Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[coarse scarab]

i wish there was a more specific way to spoiler tag things aside from referring to them via acts just due to how huge the chunks are

[pallid gull]

||god the music during that part...||

[pallid gull]

my daily dose of getting my ass beat

i love this game

gonna miss when i finish it and im no longer getting my ass beat every single day

[wheat tulip]

Aiden...are you becoming masochist?

Jonjon kfkfkff

[pallid gull]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1320524695270981643.webp?size=100&animated=true

always have been

there's like one parry in this fight that i cannot get right and it's also the one parry that could save me if could get it right LMAO

[wheat tulip]

I know you can do it aiden!!!

[pallid gull]

this fight is frying my brain i fear

[wheat tulip]

😭

[pallid gull]

lowkey wish we'd have a save after changing party members too

i guess i could just switch their weapons after changing party members to make sure it registers

[wheat tulip]

Im always spamming the expedition flag ngl lmao

[pallid gull]

i think this is the first time i actually feel frustrated with a fight

and i've literally spent 2 days on some

[wheat tulip]

Oh wow....

[coarse scarab]

[pallid gull]

||shadow told me that he's been hiding act 3 bc the game hides it somehow 😭 idk if we should all do it or smth but i've stopped tagging my posts with it||

[coarse scarab]

could’ve sworn i saw someone talk abt it

but roger that

[pallid gull]

it was probably me until i've edited it 💀

the way i literally cannot figure this parry out...

and the dodge isn't any better ngl

but mira ||congrats on reaching act 3, i was fuckin explodey||

[coarse scarab]

||i have so many thoughts and feelings and and and brain go boom ||

[coarse scarab]

||it’s kinda insane how much of this was under wraps and wasn’t spoiled in any way through promotion ||

[pallid gull]

||i still think the most amazing thing they've done is the false narrative of gustave being the protag, like they kept verso under wraps SOOO well||

[coarse scarab]

||yea literally. i’ve only ever heard of verso as a character in the behind the scenes video of the actors but even in that the only thing that you learn is he is a character and exists||

||also the way that our predictions abt maelle were right albeit loose, our brains fr we are so smart lmao ||

[pallid gull]

omfg i won... finally... took me 100 years

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[pallid gull]

thank u!!

[vivid peak]

You’re amazing

[coarse scarab]

rain how far in are you

[pallid gull]

quite far into the story, i guess this could count as a minor criticism but ||am i the only one that feels the romances are slightly... awkward? i think it's partially because the story itself is so focused on pain and grief and they're taking a respite whenever they can even if it's to fall in love. but it feels sometimes like the game Really wants verso to be in a romance and while i love lune and im currently romancing her, it does feel a bit strange at times if that makes sense lmao what i mean by saying this isn't that i want them to randomly make out and for the game to show me sex scenes or something, i just mean that the game really seems to want you to romance one of them. i just feel like there's so much to process already||

||i'll think more about this later probably and figure out how i feel||

[coarse scarab]

i think only shadow and aiden can read this ||i think it’s just crazy how the entire game were playing as characters in a story or play within a narrative that felt so important but outside of the canvas, it is but a speck. so it feels like we got played with a bit and i don’t hate it, it feels like we’ve taken the role of the writer of the story now that the journey we’re undertaking is something so left field to what we thought it was. i knew i had the nagging feeling in the back of my mind of how odd everything felt even past the paintress battle and i know it was very much intentional. not gonna lie a bit of me was nervous that it wasn’t a fleshed out story or ending but consider me impressed by how much more it actually is ||

[coarse scarab]

||no i feel you. the romance fell flat for me and a bit forced. i lowkey feel like they could’ve gone without. especially the way we had an option w sciel and i understood what they were going for but it’s mmmm idk not enough depth to cover the whole relationship portion when you’re fighting existential dread lol||

only shadow and aiden major last stretch act 2 ||also aline and her canvas, escapism final boss LMAO||

[pallid gull]

||she's just like me fr||

[pallid gull]

||right, like i'm a huge romance lover. i love romance in my rpgs and i still have a soft spot for lune/verso but i have a soft spot because of the dynamic of them that i have in my head, if that makes sense. it's hard to flesh out a romance when there is SO MUCH going on and i don't fault them for it because i get it, this game is amazing enough at it is. but for sciel for example, i was always so ??? whenever most of the interactions were flirting related, hell, even when i kept rejecting her, the game acted as if i had something for her and i was just so confused LOL||

[languid gyro]

Every morning I wake only to cast my gaze mournfully at secrets hidden just out of reach, tempted by the forbidden fruit of knowledge that lies just but a click away, yet having to forcefully, painfully, tear myself away (||translation: I want to click the spoiler tags so bad!!!!!||)

[pallid gull]

stay strong

[coarse scarab]

|| i get you abt the dynamic in your head so bad lol we really be playing barbies. for sciel ive noticed its not a ‘relationship’ but really more of an avenue for her to relax. she’s still very much not over the death of her husband and isn’t ready for anything more than a fling. i haven’t progressed verso and lune just yet but im really not expecting much ||

[coarse scarab]

you got this i believe you. don’t click the spoiler tags it’s really not worth it

[pallid gull]

||yeah, that's very true. i think this is more like "romance in the context of the world that they live in" which is flings to cope and slow burn that revolves around gaining the other's trust. i think the main reason this sticks out to me so badly is because romance is one of my favorite aspects in media, so whenever i get a choice like this, i get very analytical and/or critical. i would've probably done it very differently from the way it's currently in game, however like i've said, this game is already really amazing and you can see the love put into it, romance was most likely a very minor factor that they just wanted to add in for a little breather for the player||

[coarse scarab]

||our otome pilled asses hahaha ||

but yes 100%

[pallid gull]

feeling proud of myself because i parried an optional boss on the first try only for me to see that 9k doesn't even make a dent in its hp bar

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1320524695270981643.webp?size=100&animated=true

many such cases

[wheat tulip]

||just entered this area||

[coarse scarab]

you gawt this soldier

[coarse scarab]

ooo okie

[wheat tulip]

Wait no clap , good luck!!

[pallid gull]

lmaooo i left

if i can't touch them then that's for future me

[green escarp]

(Le epic spoilers) Mira and Aiden: ||Welcome to the existential plot twist Mira! And yes I did suggest to Aiden that we don't tag or reveal act 3, silly as it sounds but it's because the game does try and hoodwink you. Like "huh, Epilogue already???"||

|| I know anyone remotely genre savvy with both rpgs and media in general with story structures will suspect, but I do wanna preserve as much as the "OMG" reactions people will have as possible if that makes any sense 😅 ||

||Also, yeah, story goes places. Now there's so much to consider about how the world itself operates and the idea of sentience and aaaaaaaaa||

Oops work starting up again I shall return

[wheat tulip]

Good luck!

[languid gyro]

That’s sorta my metric too. I will attempt even if their attacks one-shot bc I’m willing to stay and figure out their moveset, but if my attacks are doing basically nothing to their hp bar then I’m out bc I simply don’t want to be in the fight for that long 💀

[pallid gull]

right, i've had a boss fight where i would get one shot by pretty much everything but at least i was doing damage

in that case, i stay and learn until i get it, but otherwise if i get one shot and i can't do damage, i gotta go

[languid gyro]

I think Chromatic Abbest is a decent early litmus test for how different people approach the game lol

[pallid gull]

that's the one i was talking about lmaooo

[languid gyro]

Fighting that thing at like level 11 and winning is probably still the highlight of my playthrough tbh

[pallid gull]

it's so satisfying when that happens with a hard boss

[languid gyro]

Slightly sad that I got hit only exactly once on the winning attempt (and had to use a revive tint) bc a) I was this close to a fully perfect run and b) the end-screen counter had it at 98 successful parries and I died to a 2-hit attack so it would have been a perfectly even 100 parries if I got it 🥲

[wheat tulip]

I tried this one way later because i dont like struggling too much

[languid gyro]

And that’s entirely valid! I don’t expect everyone to be as stubborn as I can be lmao

[wheat tulip]

Honestly thats already impresive 😭

[wheat tulip]

True ! Congrats on doing it that early!!

[green escarp]

Rotating this game's music in my head while doing the wrap up process for today's job

[wheat tulip]

I want to listen to it tooo

But im scared of spoilers💀

[green escarp]

Oh reminds me, @pallid gull @coarse scarab (Spoilers for everyone else)
||Did yall notice that the phase 2 fight of the Paintress, the theme is the same one from the reveal trailer? I was screaming lol I'm so happy when they have such good music and actually use it in game and not just for promotion||

[languid gyro]

The official Sandfall Interactive youtube channel has the soundtrack on there, and it has the option of separate videos for each Act! So I’ve just been listening to the designated Act 1 soundtrack and avoiding the rest and it’s been good

[wheat tulip]

Oh thank you!!

[hasty halo]

I swear some of these fights I do I can get the parry timing down and then others they just pull a switcheroo lol

[pallid gull]

||right!! the music in this game makes me throw tf up, when une vie a t'aimer started playing i literally instantly starting crying and i just took a second lol||

[pallid gull]

hair and outfit spoiles but damn since i got these hairstyles i literally can't use anything else for them, it just feels so perfect

[wheat tulip]

||oh hell no they are so mean for that!! The music too ost of gustave remixed||

Act 2 end spoiler

[wheat tulip]

Huh oh ||am i fucked?|| end act 2 spoiler i guess idk

Nevermind lmao it was easy

[wheat tulip]

Omggg ||the ost of renoir is insane i love iiit||

||not the outfit reward kgkfkf we just unclothed this old man I CANT||

||HUH SO SHE JUST KILLED HIM LIKR THAT?||

[pallid gull]

||the way i ignored that suit cause like why can verso wear his dad's outfit and gustave's hair 😭 they want him to be so traumatized||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 camp] ||I just got home and booted up the game and already getting emotional 😭 good scene ❤️ ||

[wheat tulip]

||you are as beautiful as the day i lost you||

[languid gyro]

||oh my GOD Maelle putting the 33 band on Verso 😭 ||

||I really really like all these little moments we're getting between all the characters||

[pallid gull]

||they're a fambily ||

[wheat tulip]

||WHAT IS GOING ON WTF WTF||

||spinning cat emote wtf|| after act 2 spoiler

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 overworld enemy] getting my ass beat a bit but the damage is more than a dent which means it's worth going for 👏

[wheat tulip]

You can do it!!

[languid gyro]

dilemma.....I can kill it this turn....but two of my party are dead 💀

do I risk the win to revive them for the exp

||WHOOPS I did chance it to revive Verso but then the boss attacked and I parried on instinct, instead of dodging, so the counterattack killed it before I could revive Lune next turn 😭 ||

[wheat tulip]

Mmmh

[languid gyro]

||But I won! So...mission failed successfully??||

[wheat tulip]

They still gain exp tho

[languid gyro]

Ye, but less

That was a fun fight though!

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

Two characters gained it i think its a w

[languid gyro]

I'm really mad actually bc I was doing really well on parrying everything but then the boss did a move that I needed to ||gradient parry|| and I pressed the regular parry button instead and that's what led to the other two dying 😭

I got the timing right too, just got mixed up bc of muscle memory 😭

Also, tfw I got a picto for a mechanic I haven't even unlocked yet bc I fought this boss too early 💀 bc wtf is a ||gradient charge|| even

[wheat tulip]

Dw about it!!

Great game

||feeling whiplash rn tho 😭😭 not alicia/maelle recreating lune and sciel?? Renoir isnt wrong you cant escape reality but damn it feels way too close to home || after act 2 spoiler

[languid gyro]

||The way I'm so clearly playing favorites, but it's what she deserves 🥲 ||

||Also pay no heed to the fact that I still have so much hoarded bc spending is scary||

[wheat tulip]

Understandable dw lmao

Gonna stop now ||act 3 feels like another game 😭||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 mechanic] ||oh my god I can go around breaking shit in the overworld now for loot||

||which is fantastic! loot!||

||and also awful! I need to backtrack everywhere now 😭 ||

[hoary nacelle]

I JUST KILLED A REALLY DIFFICULT BOSS AND I FEEL LIKE SUCH A GAMER AAAAAAAAA

Well it wasn't that difficult but I had to do a lot of parrying which I'm not the best at 🙂‍↕️

It was an optional boss btw for context

[hasty halo]

[Major Act 2 Spoilers] ||WHY DOES THIS GAME MAKE ME HURT MORE FEELS WISE!!! Also the music for this boss fight was amazing||

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[wheat tulip]

You can do it!

[hasty halo]

I did it

I will DEFINITELY be adding the entirety of this soundtrack to my spotify

[wheat tulip]

Same🙂‍↕️

[hasty halo]

I realize I had to edit what I said more lol

[vivid peak]

I hope people won’t mind when I’m in here screaming about things weeks after everyone else 💀

[wheat tulip]

Of course not jonjon

I was screaming one year later than the others for ff16 fjfkckc

[vivid peak]

Oh the

That’s true

[wheat tulip]

Its always the time to enjoy peak

[coarse scarab]

||we’ve been hiding act 3 and the fact that it exists||

||since it’s technically spoilers because the game hides it maybe you could change it rain||

[wheat tulip]

I see!

[hasty halo]

How do I talk about what I witnessed in act 2 while also spoilering it. Because I don't know how many people are actually through act 2 that could react

[green escarp]

Thank you for your cooperation 🙂‍↕️

Also hello I have returned to the land of the living for now

[wheat tulip]

Im always struggling how to notate the spoilers😭

[hasty halo]

Like..I really wanna talk about what I just witnessed lol

[wheat tulip]

Hii shadoow

[coarse scarab]

yea it’s really hard to label spoilers lol i’ve just been saying things like late game act 2 and act 2 finale etc

[hasty halo]

Also hello shadow!

[coarse scarab]

shadow, only those who are 100% through are me, aiden, rain and shadow

hi shadowww

shadows

[wheat tulip]

Thats why its reaver for this one lmao

Confusing noise otherwise

[hasty halo]

[Act 2 midpoint (?)] ||Just got through with Old Lumiere||

Didn't know how to label it so I put that with the (?) lmao

[coarse scarab]

yea that’s about right!

[wheat tulip]

||feels like act 2 is so much longer than act 1 ngl kckfkfk||

[languid gyro]

||okay but wait getting to find whole new areas in places like Spring Meadows or other early locations, not just on the overworld, is really really cool||

||but ALSO...this means I need to backtrack not just around the overworld but into individual zones too 😭 ||

[hoary nacelle]

I have truly no clue how far through act 2 I am im just vibin

[languid gyro]

Not one bit ❤️ and besides, I'm behind most of the others here too so I understand lol

[wheat tulip]

As you should🙂‍↕️

[green escarp]

||hey at least you discovered that ability earlier than me. I was way into endgame before learning I could have accessed it sooner because I didn't bother talking to that gestral at camp after finding 4 of those lost kids 🙃 ||

[hasty halo]

[Act 2 Midpoint spoilers] ||idk how to feel..... ||

[fringe walrus]

I beat XCX today so I’ll be FINALLY getting back to the game tomorrow on stream I’m saur excited

[languid gyro]

YAAAYY

[hasty halo]

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

[languid gyro]

So excited for you ❤️

[fringe walrus]

I’m like… very early act one so not far at all

[languid gyro]

Also wow I have a lot of XCX vods to catch up on lol

Gonna have to binge the entirety of Ch. 13

[fringe walrus]

It’s like 5 days of VODs bc I kept thinking I was at the finale lmaooo

[wheat tulip]

OMG LORIE

[fringe walrus]

I mean 5 days of chp 13 💀

[wheat tulip]

Congrats on finishing xcx🎊

Gonna throw so many french in the chat tomorrow

[green escarp]

I don't work tomorrow so I can catch stream! I need to set an alarm though or I will sleep in x_x

[wheat tulip]

Keep google translation at hand guys

[vivid peak]

Ban

[wheat tulip]

Comment oses-tu dire ça !!

[green escarp]

I don't have the means atm to photoshop Lorie's face on here lol. I miss Dulci's shenanagins

[vivid peak]

Il faut te gommer

[wheat tulip]

LE GASP

You are so mean today jonjon

[green escarp]

Does anyone else who plays on PC with controller keep having the mouse cursor show up? Its really annoying when I notice it

[green escarp]

Location found in Act 2 Spoilers

There's also ||the piece with Sciel that I really enjoy and I'm begging Sandfall to release the piano version of her theme because its not on the official OST 😭 ||

Wait I think I did it better this time (still above spoilers)

Omg not the Frosty playing Repo steam popup in my second video 😭

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 optional boss] ||I DID IT 🎊 holy shit my hands are shaking a bit this boss (Chromatic Gault) was kicking my ass for a good bit 💀 ||

||He wasn't super tanky but holy shit was he incredibly aggro and would one-shot me if pretty much any part of his 7-hit combo attacks hit||

||That + his multiple turns + Enrange meant I basically had to perfectly parry literally like 30 or so times between each of my team's rounds towards the end when he started getting more turns and more attacks per turn 💀 ||

[languid gyro]

Some fun trivia:

(The person in question also acknowledged that this is entirely excessive since a) many pictos conflict with each other, such as having ones that trigger on heal and others that prevent healing and b) people have been soloing endgame bosses with just like 300 lumina; this was purely just for curiosity/whimsy’s sake)

[green escarp]

Aaah so it is possible

Awesome to know

[hasty halo]

I'm having decision paralysis

[Act 2 midpoint Spoilers] ||I don't know which Luminas or Pictos to put on Verso||

[hasty halo]

Okay. I am off this game for the night after a fight I just had to do because of how many times I had to retry lol

Goodnight everyone!

[green escarp]

Act 2 middle (NG+) ||Sirene's boss theme is still so pretty. I didn't get to listen to it as much though because my team is so OP now xD||

[pallid gull]

finally watching lor vod of lor playing it for the first time

getting prepared for today

[wheat tulip]

||https://x.com/expedition33/status/1920387317002293303?t=kn8bIHB205JvzKru0VGD3w&s=19 || first balanced patch i guess

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33) on X

Expeditioners, a quick note on Stendhal and balance changes:

We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early—just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out.

Well, Stendhal did.

It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance

X · May 8, 2025, 7:56 AM

[coarse scarab]

oh man i was planning on trying it lmao

[wheat tulip]

It was too strong i guess

[green escarp]

God dammit this was my ace in the hole 😭

[wheat tulip]

In the hole?

[green escarp]

It's an expression

[wheat tulip]

Oh i see jgkg

[green escarp]

"Trump Card" is a similar expression ,though that one has been ruined simply because that first word makes me think of our wannabe dictator-in-chief

Point is, that skill when set up was my boss killer. I'm sad its getting nerfed.
I don't even get why they need to balance that. it's a single player game

[wheat tulip]

I wonder as well

||https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd64U3b3/ || cuuute (mid act 2 spoiler)

[pallid gull]

watching lorie do the prologue ||im glad i wasn't the only one confused on why emma looked so much like sophie i was like ??? why do y'all look so similar 😭 ||

[wheat tulip]

||still wondering if gustave being so similar to verso was aline fault || after act 2 spoiler

[coarse scarab]

would nawt be surprised

[pallid gull]

||i think the facial structure is slightly different but also it's funny thinking about aline painting all these people and being like "cannot be bothered so y'all will look the same sometimes good luck"||

[coarse scarab]

refusing to progress for today because i don’t want the game to end

[pallid gull]

yeah, im pretty sure im on the last mission but i have a lot of optional things to do so im gonna be sticking to that for a long time

[coarse scarab]

shadow, can you answer w just a yes or no does the game end after ||the renoir fight or is there more past it||

[wheat tulip]

||inconscienscly she could have recreated a new big brother for alicia (yes another one beside the second verso)|| big spoiler after act 2

[green escarp]

Late game spoiler: ||I have corrected my failed run and got Lune's romantic dialogue. yeah it's not what you'd call substantial in the grand scheme of things, but its still cute. And I love Sciel as a character but, Lune > Sciel every time||

[green escarp]

Kinda can't answer that with a simple yes or no tbh

[wheat tulip]

Lmao not the explodey emote

[pallid gull]

||i love both dearly, but i think lune fits verso the most which is funny because i think the game REALLY wants him to be with sciel||

[green escarp]

||no but for real, which is why when I DM'd you I saw it as the game naturally progressing towards that, so when I found out you actually could romance Lune instead and I had fucked up I was devestated 😭 ||

[coarse scarab]

||which also doesn’t make sense because in the camp post finding out everything she’s still so adamant about being with her husband||

[pallid gull]

||i think it's heavily implied that verso has feelings for both (which is interesting but also i have thoughts on that because sometimes it gets so ? lmao but anyway) but at the same time it feels so strange because she'd be like "wanna mess around" and then she'd tell me about her dead husband and how she wants him back fskdjhfdsjk||

[green escarp]

||THIS TOO! Like I get it but damn, I feel like Verso gets shafted||

[pallid gull]

||im trying to not be too harsh on it because i still love this game dearly but romance and feelings wise i feel like some segments are a bit all over the place||

[coarse scarab]

and the lack of a map in the zones i feel is one of the main criticisms i’d have

[pallid gull]

yeah, i get lost a lot

[green escarp]

You mean you don't enjoy being turned around 3 times going "god dammit"? xD

[coarse scarab]

directionally challenged and it’s frustrating spending like 10 mins running around

at one point i actually got so annoyed i closed the game LOL

only to find the right path within 10 seconds the next time i launched it

[green escarp]

I usually have a good sense of direction and I keep getting lost

And I'm still finding loot and such in NG+ that I completely missed in my first run

After swearing that I combed over a zone 5 times

[wheat tulip]

||am i the only one that turned her down multiple time?😭 i was like girl please stop giving mixed signals||

[coarse scarab]

there’s a lot of optional things to do but i have this problem in any game i play where at some point im just so absorbed into the main story that i leave optionals till the end then if a game doesn’t let you do them at the end then its fucked lol

[pallid gull]

shadow this is for you only bc you finished but im really curious about this, a yes and no works ||past the max relationship rank, is there anything in the story after that alludes to the romance or there's more to it?||

[coarse scarab]

||sciel? i turned her down||

[wheat tulip]

Oh fiou

[coarse scarab]

question how do you increase your relationship level i’m at like 5 for most ||but not sure if there’s more chances in act 3||

[green escarp]

||Sadly no. I think maybe there's one cutscene where Sciel and Lune I suspect might get switched around but I'm not sure, and likely not the case. I haven't gotten back to that point or looked it up to confirm.||

[pallid gull]

||you just gotta chat with them||

[pallid gull]

||gotcha my romance pilled brain......||

it's not my fault im full of whimsy and love

[green escarp]

That's just one of many reasons we love you Aiden

Eep its 6am here

Thank god I'm off today lmao

[wheat tulip]

Oh wow

Good night shadow!

[green escarp]

It really has been a long time since I played a game where I literally lost track of time because I was so absorbed

[wheat tulip]

If you go to sleep

[pallid gull]

game too good

[green escarp]

Aiden and Mira (late game spoilers) ||I still enjoyed this at the end of the day. It's cute ||

[coarse scarab]

i think it’s your right and i love that about you

[pallid gull]

past late act 2 spoilers ||i have a soft spot for both of them so that's why i like them together so much, but i also like how they complete each other based on their personalities. she's someone that doesn't trust easily nor let herself feel a lot because she's afraid that it will derail her work. at the same time, it's obvious that the main reason she's this way is because of the relationship she had with her parents. she wanted more from them. she loved them, but even in their last moments they were thinking about her getting the job done rather than saying they loved her. i feel like someone like verso, who isn't even the "real" verso, but a painted copy of him made as a result of grief would perfectly understand what it's it like to want to fulfil those expectations from your guardians. to never feel enough. plus their love for music and also when they fight she yells at him and that's hot ||

[green escarp]

@coarse scarab Oh Mira sorry, tired brain kinda hung on every word of your question so lemme at least assure you that ||you can go back to the map and do side stuff||

[pallid gull]

realizing i spoiler tagged this wrong fawk

fixed it

[green escarp]

||The way I was nodding sagely along to all this and then you threw me for a loop there with the yelling being hot lmao||

[pallid gull]

never let them know your next move

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1320524695270981643.webp?size=100&animated=true

[pallid gull]

i love him

[languid gyro]

https://www.reddit.com/r/expedition33/s/8V6SbSjXmB

Damn first nerf already coming in

Though from everything I’ve heard, it makes sense lol

Bit sad I was too slow getting through the game to be able to experience it though 🥲

[green escarp]

But I was so proud of making that skill make numbers go brrrr 😭

Especially in NG+ where all the enemies' health skyrockets

[languid gyro]

Yeah I’ve seen people talk about hitting in the hundreds of mil (I think some might have even surpassed the 1b damage threshold?) with some setups with her

Which is absurd

[pallid gull]

the way i dont even know what that is and im far into the game

[green escarp]

Oh well. Guess I'm going to be refining my burn build for Maelle a bit more lol

[pallid gull]

ohhh maelle

yeah i should use her more

[languid gyro]

From what I’ve seen online, a lot of people’s Act 3 experience is to just one-shot every boss, even the final boss or optional superbosses, with her

So I can understand the devs wanting to curb that a bit lol

[green escarp]

Between stat allocation, weapon passives, skills and picto/lumina you can spec characters in all sorts of ways its wild, so not everyone is really forced into a role.

That being said: if I had to consider what a "canon" role might be, then Maelle's is definitely the very definition of a DPS glass canon lol

[languid gyro]

It’s XCX all over again 😭 every boss from Ch. 5 onwards, through the very end of Ch. 13, just dies in 10 seconds so you never see their attacks, hear their dialogue, or hear their music

[languid gyro]

Yeah I’ve really appreciated that every single character so far has had a skill tree diverse enough to allow them to spec into fully DPS or fully support or anything in between, alongside diverse weapon options and pictos/luminas

Anyways, game balance wise I understand why the devs wouldn’t everyone and their mother to be able to just completely waltz through Act 3 effortlessly one-shotting every boss

But I am admittedly slightly sad I’ll never get to experience how broken she got to be at peak 🥲 since the nerf will go through before I even get to Act 3

[coarse scarab]

thank you, go get some rest or else

[coarse scarab]

i lowkey don't like her playstyle at first thats why i stopped using her but she's super stronk

[green escarp]

I will have you know that-actually sleep sounds good lol

[coarse scarab]

[languid gyro]

I immediately gravitated to her playstyle even before realizing how absurdly strong she is because she plays almost exactly like Watcher from Slay the Spire, which is a game I have put many many hours into lol

(Also fencing-based moves are super cool and we should have more of that fighting style in fiction tbh)

[pallid gull]

oh also since lorie will probably be spending more time here from now on i do have a request from everyone

||to not mention act 3 anymore i won't delve into the whys because i know some peeps aren't there yet but it's best just not to for now||

[languid gyro]

You got it

[coarse scarab]

i LOVEEE the fencing. but i also wonder if i was just too dumb to comprehend or work around the playstyle

[languid gyro]

Also we should probably be more careful with character names of anyone Lorie hasn’t gotten to in-game yet

[coarse scarab]

i really wish they made it easier to pinpoint sections of the game outside of the acts too

maybe we can come up w our own

[languid gyro]

Agreed, I never know how far along I am relative to the Act as a whole, which makes it harder to know if a spoiler is safe

[green escarp]

Reminds me of when we were all going through FF16 and had to figure out a tagging system there too lol

[pallid gull]

i feel like i've gotten so far now where only mira and shadow can read 😭

[languid gyro]

We could do it by location maybe? Won’t help with the optional stuff but at least will give a general sense of where someone is in the story

So like tagging something [Act 1 Spring Meadows] vs [Act 1 Flying Waters] or something idk

[green escarp]

The burden of being obsessed and having the time to play lol
The way I have been sitting on endgame stuff like "🫨 "

[languid gyro]

Because you can say “early Act 2” or “mid Act 2” but I’ve got no idea what area(s) “mid Act 2” encompasses

[pallid gull]

thing is, i feel like some act 2 locations are also kinda spoilery, or maybe that's just my brain conjuring scenarios very easily i don't consider act 1 ones too spoilery though, like you don't get much out of someone saying "flying waters"

[languid gyro]

Then numbered area then? Ex: [Act 1 2nd area] instead of [Act 1 Flying Waters]

[green escarp]

Unrelated to the topic but I found the perfect reddit post

I'm in this image

[pallid gull]

the fact that im playing both at the same time on complete accident is kinda crazy to me

[languid gyro]

(And in this case we’d just be numbering the mandatory story areas, not bothering with optional ones, so everyone’s on the same page)

[pallid gull]

might work, but i'll have to look up a list of names

[pallid gull]

which reminds me ff10 spoilers ||SEYMOUR FLUX FUCK YOUUUUUU||

[languid gyro]

Off the top of my head for Act 1, it goes:

• 1. ||Spring Meadows||
• 2. ||Flying Waters||
• 3. ||Ancient Sanctuary (maybe Gestral Village is part of this too?)||
• 4. ||Esquie’s Nest||
• 5. ||Stone Wave Cliffs||

Something like that?

[green escarp]

I do believe that is the story order, yes

[languid gyro]

And then stuff like Abbest Cave would just be [Act 1 optional area] since those can be found in any order really, so it’s hard to tag those by number

But as long as the story stuff is clearly marked that takes care of most of it I think

[pallid gull]

the way this made me realize that i only have one area left technically based on this system

https://tenor.com/view/orange-cat-gets-flung-and-explodes-orange-cat-funny-cat-meme-explodes-gif-10706110874965244466

never want this game to end

[green escarp]

Side stuff for days though!

[pallid gull]

yeah, im trying to do some of that first before delving into the finale because because idk... don't wanna say goodbye... feeling like the game will gommage on me or something

[languid gyro]

Yeah I’ve been moving pretty slowly through story because every time they say “okay go to this place next” my brain goes “got it! explore every single area on the map it’s possible for me to get to except that area first”

[green escarp]

That is exactly how I play rpgs lmao

Oh crap, 7am now. Lemme go to bed before Mira beats me up

[pallid gull]

go to bed!!

[green escarp]

See y'all later for Lorie's stream o/

[pallid gull]

byeee, rest well!!

[languid gyro]

I do wish we could fast travel to world map areas though… I spent most of last night just backtracking all over looking for ||painted spikes|| that I could now break

[pallid gull]

wait that's right

i can do that

i completely forgot that's a mechanic

[languid gyro]

||Esquie running and swimming dialogue gives me so much life though so that helps a bit||

||He’s so silly ❤️ ||

[pallid gull]

||they better make a lot of esquie merch ||

[languid gyro]

They’re all like [Act 2 2nd area] ||”we gotta go meet my friend at Monoco’s Station!” and I’m over here backtracking all the way to the start of the game and individually going into every Act 1 area again searching for these rocks; I’m so sorry Monoco I’ll meet you soon 😭 ||

||That’s where I was getting my ass best yesterday too, optional Chromatic squared away in a hidden little area that was blocked off by one of those rocks 😭 but I beat him though! Just took a lot of perfect parrying because even one hit of his 7-hit combos would one-shot someone 💀 ||

[pallid gull]

but also congrats on beating it!! 👏

would love a qol where sidequests get marked

cause i just remembered there's random little things i picked up that characters asked me about and now im like fawk... i forgot who asked for what lol

[wheat tulip]

Same...

[pallid gull]

found another enemy that one shots me

and so it begins

[wheat tulip]

Kelfkfld

You got this

[pallid gull]

when you learn the pattern but they start doing other attacks

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1320524695270981643.webp?size=100&animated=true

[languid gyro]

I believe in you!

[languid gyro]

Anyways, just for reference and transparency, are we all good with roughly using something like this for spoiler tagging (rather than just [Act 1 spoilers])?

I figure for characters too we can do something like:

• Gustave (no need to tag because duh)
• Party #2 ||Lune||
• Party #3 ||Maelle||
• Party #4 ||Sciel||
• Party #5 ||Verso||
• Party #6 ||Monoco||
• and idk if there's more, at the point I'm at

We can also use a different term like [Character #3] or whatever, so long as the number is consistent

Speaking of which

Finally started using more of Party Member #5 last night for the first time; initially avoided bc ||the Perfection mechanic scared me off bc I didn't trust myself to not just lose a bunch of rank from getting hit and not being able to use his mechanic 😭 ||

But turns out I didn't need to worry as much because ||1) he builds it up fast like it takes usually just 2 turns to get from base to S-rank and 2) Chromatic Gault last night reminded me that it doesn't really matter if he loses stacks on hit because if I get hit I just die anyways aslkfjajfsleag||

||He's also just so cool?? The animations are cool as hell, and also Dualiso is just a crazy weapon, esp with all the Base Attack pictos/luminas like extra hits or extra AP gen on basic stacking together with it||

[pallid gull]

yeah, this sounds good to me, same with the party member numbers

[pallid gull]

||he is so much fun and so busted i love him||

||and he's eye candy so there's that 🙂‍↕️ ||

[languid gyro]

Truthfully I'm a little anxious about recruiting my next party member because I don't want to switch out any of my current team 😭

The way I feel this every time a new party member comes along though lmao

I just....love everyone!!!

I would like to use them all

[pallid gull]

truly

it's hard out here

does anyone else have a harder time on parrying once they focus too much on parrying

idk if that makes sense lmao

i got past half of the fight and then got one shot

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1014296052465143849.webp?size=100

we continue

[wheat tulip]

Fkfkfkf

[languid gyro]

Yes, because then I get jumpy and am more likely to press the trigger too early

[pallid gull]

same, it works better for me when i dont think about it

or when i don't think about the feeling of my finger on the keyboard

idk if that makes sense either

but basically when i act like it's a reflex more than something i "have" to do

[wheat tulip]

Only aiden shadow and mira can read this || do we need to do something to unlock to do more than 9 999 damage? The game said i unlocked it but its still doing 9k 😭||

[pallid gull]

||i use a picto for that, idk if there's another way and i just don't know about it 😭||

[wheat tulip]

Oh...

||the game went like you can deal more damages now!!||

[pallid gull]

||i saw it too, the only way i managed so far is by equipping the picto on sciel and making her learn it so everyone else can get it, idk if that's what the game meant or if im also doing something wrong||

[wheat tulip]

Just saw it too i guess its that thanks!

[pallid gull]

i know we established a system but ngl i dont think it's doable for what i wanna talk about rn 💀 it's a camp spoiler, only shadow can read this one probably ||monoco talking about how verso would've wanted a new beginning for the current verso makes me feel so... idk... i thought gustave would've haunted the narrative, but instead i feel like that's happening with the original verso. they're making me miss someone that i've never met. he sounded so full of whimsy and love for everyone in his life. can't help but think of how our current verso feels to be in the shoes of someone like that. he developed his own bonds and he's very loved, but he's trying to essentially ruin what verso created and that has to hurt him so bad||

[wheat tulip]

||This one is sooo annoying || after act 2 spoiler

[pallid gull]

is that an optional boss?

[wheat tulip]

||yeah a chromatic ||

Fiou finally

||Omg the weapon it gives aaah||

[pallid gull]

omg i need to find that one.... im also on the hunt for them rn

i just did one rn

[wheat tulip]

You can do it!

||im doing the eternal tower rn oh i hate clea so much😭||

After act 2 spoiler

[wheat tulip]

I feel like a gamer rn!!

||french jumpscare there btw lmao i was so surprised a person started to talk in french😭|| after act 2

[wheat tulip]

||ITS BEEN 10 MINUTES PLEASE DIE|| After act 2 spoiler

[pallid gull]

oh i just died to this fight lmao

[wheat tulip]

Ckfkfkfkf as we say in french fucking sac à pv

Nooo i was so close

||close like 2 millions more hp lmao but close enough||

[hasty halo]

This game has such a great cast of characters. I love them all so much

[keen thunder]

I’m in the middle of act 2 and I’ve been rotating through everyone, especially cause I notice benched characters don’t seem to get the same exp

[languid gyro]

I’ve been holding off on benching [P2] ||Lune|| because I love her and want her on my team, but I’ve been theorycrafting different setups and for what I currently want to do with my team, I’m probably better off switching her out 😭

And still no clue what the next party member does so that may change things up again lol

But right now [P3] ||Maelle|| just does so much more damage than anyone else that it’s genuinely worthwhile to slot in [P4] ||Sciel|| solely to use her turn to let P3 go again than to actually attack with P4 (||so instead of my current turn order of Verso -> Maelle -> Lune it would be Verso -> Maelle -> Maelle (bc of Sciel||)

Not to mention [P3] ||Maelle getting to go twice per round means I can continually cycle between Rain of Fire and Swift Stride to keep her permanently in Virtuoso||

||So far I’ve been having Verso as support/sub-DPS while having Maelle and Lune DPS, but Maelle just eclipses Lune by so much that I’m better off subbing Lune in for a support Sciel who can just make Maelle go twice||

Plus ||Lune being my backup member means she can have 100% crit from Last Stand Critical, meaning I can guarantee a 4-stain Elemental Trick into Elemental Genesis on a consistent 2-turn cycle||

It just works better all-around this way I think

[keen thunder]

thats similar to a combo I've been using but for P2 ||I actually got to a point where Lune is doing good damage or utility again along with the other characters so I'm okay with benching P3 for a while tho they've been the hypercarry up to this point ||

[languid gyro]

Yeah and it’s awesome how many different team and build variants there can be in this game!

Pretty much every character is capable of being a full support, or a hypercarry DPS, or anything in between with how you set up their weapon of choice, skill tree, and pictos/luminas, and I really really appreciate the flexible teambuilding options this game offers

Honestly I actually might consider ||swapping out hypercarry Maelle for a hyper Lune (or maybe even a hyper Verso) as my team as a whole gets stronger, because once everyone is consistently hitting the damage cap, # of hits becomes more and more important for overall DPS||

||Even if Maelle’s 2 or 3 hit 9999 is theoretically stronger beyond the damage cap, as long as the damage cap exists, I’d much rather hit a 9999 x8 Elemental Trick with Lune or a 9999 x5 Phantom Stars with Verso instead||

||Right now though, I’m still in very early Act 2, not even at the second area, so Maelle’s the only one consistently hitting 9999s every turn for the time being||

[wheat tulip]

|| @pallid gull YOU DIDNT JUST SAID RIP GUSTAVE ,SCREAMING || only thoses who started act 2 can read that

[pallid gull]

||LMAO listen i actually meant it for the combat this time 😭 unfortunate coincidence||

[wheat tulip]

True lmao

[hasty halo]

Lmao

[hasty halo]

[Act 2 Midpoint] ||About to fight Sirene wish me luck||

[wheat tulip]

You got this!!

[hasty halo]

||Actually might go back and try and get this weapon for Verso first tho||

[wheat tulip]

Good grind!

@pallid gull || is it the flotting red island? This one threw me off with the black and white effect at a moment😭||

[pallid gull]

||oh it was sirene, specifically the charm maidens||

[hasty halo]

Okay yeah I'm going on Spotify right now and adding this soundtrack to it

[wheat tulip]

Oh that yeah same

[hasty halo]

Okay yeah. Screw this fight lol

[Act 2 midpoint] ||I'm so glad this fight is over. It sucks so much.... Too much happening at once||

||I was down to only Sciel left when the boss had barely any HP left. Thankfully all of sciel's skills were dark element||

[wheat tulip]

Oh congrats !

[green escarp]

Birds of a feather

[wheat tulip]

Omgg

[wheat tulip]

This game is so pretty (after act 2 spoiler)

||family photoo 😭|| after act 2 spoiler

[green escarp]

||Bruh...||

[wheat tulip]

||oh so theres really a third axon ,interesting ||

After act 2 spoiler

||oh first almighty mask skill lets goo|| after act 2 spoiler

[fringe walrus]

I have the || underwater area battle music || stuck in my head

Does anyone know the name of it?

[pallid gull]

i go look for it 🏃‍➡️

[green escarp]

||https://youtu.be/Ms4Mmb9kY4E||

I gotchu fam

[pallid gull]

https://tenor.com/view/bunny-rabbit-vibe-dance-7tv-gif-25070294

[green escarp]

I had the Playlist pulled up on my phone already lmao

So I was like "OOO, MY TIME HAS COME"

[pallid gull]

missing lorie playing it already

[green escarp]

I hope Lorien Testard gets so many offers for work.

Of course if Sandfall decides "back off he's OUR composer" that's fine too lol

So long as the man continues to live the dream

I can't stress enough how much this game's music resonates with me.

There's tons of amazing soundtracks out there, but when you find one that just speaks to your soul and used to perfection for every scene its used in, its just extra special

[pallid gull]

far into act 2 music ||can't listen to une vie a t'aimer without sobbing ||

[fringe walrus]

AHHH thank you!!!

What if I do a night stream

[pallid gull]

running with no caffeine and barely any sleep?

[green escarp]

Listen if you canceled anime night to do that I'd support you lmao

[wheat tulip]

||Did i heard it?||

[pallid gull]

now why is the duck flashing that's bothering me

[pallid gull]

yes

i think so?

yes, you def have

[wheat tulip]

I dont know the names of the osts

So maybe jfkfx

[pallid gull]

you have, yeah

it's this one rain ||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kMbTzomh94 ||

[green escarp]

Late act 2 spoiler ||old man fight lol||

[wheat tulip]

Oh its this one? I dont remember the beginning of it jckcix

||banger absolu as we say ||

[fringe walrus]

Aiden clocking me but he’s so right. The French demon almost took over

[green escarp]

Dammit Lorie don't make me laugh so hard, my throat hurts enough as it is xD

[wheat tulip]

Dew it

[green escarp]

gasp, not Rain proving Lorie right lol

[pallid gull]

the french at it again

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1114574435144450059.webp?size=100&animated=true

[wheat tulip]

||i understand why yall are obsessed with it the lyrics continuer à t'aimeeeer||

[wheat tulip]

Lmao

Smh still no lyrics on spotify

||the singer being named alice oh they knew what they were doing they cooked all the way||

[green escarp]

That's the wonderful thing about good music though, you can not understand a word of lyrics like in my case, but the emotion the song carries is enough

[wheat tulip]

True

Even tho i understand so thats why i dont listen to every song because thats litterally spoiler for me😭

[green escarp]

That's totally fair lol I didn't feel comfortable looking up the OST until I finished the game. But now I'm in NG+ and I am free! Algorithm can't screw me now!

[wheat tulip]

Got my ass beat again

I just saw what it unlocks tho lmao i need to do it sometimes

[green escarp]

(big spoils no one but aiden or mira click) ||Ok I looked it up said scene doesn't change so yeah again, nothing afterwards sadly||

@pallid gull

[pallid gull]

||boooo ||

[fluid thistle]

End of Act 1 start of Act 2; ||GOD FUCKING DAMMIT I HATE THIS GAME (I don't actually hate it)!!! Fucking Gustave is dead and I'm crying and then Lune back at camp trying to take her mind off grieving by saying to go forward and Expedition 32 will come and then Sciel consolling her and MAELLE!!! Maelle losing some she loved so dearly (because family) and MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT!!!! ||

[green escarp]

||Welcome to the Post Act 1 Therapy Group! Complimentary Tissues on the table to your left. 🥲 ||

[fluid thistle]

||Needing more than just a box of tissues. Need a hot cuppa tea and a blanket even though it is 20C (68F) right now. ||

I'm taking a break from playing for the night. Gonna maybe play DBD to not be in my feels but I also have a lot of questions and theories going through my head right now too.

[languid gyro]

That's so valid; take care of yourself! ❤️

[Act 2 2nd area] ||I really love the way they keep adding more and more layers to the combat||

[languid gyro]

Glad to finally have the picto I got make sense lmao

[P6] ||I get so excited every time we get a new character and get to see their mechanics||

||Also, so many things to say||

||1) Officially have all party members! That's both exciting and sad 🎊 🥲 ||

||2) He's a blue mage?? 👀 The way I have such a love/hate relationship with the archetype as a whole across different RPGs||

||3) why feet||

[fluid thistle]

Oh! I forgot to say in my end of Act 1 and start of Act 2 thing; ||VERSO IS HOT!!!! ||

[languid gyro]

||Our one silver lining in these times 🥲 ||

||oof guess this means I need to keep him in then...which also means I need to figure out who to replace from my current team 😭 😭 😭 ||

[green escarp]

||I love how literally everyone in this thread with an interest in men said the exact same thing lmao ||

[languid gyro]

||I do very much appreciate though that a) you just need to kill the enemy with him in the active party, rather than other hoops we have to jump through in other games, like needing him to land the finishing blow, or needing him to purposefully get hit with the attack, etc. and b) that the enemies have a noticeable icon when the mechanic is relevant (I hope it also updates to NOT show that mark if I've already learned the relevant skill)||

||whoops I guess I ran around to too many side dungeons before coming here 😅 poor guy is so underleveled||

||...yup that's a Blue Mage looking skill tree alright||

||I'm also just so glad that they did, in fact, give us a Gestral party member ❤️ ||

||I understand that realistically this may not be worth the time/resources to include in the game but god it'd be so cool if Monoco had NG+-exclusive skills learned from the earlier story bosses||

||Spoiling myself a bit (though for this context I don't mind at all) by reading up on all the skills he can learn, and oh gosh, as expected, there are so many ways to build him, which is both awesome and exciting but also overwhelming 😭 ||

[green escarp]

||I was very tempted to ask if you wanted an answer to that hypothetical skills question lol||

[languid gyro]

||I don't really consider it a spoiler since for all the other recruitable characters you can read through their entire skill tree as soon as you recruit them (I guess minus their gradient attacks); I consider this basically the same thing||

[green escarp]

||But yeah Monocco gets some crazy skills, especially the ones that are alinged with the Almighty Mask ||

||Blue Mage be Blue Mage'ing||

[languid gyro]

I don't want to remove anyone from my current party though 😭 dilemma...

[green escarp]

Right????

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 2nd area] ||welp||

[fluid thistle]

I'm hesitant to declassify these documents right now.

[green escarp]

Stay strong

[languid gyro]

[P6] ||It's a bit of a shame but tbh I might bench him for right now 🥲 after spending a huge chunk of my playtime yesterday backtracking across the entire continent for paint spikes, I do not have any motivation currently to backtrack again all over the continent for nevron feet (which is my fault; if I knew about this mechanic beforehand I would have gotten Monoco first and then gone paint spike hunting, but alas)||

||In fact, that may even have been the devs' intention, since you recruit Monoco and get the 4th gestral kid at about the same time (or at least I did), so you're essentially double incentivized/rewarded for then backtracking||

||But I didn't do that so I'd have to backtrack twice 💀 which I do not wanna do right now||

[green escarp]

Ok I'm not gonna do what I did last night which is stay up playing lol. I'm old and need my sleep

Game will be there when I wake up

(plus I need to shake off this sick feeling)

nini! o/

[wheat tulip]

Oh yeah i need to do that now

[pallid gull]

the way i dont even know how ||paint spikes|| look like... i really need to do those

[wheat tulip]

Oh that too ffkxkfk

||its the skill you get from the lost gestrals right?||

[pallid gull]

yes

[wheat tulip]

Then yeah i also need to find thoses kgifk

So many things to do im happy

[languid gyro]

You've absolutely seen them just wandering around and just don't recognize them by that name, but it's these things all over both the overworld and within areas

[pallid gull]

OHHH

thank you, yes, i've def seen them but for some reason i never recognized them

[languid gyro]

In the overworld, they mostly just contain lil goodies (anything from a colour of lumina to new pictos), and in areas, like Spring Meadows, they open up entire new sections of the map (so also lil goodies, additional fast travel points, new optional chromatic bosses, etc.)

[pallid gull]

i gotta get on that

but also love that i have more content now... refusing to finish this game

[languid gyro]

@green escarp I know it's been a while since you asked about this so it may not be relevant to you anymore but here's a better explanation for speed/turn order than what I provided before: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3471499611

tldr - party order does affect [first] turn order, not just speed, but specifically if you're using either the First Strike picto/lumina or getting the first strike bonus by striking an enemy instead of just running into them

[green escarp]

WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMB- oh hai Amphy

also kidding I just got up like 10 mins ago lol

Yeah that tracks, I started noticing my turn order was much better just running into mobs normally with everyone having First Strike equipped

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 2nd area] ||now why is this little journal entry making me emotional 😭 ||

[pallid gull]

wait random but that outfit is so nice, where is it from 👁️

damn i missed so many outfits and hairstyles time to get on that grind

[green escarp]

I think that's one of the deluxe edition outfits?

[pallid gull]

oh

also hairstyle spoilers ||they can be bald???? iconic||

[green escarp]

||bald Maelle is so cursed tho 😭 ||

[vivid peak]

I clicked this spoiler impulsively

Lmao

[green escarp]

JONJON

You're lucky it wasn't story related

Also I just double checked in game, its indeed one of DE outfits Aiden

[vivid peak]

[pallid gull]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1305129673751007232.webp?size=100

good thing it wasn't a big spoiler

[green escarp]

||My fav Verso combo is this one,personally||

[pallid gull]

https://tenor.com/view/orange-cat-gets-flung-and-explodes-orange-cat-funny-cat-meme-explodes-gif-10706110874965244466

||need to fuck him so bad||

https://tenor.com/view/speechless-smoking-man-old-man-smoking-old-guy-smoking-old-man-cigarette-gif-16836230630449212567

[green escarp]

https://tenor.com/view/oh-my-star-trek-gif-19129737

[pallid gull]

this is act 2 but it's quite far into it and unfortunately the area is also a spoiler lmao ||i really like the bun hairstyle on him, i also wanted try another one that i've seen in the list but unfortunately that's renoir's hairstyle and something about this man's options being his dad's outfits and gustave's hairstyle im like... lemme not 💀 he already deals with enough trauma as it is||

[coarse scarab]

||oh my god where do i get the outfit ||

[green escarp]

[Act 2 Spoilers] ||There's a Gestral merchant in the Frozen Hearts side area you buy it from||

[coarse scarab]

thank you!

[pallid gull]

this is a camp spoiler but also a huge general story spoiler so it can't be tagged with specifics, i think only mira and shadow can read this (probably rain too?) ||i think what they've done really well is make me feel so strongly about the original verso, a man so loving that he died for his little sister and created a world filled with so much hope. the gestrals, esquie, everything just being a product of his whimsy and love for life to the point where he made esquie save anyone experiencing suicidal ideation like that gets me real bad lol. i feel like i'm grieving with everyone involved and the grief is doubled thinking about what our verso could've had if he had been allowed to just be himself rather than the shadow of a man that died||

[fluid thistle]

https://bsky.app/profile/expedition33.bsky.social/post/3loqjcfaikc2u

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33.bsky.social)

Expeditioners,

Patch 1.2.3 is now LIVE on all platforms!

This patch includes various Ultrawide improvements, fixes for many softlocks on the World Map, mouse and keyboard improvements, and some balancing. Full patch notes below.

www.expedition33.com/post/patch-n...

Bluesky · May 9, 2025, 1:19 PM

[wheat tulip]

||fake alicia just died || big big spoiler after act 2

||SCREAMING VERSO JUST HAD SEX WITH LUNE ||

After act 2 and camp spoiler

[languid gyro]

Looks like it’s already been answered but ye it’s a DE outfit. I went and purchased it after I finished Act 1 because I wanted to give the devs more money; the outfits were just a bonus lmao

[wheat tulip]

||Oh damn too realist 😭😭 she tried suicide || after act 2, camp spoiler and hard tw

||THATS TOO MUCH WTF SHE LOST HER CHILD LIKE THAT||

[languid gyro]

Also [end of Act 1] ||the Gommage and flower themed outfits/hairstyles seemed a fitting tribute for Gustave 🥲 ||

||well except for Verso bc I like his natural hair as it is||

[pallid gull]

||i do love his wavy hair, it's really nice||

once again experienced a life changing ost and im supposed to just go on with my day

[wheat tulip]

||not maelle repainting the monolith to say go away dad SCREAMING || After act 2 and camp spoiler

[fluid thistle]

End of Act 1 and character spoilers; ||So, I feel like Sciel is getting up there as one of my favourite characters. I love her combat mechanics and everything. Also, her using cards and a dual-ended scythe type weapon! And especially after she was consoling Lune at camp after Gustave was killed and just . Lune is also a favourite too but Sciel climbed up there.||

[languid gyro]

||She’s such a big sister 🥺 also yes the tarot mechanic is so cool! Excited for Lorie to get to her||

||Also scythes are so underrated as a weapon but I’ve always really loved them so extra happy about the rep||

||She’s also just really really good?? Like depending on how you build her she’s either the best pure support (omnibuffs, turn manipulation, teammate damage amplifier, team AP generation, and more), or she’s the strongest non-Maelle DPS at this current stage of the game||

[wheat tulip]

||omg François missing Clea😭😭|| after act 2 and camp spoiler

[languid gyro]

Btw, thing about P4 mechanics that I did not learn until later on: ||the more Sun/Moon cards she has stacked before entering Twilight, the stronger her Twilight stage is. So instead of alternating Sun/Moon and getting more but weaker Twilights (at an only 50% damage increase), you are often better off stacking like 7 Sun or Moon cards, then playing the alternate card to enter Twilight with like a 200% damage buff instead (very useful for if you need to time a specific burst window to line up with buffs or with a boss being stunned or when another teammate can use a turn to feed her AP or something)||

||I personally use a support Sciel to boost or double-turn DPS Maelle, but if you run DPS Sciel I figure this is good to know||

[coarse scarab]

a couple of the game’s cast are playing the game on twitch btw!

[pallid gull]

jennifer english, right?

i'm in her's and aliona's discord, i vaguely remember the mods mentioning it! i should check it out 🏃‍➡️

[coarse scarab]

yes!

they have sophie’s va on the stream as well

[wheat tulip]

Omgg

[hasty halo]

I need to see this

[fluid thistle]

Same!

[hasty halo]

I'm trying to find it right now XD

[coarse scarab]

https://www.twitch.tv/jenandaliona

here you go!

[hasty halo]

Oooo okay! Thank you!!!

[languid gyro]

People doing comparisons of the P3 ||Maelle|| nuke pre- and post-nerf

Look at how they massacred my boy that I haven’t even unlocked yet

To be clear, this is a double nerf: 1) to this specific skill and 2) to the Medallum weapon, which was supposed to double burn damage while in v-stance but was instead bugged (before the fix) to double all damage while in that stance if you had the weapon (which is part of why P3 ||Maelle|| was so dominant over every other character for so many players)

[coarse scarab]

whats p3?

[pallid gull]

3rd party member

aka ||maelle||

we've been keeping them under wraps because lorie didn't get that far yet, she did now though but characters like ||monoco and sciel|| are still very much kept hidden still

[coarse scarab]

gotcha haha i was a little confused there thank youuuu

[languid gyro]

It seemed the easiest way to refer to the party members, but I’m open to alternate suggestions for spoiler tagging if anyone thinks of something easier

[green escarp]

The nerf doesn't seem that bad honestly. I mean, 333 million is going to one shot most bosses in the game even in NG+

[wheat tulip]

I hope💀

[green escarp]

Why the fuck is my phone trying to correct "nerf" to "perfect"

Autocorrect you're drunk. Go home.

[languid gyro]

Ye and that’s just that person’s comparison. I think others have hit like 2bil or even 4bil pre-patch, so it’s probably still doable to break through the 1b barrier

[pallid gull]

once again, no way to tag this 😭 camp spoilers and general story spoilers, like really late into the story, probably only shadow can read this just to be safe ||i am so devastated bruhh 😭 i have so many thoughts on this scene but i love verso so much and he deserves so much better||

[wheat tulip]

Got this one today too! || ||

[pallid gull]

rain ||did you talk to her again after?||

[wheat tulip]

||with maelle? I don think so 😭 i should then||

[pallid gull]

yes, do it!

[wheat tulip]

I stoped after ||talking to esquie which unlocked me the last stone for him||

||i need to ressurect noco too||

Too many things to do!!

[languid gyro]

[P4] ||the way I’m biting my tongue at Lorie’s “FF14 Red Mage” comment to not say anything about, or even hint at, a future character (Sciel) having a kit even more reminiscent of RDM||

[wheat tulip]

||i just know she will love sciel||

[green escarp]

[Act 1] 2nd area: ||Lorie being like "I wanna fight that!" and completely missing the alternate path to fight one of the Bourgeons lol||

[wheat tulip]

Oof ||she will see next time she goes there maybe||

[languid gyro]

Fun timing seeing this now considering qotw [P5]

||Fanmade of course||

[wheat tulip]

Oh cuute

[keen thunder]

PAX cosplay of the unlockable costume that Lorie got today || apparently those are real baguettes https://x.com/phaseknight_/status/1920864431665279428?s=46 ||

phase (@phaseknight_) on X

IM CRYING LMFAOOOOO

X · May 9, 2025, 3:32 PM

[wheat tulip]

I hope they ate it

[languid gyro]

The In-Media Res picto has such a good effect, but I do kinda hate visually that it just leaves my entire party bloody 24/7 😭

[pallid gull]

i got spoiled

https://tenor.com/view/orange-cat-gets-flung-and-explodes-orange-cat-funny-cat-meme-explodes-gif-10706110874965244466

but also it was a theory i had anyway so i guess it's fine but my dumb ass......

[fringe walrus]

NOOOO

Beating them tf up

[pallid gull]

it was on me i was looking at outfits to dress up barbies...

[fringe walrus]

Beating the outfit up for spoiling u

[pallid gull]

thank u need to stop snooping so much

[green escarp]

Aiden noooo 😭

[fringe walrus]

Omg new @olive olive video featuring peak 👀

https://youtu.be/6t50vK1JV5k?si=TfdRV4IlnL9X9AgB

[wheat tulip]

Putain nooo

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 2nd area] ||my FFXIV addled brain vibrating 🧠 ||

[wheat tulip]

Oh its named like that in en

[green escarp]

Ha ha oops 🙃

[wheat tulip]

Oh damn 100 hours !!

[green escarp]

If anyone says I have a problem I will have them know that,

yeah 🙃

Also, [Very Late Act 2 Spoilers]: Sarah's streaming E33 and ||getting clapped by The Paintress||

[wheat tulip]

I dont see any problème here only dedication

[wheat tulip]

Shes already there?!

I need to catch up her vods

[green escarp]

[Late Act 2 spoilers] ||Dude I realize how overlevled/overgeared I was both times I fought this boss, because she's doing moves against Sarah I've never even seen. What do you mean she casts Doom?! (Yes I know its called Cursed in this game but its effectively the same thing)||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 post-2nd area camp] ||Lulu, Maemae, and Scisci 😭 😭 😭 ||

||incredible||

[wheat tulip]

||oh yeah lmao even on story mode i got it i was like FUCK||

[languid gyro]

[more camp] ||"little rock expeditioners" 😭 I'm gonna cry these scenes are so cute||

||that's it that's the whole game||

||Verso (about his poetry): "Please be kind" / Maelle: "Yeah...can't promise that" 💀 ||

||She's seen all the twitch comments 💀 💀 💀 ||

[wheat tulip]

SCREAMING

[languid gyro]

||oh.....||

||I feel like this can be applied to a lot lmao||

||girl trust me you don't need the help||

||I'M SCREAMING||

||Verso and Monoco are so ridiculous I love them||

[Act 2 overworld] ||YO WAIT SOME ENEMIES CAN PARRY AND COUNTERATTACK??||

[Act 2 optional area] ||Verso: "Brings back memories" / Monoco: "Yeah, we used to live here together" / Sciel: "Bromantic." hello??||

[languid gyro]

||HELLO?? His current weapon is a level 10 and this random enemy just dropped a level 21||

[wheat tulip]

||you are in a danger zone for you thats why kflfkfkc||

[languid gyro]

||look at this difference.......||

[fluid thistle]

We meet again classified documents.

Just heading home now after work right now and all I can think about is E33.

[languid gyro]

oh hey yet another weapon drop that's like triple the power of what I had before lmaoooo

it's so fun running around exploring in higher level areas

it's so funny to me that I'm fighting over here with level 10 weapons and then these normal non-boss enemies are casually dropping level 21 weapons

what a huge upgrade

RIP to probably the next few story bosses/areas

[Act 2 outfit] ||the climb up the mountain was all worth it for this||

||oh that is a TANKY mime jesus christ; 20k damage doesn't look like the bar even moved 💀 ||

[green escarp]

||best Verso fit IMHO||

[languid gyro]

||good riddance, frickin 340k HP mime 💀 ||

[languid gyro]

||Chromatic Veilleur is extremely mean to Maelle and her new weapon 😭 because his whole thing is blight, which reduces max HP (all the way to just 1) and Maelle's new weapon inflicts self-burn so she keeps killing herself from the blight + burn combo even when I'm perfectly parrying all the boss's attacks 💀 ||

[green escarp]

PSA: The Sandfall Interactive Youtube channel has started posting the entire OST, some of it new music not on the official OST.

Some of these are huge spoilers for content late in the game

[green escarp]

That said, (Act 2 early music spoilers) ||THEY RELEASED SCIEL'S PIANO THEME!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!||
||https://youtu.be/okDFpK2v46o?si=yj84K2rZdvGrE_Qz||

||This is such a beautiful piece of music (which I know is redundant because all the music in this game is incredible) but there's just something about this piano piece that I just wanna sit down and cry ||

[pallid gull]

love this game to bits but i just got in a new optional area where everything is hard to see because of the environment and im also lost and im literally like

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/754643305240723547.webp?size=100&animated=true

https://tenor.com/view/cat-squint-daze-gif-13378529572852999621

me trying to see wtf is going awn

[wheat tulip]

Oh yeah this one hahaha

||it will be worse after🤡||

[pallid gull]

||pls it became all grey now im fighting for my life for real||

[wheat tulip]

Yup yup

https://tenor.com/view/klasik-clasik-clasic-gif-25398314

||until you finished finding the 3 sword monster to activate it will be fuun||

[pallid gull]

||pls i stumbled upon the 2nd sword on complete mistake so im lost af rn LMAO||

||i've learned the enemy patterns so fighting them when it's like this it's not too bad, it's just that i literally cannot see where im going||

they don't seem to have anything about it in accessibility, only a colourblind mode

[wheat tulip]

||yup and activating a sword respawn the ennemies😭||

||honestly its not the worst island but damn its hard to see||

||there i just went with hearing honestly ||

[pallid gull]

from everywhere i've been so far, it's probably the worst for me (at the moment) 😭

||cause i have no issue with the enemy parries in the dark, it's just that i cannot see where im going ||

[wheat tulip]

||you want to know the best (or the worst) ?||

[pallid gull]

wait wdym? like if i wanna know the best or worst island?

[wheat tulip]

Oh no on this one

[pallid gull]

as in another detail about this place?

||okay i found the last sword 😭 thank fawk i can see again||

[wheat tulip]

Yup

You will understand soon lmao

You got this im sure

[wheat tulip]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdM8HSRr/ omg its the singer for clair obscur

[pallid gull]

im probably doing something wrong but later game mechanic ||does anyone know why i can only perform one gradient attack despite having multiple||

[wheat tulip]

||depends on your amount of charge you get some use more right?||

||or you mean you can only use it once a fight?||

[pallid gull]

||no i mean that whenever i get the option to do a gradient it's always only one that's available||

[wheat tulip]

Huh

||did you unlocked the others for the characters ?||

[pallid gull]

yes

[wheat tulip]

Weird...

Idk i can access it 😭

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 optional area] ||ngl Danseuse Teacher got hands (or legs, I guess?) 💀 been getting my ass kicked first thing in the morning||

||oh thank god I just needed to complain on discord for the win||

||god what a cool outfit||

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[wheat tulip]

Honestly this one was so satisfying

[pallid gull]

there was some enemies where im like

that is so unfair

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1114574435144450059.webp?size=100&animated=true

[wheat tulip]

Lmaoo aiden

True

[languid gyro]

||Back at it again with this annoying boss 💀 ||

[wheat tulip]

||Oh hell not this one||

||did you got the anti corruption picto?||

[languid gyro]

No

Just barebacking it, as they say

||My max HP being brought down to 1 doesn't matter if I simply parry everything right 🙃 ||

[wheat tulip]

True🙂‍↕️

[languid gyro]

||This fight is also an excllent use case for the "double AP on parry but take double damage" picto and other risky stuff like Sciel's "take double damage" weapon (though I don't have Sciel in my party atm; maybe I'll swap her in if I keep dying) since I can only afford to take a single hit regardless||

||but also, oof feels like I've been at this forever and he's only 1/3 down 😭 at the same time though; I do like the balance that having the damage cap adds to these early fights, before the limiter removal just trivializes them||

||LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🎊 ||

also holy shit that's an incredible picto reward

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[languid gyro]

slight RIP that I just barely missed the no-damage bonus because I got hit exactly once all fight, but maybe that's for the best

I'm already overleveling the story content by being in this dungeon at all to begin with 😭

[wheat tulip]

The dungeon ? Which one

[languid gyro]

Maybe that's the wrong term, I'm just in the ||Frozen Hearts|| area

[wheat tulip]

Ooh this one i see

I should go back there now

[languid gyro]

came here directly after grabbing [P6] ||Monoco|| instead of progressing story, ignoring the big flashing "danger" sign

it's been so funny getting all these "you can upgrade your weapons to level 32" stones when my weapons are all like...level 11

no clearer sign that I'm here way too early lmao

[wheat tulip]

Yeah its a zone for later😭

[languid gyro]

but also, if I can kill the enemies, then it's not too early 😈

[wheat tulip]

You got this for sure!

[languid gyro]

I mean I've already mostly explored this whole area I think

It was a very fun side adventure

but also I think I'm now way overleveled for probably the next several story areas/bosses because I went and fully explored here first lol

ALSO [P5] I have my first level 99 attribute! 🎊

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[languid gyro]

||It's a little funny bc I originally had Verso specced out for support, but then suddenly he got a random level 21 weapon drop so I was like "guess he's my main DPS now lmao||

||I think he's actually stronger than Maelle now, while the damage cap is in place, since he has so many multihits, so it's much easier for him to do many multiples of 9999 (I imagine Maelle will overtake him again once the damage cap is removed)||

[wheat tulip]

Probably yeah i didnt use her much so idk

[languid gyro]

[P6] ||So I ended up swapping Monoco into my team a bit ago because a) I wanted to try him, b) he was way underleveled (which running through Frozen Hearts with him mostly fixed lmao), and c) I need him in my team to get his skills, and now that I'm starting to get more and more skills with him he's quite fun actually||

||Pretty excellent burn and break support to let my Maelle and Verso shine||

[wheat tulip]

Same kgkfkc ||i still need 5 of his skills i think||

[languid gyro]

||Tbh a burn team of Lune/Maelle/Monoco is probably better if I really want to capitalize on burn synergy, but right now Verso is just so much stronger than everyone else, as a result of the random sword drop he got in Frozen Hearts, that even without kit synergy he's worth slotting in just bc he's so strong rn lmao||

[languid gyro]

I haven't been actively hunting them down, just grabbing them as they come

I do think it's helped a lot that I went to the optional area first bc I got some really nice skills from the enemies there that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to get till way later

[wheat tulip]

Oh same i just saw i needed only that much

[languid gyro]

||It's also just crazy how many pictos syngerize with burn specifically, like we've got +crit against burn, +damage against burned, +AP when burning, +burn when breaking, +double burn, and I'm sure there's more I haven't gotten to yet||

[vivid peak]

||I found a piano and… are they playing their own theme music||

[languid gyro]

Yes! And each character plays a different theme!! It's such a cool detail!!!

[Prologue] ||Even Sophie has her own theme, if you play on the piano in Lumiere||

[vivid peak]

I missed that

[languid gyro]

Beginning to realize that I may have given ||Monoco|| a little too much speed

I wanted to speedtune so that he was faster than the other party members, which I achieved

But now he's so fast that sometimes instead of the order going him -> party 2 -> party 3 -> boss, it's him -> boss -> party 2 -> party 3

so if I break the boss with him, the boss becomes unstunned before 2 and 3 go, meaning they don't get to benefit from the stun damage bonus 💀

[hasty halo]

[Act 2 midpoint] ||Walked into a random area thinking it'd be fine. Didn't realize there was an optional boss and I got rekt 💀||

[hasty halo]

||And the worst part was there were 3 of them as one boss||

So I'm gonna level up more and gear up better and then go back

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 optional area] ||oh no........||

||FIRST TRY 🎊 🎊 🎊 but also wow are my palms sweaty and my heart filled with so much anxiety from that whole climb 😭 ||

[Act 2 outfit] ||amazing||

[green escarp]

Amphy is just trailblazing over here I'm so proud

Also hello I'm finally awake today

[green escarp]

Oh god I just got back there last night I haaaaaaate that place lol.

[fringe walrus]

Is anyone else playing on expert?

[green escarp]

I need to do my some stuff then I can hop on so my quest to 100% continues

[green escarp]

Nope! I get my ass kicked enough on normal. Am chicken. Bawk bawk bawk!

[fringe walrus]

No it’s okay! The games got hands already on expeditioner too

I was just curious bc I think it’s def gonna take me longer to finish LMAO

But honestly I’m okay with. Make it last forever

[languid gyro]

I started on Expeditioner, but I switched over to Expert! Because at this point I'm either one-turning enemies that are on-level or I'm fighting optional enemies/bosses way higher level that one-shot me anyways so I have to learn to parry regardless lol

[fringe walrus]

Yeah I switched over pretty fast bc I realized I was familiar with these mechanics from Souls games

I like a challenge

[languid gyro]

I've never actually played any Souls games besides Elden Ring, but I've been wanting to get into them at some point since I enjoyed Elden Ring, Hollow Knight (which is basically a 2D souls game), and also this

[fluid thistle]

I'm playing on normal difficulty and the game still has hands but honestly?? I'm tempted to raise the difficulty because it seems that the dodging and parrying is incentivized heavily as enemies hit hard already where I'm at level wise. And same with doing some bosses too. Like they got hands already.

[languid gyro]

Yeah I was fighting an optional boss earlier today that debuffs all my party's max HP down to 1, so like it literally does not matter I'd be having to parry everything even on Story against this mf lol

[fringe walrus]

DO ITTTTT OMG

[keen thunder]

|| FFXIV jump puzzles have prepared me 🫡 ||

[fringe walrus]

Yeah when you do get a parry off in expert, it still does so much damage. Like once you get the hang of the mechanics of parry/dodge then you’re probably golden for expert

I’m still in act one and beat an optional boss yesterday on expert and it didn’t take me as long as I thought. I think it was maybe my 5th or 4th try or something?

[languid gyro]

I also just think this game is really excellent about making most parry timings intuitive

I'm at a point where I can reliably "sight-read" new enemy parry timings with at least some reasonable accuracy because the game just telegraphs them so well

very well-designed both visually and, especially, auditorily

[green escarp]

~~From my understanding the only differences between expeditioner and expert are the damage dealt to you, and the windows for dodge and parry being tighter. In which case I'm fine with sticking to expeditioner because I already struggle with some parry and dodge timings, so the smaller window would just stress me out lol. ~~ nevermind I clearly can't read, only difference is damage output from the enemies

I'm in NG+ which is similar to what souls games do and increase the enemy health and difficulty, so by then especially getting back into endgame territory: either your builds outspeed the enemies enough so they never attack, or you parry/dodge correctly or die. All this being a longwinded way of me saying I enjoy the challenge as is and I don't need to make it harder on myself 😅

Y'all playing on expert though I have mad respect for

[languid gyro]

My understanding is that the dodge/parry timer is tighter from story to expeditioner but unchanged from expeditioner to expert

[green escarp]

HUH

[languid gyro]

It even says as much in the menu

[green escarp]

Oh so its just more damage

[languid gyro]

On Story "dodges and parries are easier" but outside of that there's no mention of timing or ease, just how "recommended" they are (because of enemy damage differences)

[green escarp]

I love misreading stuff 🙃

[languid gyro]

And on Expeditioner I was fighting bosses that would OHKO me if I didn't parry anyways so at that point there's no difference even between that and Expert lmao

That's part of why I switched

[wheat tulip]

Oh thats why i can parry that easily i see 😭

[green escarp]

I mean you've said yourself you don't like to be stressed when gaming Rain so that's valid

No one is more or less of a gamer for playing at the difficulty they're comfortable with when given the option. You're supposed to be having fun so at the end of the day that's all that matters

[fringe walrus]

Oh yeah I didn’t mean for the discussion to be about that lmao I asked purely bc I wanted to see how long it was taking ppl to play through expert vs expeditioner 💀

[green escarp]

I'm still sticking to expeditioner, even knowing now the timing is the same I'm at the point where the hardest enemies the only difference might be 2-shot'ing me to 1-shot'ing me so it just seems arbitrary lol.

No you're good Lor!

[fringe walrus]

I’m not encouraging anyone to do what they’re not comfortable with. Heck, I played XC1 and XC2 on easy difficulties LMAOOO that’s not what I was insinuating 😭

[languid gyro]

My progression speed is definitely a little wonky because what I do is any time the story says "it's time to go THIS area", I go "oh okay! let's go to literally everywhere else on the map that I am able to access", and what that ends up doing is two things:

• 1. I get my ass beat for like an hour against some chromatic boss or other that's way higher leveled
• 2. I breeze through the actual story stuff once I come back after doing all the optional stuff first

So I don't know if the net is slower or faster lmao

[pallid gull]

im planning on replaying the game on expert at one point because im very comfortable with the parries where i am but my only issue is that im too lazy to focus on builds and pictos there's a mechanic ive unlocked where i can't do it right for some reason and i could google why but also...i eep... (literally, i just woke up)

this is really making me wanna play soulsborn games though

[green escarp]

Y'all should definitely play those games!

I'm totally not biased

Nope not at all

[languid gyro]

The way I'm having a little too much fun with builds and pictos 💀 I don't think anyone else completely strips their entire party of all pictos and luminas so that they can completely redo them every few levels, not because I feel I need to but because doing so is genuinely fun for me (I don't know why I'm like this either)

[fringe walrus]

Okay this is what I’m trying to do too but holy fawk I get lost and then I think like yesterday I accidentally left an area early and it pissed me off a little bit inside but I like that we can go back

[fringe walrus]

Welcome awakeeee

[languid gyro]

This was especially a problem in Unicorn Overlord because I kid you not I think genuinely more than half my playtime was spent completely redoing my party comp, equipment, and tactics setups, like every few levels, instead of just actually playing through the game

[pallid gull]

yeah, that's unfortunately gonna keep happening i think, navigation in this game is rough sometime 😭

[pallid gull]

thank youu, i slept the pain away it worked

[fringe walrus]

Wait I think I’m getting to this level too tbh. The picto/lumina system is scratching some good ass strategy for building characters I’ve been craving

[fluid thistle]

The way I don't really care about my Picto and Lumina build as much as I want to because I'm like "I got a shiny new toy! Lemme just replace my pictos with these new ones I got to unlock them as Luminas" and then I never replace the Pictos I unlocked as Luminas.

[green escarp]

I've been meaning to ask you Lor, do you want us to let you know if you're skipping stuff in zones or would you rather not? Because obvs none of us here want to backseat you

[languid gyro]

YES it's such a good system!

[fringe walrus]

I need to play this bad

[fringe walrus]

Omg nooo I hope you feel better is everything okay??

[wheat tulip]

True ckfkfkf honestly i dont like struggling on game yeah

[green escarp]

This pretty much. Its so easy to get lost

[wheat tulip]

I want to be able to cry for the story and not the gameplay nckfkc

[pallid gull]

first period day

https://cdn.discordapp.com/emojis/1320524695270981643.webp?size=100&animated=true

[fluid thistle]

Aiden, have a tiramisu as a treat if you can.

[fringe walrus]

I think if you switch to expert then you’re def gonna want to pay attention to them a bit more. You gotta maximize how you defeat enemies more in expert from what I have experienced

[fluid thistle]

Good to know that!

[fringe walrus]

Nawt the first fucking day omg. Get some rest

[fringe walrus]

Maybe not! I’ll honestly go back I’m sure to run around again. This was supposed to be a “shorter” game for me but the way I wanna be a completionist and making the game harder

[pallid gull]

lowkey really considered doing a no hit run but i feel like restarting the game every time might kill me inside

[languid gyro]

This also probably (?) doesn't need to be said because it's JRPG 101 but just as important as your picto/lumina/skill setup is speedtuning

I've seen a surprising number of people just play their party members in whatever order they happen to be in from their random picto setup, just barebacking it

But something as small as having the team go in a specific order consistently makes a huge difference with picto/lumina/skill synergies

[fringe walrus]

Wait…… you can adjust turn order????

[green escarp]

You'll get no judgement from me! I'm actively working towards that goal myself

[pallid gull]

you can what

https://tenor.com/view/shocked-shocked-cat-silly-cat-cat-kitten-gif-7414586676150300212

[fringe walrus]

HEEEEELP I thought the turn order was set?

[languid gyro]

So there's two factors to turn order:

• 1. Speed stat (so making sure the person you want to go first has the highest speed stat, then the second has the second highest, etc.)
• 2. The order they're added onto the team (you can go in the menu and take party members off and re-add them in the order you want), which affects turn order independently of speed for the first turn if you either a) have the First Strike picto/lumina equiped or if you start battle by hitting enemies with an attack first in the field (instead of just running into them)

[fluid thistle]

Ooooo. Good to know that. I currently have [LORIE DON'T LOOK AT SPOILER] ||Verso and Sciel|| in my team with Lune but I think I can build them around how I want to have them go in order. Because how I normally play Persona games, I usually make "myself" (the protag) be the support (buff, debuff, heal) and have party based around that.

[languid gyro]

Ye, it's especially important with someone like [P4] ||Sciel|| who has skills that manipulate turn order even farther (ex: if you want to use her "target ally does double damage next turn" skill you want her tuned faster than your main DPS, and if you want to use her "target ally goes again" skill you want her tuned slower than your main DPS)

She's a great example of a character where your party's turn order really makes a difference

[fluid thistle]

[pallid gull]

the way i got all the characters and im realizing idk what any of them do i guess

[languid gyro]

Interactions are also a little wonky if you have both the First Strike picto equipped on everyone and start battle by attacking enemies, so if you're at a point where everyone has First Strike it's probably actually better to just run into enemies instead of hitting them first

[languid gyro]

The literal first thing I always do (in any new game, not just E33) when I get a new character is to stop, look through, and memorize their entire skill tree so that I know what I'm building towards long-term with them

it's an illness I tell you 😭

[pallid gull]

that's really smart, usually what i do is try and figure out if im gonna obsess over them or not

[languid gyro]

or maybe it's the teacher in me idk

[fringe walrus]

Yeah speed stat I knew affected it. I thought you meant like mid battle you could change and I was like damn did I miss that 😭

[pallid gull]

a different brand of illness

[green escarp]

@languid gyro @pallid gull I just think you're both valid and lovely

[languid gyro]

oh I don't need to decide that, my brain just obsesses over everyone 💀 why do I love every character in this game it's a problem

[green escarp]

Ok but all the characters are just so good though

[pallid gull]

this is literally me at the beginning of a fight knowing im gonna get my ass beat 100 times and im gonna have to learn all the patterns to get perfect parries cause i never dodge even tho it would probably save my ass

[green escarp]

I don't think there's a single one in the game I dislike for any reason

[pallid gull]

they did cook in the character writing kitchen unfortunately

or fortunately

[languid gyro]

no that's so real though I always just jump straight to trying to parry always, for better or worse

[fringe walrus]

I try to master a perfect dodge then I try for a parry. That window is tight though like Rafayel’s cloaca (Dulci are you proud)

[fluid thistle]

Not me unlocking all the skills in their tree when I get enough points to unlock more instead of choosing a route to go down.

[pallid gull]

gonna show him this masterpiece bc he's avoiding this thread due to spoilers

another game that i gotta gift him and force him to play.....

[languid gyro]

Yeah I think that's generally the smarter approach, rather than going straight for the parry, but I am but a moth blinded by the light of parrying 🥲

[fringe walrus]

It’s like what I told Mallorie when I beat her ass in Smash over and over again when she was like 8, “this is the only way to get better”

[pallid gull]

i'm the same because i'm like yes this will kill me 100 times but the parry sound is so satisfying

[green escarp]

I choked on my coffee, thanks Lorie

[languid gyro]

Lowkey same though, with my little brother, but also he's the best in his friend group at Smash so I think it worked js

[fringe walrus]

It worked bc now she beats everyone even me and I peaked in high school when I won my smash tournament

[fringe walrus]

HEEELP exact same

[languid gyro]

They really killed it with the feedback; it feels so good to get the parry right

[pallid gull]

are there any games with similar combat to this... i've heard lost odyssey and sekiro?

[green escarp]

Sekiro definitely

[languid gyro]

I have not played it yet, but I've heard pretty good things about Nine Sols, which is a sort of mix of Hollow Knight and Sekiro with an emphasis on parrying as well

I imagine Sekiro is probably the main one though

[coarse scarab]

sekiro

[pallid gull]

guess i gotta play sekiro fawk

https://tenor.com/view/orange-cat-gets-flung-and-explodes-orange-cat-funny-cat-meme-explodes-gif-10706110874965244466

[green escarp]

We have summoned the Mira!

[coarse scarab]

LMAO

my soulsborne senses were tingling

[languid gyro]

Well, similar in terms of parry, but I don't personally know any games that have fused turn-based and real-time parrying the way E33 has

[fluid thistle]

Mira!

[coarse scarab]

wisteriaaa

[pallid gull]

yeah, i imagine they might be the only ones for now... i think (?) ff13 has it too just not quite the same

[languid gyro]

Actually...the Paper Mario games kind of

[fringe walrus]

So in turn based fashion? Not really but parries and dodges is 100% Sekiro and Soulsborn games in general. Lost odyssey is moreso turn based with QTEs but not the parry/dodge from what I remember

[coarse scarab]

but yes sekiro is simultaneously the hardest and easiest game you'll ever play

[pallid gull]

unless im spreading misinformation which is possible

[languid gyro]

They're turned based games with QTE during attacks for extra effects

[fluid thistle]

The gun parry in Bloodborne.

[languid gyro]

And Paper Mario Thousand Year Door did recently get a remaster 👀

[coarse scarab]

easy only until you get the hang of parries but extremely punishing if you don't

[green escarp]

Mario and Luigi series I'd say is closer since they have the inputs from Paper Mario, but also they have a dodge system

[fringe walrus]

Yeah paper Mario and the Mario and Luigi games are similar too. Actually sea of stars too

[pallid gull]

i wanna play everything again

[fringe walrus]

Wait sea of stars is VERY close to the combat of e33 now that I think about it

[pallid gull]

i will play sea of stars too

[fringe walrus]

The gacha is not the same tho

[green escarp]

I wish Paper Mario 1 got a remaster like 2(TTYD) did

[fringe walrus]

Maybe not gacha but slot machine system. I think that’s more paper Mario?

[green escarp]

That game is so underappreciated

[fringe walrus]

E33 has such a unique system with a million combos of such good combat systems ough

I’m going to some retro game stores tomorrow for Mother’s Day and I’m gonna go ham

[green escarp]

Oh Lorie I need you to see something I posted earlier in this thread:

From the E33 reddit ^

[fringe walrus]

Is this themes wise??

Am I not there yet

[green escarp]

I think it was just overall getting that magical feeling of playing the game

I didn't delve into the topic itself

[fringe walrus]

Now I’m overthinking 💀

[green escarp]

Shit 😭

[fluid thistle]

Time to only think about a satisfying parry in Bloodborne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVaoe2H0Wwg

[pallid gull]

to reassure you though, i don't think it's that kind of spoiler (?) as in, it might be to someone that doesn't know a thing about either game but the overall feeling of ||existential dread, gommage and the sending ffx felt very similar to people||, but that's where i'd stop with the similarities

[green escarp]

See I didn't even consider themes when I saw that image and related to it I just went "playing this game gives me the same joy I had playing my first JRPG (which was FFX) when I was younger"

[coarse scarab]

BLOODBORNE

[fringe walrus]

Ahh okay lmao I dunno I saw it was it reminded them in general of themes/experience with the story

[green escarp]

not me accidentally sending Lorie's brain into Overdrive 😭

[pallid gull]

LMAO yeah, that's why i wanted to clarify because yeah, i do think there are some similarities but they're not specific ones. cause i think if i saw it out of context without playing the game i'd be already like oh i figured out the plot

https://tenor.com/view/orange-cat-gets-flung-and-explodes-orange-cat-funny-cat-meme-explodes-gif-10706110874965244466

so i get her

[languid gyro]

did someone say.....Overdrive 👀

[wheat tulip]

Honestly its inspired by so many different games

[green escarp]

Its funny because I just remembered "Overdrive" is also what "Limit Break" is called in FFX so yay for unintentional references xD

[fringe walrus]

Yeah I can see so many inspos but the biggest one to me (thus far) has been Xenoblade 3 with || homecoming, age cap, being surprised about someone making it past gommage/aging, etc ||

[languid gyro]

It very much feels like a love letter/homage to a lot of beloved games

[pallid gull]

i think sandfall has a list with all the devs and also their favorite games

[wheat tulip]

I think all 3 xenoblades were fav for some devs so i could see it

Yup yup

And theres also the dog

[pallid gull]

seeing most of them have elden ring lmaoo

[fringe walrus]

Like the acceptance about death and it happening is sooooo but questioning why it happens and wanting to go against the odds is so || Noah and Mio coded except Mio’s fckin homecoming was in the middle of the game where Sophie was immediate 💀 || (big xc3 spoilers)

[wheat tulip]

Not surprised lmao

[wheat tulip]

Probably shouldnt read this one

[fringe walrus]

Do nawt

I know Amphy, Aiden, and shadow know though since they were there/played

[wheat tulip]

Maybe one day

[pallid gull]

seeing a lot of kh2 on these devs list..... excited to get to it

[pallid gull]

the fact that you showed up at the kh2 mention... dulci your power

[worn oriole]

risking myself just to amrk my territory

[worn oriole]

it's the light showing me the way

[fringe walrus]

Wdym I was just doing it in your honor!!!!!

[worn oriole]

is jonjon around? cause it's shady af in here

[pallid gull]

he is in this thread too yes, but he's just enjoying french people, don't be mean!!

[coarse scarab]

i need to play kingdom hearts

[pallid gull]

you do

[wheat tulip]

Mira

[wheat tulip]

Omg when will you play dulci?

[fringe walrus]

You need to finish XENOBLADE too

The way my phone autocorrects it

[wheat tulip]

Why the caps?😭

[pallid gull]

heelp making it sound like a threat

[fringe walrus]

It looks like I’m being a lil bitch lmao