Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5, XSX, PC)

[Andalusian girls]

given projections have it hitting 5+ million lifetime copies sold it's very likely, tho the lead writer has said chances are good a DLC/expansion is coming first. studio is currently working only on improving the base game but more is almost assuredly coming given the financial success.

[Daydreamer]

i tried to not delve too deep into the twist but it really is fun to do

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is what is left of verso's soul just out here painting all these people fuckin and spittin out babies or are we talkin more of an intelligtent design thing where he just plops a few people in initially and lets em go from there

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I took this whole thing as just a memory with no actual power. Mostly, another reason Verso lives a tortured existence. Real Renoir agreed to let Maelle make her own choice, but we do know the moment she's out that painting is gone. We also know time moves much quicker inside than out. So when Maelle gets booted out from losing to Verso, Renoir destroys the painting so everyone dies. I also took this for the reasoning why everyone looks so hollow in the other ending, because they all know when Maelle eventually dies that their entire world ceases to exist because Renoir would again just destroy it.

[BWYuko]

I really hope they do a second game. I just want more of this..

Back in January, Story Kitchen went exclusive with Sandfall to announce they're co-producing a live-action adaptation of the game. Other than that, no other media has been mentioned, not even rumored. It's so early into the success, I'm sure all they have in the pipeline is 6-12 month DLC projects. But yeah, expect more. Or not. Maybe instead of a sequel they'll make different IPs that are also badass.

[Tyrath]

In perhaps what is a big irony, I thought the Yellow Harvest zone fully opened up later because I didn't see the climbing spikes blending into the cliffside.

I needed the yellow paint damnit.

[Tyrath]

Probably right around where you're at.

I really meant to but then I kept doing 1 more thing and 1 more thing and now the final dungeon appears blue on the world map, oops

Maybe I'll bump difficulty up to Expert

[Tyrath]

Expedition 60 journal...oof

[Tyrath]

I really meant to but then I kept doing 1 more thing and 1 more thing and now the final dungeon appears blue on the world map, oops

Maybe I'll bump difficulty up to Expert

Was still a bit too easy, lol oops

[Tyrath]

I think I'm good on the game, 50 hours and really just achievement hunting at this point which I don't care about.

SSS, GOTY, etc. just fantastic all around other than

(non story, endgame content spoiler)

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the hidden Uber boss which is so batshit ridiculous I don't even wanna bother. Tried it a few times and even attempted it on easy mode and literally can't even make it to a single turn on the second phase of the fight. Kills the entire party before I can even get a move off with 10+ hit combos that are dealing like 5k plus per hit if not an outright instant kill

And being at least a 2 phase fight means I'd have to go through the entire first phase again trying to learn the dodge/parry timing, so nah

I just finished it and:

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There is no good ending. After watching Verso's when I picked Maelle's, it is clear: They are both fucked in some way regardless of what is done. And Verso's line of, "I don't want this life" only to be forced into it made me actually feel like a shitty person for picking that ending.

This game was fantastic. I cannot remember the last time I was able to finish a game and walk away from it with a sense of sadness that I finished it.

Yeah I did the "bad" ending too it looks like.

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I thought it would be cool to get all the Lumiere people back but the ending scene barely had them. And Verso begging to be let go was a fucking downer. Luckily I have an auto save right before the choice and I am going to change my ending to the other one lol

[Tyrath]

Glad I made the switch. This felt far more incredibly satisfying even if bittersweet

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The shot of the painting characters waving goodbye to Alicia at Verso's grave had me in tears, ngl

[Krandor]

Ending spoilers

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It is a bit confusing with Maelle/Alicia basically turning into the antagonist at the last second. I immediately clicked on her since she's clearly the primary character of act III, and almost as soon I chose to play as her I kind of had a "what have I done" revelation

[Tyrath]

Ending spoilers

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It is a bit confusing with Maelle/Alicia basically turning into the antagonist at the last second. I immediately clicked on her since she's clearly the primary character of act III, and almost as soon I chose to play as her I kind of had a "what have I done" revelation

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At the last second?? See my post below from when I finished Act 2 lol I was guessing this is the direction we were heading

Thanks.

Finished Act 2. Mind blown wtf.



Also I think I know what choice Krandor may be talking about now

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[Andalusian girls]

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i gotta stop myself writing essays on the nuances of the endings but what i believe above all else is that the less the fanbase reduces this kind of nuanced storytelling to good ending /bad ending or good guy / bad guy the better.

to wit, the selective empathy towards the painted figures. people rightly hate the enslavement of painted Verso in Maelle's ending, but ignore entirely what Verso's ending means for the painted figures. they are sentient beings, full of agency and autonomy, being consigned to a death they were raging against. as Verso kills them, for a second time, in a second betrayal, Sciel looks tragic and pulls her hand away from Verso who tries to comfort her in her last moments and Lune looks furious and betrayed and sits down glaring at him as she awaits death.

also think relegating Maelle to 3rd act antagonist does a huge disservice to her character. as she says she regains all her memories as Alicia, so character shift is to be expected, and she is true to being a girl shaped by her trauma making the best choice she knows to end it, exactly like Verso. reminded me a little of Proth who went through so many health issues and lost himself so deeply in vidya as a kind of escape, and were i a scarred disabled teen who could never speak again not sure i woulda made any other choice. and i don't think painted Verso lying to + betraying the Expedition to end his own suffering is any less selfish a choice. but it is just as understandable.

it's obv absolutely fine if you prefer one ending to the other, if one resonates and makes you think of life in a way the other doesn't, but i think Renoir's 'life keeps forcing cruel choices' is a more important and imparting mission statement than these reductive good/bad binaries superimposed onto a game far too thoughtful for them.

[Celeras]

I was enthralled by this game from the start, and since I have zero faith in humanity I didn't step foot in this thread until I completed it. Still haven't read anything but this page but I'll scroll back later. Lets do it:

Complaints

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Lets get this out of the way because ITS A MASTAPIECE. If there is one thing I hate in RPGs it is the feeling that I am ruining the story progression by exploring or doing side content, and even though this game does a fantastic job most of the time it still got me twice. Once is the beginning of Act 3, which I am sure got a lot of people. Literally skipping turns at final Renoir because I felt there was more dialogue, and that stinks because I intentionally stopped around lv70 thinking maybe I should restart the story thinking it'd be longer (I only did relationship stuff and whatever open world flying things didn't obliterate me). But the random minibosses leading up to him didn't seem all that significant... so really NBD it's 1 fight that was ruined. Unless you count Maelle vs. Verso, whom 1 shot eachother too. Will have to youtube to see if I missed anything there I guess.

The other time this happened was actually very early in Act1. Pretty much as soon as you get free roam. I went into a red area (Dark Shore) to see what's up. Few items and nothing else. And since I already learned mobs are slow AF by this point, lets kite circles and grab them all! Well I got a Picto that gives me 1300+ defense when my characters had 20. I put it on for two seconds to confirm I was getting hit for 2 damage, and then took it off. Sucks, major pet peeve having to police myself like that. Seems like that being there was an oversight as it didn't happen again.

Story

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Damn dude, all I wanted was an ending where Maelle keeps her word to papa! Save the world, stay just a little longer, visit often. Straight CHILLS at that face melt during her ending. Verso's wasn't much better (yes we had one betrayal, but what about second betrayal?) but I guess better for the "real" world. I want so much more! I'm sure the optional content will deliver some, but can't really see much of it being the real world lore I want to hear. Writers vs Painters, Clea, etc. That said, this is a melancholy ending done correctly. I can deal with sad, I can't deal with blue balls like fucking FF16.

Act 2 twist was definitely mind-blowing and I'm glad I didn't really have a sense something like that was coming (which even looking at this one page I can see unspoilered talk of "the twist" that would have pissed me right off). It built exquisitely and by the time I sensed something was up it was on me, fantastic writing and pacing.

Early game gave me the slightest of pause. Even though the Prologue was a helluva hook, the game went from "Gustave offing himself 5 seconds in" to "Parkour for some bathing suits" way too quickly lol. But once that tone was established we were off and running.

Combat

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Verso(Gustave)-Maelle-Lune almost the entire game. Everyone was pretty equal and if anything Maelle was the carry early, but it wasn't until my Verso started outpacing everybody (found a weapon that lets him start at S but not be healed, so went full inverted/confident pictos) that I really saw the value in Sciel's buffs. But by the time that happened I felt too deep to really pivot and utilize her. Maybe there will be room in the post-game content. Idk what the hell I'd do with Monaco besides get his trophy... not being able to see his skills ahead of time didn't do him any favors. But he's a great character, his recruitment had me literally lol'ing.

As I sort of alluded to in complaints, I really liked that no matter how much exploring I did I always found stuff that would whoop my ass. Spent way too much time trying to perfect dodge my way to victories, but when I did it was super satisfying. Don't usually like QTEs, but these are done correctly.

[Tyrath]

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i gotta stop myself writing essays on the nuances of the endings but what i believe above all else is that the less the fanbase reduces this kind of nuanced storytelling to good ending /bad ending or good guy / bad guy the better.

to wit, the selective empathy towards the painted figures. people rightly hate the enslavement of painted Verso in Maelle's ending, but ignore entirely what Verso's ending means for the painted figures. they are sentient beings, full of agency and autonomy, being consigned to a death they were raging against. as Verso kills them, for a second time, in a second betrayal, Sciel looks tragic and pulls her hand away from Verso who tries to comfort her in her last moments and Lune looks furious and betrayed and sits down glaring at him as she awaits death.

also think relegating Maelle to 3rd act antagonist does a huge disservice to her character. as she says she regains all her memories as Alicia, so character shift is to be expected, and she is true to being a girl shaped by her trauma making the best choice she knows to end it, exactly like Verso. reminded me a little of Proth who went through so many health issues and lost himself so deeply in vidya as a kind of escape, and were i a scarred disabled teen who could never speak again not sure i woulda made any other choice. and i don't think painted Verso lying to + betraying the Expedition to end his own suffering is any less selfish a choice. but it is just as understandable.

it's obv absolutely fine if you prefer one ending to the other, if one resonates and makes you think of life in a way the other doesn't, but i think Renoir's 'life keeps forcing cruel choices' is a more important and imparting mission statement than these reductive good/bad binaries superimposed onto a game far too thoughtful for them.

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I hear you, there is a reason I put bad in quotes. I understand the arguments but I do still resonate more with Verso's ending. Watching Verso begging to be let go broke me when I watched Maelle's ending. This was after I chose it first because I felt like the group's struggles against their fate deserved a rightful ending so I felt like I had to save them. But that ending also made it clear to me that they weren't actually going to be living out their lives the way we previously envisioned. None of them had a single line after the final battle. They were all going to be living as puppet's in Maelle's fantasy land as she herself wastes away. This seemed clear to me after watching Verso's forced piano recital. If they could've had their lives back without a Paintress controlling everything, that would've been one thing, but idk that ending just felt all kinds of wrong to me.

Meanwhile on the other side, you have a traumatized family, yes, but they will hopefully work to process their grief together. The shot of the painted characters waving goodbye was just so emotional. This ending was like a beautiful tragedy whereas the other one just felt like a dark horror/tragedy to me.

[Mayareira]

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Beyond good/bad, you could "feel" they also tried to present Maelle ending under a negative light, though. I was siding with Maelle, really wanted canvas to remain but the ending made me say wtf did I do. The developers, storywriters are obviously rather strong in awareness, probably went through a period of grief in their lives and see it as a part of life. The "good" ending(which I watched on Youtube) was also presented under a more neutral light.

I really preferred Canvas to remain, but the ending made me change my mind

You can't always get what you want.

I was enthralled by this game from the start, and since I have zero faith in humanity I didn't step foot in this thread until I completed it.

am in this thread since I started the game, people have been extremely cautious about spoilers.

[Koul]

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I prefer Verso's ending but god, seeing Lune's death glare and Sciel fade away is a huge gut punch. There's definitely more story they could expand upon because it seems like there's sort of "magical" powers with painters, writers and maybe even musicians. I don't necessarily want a sequel but this has potential for a new IP if they wanted to go that route

[Tyrath]

I don't think I will do it right away and I still have several optional areas left, but how is NG+ as lvl 99?

[Guitarman]

CEO confirmed they will be making Esquie plushies, and I, gentlemen, am going to be a huge sucker and buy one.

[Tyrath]

CEO confirmed they will be making Esquie plushies, and I, gentlemen, am going to be a huge sucker and buy one.

This does make me wheee

[Celeras]

Shut up and take my money