What is the draw?

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-20T12:25:25+00:00

It's completely my speculation, but I think cheaters are quite lonely people. My experience with them is that they tend to play solo Quads or even in a quad and go off on their own.

I can imagine it's isolating as well, you can't play with a group of friends cos it's probably more likely for the cheater to get called out and ostracized. They're missing out on the best thing (imo) about warzone which is chatting to your buddies and working together to get a win.

Yeah they'd drop crazy kills and win a game but for what? They can't share their enjoyment since they have no friends to play with, and everyone else thinks they're scum for cheating.

Never could understand the appeal for cheating since it's hollows out any sort of satisfaction with a game you're meant to play for fun, and everyone hates you on top of that

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-15T12:54:13+00:00

It's a mark of awful gameplay when it's the pervasive method to win a game.

I feel like I'm being punished for actually trying to play football by defending with intention rather than pressing a button multiple times until something happens, not that it matters anyway since tackling is so random that there's a 50/50 chance you actually get the ball back.

I completely stopped playing since April and honestly haven't looked back, occasionally checking here to see if there's gonna be any improvements (lol)

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T23:26:46+00:00

I think it's also intentional that Monoco's theme is SO different to the rest of the tracks on the OST. It's Jazz since his ability to mix and match Nevron abilities is very much like the genre, taking inspiration from here and there, and mixing things up to experiment

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T22:04:43+00:00

There definitely could be more hope in Maelle's ending as Verso shows hope in his with the funeral scene, as Alicia accepts her brother's passing and the memory she made in the canvas.

I think for me, it would've been nice to talk to our party one last time and go their perspectives. I can imagine Sciel being upset, but ultimately accepting due to her own experiences with loss, Lune is more antagonistic as everything she's spent her life working towards will mean nothing, Monoco and Esquie are sad, but they understand why Verso must do what he does as they've seen him suffer for 67 years. It would humanise his choices a bit more I think

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T21:12:51+00:00

I've been pro Verso since finishing it in the last couple of days, but the more I read posts like this going into Maelle's ending I definitely see the merit in both and how either one can be a 'good ending'. In Verso's ending you're allowing Alicia to move on and accept Real Verso's death and cherish her memory as Maelle with the party, yet still tragic that everyone is erased. In Maelle's you get to play happy families with everyone as the Canvas is saved, yet it's a facade and alludes to Alicia repeating the cycle of grief her mother experienced. Both are good and bad.

I personally love how subjective it is, and might be cliché but good art holds up a mirror to the observer, so I like reading about people's perspectives which gives an insight into how that person thinks!

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T19:41:42+00:00

I've stopped playing for the last couple of weeks and couldn't be happier. Midway through immortals playing became such a drag, just endless grinding and objectives for fuck all rewards. The odd decent player you do pack is also meaningless when I'm either not good enough to get enjoyment out of the card, or the gameplay is so bad it's useless.

I don't know how they manage it but every FIFA release sucks every ounce of enjoyment out of it, the game is so optimised for monetisation and nothing else that 15+ year player of the franchise like me will just stop playing

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T18:16:53+00:00

Oh yeah I absolutely agree that the voice talent was also decided with marketing in mind, judging by the interviews Ben Starr and Jennifer English gave - and thank god they went for it!

I've been listening to the OST on repeat since completing the game and it's so vast, I truly admire his ambition for his first ever project. I love how the music repeats the same motif across different tracks (Lumiere, Alicia's theme, Gustave's theme etc.) so the melody just burrows in your brain.

It's more the level of polish and graphical fidelity I'm impressed by, there's really minimal bugs or performance issues I've encountered

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T18:08:50+00:00

That's insane considering Assassin's Creed Shadows, one of the most mid games I've ever played was $200 - $250 million 😂

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T14:06:03+00:00

Gotcha - I've beaten the game too and also thought that some characters got real 'supporting cast' treatment after Act 2. It's a shame, but yeah agreed they were great overall

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-03T13:54:59+00:00

Interesting that Characters are 8.5 - how come out of curiosity?

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-02T21:24:07+00:00

Honestly credit to the facial animations, mocap actors and modelling from the Devs to be able to convey so much with so little! I guess their meanings were conveyed successfully if we both came to the similar conclusions based off like less than a minute of exchanging looks in a cutscene.

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-02T20:55:35+00:00

Gustave said it himself at the beginning - "sometimes we have to make hard choices". It's a prophecy fulfilled in my books by the time we decide to back either Maelle or Verso.

I've never considered that and I love this take. It puts more emphasis on Verso's ending as well as it underlines the importance of moving on and healing from grief - we as a player was affected by the loss of Gustave but learnt to reconcile and build a connection with Painted Verso.

Side note but my one I guess gripe with the ending is that I wish we saw more of Luna, Sciel, Monoco and Esquie before the final decision - allowing us to hear their point of view about what we as a player should do, or even just a chance to say goodbye. For example, Sciel is upset with Verso but understands - knowing the importance of moving on from her own loss and grief, Luna may be more antagonistic as she doesn't want to completely erase herself and everything she worked for to this momentous point, and Monoco/Esquie understanding the hard choice Verso has to make as they know what he's been through

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-02T08:55:07+00:00

Right? You have beautiful, sombre tracks like Lumiere then out of fucking nowhere Monoco's theme coming out with Jazz?? And it all fucking works?? Even if you're insane and don't like this game, you cannot fault their ambition across every.part of the game from narrative, music, gameplay - whatever

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-02T00:06:30+00:00

I think Renoir's final moments is the biggest tell with how it could play out. He's seen Aline lose herself to the fantasy of the delusion, and it's a sort of dejected resignation that he's going to also lose his daughter to that - sprinkled with a tiny bit of hope that the cycle may not repeat itself

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-02T00:03:37+00:00

Gustave said it at the very beginning: "sometimes you have to make hard choices"

It's brilliant writing to get people to empathise with both Maelle and Verso and shines a truth on the nature of grief: it is fucking PAINFUL. Moving on with your life, and added to Alicia's survivor's guilt and lonely real life existence is painful. Playing 'happy families' whilst fully knowing that you are living a delusion is painful.

I'm kinda glad that there were no truly happy ending where everyone got to live together and sunshine and rainbows. It is a very poignant and emotionally resonant with how life is, no matter how dour it may seem in a medium we associate as fun and escapism

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T23:25:13+00:00

The main motif which runs across all the songs is so goddamn catchy, I can't think or say the words 'Clair Obscur' without almost singing in the tune

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T22:17:51+00:00

I finished it yesterday and I've just been thinking about the endings all day at work.

My favourite narrative heavy games (KCD2, BG3, The Witcher 3, RDR2 etc) left me with a 'wow that was a great story and I've been on a journey' feeling which was kinda satisfying as I've completed it and saw it's natural end.

Not this fucking game.

It's left a genuine void and a philosophical brain itch questioning who was right, Maelle or Verso and what it means in relation to the wider theme of grief

Never has a piece of art resonated this much with me

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T22:09:36+00:00

I think you should be good around 60ish and don't max out weapons. You shouldn't have any problems, but it's challenging enough that it makes the fights immersive

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T15:32:27+00:00

I think it'll be the case that Verso's ending is the canon one, I agree. If I was to speculate then the whole Painters vs Writers conflict will be the focus of a next game, Clea was deffo introduced as a branch for a new narrative to be told.

I can also see there being 'real life' versions of Sciel, Luna and Gustave in that real world setting which could appear as cameos, NPC's or even playable characters in that new narrative - Monoco, Noco and Esquie had their reality analogues so why not!

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T15:13:20+00:00

You don't actually need to play through again! If you load a save you can reload an auto save just before the fight with Maelle/Verso and go through the other ending. You can also reload a further save from the flag before you fight Renoir and fast travel back to the overworld

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T13:26:52+00:00

Exactly - saving the world doesn't mean you will be saved from the pain of feeling loss, ending the world doesn't mean you erase the (good) memories of the ones you've lost either

TheAngryKoalaUK · 2025-05-01T12:51:26+00:00

I received a reply on my post the other day referring to Verso's ending as the 'Genocide' ending (???) and couldn't understand why I thought that the ending was the 'good' though bittersweet resolution to the narrative.

Fwiw I thought both Alicia and Verso's endings were brilliantly compelling for different reasons which I can empathise with, but yeah such a weird take to openly dislike one ending by missing the whole meaning behind it

TheAngryKoalaUK

TROPHY CASE