I think this will be the last post I do about Clair Obscur: Expedition 22 (Sandfall Interactive), at least for now. I rudely got spoiled about something in the RKG Discord channel, and while it was not unexpected, it really put a sour taste in my mouth. That’s mostly on me, though. Even though the spoiler was poorly marked, I should have just continued my avoidance of all spoilers in that channel.
That’s not why this will be the last post, though. Not directly.
Forgive me because it’ll take me a bit to get to my point. More than usual, I mean.
I played a bit earlier today in what I think is the last area of the second act. I sighed every time I had to fight enemies, and was so impatient if I took more damage than I thought I ought to. I took some time to grind for the upgrade material I needed to get everyone’s weapons to +19, too. I need a different material for that +20 upgrade. Hey, wait. I assumed it went to +35, but it’s +33. I really don’t like that. And the next upgrade material is what’s needed for all the rest of the upgrades save one. Huh. That’s interesting.
I may grind some more to upgrade a few other weapons to +19 (there’s a creature in two of the side paths in a late second act area that is a guaranteed drop for this material, and the fight isn’t that hard. One is right next to a bonfire, and I can avoid the two groups of enemies that are irritatingly parked in front of it.
By the way, I hate that some of the enemies have insane aggro ranges. If I run by them, I should be able to escape them eventually. Also, you can flee from a fight, but if you don’t immediately run away, you just get thrown back into the fight again.
Yesterday, there was an instance whe I just finished a fight, turned, and somehow ended up in another fight. SIGH. I was not in the mood. I will say I was able to take care of the second group of enemies handily, but that’s not the point.
The level design is awful at times. I have to say it. This far into the game, and I still cannot tell which way is forward and which way is back. It all looks the same, for fuck’s sake. I was feeling alone because almost everyone I know LOVES this game. LOVES it. In the Discord, I mean. And everywhere else online. People talking about it being their GOTY so far and how brilliant it is.
Whereas I, well, I’ve talked plenty about my feelings about the game already. I’m used to being the weirdo, but I get nervous when my opinion is solidly the outlier. The praise for this game has been consistent and constant. Well, Ian did say that he thought it was good, but not great, and he’s not gotten very far into it. I was relieved to hear that from him! I needed to have someone on my side.
I Googled to see if there were negative opinions that weren’t just ‘the game sucks’, ‘bad game LOL’ (and I found a few of those. Because it’s Reddit. It’s the internet. Of course I found assholes, jerkwads, and keyboard warriors), and I found this thread. And every objection I have is included in the list.
By the way, the platforming seems to be universally despised. There is one person in the Discord who said that he didn’t mind the platforming mini-games, but he’s a gaming god. He helped me get my Bloodborne plat, so I got to see his skill up close and personal. I will be forever grateful to him for helping me with a really hard boss in a chalice dungeon that cuts your health in half (because that’s fun, apparently) so I could get my plat.
Anyway, some people theorize that the platforming is horrible on purpose as an homage to games that are deliberately terirble at platforming. Which, fine, whatever, but it still sucks. And the fact that I can’t get one of Lune’s outfits because of it makes me mad.
I’m also mad that there are a few things I can’t get/do because I missed doing them by the end of the first act. I hate when content is gated off like that, even though I understand why the devs did it this way. It’s one of my frustrations with FromSoft games, too. I like to try to do my first playthrough without looking things up, but then I feel penalized when I miss important side quests.
I get that they want you to play this more than once, but I’m not going to do that. Which means that content is locked off to me forever. Which, fine. But I’m still grumpy over it.
One of the things I missed doing was finding a specific mushroom to give to a gestral. I looked for it, but I could not find it. It turned out to be in the next arena (which I assumed it would be), but it blended in too well with all the other visual noise in the dungeon. Several peope in the thread I linked (and others) mentioned the visual noise and how unnecessary it was. I heartily agreed, and that was one reason I got lost so easily. Which, by the way, many people also noted. Of course, there were a few who sneered over it and said that there was no way you could get lost because there was usually only one path. (Plus a few side paths), but the point is that the areas within a dungeon all looked the same, so I could go through several rooms, not knowing if I was going forward or backwards. Especially since I normally rested at the bonfire, so all the enemies were back. (Meaning I couldn’t tell if I was going through an empty, enemy-free area or not.)
A few people also mentioned hating that they could not fast-travel from anywhere inside the dungeon to the overworld until sometime in the second act. Also, you can’t fast-travel back to the place you fast traveled from. You have to go back to the beginning of the dungeon (or the end if it has two entrances), find the first bonfire (which wasn’t always easy to do), and then fast-travel. I cannot tell you how much time I would have saved if I could fast-travel to and from any bonfire. And to anywhere on the map in the overworld.
I don’t feel like the devs are respecting my time, quite frankly. I got why it was so in the first Dark Souls, but even in that game, they allowed fast-travel around halfway through the game. But it was only to specific bonfires, which was annoying AF. And it’s one reason I would rather play either of the other two Dark Souls over that one. Sometimes, you have to make concessions to the gamer, even if it’s sacrifcing a bit of your vision.
Again, I’ve taken a long time to get to my point and now I need to go to bed. I will do one more post tomorrow. Because we NEED to talk about the story and the spoiler I found out. Even if it’s in a crytic way.