Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has been described as a soulslike before, but its combat system does bring something completely unique to the table. Aside from the iconic job system that players have seen in other Final Fantasy games, there is also a new mechanic called the Break Gauge. The PS5 demo of Final Fantasy Origin is challenging, and players will need to fully understand how to use their own Break Gauge and that of the enemies in order to come out on top. Despite this, the game's tutorial doesn't spend a ton of time on this feature, leaving many players confused about how it works.

For those that haven't had a chance to play the Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin demo on PS5, all enemies, allies, and even the player have a Break Gauge. This can usually be found just underneath the health bar, and can have some pretty drastic effects on combat. Players are encouraged to pay attention to and use the Break Gauge, but they aren't told exactly how to do that.

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In a sense, the Break Gauge is like a stamina bar, but there are a few key differences. For starters, attacking, sprinting, and using special abilities doesn't decrease the Break Gauge like one might expect from a typical stamina bar. Instead, this gauge depletes whenever the player blocks an attack, uses the Soul Guard technique, or takes a hit. The only way to negate Break Gauge damage from these source is to time a block just before an attack lands to trigger a parry. This is effective, but players will still take damage from magical sources in this case.

When the player's Break Gauge is fully depleted, their character will immediately stagger. This animation is drawn out and leaves the player open to attack from enemies, so it is very important to not let this happen. What's more, triggering a break like this will also reduce the player's maximum mana and remove any Instant Skills that they've collected from enemies. While this may seem harsh, the effect of breaking an enemy is even more punishing for them.

When an enemy's Break Gauge is completed, they will also be stunned for a long duration of time. Rather than continuing to perform normal attacks, players can approach the stunned enemy and perform a Soul Crush technique (circle on PS5). This will instantly kill the enemy no matter how much health they have left and give the player a boost to both current and maximum MP. The Break Gauge can be depleted faster by using Final Fantasy Origin enemies' weaknesses against them.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is release in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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