The PS5 demo for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is unplayable due to file corruption

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
(Image credit: Square Enix)

The newly released PS5 demo for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is currently unplayable due to a file error.

The demo was shadow-dropped in the wake of the game's reveal at the Square Enix E3 2021 showcase. While the full game is planned for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC in 2022, the demo is currently only available on PS5. And unfortunately, it's currently not playable anywhere. 

You can download the demo just fine, but when you try to actually play it, you'll run into an error that says the files are corrupted and advises you to delete them and then re-download them. Re-downloading the files doesn't seem to fix whatever's causing this, so for the time being, the Stranger of Paradise demo is a dud. Perhaps this is the chaos that Angry Shirt Man was mad about in that trailer.

The official Final Fantasy Origin Twitter account acknowledged that the demo is borked and assured eager fans that the devs are working on it. That was just 15 minutes ago at the time of writing, so hold tight. And for the time being, you probably shouldn't bother downloading the demo. It doesn't take up a huge chunk of your hard drive or anything, but there's a good chance you'll need to download it again once this problem is fixed, so you may as well save yourself the bytes.

While we wait for the demo to un-chaos itself, catch up on all the details from the full Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin reveal here. And if you're looking to sample some upcoming Square Enix games, you can also sign up for the first beta for Babylon's Fall, a new live-service dungeon-crawler co-developed with Platinum Games. 

For all things E3 2021, head to our ongoing round-up of the best and biggest reveals at this year's scattered but surprisingly stacked show. We've also updated our E3 2021 schedule to help you keep track of the remaining showcases coming in the days ahead.

No luck finding a PS5? These Prime Day PS5 deals might be your ticket to the new generation of PlayStation gaming. 

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.