Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [XBSX|S, PC, PS5, XGP] F/JRPG
- Thread starter Cyan
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She will never know this exists. I can only take so much.
This is exactly how I play these games. It's not that I'm good at them. I just overlevel to the point where nothing poses much of a threat. It may sound boring but I like it this way.
arandomguy
Veteran
For me it's kind of interesting just to see how much you can deviate from the intended play path.
I remember way back with Zelda on the SNES I would do the dungeons and get the equipment item that typically opens up more of the world and then leave without fighting the boss.
I remember way back with Zelda on the SNES I would do the dungeons and get the equipment item that typically opens up more of the world and then leave without fighting the boss.
Man the game is so good. They keep coming up with new and cool visual designs for each area. Again it's clear that they have a limited art budget compared to some AAA games but they somehow make up for it with interest with just compelling design and uniqueness. I'd post pictures but I don't want to spoil it for anyone playing through. Definitely the sort of game that I'd expect people to make collections of screenshots/videos for some of the environments later.
It's absolutely stunning. I swear most of the time I'm playing I could freeze the game and whatever I'm looking at wouldn't be out of place on a canvas in an art gallery. Even the camp at night looks amazing.
I've often wondered if the great games I remember from years ago were really that great, or if I was just younger and more forgiving, nostalgia playing its part etc. But then something like this comes along and reminds me how good videogames can be. Really talented, passionate, and focused teams can still deliver the goods.
Just got the Platinum trophy and started NG+. Wow.
Minor spoiler:
I appreciated the scene where Maelle has the waking dream at the campfire. Most writers would have the character say nothing and be like "I must be losing my mind" or something like that. Or if she did say something, everyone else would be like "you crazy, let's get you some help" and not take it seriously. Here she immediately tells everyone what happened in detail and they keep pressing her even when she's shaken up, because they assume it's important and they trust her. I like it when the characters are not morons and react accordingly. Especially when the universe they're in is fantastical and they are well aware that strange things can happen.
Honestly all the characters so far are capable and thoughtful. They have disagreements, but I can usually see both POVs and it's not obvious who is in the right.
I appreciated the scene where Maelle has the waking dream at the campfire. Most writers would have the character say nothing and be like "I must be losing my mind" or something like that. Or if she did say something, everyone else would be like "you crazy, let's get you some help" and not take it seriously. Here she immediately tells everyone what happened in detail and they keep pressing her even when she's shaken up, because they assume it's important and they trust her. I like it when the characters are not morons and react accordingly. Especially when the universe they're in is fantastical and they are well aware that strange things can happen.
Honestly all the characters so far are capable and thoughtful. They have disagreements, but I can usually see both POVs and it's not obvious who is in the right.
The game will keep throwing more and more mysteries to me till the end... or things will get explained and resolved?
Major Spoilers (end of Act 1):
Gustave is dead and I don't think he's coming back 
. I liked him even though he was a bit emo. He played well off the other characters. Especially the scene where he starts to emo out and Lune cuts him off. He had flaws but wasn't a weakling which is a route they easily could have gone.
Verso does seem immediately stronger in combat so that's helping me get over it
I do feel like it was kind of a bait and switch. I thought I was getting Robert Pattinson but instead they give me Viggo Mortensen.
. I liked him even though he was a bit emo. He played well off the other characters. Especially the scene where he starts to emo out and Lune cuts him off. He had flaws but wasn't a weakling which is a route they easily could have gone.Verso does seem immediately stronger in combat so that's helping me get over it
I do feel like it was kind of a bait and switch. I thought I was getting Robert Pattinson but instead they give me Viggo Mortensen.
All I can say is by the end of Act 1 I still don't know what's going on. The MC seems to know what's up so I assume he'll enlighten me at some point. Anyway the game is good enough for this to not bother me. It's a fine line between revealing too much and too little. I'd say they're doing a good job with it. The world is interesting enough to keep some of its secrets.
I started getting some fps drops in more busy areas, and I guess the way I have vsync set up (1/3 of 180Hz) means VRR doesn't work. Dropping to 30fps during a parry attempt is brutal. Luckily I was able to notch Shadows from Epic to High and now it's fine. So in the abscense of a DF optimized settings video, I'll say you can claw back a decent amount of performance by simply dropping Shadows to High and it basically looks the same.
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
I managed to squeeze in playing the intro on Friday night and the story telling is amazing.
On another note, I sometimes wonder if the narrative out there about how small the dev team is overblown somewhat. I've heard they had a ton of outside support for this game. It's great to claim "33 devs! why are Ubisoft such idiots?" and then spend another $100 million out the back door on support studios. This game likely isn't that low budget really. I'm not downplaying the achievement, but I think we should have an honest conversation about it.
On another note, I sometimes wonder if the narrative out there about how small the dev team is overblown somewhat. I've heard they had a ton of outside support for this game. It's great to claim "33 devs! why are Ubisoft such idiots?" and then spend another $100 million out the back door on support studios. This game likely isn't that low budget really. I'm not downplaying the achievement, but I think we should have an honest conversation about it.
$100million? That is so much money. Where would they even get it from?
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
It was just an example. The answer is simple though - MS, however much money it actually was.
My guess is that even though this game appears to have a $25-30 million budget it could easily be more like an Avowed or Hellblade 2 at $80 million depending on all the outsourcing. Still a fairly efficient production these days, given the outcome, but I tire of the false narratives that are going on. I'm seeing nonsense like "1/10th the budget of a Ubisoft/EA game" and it's more like 1/3rd. Impressive, but let's have a real conversation...
My guess is that even though this game appears to have a $25-30 million budget it could easily be more like an Avowed or Hellblade 2 at $80 million depending on all the outsourcing. Still a fairly efficient production these days, given the outcome, but I tire of the false narratives that are going on. I'm seeing nonsense like "1/10th the budget of a Ubisoft/EA game" and it's more like 1/3rd. Impressive, but let's have a real conversation...
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It is somewhat overblown for sure - check the credits. But that said I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable claim as many of the folks who are not counted in that core team are outsourced QA and localization. That is 100% absolutely not to say that these are unimportant or things that should not be credited (and indeed they are credited in the game!), but it is pretty normal to not quote such numbers in your "core team". Put another way, the full team of people that worked on this game is probably more like 100 or something, but then the full teams that worked on many AAA games including QA and localization is more like 500+. But it becomes a bit hard to count as many of these roles are working for only a fraction of the dev cycle on one specific thing like translation/localization or similar and would be hopping between different projects at a larger publisher.
Budget is thus probably a better indicator, but we rarely get to see realistic budgets for these games to compare.
tldr - it's not a very well defined notion and certainly claiming only 30-someodd people worked on the game is untrue, but it's definitely true that this is a much smaller team than a typical AAA game, no matter which parts you count/don't count.
The game definitely got some serious money behind them - the soundtrack alone is top tier, and that’s on top of the huge voice cast (Andy Serkis is not cheap) and everything else!
I didn't realize that was Any Serkis. Nice!
I wonder if going on gamepass was the right call for them. I probably would've bought the game on Steam if it wasn't on gamepass. TBH I might still buy it since it's so good, but I have to think being on gamepass severely limits their sales on PC and Xbox. Well this is probably easy to say in hindsight, before they knew it was gonna pop off. But I wonder about this business model.
it'd be nice to know the true budget of the game for sure.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c078j5gd71ro
They normally emphasize that they are a small development team.
I think it’s kinda genius. There will obviously be a sequel, as some things have been already set up for it, and it will sell a gazillion copies now with the success of this first one. And I’d be shocked if the next one will be so well priced. Plus they will be able to demand a much better deal from MS if it goes straight on Gamepass.
