The many colours of joy and sorrow

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 without a shadow of a doubt is one of the best RPG that came out this year, and definitely a well and lovingly made love letter to the genre.

I completed the game 100%, so it must've done something right.

This game is too interesting visually, musically, and of course the combat system's fun and engaging from start to finish.

Everyone has been singing the praises of this game, and they're right to do so, so I'll try my best not to say the obvious.

GAME

The game is fun. That's it.
The turn based system feels snappy, taking a page from recent ATLUS games.
The real time reaction dodge/parry mechanic is satisfying to execute when you get the rhythm down.
Best of both worlds and they threaded the needle nicely, at least on default difficulty.

I would like to praise the recovery item system, they just turned healing, AP, and revive potions into various primary colours of replenishable Estus Flasks. Instead of hoarding and not using them at all, they became a reliable factor during combat, without the worry of losing precious resources.

The variety amount of weapons, pictos, and skills allow for flexible strategies, shaping roles of your party members according to your skill as a player.

Let's say you're not exactly good at parrying, you're able to pursue for a more defensive builds and dominate the combat system with dozens of passive buffs and strategic usage of the characters' skills.
Or, if you're crazy like the rest of us, turn on every damage buffs possible and parry everything.
Let's go, Justin!

But to be honest there is one optimal way to play and it's the main feature of the game, so I can't blame them to incentivize that.


ROLE PLAYING

The presented story here is pretty darn excellent.

The dialogues are succint and memorable for the most part, well performed by their VAs.
Characters are fairly well-realized for the theme they're going for.
There's levity and brevity balancing each other pretty nicely.
Environmental storytelling, it's there for you if you pay attention and look around.
Overall it is a well paced complete narrative, successfully conveying the main idea of the story and showcasing the depth of the main cast.

Personally, best collection of party members since Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Quistis, Quina, Kimahri, I'm so sorry, but this game has the best blue mage.

Plenty of side short stories to dig into, fleshing out the world and some of them are just awfully amusing.

It's a fun world to run around in.

Therefore,

Should you play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?

HELL YEA!
and the game is not that expensive too, so get it when you can afford it

God, this is Sandfall Interactive's first game... what're they cooking next?
People's expectations on their next project are gonna be... godspeed, brother!


For those who come after...and before...

Final Fantasy X

Chrono Trigger

Dragon Quest

Final Fantasy Type-0

Final Fantasy 8

Final Fantasy 9

Devil May Cry

Dark Souls

Silent Hill, they put some Akira Yamaoka in there

Lost Odyssey

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

Shin Megami Tensei

Final Fantasy XIII

Nier