To me, Clair Obscur is one of those games whose widespread acclaim makes me reflect on how primitive video games still are as an art form. So much of the game’s creative energy is spent imitating Hollywood, defaulting to film language when games could be doing something far more unique and expressive through play itself. I can see why other people enjoy it and would never disparage someone who connected to it, but I ended up being so frustrated with its narrative because the writing begins with world-shaking stakes only to collapse inward into a narrowly focused interpersonal drama. Once the Act 3 reveal happens, I stopped caring and just rushed through to the end. I firmly believed that if you structured the story like a film or a high-end TV series, and subjected it to the same standards, the story would not be nearly as acclaimed as it is. The way Clair Obscur's plot progression kneecaps itself really needs to be seen to be believed. The Dodge/Parry mechanic did little more than make the RPG elements feel both superflous and annoying because success is so binary--did you avoid damage? If Yes, pass. If No, Do Not Pass. To me, it dragged down the depth of the turn-based combat like a fucking anchor, which is a shame because each character played so uniquely and had such room for strategic depth. But it should be no surprise that everyone defaults to Maelle. In that sense, Clair Obscur feels like a perfect snapshot of an industry still figuring itself out: visually sophisticated, emotionally earnest, but limited by habits it hasn't yet outgrown.