Topic: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 -OT-

I had to mod Expedition 33 to make it enjoyable for me. I think they have done some work on the parry and difficulty tuning since, but I played it right at launch. It is why I kinda want something to beat Expedition 33 for my GOTY, because it feels weird to have my number one spot be taken by a game I actively disliked playing 😂 But man, the story, the characters, the world, the mythology just... man.

Listen, I love the game gave a 10/10 score and everything, it will more then likely win GOTY. My biggest grievance is they way some people are acting like this is the greatest game ever made, which I have to disagree with. I think people need to start giving flowers to the games that inspired E33, those being FFX and Lost Odyssey, It's an amazing game with a god tier OST just think it's getting over glazed slightly.

@Oram77 I honestly kinda feel like this happens any time a JRPG isn't pure turn based. Like the dislike for pure turn based combat is so strong, people have to act like any alternative is the greatest thing ever made. From the FF7 Remake to Legends Arceus, I feel like we get at least one big one a year at this point. I feel like had Expedition 33 not had the real time parry dodge system, a huge population of the online vocal glazers wouldn't have even given this a chance.

It is so funny to me too, because the actual JRPG audience have made it pretty clear this isn't what the want, from the Digimon sales, to all the praise online for the Atelier series returning back to turn based again after its jaunt with different mechanics in the last one, to even the struggling sales of FF16.

Its like this weird need to appeal to an audience that isnt actually your audience, at the expense of your actual audience.

And I have kinda just taken "most innovative JRPG ever" to mean it doesn't have turn based combat and that is it.

@Elfuggingjefe I’d also add that you don’t need to worry about the parry system as you can go the whole game without using it if you want.

When an enemy attacks, you can simply dodge it. But you can get a perfect dodge as well which is the timing you need to parry so you can just dodge attacks until you think you’ve got the timing down. If you successfully parry all the moves in an enemy’s attack, you trigger a counterattack which often does serious damage so it’s normally worth it.

Dropping the difficulty down makes the parry window incredibly generous too and I did this in the post-game as I just wanted to blitz through the final content.

Listened to some of the OST of this earlier today and it's honestly so surreal. I genuinely think it might be one of my all-time favourites.

Tempted to give the game a second playthrough now.

@Kairuuu I'm holding off until this new up date goes live, very interested to seeing this new area and bosses!

@Oram77 Yeah, I might do the same honestly. I haven’t heard too much about it but another playthrough is definitely needed!

Just started playing this on Saturday. Usually struggle with the timing of parries in games, but I'm pretty consistently getting them here.

Good Lord the combat in this game is fun. I'm definitely seeing the potential for this game to be my GOTY. Really hits that JRPG sweet spot in a way you almost never see from Western developers.

@Ralizah it is a remarkable game I think, and well deserving of GOTY (assuming it wins, which I imagine is very probable!)

Its such a fascinating project, honoring its obvious influences and wearing them overtly 'on the sleeve'.... but it also brings such a new fresh approach to combat. Almost like Sekiro and Persona were put in a blender! The story is cool as well, VA work really solid, and the overall world-building is very strong IMO. Just a cracking game, good length as well - not too short but doesn't overstay its welcome.

Admittedly I've not played many new/2025 releases this year, but I can't see anything taking this from my current #1 this year

@CJD87 It feels like it draws equally from PS2-era Final Fantasy (world map design, the scenery, heavy use of FMVs, party dynamics, etc.), Paper Mario (heavy incorporation of timed elements in turn based combat, and Pictos are extremely reminiscent of the badge systems from the older ones), and Dark Souls (dark fantasy setting, and how its exploration progression and health recovery item systems are handled), with a bit of Atlus stylism thrown in for good measure (the battle UI). It's like if turn of the century Square Enix was a Western studio, but with that same beautiful Japanese style of game design.

I'm still early on, but I'm really enjoying what I've experienced of it so far. My only issues relate to the UE5 technical problems that seem to plague every game that utilizes it.

@Ralizah Enjoy!

The parry system works well but can be completely ignored if you don’t feel up to it. Very much worth working on it though for the counter attacks you can pull off.

And the combat is great with each character having such a unique skillset. It meant that I mixed it up quite a bit with my party, rather than just relying on the same people.

I love the idea of a world map with a ton of optional dungeons, but so far, it's a little disappointing how many of these optional areas amount to... nothing. Just, like, one screen with an item.

@Thrillho Yeah, there's a LOT of depth in this system. I do have some issues with how OP dodging and parrying can be (spent about thirty minutes chipping away at a much higher level enemy I clearly wasn't meant to beat yet just by dodging literally all of his attacks lol), but it's still quite a bit of fun.

@HallowMoonshadow Absolutely, Foxy! Between the job, gaming, reading, family time, boyfriend time... yeah, I've been juggling a lot. But I do want to pop in here more, especially when I'm playing stuff that takes me out of my Nintendo bubble a bit.

Yeah, I've been rather irritated with the way this is being glorified by gamer culture online, which is probably why I avoided playing it for so long. I believe they're updating it with additional quests and stuff at some future date, so waiting makes sense anyway.

You're still traumatized by your experience with NieR: Automata, aren't you? It's okay. There's a lot of 'masterpieces' I've bounced off of as well.

@Ralizah There are some pretty huge optional areas as you progress (you've not really said where you are in the game yet) and by the time of act 3 it's much more open world which I didn't actually like so much; I much preferred the tighter, linear main part of the game.

And I quite liked that you could take down some high level enemies with the right level of patience and commitment. There are some that are very much designed (seemingly) to be beaten because of the dodge and parry mechanics though.

@Thrillho I just got to Act II. So... yeah, just past that part lol

It seems to be following the FFVII progression of ultra-linear to practically open world as your navigation options improve, which I've always thought was smart. I usually prefer doing my own thing to being led around by the nose (my favorite parts in God of War 2018 were the optional dungeons and side areas lol), so I'm looking forward to the increasing emphasis on exploration.

@Ralizah I thought the second act was where the game lost a lot of its steam plot wise. I won't spoil anything for you of course, but if the game gets boring at some point, rush the main story, which is worth it.

So I just finished the game. Completed most of the optional content, too, so I was pretty OP. Killed the final boss in two hits, and that's only because of the new phase in the middle lol

I'll likely do a NG+ run or something at some point so I can clean up the achievements. Probably after the free DLC with additional content releases. But certainly not anytime soon.

I'm still figuring out how I feel about the game, but as for my initial feelings...

Strong themes/characters/music. The existentialistic themes and somber plot and aesthetics reminded me heavily of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (which, being my current all-time favorite RPG, is a plus). Lovely environments, too, and the combat is fun, even if it's unbalanced and IMO needs tweaking in sequels. And the character performances... yeah, there's a reason so many are up for awards this year in this category.

The character writing for your party members is strong throughout. I can see why people really like this cast.

Despite being a Western-developed game, the developers very clearly LOVE Japanese RPGs and capture a lot of the same charm in this title

The plot is... disappointing, though. I won't go into detail, but I was VERY underwhelmed once you find out what's actually happening in the game. It doesn't take away from how good the character writing can be, but the game spends a lot of time foreshadowing eventual revelations that were far less interesting than I hoped they would be.

I'm not really a fan of how many of the boss fights have no real build-up or significance to them. Probably 70%+ of them are just some random enemy that looks like it came out of a From Software title jumping your party in a cutscene.

The dodging/parrying system takes over the game. To the point where character builds don't generally matter nearly as much as muscle memory when it comes to mastering fights in this game. As I mentioned above, I do think the system is a lot of fun mechanically, but it needs to be dramatically rebalanced so that the turn-based and more active elements balance each-other out. Pictos (the 'badge'-style add-ons that you use to learn new skills, which usually have dramatic stat buffs attached) need to be rebalanced as well, since they can also dramatically overshadow character builds.

Also hate when games make it where doing the optional content before the final boss (of which there's quite a bit) trivializes that final story area.

There's a lot to love in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It's easily the best Western-developed JRPG-style game I've ever played. It's clearly a labor of immense love on the part of the developers, and I'm very excited to see how their next game turns out. I've seen so many adult JRPG fans talk about their yearning for a game that captures the essence of those titles while still delivering a more mature and 'adult' experience, and that's exactly what developer Sandfall Interactive delivered with Expedition 33. So I understand the love.

Expedition 33 is a solid 8/10 and a very good debut game for the studio, but it's not my GOTY, and I have the sneaking suspicion that it's enjoying as much attention as it is at least partially because the more Western-friendly aesthetics and mechanics of this game have drawn in an audience of gamers who usually pass on more traditionally Japanese fare. Thus a lot of the rhetoric in gaming spaces about how this has 'elevated' or 'revived' turn-based combat when fantastic turn-based JRPGs released literally every year.

It is a bit daft. I've said it a few times on here but I wish it had been designed to keep to a tight story line and then open up the world in the end game as I thought Act 3 lost a lot of direction but I get why it doesn't do that from a story point of view.

Finished this yesterday - WOW. For me the plot dipped a little in Act 2 but just kept rising and rising until the end, story wise it's up there with the very best for me. I definitely chose the best ending out of the two (V) after going back to see what the other one was (which was a horrifying "bad" ending). My only gripe is that when the rest of the world truly opens up for you right as you're heading for the final showdown. Glad to see the music has been getting as much recognition as well.

I picked up the game and have been greatly enjoying it. I'm now roughly 37 hours in and about to face the Paintress. Visually, it's a genuinely striking game heavily aided by its fantastic soundtrack. The atmosphere it has managed to create is absolutely immaculate. Just being in this world with these characters is a delight. All the flourishes in the combat with the animations do a lot to enhance the experience as well. They managed to strike a great balance there between overly long animations that mess up the pacing of fights and ones that just feel epic and I don't tire of seeing over and over again. Just truly incredible stuff.

My one complaint is that I'm not as enamored with the story as I imagined I'd be. Don't get me wrong. I am in love with the concept of it. It feels so unique and special, and the whole conceit of the Paintress, the Gommage and the expeditions is some fantastic world-building. The Frenchness of it all also feels incredibly fresh in a landscape dominated by either Japanese, American or heavily Westernised fantasy settings. My main issue is with the overall plot and the pacing of it.

From the moment where you properly set out on your journey to where I am now, it feels like only really one plot beat has happened that I would totally hype up as being some top-tier writing (you know the one). Everything in-between just either hasn't quite hit the same or felt like it got in the way of the pacing more than anything. It's not even like I could criticise the game for being slow though, since it does feel like on a character-level things are constantly happening. For some reason however, I'm having a hard time really ''connecting'' with the characters. Even despite following all the camp interactions and staying up-to-date on optional content available to me, I'm not feeling like there's been a lot of interesting developments with any of them. I feel like the people I'm with 37 hours in are the same people I met 37 hours ago. It doesn't feel to me like they are slowly unraveling interesting character details that attaches me more to them, even if I enjoy being in their presence. The one-on-one interactions often feel rather surface-level and not like I'm building a deep relationship as the ''level up'' pop-up might suggest. Monoco and Esquie are the highlights for me only in the sense that they entertain me, but not in a way where I feel anything about their characters is note-worthy beyond the often hilarious dialogue. Though, it's not getting in the way of my ''wheee''!

Anything big that has happened so far in terms of major plot twists didn't really have as big of an effect as I feel like it should have. I think the issue I'm facing most of all is that everything feels at the same time as if they've explained a lot, while the world still feels so mysterious. I'm not feeling like I'm really ''getting'' anywhere with understanding the world better than I did from the start. Really only the main antagonists and their plots remain somewhat of a mystery to me, but there I feel more overdue for some crumbs than some gradual increase of knowledge. Even a plot twist like Verso's relation to Renoir didn't feel as impactful as I feel it could've been, since they clearly established some kind of relationship between them from the very first moment. Anything with Maelle's origin is also still rather unexplained, but easy to grasp onto unless they manage to fully surprise me.

It's not that I'm not enjoying the story. I suppose I'm just resenting the fact that it doesn't feel quite as deep as I expected it to be. It's still an incredibly solid adventure, but as the aspect of the game I expected to be the selling point to me, it's falling a bit flat. I'm a lot more impressed with everything around it. Maybe I'm speaking too soon and I'll be eating my words as soon as I hit the final acts and they throw everything they've got at me. I'd love for that to happen. But for now, I'm (at most) cautiously optimistic for an impressive ending.

@Tjuz My favourite thing about the animations is how they represent the act of painting, or creating, and give a real sense of power to it. It’s great. I won’t say much about the plot, only that it doesn’t elevate until taken as a whole. It could still go either way for you but it definitely comes together as a complete vision.

I’ve been meaning to ask what you thought of RE Requiem. I thought I saw you had finished it but haven’t seen your thoughts on it. I’m still playing through it but life has slowed my progress down this week.