Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Final Fantasy/Persona inspired FRPG

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Do we even get those anymore? I feel like quirky anime JRPGs with fan service kind of died off.

Occasionally, but they’re typically not AAA ones.

 

[Waffle Iron]

I’m buying the game as soon as I get my next paycheck, and I’m really liking what I’m seeing, but I’m getting sick to death of seeing people praise the game and then go “see, this is what the gross anime fanservice JRPGs like should be!” crap

I dont really see those responses that often. I see it more in relation to people that are disappointed by the remake of FF7 or FF16 and the like. The underage panty quest types are fine with their janky PS vita exclusive games.

 

[FieldPiece]

A bottle world where the struggles of the people inside are meaningless. The entire story is about letting go which leads to the destruction of the painting. Whatever the generations of expeditions fought for was useless. Meanwhile if you want to keep the painting you end up with verso dying in maelle's arms begging to for release.

But I'm not exactly sure how they all fit together. Painting Renoir wants to kill every expedition so the paintress eventually expires and real renior wins. But the Verso wants to let an expedition win so they can kill the paintress which actually let's real-Renoir win faster (since the paintress no longer sustains the painting). And then real renoir is freed by the death of the paintress and he wants to delete the painting to let everyone go. And Verso, after helping maelle build an army by collecting chroma, decides that Renior is correct and the painting should die. I'm honestly a bit confused and it feels like people change sides just to be at the other side of the conflict.

Spoiler

Painting Renoir is not real Renoir, the Curator is real Renoir. Painted Renoir is the person The Paintress wishes Renoir actually was. If you couldn't tell Person with no face = one of the "real" people

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I dont really see those responses that often. I see it more in relation to people that are disappointed by the remake of FF7 or FF16 and the like. The underage panty quest types are fine with their janky PS vita exclusive games.

Honestly, it’s mainly stuff like this.

 

[Rebel Wilson]

Honestly, it’s mainly stuff like this.
View attachment 7336689

The game is non political but there are a couple things each side can glom onto and obsess over. The right over the presence of non-whites in the intro, the left that associates anime with nazis think it 'owns the chuds'. That article strikes me as a political tard-brain reaching for something political to staple onto the game.

I mean this is the creator, he clearly is a weeb that loves anime and JRPG tropes,

 

[Hiphopopotamus]

I got the 100 lumina from the nevron quest, but you can still go kill them after for more if you really want those extra points. You monster.

Apparently the Medalum and the Stendhal skill for Maelle are both bugged, doing far more damage than intended. Fully kitted out damage builds abusing this are doing upwards of 3 billion damage in one hit.

Is it really a bug? I thought it was just kind of due to act 3's start she just got really strong. Plus you start in virtuose stance which makes you do triple damage.

 

[HexFag]

I’m buying the game as soon as I get my next paycheck, and I’m really liking what I’m seeing, but I’m getting sick to death of seeing people praise the game and then go “see, this is what the gross anime fanservice JRPGs like should be!” crap

I mentioned this a couple of posts back but this game is so much in love with those JRPGs and along with that they immediately went to go shill Japanese anime visual novel Hundred Line because they both share the same release date. Odds are the dev team are probably playing that while enjoying the fat paycheck from how successful this game is.

 

[Estate]

Got my first void weapon for sciele

Void weapons are overrated. Just have several damage types and you're good.

Just finished Act II and need a quick sanity check

Spoiler

Up until now I really enjoyed the story and was intrigued from the start. I wanted to know more about the setting, what was this world like before the Paintress? How are other parts of the world effected by the events, are there even other humans left besides the population of Lumiere? What is the Paintress? How does she have this Power?

I got a bad feeling about the trajectory of the story after the introduction of Verso and the game not answering any questions you had up until this point. You get a character that was there form the beginning and participated in all the important events but you don't get anything meaningful from him? I thought they just tired to keep up the mystery but after defeating the Paintress it all feels so meaningless.

The game takes place inside a painting, nothing maters, no one besides the family members are real people? It's such a rug pull and I really don't care for it. Maelle = Alicia was forshadowed quit a bit but invalidating the whole setting with the twist felt wrong. I don't think the story can recover from this. My whole motivation from the start of the game to secure a future for the comming generations of Lumiere is gone.

The gameplay, music and visuals are still amazing but the story feels tainted beyond repair. I really hope I'm wrong but all this is a big dent in my motivation to pick up the game again.

Am I totaly of base here or did they really fuck up with this twist?

I'll be honest and tell you that you might be too dumb for this game.

Spoiler

First, if you do all content and talk with NPCs, you will get answers, albeit in a fragmented and some cryptic way, but only initially. Later on, things start to make sense.
The game explores the theme of what does it mean to be alive and real.
Yes, the world of the game was created, in a layered reality called Canvas and while the initial creations were made by the Painters, a lot more were natural, as you learn that the inhabitants live, make babies and die. Is this not real? You will even find NPCs what discuss exactly about this topic.
Since you might be actually retarded, I'll even give you a real world example.
Let's say you build a fish tank and you add in it several fish. Later on, those fish procreate and make several other fish and so on. You have an entire tank of fish. Are the fish real? Do they matter?
Well, work those brain cells and ponder on this.

With that out of the way.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK the Flying Manor last boss.
Took me 1h to beat it.
What a cheap faggot of a boss.

 

[King Of Braves]

With that out of the way.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK the Flying Manor last boss.
Took me 1h to beat it.
What a cheap faggot of a boss.

Even without exploiting, that boss's health is low enough that Maelle can one-shot her with her level 3 gradient in Virtuose stance.

A bottle world where the struggles of the people inside are meaningless. The entire story is about letting go which leads to the destruction of the painting. Whatever the generations of expeditions fought for was useless. Meanwhile if you want to keep the painting you end up with verso dying in maelle's arms begging to for release.

But I'm not exactly sure how they all fit together. Painting Renoir wants to kill every expedition so the paintress eventually expires and real renior wins. But the Verso wants to let an expedition win so they can kill the paintress which actually let's real-Renoir win faster (since the paintress no longer sustains the painting). And then real renoir is freed by the death of the paintress and he wants to delete the painting to let everyone go. And Verso, after helping maelle build an army by collecting chroma, decides that Renior is correct and the painting should die. I'm honestly a bit confused and it feels like people change sides just to be at the other side of the conflict.

While I can understand how some people can think it's a "it was all a dream" rug pull, it's really not. It's a revelation of a universe far larger than the world we knew. On one side, you have Aline and Alicia grieving over the death of Verso and refusing to come to terms with it to the point of killing themselves by staying in the Canvas. On another, you have Clea and Renoir trying to pull them out so they don't have to watch more of their family die in a fantasy. And then you have Verso himself, broken and tired from essentially being held hostage for almost 70 years. He's lost everyone he ever loved while being forced to exist for the benefit of a grieving mother he has no connection to. His entire goal from the start was to "kill" the Paintress so Renoir would be able to wipe the Canvas and finally set his spirit free. It's why he's falling to complete pieces in Maelle's ending. He wants Maelle to move on from her brother's death so they both can be free. When she returns after the Gommage at the end of act 2, he knows that he either has to convince her to give up the Canvas or force her out. While he's not her true brother, he is still a piece of the real Verso's soul and he wants what's best for her. That's why the canon ending is a bitter pill. Maelle had to stop living in a literal child's fantasy and face reality. The entire game is just a prologue to the true world of Clair Obscur and the Dessandre family's tragic story.

 

[Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus]

How can anyone say there's no fanservice when this exists?

Spoiler

 

[Code Zero]

Do we even get those anymore? I feel like quirky anime JRPGs with fan service kind of died off.

They still exist. I think they've mostly been replaced by gacha games. And some say DEI had infected some japanese games so that's probably also part of the reason we don't see as much these days.

 

[Stupor Mundi]

I mentioned this a couple of posts back but this game is so much in love with those JRPGs and along with that they immediately went to go shill Japanese anime visual novel Hundred Line because they both share the same release date. Odds are the dev team are probably playing that while enjoying the fat paycheck from how successful this game is.
View attachment 7336746

I respect the director immensely for giving us my personal GoTY, but Hundred Line is hot fucking garbage and feels like slop after 30+ hours of enjoying E33.

 

[Oggdo Bogdo]

The entire game is just a prologue to the true world of Clair Obscur and the Dessandre family's tragic story.

A lot of people don't seem to understand that from the perspective of those from the Canvas, it's a cosmic horror story. They get so attached that they think the actual "Maelle lives in perpetual copium until she dies" is the preferable to letting go.

I ugly cried like an absolute bitch because I knew that despite these people having lives and feelings, they were essentially going to be playthings for Alicia until she dies, so I did the right thing and picked the Verso ending, despite how conflicted I was.

 

[Talmanes]

I'll be honest and tell you that you might be too dumb for this game.

Spoiler

First, if you do all content and talk with NPCs, you will get answers, albeit in a fragmented and some cryptic way, but only initially. Later on, things start to make sense.
The game explores the theme of what does it mean to be alive and real.
Yes, the world of the game was created, in a layered reality called Canvas and while the initial creations were made by the Painters, a lot more were natural, as you learn that the inhabitants live, make babies and die. Is this not real? You will even find NPCs what discuss exactly about this topic.
Since you might be actually retarded, I'll even give you a real world example.
Let's say you build a fish tank and you add in it several fish. Later on, those fish procreate and make several other fish and so on. You have an entire tank of fish. Are the fish real? Do they matter?
Well, work those brain cells and ponder on this.

Spoiler

You're comparing the people that where created by magic that the player should empathize with and perceive as real humans to unthinking pets you keep in a fish tank and call me retarded? Nothing to say about the fish being real living animals and not magical created beings. And don't give me the I was just dumbing it down for you excuse. If you want to be a catty little bitch and call other people stupid on the internet don't be a retard yourself.

 

[Waffle Iron]

Honestly, it’s mainly stuff like this.
View attachment 7336689

I don't care for the opinion of gaming journalists.

I got the 100 lumina from the nevron quest, but you can still go kill them after for more if you really want those extra points. You monster.


Is it really a bug? I thought it was just kind of due to act 3's start she just got really strong. Plus you start in virtuose stance which makes you do triple damage.

It isnt a bug, it's just overtuned.

 

[Hiphopopotamus]

Ok so being in the 90s is way too high for the last story area, but I had to do all the side areas first.
Simon is a nigger.

Solid game though especially for 50 dollars, well worth it.

 

[Talmanes]

It's a revelation of a universe far larger than the world we knew.

Spoiler

I felt the complete opposite. After the reveal everything felt so much smaller. The world I tried to protect was just a coping mechanism for a grieving family. The scale was totally inverted. I'm still at the beginning of Act III but the bigger conflict of writer vs painters seems to be just background fluff? I will try to enjoy the rest of the game but at the moment I don't like the direction of the story.

 

[Estate]

Spoiler

You're comparing the people that where created by magic that the player should empathize with and perceive as real humans to unthinking pets you keep in a fish tank and call me retarded? Nothing to say about the fish being real living animals and not magical created beings. And don't give me the I was just dumbing it down for you excuse. If you want to be a catty little bitch and call other people stupid on the internet don't be a retard yourself.

Spoiler

If you don't like my fish analogy, that's fine. I tried giving you a real world example, of a "world in a bottle" that goes beyond the initial input of it's creators, in the hope you could extrapolate that.
Anyway, my retarded friend, you're missing the point.
If beings who's genesis was "magic" are able to feel, think and propagate on their own, the game simply ask the question "are they not real and alive like everyone else?"
This game is very much inspired from Nier, and the purpose of such games, that try to tackle a philosophical question, is to create many different scenarios, approaching the subject from all possible angles, giving as much material as possible to the player, so he can ponder on it's main themes.
If you simply get mad and shit your pants because it didn't go the way you wanted to, then you out yourself as a moron.
It is what it is.

Even without exploiting, that boss's health is low enough that Maelle can one-shot her with her level 3 gradient in Virtuose stance.

I don't use Maelle, but yeah, since the second phase is schizo cheap faggot shit, I decided to simply setup Sciel's third gradient and nuke her from orbit.
Still took some time to get it right.

I respect the director immensely for giving us my personal GoTY, but Hundred Line is hot fucking garbage and feels like slop after 30+ hours of enjoying E33.

I agree.
Checked that game out, because of the endorsement, but it's just japslop animeshit.
It's not my coup of tea.

 

[Waffle Iron]

Maelle had to stop living in a literal child's fantasy and face reality.

If everyone was just a puppet for alicia and the mom to play with to escape reality, I can accept Verso's ending. But Lune and Sciele and others are far beyond what. Renior doesn't even try to counter their arguments and agrees they have a point. It's one thing to want to blow up an illusion and face reality, it's another when the painting world is an actual living breathing world.

They could've made it that the maelle ending has her keep her promise and leave the painting, while also keeping it alive for the people inside. Eventually as she grows up she gets over the loss of verso and returns less and less until she eventually becomes an absentee god that only a few remember. The painting is kept alive for the people that fought for it in the expeditions, but it is just a memory hidden in the attic for everyone in the real world.

 

[Road Work Ahead]

They could've made it that the maelle ending has her keep her promise and leave the painting, while also keeping it alive for the people inside. Eventually as she grows up she gets over the loss of verso and returns less and less until she eventually becomes an absentee god that only a few remember. The painting is kept alive for the people that fought for it in the expeditions, but it is just a memory hidden in the attic for everyone in the real world.

Spoiler

That's the real tragedy though isn't it. There is a happy ending just sitting there, the characters would just have to reach out and grab it. They can't though. Maelle is going to kill herself staying in the painting, god knows what would happen to Aline after losing 2 children, and Renoir probably destroys the painting after.