Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025)

I think the problem with the platforming is that I always reach a point where I think “yeah, that was a fun and janky challenge, but I’m ready to be done now” only to realize that the thing I’ve been doing for the last twenty minutes only represents about 30% of the total distance. I think the idea itself isn’t bad, but they don’t have the ability to properly gauge where the threshold between fun nostalgia for PS2 era 3D platforming and unrealistic expectations lies. And the absolutely lack of checkpoints makes failure exceptionally painful. I’m happy there are people who enjoy it but it really feels like they don’t need the turn the fail all the way to eleven for this bit of nostalgia.

There’s a part of me that thinks fondly of things like the mini-games in FFVII and there is a part of me that absolutely knows those mini-games are a nightmare (as tested and reconfirmed by FFVII Rebirth). So the mini-games in Clair Obscur are a cute little nod to that era, u til they take a life of their own and become just a little too much of a cut nod to be a good thing.

And I think it’s worth mentioning that the game is full of serious endurance tests in terms of combat and parrying challenges, and yet none of those ever test my limits. I fail to some regularly, but they are thoroughly satisfying to endure and unravel. I think that perhaps it’s down to the fact that the combat is so thoughtfully tuned and the platforming challenges so intentionally janky, that the two are at extreme odds with each other. While the jank is fitting due to the game’s many references to JRPGs, I think it’s the fact that it represents the game’s one departure from its finely tuned mechanical challenges that it sits at odds with the rest of the game and does everything else that is done so well a slight disservice. That is, at least for me it does.

I rarely buy a brand new game at/near release because of my backlog, limited playtime, and desire not to spend 50+ dollars on a game, which usually overrides my interest in playing. However, one of my closest friends bought this and raved about how amazing it was, and we typically have similar tastes, so I took the plunge.

I'm only a couple of hours in, but color me impressed. This game is a visual feast for the eyes. Combat so far is challenging, but fun; the controls are tight and responsive, and the underlying soundtrack is impressive. I can't wait to delve deeper and experience everything this title has to offer.

As much as I love the parry mechanic, I still think the game needs better telegraphing. I ran into some enemies and the parry timing for their attacks was way off anything I’ve encountered thus far. The swish noise accompanied their attack swing but parrying that does nothing because the attack is delayed and you have to parry their elemental attack that lands a few milliseconds later. But because almost every other enemy attack signals the moment to parry with an audible swish, parrying this attack feels completely off. This feels inconsistent with the game’s rules and makes some of the fights rather frustrating.

I also think some of the Chromatic enemies have attacks that you can’t parry based on a visual or audio cue and you just kind of have to lose a bunch of times before you know when to parry, because invariably the parry is required at a really awkward and illogical point in the enemy swing. A bunch of these heavier enemies have a delayed attack and the time of feels unnatural compared to the rest of the game’s enemies. It’s almost as if the devs decided that the challenge should be unlearning what you’ve learned during Chromatic enemy fights rather than applying what you’ve learned, albeit faster.