Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[NateDog]

Caved and bought it digitally after the mess that was my physical order (technically have bought it 3 times now but we won't go into that). Only got to start it and play a tiny bit tonight so just did the prologue, but it's an excellent intro. Music is utterly beautiful too.

[Suede]

I'm on Act 2 at the moment, it says I've played about 23 hours. My party is around level 28. It's my GOTY at the moment, been an absolute treat.

[Bread]

I'm on Act 2 at the moment, it says I've played about 23 hours. My party is around level 28. It's my GOTY at the moment, been an absolute treat.

Ooof, you're proper cracking through this. Will probably take me a good month or two to finish, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I've only just arrived at Flying Waters. My biggest weakness with games like this is that if I see an optimum opportunity to grind, I'll stop dead in my tracks and grind. And there is an enemy in this area that's easy to beat and handing out loads of EXP, so this is my life for the next couple of in-game hours.

[Suede]

Looks like it has sold 1 million copies so far. The devs must be well chuffed.

I'm still making some progress in Act 2. I feel like I'm pretty OP then I'll try and fight one of these optional bosses and get destroyed lol.

[NateDog]

Got a decent chunk played this morning, lucky too as it'll be all I get until the weekend. A little under 5 hours in, enjoying it a lot. I was wrong about the combat, I'm actually really loving it. Feels like there are a nice amount of options with skills to tackle different situations in different ways without it being too complicated or too menu-heavy and I'm finding it quite fun with the QTE and parry/dodge mechanics, really impressed with that balance. I played that long Metaphor Refantazio demo that was the first few hours of the game and I honestly just found battles boring and a chore but I actually really like these. Music is incredible. Sandfall said they're working on a vinyl so I'll be all over that even though it'll likely be a while away.

[Revolver_FOX]

This game fucks super hard. I'm blown away that only 30 people made this game. This game is a perfect mix of so many other games. The combat feels like Persona, the story/game feels like Final Fantasy 10, and the characters/user interactions remind me of BG3. Just got passed Flying Water and I'm about to be at the city.

[Suede]

I'm still working my way through Act 2. I'm having so much fun with the battle system, I'm around level 45 now I think, some of the skills you get at higher level are incredible. Boss fights are some of the most epic in any RPG I've played. It feels very inspired by From Software's enemy design, it's like a turn-based Elden Ring or something.

[Suede]

Been doing side quests now that I'm done with the story. There's quite a bit to do which is nice, some of the optional bosses are quite difficult. Just need to do a few more things to get all the achievements.

Anyway, it gets a 9/10 from me, the battle system is so much fun. I really enjoyed the story and characters. The OST is amazing. The battle system and the OST make for some really epic boss fights, some of the best I've ever seen. I was also surprised by how traditional it was as an JRPG, I was kind of expecting something more linear, so the overworld map surprised me. The game really surpassed my expectations. It's a big love letter to all the classic JRPGs back in the day. Might possibly be in my top 10 JRPGs.

My GOTY at the moment.

[Bread]

Really sinking my teeth into this now. Just started Act 2. Story is starting to really captivate me, world map is opening up, combat is getting deeper and more complex and the soundtrack continues to be outstanding. Zero criticism from me so far.

Yeah, I can see how many are considering this the GOTY so far. I'm still leaning towards Split Fiction, but if this game can continue to pace without a lull, stick the landing and flesh out the side content, it'll probably overtake.

[Suede]

I managed to get all the achievements yesterday, most of the side bosses are quite easy since you can cheese them with OP builds, specifically with Maelle. Just go into Virtuosa Stance with Last Stand and then use Stendahl, usually kills in one hit (there's a whole bunch of pictos and luminas you need equipped too but I'm not going to explain it all). Only the hardest optional boss in the game gave me trouble, I couldn't do it because he has some really annoying moves, it wasn't until I looked up a guide and all it took was getting a new weapon for her that starts here in Virtuosa Stance on her first turn, solved all my issues. This is my main criticism too though, the balancing for a lot of the optional parts of the end game are weird, there's no really middle ground, it's either get really good at parrying or just break the game with the OP pictos and Maelle's ridiculously good skills. I'm guessing it was intentional, but I'm still hoping it's something they can balance out better in a patch, or give us a new mode or something.

Anyway, I played this on Xbox with Game Pass, so I went ahead and bought a physical copy on PS5 and I'm going to do it all over again for the platinum. I think it's hitting me now just how special this game is, I've been listening to a bunch of tracks from the OST since last night. I also saw that French President Macron congratulated the team on its success, and the director was on the news talking about the game the other day too. I've also heard they have another milestone to announce, I'm going to guess either 2 or 3 million sales reached. I'm blown away by how successful this game has been for the devs. Amazing to see.