Topic: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

@HarmanSmith I found Maelle, Sciel and Luna were my most powerful trio. They can support each other and if you make sure to have health share on all of them, Luna heals everyone.
By the time I got to the end, I respeced Maelle and put 99 into health and damage, just Picos to boos the other stats. She was a killing machine...

There is an end game in which you can become uber powerful and there is a New Game+.

@ZeD Thank you for the answer! So cool that there is a New Game+.

I've been keeping Gustave/Verso on my main party, and Sciel as a reserve - so, when my main party dies (having done so much damage), Sciel comes and annihilate the remaining enemies 😂. Battling this way doesn't give the others party members any EXP points (I think), but it's so fun to watch Sciel taking a bunch of enemies all by herself!

@HarmanSmith no problem. Working out your team is a lot of fun. It can be trial and error but when it clicks, it feels great. But then you may have to change it up due to strengths and weaknesses.

I'll be fiddling with my builds tonight for sure.

Is it me or is stone wave cliffs a difficulty spike? Those damn swordsman cultists are a pain to deal with in packs.

@NintendoByNature Maelle has a skill that get's rid of all shields on an enemy which is quite useful for that area. Sciel and Lune also have moves that deal multiple hits to get rid of those shields quickly.

@xeofate awesome thank you. Do you remember what the skill was for maelle?

@NintendoByNature "Breaking Rules" was the skill I believe, you gain 1AP per shield destroyed also. It will make short work of those cultists

@NintendoByNature Oh yeah, I remember them! Like @xeofate said, those skills are very helpful to deal with those damned cultists.

BTW, tonight I'm installing the game on my Rog Ally. Does anyone have tried the game on a handheld? How does it fare?

@HarmanSmith @xeofate good to know. I'll take a look tonight and try to make some adjustments. I have not Harman.

Also, tiny gripe. I feel like any enemy who stacks Shields should easily be wiped out if you manage to land a parry. Maybe even do a tad bit of damage too. I don't think that's the case from what I can tell.

@HarmanSmith Haven't tried it on a handheld, let us know how it goes. I'm playing on a 4 year old gaming laptop and it runs pretty well, maybe the occasional stutter. With South of Midnight sometimes I switch between the laptop and cloud streaming on the TV. I'm not going to attempt cloud streaming Clair Obscur though with those parry timings

Just finished ACT I and shut er down for the night. I just can't believe what happened there. Like, I don't believe it's true and something is up. Looking forward to seeing where this goes now.

On a side note, I spent a couple hours on Lampmaster between dying and grinding. I just barely skimmed by with 1 character left and 1 hit from death( not including my reserve character if all 3 die). That was seriously tough and I'm wondering if I was severely under leveled. I refused to lower the difficulty on it since i kept getting closer and closer.

Well, I'll see what ACT II brings.

I gave it a try the other day and have to confess to being disappointed. I’d hoped ‘turn based combat’ meant something like Xcom, BG3 or at least Midnight Suns, but it’s the you-hit-them-they-hit-you type, which I find boring.

@Old_Man_Harper that stinks. Sorry you're not into it. It's not a strategy rpg like xcom or midnight suns. It's more like paper mario with button prompts for parrying and extra damage and turn based combat. It's the most I've been engaged with a turn based game in a while. Sea of Stars was the last.

@NintendoByNature I’ll still play through it but it did kill my hype a bit. However, that’s the fault of my own assumptions, not the game.

@NintendoByNature I feel like I'm constantly under-levelled mid way through Act 2 and the parrying is just about keeping me in the fight. Lampmaster was a tough fight alright, got wiped out on the first attempt. There is a dark souls vibe to this game when you fail as you want to give it just one more try.

@xeofate absolutely, although I died a good 8-10 times 🤣. Mostly on phase 2 though. Act II just tossed a new parrying mechanic at me so now I need to get used to a new button to time just right 🤦‍♂️.

Also, I figured out why I was having so much trouble with the cultists. I was never able to parry their three strike combos. I'd nail the first 2 parries, but failed the 3rd every time. Turns out it's best to jump at the 3rd strike, and counter attack. Another major DOH! moment for me. Took me that entire section to figure it out right at the end.

@NintendoByNature Yeah there's a lot of mechanics to learn in this game, it's easy to forget some of them. I'm still not entirely sure how Sciel's foretell and twilight mechanic works.

I'm having to use dodge a bit more now as I'm getting wrecked by enemies and finding it harder to parry long combo attacks. Sometimes I equip that Energizing Pain picto that gives 1AP when you get hit instead of parry. I took on one optional fight just now with a flying enemy that keeps casting Blight (reduces your max health), it was such a pain I think I'll come back to it later.

@xeofate @NintendoByNature Now it is fully installed on the Rog Ally, but I haven't tried it yet! I hope it plays well and with a decent performance, with the parrying and all that.

I've just defeated Visages and Mask Keeper- it was a cool and fun fight! Even though I was haing trouble with Mask Keeper until I remembered I had the "Break the Rules" ability. Now, I'm going for Sirene.

I'm seriously loving this game.

It was a busy weekend so I didn't really get to dig into Act II other than the very beginning in the new area. Unfortunately, I'm getting absolutely annihilated by the first battle of standard enemies. The new mechanic of dodging/parrying they ask of you is throwing me off. Do I dodge, jump, parry, or the other parry... that's my dilemma each battle now. I'll dive back in tonight though.

@HarmanSmith good work. Keep at it.
@xeofate I actually don't know how that works with sciel either. Sometimes I can build up a few of her points and unleash a powerful attack. That's how I made quick work of lampmaster when I finally beat him. 9999 hit damage at times, but then other times, it's much lower.

I'm really trying not to lower the difficulty but the game is starting to get increasingly hard.