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Sorry for the radio silence! I have just not been in a writing mood, I guess. But I'm back to talk about video games! A singular video game. I beat Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a couple days ago.
If you've seen other people's reviews, mine will come as no surprise. This was a great game and I highly recommend it. Clair Obscur is a single-player, story-based RPG with turn-based combat about a city of people living in a fractured world where a mysterious entity called the Paintress counts down a new number each year, and every year anyone of that age is erased, an event called the Gommage. When the game starts, the oldest people in the city of Lumiere are 33. Every year an expedition (mostly of people with one year left to live) goes out to try and stop the Paintress and the Gommage for good. You play as the members of Expedition 33 as they set out on this year's expedition.
This fascinating premise is what prompted me to pick up the game, along with all the positive reviews I'd seen. I was very glad to discover they weren't lying--this game slaps! The combat is fun and engaging, the soundtrack is gorgeous, probably one of my fave video game OSTs, and the story kept me hooked from the very beginning to the very end. It's a story about grief, and about family, and about art. It's also a game where you can beat the shit out of freaky mimes and dress up your characters in outfits with baguettes and berets. I would definitely recommend checking out this game.
For those who have played it, VERY SPOILERY thoughts continue below the cut:
Ohhhh my god that ending. I went the Verso route in my playthrough, because it felt like that would lead to an ending more thematically "relevant", if that makes sense? Freeing both Versos from their prisons and erasing the Canvas so that the Dessendre family can begin to move on from their grief. And I was right, but I felt so baaaad why did they make me erase everyone!!! Verso saying goodbye to Esquie and Monoco 😭 LUNE BEING PISSED AT HIM. Ughhh it was a good ending imo but it sucked.
Of course I immediately looked up Maelle's ending after I finished the game and Jesus Christ they went the horror route with that one. Often I'm a "fuck the ethical decision I want a happy ending" person when it comes to video game decisions like this (I saved Chloe at the end of Life is Strange and let the town get destroyed lol who cares!!). If Maelle's ending had let everyone live and been happy about it, I could ignore the thematic weakness of such an ending lmao. But honestly I thought it was sooo good they had it be fucked up. Verso begging Maelle to kill him, Maelle forcing him to keep living, forcing him to perform for everyone, the creepy music and the jarring smash cut to her face while she's using her powers, Maelle staying in the Canvas while her real body is presumably rotting away in the real world and refusing to move on from real Verso's death. Absolute *chef's kiss* all around. I hate it. It's perfect.
Needless to say I consider Maelle's ending the bad ending jshdfjkshdf I have to assume that's how the game wants you to view it? It just sucks that the Canvas couldn't be spared in Verso's ending. 😔
All that being said I completely understand where Maelle is coming from. I think she and Verso are understandably the strongest characters of the game. I liked the rest of the cast, but none of them had the same kind of depth Maelle and Verso were allowed, being, you know, the people the entire game is centered around haha. Maelle being a 16 year-old girl who blames herself for her brother's death, who feels like life isn't worth living anymore outside the Canvas because of the grief + the injuries she now has to deal with, having to give up a perfect world where she can have everything she ever wanted and doesn't have to feel bad anymore... Like no wonder she chose that!
The very last thing I did before going to the final battle was max everyone's relationships/do their social link quests, and seeing Maelle so easily erase Painted Alicia (at Alicia's request) without the chance to say goodbye to her brother, then be confronted with the exact same scenario with Verso and deny him... Like damn girl okay you really hate yourself don't you.
Idk, I just feel like the Marge holding a potato meme sjdhfskjf like I just think they're neat!
This isn't even getting into the rest of the family sjhdfksdjhfskjf I saw someone make a post that was like "we don't know how the Painter powers work in the real world so when Clea says she's getting revenge does she mean like, with a gun" sdfhskjf I hope so! I need to know what she was up to out there, that's my biggest gripe with the story, how could they drop that Writers vs Painters lore and then do nothing with it!! DLC or sequel??
Quick thoughts on the rest of the cast:
I feel like I should've taken notes while I played because I'm sure I had plenty more I wanted to talk about but stupidly I didn't. Basically I really liked this game and I would love to read other people's thoughts!!
If you've seen other people's reviews, mine will come as no surprise. This was a great game and I highly recommend it. Clair Obscur is a single-player, story-based RPG with turn-based combat about a city of people living in a fractured world where a mysterious entity called the Paintress counts down a new number each year, and every year anyone of that age is erased, an event called the Gommage. When the game starts, the oldest people in the city of Lumiere are 33. Every year an expedition (mostly of people with one year left to live) goes out to try and stop the Paintress and the Gommage for good. You play as the members of Expedition 33 as they set out on this year's expedition.
This fascinating premise is what prompted me to pick up the game, along with all the positive reviews I'd seen. I was very glad to discover they weren't lying--this game slaps! The combat is fun and engaging, the soundtrack is gorgeous, probably one of my fave video game OSTs, and the story kept me hooked from the very beginning to the very end. It's a story about grief, and about family, and about art. It's also a game where you can beat the shit out of freaky mimes and dress up your characters in outfits with baguettes and berets. I would definitely recommend checking out this game.
For those who have played it, VERY SPOILERY thoughts continue below the cut:
Ohhhh my god that ending. I went the Verso route in my playthrough, because it felt like that would lead to an ending more thematically "relevant", if that makes sense? Freeing both Versos from their prisons and erasing the Canvas so that the Dessendre family can begin to move on from their grief. And I was right, but I felt so baaaad why did they make me erase everyone!!! Verso saying goodbye to Esquie and Monoco 😭 LUNE BEING PISSED AT HIM. Ughhh it was a good ending imo but it sucked.
Of course I immediately looked up Maelle's ending after I finished the game and Jesus Christ they went the horror route with that one. Often I'm a "fuck the ethical decision I want a happy ending" person when it comes to video game decisions like this (I saved Chloe at the end of Life is Strange and let the town get destroyed lol who cares!!). If Maelle's ending had let everyone live and been happy about it, I could ignore the thematic weakness of such an ending lmao. But honestly I thought it was sooo good they had it be fucked up. Verso begging Maelle to kill him, Maelle forcing him to keep living, forcing him to perform for everyone, the creepy music and the jarring smash cut to her face while she's using her powers, Maelle staying in the Canvas while her real body is presumably rotting away in the real world and refusing to move on from real Verso's death. Absolute *chef's kiss* all around. I hate it. It's perfect.
Needless to say I consider Maelle's ending the bad ending jshdfjkshdf I have to assume that's how the game wants you to view it? It just sucks that the Canvas couldn't be spared in Verso's ending. 😔
All that being said I completely understand where Maelle is coming from. I think she and Verso are understandably the strongest characters of the game. I liked the rest of the cast, but none of them had the same kind of depth Maelle and Verso were allowed, being, you know, the people the entire game is centered around haha. Maelle being a 16 year-old girl who blames herself for her brother's death, who feels like life isn't worth living anymore outside the Canvas because of the grief + the injuries she now has to deal with, having to give up a perfect world where she can have everything she ever wanted and doesn't have to feel bad anymore... Like no wonder she chose that!
The very last thing I did before going to the final battle was max everyone's relationships/do their social link quests, and seeing Maelle so easily erase Painted Alicia (at Alicia's request) without the chance to say goodbye to her brother, then be confronted with the exact same scenario with Verso and deny him... Like damn girl okay you really hate yourself don't you.
Idk, I just feel like the Marge holding a potato meme sjdhfskjf like I just think they're neat!
This isn't even getting into the rest of the family sjhdfksdjhfskjf I saw someone make a post that was like "we don't know how the Painter powers work in the real world so when Clea says she's getting revenge does she mean like, with a gun" sdfhskjf I hope so! I need to know what she was up to out there, that's my biggest gripe with the story, how could they drop that Writers vs Painters lore and then do nothing with it!! DLC or sequel??
Quick thoughts on the rest of the cast:
- Verso - He's an immortal emo guy who wants to die and has a little bit of white in his black hair so obviously I love him. The only bad thing he ever did was let Gustave die. I'm not forgiving him for that. But otherwise! Did not romance either Lune or Sciel because both those ships sucked, I played him as gay in my head.
- Gustave - RIP my awkward king. When he apologized to that Gestral he got tricked into yelling at that's when I knew I would die for this man. I was SO certain they were going to bring him back, I hate being wrong.
- Lune - Love her. Why wasn't she wearing shoes. I enjoyed that she was so suspicious of Verso for so long but that he eventually gained her trust (only to completely betray it at the end ughhhh when she didn't say goodbye to him before Gommaging 😭). Their shared bonding over the expectations of parents and that they were both musicians. ❤️
- Sciel - Also love her, she was very cool!! If only she would stop talking about her dead husband. Yes I know it fit the themes of grief but I don't care. Lune/Sciel could've been real but instead we had to keep hearing about the husband. Her having that previous run-in with Esquie was very touching though. 🥺
- Monoco - I didn't think I was going to care much about him when I looked at the party member list before playing the game but he won me over from his very first scene lmao. Sooo funny, and I loved his relationship with Verso. I cannot believe the Verso/Monoco chemistry was so strong. I'm half tempted to look up fic of them.
- Esquie - My sweet mythological being of supreme power!! ❤️ His interactions with Verso and the team were so cute.
I feel like I should've taken notes while I played because I'm sure I had plenty more I wanted to talk about but stupidly I didn't. Basically I really liked this game and I would love to read other people's thoughts!!
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