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These games also show that 'Actual creative people should be in charge of game studios, not MBAs, who only care about money.'
I keep hearing about this Clair Obscur game alongside BG3; is it safe to assume it has an epic level of choice and logic like BG3 does?
No really. Is more of a traditional, linear story driven, turn-based JRPG, set in alternate France, that incorporates dark-souls dodge and parry mechanics in combat.
So much fun in a completely different way.
Turn based Dark Souls combat? Well now I gotta check it out to see how that weird arrangement of words works.
I would not describe the combat as having anything in common with Dark Souls.
A lot of people use that to mean "slightly harder than tic tac toe"
The "souls like" tag on Steam is meaningless because all a game needs to have a billion people add that tag is "you respawn when you die" or "quest design is slightly obtuse on purpose."
It's the dungeon design that's most like Dark Souls. Encounters are a bit taxing, and there's a bonfire-like checkpoint system that similarly respawns enemies and recharges your equivalent of estus flasks. It's fairly generous, but there are a few stretches (especially in the side content) where you'll have to evade combat or avoid damage enough to make it through all the encounters.
"Thrown into weird world of shit that kills you"
I've heard it described as basically:
What if we made a game with the core concept of Final Fantasy X-2, but with our own story and characters and expanded upon the gameplay?
I haven't played it, but afaik, its jrpg style combat based around your team of 3, but there's a lot more involved timed and reaction based elements to the gameplay... its not as static as an old school jrpg like earlier versions of Final Fantasy, but its also not quite as invovled as the even more complex and dynamic FF7 Rebirth gameplay system.
i mean you could have shortened your description by saying it is an alt france mario rpg/mario and luigi/paper mario.
the mario rpg series is basically a jrpg with timed dodge and parry mechanics that existed decades before souls, with several entries.
I mean, you aren't wrong, but the amount of people that associate dodge and parry with Soulslike games is bound to be much higher than those that associate it with Mario RPG and it's kin. I've played games in each of the series, and I hadn't even made the comparision to Mario RPG in my head, despite it being one of my favorite games.
Yeah but the Mario RPG bit sold it for me lol
Probably because harshness, tight timings, and the game goes out of it's way to screw with your ability to execute the dodges and parries it's more reminiscent of the souls like, not to mention it's more recent and active in the gaming zeitgeist.
They are often compared because they have great writing and are made by passionate independent directors. Passionate independent teams really. And they share three voice actors. The female lead is phenomenally voiced by Shadowheart's actress.
And both games feature (very different) turn based combat which has been deemed outdated by "the industry".
But the story of Clair Obscur is very linear. But not less awesome. And there are already talks about a movie and I'm really curious how they tackle that because you can tell this tale from so many angles.
Hot take: I think E33 is better than BG3. They are very different games, though. BG3 shines on the micro level in my opinion. Flexibility and player creativity in dealing with specific encounters or problems, especially in Act 1. The many ways of tackling the goblin camp is the classic example.
E33 is a linear JRPG. There is not much choice involved, but it's a gripping and interesting story told beautifully and with great cinematography. The combat is a fresh feeling mix of turn-based and Souls-like. The music and art direction are absolutely top quality, the script is written well and voice acted immaculately, whether you chose English or French.
It's a very good narrative focused game, but the balance is pretty bad. The game can seem impossible at times, especially when new, or you can make a build one shot the hardest bosses. If you over level towards the end of the game, you can miss out on cutscenes that happen in the middle of battle. Or miss out on ridiculous boss mechanics (throwing a building at you or forced party wipe mechanic). The music should win all the awards this year. You can listen to the whole OST on YouTube or Spotify, or buy on steam or bandcamp; it's 154 tracks, about 8 hours total.
Yeah, but everyone knows art is just valuable for money laundering.
this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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