Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin fans thought they were getting a DLC trailer and instead got Rick Astley

The Warrior of Light appears during the Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin DLC trailer
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin fans thought they were getting a trailer for the 'Trials of the Dragon King' DLC but instead got rickrolled. 

Earlier today, June 30, Square Enix revealed that Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is getting some DLC in the form of the Trials of the Dragon King expansion. After heading straight to the official Strangers of Paradise website though, one games journalist noticed that there was a video embedded into the site, but it wasn’t the trailer they – or others – were expecting. 

Straight after this VG24/7 and RPGSite's Alex Donaldson put out a tweet urging Final Fantasy fans to check the website. One person responded to Donaldson with a video of themselves accessing the website revealing that instead of a DLC trailer, Square Enix had actually just linked to Rick Astley’s iconic Never Gonna Give You Up music video. Meaning Square Enix literally just rickrolled a bunch of Final Fantasy fans. 

Whether this was intentional or simply just a placeholder is still up for debate but we’re sad to report that the website has since been updated, and now actually contains the proper Trials of the Dragon King DLC teaser trailer - which you can watch for yourself below. The first ever expansion for the game will add three new missions titled Trials of the Dragon King, Wanderer of the Rift, and Different Future and is due to release on July 20, 2022.

Stranger of Paradise and Rick Astley aside, It’s never been a better time to be a Final Fantasy fan. Not only is Square Enix still regularly rolling out updates for Final Fantasy 14 - including the soon-to-be revealed 6.2 patch - but the developer also recently announced that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2: Rebirth is due to launch in winter 2023.

But that wasn’t all that Square Enix wanted us to know about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake as it was also revealed that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is now in active development. If you don’t think you can wait that long to dive back into Midgar though, the good news is that we’re also getting a Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core remake this winter, as well as Final Fantasy 16 which is due next summer. Phew, that’s a lot of Final Fantasy news. 

Need something to play whilst you wait for the Stranger of Paradise DLC? Take a look at our list of games like Final Fantasy for inspiration. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.  

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