Thoughts about Clair Obscur:Expedition 33?

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Never in my wildest dreams I would've imagined this level of success for a first time studio. Turn based RPG fans are eating good. Note that this is not counting the Gamepass deal, so the total amount of users is even higher.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 11:18 AM

My only thought about this is how poorly Yoshi P's statements about FFXVI aged. I've been generally critical of Square Enix's myopic view of modern Final Fantasy's design principles but the success of Clair Obscur solidifies my arguments against these type of thoughts.

It's not a command-based system. When you press the square, your guy shoots. Why do you have to wait for him to shoot, I should be able to press square and he shoots immediately. You have this whole generation of gamers that grew up with this, [and you need] to get those generations to come in and also play [FFXVI], which has this image of not being that type of game. You have to make it appealing to that group as well. And so to get that group to come in and introduce them to the series, we decided to go down this route – action was pretty much the only way.

Takai: "For me, it's the same as [Yoshida], that we want to get this game in the hands of as many people as possible. But like [Yoshida] said, a lot of gamers in their 20s, even some in the in the early 30s…are so used to playing games where if you you tilt the stick, someone moves. If you press the button, action happens – that is all immediate. It's all responsive and directly off of that action. And so trying to push that back [and make players] wait for everything, didn't feel like the direction that games are moving in.

Comments aging like milk, lmao.

Source: https://www.gameinformer.com/featur...ss-why-the-series-hasnt-been-turn-based-for-a

 

[ThePeon]

Looks neat and something I might check out. I mean woah a western game that allow for charters to look good and not like shrek´s balls sack. Either the devs have balls of steel or they just not infected by modern game for modern audience mind set yet.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Looks neat and something I might check out. I mean woah a western game that allow for charters to look good and not like shrek´s balls sack. Either the devs have balls of steel or they just not infected by modern game for modern audience mind set yet.

Well, they are an independent studio. Maybe they don't have to follow corporate mandates just yet. Or they haven't hired a cultural sensitivity consulting firm, yet. Once they sell out to a major studio, all bets are off. (like what happened to Bioware).

 

[ThePeon]

Well, they are an independent studio. Maybe they don't have to follow corporate mandates just yet. Or they haven't hired a cultural sensitivity consulting firm, yet. Once they sell out to a major studio, all bets are off. (like what happened to Bioware).

Like what happen to 90% of western studios even indie game studios are not safe for modern audience slop sadly.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Like what happen to 90% of western studios even indie game studios are not safe for modern audience slop sadly.

90% is a bit hyperbolic, but yeah a lot of big studios have been pandering to certain crowds a little too hard. I think it is better when gaming studios try to tell stories with powerful messages instead of trying to score points with a particular group. Even when those messages can be interpreted as leaning in a particular political direction (as the pro-environmental, peaceful messages of Final Fantasy) they are better received when they are allegorical than direct.

 

[ThePeon]

90% is a bit hyperbolic, but yeah a lot of big studios have been pandering to certain crowds a little too hard. I think it is better when gaming studios try to tell stories with powerful messages instead of trying to score points with a particular group. Even when those messages can be interpreted as leaning in a particular political direction (as the pro-environmental, peaceful messages of Final Fantasy) they are better received when they are allegorical than direct.

My biggest issues with it all
1. They are preaching about it way to hard and basically talks down to player.
2. They forgo a good story in favor of preaching they hire activist instead of writers and you get crap story with crap charters.
3. All of this slop for modern audience hurt the issue more than it helps.

Take Bioware in the past was inclusive you had people of color, BI and gay and then failguard happen and it just became pure trash that sold so bad they fire people which was probably a good thing. But you clearly saw how bad the writing went when all your companions was just one trait morons.
Hey im a Necromancer all I do is drink coffee because I need to be awake or else but did I tell you about Necromancy and coffee ?
Hey im butt ugly nonbinary person and I hate every one and no one and I love killing dragons but did I tell you i´m nonbinary for the million time and how much I love killing dragons.

Basically their personality became like how a Pokemon keep saying their name. The writing was shallow and made you not care or just out right hate them.

Im not against charter like that but there are few things one has to keep in mind if so.
Are they well written and not insufferable assholes ?
Are they fitting the theme of the game or did you just shoehorn then in.
They don´t need to announced what they are you can give hints to if they are gay or bi or such no need to nag about it every 5 min we are not dumb.

Reason past Dragon age games has well written charter is because the ones who wrote them med they likeable and made them seams like any order nary person you talk with. With ordinary human conversations.

And the last thing people want to play hot/beautiful charters or if they want to play the ugliest thing there is then they will do so with charter creation like in dark souls or Oblivion and skyrim. But don´t make it standard in the game.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

My biggest issues with it all
1. They are preaching about it way to hard and basically talks down to player.
2. They forgo a good story in favor of preaching they hire activist instead of writers and you get crap story with crap charters.
3. All of this slop for modern audience hurt the issue more than it helps.

Take Bioware in the past was inclusive you had people of color, BI and gay and then failguard happen and it just became pure trash that sold so bad they fire people which was probably a good thing. But you clearly saw how bad the writing went when all your companions was just one trait morons.
Hey im a Necromancer all I do is drink coffee because I need to be awake or else but did I tell you about Necromancy and coffee ?
Hey im butt ugly nonbinary person and I hate every one and no one and I love killing dragons but did I tell you i´m nonbinary for the million time and how much I love killing dragons.

Basically their personality became like how a Pokemon keep saying their name. The writing was shallow and made you not care or just out right hate them.

Im not against charter like that but there are few things one has to keep in mind if so.
Are they well written and not insufferable assholes ?
Are they fitting the theme of the game or did you just shoehorn then in.
They don´t need to announced what they are you can give hints to if they are gay or bi or such no need to nag about it every 5 min we are not dumb.

Reason past Dragon age games has well written charter is because the ones who wrote them med they likeable and made them seams like any order nary person you talk with. With ordinary human conversations.

And the last thing people want to play hot/beautiful charters or if they want to play the ugliest thing there is then they will do so with charter creation like in dark souls or Oblivion and skyrim. But don´t make it standard in the game.

Well, I mean it is a complicated subject. I think it really comes down to bad writing and bad corporate policies instead of anything political. Like I said before, there were leftist/liberal political messages in RPGs since the dawn of them and it wasn't a major problem before. The creators of the RPG genre were generally liberal hippie nerds who read Tolkien and fantasy. But nowadays, there are corporate mandates to make the messaging very upfront and explicit and they force the designers to include every minority or disability even if it doesn't necessarily make sense within the context of the universe. It feels contrived and forced because it is forced.

The beautiful character thing is complicated. I agree that games should have a diversity of personality types and looks, the characters shouldn't all look like supermodels. But when it comes to romance and stuff like that, people want to see good looking characters fall in love, not uggos, lol. And characters who are recognizable are more likely to be popular and that's why character designers use famous Hollywood actors as references. Heck, I think the main guy for Clair Obscur kind of looks like Robert Pattinson.

 

[Dyne]

I regret watching the release date trailer as I feel it was kinda spoilery. I'm not watching anything else at this point going forward until it comes out, but I've been looking forward to this game since the initial reveal trailer.

okay, now I'm a bit worried about spoilers. I havent gotten around to this one yet and I plan to get to it sometime this year but probably not for awhile

 

[BunnyLain]

Never in my wildest dreams I would've imagined this level of success for a first time studio.

Hard disagree, the market is so absolutely swamped with people now days that any game with some decent marketing is going to get at least a million sales. If this came out on the switch it would have probably for 3 million last week.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Hard disagree, the market is so absolutely swamped with people now days that any game with some decent marketing is going to get at least a million sales. If this came out on the switch it would have probably for 3 million last week.

Idk, there has to be some quality behind it to get these numbers. Its rare for a JRPG style game to do this well outside of Atlus or Square Enix.

 

[ThePeon]

Well, I mean it is a complicated subject. I think it really comes down to bad writing and bad corporate policies instead of anything political. Like I said before, there were leftist/liberal political messages in RPGs since the dawn of them and it wasn't a major problem before. The creators of the RPG genre were generally liberal hippie nerds who read Tolkien and fantasy. But nowadays, there are corporate mandates to make the messaging very upfront and explicit and they force the designers to include every minority or disability even if it doesn't necessarily make sense within the context of the universe. It feels contrived and forced because it is forced.

The beautiful character thing is complicated. I agree that games should have a diversity of personality types and looks, the characters shouldn't all look like supermodels. But when it comes to romance and stuff like that, people want to see good looking characters fall in love, not uggos, lol. And characters who are recognizable are more likely to be popular and that's why character designers use famous Hollywood actors as references. Heck, I think the main guy for Clair Obscur kind of looks like Robert Pattinson.

Anyway as to stay on topic I might give this game a try it´s costing me nothing. Yes I have games pass even taught I hate it but it was the only way for me to play Oblivion remaster when I can´t fork out 55 euro and game pass cost me 1 euro because I have not subbed in such a long time I got special offer.

I will try this game when im done with Oblivion but what I seen it looks epic.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Anyway as to stay on topic I might give this game a try it´s costing me nothing. Yes I have games pass even taught I hate it but it was the only way for me to play Oblivion remaster when I can´t fork out 55 euro and game pass cost me 1 euro because I have not subbed in such a long time I got special offer.

I will try this game when im done with Oblivion but what I seen it looks epic.

I'm glad the Oblivion shadow drop didn't hurt this game. We don't want to foster the culture of remaking the past over and over for profit. New games should take prominence over reheated leftovers.

 

[ThePeon]

I'm glad the Oblivion shadow drop didn't hurt this game. We don't want to foster the culture of remaking the past over and over for profit. New games should take prominence over reheated leftovers.

Yeah I agree nice to see it´s still doing good and people love it.

 

[legsrjust4show]

I did the intro last night and so far I think it's great stuff. The music is really good, the combat system has a lot more going on than I thought it would??? and the voice acting is some of the best out there.

I'm playing on hard mode and it's a bit too dependent on landing the parry actions when enemies attack to do the real damage and it always takes me a few tries when it comes to parrying in video games, but the battles are quick enough that it doesn't feel like I'm wasting my time when I die for the third time in a row.

 

[tigg]

've put a number of hours into it thus far and I am sadly starting to get bored with it. The story is quite interesting but I think the aimless wandering is doing me in. Can certainly see the drawn aspects of souls games and legend of dragoon, but I kind of fail to see the FFX influence in the game (which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

 

[partymembervii]

it looks fantastic, i really love that a game like this came from a third party studio, and im loving this recent chapter twists on the turn based jrpg formula, and the fact theyre selling it for less than most aaa games with such a level of quality not only visually. would definitely buy it if i had a machine capable of running it

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Finished Expedition 33.
Whew, it's beyond amazing. Had to say, it's way better than I ever hoped for initially and deserve every praise it gets.
In short and minimum spoiler, it's about family and marital issues that affect the whole world: the game. And it does everything perfectly to support towards that kind of storytelling whether in the graphics, musics, voice acting and even the gameplay department which honestly the intriguing Soulslike turn-based gameplay is more a device to move the plot forward more than anything for me. Some probably might nitpick that the story beats went off kinda too fast and there're a few unexplained things that still are still unresolved in the end, which is fair and probably might even be intentional by the dev to be covered in other ways, whether in the material books/guides, a potential future planned DLC or even a sequel/spinoff. Hopefully.

I won't say it's gonna be perfect experience for everyone because it still do have some minor flaws, but they're not getting much in the way of the game that I could ignore them and personally I would still highly rate it as something really close to perfection.
It was a culmination of everything the dev loved in their favorite games and other entertainment medias that they added subtly you might only notice after a while, yet as a whole it could still stand as its own thing separate from those references. Truly showed what a love letter from actual passionate JRPG fans to other JRPG fans worldwide looked like.

Explaining my minor gripes at it, I do lament that from second half it become a bit overreliant to parrying over dodging due to how late and optional bosses got way too much lenience to destroy you, even with full vitality + defense build than don't rely on parry/dodge. Maybe they should've added something like a guard command that could reduce 20% incoming damage and give 50% chance to get 1 AP for those who have bad reflexes?
Without the map feature (which is intended by the dev), area exploration both in dungeons and overworld also can be easy to get lost to if you don't pay attention to your surroundings which could lead to missable treasure items. And there're some platforming + minigame hell that makes you wonder why they had to be there in the first place with how awkward the controls are and the rewards are not really beneficial, that sometimes I do think the level designer in this game might be a sadist who just want the players to suffer.
But overall it's really just plain fun time and I would sincerely recommend this to everyone, even those who usually dislike turn based RPGs, because much like most Soulslike games the joy when you can finally overcome hard bosses by knowing their patterns after a few retries and executing perfect dodges/parries when you need it is absolutely exhilarating.

With great graphics and unique designs, sublime music, immensely difficult but doable gameplay and relatably excellent story that's not your typical JRPG, and considering it was made by small studio as their debut yet can outright compete with the giants of the industry, it's not just a GOTY contender anymore to me but outright become one of my most favorite JRPGs of all time and probably be remembered for years to come by the next generation of gamers, which is kinda crazy for a game that's barely released 4 days ago. And I know I'm not the only one who think this if the high critic scores and reviews everywhere are any indication.
Even if you might not enjoy it as much as I do, I feel like it would be a really different, unforgettable experience that you still can have fun in every single moment you interacted with it, which is really the most important thing because in the end aren't all games supposed to be fun?

"When one falls, we continue."
"Even if we fail, we pave the way for those who come after... Right?"
- Lune & Gustave, Expedition 33

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Finished Expedition 33.
Whew, it's beyond amazing. Had to say, it's way better than I ever hoped for initially and deserve every praise it gets.
In short and minimum spoiler, it's about family and marital issues that affect the whole world: the game. And it does everything perfectly to support towards that kind of storytelling whether in the graphics, musics, voice acting and even the gameplay department which honestly the intriguing Soulslike turn-based gameplay is more a device to move the plot forward more than anything for me. Some probably might nitpick that the story beats went off kinda too fast and there're a few unexplained things that still are still unresolved in the end, which is fair and probably might even be intentional by the dev to be covered in other ways, whether in the material books/guides, a potential future planned DLC or even a sequel/spinoff. Hopefully.

I won't say it's gonna be perfect experience for everyone because it still do have some minor flaws, but they're not getting much in the way of the game that I could ignore them and personally I would still highly rate it as something really close to perfection.
It was a culmination of everything the dev loved in their favorite games and other entertainment medias that they added subtly you might only notice after a while, yet as a whole it could still stand as its own thing separate from those references. Truly showed what a love letter from actual passionate JRPG fans to other JRPG fans worldwide looked like.

Explaining my minor gripes at it, I do lament that from second half it become a bit overreliant to parrying over dodging due to how late and optional bosses got way too much lenience to destroy you, even with full vitality + defense build than don't rely on parry/dodge. Maybe they should've added something like a guard command that could reduce 20% incoming damage and give 50% chance to get 1 AP for those who have bad reflexes?
Without the map feature (which is intended by the dev), area exploration both in dungeons and overworld also can be easy to get lost to if you don't pay attention to your surroundings which could lead to missable treasure items. And there're some platforming + minigame hell that makes you wonder why they had to be there in the first place with how awkward the controls are and the rewards are not really beneficial, that sometimes I do think the level designer in this game might be a sadist who just want the players to suffer.
But overall it's really just plain fun time and I would sincerely recommend this to everyone, even those who usually dislike turn based RPGs, because much like most Soulslike games the joy when you can finally overcome hard bosses by knowing their patterns after a few retries and executing perfect dodges/parries when you need it is absolutely exhilarating.

With great graphics and unique designs, sublime music, immensely difficult but doable gameplay and relatably excellent story that's not your typical JRPG, and considering it was made by small studio as their debut yet can outright compete with the giants of the industry, it's not just a GOTY contender anymore to me but outright become one of my most favorite JRPGs of all time and probably be remembered for years to come by the next generation of gamers, which is kinda crazy for a game that's barely released 4 days ago. And I know I'm not the only one who think this if the high critic scores and reviews everywhere are any indication.
Even if you might not enjoy it as much as I do, I feel like it would be a really different, unforgettable experience that you can enjoy in every single moment you interacted with it, which is really the most important thing because in the end aren't all games supposed to be fun?

"When one falls, we continue."
"Even if we fail, we pave the way for those who come after... Right?"
- Lune & Gustave, Expedition 33

Damn, I don't know what to say to that except I need to find a way to play it. lmao.

I think the frustrating, sadistic stuff comes from the designers who said they were a fan of souls games. The lack of minimap and hardcore parrying and stuff, its all souls games DNA.

 

[tigg]

Finished Expedition 33.
Whew, it's beyond amazing. Had to say, it's way better than I ever hoped for initially and deserve every praise it gets.
In short and minimum spoiler, it's about family and marital issues that affect the whole world: the game. And it does everything perfectly to support towards that kind of storytelling whether in the graphics, musics, voice acting and even the gameplay department which honestly the intriguing Soulslike turn-based gameplay is more a device to move the plot forward more than anything for me. Some probably might nitpick that the story beats went off kinda too fast and there're a few unexplained things that still are still unresolved in the end, which is fair and probably might even be intentional by the dev to be covered in other ways, whether in the material books/guides, a potential future planned DLC or even a sequel/spinoff. Hopefully.

I won't say it's gonna be perfect experience for everyone because it still do have some minor flaws, but they're not getting much in the way of the game that I could ignore them and personally I would still highly rate it as something really close to perfection.
It was a culmination of everything the dev loved in their favorite games and other entertainment medias that they added subtly you might only notice after a while, yet as a whole it could still stand as its own thing separate from those references. Truly showed what a love letter from actual passionate JRPG fans to other JRPG fans worldwide looked like.

Explaining my minor gripes at it, I do lament that from second half it become a bit overreliant to parrying over dodging due to how late and optional bosses got way too much lenience to destroy you, even with full vitality + defense build than don't rely on parry/dodge. Maybe they should've added something like a guard command that could reduce 20% incoming damage and give 50% chance to get 1 AP for those who have bad reflexes?
Without the map feature (which is intended by the dev), area exploration both in dungeons and overworld also can be easy to get lost to if you don't pay attention to your surroundings which could lead to missable treasure items. And there're some platforming + minigame hell that makes you wonder why they had to be there in the first place with how awkward the controls are and the rewards are not really beneficial, that sometimes I do think the level designer in this game might be a sadist who just want the players to suffer.
But overall it's really just plain fun time and I would sincerely recommend this to everyone, even those who usually dislike turn based RPGs, because much like most Soulslike games the joy when you can finally overcome hard bosses by knowing their patterns after a few retries and executing perfect dodges/parries when you need it is absolutely exhilarating.

With great graphics and unique designs, sublime music, immensely difficult but doable gameplay and relatably excellent story that's not your typical JRPG, and considering it was made by small studio as their debut yet can outright compete with the giants of the industry, it's not just a GOTY contender anymore to me but outright become one of my most favorite JRPGs of all time and probably be remembered for years to come by the next generation of gamers, which is kinda crazy for a game that's barely released 4 days ago. And I know I'm not the only one who think this if the high critic scores and reviews everywhere are any indication.
Even if you might not enjoy it as much as I do, I feel like it would be a really different, unforgettable experience that you still can have fun in every single moment you interacted with it, which is really the most important thing because in the end aren't all games supposed to be fun?

"When one falls, we continue."
"Even if we fail, we pave the way for those who come after... Right?"
- Lune & Gustave, Expedition 33

About how long was the game for you?

 

[DanCalibur]

So that's where the soul of old Ubisoft went after leaving behind that bloated rotten corpse

 

[CG4R12I4N]

About how long was the game for you?

55 hours, all in all. Granted I tried to do everything and grinded for quite a while after numbers of retries against because my reflex for parrying absolutely sucked, and this is just Expeditioner (Normal) difficulty. And even then, I'm pretty sure there're still things I missed the first time around hence now I'm doing it again in NG+ Expert.

 

[tigg]

55 hours, all in all. Granted I tried to do everything and grinded for quite a while after numbers of retries against because my reflex for parrying absolutely sucked, and this is just Expeditioner (Normal) difficulty. And even then, I'm pretty sure there're still things I missed the first time around hence now I'm doing it again in NG+ Expert.

Think I gave up around the Gestral village. Couldn't find my way out lol

 

[legsrjust4show]

I recommend doing hard mode if you feel a bit bored because it sure makes every battle count

I got up to chapter 2 now and it's been pretty damn good.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

A bit of info news about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that you may or may not know:

- It got an astounding 92 critic scores and 9.7 user scores on Metacritic (Link).
- It sold 500k copies in 24 hours within release, and then reach 1m milestone in the next two days, excluding Game Pass players (Link).
- It got 120k concurrent all time peak Steam players within 3 days as well, beating some of the most well known RPGs (Link).
- The dev released its whole soundtrack on YouTube (Link) and Spotify (Link). It consists of 154 tracks and duration over 8 hours long total. The physical vinyl record also has been announced (Link).
- It got the rights to be a live action adaptation film 4 months before even if was released, collaborating with Story Kitchen, the film studio behind Sonic The Hedgehog movies and Tomb Raider adaptations (Link).
- Not only become famous worldwide, it also become a sensation in Japan and also get similarly warm reception as the worldwide is, to the point that everywhere the stores that selling the physical copies of it are already out of stock in Amazon Japan, GEO and Yodobashi according to them on X. Hot damn.
- Many Japanese gamers are struggling to call the game by its full name or even the short name of Expedition 33 in its English pronounciation, so they called it "Something 33" instead (Link). Similarly, some of them also begged for the game to be dubbed in Japanese voices for further exposure and immersion, and considering the reception it's more than likely Sandfall Interactive and Sega as the Japanese right publisher there already in talks about it.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

- Not only become famous worldwide, it also become a sensation in Japan and also get similarly warm reception as the worldwide is, to the point that everywhere the stores that selling the physical copies of it are already out of stock in Amazon Japan, GEO and Yodobashi according to them on X. Hot damn.
- Many Japanese gamers are struggling to call the game by its full name or even the short name of Expedition 33 in its English pronounciation, so they called it "Something 33" instead (Link). Similarly, some of them also begged for the game to be dubbed in Japanese voices for further exposure and immersion, and considering the reception it's more than likely Sandfall Interactive and Sega as the Japanese right publisher there already in talks about it.

Hot damn.

Yoshi P and SqEnix executives looking more like idiotic dinosaurs with every passing minute. That company desperately needs a clean sweep of their leadership and an infusion of creative people with vision.