nah

>>1669954 It's shit. Everything, the gorgeous artwork, the battlesystem I really liked, the soundtrack that I've downloaded. It's all in service of a story that's so bad that it just ruins everything by the end. Notice how you said prologue and now when Verso was confronting Renoir. Him calling Verso "Son" made me laugh out loud because NOTHING IS EXPLAINED TO THE PLAYER AT THAT POINT. That's the game's major failing. Lune is waifu tier though. Her magic painting mechanics remind me so much of a Kineticist that it was really fun using her.

>>1669978 I don't know how something that looks as awful as this is "waifu material". The one you posted isn't any better.

>>1670012 >Red-headed cripple who holds no power in the real world and is upset her dad/older brother/adoptive brother won't give her more freedom >A drunk who tried to drown herself who's also a slut for sleeping with Verso and only wants to see her husband again, forever choosing to vanish with the painting because she's that stupid <Or, a dark haired intelligent magician who now understand the intricacies of her world and wishes to explore the outside, with a magical temperament to explore now that her life is no longer in danger. Best. Girl. She's essentially SCP-085 but with paint.

>>1669978 How is that bad? Renoir calling him son is son is supposed to intrigue you since you now have a character in the party with a connection to the mysterious guy breaking the established rules of the world and killing everyone when you just meet.

Funny how the casualfaggots praise this game as if it's the second coming of Christ. Like i don't know those niggers will forget everything about this game next month and proceed to fawn and cry and cum all over the newest "Experience™". Game looks fun though. Might pirate it later.

>>1669954 It's a standard turn based with parry rhythm game so it's worth a pirate if you skip all the cutscenes because holy fuck. The story is awful, basically it's a "grieving about your dead" type plot but it's done in the most retarded "blue pill red pill" shit possible. The setting doesn't matter, none of the characters are relevant by the end of the game, The whole game is just padding for 3 acts worth of old Final fantasy overworld shenanigans that ends up leading to the writer directly asking pic related to the player, "ARE YOU CHOICE A OR CHOICE B?????. And after you chose the answer, queue "final battle" and then credits roll. The End. You're team choice A now, So you will go to the internet and argue why Choice A is the correct choice as opposed to Choice B, which is what 90% of this thread gonna be.

>>1669954 I pirated it and was extremely impressed with the optimization on max graphics settings and then equally impressed by the music. Will likely buy it on sale if nothing faggy comes up in the story later on

>>1669954 Kind of a lame OP, could have put a bit more effort in, but I just finished the game and would like to talk about it, so it's better than nothing. Overall, I very much enjoyed this game. There are certainly flaws, which become most apparent in the latter part of the game, but I don't believe any of them can completely ruin most people's experience. So much has been said about how great the music and the aesthetic of the game are, but I'm most impressed with how the characterization and ending was handled. It's clear that one of the main ideas the writers wanted to convey was that there were no true villains with evil intentions involved with the plot, and they definitely succeeded in expressing that. The Paintress went from a villainess who was literally looming on the horizon, forever representing the limited time people had left, to being a tragic character with good (albeit selfish at the same time) intentions that was actually holding back the "true threat." This reveal was neither underdone or over dramatized, and didn't give me whiplash as a player. Enough information was given visually and narratively that it all made sense. Sophie even alluded to the Paintress not really being who she seemed to be during the prologue, but her statement didn't seem out of the ordinary at the time, and thus didn't make the later reveal have any less of an impact. Renoir could have easily be pinned as the overprotective, overbearing, controlling father who just wanted everyone to do what he said, and while he was indeed frustrated and protective, he had more than enough reason to be. In fact, his position was not only understandable but it was agreeable, and I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of players were agreeing with him completely by the end. It's not easy to write a character like that, and it could be tempting to just make a big bad meanie villain instead, so I appreciate the devs taking the time to avoid making him like that. As for the ending, due in part to my own errors, I was spoiled about the fact that there are two endings. In the last few hours of the game, seeing the ways that Verso and Maelle were starting to disagree about things, along with Verso's facial expressions., it made sense that this was going to be the case with the ending. I was concerned at first that Maelle's ending would be given preferential treatment, because she's pretty much the protagonist and the postergirl for the game. But the writers handled it well, balancing both her selfishness and immaturity with her reasonable reaction to potentially losing her life inside the canvas. It makes sense that she enjoys being the the canvas, because she doesnt have to deal with the fact that she has lost an eye, has a severely scarred face, and a lost voice in real life. Sure, maybe life will get better, maybe her voice will heal a little. But she's 16, just lost her brother to a fire that she blames herself for, and feels like she cannot truly live due to her emotional and physical state. Nevertheless, the writers make sure to show, at the same time, that she is being immature and, like the rest of her family, is having a difficult time letting go even though it is causing pain for everyone inside the canvas world. She is so set on her plan that even though the last fragment of her brother's "soul" is feeling tortured, literally begging for help, to be released into death, she still tries to get what she wants by potentially offering him "a chance to grow old" (Seeing Verso reduced to that was pretty painful, after he has gone through so much and stayed strong for so long). If the player still sides with Maelle, even after learning she lied to her father's face and plans to never leave the canvas, the player is given an unsettling ending that leaves the emotional states of the characters, especially Verso, in a state of uncertainty. As the cutscene went on, it felt creepier and creepier, and I am very glad it ended up being the opposite of sunshine and peace. And for Verso's ending, I'm glad they stuck to their guns and didn't give it some sort of equal treatment, where it too was made unsettling just like the Maelle ending, to make sure no players felt like they were wrong for siding with Maelle. In his ending, the Dessendre family finally starts to let go, allow themselves to heal, and stops putting the denizens inside the canvas through all sorts of troubles because of the family's inability to confront their grief. Even if Verso had to tear the bandaid off, so to speak, it shook the family awake from their dream, especially Aline and Clea, and Maelle who was about to become just as obsessed and addicted as her mother was. Sometimes people can go in circles, ignoring their pain or saying they are going to start healing later, once they finally decide to cope, but they stay stuck until someone takes those first difficult steps. I think the writers conveyed that idea well in this ending. So, after all, the ending doesn't end up being some A or B choice even though it could have been. They clearly make one ending better for Maelle, better for the Dessendres, the people and living things inside the canvas, and better for both the painted Verso and the memory of the real him. Some players might see this as unfair, but it is much better to make a solid story with a proper ending than try to make sure your players sleep better at night no matter what side they pick. It is so much more satisfying this way. >>1669978 >spoiler Anon, that is called foreshadowing. It isn't supposed to make sense. It isn't supposed to be easily explained. You're supposed to wonder what that statement meant, then feel satisfied as you continue the story and piece together the explanation for yourself. >Lune is waifu tier though. Yeah, looking back she's the better choice, I only picked Sciel because I heard there was a swimsuit you could only get for her if you chose to romance her and I didn't want to miss it. Towards the end of the game when Sciel said she wanted to end her relationship with Verso because her husband could be miraculously brought back, I understood, but also realized choosing Lune would have lead to a much more satisfying result.

>>1669972 How many of them are French?

>>1686881 Those are the English VAs.

Can we all just agree, here and now, that Maelle is cute/hot?

>>1707708 Hard to disagree

>>1707708 Hubba hubba

>>1707708 Oh la la!

TELL ME ABOUT THE GESTRALS, WHY DO THEY WEAR THEIR MASKS?! (unless it actually gets explained.)

>>1707708 AI Here, Holy Shit!

>>1718223 Because with out them they would have no faces

>>1707708 Too big. Maelle is hot because she's flat.

>>1718223 Gestrals are living brushes

>>1669954 Besides anti-features tied to microtransactions the things I can't stand in vidya the most are: QTEs, turn-based combat in third person games, pretentious stories, "alternative" history so you can shove fags, niggers and women where they don't belong, redditor's game of the year. Correct me if I'm wrong but this shit checks every single box.

>>1719158 >QTEs fair > turn-based combat in third person lol >pretentious stories it really isn't, the less you know the better so you're gonna have to just trust me bro > "alternative" history so you can shove fags, niggers and women where they don't belong there are literally no real historic characters in the game, and no black party members.

>>1719172 >>1719158 QTEs are just a way to be more interactive since turned based JRPG combat is just picking an attack option. I don't see an issue with that unless they're too prevalent much like Platinum games.

>>1719172 TB in TP is the least immersive option I can think of so at best I'm gonna watch a few minutes of wakthrough to confirm my suspicion of the setting being a dei checklist and then read a plot summary to see how wrong my sixth sense really is. >>1719179 >QTEs are just a way to be more interactive No, QTEs are a way to make retards mash buttons and should have died in the 80s. I wish I could ignore them but I can't even think of a game I haven't quit the moment a QTE started except for the first Mortal Kombat when I was a kid.

What counts as QTE? Rapidly tapping buttons to do things in cutscenes like in the Arkham/David Cage games? I don't remember this in Claire Obscure though. It's just timed single or multiple spaced inputs when your skill activates to increase the final damage you dealt.

>>1719280 For me, whenever a button prompt appears on screen and if you press it on time to get a reward or avoid punishment, that's a QTE element. So even stuff like the Mario RPGs have QTE elements to their combat. Now, somewhere you have to draw the line in, because otherwise you could argue that the combat of not just the Barman Arkham games, but Sekiro as well are just QTE.

>>1719158 >QTEs Expedition 33 does have quick time events, but they don't have the traits that make QTEs annoying. Most people dislike QTEs because they are typically a series of button presses, often random and purposely annoying to complete, and the player usually has to try them over and over again to actually succeed. This breaks the flow of the game and doesn't allow the player to use his weapons, skills, etc. that he gathered during his playthrough thus far. QTEs in Expedition 33 are not like this. You always push the same button. It is always 1-2 presses, maybe 3. The zone for "perfect" timing is always in the same place on the icon. The only thing that changes is the timing; the more powerful attacks sometimes require slightly faster reaction time. If you fail the QTE you still do damage, you still take your turn, and you still work towards beating the enemy. You don't take damage (minus a couple skills) and you don't have to retry the fight. There is even a setting that the player can toggle that automatically completes QTEs for you. tl;dr The game's QTE's are more like pseudo-QTE's, not real QTEs, because the only traits they share with actual quick time events is that you push a button on your controller at a specific time. >pretentious stories The game's story is not pretentious. The team had a story they wanted to tell, a major theme they wanted to present, and they did it. They didn't spend time making long, drawn out dialogues or cutscenes to try and show off. Nor do they just throw the player into the world with no context and tell him to figure the puzzle out himself. The game has a clear style to it, Belle Époque mixed with a twisted, broken, almost otherworldly environment and they stuck to it while also combining the expected environments (such as a forest, the ocean, urban streets, etc.). They clearly cared about building a unique story and setting while also incorporating some ideas people are used to. There isn't any indication that the team wanted to show off or thinks they are better than everyone else. > "alternative" history The game isn't an "alternative" history either. Can't go into detail lest things get spoiled but the devs aren't trying to show what a "better" or more "progressive" France would look like or anything. >so you can shove fags, niggers and women where they don't belong The game doesn't have any fags or homosexuality. From what I saw during my playthrough, there wasn't even a joke about someone being gay or having a bromance or anything. There are times where, through text or audio/cutscenes, two men or two women appreciate each other deeply, but it is kept as a close bond of friendship, without any romance or sexual desire shoved in. As for niggers, there are some black NPCs that do nothing. There is one slightly more important black character that has a voice and several lines. He gets eviscerated less than an hour into the game and you never see him or hear about him again. There is also a slightly important black kid that also does nothing of import for the story. The most annoying part is that we all know why the dev team made these characters black, as they could have easily been white and functioned the same. Whether it's self-imposed after years of pushback and conditioning, or a command from the suits in charge, they did it to seem "diverse" and "fair." All the typical reasons. And about the women, having women fight and be a part of the main party has been a staple of Japanese and Western RPGs for decades because people like seeing cool, attractive, and fun women while playing video games. None of the women seen in E33 try to be like men or take over the roles of men. Having women fight on the front lines also makes sense in the game world, because their society needs as many people as they can to volunteer, they can't afford to limit it to only men (I'm leaving this vague on purpose to avoid spoilers).

>>1721093 >a command from the suits in charge There are no "suits in charge.' It's a small studio founded by a small group of Ubisfot expats. I'm just gonna guess the nigs are ingrained in French indoctrination and they do it out of habit.

>>1721148 >There are no "suits in charge.' It's a small studio founded by a small group of Ubisfot expats. Fair point. Which reminds me, apparently there was a bit of anger expressed on Xitter because the entire French dev team is white. Some people were calling others to boycot the game. Of course that never happened but still it was pretty funny to see. If anyone happens to have archives of that to share, they would be appreciated. >the nigs are ingrained in French indoctrination and they do it out of habit. Which is very possible, like I said it could be a thing they subconsciously did after spending their whole lives being fed bullshit. Thing is, the fact that none of the main characters are niggers does show that the dev team maybe included the niggers that they did in order to just get any potential freaks off their back. Yes, it does count as selling out and no it should not have happened, but if they really truly believed that including nigs makes their game better then they would have had more of them.

>>1721093 Yeah none of this is appealing to me at all. Belle epoque and a good story sure but I don't play videogames I don't like to maybe experience a story I won't hate. >>1721148 It's not. The game cost atleast 25 mil (money from ///Epic Sweeney Tim\\\ and some shell company in Singapore) to make and they've outsourced what they could. The whole narrative about disillusioned indie devs was just a smart marketing to shield themselves from current sentiments towards gaming companies.

>>1722144 >money from ///Epic Sweeney Tim\\\ and some shell company in Singapore Gonna need a source on that anon. Epic doesn't usually give out money without an epic jail deal and E33 did not have one.

>>1722147 It was just one of smaller grants during pre-production along with some other from their gubmint but there's more. The shell I was referring to is their publisher, the game was day 1 on gaymen pass, the "indie" company's CEO is a nepobaby with direct ties to Myrte Invest. The indie success story is just a story of its own and I wouldn't expect you fags over here falling for it.

>>1722144 >25 mil I heard it cost 40 million

>>1707708 Maelle needs bumping... from every conceivable angle.

>>1707708 Her little butt in game turns me on

>>1669954 The prologue was dog shit, they have the kids getting gommaged despite telling us that only people of a certain age were going to get nuked

>>1749113 Yeah that's called foreshadowing, you'll understand once you reach the later part of the game.

>>1749146 No thats specific case is bad writing, if you wanted to foreshadow the ideas from later in the story you shouldn't expose something that contradicts whats supposed to be common sense of everyone there

>>1749178 It's not bad writing, play the game.

>>1749181 Spoiler and explain in then

>>1749184 It'll ruin the game for you, It's not worth going into such heavy detail over a possible accident and a few black NPCs

>>1749196 I already know pretty much all details of the game, this would be minor stuff

>>1749201 Very well, I'll spoil it for you. So basically the world of Expedition 33 isn't actually the real world, It's a fake world made by the painters who appear to be a group of people around WWI who can make worlds ala "Paintings". The "people" inhabiting it are just left over "Chroma" which is some kind of life force the "Painters" use to paint. The whole point of the story is to get Aline and Alicia out of the fake world made by the real Verso who died in a fire created by "the writers" to kill Verso. Alicia also tried to get Aline out of the painting since Clea wanted to get Renoir out of the Canvas/fake world to have him fight along side her against "the writers". The actual main protagonist of the story is a fake Verso made by Aline who gave him the memories of the original Verso to cope with her sons death There's probably some details I'm missing, but the kids getting gommaged can easily be seen as either an error in the games code or foreshadowing that the world of the game isn't actually the world we know

>>1749113 >The prologue was dog shit, they have the kids getting gommaged Where? There aren't any kids getting gommaged in the prologue. The kids that get shown are watching the adults around them get gommaged.

>>1749283 I assume it was a hidden detail by the devs that ef2077 is being super autistic about, which is fine.

>>1749283 >>1749292 I vividly remember some kids getting gommaged but i can't find it so i guess my mind is just schizoing

>>1749292 >>1749325 Here's the cutscene for reference. The game does foreshadows things, but having someone that isn't 33 years old get erased seems like it would be too obvious. It would be too bad if your experience was marred by something that didn't happen, and it would be funny if I happened to miss such something so obvious when I played. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=o0Ohd6I3Utw

>>1749325 Don't worry, it happens to everyone over the age of 30.

Apparently Tetsuya Nomura and Nicholas Maxson-Francombe had a bit of an art trade which was really cool to see.

>>1707708 We need more qt reds like her in vidya.

Please add spoilers to your thread nigger

>>1902591 If you think Expedition 33 is pretentious, go read James Joyce of .

>>1902680 >read James Joyce Given that his writings are less comprehensible than A Clockwork Orange, no I don't think I will.

>>1719199 >watching a character use an attack is less interactive than timing a button push for a successful attack retard spotted, go much on some rocks

>>1903410 more* interactive

>>1904412 >And I think even the author is incapable of grasping the theme they put out properly because it's very clear towards the end that there is only one correct ending

<<1904412 Go away. It's clear that you didn't actually play the game.

>>1904870 I get what you're saying, but I liked it anyway and that's all that matters.

>>1904946 They're french, can you really blame them?

>>1904870 It sounds like, while playing the game, you were looking for something that wasn't there in the first place. And thus you felt disappointed. The main idea of the game is to show what happens when you let grief get so out of control that you get stuck in it. It's not about balancing obsession with your craft and reality or what it means to be real. Aline had lost any semblance of balance long ago because she simply would not let go of the last scrap of her son. She knew everything in that painting wasn't truly real, that was never brought into question. Only that it "felt" real. The game is showing the result of this inability to let go. You can even hear it in the music. Lyrics about seeing Verso in every shadow, every stroke inside the canvas, his smile. Aline's weakness drags her husband into the whole mess, and along with grieving for his son, he is terrified of losing his wife too. Again, you can hear it in the music. The two of them telling each other to stop painting, to keep painting, to stop loving me, to keep loving me. And on top of that, Clea gets dragged in because of her parent's struggle against one another, and then Clea guilts Alicia into joining her despite her weakened constitution. Clair Obscur is not trying to ask if this situation is healthy. It isn't, and it makes sure to demonstrate that. Instead, the goal is to show how much the cycle of grief can harm someone and the ones close to her. In the game, it is literally killing her. And on top of it all, Alicia almost becomes like her mother too, as the other theme of the game is to show how easily Alicia could fall into the same traps as her mother because of her selfish desire to not let go. She lived a whole new life, saw how horrible things had become because of her mother, yet still found it difficult to relieve the last remnant of Verso of his painting duties. This is also why you found the ending to be lame. Because you expected it to present two equally viable choices like every other video game these days. But that was never the goal, Alicia's ending is supposed to feel wrong, unsettling even, because in that ending she follows through with the lie she told her father and never leaves the canvas, never lets Verso rest in peace, and becomes exactly like Aline. Verso's ending is better and feels more satisfying because he chose to tear the bandaid off, to break the cycle even if it was uncomfortable, even if it broke the illusion that Lune, Sciel, and all the people of Lumiere were not real.

>>1905128 >the devs pretend they are two equally valid choices I encourage you to look again and see how the results of each choice are presented. They are not shown as equally valid. The Alicia choice is clearly worse. > It's also lame because the compromise option was nonexistent. That is because Maelle did not want compromise. She did not want to spend a smaller amount of time in the canvas and balance it with real life. She enjoyed being able to speak, being able to see with two eyes, to not have scars all over her face, and that could only happen inside Verso's canvas. Most of all, she enjoyed seeing Verso again, to a selfish extent. Renoir actually mentions compromise after the final boss battle against him, telling Alicia to leave the canvas, that she can come back later. She just cant say in for long periods lest she deteriorate and become obsessed like her mother. Every moment they spend in the canvas has a price. Alicia even says she will compromise, but she admits to Verso two minutes later that it was a lie to get her father to leave the canvas. The reason why it is either destroy the canvas or stay in it forever is because that is what the two main characters desire. >But the lamest part is how this petty family drama devours the entire story of Expedition 33 It is a story about family and how a family handles grief after losing their oldest son in an arson attack on their house. It makes sense that family takes center stage. If you don't like that, fine, but the game is not objectively worse because of this. >I wish we had more of the world exploration instead of this dumb shit. Did you look for the journals left behind by previous expeditions? Did you go to the optional locations and talk to the NPCs a bit? These things play a major role in building backstory and a connection to the world. >It's regular female drama, where the emotional drama is the center of the world and everything else doesn't matter. Again, what do you expect when the family is grieving the loss of their son to a fire? Emotions are going to be the main driving force for the entire story. If they thought more rationally at all, the story would not have happened. Renoir is the voice of reason in the game, putting aside his feelings and moving on even though it is painful, and pushing through to try and bring sense to his daughter because his wife refuses to listen. Even though you defeat him in battle at the end, his logic and reasoning make sense and are presented as reasonable. So logic and moving beyond emotion does matter because they are shown to be the actions needed to stop the torment going on inside the canvas and inside the minds of the Dessendre family. >I am maintaining an outsider's perspective and going "yes, this is all really unhealthy and you guys are all being dumb about how you try to handle and solve this shit" Good. That's the point. The tragic elements are a lesson to the player, because we all will face similar challenges at some point in our lives, even if they are not quite as extreme.

>>1905279 >the boss who killed your expedition and who you are trying to kill is just happily supporting your party in the back and could've wiped you guys out whenever. The Renoir who decimates most of Expedition #33 at the beginning of the game is not the same as the Renoir you see at the end of the game. The first one was a painted human created by Aline in order to try and replicate her family inside the canvas. He is more aggressive possibly because of the resentment Aline has towards her husband for trying to bring her back home. The Renoir at the end of the game is the real one. That is why he is supportive at the end but not at the beginning. How did you miss this detail? You are free to dislike any game you want, but how legitimate can your points be if you don't understand major elements of the game's story and characters?

>>1905359 >I was only pretending to be retarded

>>1905128 >>1905279 so in short the story is bad because its not the generic party members defeat the big bad, save the world and live happily ever after, ok hot take

>>1922614 You forgot that this French game also comitted the cardinal storytelling sin that apparently kills any good plot: being written by a frog.

>>1923107 I like Wakfu.

I just finished the endless tower, I did indeed have fun. I also just beat Clea, Maelles level 3 gradient attack 2-shot her on hard lol. But how the fuck do I deal with phase 2 Simon? Unrelated but I cant make posts on this site anymore from PC. Getting a bypass takes forever, I tried to post this for over an hour before giving up. Merde

>>1923731 >Simon He has an attack that hits a single character 18 times, 5 attacks of 3. There's enough bullshit in this game that I just got fed up.

>>1923731 >>1924017 You see, your mistake was letting him get attacks. Even with the nerfs you can still Maelle one shot him. Or do the Verso burn shit. Just look up cheese strategies for him. There are plenty.

>>1924017 I assume thats the lightspeed attack of his, or whatever the name of that attack is. Thats the attack thats rapes my entre party one by one. >>1924229 >You see, your mistake was letting him get attacks. Only strat for this that i can think of it using Sciels attack that delays enemies turns, Ill try more later. >Just look up cheese strategies for him. I prefer beating games myself, looking up guides and/or cheese is the normalfag pleb way, usually. At most I like talking to others about stuff I strugge with, much more enjoyable than googling stuff.

>>1669954 >The prologue hooked me right in. I felt like the prologue was the weakest part of the game. It went on for too long and made me worried that the game would be another hyped up walking simulator. Glad didn't drop it, 10/10 game and unironically what I wish modern FF games were. Only really complained is how blurry, grey and artifact-ridden the graphics are, but I can forgive that since it's a huge game from a new studio and the fact that it's turn based means the graphical artifacts are less of an issue.

>>1923731 Simon is a bonus boss that exists for cheese builds. The cheesiest way to beat him is probably to make an over-the-top one-shotting build and just nail him before he does anything, but there are also builds that fully heal the party every single turn and deny Simon the ability to kill party members before they get a turn. >>1924796 >that pic Now there's an old meme recycled. >Only really complained is how blurry, grey and artifact-ridden the graphics are, but I can forgive that since it's a huge game from a new studio and the fact that it's turn based means the graphical artifacts are less of an issue. It's actually a real issue for the dodge/parry mechanic it loves so much, as well as other QTEs. The worst part is how DLSS causes screen lag because the only way for DLSS to AI render extra frames is to already have a real frame from the present as reference material to make extra frames inbetween the present frame and past frame and delay showing that real frame from the present to show the AI frames first, which means you get delay, which means dodge and parry mechanics are unnecessarily hindered by this bullshit. Personally, I don't forgive that shit. Real frames only please. There are ways to make E33 stop doing frame fakery though.

I really should get around to finishing my first run of E33, but I just wasn't enjoying the dodge/parry side of the mechanics at all.

>>1925181 Where abouts are you in the game? Depending on your build, it can really trivialize those aspects to the game.

I finally beat Simon, it took a while. I found a Verso weapon that couldnt hit S-rank and paired that with the End bringer skill, and got 'fill enemy break bar on death' for everyone. I found it very cheesy, but as anons have mentioned, its a boss made for cheese strats. I had Maelle for damage and Sciel for buffs, debuffs and utility. Greater rush and greater slow made more of a difference than I thought they would.

>>1925181 Don't play on Expert mode and just maximize the Defense stat (put everything and I mean everything into Defense) on everyone and you can facetank everything except chromatic bonus bosses that you can come back to later. You'll have to dodge/parry against Maelle and the mime in the prologue but other than that you should be able to go through the entire game without parrying or dodging at all with a starting build like that.

>>1925206 According to the achievement tracker, I'd just unlocked Monoco as a party member.

>>1925557 I should probably get around to playing the game again and fighting simon authentically. I cleared him back when Maelle could one shot every boss in the game, so I cheesed as much as a Chicago style pizza. >>1925995 As >>1925982 said, reset skills and invest as much as possible into defense. In addition, I think that at this point in the game there are perks for having armor/shell along with weapons that lend those skills as well. The shell effectively allows you to tank a number of hits from opponents. Are you on easy or expert?

>>1926008 There's Story (Easy) Mode, Expeditioner (Normal) Mode, and Expert (Hard) Mode. Story mode is not a game. Expeditioner works fine if you max defense. Expert will make you want to hang yourself if you want to play it without dodging or parrying because you will have to do way too much autistic level grinding and it's just a laboriously slow, painful fucking experience with trial and error reloading to boot. Expeditioner works great with defense maxing though. You can even disable QTEs with the accessibility setting (no option to auto-dodge or parry though). By the way tints reset at every expedition flag (some people miss this) and you should really max the upgrades for those. If you're having trouble finding those (extra tints for more uses and shapes for improved effects), consult a walkthrough.

>>1926008 Someone mentioned a healing build vs Simon amongst others but I have no idea how youre supposed to beat him without stacking insane damage or stunlocking him because when you get him down to about 1/3 HP, he will do a unblockable move that wipes the entire party.

>tfw currently marrathoning all the streamers who got mindbroken by the game This game can be enjoyed in so many different ways holy shit >>1669978 Imagine getting filtered by the explanations thrown at you by the game so you're not completely lost. The entire story revolves around relatives manipulating each other for various reasons and lying and spreading dinsinfo, I guess such a plot is too complicated for fortnite kiddies >>1684668 It's clearly bait

I just tried this game out for the first time after ignoring it for months. Right after the overlong tutorial that is mandated by law for every modern game, this game commits suicide by parry. When I finally got to the game proper, I quickly ran into a boss enemy, so for the first turn I do all the tactics, mark the enemy, build up elements, set everything up, then it does a delayed attack, I miss the parry and get one character KOd in one hit, same thing happens for the second character in the next turn. First death in the game, then I see that a game over just puts you close to the fight you died in and I realize you're supposed to just fight the enemy over and over until you memorize the timings for its animations. This is suicide by parry, because the way they made it, it's the only mechanic that matters. When you parry an attack, you don't just counter, you take zero damage and you attack for more damage than even your special skills, so when you give enemies high damage, the game becomes the parry. All of the RPG mechanics and tactics, all that about building up elements, AP, the overcharge gauge, weaknesses, marking, etc. none of it matters anymore, because if you can get the parry consistently, you can use all of the worst attacks, the worst builds, ignore all the mechanics, and you will win 100% of the time, but if you can't get the parry consistently, you can use all of the best everything and you will lose 100% of the time. At that moment, the entire game became the parry. This is not an RPG anymore, this is the game where you memorize the animation and press the parry button, and nothing else matters, because the parry is so overpowering it overrides every other mechanic in the game by a wide margin. But it gets worse. After playing it a bit more, I've noticed that every single attack by every single enemy I've encountered, even the most basic trash mobs, has a delayed spring timing. So they start the attack animation, and then hold it, and hold it, and hold it some more, until it suddenly comes out like a spring at an unreactable speed. So not only is the parry the entire game, but learning to parry enemies has been made as annoying as humanly possible. Since the spring portion of the attack is unreactable, and all enemies have different animations, the game has basically no fundamentals at all, you just have to memorize each animation. There is nothing you can learn as a player that will be applicable across the game, or across a spectrum of situations, every time you find a new enemy with new animations, you have to start over from scratch and memorize its timings, because every enemy is an independent game of simon says, and learning the timings for one will not help you with the others. I cannot believe that this fucking game is getting praised as much as it has. To me this puts the nail in the coffin, it's conclusive proof that absolutely nobody gives one iota of a fuck about gameplay in a fucking video game.

>>1928934 You either didn't play the game or have the worst case of git gud I have ever seen. 2/10 for getting me to reply.

>>1928949 There is no game to git gud at, that's the entire point. Once you memorize the timings, that's it, the game is over, there is nothing more to dig into in terms of gameplay, because the parry overrides everything else. Somehow they managed to make the parry in this game even more unbalanced than the i-frame dodges that have been plaguing action games nowadays.

>>1927561 >Someone mentioned a healing build vs Simon amongst others but I have no idea how youre supposed to beat him without stacking insane damage or stunlocking him because when you get him down to about 1/3 HP, he will do a unblockable move that wipes the entire party. That's when you use your reserve squad, son. >>1928957 I honestly agree. It's why I play without dodging or parrying. I just max defense and later health and facetank.

>>1929225 >I just max defense and later health and facetank. I'm surprised to hear that the game is even playable without parrying or dodging. Are you playing on normal? I'm still early in the game, but so far it seems like the game is designed around the parry because enemies do relatively high damage and there are not a lot of healing items.

>>1929276 Yeah. You can do it on Expert too but then it's just a fucking disaster of a grindfest. Don't do Expert. Just do normal/Expeditioner.

>>1928934 >Right after the overlong tutorial that is mandated by law for every modern game It's not a law but it should be. I hate it when I have to look up guides to play a game

>>1719158 Good thing Tomb Raider, Metroid, Resident Evil, Bayonetta and Witcher 3 didn't exist then. I'm as opposed to faggotry as the next guy, but come on. If you played the game you'd know the women in the game (though they may not be pure trad waifus) don't spoil everything. One is a slut and her advances can be rejected with a simple button and the other is a young immature girl that mourns the brother she lost in a fire that disfigured her beyond repair and the entire plot revolves around her being so desperate she is for escapism she replaces the villain you just defeated moments earlier. And it turns out her dad who was trying to keep her in check was in the right all along and was only doing things to protect his family. >>1749113 >>1749146 >>1749283 He's right and wrong. Kids do get gommaged but not in the prologue, only when the first villain gets defeated and it turns out she was trying to warn the people she could no longer protect as her power was waning, but everyone mistook her warnings for the cause of the gommage. The prologue established that only people above a certain age were gommaged but as a consequence of the player killing the Paintress, everyone got a taste of it. It is commonly referred to as a plot twist but when a braindead nigger bases their opinion on shitposts and decontextualized tiktok clips this is what happens.

>>1749325 You see kids surrounded by petals when their family members melt, so I get how it might look that way if you're not paying attention and trying to speed through to the actual game.

>>1686745 >doesn't end up being some A or B choice That was extremely bold considering >it's a small studio >it's their first game >the current political and social context I still can't believe they stuck to their guns as you say and made a daring choice instead of going for YAAS SLAY slop and validate Maelle's selfishness. I think what helped them was establishing the characters as feeling beings with agency early on. This groundwork burdens Verso's ending with the weight of implied genocide thus evening out of the moral dilemma. I'm tempted to think that they tried to even out the moral weight of each option to shift focus of the emotional aspect. In most streams I've watched, players tend to rely on the feelings of the characters more than moral considerations to justify their choice Consider the support system: it levels up relationships between pairs of characters but only unlocks skills for individual characters, which should logically depend on individual levelling. Though the support system may seem inconsequential or poorly integrated for providing no gameplay advantage to having two characters with maxed out support out on the battlefield over two characters with no support, I think the real purpose of that mechanic was to flesh out their motivations and personalities in order to amplify the moral impact of the final choice and giving seemingly equal downsides to each option. This cohesive design is illustrated in several instances throughout the game, for example remember how the void left by Maelle's ending fading to black when Verso is on the verge of playing is filled by the sad piano track of the credits. I haven't seen such an integrated approach in game design since MGS' use of the controller vibration to mimmick Psycho Mantis' power lmfao. You can also add to the list the intentional lack of a minimap which forces the players to pay more attention to the pretty environment for orientation despite the linear structure of the world, and this allows the game to sprinkle even more content without begging for the player's attention with dialog boxes or the classical Japanese cardinal sin of characters describing with words what everyone can clearly see on the goddamn screen. More than one character suggests that the Writers exploited Alicia's love of books, and Painted Alicia just so happens to talk like one, to the point it may even seem weird. You can really see how the devs were all heading in one direction through different paths (storytelling, art, gameplay...) >Maelle They literally wrote Anakin. Hurt, grieving and disfigured. Lost and defenseless against temptation. Everyone emphathized with the slippery slope that led him to the dark side while also acknowledging the evil in doing so. I guess both stories champion the idea that evil actions don't necessarily require evil intentions and can sometimes be the product of misguided idealism or selfish desperation. It's very good writing as far as I'm concerned but watch contrarian faggots call it pretentious lol.

>>1686745 >>1932609 That's a crock of bullshit. It really is just A or B ending, and of the two of them picking the Maelle ending is clearly bad, because Maelle is killing herself and forcibly controlling the canvas and once she dies the canvas is going to perish anyway. It's also very obvious that the Verso ending ends on a positive, forward-looking note whereas the other one ends on a despairing note. Claiming both choices have equal validity and equal weight is pretentious bullshit. It's very obvious we're getting funneled in one direction and claiming that "life forces cruel choices" is a cop-out for characters forcing unnecessarily bad choices on their own when there are far better options that only require a bit of compromise and would not end in the canvas ultimately being destroyed. "Some vices miss what is right because they are deficient, others because they are excessive, in feelings or in actions, while virtue finds and chooses the mean." -Aristotle, "Nichomachean Ethics" There is no virtue here, in either ending. You're forced to choose between two bad choices and one of them is obviously the worse option, and if you don't like it that must be muh "deep, bold, morally complex writing" as opposed to just a consequence of putting unnecessarily bad choices before people.

>>1933943 As mentionned in my previous post, the game makes a deliberate effort to shift the focus of the final choice from its moral underpinnings to the emotional weight the choice carries, the point being to make players feel how hard of a choice it is. It is literally the purpose of art, and especially dramaturgy, to evoke the strong feelings caused by dilemmas and tragic situations. To help people understand their work, the devs stressed more than once that they didn't intend for any option to be more correct than the other, which could potentially indicate an intention to push moral relativism -we've seen it happen many times- but many signs here converge to strengthen the hypothesis I'm trying to explain: >the devs said so >the players focused more on the eomtional struggle than the moral complexity of the situation >art has a consistent history of making stylistic choices that deliver stronger emotional pay-offs, focusing on the audience's experience rather than the outcome of the story Once again, Maelle's selfishness and immaturity are laid bare for everyone to see with no attempt to disguise or justify them -I cannot count the parallels drawn with the way junkies behave.- so I fail to see a reason to even entertain this train of thought. The apparent purpose of this game isn't to solve a given problem ; if solving issues is your desire, I think there is a number of activities beside playing video games that would better align with your intention. Painters, Writers, Gommage, the Eiffel Tower, Renoir, 19th century Paris, sculpture and piano recitals at the opera all strongly hint at the artistic experience the game aims to evoke, hell they scream it in your face. Gustav's fight with Renoir concluded with a success screen, yet success wouldn't be the best fit to describe its outcome. Winning isn't the point. The big evil bad of the story was defeated and it turned out to be a tragic mistake. The game seems far less interested in triumphs or accomplishments and seeks rather to be experienced as an interactive story, a bittersweet adventure defined by contrast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro And like it is often the case with art works, it is hardly surprising that this one doesn't earn everyone's adherence. You will probably find more enjoyment playing another game, and that is totally fine. Have you tried Skyrim?

>>1934452 >that pic Yeah, it's a plot that runs on wilful retardation. >To help people understand their work, the devs stressed more than once that they didn't intend for any option to be more correct than the other, Yes, they have said that. They just haven't delivered on that. As I already said, and as just about everyone knows, it's obvious which ending is the one to choose. >muh emotional struggle Annoying people with shitty false dichotomies is the wrong sort of "emotional struggle." Feelings gain sincerity when they have avenues to be expressed. If you're left with unnecessarily shitty choices it's only natural to have unnecessarily shitty feelings. >it's art I tell you! >chiaroscuro! Yes, world is fucking full of artistes who think that calling something art or draping it in artistic imagery inherently elevates the work and moves it into a realm beyond common, vulgar criticism. It does not. Using shit like that as a shield against criticism or as though it inherently ennobles your work is just pretentiousness. Deftness, meaningfulness, and tact in expression are still the important factors and it's all still just as open to criticism.

>>1934747 >my bad faith shitposting is valid criticism It's not.

>>1934747 >If you're left with unnecessarily shitty choices it's only natural to have unnecessarily shitty feelings. Well yeah, that's kind of the point. Tragedies in writing have been a thing since the ancient Greeks. Do you want every single plot to have a 100 wholesome chungus ending?

>>1935297 >valid criticism of something I like is bad faith shitposting It's not. >>1935585 There's a world of difference between being a tragedy and being a good tragedy.

>>1935655 >There's a world of difference between being a tragedy and being a good tragedy. Such as?

>>1935890 A good tragedy doesn't run off of stupidity.

>>1935890 A good tragedy makes you cry, feel sad and/or depressed. A bad tragedy makes you angry, because it didn't make you feel sad.

>>1936033 >A good tragedy doesn't run off of stupidity. Why not? >>1936110 >A bad tragedy makes you angry I disagree.

>>1929435 >wants more cinematic endless tutorials in the year of our lord 2025 proof that e33 fans are literal subhumans

>>1938754 >I disagree. Why?

>>1935297 >stop criticizing what I like! >if I like it your criticism can only be bad faith shitposting! Jesus fucking christ. In the gamergate days you would've gotten run out of town on a rail for posting an attitude this fucking retarded.

>>1941667 >in the gamergate days Posting a Vivian doesn't mean you fit in fag, Gamergate never ended.

>>1942544 The proper line is "the ride never ends" but there were definitely days when the gamergate board was fucking active unlike now. The reddit's still going strong though.

>>1935297 Yes. It is. Here, let's break it down for you. >Yeah, it's a plot that runs on wilful retardation. You take that line of dialogue and claim it runs on retardation without providing the shadow of an argument, and despite the fact that I posted it to illustrate my point about you thinking in false dichotomies. The character is flawed and makes mistakes, boo fucking hoo. Why does it trigger you so much? So for replying beside the point I was making and claiming the writing to be retarded with no effort to develop the shadow of a coherent thought, I just as easily dismiss your post as a glaring example of bad faith jeetposting. And that is without mentioning all of my other points you conveniently ignored because it is easier than acknowledging their validity. Funny how that works eh? You can do it, but others can't. Bad faith. >Annoying people with shitty false dichotomies is the wrong sort of "emotional struggle." Feelings gain sincerity when they have avenues to be expressed. If you're left with unnecessarily shitty choices it's only natural to have unnecessarily shitty feelings. First, I have to insist on how retarded it is to take the "false dichotomies" quote and use it here, because the character who said it was wrong lmao. Which you would know if, you know, you had played the game. Secondly, your attempt at a profound sentence about sincere feelings is embarrassingly bad. Sincerity is literally impossible to judge unless you have psychic powers. And all the players praising the game felt genuine attachment to the characters and were sincerely torn by the moral dilemmas laid down by the game, and I won't apologize for discarding your feeling that it isnt sincere enough. Your subjectivity could've had weight were you making valid points, but this isn't exactly what this conversation has shown. I already told you it's ok to not like the game, but for some reason you struggle to accept that many people like a game you don't. >incoherent rant about artists that have nothing to do with the game Into the trash. >>1936033 Alright then, show us examples of good tragedies since you seem to have precise knowledge of the difference. We'd love to know how your patrician tragedies are better than E33. >>1941667 >smug anime girl >my imaginary army of seasonned internet debaters would've shown you how wrong you are!! >no argument >ignoring the shitposts claiming that the kids were Gommaged in the prologue >ignoring the (now deleted) shitposts confusing Renoir with Renoir Your selective outrage undermines the image of unbiased judge you tried to project. This game has a singular ability to generate infinite seethe, and that is yet another reason why I love it so much.

>>1947850 Whoops meant to reply to >>1935655

Expedition 33 is a pro freemason and pro demiurge propaganda >boo hoo, I'm sad, that gives me the right to torture these lower life forms I hate the anti-christ.

>>1947923 I thought I was the only one bothered by this. It is even weirder knowing the devs are ex-Ubi who based their entire AssCreed franchise around gnostic/templar/freemason cringe. Also Prince of Persia 5 (SoT remake) had something about Solomon's demons being (un)sealed which made me immediately drop the game. Is it something that runs in the company ?

>>1923731 >Unrelated but I cant make posts on this site anymore from PC Are you still having i >>1947850 >This game has a singular ability to generate infinite seethe, and that is yet another reason why I love it so much. Something is clearly going on. I have never seen such consistent and systematic shilling on the 'cuck. My guess is that the aim here is to surb support of the game before the GOTY is declared.

No thanks. I'm not into Fr*nch existential wank. Some of the gameplay ideas look neat though. Let me know when they're put in a better game.

>>1953100 I wonder who could be behind this post.

>>1953504 A lover of turn based combat that cannot stand existentialist/fatalist nonsense in stories. I know very well what I consider to be real and the value I place of different sorts of life thank you very much. I feel nothing when the writer harps on about how emotional this struggle is for his gaggle of 70IQ retards.

>>1953535 >he questions nothing about his perceived version of reality >he calls others 70IQ retards funniest post i've seen in a while lol

>>1953100 >gameplay ideas look neat though >>1953535 >A lover of turn based combat You realize they made the combat "interfactive", right ? I would expect turn-based combat autists like you to be the most ardents haters of this game. Or were you hinting at other aspcts of the gameplay ?

>>1953535 You type like a woman

Other streamer reactions

What I've learned from the webms posted is that this game is GOTY because f*males cry at it.

Humans to the exclusion of psychopaths all have the ability to feel the same emotions, and we tend to respond +/- similarly to the same emotional triggers, but females are universally more expressive. In case anyone was wondering. On an unrelated note, I automatically grant more credit to any opinion if it gives off incel energy like my daddy Andrew Tate. Always a sign of a keen, wise mind.

>>1957050 Isn't Andrew Tate just updating the gangsta rapper "fuck bitches, get money" mindset that people used to decry niggers for?

>>1957050 Please be a shitpost. Tate hates you. He despises all his followers, except for the money they give him.

>>1669954 I got to just before fighting the paintress but I got completely bored and just stopped. I think the game leans too much into the little reddit creatures, it would be fine it they just popped out every now and then but they have entire maps and questlines dedicated around them.

>>1948004 >Is it something that runs in the company ? france is plagued by freemasons thanks to the french revolution, so its not a surprise that they have infected every single piece of a media with a with their perverted pro-demiurge propaganda. >ze architect is ze good guy, trust us >trust in ze great work I hate the anti-christ

whats up with the masonic nigger symbols

>>1958554 Wait, I thought masons were gnostics, who think God is the devil (demiurge), and that the devil is the good guy?

>>1958734 that is judaism, God is the source of all evil, and satan is the source of good in the world for gnostics, the demiurge is an usurper playing god with tools he barely understand, the material realm is a prison and most gnostics want to escape this prison freemasons are hermeticists, they believe in the great universal architect and in the great work, they want to achieve spiritual perfection, but they also believe in whatever bullshit their leader read that week, they also think of themselves as custodians of humanity, and by creating catastrophes in the world, humanity will mature and evolve, honestly, they are just demon worshipers.

>>1958797 >freemasons are hermeticists, they believe in the great universal architect and in the great work, they want to achieve spiritual perfection, but they also believe in whatever bullshit their leader read that week, they also think of themselves as custodians of humanity, and by creating catastrophes in the world, humanity will mature and evolve sounds pretty based tbh

>>1957109 Of course I was shitposting, nobody would believe seething about women 24/7 would make them look cool on the internet right ? Right ?? >>1958554 >>1958734 Masoniggers are actually anti-demiurge whom they deem a false god, they worship what they call the "monad" who just so happens to be satan according to every known religion. >>1958413 The uggly monster pets were fucking unbearable. Like OK Monoco had a few funny lines but it got old pretty fast. I also regret that the party didn't include more expeditionners, and there could've been a perma death mechanic whereby some party members could remain dead if you lacked the resources to revive them or some shit. It wouldn't matter anyway story-wise but the mechanic would've been cool I feel like the characters were a bit too flexible as a result of their small number. Sciel for instance could either be built up to have the highest damage output or a pretty solid support unit This is what happens when a game doesn't want to commit to certain things in fear of "locking" the player into character specialization and skill trees, we get Skyrim slop.

>>1928934 >>1928957 https://arch.b4k.dev/v/thread/726649354/#726650163

>>1959260 Look at the dates, doesn't that mean it got posted here first?

>>1959166 >look cool Where's a manly man crying over this, or at least sitting in stunned silence? Breaking the stoic image is fundamentally more impressive.

Genuinely fuck you and your shit game

>>1959272 That's the point. Other anon is showing somebody is using that one seething autist's rant about E33 having one of the worst combat systems in existence as copypasta because of how ridiculous (and well-written) it is. If we could harness such raw fury at what is at worst a mediocre game and use it to boil water we could solve renewable energy overnight.

>>1960806 I see it now, I thought he was being accused of something else, my bad

>>1959272 >>1960806 >>1960866 All wrong and cringe. I'm obviously accusing him of time travel.

>>1961140 Exactly. As always, FPBP >>1669972

So….how bad is this game, really? Will I regret taking the time to pirate it at least?

>>1961408 It’s a fun JRPG, just don’t go into it expecting Nocturne.

>>1961408 If pirating is an option for you then might as well go in and formulate your own opinions on things by experiencing said things yourself It's what everyone here does, right?

>>1959260 >>1960806 Clearly, my post was so full of pure distilled truth that some anon decided to spread it like the revelation it is. I say good. More people need to realize that E33 is disgustingly overrated trash gameplay-wise and it only gets praised for the presentation and story, so basically it's just another pretentious moviegame.

>>1961425 Why do people call it a JRPGi still don't get it.

>>1961887 When something becomes popular among niggercattle, that’s usually my cue to doubt it has any real merit. I'm curious about it because it has become popular among anons, but i don't know if that has anything to do with the influx of rapefugees from cuckchan.

>>1962141 The game is ok, the parry trivializes everything else gameplay-wise, the story is whatever the monster art is good

>>1962141 So Doom (DOS) must be a shitty game, then

>>1962141 Funny to see you guys finally admit that your obsessive hate of this game stems from contrarian hipster elitism >>1962072 Gameplay is close to JRPG despite the freedom it takes with the formula. How would you classify it ? "FRPG" sounds cringe to me, and I don't think a few tweaks warrant the creation of a new game category

>>1957050 >On an unrelated note, I automatically grant more credit to any opinion if it gives off incel energy, always a sign of a keen, wise mind. This is true. Normalfag behavior stems from female behavior. Normalfags/women tend to stick with common opinion on things and never really branch out into anything beyond their bubble. They don't come to their own natural conclusions on things and because their opinions don't stem from them, they can't explain why they hold them in detail or they'll just explain why someone else holds them. Contrarianism for the sake of being a contrarian exists, but someone with a more socially unacceptable opinion is more likely to have come to that conclusion on their own then a normalfag.

>>1964758 >Funny to see you guys finally admit that your obsessive hate of this game stems from contrarian hipster elitism Not really

>>1964827 This is such a 4/v/ image, I don't even disagree with all of it (freaky monstrous women are based though fuck off) but it's painfully obnoxious.

>>1964832 It's actually from here. >freaky monstrous women are based though The problem with the current Mileena isn't that at all.

>>1964827 >pic confesses 3 times to using games as coom material

>>1971611 Wanting sexy, good looking characters in your fictional world isn’t “using games as coom material” (and yeah, you mean “goon,” not “coom”).Same way, not wanting those characters butchered and censored just to appease mentally ill faggots and people who’re trying to take over the hobby isn’t “coomer behavior” either. Not sure if the third one is supposed to be “muh realistic wamen in a game with magic and dragons,” but if it is, it’s the exact same shit as making characters ugly on purpose (or race swaps).It’s disingenuous and the only reason anyone does it is to “own the gamers".

>>1971849 Second image completely proves other anon right: only two of those women are ugly, the rest range from average (not a problem) to beautiful (also not a problem). You just can't be bothered to play a game without titties in it.

>>1971887 >only two of those women are ugly I get the point you're trying to make here but dude you seriously must have brain damage to say that.

>>1971887 Whatever they are to you, they are objectively uglier than the ones on the left.

>>1971849 Claire and Ada are the only two good looking nu Capcom girls

Where are the nude mods? Nothing else matters.

Not sure if the seethe faggot is legitimately a coomer (unsurprising) or if he thinks coom is the best distraction to derail the thread from its original subject.

>"Coomer" >Wojak

>>1953504 I'm betting on the same faggot that got BTFO by >>1947850 then tried to reset the thread by completely ignoring the points he couldn't address and coming up with new bait. This is actually sadder than the game's bad ending.

I just started playing the game. I haven’t even finished the tutorial section yet and it’s clear that everyone has to go away / die / whatever by the age of 33. I mean, is that so bad? Most people are finished with the best part of their lives before 30, and the extra years seems like a nice retirement vacation in this beautiful world of flowers and comfortable living. You go out while your health is still near its peak, having watched your kids grow up, and it’s predictable and made into a huge event, like attending your own wake. You’re motivated to make your time count because there’s little ambiguity when you’re time is up. Everyone has a time limit anyway.

>>1972701 Even if you really were content with 33 years (this tells me you aren't a parent) the number keeps going down every year, anon.

>>1971901 "Ugly" to me means "would think twice about doing", since a girl would have to be heinously ugly in the face for me to push her off me. Most of them i would say are average looking, and that's pretty fair if your reality doesn't operate on porn logic. >>1971907 Not all of them are. There are a couple on the left that i would consider uglier than some of the examples on the right. In general, you are correct, but it's (mostly) not to the point that i want to look away from them, and absolutely nothing worth getting up in arms over.

Ok I just finished the game, decided to go with Verso. I don't really see what's so "mindbreaking" the ending? Maelle is just acting like a spoiled brat wanting to have her cake and eat it, and the Dessendre family has gone through too much bullshit to afford losing more family members That being said, I have a lot of things that I didn't figure out yet, The child that was painting in that void was Verso? I don't get it, I thought Verso died due to a conflict with the writers' guild, which prompted Clea to go against them, and made Alicia lose her voice And what was up with the fire in the manor fire at the beginning of Act 3, prior to playing as Alicia in the manor? Was Verso supposed to be smiling there? All in all, while it's a really decent game, I don't think the narrative stands against shit like most indie RPGs out there, it fickles quite a bit in the ending, and the original premise the game starts you with is much more endearing that "family therapy session". Will see if I change my opinion afterwards, but honestly that's a bit lackluster.

>>1979515 >I don't really see what's so "mindbreaking" the ending? Because the ending isn't really meant to be mindbreaking. There are lots of streamers and jewtubers who cry or express very extreme emotions when the ending comes about and they have to make a choice between Verso or Maelle. But the reasoning behind having two endings is to present the natural choice when it comes to overcoming sorrow, depression, and pain. Do you hide away, lying and scheming to stay within your bubble, even if it kills you? Or do you break out, tear the bandaid off, even if it hurts and your padded chamber falls apart? There is a clear correct choice, which is Verso. Maelle is meant to be a bad ending without calling it a bad ending. Not sure if you have seen it, but when you do, you will notice several things that make you feel uncomfortable, and that is the intention. > The child that was painting in that void was Verso? Yes, sort of. Several times throughout the game, it is mentioned that the final piece of Verso's "soul" is within the painting, which makes it difficult for Aline to let the painting go. The child-like figure was that last part of him, innocently painting and painting to keep the world alive. Is it literally a part of his soul, or is it more metaphorical? I think that might be something that is left up to the player to decide. But since the painting fades when the young Verso is relieved of his work, it could really be a part of Verso that was left behind. > And what was up with the fire in the manor fire at the beginning of Act 3, prior to playing as Alicia in the manor? Was Verso supposed to be smiling there? The fire was supposed to be a flashback to one of real Alicia's memories. I looked back at the cutscene, and the welcoming and calm temperament of Verso is likely meant to imply what he did during the fire. Not sure if there is more evidence in the game somewhere, but I think Verso died because he went to save Alicia from the fire. Him holding out his hand and saying soothing words, before his face gets bloody, is meant to represent his final act of kindness during the arson attack.

>>1979580 >Yes, sort of. Several times throughout the game, it is mentioned that the final piece of Verso's "soul" is within the painting, which makes it difficult for Aline to let the painting go. The child-like figure was that last part of him, innocently painting and painting to keep the world alive. Interesting, I was thinking it was more of a "figure of speech" type of idea, as in Verso's soul is being represented by every being and place that was made by him, mainly Esquie, but that would honestly leave me with even more questions. As in how is it that despite being dead his soul still lives? Would've thought that only living painters could pull that off Nonetheless, I really think the game should have stuck with the original premise, knowing that the whole painted world is merely an escape for Aline just makes everything that happened prior futile IF there is any DLC, or any sort of sequel, I'd like to see if there's gonna be a conflict between other guilds, the premise reminds me of what could be Black Souls 3, with the outer ones building each their own army in their own gardens to fight in their own war We shall see.

>>1980622 >>1979515 >Was Verso supposed to be smiling there? >Would've thought that only living painters could pull that off The game very slightly implies Verso faked his death because he didn't want to be a painter but even if it's true it's sequel bait at most since he isn't actually present in the story and every other character has their own locked in assumptions they are running with.

>Interesting, I was thinking it was more of a "figure of speech" type of idea That is the way I took it as well. But maybe having that child Verso at the end of the game was supposed to be a little surprising for the player, making them question if the statements were more literal than previously thought. After all, it's common for people to say that an art piece captures an artist's "soul" or "memories" or "ideas" without them meaning any literal part of the artist or his being. > how is it that despite being dead his soul still lives? It could be the a time where one is supposed to suspend one's disbelief. After all, in their universe entire worlds can be painted inside canvases, with beings capable of free will walking around. Who's to say a piece of Verso's soul drifted inside the painting when he died while the rest of him went up to the big Eiffel Tower in the sky? >Nonetheless, I really think the game should have stuck with the original premise, knowing that the whole painted world is merely an escape for Aline just makes everything that happened prior futile I understand, you are probably one of many who feel this way. But for the twist to work, the writers had to make a plot that felt like it could be the basis for an entire RPG. If it seemed in any way to be an incomplete plot hiding something greater, the trick would be ruined. One of the risks of that is your audience liking your pre-twist plot better than the actual one. Personally, I dont think it makes Aline's actions futile, as everything she did connects to the actual conflict of the story between her husband and daughters. >IF there is any DLC, or any sort of sequel, I'd like to see if there's gonna be a conflict between other guilds I'd like to see that too. It seems like the logical path for a sequel to take. They could explore the family dynamics and struggles of a different Painter family in a sequel. But it seems even more likely that they will look into the Writers and build some kind of plot around building worlds out of words and books, maybe editing other people's works in the real world alters the worlds within the writing in real time? I doubt we will see a sequel for at least 3 to 5 years because of how much thought will have to go into these new guilds, making them different enough from the Painters. But if the Writers are willing to burn down the mansion of a wealthy Painter family, there must be some serious animosity between them. As for DLC, there is a lot of space inside the tower, and the devs already said they are working on updates with new locations for the Expedition to explore. I'm expecting more boss battles and medium sized forests or caves to walk around in that are accessed via the paintings in the tower. >>1980694 >The game very slightly implies Verso faked his death because he didn't want to be a painter That's a possibility, but I didn't get that impression as I went through the game. He did say his true passion was music, but it didn't seem like he hated painting enough to fake his death in order to get away from doing it. He would have seen how badly it would have hurt his family, and he clearly loved his younger sister a lot.

>>1979515 >I don't really see what's so "mindbreaking" the ending? The game does a job of showing you how dysfunctional the Dessendre family is, and it even portrays Alicia with all her scars with no eyepatch or anything of the sort despite her living in a luxurious manor. That and her voice tell us how harsh her life must be as every breath seems to be a struggle. And she's only 16. I agree that the "right choice" is obvious but by no means does it make it an easy decision. Yada yada cruel choices. And she lives with the guilt of being responsible for her brother's death lmao and nobody seems to think it's an issue, nobody even tries to do something about it because everyone is busy with their current obsession. And her mom is practically a junkie/schizo so kicking Maelle out, even if it is the obvious right choice, still condemns her to a hellish existence. Imagine doing that to your little sister. >>1980694 I'm not a fan of this theory. It is possible because they made sure to leave all these doors open, but Idk it seems like it misses the point. Also him actually sac'ing himself outside the canvas and doing it again inside for his sister seemed to be where the narrative wanted to go, and the idea of cycles repeating would especially be consistent with the rest of the masonic symbolism. Something something you're trying to break the wrong cycle." >>1982417 >If it seemed in any way to be an incomplete plot hiding something greater, the trick would be ruined I would argue that this is even made better because it makes the player experience not wanting the Lumiere story to be "fake" to relate to Maelle not wanting to get out because she got attached too. Imo it's brilliant execution. It goes even beyond "show don't tell", it's make them feel, don't just show

>>1982417 >but it didn't seem like he hated painting enough to fake his death in order to get away from doing it I don't think he'd do it to get away from being a painter(occupation) but I can see it being to get away from being a painter(faction) >>1997124 >It is possible because they made sure to leave all these doors open That's true but also I noted it because it seems to be slightly more acknowledged than the other things left unknown with stuff like the mansion having hidden writing equipment and Renoir's WIP area being named "Drafts" which explicitly refers to works of writing You can still keep the cycles thing by having it so that Alicia showing up/being in danger wasn't part of the plan and he had to pivot to save her which is still congruent with the game's events.

Just beat it - doing so directly after TGA was a coincidence. Art design and music-wise, it was fantastic. Easily best-in-class and worthy of every bit of acclaim in that regard. Gameplay felt kinda inconsequential by the end, though part of that was probably from overleveling. It seems stupid to have the final boss be leveled so that fighting him at any point aside from the VERY start of act 3 makes you overpowered. Story and voice acting was pretty alright. The twist at the end of act 2 made me groan but they played with the theme well at least. 8/10

>>2010751 The French VAs are vastly superior to the English ones. Especially Lune, there's a stark difference between the two VAs, with the English one sounding super flat in comparison.

>>1669972 small indie title please understand

>>1960552 Seethe collected, thank you.

>>2010751 >Gameplay felt kinda inconsequential by the end, though part of that was probably from overleveling. Opinion on the parry mechanic ? It's my only gripe but apparently people do no parry/dodge runs

>>1957050 >Humans to the exclusion of psychopaths all have the ability to feel the same emotions, and we tend to respond +/- similarly to the same emotional triggers what an asinine solaphist post

>>2010751 >Art design and music-wise, it was fantastic. I actually don't like the art direction because they mixed hyper realistic human characters with goofy JRPG monsters. It clashes so much it draws attention to how retarded the monsters look. At least in JRPGs with a proper stylized aesthetic everything looks more consistent and you can suspend your disbelief more easily.

>>2011655 I thought the parry mechanic worked really well early game - you had to learn boss/enemy movesets in order to survive and deal enough damage, and rewards felt built around using it to get by. However in the mid/late game I think it became an issue, because you can fight enemies that are higher than your intended level through pure brute-forcing, which then snowballs and can cause you to be overlevelled for practically the rest of the game. Act 3 was the worst in this regard - getting the ability to fly felt like the game signposting "Hey, now you can explore anywhere you want! Go nuts and then come back to finish the game!", which made me think the final boss would be balanced around level 70-80 (which I feel is a normal endgame level for JRPGs), when in actuality you should avoid all Act 3 side content because the final boss is best fought between 50-60 (which you're probably gonna be over by the end of Act 2 anyways). So in short, good in theory but flawed in execution. >>2011813 I kinda liked that juxtaposition (and the design of most enemies in general), but I can see your point.

>>2011721 Found the psychopath apparently.

Since the game has swept the TGAs, the tide of discussion is already starting to turn on it.The number of places capable of holding intelligent discssion will narrow, but I appreciate all of the thoughtful discussion here throughout this year.

>>2014329 Your welcum

I just want an excuse to link Black Sabbath's "Die Young", because the lyrics fit the game quite well. Also, it's a kick ass song. Thanks for listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJCHsoP9B5o

Anons who have played both, was he robbed?

>>2014373 not at all t. played both of them to completion on jewtoob

>>2014329 I don't know where you're getting your discussion from, but these sort of games around imageboards always lose any sort of sensible debate the moment they start getting a lot of traction. Just goes to show the contrarian nature of anon, to shit on something he found endearing due to external forces.

>>2014329 >Since the game has swept the TGAs, the tide of discussion is already starting to turn on it. How so? Do you mean with anons because it's "popular" now as if it weren't popular already or with normalfags because it bumped off their favorite whatever game from winning? >>2014357

>>2011721 Careful with that edge bro >>2011813 Forget nevrons and aons (Masks was good), I hated how goofy Esquie looked and Monoco's weird design. I loved them as characters thought it's such a shame they were spoiled by these shitty design >>2012932 The game definitely has a scaling issue in the second half

On beating the game, I'm seeing there is actual discourse between some people between what the "good" ending is, which seems insane to me. Genuinely, I don't know how someone can look at both endings of the game and NOT immediately tell which one is the "good" one. It shouldn't even be a fucking debate, right? Has escapism in the modern masses become so prevalent that Maelle's choice seems like the reasonable one? I genuinely can't wrap my head around it.

>>2015949 I think E33 has gotten a lot of good discussion here, even after it snowballed because in part I think of the "narrative" surrounding the game as an artistic expression made by ex-Ubisoft devs (at a time where people reviled Ubisoft), and the fact it was able to mostly dodge woke accusations. >>2016007 Both in normalfag and in 'core' spaces honestly. When a game gets this many awards, discussion changes from being about the game's elements, and rather the game as a whole in the medium. An excellent example of this is FF7. Look at how discussion was of the game in the early aughts >What do you think of FF7? <It's okay, but overrated <I prefer FFIII (VI) <I prefer Wild Arms <I prefer Chrono Cross! People both downplay games that receive admiration and attempt to credentialize themselves with games they consider "real" to prove they aren't some secondary. When the majority of disccusion around FF7 was no longer about the lifestream, JENOVA, or the ending, and became about its "place among others" its discussion degrades because (frankly) most people (even core gamers) do not have the knowledge required to make intelligible discussion. To draw a comparison to art history, most normies only know the most famous pieces of art in history (Mona Lisa, Starry Night, The Persistence of Memory, etc.) A person who fancies themselves an aficionado for art will not only have knowledge of more pieces, but of the artists themselves, and perhaps specialized knowledge of periods and regions. Too many core players today think themselves as aficionados rather than their realities as normies, and as such, have out of dejewsonverastions with other normies in some effort to validate their own knowledege of a medium they barely know. The discussion turns from about being about the game to talking about talking about the game, and that's a conversation far fewer people can competently do.

>>2017025 >The discussion turns from about being about the game to talking about talking about the game It sucks that this is what game discourse is now because people can't critize or properly analyze video games. I don't even think it's that hard to do so. This has to be a recent thing, because I don't remember things being like this. No wonder why so many games that come out now are hyped to death when the come out and then won't be talked about in a year, since the discourse around them is only about external factors. It's tiresome.

>>2016328 It'd be understandable if the people of Lumiere were still alive but with, I can't say, only one hour to live or similar. There is nothing at stake, because Renoir gommage'd everyone by the end of Act 2. As it stands, Maelle can't bring them back either, she would just make cheap mockeries of them. So I can't really grasp a reason besides melodrama to side with Maelle here That was a complaint I mentioned prior.

>>2017025 >most people (even core gamers) do not have the knowledge required to make intelligible discussion. lkngsdanlklkijkipjdfhjnlkdfglnkjdfio893894jnkl2jnl???

>>2017756 what?

>>2017722 >As it stands, Maelle can't bring them back either, she would just make cheap mockeries of them. So I can't really grasp a reason besides melodrama to side with Maelle here Is it a widely accepted theory that Lune and Sciel seem to go along with everything in Act 3 so easily because they're just painted reconstructions of the originals, and not actually the same ones we went through the rest of the game with? That would at least be a nice reasoning for the way they were written in Act 3

>>2013247 >>2016319 People do not infact experience the same emotions as you and it's a universalist lie designed to disarm your mental defences you've deepthroated

>>2018472 Fellate a shotgun gaslit nigger

>>2017668 One legitimate lapse has been media literacy. Almost all hobbies that have some element of consumption (reading, music, film, etc.) would be made up of people who enjoy that hobby but have more knowledge than just that hobby. While many games, shows, and movies still attempt to do that with how they are written, fewer do because fewer people have the capacity to understand since the only media they know about is from their particular hobby of choice. If that is also true of creators, then it will only be demeaningly self-referential. In addition, When people make consumption their identity, they can feel attacked when their favorite game is insulted because their taste is now a key asset of their personality. Unfortunately, they've only garnered their taste from twitter and popular youtubers so they aren't very confident in determining why their taste is what it is.

>>2019356 >media literacy I can't take this term seriously, I've only ever seen it used by redditors, twitter leftists, and youtube video essayists (who are also leftists) acting snobby towards people who can't see obvious leftism in everything.

>>2019364 I think it is an overused term, but it is a succinct way to say "People's ability to interpret and analyze media with relation to other bodies of work." Themes can be more easily unearthed with priorly held knowledge.Phrases like "prodigal son", or "tower of babel", or "plague of locusts" confer more than their information, but the stories they were built upon can lend themes that allows saavy players to inspect the game they are playing currently with this additional lense. For instance, I have a seminary background, so when I finished Act 2, the fact that Elisa was 'born' into the painted world an infant such that she is both all divine (painter) and all human (painted) is a clear reference to the journey of Christ as He grows up in the world before He finds His evangelizing moment to preach. I would liken the experience of Maelle's white hair to the moment John the Baptist baptised Christ because in both, their involvment of the world changed from participant to agent. This is an interpretation and discussion we can only really achieve if people have the background knowledge to recognize those elements in the first place. This is all to say however that this becomes a more important point because people are looking at stories more than previously. If gameplay elements readily innovated, then we would be doing less jaunts across other media like film or literature, but back towards the medium itself.

>>2019364 Niggers marketing themselves as eceleb product.

HEY FAGS Why didn't you tell me this game had hot 16 year olds? Now i might play this shit

>>2023428 >Fr*nch

>>2023428 If you didn't know then you've been living under a rock.

>>2023667 8chungus is literally the only place I come to for what’s actually going on, so yeah, you’d be right. But you fags are the ones at fault for not mentioning hot 16 year olds though no cap.

>>2023428 Nigger

>>2023895 People definitely mentioned Maelle when the game first came out. There was a thread right around when the Halfchan exodus happened and there was plenty of Maelle in that thread.

>>2023428 >>2023895 She's actually 32

>>2026294 How? A year in the canvas doesn't translate to a year in real life.

>>2026440 If there is one thing the game would've benefit from, is about having some consistency with the idea of time. I originally thought the time that has passed in Lumiere/The canvas was correlated to time in the real world, so I can see where the idea comes from I also believe that, by the time you go that far in the game Maelle is 32. 32 with the life experience of two 16 year olds, but 32 nonetheless

>>2023895 >hot 16 year olds is this a problem to anyone?

>>2026532 Lolifags really will eat the shittiest slop as long as it has little girls, and then pretend to care about the rest. It's why gacha is such a fuck huge industry, and why I hate them

>>2026532 The ones who didn’t know about it and wasted precious time not interacting with a redhead french loler >>2026655 I’ve literally (literally) never touched a gacha , no matter how many lolis they slap on it. Same with vtubers. I fucking despise all that shit. I will jerk to the R34 though.

For any of you that played this game and other JRPGS, how does it stack up against what you consider the best in the genre? From the discourse it seems like another Persona 5 situation, but E33 is more popular with people who don't like modern JRPGs than P5. Is it a must play?

>>2029247 Depends what you like about JRPGs. Personally, I like anime aesthetics but tend to hate most modern JRPG writing that has repeated dialogue, awful pacing, and just generally treating the player like an idiot. So I mostly play them for the gameplay and aesthetic instead. Now if you like those things and want a 60+ hour game you probably won't like E33, since it has a photorealistic art style and a shorter story by genre standards but dramatically better pacing because of it. Things actually happen in the story at a reasonable clip, which is nice. Its pacing isn't as agonizing as something like the Trails in the Sky remake. The dialogue is more realistic and believable than something like, say, FF7 Rebirth or XB3. It has much less high-minded idealistic crap than contemporary JRPGs without being cynical or nihilistic. The characters are generally likable, but there aren't many of them like in some other games. Don't expect a wide variety of potential party members. I wish they had fleshed out the character sidequests more, especially since there aren't a lot of them. The gameplay is turn-based with action commands. You can build your characters in ways to ignore parrying or dodging if you like, or get good at one or both of them. I thought the action commands would wear me out but I ended up enjoying it. There are optional bosses, including super bosses, and areas to explore both during the story and after. Personally, I'm kind of burnt out on JRPGs because of their awful writing but found E33 refreshing. If you like modern JRPG writing you may have the opposite impression.

>>2023428 Because we don't support your adult woman fetish.

>hey Maelle >well, about your ruined life, scarred face and barely functional airways >I have a plan, hear me out

>>2019356 >When people make consumption their identity, they can feel attacked when their favorite game is insulted because their taste is now a key asset of their personality You do well to address the FF weebs wetting their pants when they see a gaijin JRPG threaten the dominion of their alienface tittymonster bugslop, but I honestly don't think their voice reaches far beyond their occasional meltdowns , as evidenced by the quasi universal acclaim the game has received.

>>2029378 That helps, I won't rush to check it out but I'll give it a try eventually. >>2029484 Most of the anti-E33 posting is just an extension of the culture war (and a bit of age differences too). Younger right wing gamers like anime and modern JRPGs because they feel more "raw" than modern western AAA gaming. And they usually have less "faggotry" too(outside of localizers being niggers). E33 comes off as a game that has the rawness and soul of a JRPG but with none of the Japanese stuff that millennial gamers typically complain about. The problem isn't the game (depending who you ask) but the millennial normalniggers who praise it. I'm sure it's not a bad game but I don't think normalniggers will really care about in 2 years because it probably isn't one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. Then again, I can't think of any game that came out in the past 5 years that would stand the test of time.

>>2029542 >Then again, I can't think of any game that came out in the past 5 years that would stand the test of time. To be clear, I mean popular games. Like Tears of the Kingdom.

>>2029385 I thought we liked older women over here

>>2029542 >The problem isn't the game (depending who you ask) but the millennial normalniggers who praise it. This is it. There are no "weebs crying because the game doesn't have anime." That's a completely made up strawman. No, what you have is a bunch of normalfags praising the game for having a plot very similar to a lot of JRPGs but because it has human faces doing the anime stuff instead of anime ones these normalfags act like it's somehow good now. They'll say shit like E33 being the first actual good RPG because it doesn't have anime in it. It should be noted the devs did nothing to court this. Hell they thanked Sakaguchi in their acceptance speech. They're obviously weebs themselves. But there's a shitty part of the fanbase that's the worst normalfag niggercattle you can imagine. Anyway, 16 year olds.

>>2023428 that's a big head

>>2029554 Depends on where you are. We got milfs going after the shotas, shotas going after the lolis, lolis going after the dudes, and then dudes going after the milfs. >>2029779 This about sums it up. Back when the game came out you had normalfaggots spouting bs like "JPRGs have been saved" and things like that while ignoring all the good JRPGs having came out in recent years. Hell, square still has a studio making Four Niggers In A Row JRPGs with Team Asano and things like Bravely Default and Octopath, and you have tons of indie studios out there doing their own thing too, all earning decent profits, but THIS is the game that saves JRPGs somehow and brings them back from the dead despite them being around this whole time?

>>2031126 >Bravely Default and Octopath If those are your examples I wouldn't blame normalfags for latching unto this game. >>2029542 Expedition 33 is likely going to be a landmark title because of what it represents for smaller western studios and its sheer difference as a game compared to what are usually considered "popular games" nowadays. I don't have any opinion on it because I haven't played it yet, but you don't get this much grassroots popularity as a new player without getting at least some staying power in the process. Their next game will probably have Silksong levels of hype and expectation behind it if they can keep up their reputation the way Team Cherry did.

>>2033161 They're only ones I pull off the top of my head because I liked OT2 a lot and they're RPGs under Squeenix, who was once known for mainly doing this shit. You've got mountains of this stuff from the indie and AA scene too, with tons of games acting as their inspirations. Stuff like Bug Fables, Eastward, Sea of Stars, That one recent Vtuber RPG whose name escapes me at the moment, and plenty of others. What's your beef with Team Asano's work anyway? I thought all their four-in-a-row games were pretty good except for OT1 being a bit too grindy and not having an overarching plot.

>>2029247 E33 doesn't take 10 hours to start getting interesting or getting good. I was sick and fucking tired of shit tier JRPGs starting you in a fucking village doing chores thirty fucking years ago. Now if I do pick up a JRPG and it doesn't have anything to draw me into the world and its story within the first hour, I just drop it. The most important parts of any story are the beginning and the end: you want a strong start to hook and a strong ending to be remembered. E33 lets you know within 5 minutes that's it will be taking you for a good ride. 30 minutes later and you're completely hooked. Also the characters aren't all one dimensional, which also helps. >>2033161 E33 is going to be a landmark title because it's a timeless fucking masterpiece. People are going to picking it up twenty years from now and be awed by the story and characters. The pessimist in me also says that they'll be awed to see that non-AI games can be good, which is the opposite of what they've been told by the media and influencers.

>>2034173 I heavily disagree with this. A slower start is fine as long as it has hints of intrigue and gives time to establish the world and the setting to have more to elaborate on later. I've seen far too many stories completely butchered by rushing the plot like that and not having a good base to operate off of for the characters and world. I've also seen games stick to your wording and then dropping the ball until the end by following that advice to the letter, so it just ends up being a toast sandwich. The middle is just as important as the beginning and end, if not more, as it's furthering on the foundation you ideally build in the beginning and adding more to be earned and discussed by the ending. A good compromise is something like what the first Xenoblade does with a prologue giving you a hint on what's to come and giving you a taste of midgame gameplay, and then dropping into the slower setting and worldbuilding.

>>2034265 >a slower start is fine Missing my point. My point is an INTERESTING start to hook you in. Lord of the Rings is a perfect example: nothing major happens until the Hobbits hide away from the Riders beneath the tree branch. But the writing and world and characters are more than interesting enough to hook the reader in. There's nothing interesting about gathering your neighbour's wayward chickens or checking in on the elderly man by the river. Which is the kind of asinine garbage a lot of JRPGs put you through. Another way to examine this is to look at video game tutorials since the usually fall in the following three categories: >no tutorial >basic tutorial or turn off tutorial >lengthy and unskippable tutorials made to teach octogenarians how to play their first video game Guess which type pisses off players most? The one that makes players say "LET ME FUCKING PLAY ALREADY!". I'm not saying every game needs to put Nabokov to shame, but they need to not bore the players to tear. Middle ground, yeah? Well your average JRPG start isn't even close to the middle ground, it's at the eye gouging level.

>>2034173 >Spoiler E33 uses some AI though

>>2034345 >Lord of the Rings is a perfect example: nothing major happens until the Hobbits hide away from the Riders beneath the tree branch I don't know about the books, but the movie stars with the war between the forces of evil and good, not-Satan getting his finger chopped off, and a king keeping the ring instead of destroying it. When the movie then transitions to the Shire scenes, the audience knows that shit will eventually get real, only to get the next large battle set piece in Two Towers.

>>2037514 Yeah that prologue isn't in the book. It does mostly appear when explained by Gandalf kind of near the start (when he's explaining about the ring), but not right at the beginning.

>>2031126 >Back when the game came out you had normalfaggots spouting bs like "JPRGs have been saved" and things like that while ignoring all the good JRPGs having came out in recent years. Hell, square still has a studio making Four Niggers In A Row JRPGs with Team Asano and things like Bravely Default and Octopath, and you have tons of indie studios out there doing their own thing too, all earning decent profits, but THIS is the game that saves JRPGs somehow and brings them back from the dead despite them being around this whole time? Then why didn't any of them attain the approval Clair Obscur has ? Is reality wrong ?

>>2037773 I didn't realize reality was marketing.

>>2031126 Square Enix killed any interest in those projects with self owns of censorship and Denuvo.

>>2037773 You have to think like a normalfag. Would a normalfag rather play a game with """"""dated""""" pixel graphics or a realistically styled game?

>>2038517 Tell that to Megabonk, Minecraft, and Roblox. Or Undertale, Rimworld, Terraria, Stardew Valley, etc, etc. Graphics don't mean shit. Art style and gameplay are the rulers here.

>>2038819 Those are more the exception than the rule, and all of those besides Undertale and Megabonk are sandbox games to some extent (and I wouldn't really call Undertale much of an RPG tbh).

>>2037773 Muh approval from shitty game journos.

>>2037773 Because they weren't marketed like E33 was? Square doesn't market shit unless it's part of a major existing brand or is a live service product, and expects their brand name to carry them further than anything else. As much as people like to deny it, marketing and connections are key to a product's success. There's many a masterpiece out there that remains completely unnoticed or relatively unknown precisely due to this bad marketing, and the breakout examples you mention in the other reply are anomalies typically latched on to by one eceleb or another, or aren't even RPGs in the first place but instead imitating other recent successes and chasing trends (Megabonk being a Vampire Survivors clone but 3D, Stardew Valley chasing the farming sim trend during its earlier stages and striking gold, Terraria during the builder sandbox craze, etc).

>>2038819 Pretty much what these (>>2038856, >>2039318) anons said. Gameplay is pretty important in how a game ages and how well it's received (usually), but how it looks affects people's purchasing more. If normalfags preferred art direction over realism, something like Unicorn Overlord (which had quite a bit of time in the spotlight with Nintendo Directs) would have had more popularity with them.

>>2037773 >Is "reality" wrong Yes, same way the "reality" of E33 being an indie game is wrong >9 Million and around 30 devs is the shill line (which IMO already disqualifies them) that is held up as proof of independentce. The stuido used the usual industry wording that it only took 9 million to make the game excluding the marketing funds, there are over 400 people in the credits (with 9 "thank you"s but don't look up who they were thanking) for 500 roles. Then we also have France's goverment being very intune with the game's drop; The president macron directly commenting on it and allegedly the "French Ministry of Culture" (in the picture on their website we have Occitanie and the National Film and Arts Board (the CNC or National Center for Cinema and Animation) so we know they atleast had a noteable connection) awarding multiple devs. E33 has a publisher, which disqualifies them on top of all that (even if they're co-owned) Etc Now for the list of suspicious things that do not directly disqualify them as an Indie but are still highly suspicious things surrounding this "indie" game >their (co-owned) publisher's ties to larger entitys, like netease or DEI funding >the only other game to get that nearly as many awards in the history of the show was TLou2 (7) >one award catagory had 3 nominations just for E33 >the award spoke's person made a cheeky comment about Silksong, the game that actually crashed steam when it dropped, getting something. On the only award E33 wasn't nominated for >the "experienced team" made multiple impossible job leaps that only happened corruption or by just buying their way there like in the case of the lead "writer" being an investor who never wrote anything until E33. >the one of devs said in an interview that the "clair obscur" of E33's name was a base franchise name (said project that was started when they were founded in 2020, how optimistic) >E33 showed up and heavily shilled on gamepass >they had real film actors to play key roles in their breakout game >E33 had a MOVIE DEAL BEFORE THE GAME EVEN DROPPED There is probably more, I probably forgot something TLDR: E33 is not an indie game and yes "reality" is wrong

>>2040197 I forgot to reread the post I was replying to, this isn't related at all FUCK

>>2039513 Unicorn Overlord has shit gameplay though. And shit characters, and shit writing. Yeah the art direction is great, but other core parts of the game suck ass. The game won't get good word of mouth going if it's shitty. Marketing gets you initial sales, word of mouth is going to get you sales for years and years to come.

>>2039513 Maybe if the devs got their heads out of their asses and gave it a PC port it would've gotten more recognition.

>>2040885 >Word of mouth=/marketing lol

>>2040197 Have you ever considered that a game can be just that good? As for the TGA shit you have to remember the panel is a bunch of game journos and they decide 90% of the vote for the awards. They probably got filtered by how hard Silksong can be. In other news. E33 got disqualified from the "Indie Game Awards" after their win due to using generative AI for placeholder assets. https://www.indiegameawards.gg/faq?utm_source=syndication&pubDate=20251220 If the link goes to the wrong section, it's under the "Game Eligibility" tab.

>>2037409 Guess who just learned that funny little detail? The normalfag brigade and gayming awards hosts. https://xcancel.com/Okami13_/status/2002491581996355839 https://archive.ph/px4Dq https://archive.is/V2xRq Larian's next on the chopping block from what I hear

>>2041013 Literally who? Show me their award categories/nominees and some of their bluesky bios.

>>2041013 The real question is why shit like that even qualifies as indie to begin with. Isn't it stealing the prizes from actual small developers? With 10 000 000 $ budget, you're not exactly some garage project. This is a fucking medium sized company. https://www.thegamer.com/clair-obscur-expedition-33-10-million-budget/ As you can see from the credit screen HUNDREDS of people worked on this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04wAYTaqNkI

The French president shilled the game: https://www.ign.com/articles/french-president-emmanuel-macron-is-back-on-instagram-celebrating-clair-obscur-expedition-33-this-time-for-winning-game-of-the-year And it also got a movie deal before release. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/05/16/casting-the-announced-clair-obscur-expedition-33-movie/ Indie my ass.

>>2041092 Literally who Who? Larian Studios (the Baldur's Gate guys)? The awards guys (that you can read about here >>2041011)? The twittard (who I found this morning)? >>2041252 >>2041278 I don't care much about the indie label, all the evidence posted earlier >>2040197 definitely calls the label into question unless your definition of indie is "it's not by a AAA American/western studio we're all sick of hearing about". It's just stupid how they lost their award over, none of those issues that shouldn't have even let them qualify, but instead a technical foul, despite being the gaming scene darling for the past few months.

>>2041307 >It's just stupid how they lost their award over, none of those issues that shouldn't have even let them qualify That's nothing to be bothered by. Calm your autism and just smile.

>>2041307 The awards. Calling them guys is a misnomer. Scroll down the main page, you'll see. And wish you hadn't. You're giving a bunch of freaks validation by saying that Sandfall Interactive "lost" something by not being given an award from those degenerates.

>>2040885 >The game won't get good word of mouth going if it's shitty. If only...

>>2040962 Especially considering it's basically a pseudo-RTS. I liked it okay but it was pretty intolerable to play on a controller.

>>2040885 >Unicorn Overlord <shit gameplay <shit characters <I hate JRPGs btw and have massive ADHD Its impressive how consistently that viral meme game threads attract the biggest, most insufferable retards on the site (assuming you aren't some off-site rapefugee of course, and given how you've been posting until now, I wouldn't be surprised).

>>2042523 Oh piss off you retard. The characters in that game may as well belong in a fucking moege or CGDCT anime for all the personality they have. And the gameplay becomes trivial once you figure out how to make a decent set of conditions/patterns/whateverthefucktheycalltheirsystem for your entire team. The only time I even "struggled" past the first three missions was one of those bite sized side-quests where the timer is so short that you automatically lose unless you bum rush the enemy castle immediately. I put struggled in quotation marks because I was caught off guard by a gimmick stage and lost. That's it. Entire game aside from the first three stages is brain dead trivial. That's more than enough to earn the shit gameplay tag. Deal with it, bitch.

>>2042563 >now he's shitting on moege What a surprise. >gameplay becomes trivial once you figure out how to make a decent set of patterns for your entire team <uses the beginning of the game as an example of this You mean the part of the game where your tools are extremely limited and the enemies are accordingly simple to deal with? The beginning of the game is basically just smacking retarded enemies over the head until you win because its teaching you the mechanics. You couldn't have picked a worse part of the game for your examples if you tried. Might as well be proud that you could read the first word of a book, and think you can judge the entire thing based off it. I've had to change teams numerous times and take different approaches for different missions and especially for the side missions and shit like the colosseum, and I beat the entire game on Expert. Not to mention the sheer number of spread-out and stealthed enemies on the maps later on combined with the number of objectives you need to defend at times means that you can't just use 1-2 juggernauts (or juggernaut teams in this case) and win like in a lot of SRPGs, plus the absolute ridiculousness of some of the enemy unit squads they put together. There is no one-size fits all squad for the game as a result, the number of slots and abilities per unit are too limited and some compromises always have to be made with each squad. I tried making juggernaut squads but they would always eventually either fall off or have some large part of the game that they would struggle with (or just the simple fact that no single squad can cover the entire map no matter how hard they try). That being said, the game is pretty generous with resources if you invest the time into it and you can figure out some generally broken squads (but like I said, they're not enough to trivialize the game), but that's about it. You're full of shit, anyone foolish enough to shit on a Vanillaware game is a retard not worth taking seriously.

Let's be honest, the main character of the game is inspired by Amy Sorel from Soul Calibur.

>>2043539 >Inspired by a beautiful character >Make yours ugly

>>2043675 Well, they have to be "realistic", after all. They came from the Ubisoft school of character design.

>>2043539 I wish! If there's anything Kojima got right, we need more Vampire characters in every genre, not just horror/ castlevania.

>>2043814 I don't know why stylization is such a foreign concept... No, scratch that, i know why. ----- https://archive.is/AximB

>>2042648 Yes, I am in fact using "the beginning of the game" to argue that learning a game's systems which are introduced at "the beginning of the game" is best done at "the beginning of the game" because that's usually when games onboard you. I'm also arguing "the beginning of the game" is a good place to experiment since "the beginning of the game" is usually designed in such a way for players to experiment with a game's systems and controls and as such is intentionally made easier. Good job, you have passable reading skills and have been able to distill my argument into a simple <uses the beginning of the game as an example of this >I've had to change teams numerous times Yes, that's the standard for squad based games. You make new teams as you unlocked different units, tactics, weapons, upgrades, and so on. >and take different approaches for different missions That's the bare minimum for good game design: making the player do different things and try different approaches to solve problems. >and I beat the entire game on Expert You say that as if you were trying to make a point, pride maybe? If you re-read my post, it's heavily implied that I also beat the game on Expert. >Not to mention the sheer number of spread-out and stealthed enemies on the maps later on combined with the number of objectives you need to defend at times means that you can't just use 1-2 juggernauts (or juggernaut teams in this case) and win like in a lot of SRPGs, plus the absolute ridiculousness of some of the enemy unit squads they put together. There is no one-size fits all squad for the game as a result, the number of slots and abilities per unit are too limited and some compromises always have to be made with each squad. I tried making juggernaut squads but they would always eventually either fall off or have some large part of the game that they would struggle with (or just the simple fact that no single squad can cover the entire map no matter how hard they try). So you struggled a lot where I did not. >You're full of shit I'm just better than you are at video games. >anyone foolish enough to shit on something I like is a retard Well you already ousted yourself as an imbecile when you tried to defend moege. Guess I don't need to harp on you any more than I already did.

>>2044659 SLOP! It's SLOP!

>>2044764 >beginning of the game is a good place to experiment You're retarded if you think that. Nobody experiments in the tutorial stages of the game, they experiment when they have the actual tools and scenarios that they can configure and adjust. >that's the standard for squad-based games >that's the bare minimum for good game design >the gameplay is shit So you're just a lying snake then, that tracks with everything you've been saying until now. >heavily implied I beat the game on Expert You literally implied the game was easy enough that you didn't do jackshit differently from the beginning of the game. Most of the units at the beginning of the game fall off hard later. It isn't a particular point of pride (unless you're feeling insecure) it's just confirming my experience with the game from the highest difficulty available before NG+ and saying it wasn't trivial (though it certainly could've been harder overall). I literally said you were full of shit. You've already created an absolutely retarded situation for yourself where either you admit to playing through an entire game that is upwards of 60+ hours in length with almost everything in the game being shit according to you, or you didn't and are just lying about it to shit on a completely unrelated game so your special snowflake "JRPG without the J" looks better by comparison. Your opinion is one of the most embarrassing I've ever seen. Considering your sheer lack of brainpower displayed here, I doubt you possess much tactical prowess anyways. >I'm just better than you are at video games You literally stated you struggled at the "I'm a retard, please spoonfeed me" stage of the game, but now you expect me to believe you magically had no struggles with the rest of the game, where they throw even more kinds of sneaky tactics, units and broken squads at you? Nearly all video games get harder after the tutorial/extreme early game, you're implying it somehow got easier even though anyone with a brain knows this clearly isn't the case.

>>2038066 >>2038517 >>2039318 >muh marketing!!!!!! Marketing doesn't affect appreciation when playing the game, if anything it can influence purchase options. Marketing doesn't write Metacritic scores or Steam reviews. Players influenced by marketing can always do the needful and redeem the game if it sucks as much as you pretend. They didn't. They loved the game and keep praising it everywhere. ... except on anonymous imageboards where you find a suspicious vehemence against the game. >>2042523 >unironically acting as if your weebslop is any good lmao

>>1933943 You reek of tendies.

>>2041252 >>2041278 seethe harder indie tranny >>2041343 Holy projection

>>2041011 What a bunch of faggots.

The lack of diversity in this game was really refreshing. After the prologue, apart from Lune, I don't think there are any non-white characters at all.

>>2059781 Calling this game woke is low effort bait, but come on, Verso does NOT look French. I visited France twice, one of which I spent entirely in Paris. The only people I met that look like Verso were nafris or spanish exchange students we had as interns. What there fuck were they thinking

>>2059781 Sciel is definitely a mutt. >>2060125 Eh he looks pretty close to Renoir. Either way, though, this game definitely didn't feel as filled with minorities but to say it wasn't present at all would also be wrong.

>>2054319 >Marketing doesn't affect appreciation when playing the game I wish it was that way but it absolutely does. Not with everyone, but mid games with stellar marketing are seen as higher quality than better games with bad to no marketing. It goes even further when people get influenced how much they like a game by a journos score in both the good and bad way.

>>2014373 Absolutely not the faggot keeps trying hard to surf a pretentious 2deep4u vibe instead of doing simple down to earth stories, and V was proof even coombait couldn't salvage his vapid deEeEeEp plots >>2016319 >Masks you mean Visages? Esquie was supposed to look like a wine skin

>>2044659 >>2059242 >>2059781 >bare minimum state enforced diversity >JRPG weebshitters in obsessed with hating the game >kicked from indie awards I'm starting to nooooootice.

>>2062630 >JRPG weebshitters >>2054319 >weebslop You aren't fitting in.

>>2062630 >JRPG weebshitters in obsessed with hating the game huh? When did this happen? I mean, it's just Persona 5 with Mario RPG mechanics, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone even say that people need to wake up to the "tranime" psyop, it's literally just trannies trying to appropriate anime by sitting on it while smelling like rotting axe wounds they did this with Breakcore, Lain, Splatoon and a bunch of other stuff, it's an effective tactic as long as you're not wise to it

>>2062892 >When did this happen? Never. It's a strawman. Look at basically any JRPG player last year and they'll say they liked E33. The only thing they didn't like is the obnoxious normalfag fans who act like there was no good RPG before it and basically it using realismface instead of animeface while having a derivative anime plot (which E33 absolutely is) is suddenly okay.

>>2062944 it is genuinely crazy how mainstream anime has gotten after Covid and how people still try to farm clout with the "I hate anime" act it's now in this weird worst-of-both-worlds middle ground where normoids are infesting it, but at the same time you still get shit on for liking it they expect you to do the hood weeb doubleplay where you "love" Dragonball, except for the "diddy ahh blud" parts, it's such womancoded bullshit

gate keep harder faggot

>>2054319 >trust the opinion of normalfags The opinion of most poeple genuinely doesn't matter, especially considering the fact that they barely care/know about the genres/mediums they interact with. I trust the opinion of an autistic weeb on an imageboard except for halfchan because they know more about JRPGs than some normalfag whose only experience with the genre is FF7-10. They also respect the genre more.

>>2063038 As far as I am aware, normalfags are aware and only like super popular shows, mainly because they are easy to digest and popular, so they want to be in with the crowd. Stuff like Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man for recent-ish examples, and Naruto, One-Piece for "old", "classic" shows. They are also the type to say stuff like "I hate mecha anine, and refuse to watch them, but I did enjoy Gurren Laggan and Code Geass, and no I don't want you to recommend me other mecha shows, I hate them", or "Eww 70s anime, that's like old shit, I only watch Solo Leveling". Probably a good example of this is that infamous video by the TheAnimeMen, where they watched like 60 different shows from 1961 to 2025, oh but sorry, I didn't mean shows, only the first episode, and at 2 times speed, and while scrolling on their phones. At the end, their conclusion was mostly old = bad and new = good (unless it's something that they have to like, such as Sailor Moon). It also had a guy say that he only started watching anime, when the quarantines hit. Warning: this video may induce extreme levels of hatred https://yewtu.be/watch?v=CaJdJeku7fY%5BEmbed%5D Maybe I should make something pic related, but for anime, with the oldest of shit being One Piece and Dragon Ball Z. I accept suggestions

>>2067357 fucking kids >pic related my childhood game and no, not the remake the ORIGINAL

>>2067357 >or "Eww 70s anime, that's like old shit, I only watch Solo Leveling". Jesus, you're describing my friend to a t. You're just missing mentioning MHA and Helluva Boss.

>>2067472 >You're just missing mentioning MHA and Helluva Boss. I only picked Solo Leveling, because it:s based on Korean web novels, so you have to be a certain type of "weeb" to only watch that. >Helluva Boss In my theoretical Joker image, I was thinking of adding Avatar The Last Airbender to Old School, and Invincible to New School just to fuck with people even more.

>>1669954 Did anyone played the new content, how is it compared to the based game, in gameplay obviously because I 100% bet the story is gonna be considered non canon filler anyway.

>>2062138 Yeah sorry idk why I messed up his name >wineskin Fuck that does make sense

>>2070014 The story isn't non-canon. You can more or less consider it a Verso and Esqiue sidequest kind of like how everyone else got one in chapter 3. As an endgame area it slips in nicely between Flying Manor and Renoir's drafts as a ramp up as Osquio is a step between Clea and Simon in difficulty. They also added four new super bosses to the combat tower: Dualliste X2, Chromatic Lampmaster, Clea Unbound and Simon The Divergent Star. As far as I can tell you can only beat these bosses with bullshit. There's a bunch of new pictos and weapons too for new builds. The only thing that annoyed me is Lune and Sciel got sexy slinky dresses for the dlc and Maelle gets a fucking suit. Like, fine don't give her a sexy dress. At least give her a cute one.

Clea is the best girl though

I hate this bitch and the game sucks for not allowing you to get her killed

Just started the game and >Found the Hidden Gestral Arena >Each duel rewards a Pictos for solo play, the first one giving 100% crit for being alone >The last duel not only gives a hefty amount of exp but a chance for weapon upgrades past level 9 >Started cleaning house on all the Chromatic Nevrons and any other optional bosses Now I'm curious about the Golgra duel, what are my chances with Gustave at level 50 with a level 15 weapon? The pictos are focused on speed and luminas are anything that gives damage and extra AP.

>>2079401 Normally I wouldn't spoil but since you asked, don't bother with Golgra until later. You'll just be bashing your head into a brick wall for literal hours if you attempt it at low level.

>>2079454 How far are we talking about and how many levels more do I need? I know Act 1 ends at the cliffs and just loaded back before the Lampmaker fight in case it's possible to beat Golgra with Gustave Also am I right in assuming the damage cap can be raised? I doubt it's only quads till the end if people have access to all these strong pictos in the first half of the game.

>>2079480 >How far are we talking about and how many levels more do I need? Not until after act 2. Unless you wanna take a literal hour to fight her. It's not about level it's about damage cap and you can't break that until after act 2.

>>2079454 >>2080360 Gave it a go and you're both not wrong. Looks possible though with the parry autists.

>>2081784 Until she hits phase 2.