, who [[spoiler:were manipulated by a major antagonist into accidentally allowing Chaos to be born]]. The comic also had [[spoiler:the "true" Light Warriors who were ''supposed'' to be the {{Chosen One}}s, but showed up late.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments: The intro scene, where Garland single-handedly slaughters his way through the knights of Cornelia to abduct Princess Sarah, leaving a trail of blood, bodies, and crimson crystals behind him. With Sarah slung over one shoulder he still kills anyone that comes at him with one swing -- or in the case of one poor sap, Garland just grabs their helmet and flings them into the ceiling, crushing them and leaving their blood to drip onto him. By the time he's at the castle entrance and the few stragglers are there waiting for him, they see what he did on the way in and don't even ''try'' to fight him, they're so terrified that they just step back and let him pass.

* MemeticLoser: [[spoiler:The Warriors of Light]] quickly got this reputation when the ''Trials of the Dragon King'' DLC released, as three of them are [[spoiler:thrown back and either knocked out or killed in one wave of darkness from Jack] and he faces the iconic Warrior one-on-one]]. This has gotten them labeled {{Jobber}}s who only exist to fill out the team's ranks.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The game lines up fairly well with ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' by expanding the lore of the Lufenians and revealing [[spoiler:they became a trans-dimensional civilization that recreated locations from other ''Final Fantasy'' worlds in their homeworld, and they purposefully inject darkness or light into the world to keep things balanced]]. With the Lufenians taking such a major role and providing more connective tissue between the original ''Final Fantasy'' and ''Dissidia'', one would think that Cid of the Lufaine could appear. He isn't even so much as alluded to.

** "We're here to kill Chaos!"/Chaosposting [[labelnote:Explanation]]The reveal trailer had the protagonist [[BrokenRecord constantly]] reiterate his desire to kill Chaos. [[ActionGenreHeroGuy Combined with his generic look and name (Jack)]], Chaosposting became a meme instantly. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3t5Ni1RW8s For example.]]) Further mutations would see Jack conspiring to kill Chaos [[FelonyMisdemeanor for minor grievances]] along with edits of the trailer that either placed even more focus on the word "Chaos" or manipulated the speed of the video every time the word was said. Another variation has him saying this for other game series with an antagonist named "Chaos" such as Castlevania or Sonic the Hedgehog.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticBadass: Jack's single minded goal of killing Chaos and his habit of interrupting monologues have earned him a number of fans proclaiming him to be an absolute chad, the epitome of the Sigma Grindset and the best protagonist in ''Final Fantasy''.

** "We're here to kill Chaos!"/Chaosposting [[labelnote:Explanation]]The reveal trailer had the protagonist [[BrokenRecord constantly]] reiterate his desire to kill Chaos. [[ActionGenreHeroGuy Combined with his generic look and name (Jack)]], Chaosposting became a meme instantly. ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3t5Ni1RW8s For example.]]) Further mutations would see Jack conspiring to kill Chaos [[FelonyMisdemeanor for minor grievances]] along with edits of the trailer that either placed [[UpToEleven even more focus]] on the word "Chaos" or manipulated the speed of the video every time the word was said. Another variation has him saying this for other game series with an antagonist named "Chaos" such as Castlevania or Sonic the Hedgehog.[[/labelnote]]

* FountainOfMemes: Jack has been a massive source of memes ever since the game was announced and every reveal, trailer and demo up to and including the game's release saw him spawn more and more memes. Variations of Jack saying Chaos are especially popular for meme creation.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Among the supporting cast, Astos is regarded by many to be the most compelling character. This game expands his role greatly and gives him a much more sympathetic background, elevating him from a rather one-dimensional and forgettable villain into an essential part of the story with a complex character and a tragic connotations.

** Later with the release of the second demo, the developers have actually [[WordOfGod gone on record]] stating that the story of ''Stranger of Paradise'' is meant to be taken 100% seriously. This is in spite of Jack's behavior and fight scenes taking another level in crass and CrazyAwesome that seems intended to persist throughout the full final game -- attracting attention to drama and plot is difficult when the main character's ''default reaction'' is TalkToTheFist.