Clair Obscur impressions

Time permitting, which is not as often as you might think, I’ve been settling down and started playing a recently released game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

In a day and age where games either seem just, in general, overpriced at $70 for some AAA titles which are often bug-filled things with uninspired gameplay, I do tend to sit up and pay attention when the rumors go around that an AA title comes out from an up-and-coming studio that tries to do something different from the the copy-pasted games out there for less than $50.

While there was some hand-wringing about how the final release would play by the community, everyone agreed that the concept was intriguing. Once it was released, that worrying went away and all you heard was praise about a game that was knocking it out of the park — praise from critics and players alike (which often occurs at the same time far less often than you might think). The big thing? These guys did this game an a relatively tiny budget, and they outdid the big guys.

Like I said, I was interested in the turn-based mixed with active combat before release, so I jumped on it and do not regret my purchase at all. Compared to other recent purchases, I have not encountered bugs or performance drops (Oblivion Remastered, I am looking at you), uninspired gameplay and storybuilding (Dragon Age: Veilguard assumes the mantle for this complaint).

Clair Obscur reinvents some gameplay elements, but it really shines in presentation of a beautiful, interesting world with a mysterious and compelling story that tugs are the heartstrings in all the right ways. And, for such heavy subject matter, the game has a sense of humor as well.

Take for instance the scene of a creature called a gestral in the above screenshot, sitting in a hut with flames all around him. You prompt a conversation with him and he says, “This is fine”, borrowing from the dog-populated meme that has been so popular in recent years. But the gestrals themselves are both absurd and silly — in a very sad way. They are simple-minded things that focus almost entirely on battle and trade (with the good items hidden behind a “fight me” sequence), and that is nearly all that they seem capable of considering as part of their future.

The story of itself is about a people who don’t know why or how, but that are subject to the whims of the Paintress, across the water who paints an ever-decreasing number on a stone, after which all of those people who are the age of the number are taken by the gommage, a sloughing off of their bodies from this world. The expedition, all to become 33 years old before the next gommage, go in the direction of the Paintress to attempt to stop the annual culling of the people of Lumière. No one expects them to succeed, for 67 expeditions before them have failed.

I am far from completing the game. But I have enjoyed myself tremendously in the short time I have played it.

Without going much further into the game — there are people much better at that kind of thing than I am — I did want to draw your attention to the fact that the soundtrack is climbing the classical music charts, another unheard of event. But, if you give it a bit of a listen, you’ll see maybe why. Additionally, this song also touches on the non-English trait that has been a part of my music adventure, being sung entirely in French. And while it is not a new sound, the song itself is a new one, worthy of a listen. It is an excellent composition that evokes all kinds of vibes: from melancholy to nostalgia to timelessness throwback to a different age.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Clair-Obscur
Trouble de rature, courbera Eiffel
Clair-Obscur
Guardéo peinture, trouvera sans elle
Clair-Obscur
Trouble de rature, courbera Eiffel
Clair-Obscur
Guardéo peinture, trouvera sans elle