Expedition 33

I played this sooner than I would’ve expected because of a nice little discount, and I very recently just finished it! I think it was a good experience, but with a few things impeding my enjoyment a little.

First off, I want to say that I have and will always dislike something’s praise (especially for a game like this) being “this isn’t like other X”, in this case Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (going to shorten it as E33) being referred to as not like other JRPGs. I’ve seen the sentiment float around both online and from other people I speak to and I find it unfair to not only other JRPGs, but to the game itself. Another common example I see of this is relating to VNs, but that’s a whole different discussion.

Of course, the game is heavily, heavily, JRPG inspired from the way combat works even to the way story telling is done. I think it does an excellent job with it too! It also adds its own twists that help make the game stand out in its own way which I really appreciated.

But, I still had some issues with it. Namely I think the combat system needed reworking in various ways. I can definitely understand why they added dodges and parries to the game, but I found that this actually detracted from the game for me. A lot of battles became a matter of “oh, I just need to learn the boss’ pattern and parry/dodge and then just do my own stuff” and I found that it made combat not necessarily easy/boring, but it made me wish I was just playing an action game instead that developed those systems more fully. There were also other issues I had with the parry system where it felt like tells were inconsistent and it became more of a memorization test instead of a reflex/reading test. What I mean by that is some moves it felt like sound was the cue, some moves you had to look at the tell, but some other moves felt like there wasn’t even a tell and you just had to memorize the timing like a Sekiro boss. This became annoying when some bosses/enemies had lengthy multi hit combos, and further annoying when some moves had slowdown while others didn’t. While yes you can “ignore” the system to a extent, later bosses with their multihit string it became more and more important to learn the timings to dodge and if you didn’t you could end up oneshot. Another problem I felt was the parry/dodge system felt like I almost never had to engage with defensive options or buffs. Why bother when I can just parry and ignore the damage anyways?

I also had some minor optimization issues but that’s a more minor complaint. I don’t know how much that affected my parry timings (I acknowledge that’s also a me problem!) but it didn’t feel like a game that should’ve been that demanding on my system at least.

Now on the other hand, where I thought this game shined was the art direction and set design. A lot of the environments in the game were really really beautiful and they did an excellent job with keeping the settings align with the overall plot of the game. Many times I would just look around and just take in the surroundings, and the general world design as you approach the monolith made it very cool how it got closer and closer the further you progressed. The colour palates or sometimes lack of also really helped sell areas.

The characters were also really good. I think the start of the game was a bit rough, but once Act 2 or so kicks in I found the writing to be more consistent in quality and the tone to be more consistent as well. I felt that Act 1 jumped a little too much between ultra serious and almost light hearted that it was almost jarring.

To ramble on a bit (and also spoilers!!!!), Act 1’s opening was incredible. The gommage scene was beautiful and extremely cinematic. The serious tone is set, but when you start meeting the gestrals and the game becomes more fantasy-esque, it felt a little jarring to me at least. More of a minor complaint, though I’d say some bigger complaints I have is that act 1’s dialogue felt a little stiff to me between characters.

Another complaint about dialogue I had was that the mocap between characters felt a little… off when speaking. There was almost this weird off-sync delay in cutscenes that took me out at times. Again, not super huge, but just a minor thing that bothered me lol.

While I felt the middle of Act 1 was a bit middling (haha), the end was really well done. I’m not usually the biggest fan of killing off a main character, especially the one you start off as, but when you consider it in the scope of the game’s story and themes, it worked really well. I remember throughout Act 1 making fun of Gustave going “for those who come after” finding it funny how often he said it. But when those were his final words it had a much stronger effect. Every expedition and Gustave’s actions were for well, those who came after. It really set the tone for the rest of the game, and I think each subsequent reveal was done very well. Verso inheriting all of Gustave’s equipment was also a really nice touch.

The choice to keep the party small was also really good imo. There didn’t feel like a lot of party bloat and it let the relationship between the characters from act 2 onwards develop. I wish there were a bit more scenes with the party as a whole, but I liked what we got. Though I suppose one other minor complaint I had was I wasn’t really a fan of the romantic options, not that I didn’t like them as characters but rather I didn’t see their relationships as romantic.

The themeing throughout the game was also well done. The story never felt like it deviated too hard and even when it expanded in scope, it never expanded to the point where it felt like unnecessarily complex and large. At the end of the game, the story was always about grief and confronting it. To that degree, I thought it did an excellent job.

Overall, this is to say that while I had notable issues with certain gameplay elements, the game was great. It was an enjoyable experience and didn’t feel too bloated which I appreciated.