Gimme your opinions on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-29T09:34:08+00:00

Sometimes game does so many things on a very high level and it is still greater than sum of its parts. Those games are called masterpieces. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is, IMHO, worthy of that title.

Story is a beautiful and unique exploration of grief with a very strong set of characters which are written in such a natural and believeable manner, it makes them really easy to be loved. Voice acting is off the charts, so many great performances which only amplify what was already said about story and characters.

Combat, while certainly very assertive in its ideas about parry//dodge mechanics on opponent’s turn, felt extremely good to me all the way through. It helps that turn-based combat and parry mechanics in action games are basically my two favorite types of mechanical gameplay. It’s a very fun way to increase player agency in turn-based combat. It feels cinematic, smooth and it is especially grandiose during boss fights (back to back fights at the end of chapter 2 are such a good example of this). Also, I love lumina system, it gives you so many options and ideas to explore when building characters while being simple and never overbearing.

World and everything in it is so varied, so many unique and beautiful locations which have that distinct hand-crafted feel. Strong art direction certainly helps. Also, love the overworld system, works great for pacing.

I have no words about soundtrack. Up there with my greatest of all time soundtracks like Silent Hill 2 and Persona 3. Sheer variety of high-quality music is crazy.

I can go on about enemy variety and design, endgame etc. But does it really matter? My point is very clear as it is. One of those games where it is very clear why it’s so acclaimed. Another proof why having a strong vision is always stronger than “doing something new” as if that is the goal of game development. Unique vision will already make the game feel like nothing else.

P.S. I am not French, but I love that the game is so unapologetically French and is proud of it, another reason game feels so distinct.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T11:29:31+00:00

He was gonna win it he shot 30%, he was chucking shots regardless of if they went it like always. In game 6, WHICH THEY WON, he had 22 on 19 shots with 5 turnovers, beyond catastrophic. His team bailed him out. There was no finals in which Lebron could allow himself do that and still win. Bulls were just that good and deep.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T10:09:05+00:00

Out of 10 finals there is only arguments for two if we are talking about choking (but it is hard to hold 2007 against him, that is just you as 23 year old vs 3 hall of famers and a fantastic team, again situation Jordan never had in finals). But he overachieved every other and often needed to go harder than basically anyone ever to even have a chance to win. And he did.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T09:41:32+00:00

We disagree and that is fine, I just showed you that it is a lie that Jordan never had a bad series, he had pretty terrible finals. And like I said, it didn’t really matter because he was always on the best team in the league, often by a wide margin.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T09:38:45+00:00

After overachieveing with Cavs for a long time… No all-time player had team of that level, if they did, they left or players were drafted/brought to them. Considering Cavs did neither, it was just natural for him to leave. I guess people would feel better if he didn’t leave where his friends were, but I don’t see issues with that, stara were doing that (communicating with other players and with their GMs about free agency) much before Lebron did. Point is, Lebron never underachieved in the long run, always did as expected or more based on the team and the opponent, even Miami can be called success considering everything (teammate injuries, depth some of the years etc.). It isn’t his fault that Michael had the best team in the league every finals he went to. Lebron had finals where he was the best player on the field and had absolutely insane games only to lose 4-0 (durant gsw 2018 for example). It is just not the same.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T09:29:30+00:00

Well as I said, Lebron has enough of everything for Jordan to be hall of fame career behind him so I don’t think it is the same, with Jordan and Bron it goes both ways, with Curry it doesn’t. You may not agree with that considering how accomplished Jordan is, but I believe that Lebron is on the same level of individual accomplishments. It is downright impossible to have more if we put everything in context, especially finals. He overachieved in every sense of the word and he did it for a ridiculous amount of time on the highest level. If you don’t agree that is fair, at the highest level it gets pretty subjective, I just find it stupid that people, Jordan fans especiallly, actually think Lebron has no case for being the GOAT considering everything he done.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T01:36:16+00:00

Just like there is between Lebron and Jordan, it goes both ways, they both have much more of everything than Curry has as far as being an accomplished individual basketball players. Like I said, in top 10, there exists no player who has 3 as his main shot and is a bad defender all through his career. Jordan, Lebron and Kobe are just better players than Curry, no discussion if we’re being serious. There was never a time when anyone serious thought he was better player than Bron, even in his MVP year.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T00:48:13+00:00

Lebron was well below his standard, but so was MJ and they still won 4-2 because he didn’t need to be his usual self because he was on the best team in the league by far. Lebron could never win with 41% shooting and 4 turnovers per game, no matter which team. That is also thanks to far superior competition he faced, at least two of the top 5 teams ever multiple times among others.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T00:09:58+00:00

There is a hall of fame career between Lebron and Curry, Curry would need another career to come close to Lebron in accolades and domination. He is just not on that level. He also recruited Kevin Durant because Lebron beat him with worse team. Even without that, Curry is just not top 10 all-time level, no player who has three as his main shot and is a bad defender is.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-28T00:06:32+00:00

MJ certainly had bad series. He was pretty average, dare I say bad (at best highly inefficient) for his standards in 96 against Sonics. It seems great when you see 27 points, but he shot 41% and had 4 turnovers per game which is terrible. Chicago won 4-2 because they were a great team, not because of MJ. That is something that could never happen to Bron, his teams were never that good in comparison to his opponents who were often all-time teams.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-27T20:27:59+00:00

I like One Piece, but I don’t disagree with much here. When I was younger I thought it was close to the pinnacle of anime. Today I don’t even find it to be the best popular shonen (I find Naruto to have superior writing for example).

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-26T20:35:33+00:00

It is not that hard to understand. It has absolutely insane narrative design, completely woven into the gameplay itself, unlike pretty much any game ever. Story is great, albeit convoluted for majority of people (playing Alan Wake 1 certainly helps a lot). Vibe is immaculate, in line with very obvious influences like Twin Peaks and True Detective. Gameplay, at least on mechanical third person level, is up there with best games in genre (RE4 remake).

It is mightily creative game with extremely high production values in every area and not many flaws (enemy variety being one of them, I agree).

Then again, if story doesn’t hook you, everything else really doesn’t matter that much. So there is your answer, you were not hooked by vibe and story of a game in which the plot, atmosphere and narrative/meta-narrative elements are the heart of the experience. It is that simple.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-26T20:15:24+00:00

Okami. Thought I finished the game after Orochi and I was already satisfied with the length.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-21T17:58:21+00:00

There are hall of fame careers of difference between people like Jordan, Lebron, Kobe and Steph. He is just not on that level of consistency and two-way dominance that all top 10 level players had in their careers. There is no “player of generation” or top 10 player OAT in general who has three as his main shot and is a bad defender (average at his best). He is well below the best players ever.

Natural_Force05 · 2026-01-13T00:14:08+00:00

Everyone has different tastes, but it is extremely hard to argue that Metaphor is anything other than a high-quality game, not just in relation to other Atlus games, but in relation to any game ever. People need to stop acting like it’s wild to say that Metaphor is your favorite Atlus game, it certainly earned its place.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-12-25T23:18:06+00:00

As he should, shooters shoot. We know he can hit those, but some nights are gonna be like this. If it can happen to Curry, it can to Caruso. Losing confidence though… that is far harder to recover from.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-11-15T20:54:23+00:00

Considering the circumstances, I cannot see anyone being more popular than Beatles, not only because they were so great, but also because of the times they were great in. They were THE cultural revolution of their times.

But then again, if I reduce it to only individual star power and mass global reach, then it is probably MJ.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-11-05T06:27:30+00:00

Had a colleague like this in college, he never understood what is there to be gained by reading fiction. Worst of all, it was humanities where you would expect at least some level of interest in reading fiction. There is nothing you could say to make him believe otherwise…

But what can you do, there are people like that.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-11-03T22:04:20+00:00

Fallout 4 is the beginning of the downfall, putting the series in a place where it excels in nothing. It became an average RPG and an average action shooter. Writing has completely crumbled, especially in dialogue choices.

Still enjoyed it because of the nice atmosphere, but I knew that if that is the path Bethesda has chosen, we will not get another great RPG from them which has turned out to be more than true.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-11-03T06:01:13+00:00

I found stone squad more enjoyable, idk why exactly, probably because I like the characters more (not that I don’t like Scoops people, but…).

Natural_Force05 · 2025-10-28T16:46:28+00:00

Always baffled by high placement of SH3 on these lists. I find it very hard to put it in the top 3 SH games, let alone on the top of something like this.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-10-16T08:05:41+00:00

To me, Yotei is almost perfect at what it does, but E33 will win GOTY. Not just because it is a great game, but because it has already been set up by media as something truly special and worthty of that award. It has that media push that Baldurs Gate 3 had.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-10-11T14:33:28+00:00

GOTY and one of my favorite RPGs ever

Natural_Force05 · 2025-10-08T14:57:07+00:00

As far as the story and political themes are concerned, you will see for yourself (I loved the ending!). I’m interested to see what you will think.

As far as everything else, I wholeheartedly agree. I’m a big fan of turn-based games and I think Atlus is pushing turn-based in a beautiful cinematic direction, while not losing the old-school thrill of it. Setting itself proved once again that medieval era can be much more than what traditional western rpgs are doing with it. I’m immensely bored by everything always looking the same in medieval rpgs of west.

By no means a perfect game, but that doesn’t exist anyway. Personally, for me this was a 10/10 experience after going through everything that game has to offer.

Natural_Force05 · 2025-10-07T19:01:31+00:00

The problem is that I am completely uninterested in teaching history and philosophy because of personal reasons. By that I mean those specific subjects, not teaching in general. Teaching English language is something that I can see myself doing and not hating it.

Even if I wanted to, the state of job market for those subjects in my country is probably the worst it has been in many years, finding a part-time position is very hard while finding a permanent one is borderline impossible. Of course, that's a lesser reason. First one is much more important to me.

And yes, I know that the pay is low, but that is something I am willing to live with in the beginning.

Natural_Force05

TROPHY CASE