I don’t think you can call yourself a Final Fantasy fan if you haven’t read a joke or question thread like, “Why didn’t Cloud just cast Life on Aerith?” (Yes, I’m spoiling that.) Of course, the answer is simple: characters who collapse in battle are KO’d — that is, knocked out; they don’t die even though players colloquially refer to it as such. Fortunately, once Square Enix decided to keep the revive spells’ original names of Raise and Arise instead of localizing them as Life and Life2, it made this a little more clear.
I only say this because, as a Final Fantasy geek, protagonist Shogo should know the rules surrounding Raise. But considering he saw his sister being mawed to death by a dragon after being transported to another world, I’m willing to give him a little leeway.
You see, Shogo and Yuko have landed jobs at their ideal company (Square Enix) but hardly in their ideal positions. Their goal is to one day create a Final Fantasy game, but instead, they find themselves teleported to a Final Fantasy-like world — job classes, Chocobos, parties and guilds, different races, all kinds of familiar things. But their dream situation quickly becomes a nightmare as Yuko dies in battle against a vastly overpowered enemy. Shogo is horrified to learn Raise is nothing but a legendary spell. (And there are no save points either.) But together with his new-found party, Shogo is determined to do something Cloud, Firion, Yuna, and every other Final Fantasy protagonist has never been able to: bring his sister back to life.
At its core, Final Fantasy Lost Stranger is about the 9,999th title in the modern isekai genre. Normal guy finds himself in a fantasy land with extra-special powers, yada yada. However, unlike most other another world stories, Shogo’s given goal isn’t to defeat some Big Bad. His sister’s death (technically, transformation into a crystal) gives him a more personal motivation to go adventuring than other protagonists.
The real question, however, is whether there is enough story once you take away the Moogles and stop name-dropping Gran Grimoires. Since this is a fully sanctioned manga by Square Enix, it’s so nice to have all the references full and center instead of dancing around by mentioning a character named ZiOOne or having the siblings work at a company called Circle Xnie. Some references are explained, but most are left up to readers. While you don’t need to be a Final Fantasy fan to read Lost Stranger, the manga doesn’t try hard to reach out to non-fans. It doesn’t spend any time explaining what a Black Mage does, and new acquaintance Sara’s identity is hardly a shock to any fan.
Yes, Lost Stranger is riding on its Final Fantasy moniker. The opening chapter provides plenty of shock value thanks to Yuko’s unfortunate crystallization, but I’m worried that the manga will play it too safe. Do you have fun being told to go hunt down a missing pet in order to get to the next locked area? I don’t. If Shogo is going to go through the usual RPG “you can’t go to place A without sidetracking and doing B and C”, why not just watch someone play Final Fantasy on Twitch? It would probably be faster. Plus, while there are some shady characters right now, in many Final Fantasy games, the plot is thin until a good villain appears. There’s no threat of war or Meteor to make the situation feel urgent right now.
While the story is still developing, the art is already pretty decent. The character designs definitely draw some inspiration from both Nomura and Amano, but they also almost feel like a Westerner’s style, as if this were an OEL manga. We don’t often think of Black Mages being big, bulky men, but I like how the team’s offensive magic user is atypical to balance out the traditional demure, sweet female White Mage. The real visual highlight is the dragon: a large, impressive-looking enemy that gives you the same “oh crap” feeling when you stumble across a Boss battle. Everything just appears ready for television, looking better than the mixed-reviewed Final Fantasy Unlimited anime and even the The Ice Reaper manga.
In short, it’s just a little too early to see if Lost Stranger will be as lauded as Final Fantasy X or as forgettable as Final Fantasy II. It’s not a standout isekai series right now, but hopefully Shogo’s journey will be more than just a Final Fantasy play-by-play.