Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (24th April 2025)

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've not pushed on much with the narrative on account of coming across a decent levelling spot. There's an optional arena where you can fight the same battles over and over again. Once I got the timing down on the hardest fight, I was coming away with 30k experience in a minute. I stuck around there for a while and went from level 20 to 35. Lovely stuff.

I really don't want to spend money on gaming right now...but come on man, don't tempt me with info like that  

Edited Tuesday at 08:41 PM by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

Me at work right now thinking about this game...

Edited Wednesday at 09:50 AM by Hero-of-Time

[Hero-of-Time]

Halfway there!

I've started playing around with the different skills and bonuses each character can use. You can get equipment that has a skill attached to it. After so many battles, this skill becomes usable for all members of the party and without needing to equip the item. The skills can mixed and matched with some truly fantastic results. At the moment I've got ones set up so that my characters get first go and have enough points to unleash their most powerful moves in their first turn. I imagine there are some crazy broken builds out there.

[RedShell]

I picked up a month of Game Pass last week, with the intention of squeezing in Doom: The Dark Ages before Mario Kart World arrives. But seeing as there was still a bit of time before Doom launches I began checking out other stuff that's available to play before then, that is, until I started playing this.  Now it's become a case of trying to squeeze this in before Doom!

Anyway, just reached Act II, and despite still not really knowing what the hell is going on I'm very much enjoying my time with this. 

Usually with games that have convoluted and cryptic stories I find it a bit frustrating, but I'm actually loving how this one has been unraveling so far, it's proper intriguing stuff.  There have been some pretty unexpected and shocking moments in there too.

It definitely does a great job at keeping you hooked, although it's also making me rush a bit in order to find out what will happen next, and I already have a tendency to avoid battles in RPGs (yes, I know, I'm playing them wrong ) so have found myself underpowered on a few occasions.

Luckily, with the dynamic battle system and being able to dodge/counter enemy attacks, I can often rely on those moves to scrape through the tougher encounters.

So yeah, didn't see myself playing another turn-based RPG right now, and certainly not enjoying one as much as this, but here I am.

Good old Game Pass.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, RedShell said:

There have been some pretty unexpected and shocking moments in there too.

Indeed...

Spoiler

The ending of the first act was a massive gut punch.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

More thoughts on it will come tomorrow. All I can say at the moment is this is one of the best games I've played in a long time.

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah, this was something very special. Fantastic set of characters, gripping narrative, phenomenal soundtrack, amazing voice acting and a awesome battle system. If I had to criticise anything it would be that the game could do with a mini map when in dungeons and the world map. Other than that...

What's crazy about all of this is how such a game has been created. It was done by a very small team and for many of them it was their first job in the industry. It's a prime example of what can be achieved when a development team are allowed to create what their vision is, without the focus testing and interference from big publishers. These are the kinds of games that are needed more than ever in this industry, which IMO, has become very stale. I'm thrilled that the game didn't get buried and has found success, both critically and financially.

It's funny when you look at what the game was released with. The Oblivion remaster was dropped alongside this and yet this is the game that is on people's minds. Oblivion may have sold more but look at the state of the thing. Again, it's a good comparison between a game that has been created with care by a small team and one that has been pushed out the door for a quick buck by a large publisher.

The battle system in the game is something very special. Every character brings something unique to the table and I had a blast with playing around with different abilities and team selections. The creative director of the game has said that FFVIII is his favourite Final Fantasy game (a man of good taste and Ben Starr must have loved him) and this kinda comes through in a few places. The Expedition uniforms are very SeeD like, one of the later bosses reminds me very much of a FFVIII boss fight, and the battle system in this game can be busted wide open early on, just like FFVIII. Due to the amount of customisable load outs, you can decimate enemies. I took on the game's super boss with a single character and killed it in a single hit. I wasn't even max level at that point but the game rewards you for smart use of ability stacking. @Glen-i you would love it.

The game feels very much like a PS1 era JRPG but with modern designs. The game has 3 acts and each of them end as if the disc is finished and the next needs to be inserted. I loved this feeling when playing those games as a teenager and this game recaptures that feeling at the end of each act. The third act certainly feels like the final disc of FFVII or FFVIII, where all that's left in the main story is to take on the end boss but the whole world is open for you to explore. You end up losing yourself hours upon end in side quests, super bosses and general exploration. Like I used to do on those games, I made sure to do everything and reach the max level, before taking on the final boss.

I won't go into the narrative but all I will say is that it gripped me from start to finish. The English VA cast done an amazing job and really brought the characters and story to life. It's another example of good VAs really elevating a game to another level. Usually in JRPGs I can't be bothered with reading logs or listening to random dialogue but that wasn't the case here. I was listening to every conversation by the fire at the campsite and reading every log that I came across. I was so engrossed in the world.

Once in a while a game like this comes along and reminds me why I love gaming. These experiences seem few and far between these days but this has been a light in what has been a very dark year for the majority of the industry. What made this even better was how it just kinda came out of nowhere. What a marvelous surprise it has been.

If you have any love for the RPG genre then you owe it to yourself to play this game. 

[RedShell]

11 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Indeed...

  Hide contents

The ending of the first act was a massive gut punch.

 

It really was...

Spoiler

Especially as I'd just spent a while powering up his weapon and moves, only for the plonker to go and get himself killed!  And Expedition 33 was already like a hen party. 

I get the feeling there's some shenanigans going on with all this though.  Gustave, the "new" guy and the old dude with the walking stick... They all seem connected somehow.

Looking forward to finding out.

 

10 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

If you have any love for the RPG genre then you owe it to yourself to play this game. 

I'm probably only half way through at the moment, but I agree.

I'd even say that people who aren't particularly fond of the genre could quite likely still enjoy this, as it's presented in a very streamlined and accessible way, not to mention such a high quality production all round.

Super impressive for a debut title. 👍

[Hero-of-Time]

Who are you using in your party, @RedShell Mine wasn't really set in stone and I kept chopping and changing depending on what the situation called for. However, once I prepped Maelle to be an absolute beast, the other two party members didn't really matter. 😛

1 hour ago, RedShell said:

I'd even say that people who aren't particularly fond of the genre could quite likely still enjoy this, as it's presented in a very streamlined and accessible way, not to mention such a high quality production all round.

That's very true and I think that's why the game has been as successful as it has been. Plus, I think the more realistic aesthetics, rather than an anime look, have helped give the game more appeal to a wider audience. 

Have you fought many of the Mime enemies? I thought those battles were hilarious, mainly due to the very French theme that plays during the battle.  

[S.C.G]

I saw that CEX had this In Stock on their website, one copy... and even at £48 this seems to be a good price for it.

I'm just hoping that because it's a very new game, that the condition will be excellent.

I believe CEX tend to ship games either in folded-over post-packs or small large letter boxes, so it should be fine.

Recent posts have piqued my interest enough to hopefully give the game a try, and I'll keep a check on the price of the game just in case, but this seems like it's worth picking up at the moment, either to play or as an investment, but once I have it in my possession, I should at least give it a try.

I wonder if this will get a release on Switch 2?

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

I saw that CEX had this In Stock on their website, one copy... and even at £48 this seems to be a good price for it.

Crazy. I paid £39.99 on Amazon. I think they jacked up the price though once stock got low. It's £42.99 at Argos if you can find stock.

[Julius]

31 minutes ago, S.C.G said:

I wonder if this will get a release on Switch 2?

I think it's inevitable; it's the perfect audience for a game like this, I could see the Japanese market taking to this the same way they did Ghost of Tsushima.

As we've already seen with UE5, for all its flaws, is very malleable in terms of scaling up and down – I think this game is going to run into similar concerns as I currently have for Baldur's Gate III coming to Switch 2, which is whether the actual development studio is handling the port (in this case, Sandfall), or if it's going to be outsourced or co-developed. 

For that reason, I'll be pleasantly surprised if it gets onto Switch 2 this year – I can easily imagine a scenario where certain port studios are trying to reach out about porting it already. It really depends on what their future plans are for the game, I remember reading that there are no plans for DLC and they plan to just continue fine-tuning the game (which sounds like a similar approach to that taken by Larian for BG3), but I can imagine them wanting it to be in a state for a "definitive" release; not that there seems to be much wrong with it now from what I've read, but just the other day there was a lot of talk about the latest patch nerfing certain characters/builds (albeit broken ones from what I understood). 

Thanks again for sharing your detailed thoughts on the game @Hero-of-Time, been great reading through your check-ins; it sounds like a blast and I'm very much looking forward to getting to this over the summer!  

sorry Final Fantasy X you'll need to wait a little longer

Edited 1 hour ago by Julius

[Glen-i]

15 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I wasn't even max level at that point but the game rewards you for smart use of ability stacking. @Glen-i you would love it.

You don't need to tell me. It looks amazing! More RPG's should take inspiration from Mario & Luigi's combat system.

It's joined Baldur's Gate 3 on my "Games I really hope comes to Switch 2" list.