Stranger of Paradise felt like one of those games where everyone’s expectations were so low it could only over deliver for those that chose to play it. On the other hand, I think because of those low expections, people wouldn’t pick it up and it lost a lot of interest.
Personally, even though I never got too in-depth with it, I felt it was a great game. It never took itself too seriously and was unashamed in what it was delivering — great combat, and story that embraced its cheesy moments.
In all honesty, I’d love to see Square Enix take more approaches to the combat in their spin-off games like this.
As someone who hates Soulslikes but loves FF, I thought it was great. Loved the worlds themed for the different games, plus the story was fun and walked a nice line between serious and silly.
I do wish that the DLCs weren’t gated behind the high difficulty levels, though. I would have loved to continue on into those fights with WoL and the Emperor and such, but there’s no way in hell I’m subjecting myself to the level of Soulslike masochism that it would actually take to do it.
I get what you mean about the DLC, it can be off putting for those of us who weren’t used to Souls-likes.