Clair Obscur : Expedition 33

Gordon

Out tomorrow and reviewing extremely well. I think I’ll give this a try instead of Oblivion.

https://bsky.app/profile/stealth40k.bsky.social/post/3lnhtlgnzk22v

DrDamn

Gordon nice. Also on GamePass btw.

Gordon

DrDamn I sold my Xbox (again)

Gordon

First couple of hours of this are really, really good. Also very French.

Jogort

Gordon i hadn’t seen this at all before, read some of those reviews and had to try it. It’s absolutely brilliant so far, just a couple of hours in also and looking forward to more.

Gordon

Jogort Yep, me too. I’ve just started to poke around with the character abilities and builds and it all looks very flexible and interesting. I was expecting it to be good based on the reviews but it’s looking like it’s going to be pretty special.

Gordon

On normal difficulty the dodge and parry mechanic seems to be pretty much essential, you can die fast if you mess it up. Quite surprised at that.

Gordon

Can’t remember the last time I made a map for a game. There’s no in-game map for each zone though, and there’s no way I could hold all this is my head.

Jogort

Gordon haha brilliant, I’m into act 2 now and absolutely loving the story, it’s brilliantly acted also. The combat can get a bit samey but you don’t get too much normal mobs which is good. Have been finding a couple of optional bosses that really work your dodge and parry hard with some extended combos.

Gordon

Jogort I’m absolutely loving it. If it’s not in my top 3 games of the year I’ll be very surprised.

Alex

I’m at that stage where it’s being so hyped I sort of can’t be bothered any more. 🤣

Also I read that it had loads of boss fights, which sounds like it might not be my thing, seeing as how I find boss fights incredibly boring.

At least it doesn’t appear have The Combat System™ that all modern games have.

I actually have it downloaded for X so I’ll get to it at some point. 🙂

Gordon

Alex It’s actually clearly taken some influence from the Souls games. Checkpoints that respawn all enemies, limited use health items, heavy emphasis on dodge & parry etc. It’s also just incredibly French.

Jogort

Well into this now and think I’m pretty close to the main end, it’s funny, it’s sad and it’s completely bonkers. Just an utterly brilliant game superbly made.
Nice little write up about how it came together on the BBC website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c078j5gd71ro

Gordon

Jogort I’m pretty far in now too. It’s simply one of the best games I’ve ever played. Game design*, presentation, story, performances, music, all fantastic. Shouldn’t be possible for a new team to make a game this good.

*Although, volleyball and parkour can fuck right off

Jogort

Gordon hahaha the beaches are bloody awful and should not be in there 🤬

Gordon

Did a boss fight the other day that could have been lifted straight out of a Souls game. I know I mentioned the obvious influences before but this one is ridiculous 😂

Brave

I’m done with it. There’s so much to love about it but the parry window is Sekiro level with added off balance timing bullshit.

Just fought Renoir and got him down to almost dead when he fully healed himself after five minutes of fighting him and then hit me with a series of near unblockable and unavoidable attacks. Completely wiping the last stand portion of my party.

I don’t mind this stuff in the souls games because I always feel like there’s something I missed. This time it feels like something they’re not telegraphing. I love the world and want to finish the story but I’m not putting up with that level of aggravation to get there.

Gordon

Brave Just out of interest, what level is your party at? I did this one last night. I parried maybe ¼ of the attacks, I didn’t get a single perfect parry + counterattack, the rest I was hit by. My characters are all lv 31-33, all have between 1600 - 2400HP and lv 12 weapons (except for the newest party member who I haven’t managed to find a new weapon for yet so is still at lv 8).

Brave

I’m a bit below that. Level 27 all round and level 9 weapons. I don’t feel like I’ve rushed there though.

Gordon

Brave You probably haven’t. I spent a couple of nights uncovering all of the map that I could and did some optional stuff. Was just wondering what’s making the difference because it’s definitely not my parrying skills 😂 I found the parry timing annoying at first but I’m used to it now and just expect to miss a lot of them, I think the game is balanced around that expectation.