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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33–A Quick Look, part four

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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.


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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33–A Quick Look, part three

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I am still playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive) in one-to-two hour chunks. And I still go into every session with a sinking dread in my stomach. I don’t want to play it. But I do want to play it. But I don’t want to play it. But….

Look. I have very complicated feelings about the game, and I’ll get into them in this post. I wrote about it in the last post, focusing on the frustrations with parrying. I have written before about my weariness with games focusing on deflection/parrying as the main (or only) combat option. It’s all the rage since Sekiro came out, and I am so over it. I’ll say it once more for emphasis–not everyone can get the timing down. I don’t mind if the parry gives a great advantage (well, yes I do), but to make it so you *have* to parry?

Over it.

The fuck over it!

I know it’s devs prerogative to do this. I am not about to try to ban the parry. But I would just ask that there be some other way to make progress in the game.

I mean, to be fair, I’m still playing on normal, and I’m making (very slow) progress. I beat a really tough optional boss that I read (while looking up how to fight it after dying three or four times) can one-shot people on story mode. I was able to withstand one or two hits without parrying or dodging, but the problem was that the boss did three+-hit combos.

How did I beat it? I have several ways to heal in the fight, so I wasted half my turns madly healing the people in my party. You can heal the whole party twice outside combat (started with once), so I went into the fight after healing my party. Then, immediately got Maelle killed. If an attempt started out like that, I knew I was going to be on the back foot for the whole fight.

I did not get this boss’s attacks at all. And, I fucked up my buttons. I started pressing RB thinking it was B. B is dodge and RB is parry. There is no block. Oh, and A is jump. There are specific attacks that you MUST jump, and if you do it correctly, you have to hurridly press RT to counter. Weirdly, I do ok with the jump. Not great, mind, but ok.

I really tried the audio cues, but I can’t hear them half the time. Plus, as I mentioned yesterday, there is one enemy whose attack I can’t even see. Seriously. Plus, the camera angle is horrid. This enemy attacks three times with quick, quick, delayed, slow.

So. To recount. In order to beat the enemies, you have to know each of their attacks. There are anywhere from 1 -3 enemies Weirdly, it’s almost easier when it’s just the boss because I don’t have to worry about the other enemies. But I hate the boss fights because they have so much health.


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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33–A Quick Look, part two

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I’m still playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive), andw I have many more thoughts about it. MANY. I wrote a lot about the game in yesterday’s post, and I ended with the thought that the more I play the game, the less I enjoy it.

I am in the extreme minority in this, I fear. Everyone else loves this game, and I mean LOVES it. Obsessed with it. Can’t stop playing it. Can’t stop gushing about it. Whereas I…

Sigh.

Why do I have to be that person again? I could not play Blue Prince (Dogubomb), which I really loved, but got nauseous because it’s first problem. No matter how much I fiddled with the options, I could not play more without getting a severe headache. I maanged to do two days (two runs) on two consecutive days (each), and then put it down forever. I adored the game, but I could not stomach the first-person view.

Back to Clair Obscur.

Let me say clearly that this is a great game. I knew from the moment I started it that it was very special. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I adore Lune and Gustave and could spend hours with them. I’m neutral about Maelle so far, but I do like her fencer abilities.

I have to say that each party member is distinct in terms of abilities. Gustave is the hit hard and be blunt guy, and he has a firearm as well. Lune is the mage with all the elemental attacks. She is so damn powerful, and  I love her. Maelle is the fencer and has difference stances.

Here’s where things get complicated.

deep breath

Each character has a LT ability. I have no idea how many times you can use it until you run out of ability because it seems to be different for each character. Gustave shoots; Lune does a blast of elemental damage; Maelle does a slash. I can shoot with Gustave’s gun four or five times in a row. I do know that if I do perfect dodges and/or parries, I build up some kind of points which I can then use to overchange the gun? Or something.

Then, there are skills, and they also take the same kind of points. Each character have six or so skills that they can use. I can do one skill before doing an action. Oh, and the LT attacks don’t count as moves. With some of the skills and some of the actions, I have to do quick-time events (pressing the A button at the right time) to maximize the damage. It’s not just a ‘press A when it flashes’, oh no. That would be too easy. It’s a ‘let the A fill up (it lights up bit by bit) and then press at the exact right time’.

I get it maybe a third of the time. If I’m lucky. Hah! I wrote ‘If I’m sucky’ at first, which is very true.


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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33–A Quick Look

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At one of the Geoffcons, there was a trailer for a game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive). Ben Starr (the biggest VA darling at the moment) was narrating a sober story about the Paintress who paints a painting every year during the gommage. Everyone who is a certain age crumbles into dust while she is painting. And every year, an expedition goes out to find a way to stop her. The game is about Expedition 33, and it’s led by Gustave, voiced by Charlie Cox.

The trailer, which I have included below, was stylish, slick, and full of feeling. People were buzzing about it, but weren’t really sure what it was about. The only thing that people were wary about was the combat–not because of the combat because of all the BIG NUMBERS flashing during the combat. Oh, and it was turn-based, which caused a few eyebrows to raise.

If it’s not apparent by the name, it’s done by a French company, a very small company, who are passionate about the game. The main voice actors are Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Kirsty Rider, and Ben Starr. Andy Serkis is in it as well. I have only met the first three so far, and they are excellent. Normally, I would play in the language of the game and have English subtitles, but this time, I decided to have the voices in English to make it easier on me. There is a lot of dialogue, and I don’t want to miss it by reading while I’m trying to explore or doing combat.

We learned more about the game. It was a soulslike that was enamored with Sekiro.

Sigh.

Big sigh.

I think I’ve expounded on my dislike of Sekiro‘s strict adherence to the deflect. If this game was going to be at completely reliant on the parry, there was no point in me trying it. Ian reminded me that not all parries were like Dark Souls, which is true. However, any game that touted its parry and said how much they (the devs) admired Sekiro most certainly would have a difficult parry. That’s Sekiro‘s whole thing.

The game is on Game Pass, and I decided to give it a whirl. Almost everyone who has played it has loved it, and it’s already being talked about as a Game of the Year contender. I liked what I saw, story-wise, but I was still not sure about the combat. There was a story mode which Jennifer English said they put in because she asked for it. It doesn’t make negate the need to parry and dodge, though–it jsut lowers the damage taken, I think.


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Enotria: The Last Song–A Quick Look

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Someone in the RKG Discord mentioned Enotria: The Last Song (Jyamma Games), a soulslike (dare I say a Souls clone?) that has a demo now on Steam. Apparently, a beefy demo (like eight hours long!). It’s set in an Italianesque world (with Italian folklore), which is an interesting change from the usual dreary medeival settings (and, don’t get me wrong, I love those dreary fantasy settings with all my heart). I decided to download the demo and give it a go. I’m impatiently waiting for Shadow of the Erdtree and thought this might tide me over.

Side note: I don’t know if I’m weird for this, but I don’t like hashing out the trailers too much before I actually play the content. In fact, I rarely even watch the story trailers (I did this time) because there is almost too much in them. Yes, it’s hard to tell what it actually means because it’s just FromSoft throwing so much stuff at you, but still. I like to go in as unspoiled as possible.

Anyway. They made the cardinal sin of changing the heal button. It’s on Y instead of X, which, just no. This is one of my pet peeves about these games. Don’t change the controls! That’s the one thing I’m hard-assed about when it comes to soulslikes. And the fact that it can’t be changed. X is for item use, but it is in From games, too (along with heal). I guess Jyamma Games wanted a dedicated heal button–then make it up on the D-pad like Bloodborne! As far as I can tell, there is no way to two-hand your weapon in this game manually.

Right away, I had issues with the camera. Something about the game was making me nauseous. It’s not first-person, but it had that feel to it. The person in the RKG Discord who is playing the game suggested fiddling with the camera. I did, but it’s very limited and has not really helped. It’s not exactly the same as the issue I have with first-person games, but it’s got that wobbling on a stick feel to it. Like found-footage games, but at a much slower pace. It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I’m bobbling and wobbling as I walk. As a result, I became nauseated and had a headache.

This was after about ten-to-fifteen minutes of playing the game. I fiddled with the camera and made it more manageable, but still not negated. I did play about another fifteen to twenty minutes, I think. It’s hard to tell because I was concentrating on not getting nauseauted.


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Tails of Iron–A Quick Look, part two

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In yesterday’s post, I talked about the game, Tails of Iron (Odd Bug Studios), also known as Rat Souls. I played a few hours of it and really gave it the old college try. I mentioned what I liked about it (mainlyf the art design), and I have more to say about it. Really, it’s about soulslikes in general because I am already weary (not wary, but, I guess that, too) of the genre.

Let me take you back in time to when the first soulslike came out. That was the original Lords of the Fallen, developed by Deck13 Interactive and published by CI Games. The publisher is important in this case for reasons I’ll get to later.

Lords of the Fallen was so clunky. So clunky. It’s as if Deck13 saw only one thing as they played Dark Souls–combat is deliberate. Lords of the Fallen was nicknamed Clunky Souls, in fact. The magic was atrocious, and the melee was so unsatisfying. I played a few hours, twice, many years apart, and it did not get better with time.

There was supposed to be a sequel to the game, but that didn’t happen. It kept getting pushed back, and then Deck13 Interactive announced they were working on a different game altogether. It was called The Surge, and it became affectionately known as Junkyard Souls. Why? Because of the unique premise of cutting off your enemies’ limbs in order to strengthen yourself and get cool weapons. Your enemies are robots, by the way. I think they used to be human? I don’t quite remember.

Oh, I have to say, I’ve played it. I’ve finished it. Hey! This is the other one I finished, but did not remember before. And, controversially, it’s my favorite soulslike. I threw an RKG chat into a tizzy beacuse people were talking about the best soulslike. Most people agreed that Nioh was the best. I piped in and said that The Surge was my favorite, and, boy, did that upset people. How dare I say that The Surge was a better game than Nioh???

Except I never said that. I was very careful to say I liked it bettert than Nioh, even though I knew objectively it was not as good a game. That upset people even more! Which I thought was hilarious. I really did not do it on purpose, but, boy was it funny to watch people lose their shit. I just kept saying I had more fun with The Surge, and while they could not debate that, they still got indignant about it.


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Tails of Iron–A Quick Look

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I quit playing Sekrilo (Another Crab’s Treasure) because I just was not having fun with it. I may go back to it at some point, but I may not. I have decided that the game will forever more be known as Sekrilo (the protag is Kril), and I shall not be moved from it.  Ian suggested I try Tails of Iron (Odd Bug Studio), also known as Rats Souls. I jokingly called it Witcher Souls because Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt, is the narrator.

In case the name doesn’t make it clear, it’s a soulslike. It came out in…(Googles, blinks in astonishment) 2021?!? I thought it was pre-pandemic. Dang! Time means nothing these days. Ian also told me that a sequel was coming out ‘soon’. I checked out the trailer on Steam, and Doug Cockle is the narrator again. I will include the official lunch trailer for the first game below.

I had the first game in my pile of shame (backlog), so I installed it. It’s tiny and doesn’t take up much space. The first choice was which mode to play it in. Casual (for the story), Normal (how it’s meant to be played, which is nails hard), and then Hard which is for the hardcore players, I assume. The game warned me that the mode could not be changed. I chose normal and booted it up.

First the pros: the game has a great graphics style. It’s 2D, and is a grittier Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studios). Oh, and you’re a rat. A small rat at that . It’s mentioned several time that you’re tiny, and your brothers are bigger than you. Especially your (literal) big brother, Denis. He’s the chosen one, except for whatever reason, you’re the one whho has to do all the fighting. Your name is Redgi, by the way. No idea why.

I like the parry in this game, but I think it’s because it’s very generous. You hold LT (shield) and then RT as your enemy does a yellow attack, and you automatically parry it. As long as you are facing in the right direction. Otherwise, you’re SOL. Oh, and you have to use the right stick to change directions while holdinng the shield. So the praise is for the parry itself, and not all the nonsense that goes with it.

In fact, the controls are….not great. The heal was on LB and the interaction was on X. INTERACTION ON X. That’s not a thing. That should NEVER be a thing! Not in a soulslike. Look. I know all these games want to put their own stamp on the genre, but there are a few things you don’t fuck with. The roll/dodge is one (and they got that right. It’s on B), and the heal is on X! When FromSoft themselves fucked with that (it’s up on the directional pad in Bloodborne), that was bad enough. But games that do it just for the hell of it? No.


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Another Crab’s Treasure–A Quick Look

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Soulslikes is a category that has exploded in the last decade, for better and for worse. I love the Dark Souls trilorgy and Elden Ring, but I have not found many of the soulslikes to be anywhere near as good. Salt and Sanctuary (Ska Studios) was decent, and I actually finished it. But it was very slavish in its adherence to the Souls formula, I would almost call it a clone. I have tried so many of the other soulslikes, and there is not another than I enjoyed very much or finished. (Yes, I’ll get to that in a second, don’t you worry.) Many of them take the wrong lessons from the FromSoft games–including the fact that the game has to be hard as nails.

There have been things to like about most of them, but equally things to not like about them as well. Clunky combat, esoteric lore, no explanation about how to do anything, etc. Many of them are done by indie devs, so I’m a bit more forgiving because it’s usually a handful of people workin on the game. I don’t expect as much as I would from a AAA company, for example.

Before I really get into it, let me say I’m going to do a quick(ish) look at Another Crab’s Treasure by Aggro Crab. I played and finished their first game, Going Under, which is a delightful roguelike that centers on Jackie, a beleagured intern at a games dev company who finds out that the job is more than making copies and answering the phone.

The site is set upon a hellmouth of sorts that calls forth demons and such. Jackie has to go down (go under, as it were) to take care of the problem. It was clear from that game that the devs admired FromSoft, though it wasn’t explicitly stated or seen.

Remember I said that I hadn’t finished any other soulslike? I haven’t, but I have finished a sekirolite (which is what I’m terming games that are all about the parry/deflect rather than lump them into the soulslike category). That game would be Lies of P (Round8 Studio/NEOWIZ), and the combat definitely styled itself after Sekiro.

I did not enjoy that game’s combat. At all. Starting with the fourth boss of that game, I beat every boss in the same way. For the first health bar (and there was nearly always two. Which, ugh), I just whittled away until I got to the second stage. I used the spirit summon liberally and made sure I had the cube set to revive them as many times as possible.


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Lords of the Fallen–the bad and the ugly

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Lords of the Fallen continue to test my patience. I mentioned in the last post a few of the positives that I found in the game. The ease with which you can summon is one of them. At the beginning of the next session, however, I was in the same boss room and about to go back to the bonfire and level up. I was immediately invaded and could not go up the lift to get back to the bonfire. I had to stay in the arena (wait, I was able to go up the ladder that leads to and from the lift to the arena), and I died. I did try to fight the invader, but I was pissed. You should not be able to be invaded when you’re in the boss arena of a boss you just beat. This, my friends, is bullshit.

I died. Twice. Fortunately, the boss run was fairly easy so I was able to get my souls. Er, vigor. But, once you beat a boss, you should not be able to be invaded. FromSoft established this in the first Dark Souls (probably in Demon’s Souls, to be honest), and this is a huge step backwards.

In the next area, there was a merchant that apologized for being such a wimp the last time we met. I gaped at him because I had no clue who he was. At all. And I had only been playing the game for a few days. Who was this guy acting like he knew me? I had no clue. And he had nothing I wanted to buy.

Another thing. I am using the same weapon I had been using from the start. The Pyric Cultist Staff. It’s a polearm, and it’s pretty damn good. But, one of the draws to a game like this is finding new equipment. I’ve found nothing. There is an umbral trainer in the hub world and more than one radiance trainer. But no pyro trainer.

I know who will eventually be one (I saw it online, but I had kind of figured it out ahead of time), but I’m four bosses down and there’s not hint how to get them back to the hub world. Which means I’ve been using my basic fireball as my only Pyro. Oh, there’s one that buffs my strength, but I want more actual Pyros. THis is probably another reason the Pyro is considered an advanced class.

Oh! In my post yesterday, I mentioned that Austin form Skill Up’s channel was frustrated because he could not find the item needed to respec as well as not being able to find the vendor who makes boss weapons. I said that the latter was the vendor you could only see if you were in the hub world in umbral–he also sells the item needed to respec.

Anyway, I went on my way after killing the third boss.

I have to say, I was watching a video on tips and tricks for this game as I was writing this. I have included it below. I had forgotten to get the remembrance (boss soul) from the fourth boss. I went back and got it. Then I played a bit more. And I LOATHE the current area I am in.


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Lords of the Fallen–a bit more positive

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In my last post, I said I was done with Lords of the Fallen (HexWorks/CI Games). I wasn’t. This is like Lies of P in which I feel done with it, but I keep going. A funny note about the latter. My nibling messaged me asking if I’d heard of a game called Lies of P. Heh. I might have heard of it once upon a time! If it’s a soulslike, I would have heard of it. I may not have played it, but I definitely would have heard of it.

I decided to play a bit more of Lords of the Fallen yesterday. I was still frustrated with the clunky mechanics and the shit-ton of enemies thrown at me, especially when they were in mobs. Which was all the time. And this game is in love with having casters that you can’t reach from where you are blitzing you constantly with overpowered spells. In the section I was in, there was a radiance caster across the way  that I could not reach from the place I was. Then, there were two of the ‘hiding pushers’ who are, well, hiding and pushing. The caster was on the other side of two of those swinging platforms I mentioned yesterday, which are the bane of my existence.

I made my way to the next boss, and, I’ll be honest. I just could not be bothered.

*SPOILERS*

It was a rip-off Capra Demon except there wer up to three dog/wolves at a time. And the boss shot radiant arrows at me while her damn dogs were stunning me with their hits.

Side Note: It’s interesting to me that the first three bosses were women. I don’t know if that eans anything, but it’s highly unusual. It’s also funny that a video I watched for this boss kept calling her ‘him’. Her name literally has ‘Mistress’ in it. Rory from RKG did this with the female bosses in Dark Souls III, like Sister Friede. Again, it’s right in her name. In fact, he did it with Mama Finchy in Dark Souls II–who has Mama in her name. It shows how entrenched the patriarchy is in gaming. It’s changing, thankfully, but it’s still annoying.

I will say at least there is an elevator from a bonfire to this boss with very few enemies in between. Granted, one of them is one of the hidden pushing ones who can knock you down to a lower area that is crammed with enemies and which I have not explored yet, but still. Three enemies to run by and, a ladder to go down, and another elevator down–and I’m at the boss entrance.


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