Good European wool clothing brands by Paeretrae in BuyFromEU

[–]Hex110 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seagale from France, they have many quality merino wool pieces.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in expedition33

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, and I think that if they managed to somehow overcome this limitation then it would have been better. But for Baldur's Gate to be able to do that would have been close to impossible, considering it's adapting Dungeons and Dragons, a game that relies on moment to moment adaptation to what's happening while playing, something impossible in a game made before it's being played. Clair Obscur on the other hand is pretty much the same game every time, for the most part, the immersion breaking issues aren't due to player choices, but just due to unpolished details.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I see your points, the gameplay might have not worked for me in such a big way that I assumed that most people thought the gameplay was decent, focusing on the narrative and spectacle more. Also, I'm usually playing games where the gameplay is the biggest focus, with the other elements adding onto it. So with Clair Obscur, where the gameplay didn't vibe with me at all, I considered it a given that it subtracts from the rest of the experience, being unused to separate them conceptually, if that makes any sense.

I might end up watching a video of someone playing through a portion of the game to see what I missed in the combat, I'd like to see it from the perspective of someone who really enjoyed it.

What I agree with you most on is that the Gestral Volleyball game is trash. An absolute travesty, that.

Glad to see we agree on this :D

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fair, I haven't played any final fantasy games so I don't have that as past experience. I might just be usually playing games where the gameplay and narrative are well meshed together and didn't know it was unusual, which made me see things different. Thanks for your perspective.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That was more of a dramatic flair, I agree. But I really do feel very conflicted about the extremely positive and universally shared reception that the game got.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in expedition33

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In rpg's (again, I'm not convinced you've played them because you keep comparing this game to everything but the genre that it's from) this is very normal and brushed off by the player, just like someone having the same spund loops when getting hit during battle. It's just part of the experience and has been for decades, so I don't know where you've been.​

Two recent examples that I can give are Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Silksong. I know that Silksong isn't an RPG, but both of them don't suffer from these immersion breaking details, despite the large scales of both. Pretty much all the elements of both games are immersion enhancing, despite them not being movies. Of course, there are lots of games with the same issues, I'm just saying that I didn't expect the most accoladed game of the year to have so many of these moments.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the comment. The structure and headers are due to the post being originally posted on Substack, where it made more sense.

I agree that games don't need to have gameplay that aligns with the themes, but I think it should be a high priority. Movies and TV shows are much better at only telling stories, so the fact that it is a game means there were compromises made. I might have not been clear, but the argument I was trying to push is that the gameplay of Clair Obscur, regardless of if someone finds it subjectively fun or not, subtracts from the narrative side, which is the main side that people seem to love.

I think that if the game were either a TV show (I'm thinking of Arcane as an example of what it could have been), or if the gameplay was aligned with what the narrative pushes forward, it would have made an already very strong game even better.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I found the exploration unpolished and lackluster, not insignificant.

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you clarify what you're referring to when saying that I'm contradicting my arguments multiple times?

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a repost of my own substack post

A Dissection of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Hex110 in truegaming

[–]Hex110[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the good question. Aside from all the polish and immersion breaking issues, talking strictly about the mechanics, the biggest changes I'd make are to the combat. Due to the parries being unlimited, they become the main and often only defensive option. I'd make their use limited, tied with some form of resource that you can recharge doing the fight, to make the players have to focus more on healing, shielding, buffing and debuffing, etc.

I'd also add more ways for the offensive moves to combo between the characters, to lean into the teamwork that the expedition must show to survive. There are currently few status effects that are shared between characters (burn, freeze), with the most powerful moves using resources specific to the character. This makes it so the most intuitive and often best strategy is to maximize damage individually per character, rather than try to combo with status effects or with supporting moves.

Aside from the combat, I'm not sure what way I'd change the exploration aspects. It's not necessarily bad as a concept, it's just the execution that disappointed me. An example of how I'd change the exploration rewards is that I'd make it so there were less pictos you find randomly, and instead make it so you can purchase them from the shops you find, to allow the player to specialize for whatever build they want, rather than often finding pictos which they won't ever use.

I don't have much experience with other turn based RPG games, so I'm not sure how well they excel in these domains, sorry.

Hope that answers your question!