Final Fantasy modders are making Stranger of Paradise characters bald to avoid tanking frame rates on PC

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is seeing tanked frame rates on PC - and it appears to be down to hair.

As first reported by PC Gamer, the Twitter user seen just below has been doing a number of experiments with Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin on PC. In particular, they've been seeing dropped frames in scenes with certain characters, and they've managed to ascertain that it's entirely because of the detailing on said characters, like their hair and lush fur coats. To counter the deadly hair, players are actually making characters bald, as seen below.

Elsewhere, another user on Twitter delved into slightly more detail, revealing that the character models in Final Fantasy Origin are incredibly poorly optimized on PC. In short, the character and even environment models for the game are eating away at memory because of how poorly optimized they are, with some taking up in excess of 30MB.

This is basically what's causing Final Fantasy Origin's frame rates to nosedive on PC. Users, like the first one highlighted here, have actually taken to modding the game to stabilize the frame rate, removing the Elf's luxurious hair. That actually boosts the game's frame rate back up to 30FPS, where you'd think it should be hanging on PC to begin with.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin looked like an absolutely wild game from the jump, and that's before Square Enix and Team Ninja started loading in character models that ate away at the game's memory. Jack might be solely focused on killing Chaos, as he always has been, but he's not going to get the job done with these abysmal frame rates on PC.

Check out our new games 2022 guide for a complete look over everything else launching throughout the remainder of the year. Or, if you want to understand more about why PCs are like this, check VSync, FreeSync, and G-Sync explained.