## 2025-04-26 I must unfortunately hand it to the French. It hurts me deeply to say that, but it’s true. **Clair Obscur - Expedition 33** is extremely good. Much of a [[JRPG]]’s quality hinges on how it sticks the landing, to be clear. But 12~ hours I am simply loving this game. I was a bit apprehensive at first – games that get hyped up too hard tend to disappoint me, but **Obscur** has actually exceeded my expectations, especially as someone who isn’t a huge fan of timing-based combat in my turn-based games. My biggest worry was that because of that timing-based system combat would get tedious. But this game understands something that so many white people trying to make JRPGs just don't seem to: power scaling and pacing. I've finished some fights in 9 seconds, and most end in about a minute. Things are quick and snappy compared to other games trying to play with these same mechanics. And yes, I am looking at you **Sea of Stars**. The combat also surprisingly reminds me of a game from an entirely different genre – and that would be **Remnant II**. By this I mean the game provides you with tons and tons of options to create cool and interesting builds thanks to its weapons and accessories. Rather than just straight level ups or stat sticks, you get accessories that modify the way the characters operate and build synergy. My current strategy has been having the three ladies of the game stack fire, which allows me to spread a character’s resource across all of the enemies that have been burned, and then having the third character spend the burn stacks as a resource to do extra damage. That’s only one strategy of many, and **Obscur** constantly drip-feeds you new options. These game-changing modifiers make it enjoyable to explore, since everything I’ve picked up has been valuable. There’s more to it than that but the tl;dr is that even 12 hours in, combat hasn’t gotten boring for me. That’s an accomplishment for someone with a short attention span like me. The characters themselves all have incredibly interesting roles. They remind me of **FFVI**, which each one having their own resources to operate around. > [!warning]- Slight spoiler of my favorite character > The most interesting one that made me gasp when I realized what was happening is Verso. I can’t believe I’ve never seen a dev team transfer a character action game’s mechanics into a party member. Verso has a letter grade that goes up with attacks and parries (and down if you take damage). The higher the letter, the better his skills become. It’s legit so fucking cool. I’m obsessed with the ingenuity. And the *music*. I don’t say this lightly – **Clair Obscur**’s OST is **Nier** levels of good. It is **Chrono Trigger** levels of good. Regardless of whether this game sticks the landing or not, it will go down as one of my favorite OSTs in a video game ever. The sheer density of amazing music on display here is jaw-dropping. The official OST is 8 hours long, and I promise you that quantity is more than earned. Another thing I appreciate about this game is the way it approaches its plot. I was worried the game would spout exposition at me, but it doesn’t. In fact, **Obscur** does something most video games don’t, which is treat me like an adult that understands context and subtlety. It dropped me into its world and assumed I was smart enough to figure it out. This allows for the characters to have breadth and depth and great dialogue amongst themselves. Like I said, the game could fall apart in its ending – but so far, I am not too worried it will, and am chomping at the bit to find out what happens next. It’s perfectly paced. That said it’s still not a perfect game. My slight issue with it is that for the most part, this game understands what makes JRPGs fun without going “look, reference!” But it also took a part of JRPGs I hate a lot, which is terrible minigames. I will not elaborate. Just know that if you ever say the phrase “gestral beach” at me I will grab you by the neck and demand answers. The bigger issue for me is the game’s complete lack of melanin. It sucks. There is one POC in this game and they’re still fair-skinned. I was hoping this game would have a more diverse cast than the usual JRPGs I play, but it doesn’t. How are you getting beat by **Tales of ~~Racism~~ Arise** in the POC department? It’s embarrassing, but honestly I’m so used to it at this point that I’ve just sighed and moved on. I’m pretty certain we have a classic on our hands. I’m going to devour this game for the next few days and let you know how it goes. ## 2025-05-04 Yeah it was a certified banger. I will probably wait for the world to catch up with my obsession before I talk about the ending though. I have many thoughts on it but I don’t think there’s a point in talking about it until other people have experienced it as well. I think the general consensus will be…controversial, let’s say. The disk horse is gonna be delightful.