Topic: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Okay, physical hasn’t come in yet lol. I’m just going to play it on GP instead, resubbed, my backlog has been healthily tackled the last couple months. Also recovering from a nasty virus the lady and I were inflicted with, in better shape now.

Before starting the game, any recommendations? UI settings, general comments?… or just dive in?

@Enriesto I would say "go with the flow"! I think part of the charm is how the game is paced - when you think you have seen "all" the game has to offer, it throws something new at you - a new skill, a new attack, new mechanics...

But, I would also say, keep these things in mind: even if the game has many "standard" mechanics borrowed from other JRPG's, be patient with the dodge/parry/QTE mechanics - I know many people can be put off by those. I think I'm "good" at dodging/parrying/rhythm mechanics in general (that's why I loved Hi-Fi Rush), but even then, sometimes some bosses can be hard as hell. But man, to land a counterattack after a successful parry is great.

And, if the game is giving you trouble, you can change the difficulty settings any time - I understand (as per another comment on this site) that there are no extra rewards (in-game or as an achievement/trophy) to beat the game on the harder difficulty.

I hope these words are of help.

And share (if you like) what you think about it when you play this one. Enjoy the game!

@NintendoByNature With Sciel I think you need to attack an enemy by giving them foretell and generate a sun charge, then do a move that consumes foretell to generate a moon charge which will put you in twilight mode. Then unleash as many powerful attacks as possible. I think that's how it works but could be wrong.

@HarmanSmith That whole visages section was cool and pretty tough.

@Enriesto if you're playing on PC just check the default resolution settings, when I first played it on launch it had set it to a crazy high resolution and caused my PC to run out of memory. Turning it back down to my normal resolution solved it. Maybe they've fixed that issue by now though.

@xeofate well, I think I'm kinda doing that. Somewhat at least. Maybe not the twilight part of it, but foretelling then moon or sun maybe. I can't remember.

I’m pretty deep in the end game in Clair Obscur. I’ve finished all Nevron quests, found all of the lost gestrals, maxed out all relationships with my party members, and have all combat oriented trophies. My goal now is to attempt to finish the Endless Towrr, and reach level 99.

@Kraven You must have enjoyed the game to do all that I'm just about to finish Act 2 after about 40 hours, have a bit to go to reach your level. It's been a great experience so far.

@xeofate I’m enjoying it a ton! I think I’ll be going for the platinum trophy (I’m playing on PS5). I’m 65 hours in. I’m glad you’re having a great experience with the game — it’s special, for sure.

Just beat the Dueliste by using my last character left and only a smidge of health left. I got really lucky. Im almost wondering if I should lower the difficulty if it's going to get exponentially harder from here on out.

@NintendoByNature I'm playing on the easiest setting and difficulty does get higher at some points - but I think you can go on without worrying about that, because your party will be leveled up when you get to those points, and later in the game, it will be more about exploiting weaknesses/equipping the right Pictos/getting to attack with each character most powerful condition (like Maelle's Virtuous Stance and so on).

@HarmanSmith ok good to know. I do grind a bit right before a boss battle, so that's been helpful.

I am two skills away from obtaining all skills for Monaco, but they are locked away in a high danger area. Therefore, I’m doing a bit of grinding to reach level 80, and then I’ll tackle the more difficult section. It shouldn’t take too long to get to that level since there are a few good XP farming locations. I’m also trying to make my way through the Endless Tower, and as the name suggests, it feels endless. It’s quite difficult too. My plan was to have the game wrapped up 100% by Friday, but I highly doubt that will happen. It will probably take me another full week to do all that I want to do, mainly due to time constraints.

I’m about to beat the game. The only thing I have left to do, optionally that is, is beat Simon. Holy moly, is this guy difficult. I know there are online resources to show how you can one shot him, but if you’re playing organically, good luck. I’ve fought this guy numerous times and cannot beat him, although I think I know how to do it now (I was contemplating it while I’m at work lol). He’s not super difficult, but it’s his third phase that really demolishes me, although I think I can skip that phase entirely with the right build.

That's my first turned based combat game (since Pokémon if that counts) and I'm absolutely amazed by it. Story and music are so captivating, combat is so engaging and it looks just incredible. Really did not think I would get into this one...but boy was I wrong.

I was traveling for work the passed few days and played it on the ROG Ally in the meantime...really smooth experience with cloud save and the performance was flawless on medium settings with balanced upscaling

Just hit a brick wall trying to take down one of the axons, Visages/Mask Keeper. Im just going to try the other one for now and hope by then, I can come back and be a little more powered up. My whole team is at level 38.

@NintendoByNature did you go and find the optional bosses for this area? I failed to do this and struggled through this boss.

@ZeD yes, and I took them down quite easily. Which is why I'm disappointed I'm getting wiped with the main boss fight. I could always just grind in those 3 areas instead of leaving the island. I may just do that.

The toughest part about the main boss fight is when he gets 2 different masks going back to back with attacks. And each attack being anywhere from 3 to 6 hits each. It's kinda borderline unfair.

@NintendoByNature That's one of the tough ones. I don't remember how i beat it, but I think that timing dodging and parrying helped a lot (and, btw, dodging and parrying will help you from that point onward). And having the "Break the Rules" ability with Maelle will help a lot too.

I wrapped up the story with 26 hours of gameplay. Man, what a fantastic game! One of the best I've played in recent years.

For those who have beaten the game, what did you choose?

@HarmanSmith awesome stuff. I think I'm 20hrs in, maybe a smidge more. Like I said I haven't done either axon yet. Approximately how much longer would you say I have? I will be doing a little bit of grinding though here.

@NintendoByNature I think you still have some hours to go - after the two Axons (I did Visages first, so the second Axon seemed a little "easier", btw), comes the endgame where much of the story unravels and some tough enemies(and bosses) will show up. Maybe I did all of that in maybe 8 hours or so, without grinding very much. I think I beat the game at level 45. Maybe at a higher level the final bosses wouldn't have been as punishing, but either way, I think getting a hang of parrying and dodging will be very useful, because you'll find many enemies/bosses with combo attacks and, without the right equipment/abilities/pictos/luminas, they can take you in one single turn!

@HarmanSmith ok sounds good. Im really trying to avoid lowering the difficulty. I should be at mid 40s by the games end if I'm at level 38 now.