I'm about 8 hours in but this game is amazing, especially since it feels AAA but from a small, new 30 person team. You get turn based combat from JRPGs of my youth but with extra mechanics to make...
I'm about 8 hours in but this game is amazing, especially since it feels AAA but from a small, new 30 person team. You get turn based combat from JRPGs of my youth but with extra mechanics to make it more interesting, stunning graphics and probably the best music I have ever heard in an RPG. It's shockingly good.
I have been watching some others play it and it seems like a great game, but I cannot help but see one of the protagonists as anything except Robert Pattinson trying his best to cosplay as a...
I have been watching some others play it and it seems like a great game, but I cannot help but see one of the protagonists as anything except Robert Pattinson trying his best to cosplay as a French guy.
Played until 3am last night, started at 10p or so. This game is exhilarating and perfection in nearly every way. The story is mesmerizing and the gameplay is so incredibly fresh. Highly recommend...
Played until 3am last night, started at 10p or so. This game is exhilarating and perfection in nearly every way. The story is mesmerizing and the gameplay is so incredibly fresh. Highly recommend it, could easily become one of my all-time favourites.
First I've heard of this game (which isn't hard because I live under a large rock) , but since it's apparently so popular I'm afraid my looking it up will result in spoilers. Could someone kindly...
First I've heard of this game (which isn't hard because I live under a large rock) , but since it's apparently so popular I'm afraid my looking it up will result in spoilers. Could someone kindly let me know if it first person?
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a 2025 turn-based role-playing video game developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. Taking place in a dark fantasy Belle Époque setting (Wikipedia)
For folks who've played, what explains the high number of copies sold within the first week? Must have been very highly anticipated
Thing is, it wasn't that highly anticipated. I mean, I was looking forward to it but... I think it's partly the reviews for this one, which were incredibly, unanimously positive. Plus the game...
Thing is, it wasn't that highly anticipated. I mean, I was looking forward to it but...
I think it's partly the reviews for this one, which were incredibly, unanimously positive. Plus the game being on GamePass (or $50 on Steam), combined with a gripping opening sequence (rare for the genre) allowed it to generate a lot of buzz from normal players day 1. Then, the game's just the right amount of weird -- the art direction is super unique, but the game still looks current-gen! It's a turn-based JRPG, but with heavy real-time action elements! Combine that with the star-studded cast and the unusually naturalistic writing and scene construction and it's a bit of a perfect storm honestly. It's hard to find anyone with anything negative to say about the game.
Ok fine, I'll say something negative: the jump animations look weird to me. Any time Gustave jumps he just looks silly. There's a lack of power to the way the characters get themselves off the...
Ok fine, I'll say something negative: the jump animations look weird to me. Any time Gustave jumps he just looks silly. There's a lack of power to the way the characters get themselves off the ground, and I really don't like it.
But I really like the rest of the game so far, so you know... I'll still use the ointment even with that fly.
They've clarified that they're only counting actual sales for their 1m+ number. And while, yes, GamePass does reduce sales, it's also probably a very good exposure marketing tactic. First, by...
They've clarified that they're only counting actual sales for their 1m+ number. And while, yes, GamePass does reduce sales, it's also probably a very good exposure marketing tactic. First, by allowing a lot of players to try the game for (essentially) free, they create a huge amount of buzz around the game. Then, people seeing that buzz who don't subscribe to GamePass, or who want to support a smaller developer like Sandfall (e.g. me) will buy the game at its lower-than-usual asking price on other platforms. GamePass might not have directly increased unit sales (especially as a proportion of overall player count), but my point is that it was probably very good for generating hype and momentum around the game launch, increasing the overall player base, and thus indirectly boosting sales.
via Phil Spencer Explains How Developers Get Paid From Xbox Game Pass (2020) There's multiple ways to ensure success from a financial standpoint with services like GamePass. Edit: "Here's Some...
"One of the things that's been cool to see is a developer, usually a smaller to mid-sized developer, might be starting a game and say, 'Hey, we're willing to put this in Game Pass on our launch day if you guys will give us X dollars now.' What we can go do is, we'll create a floor for them in terms of the success of their game. They know they're going to get this return."
In some other cases, Microsoft will completely fund the production cost of a game. In this situation, the developer can make money from retail sales, while Microsoft may also allow these games to release on PlayStation, Switch, and PC, with the developers taking in that revenue, too. Microsoft uniquely benefits in these types of situations by having a game launch day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass.
"For them, they've protected themselves from any downside risk. The game is going to get made. Then they have all the retail upside, we have the opportunity for day and date," Spencer said. "That would be a flat fee payment to a developer. Sometimes the developer's more done with the game and it's more just a transaction of, 'Hey, we'll put it in Game Pass if you'll pay us this amount of money."
Other agreements are different. Developers have come to Microsoft asking for deals based on "usage and monetization."
Third person overworld running around, JRPG style combat (like all of your team on one side and enemies on other taking turns) with some QTE elements and a bunch of accessibility options if the...
Third person overworld running around, JRPG style combat (like all of your team on one side and enemies on other taking turns) with some QTE elements and a bunch of accessibility options if the QTE stuff isn't up your alley.
I tried it the other day and decided it probably wasn't for me because of the QTEs (I have terrible reflexes and no sense of rhythm). There wasn't anything for dodging/parrying, was there? Though...
I tried it the other day and decided it probably wasn't for me because of the QTEs (I have terrible reflexes and no sense of rhythm). There wasn't anything for dodging/parrying, was there? Though I feel like that might also just take out too much from the combat.
There are two options in QTE when attacked (atleast at the start), to Dodge or to Parry (Q or E on keyboards). This was not the case, my apologies, thanks @Venko!
There are two options in QTE when attacked (atleast at the start), to Dodge or to Parry (Q or E on keyboards). You can disable all QTE in settings at any time. This was not the case, my apologies, thanks @Venko!
This isn't correct. Although you can disable QTE for player attacks you cannot disable them for enemy attacks. The game ships with a 0.22 second window to dodge and 0.12 second window to parry...
This isn't correct. Although you can disable QTE for player attacks you cannot disable them for enemy attacks.
The game ships with a 0.22 second window to dodge and 0.12 second window to parry incoming attacks. If you switch to the lowest difficulty the windows extends to 0.35 second for dodge and 0.25 seconds for parry respectively. But by switching to the lowest difficulty the enemy damage also goes down.
If you're playing on a computer (Windows or Linux) then you can use a mod to increase the dodge window. I went for the "easier" option (twice easier dodge and parry) but otherwise stuck with the...
If you're playing on a computer (Windows or Linux) then you can use a mod to increase the dodge window. I went for the "easier" option (twice easier dodge and parry) but otherwise stuck with the normal difficulty mode.
As someone who is under a large rock but very interested in the games industry; this game was on the calendars. People were anticipating it, but I don't think people were ready for what it turned...
As someone who is under a large rock but very interested in the games industry; this game was on the calendars. People were anticipating it, but I don't think people were ready for what it turned out to be. We'll call it a sleeper goty?
I intended on playing it on game pass, thought it might be a nice game to check in on over the weekend. Played the intro on Thursday night. Immediately pre-ordered a PS5 copy and put about 15 hours in over the weekend.
There was a preview event a couple months ago that had a ton of positive press coming out of it, that likely contributed to the early sales success. It certainly got me hyped and ready to buy it....
For folks who've played, what explains the high number of copies sold within the first week? Must have been very highly anticipated
There was a preview event a couple months ago that had a ton of positive press coming out of it, that likely contributed to the early sales success. It certainly got me hyped and ready to buy it.
Amusingly, the Oblivion remaster was shadow dropped the same day and this game still sold well. Might have been even better without that surprise.
I haven't seen anyone else talk about how dodging is incredibly difficult, which makes me think I must be missing something. I've fought Maelle at the dock six times now, and can count on one hand...
I haven't seen anyone else talk about how dodging is incredibly difficult, which makes me think I must be missing something. I've fought Maelle at the dock six times now, and can count on one hand the number of times I've successfully dodged her attacks.
If I'm not able to beat her at the beginning of the game, should I even bother trying to play through it?
Update: I was able to beat her eventually. Enemies in the main game aren't near as hard. It's still annoying that there isn't a good visual indicator for when to dodge, but I'm managing
Update 2: Just got to the second main area (the place with all the red trees) and I've forgotten that the game was ever frustrating. Even with the Maelle spar taking 8 attempts, it's getting a 10/10 from me so far
Maelle is deliberately very difficult for a new player to beat. I think it's to make a statement about how much more nimble of a fighter she is than Gustav. Once you finish the prologue you'll...
Maelle is deliberately very difficult for a new player to beat. I think it's to make a statement about how much more nimble of a fighter she is than Gustav. Once you finish the prologue you'll start to gain experience from battles and gain attribute points. One of the things that you'll be able to invest into is hitpoints which reduce the effective penalty for a missed dodge as all in-game heals are for a percentage of maximum hitpoints.
If you're playing on a computer then you can increase the window for dodges and parries with a mod (see my other posts). Although it is cheating to increase the windows it's the most effective way for me to continue playing as my timing is poor.
[edit] Also in my experience some attributes have diminishing returns. Around 20 points into vitality has served me well for act 1.
Is there some sort of visual cue before an enemy attack, or are we supposed to memorise enemy attack patterns? I'm not necessarily opposed to the latter, but I suck at it, and will probably turn...
Is there some sort of visual cue before an enemy attack, or are we supposed to memorise enemy attack patterns? I'm not necessarily opposed to the latter, but I suck at it, and will probably turn down the difficulty at some point if that's the case. (I'm playing on Xbox, so modding is not an option for me.)
There are visual and auditory cues, but they're subtle and definitely enemy-specific. I'm not very far into it yet, but there's already been attacks where there's a little bit of a fakeout...
There are visual and auditory cues, but they're subtle and definitely enemy-specific. I'm not very far into it yet, but there's already been attacks where there's a little bit of a fakeout regarding exactly when they're going to swing, and I'm sure it's going to get more exciting. It really does feel like Dark Souls that way.
I've only completed the first act but in my experience there's usually a subtle audio cue for the first connect. Most enemies seem to slow down their attack before it connects so the dodge window...
I've only completed the first act but in my experience there's usually a subtle audio cue for the first connect. Most enemies seem to slow down their attack before it connects so the dodge window is around a quarter of a second later than it appears to be visually. A lot of enemies will hit several times with during an attack but, so far the timing between connects in an attack has been either the same or with a larger gap before the last connect. Memorisation definitely seems important for some enemies and some of them have weaknesses that you can exploit with the aim ability.
She is difficult. Her attacks are the hardest to read that I’ve encountered so far. Took about an hour on expert. I replayed the opening with my partner last night on normal and it took several...
She is difficult. Her attacks are the hardest to read that I’ve encountered so far.
Took about an hour on expert. I replayed the opening with my partner last night on normal and it took several tries even with more experience in the game.
And practically, if you spent the other two tokens wisely, all you get for beating her is a tidy haircut. But it's definitely good practice for what's to come.
And practically, if you spent the other two tokens wisely, all you get for beating her is a tidy haircut. But it's definitely good practice for what's to come.
She's definitely harder than the mime by the harbor. That was much easier on normal and the other mime I found was about as easy since it had the same moveset and just more health.
She's definitely harder than the mime by the harbor. That was much easier on normal and the other mime I found was about as easy since it had the same moveset and just more health.
Had no idea this game even existed but it looks super cool! (And I appreciate that they show actual gameplay in the steam trailer rather than just cinematics). Thanks for sharing! Adding it to my...
Had no idea this game even existed but it looks super cool! (And I appreciate that they show actual gameplay in the steam trailer rather than just cinematics).
How could they not with a game looking as stunning and stylish as that. Insane that we're finally reaching in-game visuals looking better than the cinematics, but here we are.
they show actual gameplay in the steam trailer rather than just cinematics)
How could they not with a game looking as stunning and stylish as that. Insane that we're finally reaching in-game visuals looking better than the cinematics, but here we are.
In 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Guillaume Broche was like millions of others around the world.
"Bored in their job and wanting to do something different."
Working for French gaming giant Ubisoft at the time, he had an idea for his own project - a role-playing game inspired by one of his childhood favourites, the classic Japanese series Final Fantasy.
Have you tried the story mode? Windows for parry and dodge are doubled. It is playable as shipped, but it's understandable that this style of mechanic doesn't work for everyone.
Have you tried the story mode? Windows for parry and dodge are doubled.
It is playable as shipped, but it's understandable that this style of mechanic doesn't work for everyone.
It's too bad you it doesn't work for you. I do wonder if they'll consider a difficulty retuning to make it more accessible. I think it'd benefit the game as long as the expert difficulty remains...
It's too bad you it doesn't work for you. I do wonder if they'll consider a difficulty retuning to make it more accessible. I think it'd benefit the game as long as the expert difficulty remains for the sickos.
I'll give a mild defense of the game (not that I'm trying to invalidate your opinions!) and maybe also some recommendations. Questionable lore aside, the lack of a mini-map is intentional, as it...
I'll give a mild defense of the game (not that I'm trying to invalidate your opinions!) and maybe also some recommendations.
Questionable lore aside, the lack of a mini-map is intentional, as it forces player to explore the environment instead of playing the mini-map. Personally, I have accepted that I will probably miss things, but I'm fine with this arrangement because:
Enemies also sometimes drop weapons/pictos. So if I missed them in the level, there is still a chance that I will find them later.
I can always backtrack. For now I'm just playing the game mostly blind, but once I get near the end I intend to do some theory crafting. If it turns out that I missed some important gear, I'll hunt for them then.
But I realize none of this really addresses your central concern, which is that sometimes you can't spot the main path. Unfortunately, I think this is probably a limitation of the Steam Deck -- the visual fidelity on the Deck is pretty poor even compared to the Xbox Series S version.
The mod that makes parrying/dodging easier is a godsend (as I'm sure you're aware). Initially I was a bit hesitant to use it because I thought it would cheapen the experience, but enabling the mod made parrying so much more consistent (and that's despite me only using the "slightly easier" version). Which brings me to my third point...
I'm playing this game via moonlight, streaming from my pc to my (docked) Steam Deck. I spent hours trying to figure out how to improve the streaming performance -- turns out the problem is the game itself. PC performance for this game is not great, with constant stuttering and frame drops. For most RPGs this would be merely annoying, but in this case the parrying mechanic makes proper frame timing essential. I would highly recommend this mod, which mitigates some of the camera stuttering issues, and also a performance mod such as this one (and yes, these two mods are compatible).
Similarly, this means you should also strive to find a setup that targets a specific fps. For me, this meant setting my TV & monitor refresh rate to 50 Hz, and then using an Nvidia utility to force a 50 fps cap on the game, as my setup struggled to get a consistent 60 fps.
I'm about 8 hours in but this game is amazing, especially since it feels AAA but from a small, new 30 person team. You get turn based combat from JRPGs of my youth but with extra mechanics to make it more interesting, stunning graphics and probably the best music I have ever heard in an RPG. It's shockingly good.
I have been watching some others play it and it seems like a great game, but I cannot help but see one of the protagonists as anything except Robert Pattinson trying his best to cosplay as a French guy.
At least it's not Timothee Chalamet cosplaying as.. himself?
Played until 3am last night, started at 10p or so. This game is exhilarating and perfection in nearly every way. The story is mesmerizing and the gameplay is so incredibly fresh. Highly recommend it, could easily become one of my all-time favourites.
First I've heard of this game (which isn't hard because I live under a large rock) , but since it's apparently so popular I'm afraid my looking it up will result in spoilers. Could someone kindly let me know if it first person?
For folks who've played, what explains the high number of copies sold within the first week? Must have been very highly anticipated
Thing is, it wasn't that highly anticipated. I mean, I was looking forward to it but...
I think it's partly the reviews for this one, which were incredibly, unanimously positive. Plus the game being on GamePass (or $50 on Steam), combined with a gripping opening sequence (rare for the genre) allowed it to generate a lot of buzz from normal players day 1. Then, the game's just the right amount of weird -- the art direction is super unique, but the game still looks current-gen! It's a turn-based JRPG, but with heavy real-time action elements! Combine that with the star-studded cast and the unusually naturalistic writing and scene construction and it's a bit of a perfect storm honestly. It's hard to find anyone with anything negative to say about the game.
Ok fine, I'll say something negative: the jump animations look weird to me. Any time Gustave jumps he just looks silly. There's a lack of power to the way the characters get themselves off the ground, and I really don't like it.
But I really like the rest of the game so far, so you know... I'll still use the ointment even with that fly.
Wouldn't Game Pass reduce sales, rather than increase them? Unless they're operating with some sort of sales equivalent, like music streaming does.
They've clarified that they're only counting actual sales for their 1m+ number. And while, yes, GamePass does reduce sales, it's also probably a very good exposure marketing tactic. First, by allowing a lot of players to try the game for (essentially) free, they create a huge amount of buzz around the game. Then, people seeing that buzz who don't subscribe to GamePass, or who want to support a smaller developer like Sandfall (e.g. me) will buy the game at its lower-than-usual asking price on other platforms. GamePass might not have directly increased unit sales (especially as a proportion of overall player count), but my point is that it was probably very good for generating hype and momentum around the game launch, increasing the overall player base, and thus indirectly boosting sales.
via Phil Spencer Explains How Developers Get Paid From Xbox Game Pass (2020)
There's multiple ways to ensure success from a financial standpoint with services like GamePass.
Edit:
"Here's Some Sense Of How Much Money Microsoft Pays For Day-One Game Pass Launches" (2023)
Third person overworld running around, JRPG style combat (like all of your team on one side and enemies on other taking turns) with some QTE elements and a bunch of accessibility options if the QTE stuff isn't up your alley.
oh that's super helpful thank you :) not first person = I can actually play. Turn based with optional QTE: I can actually finish.
I tried it the other day and decided it probably wasn't for me because of the QTEs (I have terrible reflexes and no sense of rhythm). There wasn't anything for dodging/parrying, was there? Though I feel like that might also just take out too much from the combat.
There are two options in QTE when attacked (atleast at the start), to Dodge or to Parry (Q or E on keyboards).
You can disable all QTE in settings at any time.This was not the case, my apologies, thanks @Venko!This isn't correct. Although you can disable QTE for player attacks you cannot disable them for enemy attacks.
The game ships with a 0.22 second window to dodge and 0.12 second window to parry incoming attacks. If you switch to the lowest difficulty the windows extends to 0.35 second for dodge and 0.25 seconds for parry respectively. But by switching to the lowest difficulty the enemy damage also goes down.
I'm using a mod to extend the windows to 0.44 dodge and 0.3 parry on normal difficulty but this isn't available for console players.
If you're playing on a computer (Windows or Linux) then you can use a mod to increase the dodge window. I went for the "easier" option (twice easier dodge and parry) but otherwise stuck with the normal difficulty mode.
As someone who is under a large rock but very interested in the games industry; this game was on the calendars. People were anticipating it, but I don't think people were ready for what it turned out to be. We'll call it a sleeper goty?
I intended on playing it on game pass, thought it might be a nice game to check in on over the weekend. Played the intro on Thursday night. Immediately pre-ordered a PS5 copy and put about 15 hours in over the weekend.
There was a preview event a couple months ago that had a ton of positive press coming out of it, that likely contributed to the early sales success. It certainly got me hyped and ready to buy it.
Amusingly, the Oblivion remaster was shadow dropped the same day and this game still sold well. Might have been even better without that surprise.
I haven't seen anyone else talk about how dodging is incredibly difficult, which makes me think I must be missing something. I've fought Maelle at the dock six times now, and can count on one hand the number of times I've successfully dodged her attacks.
If I'm not able to beat her at the beginning of the game, should I even bother trying to play through it?
Update: I was able to beat her eventually. Enemies in the main game aren't near as hard. It's still annoying that there isn't a good visual indicator for when to dodge, but I'm managing
Update 2: Just got to the second main area (the place with all the red trees) and I've forgotten that the game was ever frustrating. Even with the Maelle spar taking 8 attempts, it's getting a 10/10 from me so far
Maelle is deliberately very difficult for a new player to beat. I think it's to make a statement about how much more nimble of a fighter she is than Gustav. Once you finish the prologue you'll start to gain experience from battles and gain attribute points. One of the things that you'll be able to invest into is hitpoints which reduce the effective penalty for a missed dodge as all in-game heals are for a percentage of maximum hitpoints.
If you're playing on a computer then you can increase the window for dodges and parries with a mod (see my other posts). Although it is cheating to increase the windows it's the most effective way for me to continue playing as my timing is poor.
[edit] Also in my experience some attributes have diminishing returns. Around 20 points into vitality has served me well for act 1.
Is there some sort of visual cue before an enemy attack, or are we supposed to memorise enemy attack patterns? I'm not necessarily opposed to the latter, but I suck at it, and will probably turn down the difficulty at some point if that's the case. (I'm playing on Xbox, so modding is not an option for me.)
There are visual and auditory cues, but they're subtle and definitely enemy-specific. I'm not very far into it yet, but there's already been attacks where there's a little bit of a fakeout regarding exactly when they're going to swing, and I'm sure it's going to get more exciting. It really does feel like Dark Souls that way.
I've only completed the first act but in my experience there's usually a subtle audio cue for the first connect. Most enemies seem to slow down their attack before it connects so the dodge window is around a quarter of a second later than it appears to be visually. A lot of enemies will hit several times with during an attack but, so far the timing between connects in an attack has been either the same or with a larger gap before the last connect. Memorisation definitely seems important for some enemies and some of them have weaknesses that you can exploit with the aim ability.
She is difficult. Her attacks are the hardest to read that I’ve encountered so far.
Took about an hour on expert. I replayed the opening with my partner last night on normal and it took several tries even with more experience in the game.
And practically, if you spent the other two tokens wisely, all you get for beating her is a tidy haircut. But it's definitely good practice for what's to come.
She's definitely harder than the mime by the harbor. That was much easier on normal and the other mime I found was about as easy since it had the same moveset and just more health.
Had no idea this game even existed but it looks super cool! (And I appreciate that they show actual gameplay in the steam trailer rather than just cinematics).
Thanks for sharing! Adding it to my list now.
When a game doesn't include gameplay, or just a few seconds at the end of a hype video, I just assume it's not good.
How could they not with a game looking as stunning and stylish as that. Insane that we're finally reaching in-game visuals looking better than the cinematics, but here we are.
Clair Obscur: How a passion project became 2025's most talked-about game (BBC)
Have you tried the story mode? Windows for parry and dodge are doubled.
It is playable as shipped, but it's understandable that this style of mechanic doesn't work for everyone.
It's too bad you it doesn't work for you. I do wonder if they'll consider a difficulty retuning to make it more accessible. I think it'd benefit the game as long as the expert difficulty remains for the sickos.
I did get the hang of dodging, eventually! And the combat is loads of fun now that I'm somewhat competent at it. But I keep getting lost...
I'll give a mild defense of the game (not that I'm trying to invalidate your opinions!) and maybe also some recommendations.
Questionable lore aside, the lack of a mini-map is intentional, as it forces player to explore the environment instead of playing the mini-map. Personally, I have accepted that I will probably miss things, but I'm fine with this arrangement because:
But I realize none of this really addresses your central concern, which is that sometimes you can't spot the main path. Unfortunately, I think this is probably a limitation of the Steam Deck -- the visual fidelity on the Deck is pretty poor even compared to the Xbox Series S version.
The mod that makes parrying/dodging easier is a godsend (as I'm sure you're aware). Initially I was a bit hesitant to use it because I thought it would cheapen the experience, but enabling the mod made parrying so much more consistent (and that's despite me only using the "slightly easier" version). Which brings me to my third point...
I'm playing this game via moonlight, streaming from my pc to my (docked) Steam Deck. I spent hours trying to figure out how to improve the streaming performance -- turns out the problem is the game itself. PC performance for this game is not great, with constant stuttering and frame drops. For most RPGs this would be merely annoying, but in this case the parrying mechanic makes proper frame timing essential. I would highly recommend this mod, which mitigates some of the camera stuttering issues, and also a performance mod such as this one (and yes, these two mods are compatible).
Similarly, this means you should also strive to find a setup that targets a specific fps. For me, this meant setting my TV & monitor refresh rate to 50 Hz, and then using an Nvidia utility to force a 50 fps cap on the game, as my setup struggled to get a consistent 60 fps.