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Game Review: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
2025-Dec-22, Monday 14:30
Have you heard the good news about French Final Fantasy X?
In late 2024 a trailer dropped for a game called Clair Obscur. We see a twisted Eiffel Tower, broken, with fragments still hanging impossibly in the air. We learn about the Paintess, who paints a new number on the Monolith every year and everyone older than that, turns into dust and flowers and blows away on the wind. I first saw the release date trailer back in January, and I watched it multiple times until the phrase "The Paintress Must Fall" would randomly play through my head. I bought it at full price, a week after release, something I never do with games anymore.
And then I didn't start playing until November because I was playing Vintage Story back in April. Oops.
When the game rewards happened and Clair Obscur swept them, I posted a meme with a screenshot from the game. "Game Awards? More like Festival de l'Expedition." That's around when I picked it up again after a couple weeks of playing Noita and getting mostly nowhere. And now, having beaten the game (but not all of the postgame, I'll admit), I can say that Clair Obscur--despite a couple major flaws--absolutely deserves all of the awards that it got and is one of the finest games I've played in years, so when you read the rant that occurs below just remember that it comes out of love and out of a wish that the game was even better than it was.
Also, there will be a ton of plot spoilers here. I'm going to put a warning down below before the part where I really get into it, but if you haven't watched the trailers and want to play the game totally blind, maybe come back and read this later.
Good thing it's not Expedition 67.
( Read more... )
In late 2024 a trailer dropped for a game called Clair Obscur. We see a twisted Eiffel Tower, broken, with fragments still hanging impossibly in the air. We learn about the Paintess, who paints a new number on the Monolith every year and everyone older than that, turns into dust and flowers and blows away on the wind. I first saw the release date trailer back in January, and I watched it multiple times until the phrase "The Paintress Must Fall" would randomly play through my head. I bought it at full price, a week after release, something I never do with games anymore.
And then I didn't start playing until November because I was playing Vintage Story back in April. Oops.
When the game rewards happened and Clair Obscur swept them, I posted a meme with a screenshot from the game. "Game Awards? More like Festival de l'Expedition." That's around when I picked it up again after a couple weeks of playing Noita and getting mostly nowhere. And now, having beaten the game (but not all of the postgame, I'll admit), I can say that Clair Obscur--despite a couple major flaws--absolutely deserves all of the awards that it got and is one of the finest games I've played in years, so when you read the rant that occurs below just remember that it comes out of love and out of a wish that the game was even better than it was.
Also, there will be a ton of plot spoilers here. I'm going to put a warning down below before the part where I really get into it, but if you haven't watched the trailers and want to play the game totally blind, maybe come back and read this later.
Good thing it's not Expedition 67.
( Read more... )
