Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

CaptainClueless said:
The dodge/parry QTE thing is just awful. Another victim of the "everything has to be Dark Souls" era we find ourselves in. Like most games with "parrying" forced into them, it would have been much better without it.

I do disagree with your flashy graphics comment though. I thought the graphics were mediocre at best, and the game ran like dog shit on top of it. Although for a small AA studio using UE5, I guess that's not surprising.

I called it an 8/10 after finishing it, but I think I was bought into the hype. If I played this a couple years from now, a 5/10 would probably be very generous.
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Think this more of a riff on the Paper Mario mechanics than dark souls. Specifically the 2nd one "1000 year door" which came out in 2004.
 
polonyc2 said:
everyone doesn't like the same games...some games are highly regarded but that doesn't mean that everyone will like them...Claire Obscur gets almost universal praise from the majority of people playing it...doesn't mean that you have to like it but to group all 'gamers' that like it together and imply that they are wrong is silly

I don't like turn-based games but that doesn't mean I'm going to say Clair Obscur sucks...it's just not for me but I can still appreciate the accolades it has received
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It isn't really a turn based game though. That is maybe 20-30% of your fighting performance. The rest is QTEs or blocking... which has a smaller window than most fighting games. Which wouldn't be a problem if you could see what is going on. In one fight my character was hidden in the grass with her head just barely popping out. The camera twirls around and throws all these colors on screen, and we're supposed to find the small little head in the grass, that takes up maybe 5% of my screen, within a second? Bad design. If you're playing a fighting game with tight timing you're going to have your character on screen so you can see or hear when to block/parry or do whatever.

Music is nice, but that is kind of pointless if the combat is so lame. They need to fix the camera angles and redesign the effects to make the game legible.
 
Thankfully the game does get better. But it does have issues with the camera angles. And other annoying things like level scaling for roaming enemies, there is no way to tell without starting a fight which might end up being near impossible without more leveling. If they fix the camera angles and maybe make it a big more sensible to figure out when you can go to an area without having to travel back and fourth half a dozen times, those small quality of life features would make the game so much better. Story finally starts to matter towards the end.
 
Flogger23m said:
Thankfully the game does get better. But it does have issues with the camera angles. And other annoying things like level scaling for roaming enemies, there is no way to tell without starting a fight which might end up being near impossible without more leveling. If they fix the camera angles and maybe make it a big more sensible to figure out when you can go to an area without having to travel back and fourth half a dozen times, those small quality of life features would make the game so much better. Story finally starts to matter towards the end.
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I actually really like it when you have to actually be cautious of where you go in these kinds of games. It can really make for exciting moments when an enemy that used to absolutely humiliate you gets steamroller 10 levels later

Also, fixed camera movement is an option in the accessibility settings. It makes the camera static like in old SNES FF games.
 
KazeoHin said:
I actually really like it when you have to actually be cautious of where you go in these kinds of games. It can really make for exciting moments when an enemy that used to absolutely humiliate you gets steamroller 10 levels later

Also, fixed camera movement is an option in the accessibility settings. It makes the camera static like in old SNES FF games.
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Thank you for pointing that out, will need to try it. Just about finished the game though. Maybe that will fix the camera issues. I didn't really like Monaco anyways but his big size made me want to use him even less.
 
The Fixed camera option is even worse than the default camera. Ranged attacks will go out of your view and some attacks even start outside the viewport.
 
CaptainClueless said:
The dodge/parry QTE thing is just awful. Another victim of the "everything has to be Dark Souls" era we find ourselves in. Like most games with "parrying" forced into them, it would have been much better without it.

I do disagree with your flashy graphics comment though. I thought the graphics were mediocre at best, and the game ran like dog shit on top of it. Although for a small AA studio using UE5, I guess that's not surprising.

I called it an 8/10 after finishing it, but I think I was bought into the hype. If I played this a couple years from now, a 5/10 would probably be very generous.
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Yeah i think the main reason is is so acclaimed is because it isn't so anime/weeb coded. It is a huge breath of fresh air


Plenty of issues though, especially as I watch my gf play through the game now. Tons of graphical issues, which is funny because people point to this game as an example of an optimized UE5 game. Tons of clipping in cutscenes. Tons of frames in cutscenes where the characters are getting into position. I can't believe I never noticed this the first time.

The game on hard also approaches boring, either I one shot the enemy or the enemy one shots me. I would have preferred to give them more life and add more enemies or something, not just pull a Nier Automata and make health basically irrelevant.

Funny sidenote, I thought Sprong was an axon and spent a couple hours trying to kill him, just to see on my girlfriends playthrough that he isn't even part of the story at all and I didn't need to do that. haha. I was told a big guy in the west, I was like oh yeah I remember seeing a big guy in the west

Still, I really enjoyed the game. My girlfriend is hooked by the graphics and the story.
 
Geoff Keighley and The Game Awards team have revealed the full list of nominees for the 2025 Game Awards...Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the runaway leader with 12 nominations total across each of the categories...Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei are tied with seven nominations each...

https://www.polygon.com/game-awards-2025-nominees-list-game-of-the-year/
 
ivandagiant said:
Yeah i think the main reason is is so acclaimed is because it isn't so anime/weeb coded. It is a huge breath of fresh air
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Also maybe because it is French and perhaps the "French magic" that happens with movies and food goes to games as well. What I mean is that it seems like people just hype French restaurants and movies pretty hard, even when they aren't that great and flaws get overlooked. That isn't to say there aren't some great French food and cinema, but I find the hype often doesn't match the reality.

I haven't played it yet so I can't say, but man the amount of glazing this game has gotten is pretty insane, yet seeing some gameplay and hearing people like you talk about it, it sounds like it is good but not amazing, and if it were a Bioware game made in the US I think it wouldn't be getting such great ratings and there'd be more harping on issues.
 
Sycraft said:
Also maybe because it is French and perhaps the "French magic" that happens with movies and food goes to games as well. What I mean is that it seems like people just hype French restaurants and movies pretty hard, even when they aren't that great and flaws get overlooked. That isn't to say there aren't some great French food and cinema, but I find the hype often doesn't match the reality.

I haven't played it yet so I can't say, but man the amount of glazing this game has gotten is pretty insane, yet seeing some gameplay and hearing people like you talk about it, it sounds like it is good but not amazing, and if it were a Bioware game made in the US I think it wouldn't be getting such great ratings and there'd be more harping on issues.
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Honestly the French part is why the game is a 10/10 and not an 11/10 for me.

Literally would be perfect if it wasn't French.

But that said, I think if you watch some gameplay and story and don't immediately want to quit watching, buy it and play it yourself, then you probably won't like it. I could tell immediately when I saw Charlie play it out of curiosity: I HAD to play this game.

There is so much content in this game, too. Lots of little areas that you don't even need to go, lots of little side stories with lots of artistic effort tossed into them that are so easy to miss, The game isn't a disposable product, it's an art piece to experience.

Also, I think you hit the nail on the head with it not being so Anime coded. The main characters are in their 30s, the story is incredibly human, and nobody is a hero, nobody is a villain, everyone is dealing with grief and loss and struggling to scratch out meaning in the unfair world they find themselves unable to escape from. It is such an amazing look into loss.

Also the music is 100% legendary.
 
polonyc2 said:
Geoff Keighley and The Game Awards team have revealed the full list of nominees for the 2025 Game Awards...Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the runaway leader with 12 nominations total across each of the categories...Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei are tied with seven nominations each...

https://www.polygon.com/game-awards-2025-nominees-list-game-of-the-year/
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Game is Melodramatic crossed the line between being too serious so people get wrapped up in it. If every game was that serious it would suck.
 
Sycraft said:
but man the amount of glazing this game has gotten is pretty insane
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It's really not. In a world where games are increasingly being made for shareholders rather than gamers, passion projects like this don't come along very often.

This game just oozes passion in every aspect. The music, the artwork, the cinematics, the voice acting. The small glances that the characters give each other, the microexpressions, the smiles, the frowns, the fear in their eyes, the way they sometimes talk over each other. It's just so human. It's all incredibly well done and conveys more emotion than just about any other game out there. The prologue alone has moved so many people to tears. Somehow they were able to get us emotionally invested in characters that we knew for less than an hour. As a cynical dude in his 40's who's "seen it all", this was the first game in a LONG time that actually renewed my faith in gaming.
 
TwistedMetalGear said:
It's really not. In a world where games are increasingly being made for shareholders rather than gamers, passion projects like this don't come along very often.

This game just oozes passion in every aspect. The music, the artwork, the cinematics, the voice acting. The small glances that the characters give each other, the microexpressions, the smiles, the frowns, the fear in their eyes, the way they sometimes talk over each other. It's just so human. It's all incredibly well done and conveys more emotion than just about any other game out there. The prologue alone has moved so many people to tears. Somehow they were able to get us emotionally invested in characters that we knew for less than an hour. As a cynical dude in his 40's who's "seen it all", this was the first game in a LONG time that actually renewed my faith in gaming.
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Couldn't agree more.
 
Sycraft said:
Also maybe because it is French and perhaps the "French magic" that happens with movies and food goes to games as well. What I mean is that it seems like people just hype French restaurants and movies pretty hard, even when they aren't that great and flaws get overlooked. That isn't to say there aren't some great French food and cinema, but I find the hype often doesn't match the reality.

I haven't played it yet so I can't say, but man the amount of glazing this game has gotten is pretty insane, yet seeing some gameplay and hearing people like you talk about it, it sounds like it is good but not amazing, and if it were a Bioware game made in the US I think it wouldn't be getting such great ratings and there'd be more harping on issues.
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It's pretty damn good

Like there's some jank, but it largely punches way above its weight, I think.

I think they did a really good job with the setting and characters, pretty much right out the gate to the end. A lot of games swing and miss where this succeeds - it's a huge strength of the game

And the music is incredibly good, holy shit they killed it here. It's just awesome throughout.
 
Comixbooks said:
Game is Melodramatic crossed the line between being too serious so people get wrapped up in it. If every game was that serious it would suck.
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Clair Obscur is going to win all of the major GOTY awards...it's beloved by critics and gamers alike...no-brainer...would be a major upset if any other game beat it
 
polonyc2 said:
Clair Obscur is going to win all of the major GOTY awards...it's beloved by critics and gamers alike...no-brainer...would be a major upset if any other game beat it
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Ah, I'd say there are a LOT of good games as GOTY contenders. Silksong, Death Stranding, megabonk...

Also major sell-out contenders like DK:B and Mario Kart World, any "calla dooty shoota man 5" games.
 
I'll see eventually, I plan to play it, but man I've been disappointed by games that got sucked off this hard by everyone before, particularly "passion projects". Undertale and The Outer Worlds are two I can think of. Undertale was fine, not sorry I bought it, but fuck me was it overhyped to hell and gone. People acted like it was the best game EVAR. I though it was an amusing, if short, pixel RPG. The Outer Worlds I didn't care for. It started out ok, but I got real tired of the puzzles and the loop. However, people acted like it was some transformational, life changing, experience.
 
100% winning GotY. I don't understand why DK is in there too. I guess they just had to toss in a Nintendo game?
 
vegeta535 said:
100% winning GotY. I don't understand why DK is in there too. I guess they just had to toss in a Nintendo game?
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Dk Bananza is a great game that's why. I haven't played Clair obscure to comment yet. Just waiting on it to get even cheaper since it isn't multiplayer and I'm not missing anything by doing so.
 
Sycraft said:
I'll see eventually, I plan to play it, but man I've been disappointed by games that got sucked off this hard by everyone before, particularly "passion projects". Undertale and The Outer Worlds are two I can think of. Undertale was fine, not sorry I bought it, but fuck me was it overhyped to hell and gone. People acted like it was the best game EVAR. I though it was an amusing, if short, pixel RPG. The Outer Worlds I didn't care for. It started out ok, but I got real tired of the puzzles and the loop. However, people acted like it was some transformational, life changing, experience.
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Undertale is a fantastic game for specific types of people. I appreciate it, and I think it's a true piece of art. Is it something that speaks to me, personally? No. I've watched people play it, do all the different endings, and that's enough for me.
 
vegeta535 said:
It is a ok game. Not GotY worthy.
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I think Bananza was a LOT of fun. but I played it after E33 and I STILL want to go back and play E33.

I think E33 is up there with Elden Ring and BG3 in terms of games that make this decade one of the best.
 
Clair Obscura drops off a cliff after Act 2. I still haven't gone back to finish it. Would have been a better game had they just ended it
after defeating the Paintress
.
 
Bankie said:
Clair Obscura drops off a cliff after Act 2. I still haven't gone back to finish it. Would have been a better game had they just ended it
after defeating the Paintress
.
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Mmm, I think it tried a little too hard to do the whole "disc 3 of optional shit + final dungeon" from JRPG of olde.

There's like a non trivial amount of content including entire dungeons with meaningful plot. Felt like it could have been weaved in a little tighter before sending you on your way.
 
Bankie said:
Clair Obscura drops off a cliff after Act 2. I still haven't gone back to finish it. Would have been a better game had they just ended it
after defeating the Paintress
.
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There is not much story wise in act 3. There is a lot more side content that opens up. Some is worth doing but you will burn yourself out. Just do a bit to level up a bit and then finish the main story. The side content is a pain because it never tells you have level you need to be, so you run around back and fourth hoping you meet the minimum level. You need to do them in a particular order but it gives you a false illusion of choice. I hate this in games. The levels jump drastically, so you're probably better off looking for a webpage that tells you recommended levels so you don't waste your time going back and fourth.

The problem is there is a lot of good bits of story locked behind some of the side content. A lot of it is good, but some of it are tedious arenas. I did a lot of them but at this point I am not sure how to level up naturally. So I stopped, having done a small number of the arenas and visited all optional areas.

The way side content is handled is poor. The main game, story, and sound track are all done quite nicely though.
 
Flogger23m said:
There is not much story wise in act 3. There is a lot more side content that opens up. Some is worth doing but you will burn yourself out. Just do a bit to level up a bit and then finish the main story. The side content is a pain because it never tells you have level you need to be, so you run around back and fourth hoping you meet the minimum level. You need to do them in a particular order but it gives you a false illusion of choice. I hate this in games. The levels jump drastically, so you're probably better off looking for a webpage that tells you recommended levels so you don't waste your time going back and fourth.

The problem is there is a lot of good bits of story locked behind some of the side content. A lot of it is good, but some of it are tedious arenas. I did a lot of them but at this point I am not sure how to level up naturally. So I stopped, having done a small number of the arenas and visited all optional areas.

The way side content is handled is poor. The main game, story, and sound track are all done quite nicely though.
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That's interesting and a bummer to hear. Not to discredit your experience, but I didn't have that at all. I could've just gotten lucky and stumbled into the correct order of things, but i never went out of my way to grind any levels, just avoided the "danger" areas until i did the rest. But yes the side stuff is definitely more tenuously tied to the story than i would've preferred.
 
CptCabbit said:
That's interesting and a bummer to hear. Not to discredit your experience, but I didn't have that at all. I could've just gotten lucky and stumbled into the correct order of things, but i never went out of my way to grind any levels, just avoided the "danger" areas until i did the rest. But yes the side stuff is definitely more tenuously tied to the story than i would've preferred.
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For me it just showed red when you got up to it. But there was no idea. Some places you can enter 20 levels below but it never lets you know what the required level is, you just have to fight an enemy or something while horribly under leveled. There are just too many little fights to get to the final bosses of the extra arenas, which have some good story info. I don't like it when games lock story content behind lots of repetition with extreme level scaling. I am not even sure how else to get my level up anymore without outright grinding.

That is probably my biggest issue with the game, not knowing when to enter an area, the huge jumps in levels, and the poor camera and poor dodging timing/sound. Otherwise the game is quite good. The story isn't a complex one but is supposed to be more of a personal, emotional story that is character focused. I think it did a good job of that. The good parts of this game are quite good.
 
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Thank You Update Trailer | Patch 1.5.0

To celebrate an incredible year, and as a sincere ‘Thank You’ to the community, the free ‘Thank You Update’ is available now...our gratitude for this community goes far beyond what we are able to express, but this update should hopefully serve as our way of saying thank you

The largest inclusion here is a brand-new level, 'Verso’s Drafts', featuring new environments to explore, battles to fight, and plenty of surprises to discover...the biome has a very childlike, wonderland-style aesthetic, inspired by Verso’s childhood, but you’ll see more cutscenes that elaborate on this in the update...it goes without saying that Lorien Testard’s musical magic is back too, with new tracks added for the level...

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1903340/view/491585297311596633


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gp_ZHwaUQ
 
Finally they added UI scale, took them long enough -.-

Me and my GF really struggled to read the text on the screen, it is so tiny.

Patch notes seem sparse besides that, was really hoping they would address many of the graphical issues the game has, or the animation issues in cutscenes. Oh well

Congrats to the team for the sweep
 
I love how flute guy decided to make a stop at Home Depot and invent an entirely new instrument for the E33 performance.

flute_guy.png
 
I'm impressed with what they did with their budget.

Despite my complaints I still enjoyed this more than most games over the past year or so. I will play the DLC, hopefully I haven't forgotten all the quirks/timings.
 
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