Yes, I know that this is not a very quick look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), but I have a lot to say about it because my feelings are all over the (nonexistent map). By the way, I just read that one of the devs was a Sekiro speedrunner before working on this game, so that makes sense as to why the heavy FromSoft influence. It’s also because of FromSoft that they decided not to include a mini-map. Which.
Let’s talk about that. Their reasoning was that they wanted people to explore rather than rely on the mini-map. In other words, much the same as why FromSoft did not use maps before Elden Ring (except for the joke map in Sekiro). The problem with that is that FromSoft’s level design is exquisite. It’s (mostly( destinctive) and gently leads you in the right way.
In this game, everything is the same. Yes, there are lamps/lanterns for the way forward, but that’s only of limited value. I was looking for a specific thing in the area I was in, fell down a level, and could not find my way back. I went around in circles for many minutes before stumbling into the next boss. Which was intensely frustrating–the boss, I mean.
Before I get to that, there was an optional boss I fought who frustrated the hell out of me. Why? Because every time he jumped, I would jump as well. And get hit. And take damage. Every fucking time. I died once or twice, but manage to eke out a win on the third time. Oh, this is the boss I mentioned in yesterday’s post as finding the lamp before the arena and then immediately wandered off backwards to explore and promptly forgot about it.
After I beat the boss, I looked up jumping in combat (and asked in the Discord). I discovered that you weren’t supposed to jump when he did that attack, but dodge or parry. The Reddit thread I found had someone being so disdainful about it. “You only JUMP if you SEE the GLYPH!” He did not add, ‘you dumbass’ at the end, but it was heavily implied. Someone retorted, “He was jumping, so it makes sense to jump back!” Which is exactly what I thought.
But, lesson learned. Only jump if you see the glyph.
Oh, I also mentioned a tough optional boss I fought who supposedly could kill you in one hit. Well, I came up against another version of that boss in the overworld, and that one could definitely kill my character in one flurry of blows. I gave it three or four tries and then noped out because I wasn’t even getting the boss a quarter down.
I felt very deflated about that, by the way. Oh, the entry to it did give a warning sign, but I thought it just meant the enemies would be harder. I didn’t think it would mean there’s a boss who could do 2,000 damage in one hit (the other one did a couple hundred points of damage in one hit).
I keep going back to the fact that I like this game quite a bit–except for the actual combat. It’s another game where people talk about how once you get the combat, it’s like a rhythm game. I don’t feel it at all. I have to try to use all the visual/audio cues I can, but it’s so freaking difficult. The only reason I’ve been able to get this far is beacuse I’m crazy over-leveled. I have done what I do in FromSoft games. I’ve gotten my character(s) to the point where I can dish out juuuust enough damage to win. Barely.
People talk about how in Sekiro, once you get the rhythm down, you can beat a boss in less than a minute. Not me. The last boss in that game took me fifteen minutes per try. When I nearly beat him, I mean. Why? Because I had to bait out one attack per phase (four) and then just respond to that attack. And that was with just two different enemies, with the latter having three phases. He had four or five attacks in the first phase, and then added one or two in his second and third phases.
I thought that was nuts, but it’s nothing compared to this game and the attacks. Not only do they have what seems to be a million attacks, the timing on all of them is so varied. I mean, yes, this is true in From games (especially Elden Ring), but tihs game takes it to a ridiculous level.
And, it’s so exclusive. I mean it both in the elite and in the excluding way. It’s the latter that bothers me. Mostly because I want to love this game. But. And this is a big but. I dread the combat. I hate it with all my heart. When I go into a fight, my heart sinks. I gird my loins and with a deep sigh, I begin.
When it’s against enemies, it’s not so bad. Well, not until I hit the gestrals, that is. They are infuriating. I hate them so much. They do so many attacks in a row, and they are all weird because they jerry-rig their armor/weapons.
Oh, what I was going to say earlier was that this is what I have to do when an enemy attacks. I have to read what attack it’s going to be. Then, I have to frantically filck through my mental files to remember which attack that is. Then, I have to remember how to respond to that attack–if it’s not the first time I’m fighting–but more to the point, I have to actually do it in time. For anywhere from one to five attacks.
Here’s another problem with the combat. You have to do parries and dodges to build up the points you need to do your skills. You can see the problem with this. I can do the dodge maybe fifty percent of the time now? If I’m lucky. Parry? Maybe ten percent. Again, if I’m lucky. So it’s difficult for me to build up enough points to use my skills. And, since I get hit so much, I have to use my healing abilities–which, you get it, take skill points. Which, as I said, are built up by being good at the game.
It’s a negative loop that hasn’t spiralled completely out of control yet because as I mentioned, I’m extremely over-leveled. I make no apologies for it because i would have quit the game otherwise. And, even being this over-leveled, I may still quit the game.
In the last boss fight, I had no clue what I was doing. I did realize that the boss was weak to fire, so I did a lot of fire damage because I have a lot of skills based on fire damage. But I felt completely lost. The boss had a big fuck-off shield, which absorbed so much of the damage. I was doing a few hundred points of damage at a time, which was nothing.
I also hate that bosses can get back health, put up shields, enrage themselves when they’re in the last quarter of their health and more. Not that they all do that all the time, but the last boss I fought had the big fuck-off shield and could enrage himself. And, I did Google how to fight him after dying twice because they were such long and exhausting fights.
I gritted my teeth and made it through Sekiro because I loved the environments and, yes, because it was a FromSoft game. Honestly, if it wasn’t, I probably would have given up about a quarter of the way through the game. The high I felt after beating the final boss was transcendant, but…I knew that I would not be able to do it again. Or rather, I could do the fight a hundred more times and maybe win twice. If I was lucky. Now, not even twice.
And I adored the environment of that game. And the main character, Wolf, holds a special place in my heart. But the gameplay? No. I have no fond memories of that at all.
With this game, I really liked the characters in the start, but there has been nothing more about their stories in the last several hours. Again, that’s partly because I’ve been playing it extremely slowly, but it’s also that the story is now ringing hollow after starting out hard.
Oh, and I still haven’t met Ben Starr’s character yet.
I’m tired. I hate the combat. There I said it. I hate it. Not the turn-based thing (which I thought I would hate), but the actual combat. It’s too much for me, and I don’t know if turning it down to story mode will be any help. More to the point, I’m not sure I want to even try an longer.