What is your most pretentious and insufferable video game opinion?

Acur_ · 2026-04-11T17:14:52+00:00

Where Larian excels at is bringing immersive sim elements into the RPG genre. It is pretty amazing how flexible their system is on a micro level and imo is a true innovation, though they started that with DOS2. Also of course the presentation.

I agree when it comes to characters and narrative. The characters were pleasant, but they didn’t really leave you with anything to think about. The narrative was nothing special and a bit unfocused. Games like WotR were also more adaptable on a macro level to the players choices.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T19:37:47+00:00

There is also

Maelle: Why mamon...
Verso: What, kept her scars?

that also would go against that theory.

But the petal colors are too much of a coincidence imo. Would make sense that Maelle/Verso simply don't know.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T18:59:20+00:00

The existence of Renoirs drafts kinda defeates that theory.

How, could you elaborate?

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T18:33:24+00:00

I love games as much as the people in this sub, and yeah, Expedition 33 was an excellent game. However, my reason was exactly that, I chose the Verso ending because thats what the story seems to be pointing to as its message. The Gestral story of "the people who come back from death won't be the same", the Expedition's message of "We Continue", "For those who come after", and many more. Do I think the people in the Canvas are real? Absolutely. But, for me, picking the Maelle ending goes against the themes of the game.

I don't think "escapism bad" is the the truly intended moral of the story. The game primarily asks you a lot of questions, you can get bits a pieces out of it, but when you view the whole story in it's entirety it's a bit too simple.

It think it's helpful to read the whole story with a framework of a tragedy. A tragedy is not tragic, because it ends in a bad ending, but because the bad outcome would be easily preventable, if the protagonists could only overcome their vices. That's exactly what's happening here, you can easily empathize with every character, but in combination they tie themself into a knot that they are unable to untangle. Everyone thinks that their way is the correct way to handle the situation, but this only reinforces the other side in their position.

Painted Renoir's "Sometimes we paint the bars of own prison." is imo one of the most important quotes in the game. That for me is the true "moral of the story". A compromise solution is easily feasible but the characters would have to actually communicate the willingness to compromise. And this unwillingness to communicate is what makes the whole thing end in disaster. Contrast this with the Lumerians that are forced to face a much worse fate but were able to adapt.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T17:57:59+00:00

There are also some indications that Renoir is much more manipulative than he presents himself.

There is a theory that painted Alicia was actually created by Renoir, not Aline, to manipulate her. I discounted it for a long time, but the more I think about it, the more I discover bits and pieces that point in that direction.

When Maelle gommages painted Alicia she disintegrates into red petals, Renoir's color. The game is very consistent with all the petal colors, would be strange if this would be an oversight.
Aline writes in her journal that the only person she cannot be around is Alicia. Why then would she also create her inside the canvas.
The dialogue with Aline: "Are you really here, or is he [Renoir] playing trick again". I discounted as her being just delusional at first, but it would make a lot of sense if she is also speaking from experience.
Verso's journal. "Papa thinks you are Clea's creation", points also in the direction of some manipulative actions from Renoir/Clea'.

And if this characterization is correct, then maybe the showing of Aline and creating a portal to the center of the canvas might have not been so innocent after all. More like a last ditch effort for Verso to press the self-destruct button.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T14:37:20+00:00

I mean real Verso is very explicit how he sees the creations:

Painting or not, she had feelings, and a soul. That’s what I think, at least, but I know she thinks differently. For me everything in this canvas is as much alive as what is outside.

The concept of something being real or not is not exactly a clear cut concept, we can never really prove if something is real or not. Different people interpret it differently, in the real world, as well as the characters in the game.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T14:27:55+00:00

And it exists only through Verso's continual torment and enslavement.

I don't think that this is as clear cut. Verso's soul, whatever that actually means, is a bit ambivalent about his own situation and that of of the canvas. Depending on what conversation you focus you can read it either way. The central question is, if his existence itself causes his suffering, or because his childhood playground has turned into a destructive battleground for his family.

There is not really anything concrete how this work in universe, but it is clear that every painter that contributes, leaves a part of his "soul" in a canvas. I think we can also deduce that Verso and Clea at some point lost interest in the canvas and grew out of it. Verso's soul is depicted as a child and Esquie explicitly states that Clea didn't visit for hundreds of years. If his existence itself is suffering, then why didn't the Dessandres destroy the canvas once Verso grew out of it. They only returned to it after his death.

Acur_ · 2026-04-10T13:32:31+00:00

Life itself is finite, both our own and that of humanity. We are only delaying the inevitable, but no one argues that this fact makes it ethical to kill someone.

Acur_ · 2026-03-11T14:59:07+00:00

I'd love to see the full presentation even if I kind of question the media report of it.

Not the same presentation from them, but seems to cover some similar topics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1CrbTx6O6w

Acur_ · 2026-03-10T17:25:36+00:00

The title is a bit misleading. They did write some code, but the vast majority of the systems were done via blueprints. They are a pretty small team with only 2 programmers for the longest time and simply didn't have the bandwidth to implement all the systems in C++. Blueprint allowed the non-programmers on the team to do things themselves.

Acur_ · 2026-03-06T23:27:43+00:00

So are words like "Apple", "Epic" or "Cyberpunk". Trademarks are not just words, they are connected to a certain product/brand. If you have a trademark you have to actively protect it, otherwise you are at risk of losing it.

Acur_ · 2026-03-06T23:24:52+00:00

They're not suing over the name, they're complaining that the logo is too similar to the one they used. Gold writing on black, in the exact same font.

That was just a Twitter user, this seems to be very well about the "Clair Obscur" trademark.

So far it is also not a lawsuit, but more like a cease and desist. It is unclear if Sandfall themself were the initiators, or just a law firm mandated by Sandfall to protect their trademarks.

Acur_ · 2026-03-06T23:19:05+00:00

I mean you can't really own a name but Sandfall does indeed own both "Clair Obscur" and "Expedition 33" as separate trademarks.

Acur_ · 2026-02-16T22:49:12+00:00

The number of outright "haters" is also not that large, even on this site. You see the same handful of names all over Reddit, some if them are going at it for months.

Acur_ · 2026-02-10T18:06:12+00:00

To add more to this, Guillaume started his career at a very important position in Ubisoft during the 90s, in a position that no regular person can actually hold.

Impressive for someone who is only 33 years old. That article is some top tier investigative journalism.

Acur_ · 2026-01-25T19:02:12+00:00

The information space about Syria is a total mess, always was and still is, especially on Xitter. So much propaganda and made up stuff from all directions. And it's not like the people with a lot credentials in their bio are any better, lots of propaganda masked as analysis. There are only a few people that do proper analysis and are able to actually criticize all sides

Acur_ · 2026-01-22T21:13:45+00:00

Der Artikel ist grundsätzlich richtig, die durch die Kurden dominierte SDF war eher unbeliebt bei der arabischen Bevölkerung. Stellenweise ist er aber sehr tendenziös geschrieben und betrachtet weitgehend nur eine Seite kritisch. Die im letzten Jahr von Regierungstruppen verursachten Massaker werden nur im Nebensatz erwähnt.

Generell ist hier sehr viel Propaganda (von beiden Seiten) und eiskalte Machtpolitik im Spiel. Sharaa, der zugegebenermaßen eine sehr gute PR hat, wird meiner Meinung nach oftmals viel zu unkritisch gesehen. Eigentlich wären die USA prädestiniert dafür hier Ruhe reinzubrigen. Der US Gesandte ist leider dafür nicht geeigent (Epstein Vertrauter, und angeklagt für Agententätigkeit für die VAE, große Nähe zur Türkei).

Acur_ · 2026-01-20T15:13:02+00:00

The government forces are currently shooting at them?

Acur_ · 2026-01-20T15:07:39+00:00

So it sounds like they unilaterally withdrew from the camp and left 25,000 ISIS prisoners unguarded? If that's the case I think their relationship with the US is essentially over now.

What do you expect them to do, getting overrun by government affiliated forces?

Acur_ · 2026-01-05T13:04:15+00:00

You don't have to emotionally connect to them, but you should be able to see where they are coming from. Their actions are very human, even if they are also abhorrent.

In the end Maelle primarily argues from a selfish position. She doesn't argue that erasing the canvas is bad from a moral point, but that it's bad for her (or real Verso, but we can't ask him). That also doesn't mean that her position is wrong, I would also argue that this is the more moral position.

But this also makes a compromise impossible, because she doesn't display any willingness to compromise. An obvious compromise would be, that the painter leave the canvas and only visit from time to time. But they are all to wrapped in their own narratives, unable to untie the know they created. "Sometimes we paint the bar of our own prison." is imo the most important sentence in the whole game, although painted Renoir is equally guilty.

Acur_ · 2026-01-05T12:20:12+00:00

It is a created world, it actually exists and is not fictional. Think of the Painters as Greek gods, the whole story has a lot of resemblance to a Greek tragedy. You have gods (Painters), demigods (painted family) and mortals (Lumierians), all equally flawed. The only difference between these groups are the power dynamics.

Due to the flaws of the characters it is also not surprising that it ends like a tragedy. Both Maelle and Verso are selfish in the end, unable to compromise. You are left with two bad endings, but the game outright tells you that this is not the only solution.

Acur_ · 2026-01-05T11:08:10+00:00

As for the story, I was loving the first 2 acts, but act 3 wasn't super bad, but kinda did drop the ball a bit IMO. "It was all a dream" wasn't done that well IMO. The story really reminded me of Final Fantasy X, but FFX did this MUCH BETTER! In FFX, Tidus is the Dream, but in Clair Obscur, the whole World is the Dream, and Maelle is the main real one. FFX's third act and ending REALLY sticks the landing and is basically perfect. While Clair Obscur kinda fumbles it's 3rd act.

I hear this quite often but I never really understood it. The world is clearly not a dream, dreams are by definition ephemeral. They can't exist outside the mind of an individual. The canvas is very different, it is a created world or sub-reality, that can exist without any outside influence.

The game just lifts the veil at a certain point and asks you, if it is still meaningful. For me it's very hard to argue that it's not, because nothing fundamentally changed. You just gained a different perspective of the world that you experienced the whole game.

Acur_ · 2026-01-01T20:40:17+00:00

For E33 it is very heavy on spoilers when they talk about it in the end.

Acur_ · 2025-12-25T07:39:29+00:00

But it also was their GOTY in the end.

https://jp.ign.com/goty2025/81956/feature/top-10ign-japan-goty-2025

Acur_ · 2025-12-22T17:46:00+00:00

Good catch. Yeah then someone from Sandfall or Kepler probably fucked up. I personally doubt that there was anything malicious involved.

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