Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[Nag]

 

I think everyone knows what this is and what it's about by now... I've played around with it for three or four hours so far and to be honest I think I'm a little bit in love...

 

 

Up front, so far I'm pretty bloody awful at dodging and parrying but apart from a couple of (I presume) optional bosses things haven't been too bad and it's not punished me too badly. There's a couple of mechanics that I'm not to sure on, mainly Lune and her "stain" system... she absorbs different coloured stains to power up her spells... but I'm sure it'll fall in to place. There's also something in here that reminds me of Lost Odyssey a whole lot which is nice.

 

 

It looks lovely after turning off all the usual bullshit such as movie grain and motion blur (seriously do people play games with this stuff on?)... another game that doesn't have hdr though. The voice work is top notch unsurprisingly given the talent involved, music has been wonderful and I'm loving just how somber the whole thing is and given the subject matter I wouldn't want it any other way... can't wait to get my teeth in to this properly with more party members and more combat options.

 

Spoiler

 

[one-armed dwarf]

2 minutes ago, Nag said:

I think everyone knows what this is and what it's about by now

 

I don't, it's a little bit obscur. Maybe you could make it more clair?

[Nag]

Please, can I ask everyone not to encourage this kind of behaviour...

[mfnick]

Started and reached the coral area. I think this might be the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. It’s genuinely stunning in a way I’ve not felt about a game in many, many years. Environmentally it’s so gorgeous it’s like playing a next gen title. Shame they turn the motion blur onto maximum in the cut scenes. Ruins them a bit. In game without it, looks a lot better. 
 

Loads of smart choices - like how the items work and replenish. The way abilities are tied to action points rather than mana or anything like that is cool. I love how the magic skills work where you can bank certain elements to make others more powerful. The equip-able buffs. All really cool shit. 
 

The parry timing is rough though. However it’s also very powerful so understand why they’ve made it that way. I’ve found using dodge until you learn the animations and get the perfect dodge timing down is the best way of figuring the parries out. 
 

Lune 😍

 

Big fan so far. Didn’t want to stop playing but I’m knackered. Cant wait to play more. 

[spatular]

yeah i'm enjoying this, the graphics and music is really nice, combat system seems pretty fun, although there's lots of stuff i need to understand better. haven't fully got into the story yet but it's not like it's bad or anything.

 

started playing on xbox then thought as i upgraded the pc should probably play on that, downloaded it and carried on where i left off on xbox which was nice.

[Maf]

It’s another UE5 title, right? I haven’t started it yet but downloaded on Xbox. Why move over to PC?

[spatular]

I haven’t been playing much on pc in the last few years because the pc was old, are there usually problems with ue5? I just thought the pc is more powerful so it should run better, and it looks good to me, although not 100% smooth. Strange dof effect in the cutscenes makes those look a bit odd mind. Was running/looking good on Xbox too mind after turning off motion blur.

[one-armed dwarf]

Yeah I don't think any issues with UE5 on PC wouldn't also be on console in some form, it doesn't really work that way as far as I know.

 

Albeit the hardware requirement to run it would be way higher.

[DANGERMAN]

I've been running it on my laptop with a RTX 3050, but on low settings. It looks great, apart from the hair, and seems to run well but given the noise it's making I don't fancy the Steam Deck's chances 

 

I'm really enjoying it. The performances and writing have been really good, except immediately following a certain thing from the intro where it's just bizarrely insensitive 😅

 

I'm ok with the dodging, the jumping that gets introduced later is much easier to do reliably, the parrying I'm too hit and miss. I also don't fully understand the mechanics of a couple of characters. I got to a boss in the water section, did ok but it became a losing battle pretty quickly, I got stuck in a healing loop with my attacker being stunned. Apparently it's not unusual to struggle with the bosses if you aren't nailing the avoidance moves, so I'm going to go and grind a little, which doesn't seem to take long, and hopefully that will be enough to tip me over the edge 

[Nag]

Around 10.5 hours with this now and still really liking it... have 4 team members now and they're all up to lvl 16. Starting to get my head around the weapon stat upgrading and stuff like that a lot more now. I can't decide on a full time team though, I just swap out whoever hits a level first for the person in last place. All of the characters deal good damage in their own way although I have read how solo Maelle can break the game with the right set up. I like how your reserve team members can be sent in if your primary team wipes to try to finish the job or flee.

 

Quick shout to Esquie's Nest area which I did yesterday and was genuinely funny in parts with some great facial expressions and quips from the characters... good stuff.

[Nag]

Looks like we've lost a few posts after the great forum crash of 2025...😭

 

Anyway I'm part way through Act 2 and after some big story beats at the end of Act 1 I still can't praise this games voice acting enough, it's brilliant. I have a full party now and I'm currently fighting Renoir who has some proper cunt worthy attacks... so when I say fighting I mean I'm getting my arse kicked.

[DANGERMAN]

I've just started act 2. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm not sure I love the Souls mechanic of enemies respawning. Walking through an area, dealing with some tough-ish enemies, then you come up against something that looks like a fucking nightmare, you want to save and heal, but that means fighting the same enemies to get back there. That said, I suppose practice makes perfect and I have that new counter down with the enemies in this area now 

 

I briefly had Lune in a swimsuit and sunglasses, but it felt a bit wrong when you've got these morose cutscenes. She is still rocking the sunglasses though just because she seems like she might 

[mfnick]

4 hours ago, DANGERMAN said:

but that means fighting the same enemies to get back there

Have a double check around those areas. The really tough ones always have a flag near them. If it’s only a mini boss where there isn’t a flag, the checkpoint/revive is always generous. Whenever I’ve failed them it’s just dumped me before where I fought the boss with all items, exp and everything I’d collected until then. I usually just keep trying them at that point until I nail the parries & whoop their arse.

 

Yea I had Luna in a swimsuit too but for same reason changed her back. Just didn’t suit her during the serious cut scenes. Just unlocked a black one for Maelle which looks like an evolved and more stylish Expedition suit. Want them for all my characters now. 
 

Im part way through Chapter 2 now. Still loving it. Esquie and the Gestrals are so good. Big fan of the new party member who’s joined too. 

[Nag]

Well as we're talking costumes...😂... I've got Maelle in the costume @mfnick mentioned (the black one), Sciel is in one called Pure (white), Lune is in her original, Monoco has his hair in a Viking style and Verso just has the 33 patch added to his original costume... I have quite a few hairstyles too... Verso has a man bun at the minute.🤣

 

Talking about those swimsuits has anyone done the ascension mini game at one of the Gestral beeches? The one where you attempt to climb up a disjointed tower... fucking hell that was the hardest thing I've come across so far... I gave up in the end.

 

In terms of game progression, I'm part way through the Monolith on my way to fight the Paintress.

[Nag]

Paintress is down... with a team levelled to their low 50's and weapons upgraded to 19 it wasn't too bad, I'll spoiler this bit just in case but I don't think it's a real spoiler how im describing it...

 

Spoiler

There's a third phase to the boss which kind've comes from nowhere but makes perfect sense and it's actually kind've heartbreaking...

 

The whole story has gone all Matrix now and I'm pretty certain I'm in end game territory unless I choose to do some exploring in areas I've not been. I don't think I'm going to do too much of that though, I don't want to make the endgame bosses complete wetwipes by over levelling... I know you can reload and carry on with stuff after the credits in any case.

 

Best thing... I've got the Picto that allows you to break that 9999 damage limit.😁 

[spatular]

I climbed a tower but not sure if it would be the same one, but yeah it was really annoying, a few of the beach challenges have been annoying and I haven’t been using the costumes so not sure why I bothered.

 

other than that though yeah been really enjoying it, played loads at the weekend, think I’m near the end now, similar to Nag (although maybe there is more to it) but have been exploring and stuff instead.

 

im still rubbish at dodge/parrying, my favourite picto is the one that gives ap when you get hit

[Nag]

 

Look at that "highest damage" amount... lol.

[Nag]

https://www.eurogamer.net/quick-clair-obscur-expedition-33-developer-will-soon-nerf-the-games-best-move

 

Well fuck!

 

[mfnick]

Guilty! 

[mfnick]

I’ve  got the full party now (achievement for it anyway). They’ve all got cool gimmicks, I hate having to decide who to have in my main 3. 
 

Is there a way of swapping mid battle I don’t know about - aside from wiping? 
 

On 06/05/2025 at 14:49, Nag said:

fucking hell that was the hardest thing I've come across so far... I gave up in the end

Hate to be that guy but did it first try! Thank fuck. If I’d have fallen after making it a fair distance I wouldn’t have gone back to it. To be honest I found the raft and first one much harder.