Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Hello hello. I’ve been playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and I quite like it a lot. I’ve just finished the main story so now I’m just going around and checking out the rest of the world. I don’t have a lot to say that hasn’t already been said by others but I was gonna reiterate anyway but I’ll start with my own personal journey of how I found out about the game.
For one thing it was all over PC Gamer magazine for months. I don’t know how issues I got that had it on the back cover. But the first time I saw it was during an Xbox direct of all things. Very rarely do I see anything in these directs, aside from Nintendo, that really catch my attention but E33 did. I don’t know if I can call this an indie game but with most indie games it’s like they reach into a hat with different game mechanics and genres, pull out three or four and are like “We’re making a game with these elements!” which usually turns me off. I always feel like those games have no real identity, they don’t know what they’re trying to be and it just doesn’t come together well. E33 seemed very much the same but I was still intrigued by everything. I’ve never been a fan of the turned based Final Fantasy games, I just never could get into it but I was liking what I was seeing from E33.
So the game finally released and I went out looking for it. I went to a local store and asked if they had it and they said no. They said they “didn’t order any because the publisher usually published shit games.” And I was like “oh…” I had heard nothing but good things on the internet and it was reviewing well, not that I trust reviews, but to be fair they are more of a used game store and I just do not want to deal with GameStop. The guy checked to see if they could order some but the PS5 version was backordered. K fine, I’ll check around a little bit. Nope. PS5 version was no where to be found. Plenty of Xbox versions around but not PlayStation, so I bought it on Steam. It’s not a big deal, I just have been using my PS5 for single player games mostly and using my PC for multiplayer but in any case, I had the game, time to play.
So,
to the part that has probably been said a lot already. Everything is really
cool. It’s nice to see that the industry can put out a well written story with
believable characters. I love that Lune is barefoot and floats around. I’m not
into feet or anything! I just think it’s an interesting choice to make a
character be barefoot. I like the names for everyone too, even the names of the
people doing the journals. They’re just not common in
The gameplay mechanics are kind of all over the place but they make it work. I enjoy being able to dodge or parry when the enemy is attacking, it gives me something to still pay attention to when it’s not “my turn.” I remember trying to play Final Fantasy 13 and right in the beginning I’m trying to learn what to do, see my moves and the enemy guy kept throwing grenades at me. Like, what the hell? I stopped playing after that, returned it if I bought it, I don’t know how I had it but, yeah, fuck you. I don’t mind the quick time events, especially when attacking. I’m glad they’re always the same button, I’d be fucked otherwise but for a while now I’ve been wanting to play the original God of War and its QTEs. QTEs, I want to say, came with God of War and just were an industry standard for the longest time. People got sick of them, understandably so, but I think they’re fine if they’re not over done and I like the way E33 uses them. I’m glad that we just have action points to worry about, I’m glad that potions refill at flags, like, the fights can be tough so it’s nice that the rest of the game is rather forgiving. The developers are rather generous and it’s nice. They’re not a bunch of sadist(s?) like some other developers that want to see you cry and suffer. I like that the game is rather linear. Sure there’s other places to explore and some of the zones have multiple branching paths and it can get hard to keep track of but over all it’s pretty straight forward. It made me think of A Plague Tale and Hellblade. I should play the sequel…
I saw… somewhere, talk about how “Oh the digital sales are really good for Expedition 33” and it’s for the same reason as it was for Fire Emblem Awakening back in the day; you didn’t make enough physical copies you ding-dongs. I’m sure that fact is not lost on the people that matter but, like I said above, I went out looking for a physical copy but they were not available. Maybe GameStop had one but fuck that place. For some reason I have the digital copy of Fire Emblem Awakening and a physical copy. I’m that stupid. If I could go back in time I’d save myself so much money… *sigh* Anyway uhhhhmm. I see people going on and on about “Game of the Year! GotY!!! Blarrgg!” and I’m just not part of that crowd. That whole, I don’t know, subculture is just… icky. I don’t know. It just makes me think of being stuck in thick, black tar. “Since GTA 6 has been delayed this is totally a shoo-in” like, why do you have to be like that? Who cares? Can’t you just enjoy something without needing justification for liking it?
I like art even if I don’t understand it. I think artist, painters, musicians, writers, poets, even martial artists are really amazing people. I’m not the deepest person, I’m a very surface level guy, I’m not very good at finding meaning behind peoples intentions but I try. A lot of the time, with music especially, I don’t try to find out what the artist is trying to say but what it means for me personally. Now not all music has to be particularly meaningful, some music is just fun, (some is just absolute soulless slop) and that’s fine. Same with gaming, not all games are “art.” Some are just for fun or just to turn your brain off. People debate whether or not games can be art but I think they can be and I think it’s obvious what games are “art.” Expedition 33 is clearly an example of a video game being art.
Some things I wish would be patched maybe; If you die at a boss I wish you just started in front of the boss when you came back instead of traveling from wherever your last save was. I would also enjoy it if you die and start a boss fight again that if it had a cutscene I didn’t have to see it again. I know you can skip it but if I’ve seen it once just send me right into the fight please. The last thing I have is probably just a choice by the developers; In other games like this I’m used to skipping my characters turn so they get put in the queue later but in E33 if you skip a characters turn you just flat out skip their turn. There’s pictos and different attributes you can adjust for that but I’d rather not, sometimes one character moves first a lot then all of a sudden later on one of my other characters is moving first. It would just help for some synergy attacks. For me. Perosnally.
So that’s that. I wanted to get through this game before the Switch 2 came out. I originally wasn’t going to get the Breath of the Wild upgrade but I think I might now. BotW is just a very stunning game, another work of art and I want to experience it again. I feel art is important for humans overall and I think a lot of the issues facing our country is people don’t experience enough or any kind of art. I find writing to be cathartic and I feel like if people don’t have any kind of outlet they just let their negative emotions build up inside of them until they lash out at someone or find a target for their anger even though it’s themselves they’re most frustrated with. People need to shut off the “news” and find a hobby. Anywayyyss. What do you think? Have anything to add? Questions, comments, concerns? Put them down below and I’ll be baaaaaaaack some day. Bye-bye!
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