I know I have written a lot about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), and I have more to say about it. I’m stlil playing, but the dichotomy I felt when I first started playing it has only grown. I would say I have a love/hate relationship with the game, but it’s really the combat. I’ll get to that in a second.
I got to the end of the first act and was hit with an emotional stunner (cutscene). It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I teared up and thought, “Surely, they aren’t doing–that?” I don’t know why as it made thematic sense, but it came out of the blue for me.
They earned the moment, storywise. I do not begrudge them that, but on the other hand, I’m not crazy about the story. I find it barely serviceable and not as clever as they think it is. In fact, if it wasn’t for the absolutely phenomenal voice acting, I would call the story mediocre. But, because of how incredible the acting is, it elevates the story much more than it deserves.
And the moment is clearly a ‘move my face to hit your fist’ moment. In other words, it was backwards engineered because they wanted to reach a certain conclusion. The more I thought about it, the less pleased I was by it (which is why I don’t like TV and movies). The moment was still powerful (well, it would have been more so if it wasn’t mired down with a really weird boss fight), but even as I was watching it, I was very aware that it was a created moment.
Again, the acting itself was incredible. I cannot gush enough about the actors in this game. They gave it their all and while i had my doubts about Sciel, it was the character and not the voice actor (Shala Nyx). The character grew on me, and while she’s not one of my favorites, she’s an integral part of the party.
Speaking of, things have really escalated in the second act. There are two new characters in the party, and the latter (while having a gorgeous voice) introduces a completely new attack system as well. Oh, and there’s another defensive move, too. At least that comes with a visual cue. The gradient attack, though, I have no clue what it actually is or how to do it–even though I did the tutorial for it and for the newest party member as well.
At this point, my brain went, “I think I’m good.” I was already have problems with the combat; I did not need more things added to it. I still don’t undrestand how to use Maelle and her stances, though, I will admit I have her doing high fire damage only beacuse I loaded her down with fire skills.