Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[shell minnow]

the heartrate monitor is ON

[reef iron]

what boss

[shell minnow]

Act 2 ||Frost Eveque||

[reef iron]

oh my god

[shell minnow]

He's halfway through it, but I don't know how many revive tint's he's got left

[reef iron]

I failed hard enough against that one when I was in act 3 that I gave up and decided to do later

I should probably go try and nab it now

[fallow geode]

this was me in Act 2

and now I can || fly || it's definitely on my list to go back to

[nova temple]

I think the final stage was 50k. My recommendation would be to just come back in Act 3 or w/e

Strangely, that's the second time in like 12 hours that I see this idea...

[dawn spindle]

||their height match and the way the woman moves her head is identical to maelle's though that last bit I don't consider proof of anything as ofc they might be reusing things||

||itd explain both why they seem to know Maelle and why they seem kind of... sad? When they look at her though||

[main olive]

I need to go back and face my external demons
The beach volleyball minigame

[nova temple]

Don't do it

life is too short to be wasted on gestral volleyball

[shell minnow]

gestral volleyball is a form of self-harm

[dawn spindle]

I think that's exactly where i am rn

[halcyon elbow]

Turning my frame rate down to I think 30 did help for that

Whatever the lowest option was

Got it second try after that

[exotic ember]

Oh that sounds disappointing

[dawn spindle]

Oh that's interesting to know

[shell minnow]

me, as soon as i can't play e33 for several days: damn i really want to play e33 right now

[nova temple]

https://tenor.com/view/play-game-time-lets-play-play-with-me-gif-26241460

[exotic ember]

Huge mood. I'm not going to be able to play for a few days but I really want to jump back on for these late endgame dungeons, since I think I've done almost everything else. Definitely getting close I think

[exotic ember]

Prologue || I didn’t know you could re-do the Maelle fight in the prologue 👀 ||

Ngl so far having the Preach day 1 vod running during work has been good fun. Hadn’t stumbled across him before, though I don’t really watch let’s plays typically

[nova temple]

||Well, yeah, otherwise you might fully lose on a token||

[exotic ember]

Yeah this is a me problem lol

I don’t know how I didn’t realize that

[boreal galleon]

@fallow geode ||They just prefer an intimate goodbye||

[fallow geode]

I don't get it

or rather, I don't get why I'm the one getting tagged

[halcyon elbow]

[main olive]

I liked it when Gustave looked directly at the camera and said "Thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring this Expedition."

[nova temple]

This Expedition brought to you by our sponsors at Microsoft

Gustave's last name is actually Gates

[halcyon elbow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKM2TjBaqU

It really is remarkable how much of the decisionmaking on this game came down to just vibes

[dawn spindle]

uhm... ||I got a swimsuit? 😳 ||

[halcyon elbow]

Also Broche finally confessed to being one of the Life Enjoyers

I've seen him dodge the question several times but he finally admitted it here

[dawn spindle]

Uhm... how do I focus on this game ever again? 😳

[halcyon elbow]

How do you focus on anything else?

[dawn spindle]

Well, warframe doesn't require focus at all...

[fallow geode]

I've seen your "propaganda" posting
you're focused on something while playing it

[dawn spindle]

||and my other games don't have naked people actually||

[dawn spindle]

This is slander

[halcyon elbow]

https://tenor.com/view/j-jonah-jameson-slander-libel-spider-man-jk-simmons-gif-23201080

[dawn spindle]

I was waiting to see who posted that first

[halcyon elbow]

You were waiting?

I had it pulled up in like three seconds

(Also, it isn't libel either, its just true)

[fallow geode]

-# (lowkey IMO it should be Slander because this is a casual conversation. Would it still be Libel if it happened to be during writing a postcard?)

[dawn spindle]

my team looks great now

for some reason Act 1 minor ||sciel's baguette outfit looks extremely sharp? and now lune in swimsuit ||

[halcyon elbow]

The fashion game is excellent across the board

[dawn spindle]

hmmm

so far I've not liked anything tbh

[fallow geode]

I was using the Gommage outfits for a while, but I switched back to the default because it didn't feel right in the cutscenes

(and yes, I know about the option to disable outfits in cutscenes)

[halcyon elbow]

I used Gommage on Lune for a while but then I swapped to the black shirt one once I got it

[main olive]

Act 3
||Everyone is dressed in Expedition clothes except for Monoco who is in his suit with black hair and Maelle who is wearing the White expedition suits with white hair.||

[halcyon elbow]

Sciel was the hardest one for me to fashion

[main olive]

I stick to a theme

[dawn spindle]

I just think the expedition suits look so good

nothing else comes close

[main olive]

yeah they're sharp enough

[dawn spindle]

and the hairs all just look weird to me

[main olive]

I did change some hairs tho

[halcyon elbow]

I can think of an outfit that will be extremely Ushapilled but it is spoilers

[main olive]

Sciel has short hair to a side and Lune has a hair that says "artist" because it looks really cute

[dawn spindle]

huuuuuh... we shall wait.

To be honest I do quite love uniforms so it's just hard to top when these ones look so good

Act 1 ||what kind of... shower is this, looks so gross lol||

[nova temple]

Don't talk to me or my son ever again

Sorry, I mean, don't talk to me or my burgeon ever again

[dawn spindle]

well my cat threw that fight for me

[halcyon elbow]

Mmmm sure

This cat has never done anything wrong in her life

[dawn spindle]

tbh she just decided to stretch at a very inconvenient time

Also I have no idea how to fight this thing, Idk how i managed each time either

[halcyon elbow]

Bourgeon ||in general you want to fight around stunning it if possible. It is broadly weak to being stunned and of course it gets the creature to yack your ally back out if it has eaten one||

[nova temple]

tsk, gotta let people suffer on their own

[halcyon elbow]

||Also lightning damage if you hadn't caught that||

[dawn spindle]

yeah I knew all of that

[halcyon elbow]

Hence the spoiler bars!

[dawn spindle]

I just suck

can't parry a single thing but ||the miasma attack...or dodge...||

skill issue i guess

[halcyon elbow]

If it helps Preach was stuck on exactly this Bourgeon for like two and a half hours yesterday

[fallow geode]

hey, I'm "close" to finishing, and there are still some attack patterns I just don't get

half my boss wins have been because they didn't do The Bad Attack before I killed them

[halcyon elbow]

Yeah, there's a handful of attacks I either had to dodge or just buildcraft through

[dawn spindle]

I just don't understand the cues for any of this ones

[halcyon elbow]

That said, some of the challenge content in the endgame forced me to go back and learn stuff I had previously somehow managed to not learn

[fallow geode]

Act 2 Final Boss ||I literally never even learnt how to dodge her Boulder attack||

[dawn spindle]

nah just got, was just rng

cause like Burgeon ||it kept swallong maelle on turn 1 every time, it has done this all the previous times i've fought this thing too, but previously I was dealing more damage to it I guess||

[halcyon elbow]

Huh

[dawn spindle]

this time it did not

[halcyon elbow]

||The Bourgeons haven't always swallowed anyone at all for me on turn one, sometimes they wait or just never do||

[dawn spindle]

also 😳 this is sexier than the lune outfit I just got!?

well tbf it kinda isn't

cause everything i've been fighting oneshots me

[halcyon elbow]

It absolutely is

[nova temple]

I didn't find it super useful

[dawn spindle]

so it's all been nohits really

[halcyon elbow]

I use it on every build

[fallow geode]

the dichotomy of man

[nova temple]

Kon just plays the game wrong

source: me

[halcyon elbow]

I've built chonky enough that I can usually tank a hit. Healing Parry extends that to two hits

Or, it can, so long as they aren't back to back

[nova temple]

I just find the ones that heal you for 25% when you hit burning/marked/whatever enemy to just be more reliable

[halcyon elbow]

And then Typhoon tops everyone off on Lune's next turn

[dawn spindle]

yeah my build is kinda whatever i felt like so it's not very... optimized

[halcyon elbow]

It won't be for a while

[dawn spindle]

(this means full glass canon but poorly done)

[halcyon elbow]

You just kinda take what you can use

What difficulty are you on?

[dawn spindle]

hard

[halcyon elbow]

What a powergamer

[dawn spindle]

Trying to follow into your steps but I have sever skill issue 😔

Wow this place is gorgeous
-# Surely the least said thing of this game.

[nova temple]

This tells me absolutely nothing about where you are

[dawn spindle]

Should have narrowed it done for you to somewhere in Expedition 33 game

Act 1 ||Stone Wave Cliffs||

i finally had nothing left to do in the area

ooooh

this one does look more interesting than the other

[nova temple]

I run its lumina baseline

it's pretty cheap, and I love counterattack effects

[dawn spindle]

yeah though with my current stuff the stats are good

Well gotta learn it anyhow

[halcyon elbow]

They very nearly cut the act 1 final boss theme

Which would have been a crime

Lorien also really didn't like the Goblu track and wanted it cut as well

He keeps calling it a "draft"

He says he made the draft and stuck it in a file for a couple of years

And then came back and Guillaume Broche just thought it was great and took it and put it in

[nova temple]

Yeah, it's... fine

I know it has its covers, but I wouldn't list it among my favorites

It's distinct though

[halcyon elbow]

It isn't my favorite either but it defintely seems among the more popular tracks

[halcyon elbow]

Act 1 end / Act 2 track title ||The Lampmaster theme was an early iteration for We Lost, apparently. You'd never guess from listening to the two back-to-back||

[halcyon elbow]

All ||So I'm listening to an interview where they do confirm that time moves at different speeds inside and outside of the painting, but they also indicated that they move "at a specific ratio" that they do know internally||

[dawn spindle]

Uh oh, I woke up and all I thought about was this game

[dawn spindle]

Act 1 ||Stone Wave Cliffs|| ||This isn't ominous or anything...||

[exotic ember]

Me for the last month and a half

[dawn spindle]

me: watches and listens intently trying to make sure I see/hear the parry window
me: dies
me: well surely there was a parry window there that I must have seen/heard

[exotic ember]

That is a really tough enemy to get the windows down for imo. At least it was for me

[dawn spindle]

i killed it in 2 rounds in take 2

so I guess i didn't learn that

Maelle is broken

[dawn spindle]

I have found even better glass canon pictos

[hollow ruin]

ngl, i have had a bug where sometimes the attack don't have the audio cue, so they may well have been a parry window you did not hear

[dawn spindle]

I have had only one bug and a half

[fallow geode]

is there a common audio cue?

[dawn spindle]

Not exactly but besides the regular audio attack there's a more sharp noise when you're meant to parry I think, it isn't always the same noise but so far that I've seen in most cases if you parry when that sounds you get it right.

like a blade swinging does a blade swing noise that goes up at the parry point

I'm not sure how to explain!

[halcyon elbow]

It is very subtle and does not apply to ranged attacks and some of the party-wides

[dawn spindle]

yeah the ranged attacks ... some have something...

and some party wide attacks do have it and some don't

I thought it was subtle but the more I play the less subtle it becomes and now I can parry an attack the first time I see it quite often (not always but often enough)

[obtuse pond]

Ending ||Okay I feel like I’m gonna go insane over the fact that Verso died on “December 33rd”||
||What does that even mean?!||

[nova temple]

^ ||I did wonder if France had a different calendar in the 1900s, but I don't think so. I think it's just a weird Fantasy France thing||

[halcyon elbow]

||Watched an interview with the writers where this came up and they PAFO'd it with extreme prejudice||

[nova temple]

sus

[nova temple]

heh https://www.reddit.com/r/expedition33/comments/1kygguo/typical_nevron_boss/

[halcyon elbow]

Datto is wrapping up act 2 ||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZlVXBkrmQg ||

[fallow geode]

Act 2 all || I didn't even realise it was optional||

[nova temple]

I think it's a camp thing, yeah

[fallow geode]

||How much did he have figured out before/during the fight?||

[halcyon elbow]

I don't know, I posted it as I tuned in

Which was at the very end

[hollow ruin]

I didn't get it until Act 3, ngl 😅

[fallow geode]

Act 3 / Datto's stream ||Ooh, the Nevrons are Clea's work||

||The wonders that rewatching/playing can show you||

[halcyon elbow]

||With some exceptions. The game is more clear about this in some of the endgame content||

[halcyon elbow]

Okay very vindicating to see Preach have the exact problem I was having

With the beach volleyball

[halcyon elbow]

https://youtu.be/eN7zNzBZMYE

Act 2 ||https://fixupx.com/krystine_art/status/1928088099755614529 ||

Krystine Art 🎨 (@Krystine_art)

I can finally talk about it! 😍
︀︀
︀︀In April, I was secretly commissioned by the family of Guillaume Broche, Creative Director of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, to create a large & unique piece for him as a surprise gift! 🎁 It was a really special commission and I'm very touched and super honored to have been requisitioned to create this 🥹✨️
︀︀
︀︀#ClairObscurExpedition33

**💬 171 🔁 815 ❤️ 7.2K 👁️ 141.2K **

▶ Play video

FixupX · May 29, 2025, 1:56 PM

[dawn spindle]

Why do I suck at jumping

Ok i got it, all it required was complainimg

it might or might have not taken me 4 attempts to jump over there Act 1 ||Stone Wave Cliffs||

Boss? Boss!

Oh damn this music is

[dawn spindle]

I have to say Act 1 ||Stone Wave Cliffs|| ||that the prompt for the jump for lampmaster is ridiculously too late lol, and i did the fight ones, went explore the rest of the map came back and i had forgotten about the jump so uh... okay take 3||

dammit, almost

sweet, got it no hit 4th try

what a fun fight and the music!

[halcyon elbow]

Lorien Testard would have cut the music if he'd been left to his own devices

Or rather, it was a draft for a relatively unrelated event further into the game and he didn't plan on using it for anything, but the game director was rummaging around Testard's music files and found it and put it in here

[dawn spindle]

||wtfff??||

[hollow ruin]

o ho ho

[nova temple]

Everything about this game sounds fake

[dawn spindle]

Its really good

But uh...

Uuuuuh

[halcyon elbow]

Yes?

[dawn spindle]

Wtf

[nova temple]

ah

right

yes

have fun

[dawn spindle]

||wtf??? x2||

Act 1 ||hello Ben Starr guy whose name i don't know yet||

[halcyon elbow]

I said almost exactly the same thing

[dawn spindle]

I have been waiting for you.

[dawn spindle]

Lol

[merry lance]

It's kinda sad, I'm sure he can do voices other than The Ben Starr Voice ™️ , he just doesn't get the chance

[dawn spindle]

I'm too used to WF 1999|| Arthur's tone|| at the moment which is making me kind of dissonant. But I'm happy nonetheless.

Act 1 ||okay happy might not be the word ||

[dawn spindle]

Kinda funny I just said the opposite

Act 1 ||oh lune...||

[halcyon elbow]

If he can, I don't think I've ever heard him do it

He plays the voice differently but that's also kind of just his voice

(Radically differently, in some cases, as with his Natural Six ads or the Balatro stuff)

[dawn spindle]

Yeah that's fair

[halcyon elbow]

For what its worth, in his audition it took the Sandfall team a while to recognize him

[dawn spindle]

Act 1 ||oh... maelle...||

Welp, that's Act 1 done...

||Do I... go back to study for my tests now or see if I go die in a corner? ||

[halcyon elbow]

The hits start coming and they don't stop coming

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||The WHAT now?||

Okay...

okay...

Act 2 ||There's something about Verso using Gustave's swords that's just tearing me inside out...||

[halcyon elbow]

Act 2 ||He has a couple of superficially similar abilities as well||

[dawn spindle]

||this is the thing that broke me imma build this guy and go take a break 😭 ||

okay, I know my mind is way too in the gutter, I'm aware of this, and sometimes it's a joke but sometimes... Act 2 ||I have to hear Ben Starr say this and I'm screaming inside ||

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||overworld|| ||I parried 2 burgeon attacks from one combo!!! I died anyway but yknow baby steps||

[halcyon elbow]

Don't even have to ask what game he's playing

[dawn spindle]

I parried a whole combo! TWICE all 4 attacks

I think I'm getting good

[halcyon elbow]

The git guddening in this game feels so good

[dawn spindle]

yes, what does not feel so good is that ||this thing continues to eat Maelle on first attack, always, and as soon as i get it to spit her he does it again, it's kind of obnoxious at this point...||

It has been the case the entire game so far minus that one time I mentioned yesterday

[halcyon elbow]

I do think there's something odd about the AI's targeting

[dawn spindle]

yep

I do generally almost always get Maelle targeted

which is how I win fights

Just in this case it's not positive

[halcyon elbow]

I never had a problem with it but I have definitely seen more than one person mention that they're having a character consistently targeted by various mechanics

[dawn spindle]

I wouldn't call a problem that right now every time someone attacks me they take 10k damage, but it's certainly not "correct"

[halcyon elbow]

Okay so to be fair to Yahtzee here he isn't the one having trouble with this game, this is a response to some people in his comments upset that the game more or less demands some degree of parrying and/or dodging

Basically an "I see where you're coming from but it did not bother me and boy is implementation in some games (not Expedition 33) super half assed"

[dawn spindle]

I hate this fight

decidedly

why does this enemy take me more tries every time than everything else so far in the game

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

[halcyon elbow]

You can run into a lot more enemies that are a lot more overstatted for you than used to be the case now

[halcyon elbow]

Yahtzee: "Long story short, there's nothing particularly wrong with parrying, just as there's nothing wrong with Cadbury's Creme Eggs. But I'd still object if you replaced every item in my cutlery drawer with one."
This is a take I can absolutely get behind and I think I'd feel this way about Expedition 33's parrying if it had felt anything less than as core to the experience as it does

[dawn spindle]

no i mean this one has been a problem since the first time I encountered, I just can't read the specific timing of it ||burgeon||

I'm still fighting the same thing...

freaking finally

it has been 40 minutes!

[nova temple]

Is that your first one?

[dawn spindle]

No

We talked about another one just yesterday!

Must be what 4th or 5th? I dunno

Man Act 2 ||some random island... white tree?|| ||I picked up a journal that had a poem in it and Lune just said "this world is full of wonders" and Maelle replied "yet everywhere we go we walk with death" and I suppose it's their comment to the poem? but since those lines were said in the reveal trailer they had me like ||

||Esquie can't go underwater yet? 🤨 I figured I'll fly eventually or something similar but I'm surprised by underwater for some reason lol||

||am not fighting this chromatic jar right now ||

this after lunch break got out of hand 😐

[halcyon elbow]

||Gotta unlock HM Dive separately from Surf||

[dawn spindle]

||I meant I'm surprised that is going to be a thing not that I can't||

[analog tiger]

act 2 tangential ||... I did not expect the pokemon deepcut reference from Kon out of anyone in this server ngl||

[dawn spindle]

it's 8pm, I suppose I could have dinner and then have the after dinner break

[halcyon elbow]

I feel like it isn't a secret that I am a Hoenn Enjoyer

I haven't particularly enjoyed a Pokemon game in a decade or two but that doesn't mean I never did

[dawn spindle]

Out of curiosity kon, at what level did you finish act 1?

[halcyon elbow]

No clue

Wanna say mid-30s early 40s?

[nova temple]

I remember spending just under 30 levels in each act

I left Act 1 in my high 20s, and when I left Act 2 in my high 50s, I remember thinking how it's neat that acts seem to be about 30 levels each

[dawn spindle]

I think I'm 27 or so

[nova temple]

Yeah, that checks out

[dawn spindle]

Oh just, curious i think i did everything I could. That is, everything I had access to. Though I didn't farm

[halcyon elbow]

I didn't farm either, so I could be misremembering

I hadn't really farmed at all but now I gotta knock out those last ~5 levels or so

[dawn spindle]

Act 1 general ||did you attack the NPCs that you can interact with and/or attack? 🤔 ||

[nova temple]

I did not

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||this chromatic jar and I better become friends cause I think imma be here a long time||

I'm

https://tenor.com/view/llhlg-raccoon-facepalm-annoyed-hands-gif-18825442

Like this

[halcyon elbow]

I bet

https://tenor.com/view/gorilla-monke-monkey-spin-ape-gif-25078721

[dawn spindle]

Id say ive fought it 5 times

But really I've started the battle 5 times and died instantly all 5

[halcyon elbow]

I had issues with it as well but then once I got it, it became extremely easy

More than most fights even

[dawn spindle]

Make that 7

It has 2 attacks with different names that start with the same motion

And it gets me every time

[halcyon elbow]

It has one attack in particular that's a really short time from [enemy turn] to [mandatory player reaction or else team wipe]

[dawn spindle]

Yes that one

I think

||i got the parry and forgot to jump!||

Dammit

Ok i feel improvement, IM lasting all whole 10 seconds instead of 7 now

[halcyon elbow]

30% better

[dawn spindle]

Thanks Kon

That's motivational even

||i got so excited I jumped too early ||

Ok i got thst one down

Now i need to perfect the sibgle target combo

Noooo my controller ate my input when it had 5% health left

https://tenor.com/view/bunny-sleep-cute-gif-3481267

You're right kon this one is actually very rhythmic

[halcyon elbow]

Just can't let it surprise you now

Sometimes it'll do that

[dawn spindle]

Yes, I have died 6 more times but I see the vision now

I think and believe that every time Maelle says "please survive" I immediately fail

[dawn spindle]

okay, I think this is the thing that has taken me more tries in the game so far (no more time)

but it is done and

achievements

[nova temple]

It's almost 50% better actually! The increase is relative to the base, 3 out of 7 is like 43%!

[nova temple]

Game's just Dark Souls: DDR

[dawn spindle]

uhm... I went into a DANGER zone since I have been able to beat those before but ... hahahahahaha....... nope

Act 2 ||Dark Shores that is||

[fallow geode]

hah, I did the same thing

[halcyon elbow]

Allow me to bait you

Preach got through this

He's not much ahead of you

[dawn spindle]

not going to happen

I hit the thing for 9k and there was no visible change to the health bar

I am stubborn but i have my limits

[nova temple]

Did the same thing

Bashed my head against it for... longer

it's an Act 3 zone

[dawn spindle]

Hmmm this boss is taking no damage from anyone but Maelle???

[nova temple]

Elemental immunities?

[dawn spindle]

Nope

Errr at least I don't think

Act 2 ||It's the chromatic Hexga it shows just... nothing on screen when I hit it with any type of attack, elemental physical, etc. And yes I am removing the shields first (which do get removed) but then nothing||

I looked it up, ||I suppose I had shot the crystal but not when red which entirely seemed to do just nothing lol||

I'm taking this as a sign of enough expeditionining for today

||I do wish it said ANYTHING rather than me attacking and the screen being blank of any number/ui thing||

[nova temple]

Oh yeah, almost everyone struggles with this one

[reef iron]

yes I had to be VERY specific when backseating feather on that one

it is NOT clear

[boreal galleon]

Act 2 (Near End)||Well, looks like Sciel and Verso had an intimate goodbye 👀||

[nova temple]

I bring you a very important message

[wild jackal]

Putain I can kind of understand, but people not knowing what merde means is wild.

[fallow geode]

sorry not sorry

[exotic ember]

The only reason I knew merde was because I could extrapolate from taking spanish

Though I did also take a semester of french in college

[boreal galleon]

My french teacher inhigh school taught us a bunch of swears so that's how I knew

[boreal galleon]

Finished Act 2 ||Pain.||

[nova temple]

Correct

[boreal galleon]

Act 2 Ending ||I thought this was going to be the end??? It isn't?????? I assumed it was a post game thing not more story??????????||

[nova temple]

Heh

||It's mostly over, Act 3's story is pretty short, though you have just as much optional - and sometimes relevant - side content||

[halcyon elbow]

Expedition 33 + art history ||https://youtu.be/kv1DiRYm0sU ||

[dawn spindle]

As a note, Act 1 took me 18h aprox

[dawn spindle]

And that's ||The chromatic Hexga|| done

really, what a stupid fight

[nova temple]

heh

[dawn spindle]

||even if the fact that it is immune was properly noted I feel the fight was underwhelming at best||

[pure forge]

Somehow my Maelle has 106% crit rate, I have no idea how.

[nova temple]

Crit pictos probably

[dawn spindle]

I am fairly certain I am utilizing these characters very poorly

I have Maelle combos down well but I'm always slightly hesitant with the others

Act 1 ||Sciel... I mean I get the play but somehow I don't usually manage to make it happen properly||

Act 2 ||Verso I understand but it doesn't seem that most of the skills i have available at the moment are particularly... hmmm idk they're not bad right? But I'm not sure how to synergize them with each other||

[nova temple]

Act 1 ||Not to worry, I spent the entire game not knowing how to play Sciel!||

[halcyon elbow]

||I think they knew this, I don't remember that this is one of the Chromatic enemies that gets a reprise in the endgame||

[dawn spindle]

||Lune i think I am using fine and she does synergize well with others and if not I make her set everything on fire and wait||

[dawn spindle]

That is not a consolation!

[halcyon elbow]

https://tenor.com/view/gunslinger-western-gif-7278985

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||tbh one of the problems I am having, if you can call it a problem, is that almost everything I do is dipping into the cap so while I think I'm doing this horribly it doesn't affect the game because of the cap atm... lol like oh maybe an attack did 7k not 10k but you get my point. ||

Another problem I am currently facing seems to be ass.

Mainly, the fact that it's in the middle of my screen
Act 2 spoilers in the background

[nova temple]

Can't say I've ever had a problem with an ass being in the middle of my screen

[dawn spindle]

There's a first time for everything, you never know when one will creep in when you don't want it.

okay....

okay...

Can someone explain to me what am I supposed to do here (don't say cry I got that part down)

Act 2 ||the beach volley thing... it says press rb but that's doing literally nothing||

Ah

now it did something

wow

is this so completely out of sync... intentionally?

[nova temple]

sounds like you are doing it right already

[fallow geode]

Kon claims dropping to 30fps helps

[dawn spindle]

so I read but

I am more in disbelief this is this bad

[fallow geode]

Oh yeah

😔

The director has nostalgia for FF minigames

[dawn spindle]

like

my controls are not responding in the same way they do through the rest of the game

[fallow geode]

If it helps, I found this to be the worst one

[dawn spindle]

okay I dropped to 30fps let's if that helps

[fallow geode]

And it seems to be pretty universally hated

[dawn spindle]

I was willing to fight it for a bit if it was any fun but "hey my controllers are delayed" completely makes it out of that category

[halcyon elbow]

Unfortunately completing all Gestral Beach evens is an achievement

[nova temple]

But you don't need to complete every stage

[dawn spindle]

It doesn't matter I'm too completionist not to

[nova temple]

Yeah, well, so am I, until I hit the third stage of this accursed minigame

[dawn spindle]

oh goddammit, got the weak one, and then the medium one got me when i was missing just one throw

also why is the character walking like he's drunk

It's so... sloggy

[halcyon elbow]

You can still sprint

[dawn spindle]

okay, medium

Yeah yeah but it just feels bad on the controller response

let's try the accursed expert level

[halcyon elbow]

I did put my [Act 3 beach] ||Expedition 60|| pants on and complete the last stage

[dawn spindle]

oh, my cat decided to stand up

[halcyon elbow]

Or, take them off I guess

[dawn spindle]

Well.... if i can get it half down i can get it fully down

[dawn spindle]

Didn't need to know this.

[halcyon elbow]

This is a joke for future Usha

[dawn spindle]

Different jokes for different time!Usha's.

Ok i went back to 60fps and I can't hit anything

Holy crap

Ok back down to 30

[pure forge]

||Quick Strike to rank b, Assault zero to A, use Light Holder or Paradigm shift to get AP if needed. Gaulteram to not lose perfection as easily. Eventually, Defiant Strike repeatedly. Act 3: Add Free Aim Pictos and use Follow Up. When you get Chevalam you start in S so I alternate between Follow up, Ascending Assault, or Phantom Stars depending on my AP.||

[dawn spindle]

I don't want to read about things I don't have so I stopped reading when it said Act 3.

[pure forge]

I didn't wanna go full machine gun build or meta build but I think I found a happy medium where ||Verso|| is my parry machine, and major damage dealer/Break generator. Luna is my burner/stunlocker, and Maelle...well she still kind of just does Stendahl.

But yeah try Gaulteram, should already have it. Lowers ||Perfection loss.||

[dawn spindle]

If it wasnt because I've been parrying the entire game id think my rb is broken. It's currently eating inputs like crazy.

[ionic kite]

https://youtu.be/mpBG0TA76TQ?si=_ZSNTgHTKYpJbMws

[dawn spindle]

I've realised another problem... because I'm blinf I can barely tell where the character is or the things are

[pure forge]

Gut check your parry timings. Id been doing it all wrong. It isnt WHEN the enemy strikes, its like a hair before.

[halcyon elbow]

Usha is doing the beach volleyball, not having parry problems

[pure forge]

Or cave and download the parry mod for 3% more grace.

[halcyon elbow]

Same button

[pure forge]

Ah

[merry lance]

Yeah, the blast animation has a looooong follow-through

and wind-up

[dawn spindle]

Yeah I'm not having any parry problems

[halcyon elbow]

And a cooldown that appears tied to framerate somehow

[dawn spindle]

In fact I'm becoming too good at them much to my surprise

what IS happening is that i hit rb and nothing happens

literally just input eaten

same with joystick ocassionally

not all the time just... here and there

but given the nature of this challenge that is enough

Obviously this isn't happening outside of this challenge

[pure forge]

controller?

[merry lance]

I suspect it isn't the cooldown that's tied to frames, but the physics

and the shots are flying at you slower

[dawn spindle]

they are not

It is something related to the control of the character not to the general physics.

(I just tried with both settings)

I suppose it is possible there's a speed difference that I can't appreciate with the naked eye

Sir, I'm good enough at table tennis to understand the importance of strategy of alternating sides of the table before fast but PLEASE

I just hit something back while I was in the other side of the raft and pointing in the wrong direction and it was a split second after the entire animation was over. This thing is buggy as hell.

if only it did that more often?

[boreal galleon]

Worst mini game I've played

[halcyon elbow]

I mean

It is bad

But the worst?

Nah

[boreal galleon]

I should mention I don't have a large pool of mini game RPGs XD

[halcyon elbow]

If he was going for the classic JRPG minigame feel he nailed it lmao

[boreal galleon]

Yeah but is that something you reaaallllyyyy wanna nail?

[halcyon elbow]

Going off interviews with Broche, yes

He says redditors complaining about minigames "gives him life"

It is one of the few things he really wanted to do more of

[nova temple]

the other minigames are kinda fun though

[halcyon elbow]

The last one also sucked imo

Not like a buggy hot mess like this one

Just, very unfun

Loved the climb though

[dawn spindle]

The feel is fine but the thing doesn't work properly so not quite something to be glad about imo.

The platforming one took me a long time because I am unable to walk in a straight line.

But there was nothing wrong with it

Like idk we have things like stardew valley king of praire achievement which is really hard and has the whole same feel of old jrpgs minigames but it's not a buggy mess, for example.

He has nailed many other things about old and less old jrpgs without copying their bad traits, obviously that is intentional. So I'm not sure why this singular thing would be the only one in which they're not following that unless it isn't intentional.

That said I'm taking a healthy break

[halcyon elbow]

The impression I got was, it is funny to him that people are taking the minigames far more seriously than intended

Like, if anything is going to be buggy to the point of unplayable you'd hope it would be the low stakes minigame

[dawn spindle]

Oh I understand why he finds people complaining funny. That's fine.

[halcyon elbow]

So when he goes on reddit and people are malding about it, I think he gets a perverse French joy out of it

[dawn spindle]

I just think that's not to be taken as if it working as it does is intentional.

[halcyon elbow]

I don't think it is

[dawn spindle]

Schadenfreude is a fun feeling 😈 I can relate to that.

[dawn spindle]

Specially if driven by your own hand but alas. What you were saying here I understood as you saying that he's proud of it being a janky mess and/or that's what he was going for.

[halcyon elbow]

No, I think they're relatively low effort though

[dawn spindle]

Possible.

[halcyon elbow]

I think what he intended was, this is here as a goof

And people are not goofing with it

I wouldn't be surprised if it gets out that there's a framerate bug in the beach volleyball that they do go and fix it if they have the time/resources

[dawn spindle]

That is entirely on him, I could have told him people would take it seriously lol

[halcyon elbow]

That, I think he knew and expected

He put in a clair that he knew people would be obscur about

[nova temple]

mm

eclair

[dawn spindle]

I did also have that thought

[halcyon elbow]

(I did too)

[dawn spindle]

which then lent me to "hmm I actually miss the pain ou chocolate from paris" which obviously is very common here but it's not as good or buttery 🤤

But then it's 9pm and all i've had today are 3 sips of coffee so...

ALSO this whole beach deal gave me the need of ALL things, to play PSO2?

[dawn spindle]

okay, I am getting the hang of it (I just came back to it, no I've not been at it for the past 2h)

And it's not SO bad except the input being eaten which just makes me lose almost instantly.

I can't with this [redacted][redacted] piece of [redacted] input eating.

[analog tiger]

yo pso2 mention!

[halcyon elbow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDrqpIs50_I

Some commiseration

[dawn spindle]

okay but when the input doesn't get eaten I am hitting every single thing!

[dawn spindle]

I do at present have far more hours in pso2 than in expedition 33, at the rate this is going perhaps that'll change!

-# This is a joke i do have 600h in pso2.

[nova temple]

You can always come back to this hell later 😛

[dawn spindle]

https://tenor.com/view/testing-gif-19002347

[halcyon elbow]

NG+6

NG+33

[dawn spindle]

RAH

stupid

input

[nova temple]

I am never gonna eat a croissant again!

[dawn spindle]

I am consistently reaching here

And then dying, be it buggy or because I get nervous and my fingers refuse to obey commands

[dawn spindle]

GOT IT

https://tenor.com/view/bunny-rabbit-excited-gif-5490784

I have to say, I think the biggest issue with it is that each hit moves you slowly forward, while the best strategy is being on the middle bit dead center at the front and only simply looking to the sides, if you can control that you stay in the center and just turn about 60º on each direction you have a relatively huge margin to hit the thing.

I think this is the fps issue in question because sometimes I can clearly see it should hit but it goes through but not in those specific positions

I am going to wear the reward out of spite. Like theway one wears a scar with pride kind of thing, and not because I particularly like it.

[halcyon elbow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LirR3_Iz4aU

[nova temple]

I wish I hadn't known the premise of the game going into it 😅

[halcyon elbow]

I had an idea that I'd not want to watch any of the marketing for this one

[dawn spindle]

not even the trailer?

[halcyon elbow]

Nope

[dawn spindle]

I only ever watched the reveal trailer

[halcyon elbow]

I heard about it after the fact

And immediately was like "nope not watching that"

[nova temple]

the opening of Act 1 still effs you up

but if I didn't know about the Gommage stuff I could've gotten even more effed up

[dawn spindle]

Hmmm, perhaps.

[analog tiger]

hell yeah

[dawn spindle]

I'd have a lot more if mfing new genesis hadn't happened

but with how gross it is to grind I refused to start from scratch

[analog tiger]

lmao fair

come play PSO1 with me

it's fun!!!

it's also extremely grindy but it's fun grind trust

[nova temple]

[dawn spindle]

Me to my bf: come watch meplay i got gud I swear it won't be frustrating.
Act 2 ||painting workshop platforming||: hold my beer.

[halcyon elbow]

Act 2 ||I feel like I must have missed something in the Painting Workshop because I never struggled with it but I hear it complained about a lot||

[nova temple]

^ ||Must be a skill issue, I was perfectly fine with it too, barely considered it platforming||

[fallow geode]

^ ||there were a couple of times that I had to be careful with the landing to not roll off immediately||

[nova temple]

okay, you are now in charge of letting me know when the next one of these drops

[halcyon elbow]

lmao you got it boss

Shenpai is very funny

[nova temple]

I don't have time to watch to commit to another full LP, but ya bet I can devour compilations / edited videos

It's really good that I have a healthy relationship with media, and also self-control

[analog tiger]

I wonder what that feels like

[nova temple]

It feels like...

delusion

[dawn spindle]

@halcyon elbow when you said there was an Ushacoded outfit did you mean ||Obscur||?

Also also I, to no one's surprise, think that act 2 ||the Civilian outfit looks on Verso||

and maybe to someone's surprise Act 2 ||the skirt looks really cute on Lune 😳 ||

[nova temple]

Almost all the outfits look great

[halcyon elbow]

This is the one

[dawn spindle]

I don't have a problem with how they look I just like the expedition one bettre than everything else

[dawn spindle]

Well, you got me You're absolutely correct

I am in between pleased and annoyed at my predictability lol

Act 2 ||forgotten battlefield|| ||maelle is having a breakdown and I'm very sus of Verso not like necessarily negatively but... hmm||

||sciel's "when one falls" was foreshadowing to then immediately falling lol||

[exotic ember]

^ || See, Gestral tower was fine for me but one painting workshop in particular was some bs ||

[nova temple]

FWIW I don't like how people are looking at my reactions to everything Lune and going "mhm, yeah, it makes sense that you say these things"

[dawn spindle]

Kon has the (dis)pleasure of seeing all I think in warframe so I think it's just that... right?

Also Act 2 ||Forgotten Battlefield|| ||First, the dualliste was very easy? like, first try easy, second I'm glad I didn't forget my swimsuit to the blood pool party||

[halcyon elbow]

Endgame stuff, if you want it ||Dualliste gets some reprises scattered throughout various endgame things that allow for you to fight him and have it actually be a challenge||

[dawn spindle]

Probably not?

[nova temple]

I would this is safe for you, but also something you'll find out on your own eventually anyway

[dawn spindle]

Ah, I clicked

That is fine I guess

[dawn spindle]

same ||still means this fight was way too easy on hard mode, idk I'm having a lot of fun but I find it fascinating that i had to put hard mode to feel how I usually feel on other games playing on normal mode. In fact, this might be the first game i actually play in hard mode?||

[halcyon elbow]

I do think the game's difficulty is a little overstated

"The parry window is smaller than Sekiro's" is true but is also, you can build around that

You also don't have real time considerations making the parrying harder

The timings are (intentionally) hard to learn, but once you've learned them you have them

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||after forgotten battlefield|| ||i really like lune's and sciel's camp conversation 😭 ||

||"making friends is thirsty work" 🤨 ||

Actually i just really like how all characters are written, they're relatively subtly written, realistic too.

[nova temple]

intense agreement

[dawn spindle]

Oh what do you know, another place being obnoxiously pretty.

Act 2 ||coastal cave||

[nova temple]

Can't say I remember it explicitly, but there aren't many places that aren't pretty

[halcyon elbow]

Act 3 (not safe for Usha) ||Every zone a painting||

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||The grosse tete is gross 😠 okay it's kinda fun, I can parry 20 attacks in a row (yay) but i do no damage to this thing lol||

[halcyon elbow]

🍿

[dawn spindle]

sorry, I've given up

[halcyon elbow]

Don't

Doable

Very, actually

[dawn spindle]

I spent so long on it and did like 1% of its health

[nova temple]

Hmm

[halcyon elbow]

And yet

[nova temple]

Just keep at it!

[halcyon elbow]

Think of it more like the mimes

[dawn spindle]

lmao

okay

okay

I'll go back

also as a note ||I did do in the fight inside the cave 14k damage in one hit, is that a bug of sorts?||

ay, lvl 33

[nova temple]

||Good job, Kon, that'll keep her Usha busy for a couple of hours||

[nova temple]

That should not have been possible, are you sure it was a single hit?

[dawn spindle]

yep

[nova temple]

Cheater

[halcyon elbow]

No Cheater does something different

[dawn spindle]

haha

my game crashed

😭

[halcyon elbow]

It didn't parry

[dawn spindle]

It didn't parry no

[halcyon elbow]

I didn't have any CTDs

I have heard that the Gamepass edition is possibly less stable than the Steam version for whatever reason

[dawn spindle]

interesting, this is my first in 25h

and hopefully my last

[exotic ember]

|| I thought those were way easier. But I spent hours fighting the first one, dying over and over and over and over again… endlessly ||

[halcyon elbow]

||I build-checked him first time around, so I actually had to learn him in the endgame||

[exotic ember]

Fair!

Oh man I’m in Act 3 || Flying Manor || and I’m just deleting enemies now.

This is gross haha

[halcyon elbow]

I went there a little underleveled

Got to level 10 and then had to leave and go finish the story lmao

[dawn spindle]

I just finished eating and I'm like "I should go to bed but... 👀 "

[halcyon elbow]

I mean

Do you?

[nova temple]

Yeah, it starts off pretty easy

[exotic ember]

|| Yeah first two sub-bosses were super easy. Turns out being able to easily stack 100-150 burn in one turn with verso and then burning canvas for 5 million damage is uhh… not bad ||

[nova temple]

I haven't messed around with a burn build, what are you running?

[dawn spindle]

The fire skill i have on lune is broken at my current stage, i forgot the name.

||mandatory 10k damage every lune turn||

[exotic ember]

Corpeso with the following luminas.

And then || Monoco I have somewhat focused on building up break so I can use fueling break to double burn. Haven't pulled that off much yet though because everything dies too quickly. ||

Just got || Longer Burn || too so that's about to go brrrrr

Oh dang a friend is late Act 2 and just texted me saying they just realized what luminas do

[halcyon elbow]

The power of gitting gud I guess

[exotic ember]

For real though

I feel so much pain for this man

[nova temple]

What does Corpeso do again?

[dawn spindle]

A friend's husband is playing without using any attribute upgrades cause its otherwise too easy. I've been told by my friend (who has finished the game) that his husband is halfway through

[nova temple]

Oh, that, right

Okay, that looks interesting

[halcyon elbow]

That's what I'm switching to once I get enough Lumina on him to drop Dualiso

And sub in Cheater

[exotic ember]

It’s pretty filthy

Theorycrafted with @grim crag here a bit and (act 3) || he was able to stack something like 1600-3200 burn on some enemies I believe ||

[halcyon elbow]

Gross

[grim crag]

||1600 and could have easily been 3200 if I was smarter about it||

[dawn spindle]

This is a true powergamer move

[exotic ember]

I am kind of tempted now to find out what this was like at some point

I haven’t touched the game on game pass yet…

[halcyon elbow]

See I've been doing it wrong this whole time

[dawn spindle]

Kon, you don't need powergamer moves you're on a different level.
-# You're not walking out of this, just embrace it.

[exotic ember]

Yeah and I thought I’ve been playing on masochism mode

[dawn spindle]

Your friend took you-know what out of his pants on dropped it on the table but by mistake somehow.

[halcyon elbow]

A single brain cell flex

[exotic ember]

This man

He totally should try

[halcyon elbow]

It is the best way to save the situation

Turn an accidental flex into an intentional one

Act 3 ||Expedition 60 energy tbh||

[nova temple]

I mean, I think that's how all the other Expeditions rolled - I think what allows 33 to use Lumina (to this extent?) is Gustave's Lumina Converter

[halcyon elbow]

True

[exotic ember]

Act 3 || Flying manor || || 912 burn currently on grosse tete ||

^ || Couldn’t get more because Maelle did 9 million damage with burning canvas and then he died from the burn. He was at roughly half health before that ||

[scarlet trout]

how to turn any game into a 300hr game with one neat trick

[obtuse pond]

A streamer I like, Pat of former Super Best Friends Play fame, had a point that I just kinda loved as he was going through all the endgame Act 3 content.
I forget the exact quote but it was something to the effect of “||Everyone in this story is fully justified in taking the actions that they take and the feelings they all have are totally valid… except for Aline. Aline is awful.||”
That’s kind of the way the I feel about how things shake out.

[nova temple]

full game ||I mean, I would include even her. Yeah, she is on the far end of the spectrum, but what she does is essentially the same thing Maelle does in her ending. If you can accept one, I feel like you should be able to accept the other too. Hard to not feel for a grieving mother choosing to spend her life with what's left of her son. Do I agree with her? No. But do I understand her? Kind of, yeah||

[obtuse pond]

||Maelle has the excuse of being born there and spent just as much time there as she has at home with her family, plus her body just being severely damaged in the outside world. Same action but I think Maelle is a lot more understandable, especially considering the fact that she is a child.||

[exotic ember]

Act 3 || Flying Manor || || I have made it to Clea. Long dungeon haha ||

Act 3 || Flying Manor and The Abyss || || Clea fight is definitely cooler than Simon fight ||

Act 3 || Flying Manor boss || || Violent nevrons attack and nevrons from the deep attack are rude ||

[halcyon elbow]

Those two were the ones I struggled with the least actually

[obtuse pond]

Same tags ||Yeah Simon is too broken to actually be fun and kinda forces you to cheese him.||

[exotic ember]

Same tags || So I’ve only seen Simon phase 1 and some attacks from early phase 2. I was level 60 at the time so I figured I’d come back to make it through all of phase 2 later.

I just think Clea has cooler attacks. Big sword and two big swords go brr is cool and all, but summoning all of these nevrons and then sending them rapid fire? Super cool ||

[nova temple]

||I agree, Clea is more fun - and I think she is meant to be. Simon is just... hard. Clea has variety, visuals, and story to her||

[exotic ember]

|| I don’t even think Simon phase 1 is that bad and phase 2 seemed like it’s really just an extension of phase 1 at least initially. ||

[exotic ember]

|| Yeah this is really cool ||

[nova temple]

||It's P3 that's that made me give up (and cheese him) 😅 ||

[halcyon elbow]

||Verso becomes what I'd categorize as the very rare actually well-written antihero. Maelle and Aline are just... full despair. Which I can't blame them for||

[exotic ember]

Act 3 || Flying manor boss. || ||There’s a segment of this music that’s giving this one hip hop song I think from the 2000s ||

[exotic ember]

Oh no

Sounds fun

And painful

[nova temple]

fun, to a point

painful, forever

[exotic ember]

Act 3 || Flying Manor Boss ||

|| Oh wow yeah that was WAYYYYY easier than Simon. Only died a few times. That was one of the faster boss completions for me I think. Still a very cool fight. Wish it was longer/harder ||

Long dungeon though

Kind of funny that a boss to me is “not that hard” if it just doesn’t take hours to beat/I die less than probably 10 times

My schema is so skewed

Honestly though I think that may have even been less than 5 attempts. Or close to it

[exotic ember]

Act 3 || Endless tower final trial ||

|| I reached trial 33. Painted love is really cool. Almost had it on first try but my secondary team is bad and can’t push much damage, particularly if Sciel has to res lune every turn. There wasn’t much health left there.

All that muscle memory from the literal days fighting these bosses is still somewhat there lol. Though some paintress attack patterns I still absolutely can’t parry any of the attacks in the sequence for some reason ||

[nova temple]

Heh, yeah, I love the muscle memory kicking in there

[dawn spindle]

Oooomg

I need this?

[boreal galleon]

Act3 ||Sciel Relationship End|| ||That is SO sad my poor girl :(||

[analog tiger]

full game ||I agree in part but painted Renoir and painted Alicia are just messed up||

[boreal galleon]

Ending

[boreal galleon]

I would be utterly shocked if they didn't do a live concert at the VGAs for this soundtrack

[halcyon elbow]

The chamber music would be super easy to do, too

All the pieces they did music videos could be done with <10 people, with the exception of Lumiere but toddling the game's crew on stage is not high investment

[dawn spindle]

Oh I hadnt thought of this but you might be right

How high chances right now that this game is goty? I'm not super up to date with popular games that I don't care about.

[halcyon elbow]

Death Stranding is the biggest competition on that front

Is Expedition 33 good enough to overcome Geoff's man crush on Kojima, is the question more specifically

I suppose Death Stranding could come out swinging big too but early reviews indicate that it is mostly more Death Stranding with player feedback taken more fully on board than the first game could in patches

[analog tiger]

the nominations I think are locks for right now are KCD2, Death Stranding and Expedition 33

maybes are Doom, ACShadows, First Berserker, Yakuza, Split Fiction, South of Midnight (this one I really doubt but it would be nice to see), Borderlands 4

if it actually releases this year, MGS3 is getting a nomination 100%, same for Metroid Prime 4

this plus the indie darling of the year which I have no idea what'll be

witchbrook probs releases too late in the year to be the indie darling of this year

TGA is enough of a boomer thing that I could see it being REPO this year

mmm maybe I should put Nightreign in the maybe category

I think it's extremely unlikely but I can see the angle

mmm I could see Donkey Kong maybe getting an indication tbh

[halcyon elbow]

Nightreign gets it so Elden Ring can get nominated three years in a row

[dawn spindle]

I'm pretty sure E33 will win something

Heck they can get nominated for best indie can't they?

Since it's their first game

[analog tiger]

they could because TGA doesn't care about the rules but they really shouldn't

and I hope they don't

they have a publisher but that hasn't stopped TGA before lmao

plus at worst it is an AA game not an indie

... not that that has stopped TGA before either

I can see E33 winning GOTY tbh

right now I think it's between Death Stranding, MGS3 and E33

[halcyon elbow]

E33 will almost certainly get music

And an acting award they can give to Andy Serkis or something

For indie I think Kepler being more or less an association of indies probably helps their case

[analog tiger]

either Ben Starr or Jennifer English is also getting a nomination for sure

[fallow geode]

This is Esquie erasure, I nominate Maxence Cazorla

[halcyon elbow]

I do wonder if they'll conjure up a mocap award for him

[fallow geode]

When are the TGAs anyway?

-# the the game awards

[analog tiger]

november iirc?

[halcyon elbow]

Mid December

Enough time for games to release ahead of Black Friday and for that dust to settle

[analog tiger]

huh fair yeah

[exotic ember]

It’s why I’m actually going to look at what it would cost to go to the VGA this year

[halcyon elbow]

It is like the one awards show that actually makes some kind of sense where it is placed

[exotic ember]

I’m concerned for my friend right now. First it was finding out about luminas last night. And now this.

This is late act 2 after || both axons ||

[halcyon elbow]

hwhat

That's like

The whole point of Monoco

[exotic ember]

I don’t know if he’s joking

I’m trying to find out

[halcyon elbow]

And Lune actually

Orchestrating a series of Stain generation and consumption that works is a huge deal for her damage

You only need like three of Maelle's abilities at most

[analog tiger]

LMAO

incredible

[scarlet trout]

……

WHAT

[merry lance]

SpookySpren's friend later tonight: "Did you know there's a whole ass menu that pops up when you hit start/escape?"

[halcyon elbow]

Did you know you can dodge?

six hours later

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN PARRY?

[nova temple]

Can't wait for them to learn about the map

[dawn spindle]

Do they know you can heal at flags?

[dawn spindle]

Oh btw it took me like ... maybe 20 min to realise that the party members shouting commands was mostly pure rng and not that I had to specifically parry/dodge.

[old night]

Gustave: sneezes
Maelle: "PARRY IT"

[dawn spindle]

Yes, 100%

Enemy: powers up
Maelle: parry it!

I'm pretty sure that one's a little bug since the rest seem to actually correspond to what's going on.

That said i was gonna get back to it but i seem to be nursing a dehydration headache for unknown reasons. 😭

So I'll watch someone play instead

[old night]

oof, best of luck. honestly, watching people experience this is half the fun! gimme all that emotional damage 😄 😄

[dawn spindle]

okay guys guys, I hadn't eaten in like 24h, that might be the reason, I think I'll be able to play after all
-# Whoops.

[nova temple]

that's not a gamer behavior

[dawn spindle]

back in my youth I'd game 30h and forget to eat.

[old night]

WoW gave me Forgetorexia back in the day

[halcyon elbow]

I like food too much

[dawn spindle]

Oh, I mean, I do, too. To some degree, the issue is that at some point I got used to ignore all my body urges and this includes hunger.

[dawn spindle]

was smite for me

[old night]

the Pee Dance is real, too. "just one more battle, i can pee later, damnit!"

[dawn spindle]

No water, no pee.

@halcyon elbow before I head back to act 2 ||the head, were you trolling about it being very doable?||

[hollow ruin]

https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/mummy-working-computer-dimly-lit-room-with-glowing-jackolanterns-background_84942-3224.jpg?w=360

how i imagine usha playing E33 now

no water no food no sleep

just e33

[old night]

We Continue™

[dawn spindle]

Lol no no i do in fact drink a lot and usually i eat regularly.

I have however not slept which is why i forgot to eat.

[fallow geode]

Factorio for me

[halcyon elbow]

I was not

[dawn spindle]

Hmmm...

I can go back but i was quite literally doing nothing to it in terms of damage.

[halcyon elbow]

I can explain what is going on but I do think that'd ruin the fun

[dawn spindle]

Oh no don't explain

No worries

I'm currentky fighting some other annoying thing anyhow

Well the fight is fine just skill issue Act 2 ||Frost Eveque||

[halcyon elbow]

Preach has spent about four hours on that and has not cleared it yet

[dawn spindle]

Really seems fairly easy

(Famous last words)

Well I just started like 5 min ago so let's see

[dawn spindle]

Okay, i suppose i can see how this can go well over 4h.

||The attacks are very simple to parry but it oneshots me and its very chonky so 1 slip and i have to restart, etc||

[halcyon elbow]

That was his issue

He got to like 20% before dying and just decided it wasn't good stream content to continue

[dawn spindle]

Yeah, I'm feeling that and I certainly didn't get it that low but, it doesn't feel challenging just a tad bit tedious for my current damage

||also unless i'm wrong it seems to be weak exclusively to electric damage which I barely have which doesn't help||

[nova temple]

Getting one-shot regularly usually means you are fighting something a bit early

[dawn spindle]

I have been getting oneshot by about everything thus far

We parry or die here, Argent, none of that middle ground and lack of compromise.

[nova temple]

Oh, sure, same, I don't disagree

[dawn spindle]

but yeah just about everything oneshots me, even half of the regular mobs lol

[halcyon elbow]

More granularly the sign for me is if any part of any multi hit attack is one shotting me I'm probably out of my league

Most boss attacks on Expert will have a one shot somewhere in the combo, and most enemies can one shot you if you parry nothing

[dawn spindle]

I'm going based on the amount of damage i do to them basically

but it is perhaps time to recoat

I am too exhausted to exist I have decided however 😔

[boreal galleon]

Post-Ending ||I kinda think it would've been fun if we got Gustave back to play as and do some of the post-game content, even if it would've broken some cutscenes.||

[nova temple]

This is not referring to any specific scene, but I'll tag this as Act 2 ||Maelle's mocap actress, whose name I don't remember right now, does a banger of a job portraying sheer terror. I've seen a few people remark on how expressive the eyes are in this game, and weirdly I feel like Maelle fits that bill really well, she sell that emotion really well||

all the spoilers, but this video draws some interesting parallels; I am not sure I agree with all of them, but they are interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NKzr9_rZaY

[halcyon elbow]

||It deeply bothers me that he keeps calling Aline "Eileen" ||

[merry lance]

||The game sings the right pronunciation to you!||

||It's made me rethink all the Jacob Geller I've seen. Does he always mispronounce something obviously, and I just don't realize it because I'm not a subject matter expert?||

[halcyon elbow]

||As a more serious note, I think one of the common traps I'm seeing is comparing/contrasting Gustave with Verso too closely, when the game tells us that Gustave is Maelle's brother but also her father and I think is intended to mirror both Gustave and Renoir in different ways||

[merry lance]

||Yeah, while Gustave is young enough to be a brother, he'd be a brother from a different generation. At least in my mind, he fits much better in the father bucket, and would've been an adult for the entirety of Maelle's memory of him. I think I had a few other gripes about the video, but it's officially been enough hours that it's fallen into the pit of second-screen recollection; if you were to ask me about ideas discussed in it I could give input, but I doubt I'd be able to trace any back to the video.||

[halcyon elbow]

||I mean Maelle expressly says he's both to her. I think the compare/contrast with Verso is more obvious but no less valid than the compare/contrast with Renoir||

[nova temple]

||Agreed, the brother parallel gets brought up often. I haven't seen the Renoir one get explored really,||

[halcyon elbow]

All ||The easiest contrast point is the same with Renoir as it is with Verso, I think. While Gustave is and is allowed to be heroic, both Verso and both Renoirs are stuck forced into an antiheroic if not villainous role. Things are simple for Gustave, his goal is survival for himself and for those who come after. Sophie tells him he doesn't have to choose compassion for the Paintress, and he never does have to make that kind of choice; Renoirs and Verso are all plagued with them, and Real Renoir says as much. But, similarly to Renoir, Gustave relies fairly heavily on his family for his strength. Gustave without Maelle is a mess, even suicidal, looking to abandon the Expedition entirely for Maelle's sake. But once she's back and he's re-centered he's back on form: determined, friendly, even occasionally wise. Similarly both Renoirs are crashing out as their families fall apart around them and are desperately trying to put them back together to the extent that their realities allow||

[halcyon elbow]

https://x.com/blacksalander/status/1929403962966307238

🌛Caio Santos Art🌜 (@BlackSalander)

just finished exp 33 just, wow the balls on this studio

X · Jun 2, 2025, 5:05 AM

[nova temple]

I am in their bsky comments 😅

[coral trout]

My gpu died and I haven't been able to play the game any. My YouTube recommendations having been teasing me.

[boreal galleon]

I wish you luck in avoiding spoilers, and sorry to hear that about your GPU

[dawn spindle]

This morning someone was talking about e33 in you-people and I immediately went NOPE and just closed the channel for a few hours.
A bit extreme I know but I don't trust people.

Luckily since I don't do social networks besides discord and the people (unrelated to this server) that are playing will all respect spoilers around me, I should be safe.

With all that said, I guess I can play a little bit now 👀 just 30 minutes

[dawn spindle]

I'm recoating to go even more glass cannon than I originally had... 👀

The weapons menu needs some better filtering

[dawn spindle]

Expedition 33 Act 2 ||I'm not saying all these white areas aren't pretty but I'm tempted to pull out my sunglasses 😭 ||

[obtuse pond]

I know they’re working on a better filtering system for Lumnias, weapons might be after that.
IIRC they literally have just one guy for UI work.

[dawn spindle]

yeah

Luminas are all right ish, not the best but right now I can make do

just being able to favourite things is huge

[halcyon elbow]

I think they need a second and dare I say a third

[dawn spindle]

and I think the offensive, defensive, support filter does make it far nicer to go through

but weapons has... nothing?

just power/level

let me favourite them and I won't get greedy requesting basic features, please

I am going to have to lower the contrast on this area aren't I? my eyes are already hurting

[nova temple]

That's weirdly bright

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||the entire overworld bit that leads up to Monoco's station is that bright (I left default settings since they seemed fine at the time lol||

[nova temple]

Yeah, something's gotta be weird, snow shouldn't look like Gondor is calling for aid

[dawn spindle]

lol, tbf snow does look extremely blinding to me irl

This is a level of accuracy I didn't want

okay, it looks a bit more normal for the most part when I get close to it

As in, at least I can tell what I'm looking at

This amount of occlusion normal? (Act 2 ||Monocco's station||)
My guess is yes for this bit, but would like confirmation or I'll go mess with my settings.

[nova temple]

yeah, that seems about right

[dawn spindle]

Kon, I feel like zariman all over again 😭

My eyes are dumb I guess. This is painful

Act 2 ||Monoco's station|| ||I love Monoco, that is all, also he has a feet thing ||

||this game has so many mechanics aaaaaaaaaaaaah||

(highly)

I mean I sort of new that before hand, or rather, I was expecting it

But it's still high pleasure as they come.
-# This pun was only partially intended.

Uhm... Act 2 ||post Monoco's Station|| ||this is... a lot... which makes sense but but but so much 😵‍💫 ||

||this guy is very rudely telling me "you're not a lady" but I want this attire for Verso 😭 ||

[halcyon elbow]

||It is and it isn't. Several nevrons have multiple abilities, but several of the abilities are tied to bosses or other rarely occurring nevrons||

[nova temple]

||It helps that you can get a bunch by just running a quick lap around the Act 1 overworld and AoEing packs of nevrons. I happen to agree, it's a lot, and I felt pressured to keep Monoco in my party for a good chunk of the remainder of this Act. That said, there are many opportunities to go back and grab most of what you are missing. Maybe now is a good time to give Grosse Tete another go? 😉 ||

[halcyon elbow]

Act 2 ||Yeah. I found that you should be able to get ~60% of his abilities now, and most of the remainder won't even really be available until you're doing endgame stuff. So if Monoco isn't vibing with you you don't actually need to keep him in your party (but he's got some real spicy abilities so, maybe do look into keeping him)||

https://x.com/preachgaming/status/1929548425806127508

Mike (@PreachGaming)

🇫🇷 Things have taken a turn for the weird

X · Jun 2, 2025, 2:39 PM

(Context: Preach was once a professional wrestler)

[dawn spindle]

I had gone back to it, and then I got bored with it, though i do have a hunch but hmmm. Maybe... Imma finish exploring the current area.

[halcyon elbow]

I do think the biggest own the French ever pulled on the British was somehow convincing them that garlic is "too French"

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||post monoco Camp stuff|| ||Noco's "meh" is such a mood reply, I do so love the dialogue lines...||

[halcyon elbow]

Act 2 ||All things Monoco/Noco are excellent||

||Those two are named after the office dogs, if you hadn't heard||

[dawn spindle]

Nope, I hadn't.

also also same tags ||Monoco's VA is 😳 what a deep voice, call me coward too pls?||

[halcyon elbow]

Him and Ben Starr and Andy Serkis

If you're into deep voices this game absolutely serves

[dawn spindle]

Yeaaah

but I was already aware of Andy Serkies of course, which has such an amazing registry

[analog tiger]

spoilers for the whole game so tagging it act 3 at least ||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ZS0aOb2x8 ||

[dawn spindle]

Ben Starr isn't very deep though just has a nice ring/broody tone to it

like a... we call this "dragged voice" in spanish? Idk how this is called in english

[halcyon elbow]

Subvocalizing

[dawn spindle]

Well, surely it is also called something better than dragged if you're not speaking casually in spanish

[analog tiger]

wait what

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||post monoco's station camp stuff|| ||I wonder why? 🤨 ||

|| "Lune gets lost in thought" "Verso feels ignored and leaves" ||

[nova temple]

Which is 100% the correct way to treat his ass!

[dawn spindle]

He probably agrees with that

... wtf...

[halcyon elbow]

Preach was once a professional wrestler

Low tier, didn't work out, but that's what he was working towards when he was young

[analog tiger]

wild lmao

[ionic kite]

Why is the world just France

Is France the last bastion of humanity

Are there other pockets of humanity also affected by the gommage

Are they doing anything to stop the Paintress

[fallow geode]

All excellent questions

[nova temple]

it's revenge for all the "France is not real" jokes

now only France is real

[ionic kite]

I can't tell if that's an "all excellent questions, play and find out" or if it's an "all excellent questions, you'll never get an answer"

[fallow geode]

I am still so mad at the guy I know who said this game has no worldbuilding

and he's (arguably) a professional writer!

[dawn spindle]

Wat

[nova temple]

sensing a theme here, boo

[hollow ruin]

what does he mean by "no worldbuilding"

[fallow geode]

mostly just complaining that the game frontloads too many concepts with no explanation
which, far enough, the game never actually sits down and tells you "Nevrons are the bad guys and this is why the characters no that"

but also just, that's Scifi/Fantasy 101? there's going to be weird keywords thrown at you

[nova temple]

I like it

Makes the world feel more lived in, but it's not overwhelming

[merry lance]

I... Is he unfamiliar with the phrase "show, don't tell"?

Because Clair Obscur's world building is kind of a master class in that

[fallow geode]

The only explanation I can come up with is that everyone has a different threshold for what is Showing vs just not Telling, but his is way off the average if so

[nova temple]

um

[dawn spindle]

Act 2 ||Post Monoco's station camp stuff|| ||this was about Verso split into 2 lol||

[nova temple]

Act 2 ||Oh yeah, me and my homies are always getting bisected when we drink together. Boys will be boys amirite||

[dawn spindle]

I feel you're quite rather specifically told most of the base worldbuilding. The rest is built upon.

I have seen people complain about lack of worldbuilding on HK, and HK defs leaves you in the dark about everything unless you pay a lot of attention. E33 lays it all out before you loud and clear and rather explicitly...

Like yes, its show no tell but it's a very telling show

[analog tiger]

it's showing in semaphore lmao

[analog tiger]

what's up?

[nova temple]

lettuce

[analog tiger]

full game ||the OG one uses Lutece too ||

[halcyon elbow]

This person has not finished the game

[analog tiger]

full game ||I wonder if that's the occitan name still or if it was a decision made by the writer||

full game ||'lutecia' being the old name for paris||

[halcyon elbow]

My understanding is that Alice Duport-Percier was given fairly free rein to write her own melodies and lyrics

[analog tiger]

full game ||though that name was out of use still during the WRE||

full game ||I don't know what the use of this name for the city means but I find it interesting ||

[dawn spindle]

I mean, you can tell ithas worldbuilding in the PROLOGUE

[halcyon elbow]

The way she tells it Testard basically shoved a pile of sheet music at her in their first meeting and said "what do you think works here"

[halcyon elbow]

That's true, but the game leaves very few unanswered questions and most of the ones they do leave unanswered are introduced fairly late and the mystery is intentional

[dawn spindle]

Fair fair, but that's expected of something with mystery and things to find out 😅

[halcyon elbow]

Mhmm

My point being, the idea that stuff is introduced and then dropped without explanation is a belief only someone who hasn't completed the game could reasonably have

[dawn spindle]

I'm not in disagreement of your reading of why someone would say that.

I just think it is somewhat unreasonable (of them)

[dawn spindle]

Deep siiigh here
Act 2

here we go

[halcyon elbow]

I think I know which one this is

[dawn spindle]

oh my god my hands are sweating

itnever ends

[nova temple]

I did get a little tense during that one 😅

[halcyon elbow]

I oneshot it

[dawn spindle]

I am fine so far

it's just so long

[halcyon elbow]

I'd already discovered the trick of lining up jumps walking, then stopping, then holding sprint, then going for the jump (you go from 0 to full speed immediately, no momentum to overcome) and I feel like that just made the whole thing a wildly different experience for me than for most people

[dawn spindle]

I just jynxed myself didn't I

[halcyon elbow]

Act 1 end ||Gustave certainly would think so||

[analog tiger]

that was the most tense I was during the whole game

[dawn spindle]

okay

I fell like a very tiny amount

but I made it now

The reward...

The REWARD

[halcyon elbow]

Mhmm

[nova temple]

worth

[halcyon elbow]

I had an idea this would be an Usha Favorite as well

[dawn spindle]

||this gestralt over here sure can salsa better than many humans I have seen try||

That wasn't a joke! just too real!

[dawn spindle]

I can't with this, I'm wheezing, my cat is judging me.

[halcyon elbow]

I mean if anyone is going to get salsa somewhat right I suppose it would be people from the south of France

[dawn spindle]

how so?

today is not being a good parry day 😔

[halcyon elbow]

I figure Spain is probably the infection vector of salsa to the rest of Europe

And Montpellier is very Spain-adjacent

[dawn spindle]

hmmm

I don't think spain is particularly so

perhaps slightly more than France, perhaps.

[halcyon elbow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRVBhxGZoQM

Preach is about where Usha is

Act 2 side content maxxing

Maybe a story dungeon ahead?

[dawn spindle]

I am currently in Act 2 ||Esoteric Ruins||

||very much solved that labyrinth having no idea what I was doing ||

[nova temple]

Did not like that one

Definitely kind of lucked into passing it

[analog tiger]

act 2 ||is that the orb labyrinth?||

[dawn spindle]

yeh

[analog tiger]

act 2 ||I like that kind of puzzle even though I just bruteforce them every time lmao||

[dawn spindle]

||I like that kinda puzzle when I can understand what the puzzle is||

[nova temple]

||IIRC you need to map out which orb toggles which walls, and then figure out a path||

[analog tiger]

act 2 answer ||oh it's just one of those lights puzzles. You light one, it lights up those around it so you need to get it in a pattern where it'll get you out of the labyrinth or where it lights up everything depending on the puzzle||

[dawn spindle]

but I went through before I managed to do that lol

[analog tiger]

act 2 answer + blue prince ||like the breaker box puzzle||

[dawn spindle]

No I do understand that part...

||It just uh... was throwing light to the ones it'd supposedly open but then not doing so||

solved it by mistake I guess

Anyhow Act 2 ||I went into old lumiere but that's all for today||

Oh I do have one question

||Do the coral things barring me from going back to Act 1 area through water ever get removed, or alternatively I can get over them?||

Wait, I know the answer to that

||I mean, does that happen any time soon?||

[nova temple]

Ask that again after the zone you are heading into 😉