Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[coarse scarab]

https://tenor.com/view/caleb-cat-explode-caleb-cat-caleb-love-and-deepspace-mahiru-cat-caleb-meowmeow-gif-18060500228410967190

wouldn’t be the first time

[wheat tulip]

Gkrlgkfkf

[pallid gull]

https://tenor.com/view/barbie-diy-omg-oh-no-shocked-barbie-gif-13856210

[fringe walrus]

I stg!!!!!

[wheat tulip]

True i also got the xenoblade threat

Lmaooo

[pallid gull]

she's right tho, everyone should be playing XENOBLADE!!

[fringe walrus]

I just don’t even correct it anymore bc my phone got used to me screaming about it

[green escarp]

Listen, Lorie's phone just understands how passionate she is about it

[wheat tulip]

Truly

[coarse scarab]

i will finish XENOBLADE 1 by july

[fringe walrus]

Maybe I make one for x33 after I finish it

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

[wheat tulip]

Omg please lorie 🙏

[fringe walrus]

wtf is x33

Ex33

[wheat tulip]

My brain understood so thats fine

[coarse scarab]

x33 of deez nuts

[wheat tulip]

Not the deez nuts!!

[fringe walrus]

[pallid gull]

dulci would get the e33 threat from me too but he's playing bg3 rn which is equally important to my heart so he's safe

[wheat tulip]

Not the e33 threat kckfkf

[green escarp]

E33 has already assimilated itself into Lorie's subconscious so now it stands alongside Xenoblade lmao

[wheat tulip]

Such an honor for a french game 🙂‍↕️

[fringe walrus]

Sometimes you just have those games where it becomes, “play this game 🥰” vs “play this game “

[wheat tulip]

Lmaoo

[coarse scarab]

real

[wheat tulip]

Me when i started kh

[pallid gull]

and sometimes it's "play this game ? maybe ?" that's me about disco elysium for a multitude of reasons lmao

[fringe walrus]

Me when I love Danganronpa and I’m like “don’t play this game 😍”

[wheat tulip]

Heelp

[coarse scarab]

there’s the play this game ! except you just look deranged to everyone and that’s just me w bloodborne

[pallid gull]

okay but i do want to play bloodborne and danganronpa

[fringe walrus]

Valid bc I just talked about this yesterday about this yesterday?? How I’m like here I go again sounding like I need to be put in the hospital bc I’m about to annoy everyone with another hyperfixation

Why’d I say yesterday twice

[fluid thistle]

Do it!

[pallid gull]

when they port it in 10 years

[fluid thistle]

Ok. But felt!!! 😭

[pallid gull]

we're never ending streams anymore 😭

[fringe walrus]

The way I forgot bloodborne was only on consoles

[coarse scarab]

https://tenor.com/view/barbie-just-like-you-gif-26133750

[green escarp]

And only PS

[coarse scarab]

playstation only

[fluid thistle]

Bloodborne being PS4 only...

[pallid gull]

okay but i get this because this is one of the reasons i played it on my own time bc the idea of stopping at any moment and not playing whenever i want..... i would've simply exploded multiple times a day

[coarse scarab]

it was the only criticism of the game for most people aside from it being the hardest soulsborne game in the franchise

[fringe walrus]

Me calculating how many things I gotta do on Mother’s Day to see if I can squeeze in a stream to get my hit

[coarse scarab]

feeling insane how much i talk about it yet i’ve never finished it LOL

[fluid thistle]

Same though, Mira.

[fringe walrus]

PLSSSS haven’t felt this way since xenoblade 3 i am so fawked

[coarse scarab]

same

[pallid gull]

yippeee but also oh no

[coarse scarab]

i played the prologue on stream and then immediately recognised that i am in danger immediately became an own time thing

[green escarp]

I've only experienced Bloodborne through osmosis lol I could get it on PS5 (I think?) but at this point I appreciate it enough that I don't neessarily need to play it myself. But also, too many games

[fringe walrus]

When I was editing xc3 I looked so tired from endless streams but also every stream I was crying…… wondering if I’ll be the same with how someone said they were anxious for me?????

[pallid gull]

will not confirm or deny but since this is my favorite game of the year and we're the same person... worried about the length of future streams

[coarse scarab]

i genuinely don’t think the gameplay is for everyone, not in a gatekeepy way but because there are points that genuinely sucks so i always recommend just watching a video abt the story

[fringe walrus]

Aiden…. U don’t have to soldier on with me if the worst happens…….. survive (sleep and take care of yourself)

Talking about this like we are about to go to war

[pallid gull]

girl im glued to that screen, i gotta see it thru

also i dont want people to backseat you cause i know they will try

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

[green escarp]

Sarah's also been playing E33 and I've poked into some of her streams and yeah...praying for you Lorie 🙏

I do get a laugh though every time she says something Lorie says verbatim about the game lmao

[coarse scarab]

wait lorie are you still on expert

[fringe walrus]

Horrified. Her and I are the same person too

[fringe walrus]

Yes!!

[coarse scarab]

oh

genuinely impressive tho

[wheat tulip]

Each time i saw a new people in chat being like

[green escarp]

She's said like word for word what you did about challenge and I was like "I would totally clip this and send it to Lorie but also where she is is so far ahead so it would be spoilers"

EDIT: She's not on expert though. She's on expeditioner (normal). I probably misheard her on stream but I'm also just stupid and spread false info

[pallid gull]

its making me wanna change my difficulty but i'm almost done with the game so i might as well see it through

[pallid gull]

me but also me in general with anyone that's new ever

[wheat tulip]

Understandable ckfkfkf

[fringe walrus]

We msg each other every now and then and just always say how we are very similar in so many aspects. She feels like a long lost little sister at times, I adore her

[fringe walrus]

I love that she’s playing on expert too omg did not know that

[wheat tulip]

I thought she was on normal mode

Did she changed in between maybe?

[green escarp]

She switched awhile ago Ignore me I'm stupid

[wheat tulip]

Oh i see!

I only watch her youtube vod so im late to the party!!

[coarse scarab]

i really enjoy watching jennifer english play through the game and her giving insights on the game and her experience working for it

[pallid gull]

i really need to watch, i loved hers and aliona's streams for bg3

[green escarp]

Lorie don't read big spoilers || She just got through that story boss at the end of act 2 so depending on where you are, yeah lol||

[wheat tulip]

Sometimes the french and english dubs are so differently played i love it

[fringe walrus]

WAIT @pallid gull speaking of Sarah LMAOO

https://youtube.com/shorts/B1UI4bS0lCg?si=LHRRuQ4g-A5aBm8G

[pallid gull]

sarah is so far, im so surprised bc i thought she just started like a few days ago?

[green escarp]

She's been zooming!

But I also think she's not doing a lot of side stuff

[wheat tulip]

||shes entering old lumiere rn yeah kfifkfix||

[coarse scarab]

NOT THE ME GONGAGA

[fringe walrus]

Her and I hyperfixating on the same game too 💀

[coarse scarab]

oh crisis core i will always love you

[pallid gull]

DSFHJGSDFJH im crying

[pallid gull]

me being annoying and always recommending this to everyone for zack fair

[coarse scarab]

the man that he is

[pallid gull]

the sarah video 😭 sobbing, tomodachi life is so silly sdkjhds

[coarse scarab]

there are some similarities in the puppy like personas of both him and caleb i love it

[pallid gull]

i love yapping about zack fair, he's kinda who i wish i was not even gonna lie

[wheat tulip]

Im so ready for the new one actually

[green escarp]

Ok but now Rain has me wondering if I'm lying again. I'm like 90% sure I saw Sarah said she's on expert but I would have no idea how to verify that now because its not like I can timestamp any of her twitch VODs ` ignore me I'm lying she's on expeditioner (normal)

[wheat tulip]

Dw kcfkfjf i trust you!

[fringe walrus]

I still cannot believe tomodachi life is like over $100 now 💀 thank gawd the new one is coming so it’ll be more accessible to ppl

[wheat tulip]

HUH

[pallid gull]

right... they were trying to gatekeep the sillies...

[coarse scarab]

what is the gameplay like?

it seems silly

[fringe walrus]

I…. Don’t know how to describe it I’m gonna be so fr

[coarse scarab]

LMAO

[pallid gull]

it's like the sims on crack

[fringe walrus]

It’s just a goofy… life sim???

[wheat tulip]

Lmaoo

[coarse scarab]

i only got my first ever nintendo console like last year so there’s so many games i need to get into at some point

[pallid gull]

and you don't actually control them, like you can control events in their lives if that makes sense?

[wheat tulip]

Omg

[pallid gull]

and you can influence certain things

[coarse scarab]

interesting

[wheat tulip]

So many good games to discover

[fringe walrus]

Yeah like they dont take care of themselves it’s mainly just weird ass interactions with the miis you make

[coarse scarab]

sounds like i would enjoy it

[pallid gull]

it's super silly, you can make them perform and also witness love confessions and drama lmao

[coarse scarab]

i always have a special connection to handhelds to be real

[pallid gull]

this person i follow has jayvik miis and i keep up like it's my morning coffee

[wheat tulip]

One of my friends has the game , she created me and others friends on her island ; i date shadow ( the hedgehog )in it

[fringe walrus]

I was actually thinking of streaming it but I do not know how well my modded 2ds has held up

[fluid thistle]

https://tenor.com/view/novela-telenovela-shocked-zoom-omg-gif-25795602

[pallid gull]

are u gonna make the community in it for the drama

[fringe walrus]

YES

I WAS GONNA DO IT

[wheat tulip]

Not the drama!!

[coarse scarab]

thinking if lorie made me she would lock me up probably

[wheat tulip]

Jonjon gonna homewreck on it too

[fringe walrus]

PLSSSSS

[fluid thistle]

I volunteer myself to be in said drama.

[pallid gull]

anyone remember the wobbledogs stream

when some of us were wobbledogs....

dulci kept having babies with everyone... hate that unfaithful man

[fringe walrus]

LMAOOOO

One of the best sponsorships I’ve ever had bc that game made me cry at the end bc it was so funny

Everyone should play that game

[pallid gull]

right like the way it actually made me want to play it

nintendo we're tomodachi life stans give her a free copy pspspsps

[fringe walrus]

https://youtube.com/shorts/czzoc_LUBy0?si=iqHPu8foGzANH3_D

Maybe we go back idk there’s a grocery store now omfg

[pallid gull]

omg that's so cute 😭

i loved this game, i really need to buy it someday

i am gonna buy another game rn tho... maybe i shouldn't but i will

[green escarp]

You shouldn't, my brain has gaslit me before. Like thinking there was a flag at the entrance to zone 2 act 1 when there isn't

Anyway its fine if Lorie and Sarah talk later and Sarah goes "wait I'm not on Expert" she can just let her know I'm stupid lol

Anyway parent aggro, I have to go errand running

[wheat tulip]

😭

[fringe walrus]

Okay I couldn’t hold it in anymore

[pallid gull]

make sure to make many sillies

[fringe walrus]

This is horrifying

[fluid thistle]

[wheat tulip]

Omg your 3ds theme is so cool i love it

[fringe walrus]

It’s the Splatoon Callie and Marie one!

I loveeee them

[wheat tulip]

Oh thats what it reminded me of !!

[pallid gull]

heelp you can't have multiple worlds? the way i would keep it forever even if i didn't know wtf is in it

[wheat tulip]

||https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdMYDjfw/ || outfit and act 1 middle spoiler

[fringe walrus]

It’s ok though bc there were ppl I didn’t like anymore on that island

[wheat tulip]

Hope we will have more than 1 in the new one

Drama already!!

[fringe walrus]

You can’t delete miis either which is weird

[pallid gull]

nvm then, to the void they go!!

[fringe walrus]

Actually maybe I should move to the games channel LMAOO don’t wanna clog up here!!

[green escarp]

Finally returned from errands

And also chasing a fly across the house with a zapper. But I lost it because those speedy flying bastards might as well have cloaking devices

Honestly I'd just leave it alone but it's because of my Mom. She shrieks when she sees flies and yells at me to get rid of them.

Nevermind now my Dad needs me

I just wanna play game

[hasty halo]

Okay. Time to play more expedition 33

[green escarp]

GOT THE FLY

Also am back finally

I hope

I forget how busy it gets around here Mother's Day Weekend because I not only have to so stuff for family but help my Dad do stuff for the church

We Continue

[pallid gull]

had a boss with 1 hp left......

and i died

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

[languid gyro]

[P3] ||Playing around with a Free Aim Maelle build just for funsies and it's actually working so well?? Girl's out here doing 9999 damage per free aim shot, which is actually wildly efficient pre-damage cap removal||

[green escarp]

This isn't a critique of the game, its just me needing to 'git gud' because every enemy is unique in having to learn their moveset...but man I'd feel so much better about my parry skills if some of them didn't like to feint you

[pallid gull]

what the fuck technically one of the first optional bosses of the game ||WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN ONE SHOT A CHROMATIC ABBEST JUST BY AIMING AT THE GLOWING PINK CIRCLE IT HAS||

[wheat tulip]

||the pink one?||

[pallid gull]

||im doing something optional and i just one shot that mf and im so mad 😭||

[green escarp]

||I mean if that's one-shotting it that that means your party at that point can do le fucktons of damage already. Early game you can do a nice chunk of damage to the chromatic abbest by hitting its weakspot but it won't kill it outright||

[languid gyro]

||You can?? Because I swear I shot its weak point back when I fought it and it most certainly did not die in one hit, though it did do a sizable chunk||

[pallid gull]

||it's strange though because it had most of its health and it was very beefy, sciel just straight up killed it when i was like "well, lemme just shoot the pink glowing circle it has. it just died||

maybe she's just really strong lmao

but i was like wtf

tbf p3 ||maelle|| and p4 ||sciel|| do crazy damage so i guess it makes sense but damn

[languid gyro]

Speaking of ||Free Aim Sciel|| I literally just happened across this weapon during our convo and 👀

[Act 2 3rd area] ||also finally in Old Lumiere 🎊 the light swords are so cool and I'm so curious about them||

[pallid gull]

i think only shadow can check this but shadow do you know the answer to this by any chance

[green escarp]

Not sure I understand the question exactly. || Do you mean only one shows up in the list? Or something else?||

[languid gyro]

||...tfw I just went and redid everyone's pictos and luminas and now two of the three active members I was using are gone 💀 ||

[green escarp]

||Aaaaah you're at that part I see||

[pallid gull]

||i have all of them on the list but i can only use one of them... am i meant to wait for gradient charges? maybe that's what im doing wrong ||

[green escarp]

|| Ok so, see this?||

||That number represents the charge needed to use the skill||

[languid gyro]

I'm gonna ask a question that I do want to be vaguely spoiled for: ||am I going to be away from Maelle and Verso long enough that it's worth sitting down and completely redoing all my pictos/luminas and speedtuning for my new/current 3? Because I don't want to do a bunch of work for them right now and then have to sit down and redo everything again right away once Maelle and Verso come back ||

[green escarp]

||Its not a very long segment. You will fight a few enemies on the way as a split party but nothing crazy||

[pallid gull]

that makes a lot more sense thank you

[green escarp]

You're welcome!

If helps you can think of it in FFXIV terms. ||Limit Break 1 2 and 3||

Since that is essentially what it is, lol

[wheat tulip]

||omg the pee swords||

[green escarp]

https://tenor.com/view/getout-gif-16327023334064302194

[wheat tulip]

What!!

||Its licking stuff||

[green escarp]

You know what you did!

Rain WTF 😭

Did Leo possess you when I wasn't looking xD

[wheat tulip]

No but it is doing that !!

So thats it for that im calling it that

No more cool name for that shit!!

[green escarp]

This is why we bully the french

[wheat tulip]

[green escarp]

(for legal reasons this is a joke, we all love Rain in this community)

[wheat tulip]

||sabres de pisse smh!!||

[green escarp]

Enemy you can encounter in act 2 and beyond spoiler: ||I really hate the lantern wielding nazgul-looking fuckers (can't remember their name atm)||

Like, design wise they're fucking cool but fighting them suuuuuucks

[wheat tulip]

||lampmaster?||

[green escarp]

||No not that one||

[wheat tulip]

Ive got their patern watching a playthrough lmao

[wheat tulip]

||ooh le veilleur?||

||with the corruption shit?||

[green escarp]

||Yeah that's the one.||

Seeing you type the name jogged my memory lol

[wheat tulip]

||i wondered because some of the names are translated and not others 😭||

[green escarp]

Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Very late game side enemy spoiler:

||EEP!||

||I NEVER ENCOUNTERED THIS THING ON MY FIRST PLAYTHROUGH||
||BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE THE PAINT BREAK SKILL AT THE TIME TO ACCESS THE PATH (I discovered it waaaaaaay too late)||

[languid gyro]

||oh my gooood of course the battle music here has the Lumiere motif||

||I'm still a lil mad, but these 3 probably could use the exp since they're my 3 lowest leveled characters||

[pallid gull]

optional area that you unlock way later into the game ||endless tower feeling real fuckin endless rn 😭 ||

[languid gyro]

||Also I did end up doing a bunch of picto/lumina setup and it turned out to be entirely unnecessary bc Monoco is already strong enough to 1 or 2 shot most of the enemies 💀 and Sciel needs zero investment to be able to just use the "go again Monoco!" move; Lune's just on the sidelines eating popcorn||

||It's extra funny bc I have Lune with a weapon and lumina setup to do a big Elemental Genesis nuke with Sciel's help, but it's turned out to be entirely overkill because the mobs are dying before Lune needs to do anything||

||Deeply relatable actually||

||What did you see Lune!!! grabs and shakes her||

||I don't want to have to doubt Verso 😭 ||

||Verso....................||

[hasty halo]

Really hate that I ran into an optional boss not realizing it was that

[languid gyro]

||Renoir journal entry...||

[green escarp]

VICTORY!
Dear god Lune has become so cracked. I'm so proud of my support build for her

I didn't realize even if you pause, the timer keeps counting though, so it said the fight was 27:26 even though it wasn't actually. I just stepped away to eat 😭

[languid gyro]

||Music is a BOP but also why did they not let me pick my team members for this 😭 ||

||big RIP Renoir didn't even make it to his turn 💀 but also no damageless bonus bc Maelle got a tick of self-burn 😭 ||

[pallid gull]

this is so funny because the way i said the same thing a while back and posted the same screenshot

[green escarp]

||Yep, the consequences of players like us doing all the side stuff. We become overtuned for story ||

[languid gyro]

||Also maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I've sort of always hated in media when there's a sudden reveal that Person is related to Antagonist and that causes tension within the group. Like maybe it's just the way I perceive of "family" as a concept, but to me it makes no difference at all? A person is not their parent. Their parent's sins or problems are entirely irrelevant to my perception of them as an individual. Even if Verso had other reasons for the group to lose trust in him, Renoir being his father, to me, is not one of them.||

||In other news: the choice to have the screen resolution shift for these monochrome cutscenes is excellent||

[hasty halo]

Act 2 midpoint (?) ||I've taken 2 masks down so far. The 2nd one was more of a pain than the first. Also got a few new weapons which is pretty nice||

[languid gyro]

||Wait the name of the prologue gommage sequence is Renoir??||

||Also spiraling at learning that the main menu music is Alicia||

[pallid gull]

i don't know how far you are into this point of the scene but ||the way i interpreted it is that rather than the tension being caused by the reveal, it was more so caused by the fact that verso didn't mention it, causing trust issues. which of course, while it was none of their business, it was a pretty huge detail seeing as he killed a bunch of people they knew. but you're right, i didn't feel mistrust or anger, i was mostly just feeling sad knowing he's caught in the middle like this lmao||

[languid gyro]

||I think in general [sadness] is the emotion I feel the most strongly for not only Verso but also Renoir and Alicia. I'm not far enough into the game to have actual context, but rather than feel the anger that I'm maybe "supposed to" feel about Renoir killing everyone or any kind of fear or wariness around Alicia, I mostly just feel a deep sadness emanating from them, and I want so badly to know more about them and their perspective.||

||Wait I can actually hear the singer say "Renoir" and "Alicia" in their respective songs now that I'm listening to them more closely (haven't looked at translated lyrics yet but might do that at a later point as well, maybe when I farther into the game)||

[pallid gull]

this p5 ||verso|| skill...

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

||oh you tortured man||

[hasty halo]

Act 2 midpoint spoilers ||was not expecting a boss fight after another boss fight||

[languid gyro]

How exactly do you know when you're at the midpoint lol

Frankly I've got no clue how far into Act 2 I am besides saying that I just finished the 3rd area

Is that 1/2? 1/3? 3/4? Who knows (this is also not me actually asking for clarification on how far that is)

[hasty halo]

I don't actually know either. Am just assuming where I am

[pallid gull]

later game mechanic p5 ||VERSO GETS A HALO WITH THE LAST GRADIENT ATTACK AAAAA||

||he is my pookiest....||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 Post-3rd area camp] ||interesting comment||

||also I love that Esquie still has the armband over his eye||

||There's something so lovely and poignant about this sentence. I honestly want to start using it irl||

||many such cases 🥲 ||

[pallid gull]

||he's so pookieeee i love him so much 😭||

[languid gyro]

||I hope you know that you were one of the people I was thinking of when he said this||

[pallid gull]

not me about to cry that's very sweet, thank you

[languid gyro]

I just think the world could use more love, empathy, and whimsy

I've always loved how deeply you fall in love with the people and characters you meet and how much you try to understand them and think about their pain and celebrate their happiness, and the way you have so much to say about all of them

||Also, 10/10 conversation||

||"I'm a bit 'WheeWhooWheeWhoo' myself" help he's so 😭 ||

||going thru it (both me and him)||

[pallid gull]

||one of my favorite quotes, he's so silly 😭||

[languid gyro]

||wait you unlock skills from these they're not just silly conversations??||

[pallid gull]

||i've mentioned it before but i think one of my favorite things about verso is how warm he is. he seems like such a stoic person at first glance but he's entirely defined by the love he feels for others and it's so obvious. his relationship with esquie is my favorite because he's always so gentle and asks for hugs and headpats oughhh verso||

the way i spent the whole day fighting optional bosses, my brain is fried

[languid gyro]

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about; I love the way you see the world, and these characters ❤️

||Also I want to hug him so bad 😭 ||

||All of them, tbh||

||How do feet manage to come up in all these Lune conversations 💀 cmon devs||

||the way I can't focus because I keep looking at Lune's new outfit; it's so cool||

||Early Frozen Hearts was worth it||

||Also, the names being "Lune", "Stella", and "Sol" is ❤️ ||

[green escarp]

|| Moon, Star and Sun ||

[languid gyro]

||OH THANK YOU||

[green escarp]

Late Game Optional Boss:
||BEGONE!||

||Also the dialogue after with Verso is funny lmao||

[wheat tulip]

Omg congrats !!

[languid gyro]

||man what a cool boss design||

[wheat tulip]

Love this one so much

||the eclipse behind it is👌||

[green escarp]

One of my long term goals is getting enough lumina for my characters to just equip everything that doesn't clash or makes stuff redundant. I have some endgame spots I can park near a flag and farm.

Of course this is after doing other stuff like finishing achievements and finding all the pictos etc

[wheat tulip]

Good grind!!

[green escarp]

Maximilian Dood has started uploading his playthrough of Expedition 33 and looool
[Spoiler for early act 1 optional boss in the image]

[vivid peak]

Managed to play for a few hours last night and I’m super early of course but this game is so wonderful

[hasty halo]

Glad you're enjoying it Jonjon!

[vivid peak]

I keep getting lost after battles though like where am I where was I going

But it’s fine 😅

[green escarp]

Dude help, I'm getting called out by my older cuzzo 😭

Seeing him put this game in his top 5 is high praise though. Its validating, because a lot of my taste in games I got from him

[green escarp]

No I'm stupid and have a gaslighting brain she's on normal (expeditioner)

In my feeble defense they both start with "ex" so maybe I misheard.

Went back and edited my comments

Sorry if I seem like I'm making a big deal out of this, its just that I hate spreading wrong information, especially after I convinced myself beforehand that it wasn't wrong. I have a lot of personal baggage about that

[languid gyro]

You're good! Thank you for checking and correcting ❤️

[green escarp]

Max spent 40 minutes on that fight lmao
We gamers are a stubborn lot huh xD

[green escarp]

https://tenor.com/view/finished-elijah-wood-lord-of-the-rings-lava-fire-gif-5894611

[pallid gull]

congrats shadow!!

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

||https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdMMaTRs/ || big big spoiler end of act 2 and after act 2

||love the song , the lyrics ||

[pallid gull]

||"always love him, even if he is no longer here"||

[wheat tulip]

Wait maybe i should spoiler tag another way with the ||lyrics||

[pallid gull]

||once again im devastated thinking about our verso and how he carries this burden of being the shadow of someone that was so loved. makes me wanna frow up||

[wheat tulip]

||when i think he cant even live for himself he was just created to help aline ||

[pallid gull]

camp, very far into the game, only rain and shadow can read this ||and the fact that he lost that world's alicia too and he didn't even get to say goodbye i'm so siiick, verso 😭 versooooo||

[wheat tulip]

||yup... how he reacted to it Aaaah babyboy ||

||the way we can understand each pov of the characters in this game , WANT TO SCREAM ||

[pallid gull]

i luv this game so much

[wheat tulip]

Same

Even tho each ost spoils me lmao

Me trying to not understand the osts

[pallid gull]

damn not having an option to save beforehand is beating my ass in certain situations

[wheat tulip]

Weapon saving technique

[pallid gull]

true

[pallid gull]

||also what's up with ben starr playing so many gentle men that are haunted by loss||

[wheat tulip]

I wonder gkrkglgo

[pallid gull]

optional boss ||i beat up sprong ||

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[pallid gull]

i think i will be very overleveled for the last area but it's okay lmaooo

i just dont wanna finish bidya game....

[wheat tulip]

||the name is so silly lmao||

[pallid gull]

right lmaooo

[coarse scarab]

asking myself if i should go ahead and finish the game tonight

[wheat tulip]

Mmh

Dew it

[coarse scarab]

rain have you finished?

final stretch of the game post act 2 || omg....||

can't believe i'm lost again i fr don't know where i'm supposed to be going

[wheat tulip]

Not yet!

Im doing some side quest after act 2

||just unlocked verso journal || after act 2 spoiler

[coarse scarab]

yall this game means so much to me

thoughts have been bouncing off the confinements of me brain

[pallid gull]

good game

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 overworld boss] ||damn this poor guy never even got to move 😭 just permabroken/stunned the whole time||

||big RIP that Maelle's self-burning weapon means we'll never get a no-damage bonus ever though lmao||

Question about Act 2 post-3rd area: ||The game said that I should pick any 2 Axons to hunt, but am I able to hunt all 3 if I want?||

[Act 2 outfit] ||oh that's foul...||

[green escarp]

||3rd one is currently inaccessible at that point in the story||

[green escarp]

||One of the best pictos in the game from it too. Double turns for everyone! ||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 optional area] ||um..........||

||oh jesus....using their dying moments to create a bridge with their solidified postmortem bodies is insane, wow||

||oooo I love these designs, and this music||

[wheat tulip]

Yesss ||just did this one too it was easier this time since i rebuilt maelle😭||

First time ||hitting one million ||

[coarse scarab]

congrats!

it appears i am massively underleveled for this final section of the game LOL so i'll have to go and tackle more optional stuff

[wheat tulip]

Not surprised thats why im doing others stuff

[coarse scarab]

just wanted to go through the story once and for all eueuue

[wheat tulip]

||did you beat the big snake phare?||

[coarse scarab]

||who||

[wheat tulip]

||pink tail ||

I forgot the name kffkx

[coarse scarab]

i don't think i have

[coarse scarab]

||oh the one in the sky?||

[wheat tulip]

Yess

[coarse scarab]

i have nawt then

optional boss ||i heard its really cringe tho hahahah||

[wheat tulip]

It is💀

[languid gyro]

How are there so many just random optional side bosses that all get such cool designs and awesome music

[wheat tulip]

As they should!!

[languid gyro]

Question: for Pictos that apply an effect "on healing an ally", does the healer count as an "ally"?

Like if I heal myself with a skill do I get the bonus effect too?

[wheat tulip]

I think everyone get the buff yeah?

Since you heals everyone usually not one

[languid gyro]

I'm referring to stuff that's single-target only

Like for example, if I have the Healing Mark lumina and hit an enemy to proc the heal on myself, and I also have an "on-heal" lumina, do I get that buff from healing myself via the mark?

[wheat tulip]

Huuh

Good question you will have to test i think😭

On the paper it should work

[green escarp]

Home. Eepy. Might nap. Might wake up tomorrow instead. Either way I'm telling myself its ok to not eat sleep and breathe this game lol. It's hard though because its so good. Sure I have 100% on steam now but that doesn't mean I've found every single thing or want to stop playing in general

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 weapon] this seems incredible wtf

hello?????

wtf

that's absurd

[wheat tulip]

More always more!!

||BURN, BURN, BURN ||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 4th area] ||god these enemies are so creepy||

[languid gyro]

||GOD what a cool boss, and area in general||

||HELL YEAH PHASE 2||

||oh...except he didn't get a chance to attack; we just killed him before it got to his turn 💀 ||

||the flying masks just clunking off Monoco's face 😭 ||

||also, some tasty Verso crumbs 👀 ||

[wheat tulip]

Kfkdkgfkfk

Overleveled i guess lmao

Congrats

Lets gooo (after act 2 zone and outfit spoiler)

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 camp] ||"Adventure" you say 👀 ||

[wheat tulip]

Okay im probably too early for this area😭( after act 2 zone spoiler)

[languid gyro]

Question actually: ||Is this the kind of game where choices I make with advancing Sciel's relationship affects Lune's and vice versa? Or does it literally not matter what I pick in any of these scenes||

||Though being perfectly honest I'm unsure how I feel about the mechanic in general||

[wheat tulip]

Idk jcfkcjkf sorry

[pallid gull]

||are you strictly speaking about the romance mechanic or the relationship mechanic in general||

[languid gyro]

||Romance||

[pallid gull]

||if you accept sciel's advances then you get locked out of lune's, yes||

[languid gyro]

||Though I ended up declining Sciel; truthfully I don't know that I actually want romance in this game, which may be an unpopular opinion||

[pallid gull]

||also it's okay, same LMAO i was very ? i had a lot to say about it a while back||

[languid gyro]

||oh thank god I feel less alone||

[pallid gull]

||no no a lot of us feel the same way, it's lowkey out of the left field and i say this as someone that romanced lune||

||i think the romance was an afterthought mechanic as a breather from everything that's going on but as an avid romance enjoyer, i did not enjoy the writing on this specific part of the game||

||of course, this isn't to create any expectations or offer details. it's best to just discover things yourself and form your own opinion, but i mostly meant that the mechanic itself had very "here's some romance too if you want it i guess" vibes to it 😭||

[languid gyro]

||You're fine! I agree that those are sorta the vibes I got too; it just feels a little...out of place? Given the tone of the narrative up to, and including, this point||

[fluid thistle]

I dunno if I should spoil or not but I will just in case (Act 1 Overworld exploration); ||I love this long hair on Lune that I bought from one of the Gestral merchants on the overworld map!!!!!! ||

[pallid gull]

||yeah, while i understand that the narrative and even the characters themselves need moments of respite, i feel like it's difficult to incorporate something as complex as romance and not accidentally make it seem strange tonally with everything going on. it's possible and it's doable but it requires a lot of development that (understandably) has to go to other dynamics and characters||

[languid gyro]

Unrelated but [P6] ||I keep going back and forth on who to slot in for 3rd party member (at least for now Maelle and Verso are probably staying), but I get anxious whenever I think about removing Monoco because I start thinking about "but what if I'm losing out on feet/skills when he isn't in the party" 😭 ||

||I like him fine and generally don't mind using him, but it's gotten to a point where even when I want to swap my 3rd over to Lune or Sciel it slightly bothers me to because the back of my mind will always be thinking about the potential cost of swapping Monoco out||

Why is my brain like this 🥲

[wheat tulip]

Same but it was accidental ||i thought she was joking ||

Not the oneshot help

Zone optional from the end of act 2

[green escarp]

||:)||

Also sheesh, I say nap and its 5 hours later

Oh well. Gonna heat up leftovers from dinner then I dunno, maybe play this some more

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 5th area] ||Oh my god Sirene's domain is huge it feels kinda overwhelming honestly||

||absolutely gorgeous though, as all the others||

||though I'm awed by this area in a way slightly different from the others||

[green escarp]

I was gonna play but honestly I've just been sitting here spacing out while listening to the OST lol

And also watching other streamers/CCs get into the game and all universally praising it

[languid gyro]

||still just in awe at how incredible this area is||\

[languid gyro]

Oof was hoping to make it to the boss of this area tonight but alas, I am eepy

And work tomorrow too so I shouldn’t stay up any later 😭

[green escarp]

Go eep!

Have a goodnight Amphy

[coarse scarab]

i think only aiden and shadow can see this? camp dialogue post act 2

||this was also a thought i had when the big reveal dropped||

[pallid gull]

||i love monoco so much because the existential dread he feels is so real 😭 like verso obviously made them a certain way but how much of it is it their own will||

||side note, knowing their happiness manager puppy is called monoco and monoco mentions loyalty makes me all teary eyed||

[coarse scarab]

YESSSS

||one of the options being smth along the lines of "you're as real as i am" makes me so distraught because its been something i've been bouncing between because in the grand scheme of things you're a creation of a paintress so i can see why you'd see yourself as not being real but also within the confinements of the world you were brought into, you've lived a life and built bonds and memories with people. so you've 'lived' in that aspect. i think the comparison also being almost comparable to real life.... we are but creations of the higher entity that brought us here no matter you believe in any religion or spiritual ideals. ||

sorry brain no coherent thought rn i'm everywhere

[pallid gull]

no that makes sense ||i think being confronted with the reality of it at all is what makes matters worse for all of them. but the interesting thing to me is that pretty much everyone seems to be aware except for the people living in lumiere. esquie, monoco and verso have always known (or at least verso found out eventually) and living with the weight of knowing it at all is so rough. it's why i love verso so much because the burden he lives with and the existential dread he experiences is like no other. he is surrounded by people that love him and yet there are moments when he feels like none of them do because he's not him. he is his own person but it's hard to accept that to yourself when everyone makes sure to remind you that you'll never be someone else||

[coarse scarab]

||exactly he's stuck in the middle with no other person who can relate to him because of his attachment with the 'real' characters and the 'fake' ones he lived with. all while also bearing the buden of not being the true verso that was the love of the family but also the cause of all the destruction thats happened both within and outside of the canvas. i understand why he'd wish to cease being immortal, everyday its either being numb or being overwhelmed with every single emotion and thought||

[pallid gull]

||i fear that i love him so much would do anything for him actually||

[wheat tulip]

[coarse scarab]

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 5th area] ||it's honestly a little absurd that I can deal over 350k damage (more, actually, because I hadn't used up all my characters' turns yet) with the 9999 damage cap in place, before the boss makes it to their first turn 💀 ||

||This is with a non-optimized setup too; if I actually wanted to minmax I'd replace Verso with Sciel||

[coarse scarab]

||this boss beat my ass congrats!||

also i realised i was super underleveled for most of act 2 no wonder it felt like i was going to war again and again LOLLLL

[languid gyro]

||The key to the damage cap is getting in as many individual hits as you can per turn: with the Free Aim Maelle build I've got going, she can get up to 16 attacks of 9999 per turn (9 free aim shots at base + 2 base attack hits + an extra 1 AP from Energising Burn + an extra 2 AP from Beneficial Contamination + an extra 2 AP from Rewarding Mark for 5 more free aim shots)||

||So when set up, Maelle by herself is already doing up to nearly 160k damage in a single turn despite the 9999 damage cap, if all goes well||

||If I cared more about minmaxing, I'd replace Verso with Sciel here so that Sciel can Intervention Maelle to make her go again, since a second Maelle burst turn is more valuable than what any other character would provide here in terms of DPS...but also that level of optimization seems overkill at this point lmao||

||And to think, this is post Medallum nerf/bugfix too, smh||

[Act 2 outfit] ||Also, love this outfit for Lune ❤️ ||

Alas, I need to start heading to work for the day 😭

[coarse scarab]

have a good day amphy

[languid gyro]

My mistake was heading to [optional area] ||Frozen Hearts|| immediately after [Act 2 2nd area] ||Monoco's Station|| because that area was way higher level than anywhere else I've been to in the act so far, including where I am now, so fighting for survival there gave me levels and items probably way beyond what I was "supposed" to have at this point lol

[coarse scarab]

i wanted to ask, how did you get this outfit? was it from a quest

[languid gyro]

From the above optional area I just mentioned actually lol

[coarse scarab]

ahhh i skipped that area completely because i was so pressed on story. my friend also said they were really surprised how i made it as far as i did at my level LOL i am also extremely stubborn so thats thats that

[coarse scarab]

ah okie

[languid gyro]

I did ||Frozen Hearts|| before ||Old Lumiere|| which I think messed with scaling for the rest of the act oh well

[coarse scarab]

i’ve seen it mentioned that some people don’t recommend doing all optional stuff before finishing the story because you could theoretically one shot the final boss because of being overlevelled

[languid gyro]

At least I'm not one of those insane people who fought [potentially post Act 2 spoilers] ||Sprog|| in the ocean at the start of Act 2 by just doing like 300 consecutive parries 💀 that would really just immediately trivialize all of Act 2 and early Act 3 by itself

[coarse scarab]

||we’re hiding act 3 btw||

[languid gyro]

I understand that, but also.... how can you give me all these cool optional places and expect me to not explore

[pallid gull]

https://tenor.com/view/dog-desk-thugger-gif-26228456

[coarse scarab]

||hence why we name everything in it as post act 2||

[languid gyro]

Everyone knows a true JRPG fan will go literally everywhere else but the main objective before going to the main objective

[coarse scarab]

HELPPPP

[languid gyro]

(Note: this is me being fascetious; you are of course no less of a fan if you just focus the story)

[coarse scarab]

i don’t know how true it is tho but my friend did say they were a bit disappointed because they couldn’t enjoy the final fight because of how stronk they were

[pallid gull]

i don't wanna one shot the final boss but also i wanna splore

[languid gyro]

I'm almost certain that's gonna be me lol

[coarse scarab]

but they were also pressing on a deadline because they’re flying off that night

[languid gyro]

But also, that's sorta my usual trajectory in these types of games

[coarse scarab]

||amphy could you rename act 3 here to post act 2? we’ve all been hiding it btw||

[languid gyro]

Xenoblade X, Metaphor, etc. all the past games I've played sorta just involve me steamrolling through the entire last third, or more, of the game lmao

[pallid gull]

i think im gonna do optional area ||frozen hearts|| to get the outfits and then maybe... finish frows up

[languid gyro]

The "problem" (which is not a real problem) is that devs generally balance games "around the average player" (note: this is a good thing), meaning if you are like me and like to optimize your setups more than "the average player" you're going to end up having a much easier time

[coarse scarab]

i’m still majorly under levelled and i’m in a position where i HAVE to level and also wanna build p3 ||Maelle|| who’s stuck at level 34 rn

[languid gyro]

I'm also just sort of a longtime JRPG fan in general, and E33 is very much an homage to a lot of past JRPG games, which also means that a lot of experience in terms of how to teambuild carries over to this game too

[pallid gull]

oh yes!! this 🙏

[languid gyro]

Stuff like knowing to prioritize action economy, speedtuning, the power of setting up an AP/energy battery, etc.

I've seen a lot of streamers get into E33 and be at first overwhelmed by all the different systems, like Pictos/Luminas, or having trouble at first understanding how to use some characters' kits, etc.

I have the advantage of being able to carry over knowledge and experience from past similar games and systems, so the learning curve as a whole was made a lot easier for me in that regard

Pretty much the only real thing I had to learn is parrying (but now I'm at a point where I'm strong enough to nuke the boss before they get a turn, so parrying doesn't even matter anymore either lmao)

This is just sort of how it goes in JRPGs in general

When I was playing through Metaphor, for probably the entire remaining third of the game, none of the bosses (both story and optional) ever made it to their first turn again; my team would just nuke them before they get a chance to even move

[pallid gull]

part of me is kinda glad i'm bad at combat because i get fights to last a lil longer it's fun to nuke but if i miss on an ost or something i would be sad

[pallid gull]

also sorry do not mean to interrupt but can you spoiler ||early act 3, i feel like i can't fully say why yet 😭 but we've been avoiding saying it for lorie specifically just in case she backreads||

[wheat tulip]

I mean isnt it better than underlveled?

[languid gyro]

I shall tag without hesitation because I’d jump into the ocean for you without question if you asked, but I’m a little curious why since as far as I’m aware you’re aware of it way before

Oh actually nvm I think I can guess [post Act 2] ||presumably it’s bc my comment implies that you can beat it more easily later aka damage cap removal||

[coarse scarab]

well depends on your preference tbh being overleveled means the fight ends in 2 seconds and you can’t experience of the boss’ move set and the soundtrack too

[coarse scarab]

i was tagging you so much earlier i don’t think you caught it but yes please spoiler tag ||act 3 as post act 2||

[languid gyro]

If you’re bad like me sometimes you can’t experience the boss’s soundtrack anyways when you fail the parry and die to their first hit of the battle 🥲

[pallid gull]

trying to explain why but idk how to do it without spoiling

[wheat tulip]

Oh i see !!

[pallid gull]

||i feel like one of the reasons we know there's an act 3 is because of the rpg hunch we get but otherwise we have no information on how many acts there are and|| this is the explanation but this could count as spoilers so read it at your own risk ||the end of act 2 makes it seem like there's no act 3, so it's like a "surprise" act i guess||

[coarse scarab]

||amphy, the game never makes it clear that an act 3 exists. also, because of what happens that we can’t explain since it’s spoiler territory, it ruins the experience if you’re going in already knowing act 3 exists. i know it might not make sense for you but for the enjoyment of others at least we urge you to just tag it ||

yes, you might guess it per intuition but 😭😵‍💫 we really can’t say explicitly but please trust us on this as those who’s already been through that portion of the story

[languid gyro]

The way I didn’t even know that 💀 I honestly just assumed bc of the metaknowledge that a ||3-Act structure|| is typical, rather than anything about this specific game

[pallid gull]

no, you're good 😭 yeah i think ||the assumption that there's 3 acts came naturally to a lot of us||

[coarse scarab]

||i guess because in plays there’s always 3 acts||

or that’s typically the case

[languid gyro]

Re-tagged what I could but driving now so if I missed anything feel free to just delete if necessary

[pallid gull]

thank you!!

[coarse scarab]

drive safe amphy

[pallid gull]

yes, drive safe 🙏

[wheat tulip]

||Just read the lyrics of une vie à t'aimer ; i cant i just want to cry || after act 2 spoiler

[wheat tulip]

Theres something troubling me in the story maybe ill have answers later but || why is theres no mention of cléa from the parents?? Only esquie and monoco talks about her || after act 2 spoiler

[green escarp]

Bosses get very tanky in NG+ 🙃

[wheat tulip]

HUH

[green escarp]

To be fair I'm in one of the endgame side areas

And also I've been farming lumina like crazy so I am just stacking buffs (no spoilers in this image but just incase)

The scary thing is, you're still not immortal even once you get to the point you can equip most or even I assume all the lumina you want. Yeah you can get a lot of "get out of jail free" cards with pictos/lumina but if you let the enemy get a turn, you're still hosed if you don't dodge/parry

Especially since some of the big support ones || like second chance|| are once per battle

I like it though because while the game rewards you for grinding and becoming incredibly powerful, you still can't get lazy.
Unless you're doing absolute cheese builds like one-shotting everything with Maelle lol. But I'm not using those

[languid gyro]

Tbf people have been doing upwards of several billion damage in a single turn with proper endgame setups

[green escarp]

I am still finding stuff I completely missed on my first playthrough, naniiiii

[wheat tulip]

Ckfkfkfk

[green escarp]

I found a hairstyle for Maelle in an endgame area (which I can't show because I'm pretty sure it's tied to big spoilers)

(Also I don't think anyone else here has found that area yet)

[wheat tulip]

Huh really?

I thought i unlocked every area now

[green escarp]

||Flying Manor?||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 5th area] ||god I really love the Axons - their designs, their domains, their whole concept||

||Maelle seeing the image of Gustave 😭 😭 😭 ||

||interesting that we don't get to see whom Verso sees 👀 ||

||ope, F to the no-damage run lmao||

||I guess stunning the boss by breaking its bar doesn't stop it from doing a move||

||ended up restarting bc charmed Maelle just slaughtered the rest of the team lmao||

||2nd attempt went perfectly though, didn't make the mistake of letting the boss make it to her turn this time (I messed up my rotation a little on the first go around)||

[green escarp]

||I love Sirene's boss theme so much||

[languid gyro]

||The turn order was Lune -> Maelle -> Verso -> Lune -> Maelle -> Verso -> Boss, but the boss died on Maelle's second turn before we even got to Verso's lmao||

||Also I only just glanced at the picto reward that's incredible 👀 ||

||Oh boy I'm not emotionally ready||

[Act 2 post-5th area] ||I mean that's really cool and all, but you see...||

||I've already got this||

||why is it that every time I remember to come back to this screen my hoarded lumina is in the triple digits 😭 why am I like this||

[wheat tulip]

Oh i didnt unlocked this one yet😭

[wheat tulip]

Where did you got it its so cool

[green escarp]

That's what I thought lol

[wheat tulip]

[languid gyro]

||From winning the Gestral tournament in mid-Act 1 with Maelle||

[wheat tulip]

Oh...

Its not possible to get it after i guess

[languid gyro]

||I believe it is, but the other method is to beat Golgra in a duel with Maelle, which is just a tad harder lol||

[wheat tulip]

"A tad" help

[wheat tulip]

||did i do an oopsie? It seems a little bit poor as reward😭|| after act 2 spoiler

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 post-5th area camp] ||Honestly the Monoco duel was surprisingly tough (until I changed out my pictos/luminas for solo fighting lmao)||

||In my defense, my Verso was super specced out for an alpha strike build that aimed to end every encounter before he ever took damage (which, as we can see from the Axon fights, worked just fine actually), so he had a bunch of pictos/luminas that were basically "take more damage but deal more damage" so all of Monoco's attacks were one-shotting me if I failed to parry even a single hit of a combo 💀 ||

[Act 2 post-5th area camp] ||oof....||

[wheat tulip]

||no way i can still get it || act 2 start spoiler

[languid gyro]

||I do like the two of them bonding over their love of music though (and also oppresive parents) (and also me over here 🤝 to both of them for both of those things)||

[Act 2 post-5th area camp] ||I know we've sorta already touched on the "romance" being a bit out of place, but absolutely wild that "romancing" Sciel is an option at all when she's still in pain over losing her husband 💀 ||

||"I feel used. But I like it." 💀 ||

||I swear to god this game is going to kill me 😭 ||

||VERSO WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU "STORED YOUR PERSONAL STASH [OF WINE]" INSIDE ESQUIE||

||also Maelle requesting apple juice because she's too baby to be drinking alcohol 😭 ||

||Oh interesting that Alicia is entirely monochrome even outside of Maelle's nightmares||

[wheat tulip]

Lets gooo ( area after act 2 spoiler)

[languid gyro]

I want so badly to continue but I know that'd be a bad idea bc I'd be a wreck tomorrow 💀 alas I must sleep

but potentially ||finishing Act 2 tomorrow? 👀 || we'll see how much spare time I end up having after work

||(not that I know for sure this is the end of Act 2, just a guess)||

[wheat tulip]

Omgg hope youll like it!

[languid gyro]

actually wait just remembered I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow so maybe Wednesday is the day lol

but I'm going to be out of town Thursday through Sunday afternoon, so other than Wednesday I'm pretty much not playing this week until Sunday night, maybe 💀

suffering

[wheat tulip]

Good luck amphy!

[pallid gull]

in an optional area and im so fawkin lost...

no idea where im going ever

question about optional area ||frozen hearts||

||does she actually die if you do the final dance? i don't wanna kill her ||

[wheat tulip]

Huuh i dont remember

I dont think i did it yet

||i just did the challenge to get the outfit😭||

[pallid gull]

||yeah, i did the same, the final dance though makes it sound like im gonna kill her so im hesitating 😭 ||

[wheat tulip]

I think it is yeah😭

You could search what you get if you do

[pallid gull]

p5 song ||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOdJyVmfvXY ||

||anyone else feeling like crying and throwing up||

||it's the beginning of the song specifically that always gets me||

[wheat tulip]

||SCREAMING crying throwing up!!||

[pallid gull]

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

||VERSOOOOOO VERSO I LOVE YOUUUU||

[green escarp]

rotating the game's music in my head while waiting for my shift to start

[pallid gull]

im listening to the ost rn

trying to not get spoiled at the same time lmaoo

im reading p2 ||lune's lyrics||

my love

[pallid gull]

backreading this and ||i know i have a slight bias because i'm in love with lune, but i think that even in regards to the game's story, she fits with verso because of how their stories unfold. they're both trying to be more than their parents' expectations. it's hard to find an identity outside of that when you've built your entire life around it||

||and i do mean it romantically when i say "fitting" together, but i feel like even just as friends, their connection is based on something that is so relatable to the both of them. i do kinda wish it was developed a bit more though, but i do know that i'm just overanalyzing and having a whole different fanfic in my head when it comes to them as characters and what they've been through so maybe my critique is influenced by that LMAO||

[languid gyro]

Yeah, absolutely, and I resonate a lot with that general theme myself, which just adds to it all for me

[languid gyro]

||See the problem is that I’m in love with Lune and I’m not Verso therefore I can’t ship them /s||

[wheat tulip]

||Honestly i only consider as a potential ship verso and monoco , love the bromance lmao they lived together on a Mountain wtf??||

[pallid gull]

||they're really cute, their interactions make me so ||

[languid gyro]

||I do really wish though that rather than having Verso be this weird not-quite-MC/POV character for camp interactions, I would much rather have had a lot more interactions between all the characters, like more of the Lune and Sciel stuff from the end of Act 1, or seeing more of Maelle interact with Monoco, or stuff like that||

[languid gyro]

||Bareback Brokeback Mountain||

[wheat tulip]

Truly

[pallid gull]

||yeah, that would've been nice. i do feel like in this department the game feels a bit lacking. i still find the writing of the characters amazing, but i would've liked to spend a bit more time with them in general||

[languid gyro]

||I think my disappointment is more because the character writing was so good in other areas. Gustave’s first camp dialogue with Lune? All the little Gustave and Maelle moments? Verso consoling Maelle after Gustave’s death? Lune and Sciel? They’ve been so on it with good character writing and interactions in general mostly, and that’s why the stuff that isn’t the same level of quality feels extra jarring in comparison||

||Also, as far as character writing goes, the game has been, more and more over time, been sorta centering Maelle as a special/chosen/actually the MC kind of character (the Jennifer English effect), which I have mixed feelings about (but will try to mostly withhold judgment until I see everything else play out first)||

||I love my baby girl very much, but for me a lot of my initial investment was for this idea of a group of normal but determined remnants of humanity going on this crusade against insurmountable odds, a testament of sorts to the indomitable human spirit, and having the expedition succeed in large part because this time one of the members was super special could go against that (again, waiting to beat the game before I truly settle on an opinion; I am always open to being swayed by good writing)||

||Regardless of how the game ends, it has already sold me enough in the start that I cannot imagine it nosediving hard enough towards the end to bring this down from its current position as a potential all-time favorite; the devs have earned a lot of faith and goodwill and I’m still holding onto that||

[pallid gull]

||maybe controversial but i feel like the romance aspect is what messed up a lot of things. i know that it feels like i'm constantly bringing it up and it's getting a bit harsh to constantly rehash my previous thoughts in newer forms, but i feel like with sciel especially it's been difficult because the game has been trying really hard to set you up with her to the point where a lot of the conversations where you could've gotten a lot more out of who she is have ended up with vague flirtations mixed in with very prevalent feeling of loss. like i still don't know how i feel about verso replying "i feel used. i like it" as a way to reciprocate her advances LMAO. the game implies that verso, as a mc (and not as a self-insert) has feelings for both of them, to a degree at least. interesting to explore, very hard to execute in a way that fits him as a character without diminishing the relationship dynamic they have. it's just oddly jarring, like the writing of the dynamics was solid and then we introduced romantic tension we suddenly forgot how to go about it in a way where we keep the essence of who they are and also form romantic bonds at the same time. is it cute still? yeah sure, i like verso and lune together, but i think i would've taken general camp interactions over it more. idk lots of thoughts, lots of mixed feelings. 10/10 game still in my eyes, but i'm very character analysis/relationships oriented so i tend to be a bit harsher when it comes to these things||

that was meant as a reply to your first msg but i forgot to tag 😭

[languid gyro]

I haven’t even clicked it yet but few things make me excited like an aiden post that takes up the whole screen; it’s the little things

[pallid gull]

heeeelp

it looks so silly on mobile 💀

[languid gyro]

1. I think your response is perfectly reasonable and valid, and I don’t want you to feel like you need to hold back for any reason
2. I always hate responding to long, well-thought-out posts with essentially “same”, but I feel like our thought processes and general focuses in media have enough overlap that you oftentimes just echo my thoughts really well and I have little more to add than “yes this is also exactly how I feel, almost word for word”
   2b) Anyways, same

[pallid gull]

same 🙂‍↕️ 🤝

[languid gyro]

I’m actually really interested in knowing more about the creative process for this game ||because there are times when it almost feels like the people who wrote the Act 2+ camp interactions are not always the same people who wrote, say, main story dialogue or hell even the general “check on the others via campfire” camp interactions (as opposed to the “do you want to spend time with X” interactions)||

[pallid gull]

yeah, i'm also really curious, i hope we find out more about that

[wheat tulip]

There was an interview done not long ago at their studio but its in french😭

[pallid gull]

guess i gotta polish my french

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

[wheat tulip]

Gkdkfkd

[languid gyro]

Well no worries we’ve got a professional Frenchman here to translate for us, non?

[wheat tulip]

Im lazy-

https://youtu.be/1tRWyA705O0?si=LNSd1rbyZpDIcSXm

Maybe theres subtitles i didnt watched yet

Theres auto translation but not sure if its accurate

[wheat tulip]

||still looking at une vie à t'aimer lyrics paragraph where its sung verso embraced, vers erased like || after act 2 and ost lyrics spoiler

[keen thunder]

I'm still in the middle of act 2 but 5th party member is actually busted af, can you believe I benched ||Maelle|| for a while

[wheat tulip]

Oh damn

[fluid thistle]

I'm still at the beginning of Act 2 becuse after Act 1, I decided to just explore before continuing.

[wheat tulip]

Play like you want its a game after all!

Thats what im doing rn

I just thought i wasnt high leveled for it before

[languid gyro]

||I was so scared to use him at first because the idea of the Perfection mechanic intimidated me, but yeah Verso is fun as hell||

[languid gyro]

Also, tbf, there’s a brief window during mid Act 2 ||where I’d argue Sciel, Verso, and Lune all have the potential to outdps Maelle because they have more multihits and doing 9999 x7 or x8 is better than Maelle doing like 9999 x3 or x5 (but needing 9 AP to do so); it’s only once you’re in late Act 2 and can do 9999 x14 in one turn with her with a Free Aim machinegun Maelle build that she starts to overtake them again)||

||Verso is also a special case where the better you are at the game, the better he is (that’s true for everyone of course but to differing extents). S-rank is a 200% damage boost, so if you are able to maintain that forever by never getting hit, he’s effectively permanently in Virtuoso stance||

[wheat tulip]

||i dont think my weapon is the best on him but the one where you lose only one point of perfection when hit compared to one rank is so good on him||

[keen thunder]

||yup I've been using all of them cause Maelle was overleveled for a while too so I've been rotating to get everyone's levels even. The damage cap pretty much holds you back||

[languid gyro]

||I did Frozen Hearts first thing after Monoco’s Station and immediately got a level 21 Verso weapon there so I’ve just been using that on him for most of the Act. The effect doesn’t even matter when the pure stats are just so much higher than anything else he has rn lol||

[keen thunder]

||same problem here with Verso where I'm already damage capped non-crit even at rank B-A 💀(playing on Normal tho) gotta wait for the damage uncap later||

[languid gyro]

||Yeah in general the Act 2 meta heavily favors multihit characters/skills since everyone’s held back by the damage cap||

[wheat tulip]

Understandable !

[green escarp]

Now obviously I don't 1 to 1 agree with this, because yes I do and would like to play other games.

The consume my soul part is downpat though xD

[languid gyro]

[Post Act 2] ||Sort of facing a dilemma as I approach what I think might be the end of Act 2? Because up unti now my general approach has been to do all the optional content before continuing with main story, but pretty much every single thing I've heard about Act 3 has been people saying that any team with even a moderately decent build will just completely steamroll through the entire Act after removing the damage cap, and that you should basically completely ignore ALL side content and go straight to the final boss if you don't want to just one-shot them (and even then, depending on how well optimized your Act 2 build was pre-damage cap removal, you still might). So now I'm wondering if I should be taking that advice and doing the complete opposite of what I'd planned/had been doing up till now in order to not just completely trivialize the last stretch of the game||

||Even with the damage cap, from pretty much the middle of Act 2 onwards, all the enemies and bosses that aren't Frozen Heart enemies or Sprog have pretty much died before even making to their first turn, or they'll get a single turn at most; I can only imagine what the game balance is going to look like once the damage cap is gone lol||

||And like, sure, people can say stuff like "just don't use Maelle" (though Verso and Sciel both can hypercarry too, just with some more setup) or "just don't equip Painted Power" but it feels really, really bad to intentionally self-nerf and I don't think a player should have to purposefully shoot themselves in the foot to balance out the game||

[wheat tulip]

||Mmh do you want to know how its done? I mean for the damage uncap||

[wheat tulip]

Oh-

Nevermind gnfkck

[languid gyro]

||I've been "spoiled" (technically a spoiler but I generally don't care for pure mechanics stuff, just story stuff) that it's a picto you get after Act 2||

[wheat tulip]

||yeah act 3 seems quite easier from the first two which i like but i understand its not to everyone taste||

[languid gyro]

I think something that could have been cool is if they had some sort of scaling mechanic, like the final story boss of each Act scales in HP/stats with each optional boss you kill

It could even be an option that's toggled on and off (similar to how Witcher 3 has toggleable enemy level scaling), so that the players who do want to just one-shot everything after hitting the optional content can do so

[wheat tulip]

Ooh would have been interesting yeah

[languid gyro]

I've sort of just realized that this is my fate as a JRPG player who enjoys deepdiving into a game's systems lol

[wheat tulip]

I didnt played that much of jrpg so im kind of a newbie there

[languid gyro]

This has been pretty much my universal JRPG experience; typically by the time I get to about the last third of a game, all enemies/bosses get blown up immediately, often even before their first turn

That's how Metaphor was, how all 4 Xenoblades were (not that there are "turns" but a closer equivalent was how in XC1, XC2, and XC3 all bosses die from one chain attack, and in XCX all bosses died within the first 5-10 seconds of battle start), how Octopath was (both of them), how Bravely Default was, etc.

I've yet to play a JRPG where the lategame difficulty is able to keep up with how quickly players ramp up in strength

Pretty much 10 times out of 10, the beginning of the game (when you're lacking the most tools) is the hardest and the end is the easiest, nearly trivial in some cases

Honestly not even just JRPGs; this sorta echoes my BG3 experience too

By Act 3 of BG3, another game I really loved that I played recently, pretty much every encounter ends in 1-2 turns and every boss dies in a single nova turn, even on Honor Mode 😭

So I've just kinda accepted that Expedition 33 will probably be the same as the others in that regard

[languid gyro]

The main problem I'm facing here though is that ||while I know I can hit up the optional areas after fighting the last boss, it just feels kinda...wrong? Like I want to be able to have the last boss of a game be the last thing I do in the game, and be able to be satisfied closing the lid on the game once the credits roll||

||So I'm just sorta weighing whether I'll feel worse skipping the optional content or if I'll feel worse one-shotting the final boss; both routes have their pros and cons lol||

[wheat tulip]

Understandable 😭 honestly idk

[languid gyro]

Hmm, saw an approach someone else did online which was ||parry-only runs, in which you're not allowed to attack the boss on your own turn, and the only way you can damage them is by parry-counterattacking, which I suppose would most certainly drag a lot of the fights out more and give the boss a chance to show off their moves and soundtrack lol||

Perhaps an option to consider

But that does sorta lean into the other end of the extreme, in which I don't think I'm gamer enough to do that 💀

Well I'll cross that bridge when we get there I guess

In any case, probably my first real objective ||after removing the damage cap is to fight Sprog||

||Though if I do succeed at that, I imagine even the slightest remaining wisp of balance will be blown clean away after, as I have also been "spoiled" on the reward picto for beating them lmao||

||Tbh maybe what they should have done is have the damage cap increased rather than outright removed (like maybe capping at 100k per hit instead of 10k, or something) at the end of Act 2, and then after beating the game, you get the cap fully removed so you can go ham on optional postgame content or NG+||

I think the actual real takeaway here is that I should stop letting my brain get anxious about a part of the game I've not even gotten to yet and worry about things when I get there lmao

I'm sorry that I'm like this

In entirely unrelated news

I'd been originally unsure what genre to label Expedition 33, as it is very heavily JRPG inspired but the J doesn't fit, so maybe FRPG

But earlier today I saw someone refer to it as a JeRPG and I don't think I can top that

[wheat tulip]

Why are you sorry for!! Thats okay dw

[wheat tulip]

💀

Is it because Je is I in french?

[languid gyro]

oui

[wheat tulip]

😭😭

I thought it was just western rpg ngl

[languid gyro]

I think that's technically true, but a lot of western-developed RPG games tend to have their own kind of identity and different emphases/systems than typical JRPGs do (stuff like Witcher 3, Fallout, etc.)

Expedition 33, while developed by western developers, shares a lot more in common, in terms of the game's DNA, with many JRPGs than it does many western RPGs

[wheat tulip]

European rpg then lmao

[green escarp]

No that shorthand carries unfortunate implications

Because it would be ERPG

The NSFW jokes would never end

Also I think that shorthand is taken xD

[pallid gull]

it becomes an erpg when i get a moment with p5 ||verso|| it's true

[green escarp]

FFS Aiden xD

[pallid gull]

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

[wheat tulip]

Whats nsfw about it...?

[green escarp]

ERP = Erotic Role Play

[wheat tulip]

Oooh

Smh

[green escarp]

Aren't you glad you have us to educate you on English online terminology?

[wheat tulip]

Idk if i should thank yall honestly 😭😭

At least i know it now

[languid gyro]

Education is important so true

That's why I'm a big fan of ERPGs - Educational Role Playing Games

[wheat tulip]

Gonna start talking only french here then!!

Tomorrow tho im too tired rn

[languid gyro]

Gonna be named 'Pluierenard' in the server tomorrow 😔

if that's wrong blame google translate

[green escarp]

Rain is no longer ||wheee|| , he is now ||woooo||

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 6th area] ||IT'S TIME 🎊 ||

||I really like the choice to have the music here be slow and somber, rather than the bombastic energy you’d typically expect of a “final” area||

||feels surreal to be here||

||Shoutouts to Expedition 70 for making it inside the Monolith||

||Also I love the idea of us going back through all the different areas (at least that's what I'm presuming is gonna be happening)||

||In a way, this also means that it'd probably be smart for me to have Monoco in my team for this area since we'll probably run into a lot of older enemies, but I don't want to switch up my team again 😭 ||

[languid gyro]

||I caved...ended up replacing Lune with Monoco for now, even though I think the team is weaker for it 💀 but this is just too good of an opportunity for collecting skills to pass up||

[languid gyro]

||good lord this was a slow boy; Monoco got his 3rd turn before the boss was able to take his first (which he could do nothing on because he was broken/stunned 💀 honestly felt a little bad for this chromatic boss||

||also unrelated but I'm actually so disappointed that Monoco doesn't learn a new skill from this boss; I think it would have been so funny to transform into a giant Burgeon and just monch a whole enemy||

[languid gyro]

||Oh and congrats to Expedition 60 for making it deep into the Monolith too, damn||

[languid gyro]

||Probably close to the end, or at least a big checkpoint, since I just got to the Tainted Cliffs part of the Monolith, but alas I must sleep now 🥲 ||

[wheat tulip]

||https://x.com/expedition33/status/1921932843472617911?t=8h3Mp7lK9JkeZtdWYkq_qQ&s=19 || lmaoo (spoiler end of act 1)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33) on X

Well

X · May 12, 2025, 2:17 PM

[pallid gull]

act 1 4th area (technically i guess) ||https://bsky.app/profile/expedition33.bsky.social/post/3lp4swusyac2p ||

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

We’ve noticed a number of suspicious websites popping up, claiming to sell Esquie plushies.

Any third-party websites selling Esquie plushies are NOT officially licensed. Many of them are using AI-generated artwork to advertise, and we strongly recommend against purchasing from these sources.

Bluesky · May 14, 2025, 10:43 AM

wtff

||https://bsky.app/profile/expedition33.bsky.social/post/3lp4swutbys2p ||

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

-# ↩ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33.bsky.social)
We are looking into making official Esquie plushies, and we want to bring them to you as soon as we can. In the meantime, please be patient — and don’t get scammed!

Bluesky · May 14, 2025, 10:43 AM

but also yippeee

[wheat tulip]

Smh people!!

[wheat tulip]

Praying for plushies and vinyls 🙏 🙏

[languid gyro]

Wheeeeeeeeee

[wheat tulip]

https://youtu.be/e57JN5V6NbM?si=7LYkeWQDuhKs3rHL

[wheat tulip]

Is that what i think it is...? ( spoiler zone and after act 2)

Erm okay

Same spoiler

[hasty halo]

I look at some of these dead bodies and am wondering "Why is there a sword sticking out of this guy's butt??"

[wheat tulip]

Do you really want to know tho?😭

Got rekt

[green escarp]

||Ah I see you unlocked the painting workshop boss. Have fun :)||

[wheat tulip]

I left

Not patient enough

||im doing the flying manor rn with the 4 bosses 😭||

||the way the fucking lanterns lighting up giving me ptsd ||

[hasty halo]

I'm screaming at my game right now

I hate the parry/dodge timings so much

[languid gyro]

[Act 2 6th area] ||well that's a terrifying view to swing down to||

[hasty halo]

Or when an enemy decides to switch it up between attacks....

Idk if it's my build or what but I'm getting mad at these mechanics

Current party is 48-50

[green escarp]

You pretty much just have to learn every enemy's attack pattern and respond accordingly. Sometimes you can hear an audio que which helps with the timing but its going to be a learning experience throughout.

There's also no shame to playing on story mode, it makes the parry/dodge timing and damage from enemies more forgiving

[hasty halo]

It doesn't help that the enemy type I'm facing I've never faced before

So this is my first time encountering them

[green escarp]

That's just how it be. You get punched in the face enough times until you learn how to dodge/parry lol

Its a very soulslike learning curve

[hasty halo]

I don't even know which area to count this as

[languid gyro]

Put the name in spoilers and someone farther into the game and tell you

||oh....||

[hasty halo]

[Act 2] ||So i'm inside the monolith. and I think I'm on fast travel point 6? And I'm just getting floored||

[languid gyro]

Oh cool we're in the same area, so that'd be the 6th area

I'm not sure what advice to give you though bc I'm not having the same experience

All of the enemies here are dying before all my characters finish taking their turns, so I've never had to learn any of the dodge/parry timings

[hasty halo]

I may end up having to do like shadow said then

[languid gyro]

But also, even if that wasn't the case

I'm confused about what you said earlier

Because ||pretty much every enemy here is just a stronger version of something you've fought in a previous area, so I don't know that there'd be any new timings to learn?||

[hasty halo]

[Act 2 Area 6] ||I haven't fought the Chevalier before||

Everything up to this point I haven't had too much trouble with

[languid gyro]

||oh wow this part of the manor is gorgeous||

[hasty halo]

||I was also blown away by how gorgeous this was||

[green escarp]

Me watching people play through Act 2:

I'm sad I haven't played any E33 today but I'm just too tired to do so

Work is an energy vampire

[hasty halo]

Also i'm on the "Expeditioner" difficulty

I think now is honestly a good time for me to turn it down to story lol

I still don't even understand what luminas to even put on my party either. I just throw on what sounds useful

[languid gyro]

That's probably the bigger issue than figuring out parry/dodge timings tbh

At this point Lumina combos/builds can get pretty ridiculous, to the point where you're either a) never taking damage because you kill enemies before they take a turn (which I prefer) or b) barely caring that you can't dodge/parry because your survivability is so much higher than anything possible early game

Your choice of pictos/luminas matters far more than something as relatively insignificant as your level

[hasty halo]

It's mostly both the Pictos/luminas and the dodging/parrying for me

I'll think I'll have the dodging and parry timing down one minute and then something else comes along and slaps me lol

[languid gyro]

||Why was the Gargant in the Monolith so much weaker than the one in Frozen Hearts lol||

||A little jarring considering all other enemies here have been stronger versions||

for the Gamers (TM) 👀

||I love putting all the pictos/luminas that are higher risk/reward and further punish you for making mistakes (and rewarding you if you don't) on Verso just to all-in on his Perfection playstyle||

||My man is either a flawless parry god or he dies to a sneeze and no in between||

[wheat tulip]

||the lantern master chromatique was a bitch alright ||

[wheat tulip]

||i was wondering where she was as a painted version , well i guess i know now🤡|| after act 2 zone and fight spoiler

[languid gyro]

||oof, man, walking back through the familiar streets of "Lumiere" now 🥲 ||

[green escarp]

⚠️ Super post act 2 Spoilers ⚠️ ||And now you get to hear one of my favorite boss tracks in the game! Fun fact, you can hear hints of Clea's theme in other battle music throughout the game, a bit of musical storytelling that I find phenomenal, because the Nevron's were made by her ||

[languid gyro]

||Thinking about the fact that, in universe, every single grapple point or climbing spot was something set up by an expedition that came before has feeling really emotional now...||

||Also..."Tomorrow is here." 🫡 ||

||Oh shit we're fighting the title||

[green escarp]

||LOL When I realized there were enemies with those names I was like "Sooooo there's going to be a combined version with the full name isn't there?" Lo and behold, lmao||

[languid gyro]

||Extremely embarrassing that they even got the opportunity to attack, because the only reason it happened is I used one of Verso's "if you miss the QTE this move fails completely" skills and...missed the QTE 💀 ||

||Also at first I saw that picto and was like "oh shit that's amazing" but then realized it's anti-synergistic with my current setup, which has Maelle filling the break bar and Verso using Perfect Break to jump instantly to S||

[wheat tulip]

||im sorry i was being beaten my ass i couldnt quite hear ||

Seems good tho

[green escarp]

https://tenor.com/view/gitgud-thepruld-git-gud-dark-gif-8126281

Jk jk lol

[wheat tulip]

Theres reason why im on story mode

[green escarp]

To also be fair: ||she's one of the hardest bosses in the game||

[wheat tulip]

||she heals herself 500k hp each of her turn , i saw that i said nope for later or never maybe ||

[wheat tulip]

I understand kgfkfkf

Got both of thoses tho so im happy

After act 2 zone and bosses spoiler

[vivid peak]

https://x.com/expedition33/status/1922603248415908078?s=46&t=0QthA6jV191fFPVm9oCtvw

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (@expedition33) on X

We’ve noticed a number of suspicious websites popping up, claiming to sell Esquie plushies. This makes us whooo.

To be clear: any third-party websites selling Esquie plushies are NOT officially licensed. Many of them are using AI-generated artwork to advertise, and we strongly

X · May 14, 2025, 10:41 AM

[green escarp]

||Niiiiice! Serpenphare is also really hard, grats!||

[wheat tulip]

||Honestly i just stuffed my characters with double or triple ap boost lmaoo and maelle being maelle💀 but thanks!! ||

[green escarp]

A win is a win

[wheat tulip]

Yup aiden posted it earlier , cant believe people!!

[wheat tulip]

Trew and im proud

||only two left!!|| mid act 2 spoiler

[languid gyro]

||THIS MUSIC HOLY SHIT 🔥 ||

Honestly not even gonna attack until the song loops; I wanna hear the whole thing

[wheat tulip]

Hum- ||its 11 minutes long||

[languid gyro]

Then I soak it in for that long 🔥

I said what I said

[green escarp]

||The full song in the OST but the in game battle tracks have shorter loops||

[languid gyro]

What is the name of the song actually?

[green escarp]

||Une vie à t'aimer||

Had to re-lookup the name because my brain cannot remember long french titles xD

[hasty halo]

[Act 2] ||Endbringer feels like such a good attack||

[languid gyro]

||oh shit that picto 👀 and that new drip||

||I'm so, so happy that this boss had a) enough speed that I could only get 4-5 turns before his turn, instead of the usual 6-9 turns; b) had a guaranteed phase change at an HP threshold that prevented me from outright one-shotting him; and c) had enrage which allowed him to attack me even if I had just broken his bar and stunned him||

[green escarp]

||Lorie's gonna get to this point one day and her Kingdom Hearts brain is going to absolutely lose it because of the name of that Picto ||

[languid gyro]

||Very very satisfying that I was able to feel powerful and still get a really cool boss fight, instead of just blowing straight through without them ever having the chance to do anything, like with the Axons||

[languid gyro]

||Also I know it's not how the loot works, but I'm imagining that we have the suit because we just straight up snatched it off his back after beating hiss||

[wheat tulip]

||got something in the eternal tower, what is that || after act 2 outfit spoiler

[hasty halo]

OH MY GOD

[ACT 2 AREA 6] ||THIS MUSIC 🔥🔥🔥||

[green escarp]

I think you're literally right behind Amphy, Reaver xD

[hasty halo]

Yeah XD

I had to do some respeccing a bit and then ran around and fought a little

[wheat tulip]

||https://youtu.be/AeXdtz05Gqc?si=BwyijffTLoq1RBpE || talking about it , the translated lyrics (spoiler of that area above )

Not totally accurate but its good

[hasty halo]

||When I saw Victor Borba sang in this song too I lost it||

[wheat tulip]

||who is it?||

[hasty halo]

I feel like this game is gonna get ALOT of categories at TGA

[languid gyro]

Banger after banger 🔥

Once again gonna just sit here absorbing the music fully before I press any buttons

[green escarp]

||Victor Borba? He's a vocalist best known for the Devil May Cry song "Bury The Light" He's got a great voice||

[wheat tulip]

Oooh thats why i keep seeing that

[green escarp]

||And he's been getting work since then lol. Good for him||

[hasty halo]

||Not me sitting here for a good 5-10 mins just listening to this song||

[languid gyro]

||The DMC vocalist being brought in for the Verso family boss fight is perfect||

[hasty halo]

Definitely gonna be a keep on repeat song

[languid gyro]

Also [Post Act 2] ||I sorta get what y’all mean too with it feeling like Act 2 could be the end, given we’re fighting The Paintress here (though any true seasoned JRPG fan knows that the entity propped up as the “final boss” during the beginning of the game is seldom the true final boss)||

[green escarp]

||Would you believe me if I said the game's music only gets better? ||

[languid gyro]

[Metaphor ReFantazio spoilers] ||in fact this is part of why Louis sticks out so much for me, among other reasons (like his general presence and charisma): the fact that you start the game with him as the looming threat, he remains a powerhouse throughout, and you end the game with him as the actual final obstacle. So straightforward that in this day and age that loops back around to being unique lmao||

[languid gyro]

Of course I would

[green escarp]

I said it during Lorie's stream today but I reiterate: if this game doesn't get best OST at the game awards, thats proof that show is rigged

[hasty halo]

I will RIOT

[languid gyro]

||Also now that I've listened to enough of the music to start paying attention to battle UI; wow she's fast. I cannot remember how many hours it's been since I fought a boss where my team only got to move first at the beginning purely due to First Strike and not natural agility||

[languid gyro]

I think they already proved that when XC3 didn't win during its year tbf 💀

[green escarp]

Because not only is the music amazing, its purposeful. Everything from the leitmotifs to the lyrics has context interwoven with the story and it is just aaaaaaaaaa

[languid gyro]

Though I do think E33 has garnered more widespread/general/mainstream appeal so that stacks the deck farther in its favor

[green escarp]

True but also I feel like that game just didn't get enough eyes on it to begin with. Despite being bigger than it used to be, Xenoblade is still niche comparatively to other franchises

[languid gyro]

||Also nvm, one use of Typhoon on Lune's first turn gave enough of a speed boost for the whole team to get a full extra turn lmaooo||

[green escarp]

This pretty much. Everyone is talking about E33

[languid gyro]

||First move this lady's summoning void meteors?? Cool as hell ngl||

[green escarp]

||I'm so excited for you experiencing this (and Reaver since he's about to get here too) because this is such a great boss fight ||

[languid gyro]

||I always get such a rush of excited anticipation when I see Elemental Genesis light up, ready to go (especially when I'm primed for it to be the finishing blow)||

[hasty halo]

This game's story, music, art direction, EVERYTHING

Is why it's my GOTY

[wheat tulip]

||https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdMoVnpa/ || act 2 outfit spoiler

[languid gyro]

||YES PHASE 2 LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO||

||love the 77 burn stacks carrying over lmao||

[wheat tulip]

Oh wow

||how much leveled up are your characters again?😭||

[languid gyro]

[FFXIV Endwalker] ||Also the way we’re fighting in midair with Esquie as our “platform” feels VERY Endsinger inspired and I’m so here for it||

[languid gyro]

||Like 60? Though I’d get stacks like this just as easily at like level 40 lol. Build/luminas matter far more than level does||

[hasty halo]

Am just sitting here eating my dinner while this song is still playing

[wheat tulip]

Oh wow

[languid gyro]

Also @wheat tulip ||we can go so much higher 🔥 ||

[wheat tulip]

Wtf

||The amount of burn??||

[languid gyro]

||it just keeps going 😭 ||

||poor lady hasn't even gotten to take a turn yet 😭 ||

[green escarp]

||🎵 A MAELLA A LUMINÉ, DOSÉMI VERSO, A CLÉA A DANÉ, RENOIR INA DAOKO🎵 ||

[languid gyro]

||oh she's not losing HP anymore so I guess we're scripted to go onto the next phase, or a cinematic finish||

[wheat tulip]

Not the bullying amphy wtf??

[languid gyro]

||I feel sort of guilty that she quite literally never got to move or attack even once this entire phase 💀 ||

[green escarp]

(Amphy) ||I AM SO HAPPY THAT MUSIC MADE IT INTO THE FINAL GAME. IT WAS USED IN THE REVEAL TRAILER AND I WAS WORRIED IT'D BE ANOTHER CASE OF "TRAILER ONLY" MUSIC BUT NO, THEY NOT ONLY PUT IT IN THE GAME, ITS THE PAINTRESS'S BOSS THEME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA||

[wheat tulip]

Wtf is that language

[green escarp]

Your own?

Or so I thought?

maybe it's Latin?

[wheat tulip]

No ififkfkf

Its neither

Theres no accent on the letters in latin

[green escarp]

Interesting

official lyrics by the by

[languid gyro]

||Not the sad music as she lays there on the ground?? And using her turn “protect an expeditioner” 😭 ||

||I can’t bring myself to attack her what is this||

[wheat tulip]

Oh northern italy

[green escarp]

||And another one of my favorite pieces of music, but for a completely emotionally different reason ||

[green escarp]

Also I totally knew this I was just testing you. You passed

...don't look at me

[wheat tulip]

Its okay to not know dw kfkkc

Theres so many language on the osts

I think theres one ||in english too||

[green escarp]

There are, yes

[languid gyro]

||Ah, yes, the infamous Painted Power. A final salute to game balance, as it fades away with the Paintress 🫡 ||

[wheat tulip]

Congrats !!

[green escarp]

||Absolute cheese builds aside, that picto is mandatory in NG+ lol||

||Otherwise even in Act 1 you will spend years beating on enemies||

[languid gyro]

I can imagine lol

I think I've said before but I think what I would've liked is ||beating Act 2 increasing, but not fully removing, the damage cap to like 99,999 per hit or something, instead of 9,999; and then after beating the game, the damage cap is fully removed for cheesing any remaining optional content (if you so desire) and/or NG+||

||Rather than just outright removing the limiter entirely for all of Act 3||

[hasty halo]

is still headbanging at the victory screen

[languid gyro]

||Hell, even with the damage cap in place, look at what's happened to Act 2 lmao; the Paintress got one single attack in through the entirety of Phase 1 + Phase 2 combined (squeezed in one meteor attack in Phase 1 and never got a chance to move at all in Phase 2)||

[wheat tulip]

You are so good at this game amphy damn

I struggled against this one

[hasty halo]

I'm probably going to

[wheat tulip]

Or maybe im dumb

[languid gyro]

You're not dumb lol

[hasty halo]

God this soundtrack

[green escarp]

I can agree with this honestly for the sake of trying to balance out the story difficulty

[languid gyro]

I just have decades of experience tinkering with similar systems across different games

So I have a pretty good intuitive handle on how to teambuild well, even if the game is technically new, because so many of the pieces are familiar

[green escarp]

Yeah you have to understand Rain, some of us were practically raised on games like this lol.

So it's not so much we're god gamers but the fact we've just been gaming for so long with games in this genre xD

[wheat tulip]

Ooh i see

[hasty halo]

I love turn based games

[wheat tulip]

I dont have enough experience with that type of game yet

[languid gyro]

Right! Which is why we're saying that you're not "dumb" at all for just going through the game as you have been

[hasty halo]

I have a friend that only likes RPGs with action combat

[Act 2 Area 6] ||time for more banger boss music||

[green escarp]

Funnily enough despite growing up with and enjoying turn-based games, given the choice I tend to prefer real-time/action combat. but wow this game's combat is more fun than a lot of action games I've played xD

[languid gyro]

||Oh my god planting the Expedition 33 flag at the top of the Monolith 😭 what a great symbolic moment||

[languid gyro]

I generally lean towards preferring turn-based or strategy games, but this hybrid style is among my favorite systems that I've played with

[hasty halo]

[Act 2] ||Soooo I really love the civilian outfit on Maelle. I just can't seem to have her in anything else because it looks great on her ||

[languid gyro]

I'm honestly pretty okay if there are real-time elements too; the main thing for me is that I have time to slowly/carefully/methodically think through all of my moves on my turn without having to also worry about other factors in real time while trying to think

[wheat tulip]

Grew up with pokemon and still being unexperienced with turn based game lmao

[languid gyro]

This is also why, as fun as XCX Overdrive is, I vastly prefer the numbered Xenoblades' Chain Attack systems because they pause the flow of combat to give me time to think and carefully choose

[green escarp]

Funny when you consider this game also has elemental weakness/resistence/immunity too xD

[wheat tulip]

[green escarp]

but don't feel bad, everyone also has a different threshold for learning game mechanics and such

[wheat tulip]

Honestly i dont think when i play i just feel😭

[languid gyro]

I tend to think too much, in all aspects of my life; gaming is one of the outlets where that can actually be a strength instead of the detriment it often is otherwise 🥲

[green escarp]

Both of you are valid and womderful

womderful?

*wonderful

[wheat tulip]

Same thats why i try to not be like that when i play games i already overthink too much in other areas😭

[languid gyro]

||Jesus, a lot happened all at once||

||First off it was surreal as hell being back in Lumiere and seeing all the celebrations and such (only for me to then get completely destroyed by Maelle confronting Emma and Gustave's apprentices) 😭 ||

||Verso sitting down on the pier in front of the Monolith exactly like Gustave did at the end of Sophie's gommage 😭 ||

||And then Alicia's letter?? (which this sussy man just tossed in the ocean instead of giving it to Maelle)||

||Surprisingly, I can actually say that Maelle's true connection to Alicia was, in fact, on my bingo card, but they've been hinting at that pretty strongly since the literal first Maelle's Nightmare scene and been only less subtle over time||

||Massive RIP to everyone in Lumiere though 💀 💀 💀 ||

[green escarp]

|| ||

[languid gyro]

||End of Prologue 🤝 End of Act 2 in terms of the extreme abrupt shift from celebration to annihiliation and utter despair 💀 ||

||Also, extremely interesting that this bit of the story I'm on now is titled 'Epilogue' rather than 'Act 3' or anything similar (though I'm hesitant to actually tag spoilers about this section as 'Epilogue' because of the impressions it may have on those in chat on the outskirts without context, so I'll probs stick to "Post Act 2" or something similar for now)||

||Though I also may have to just stop here, or somewhere very close, because I've already been quite eepy for the last while and have been pushing through because I wanted to get to the end of the Act tonight||

[green escarp]

I'll be honest I should have been in bed 2 hours ago but knowing where you were I wanted to read your reactions Amphy

I too must now disappear for bed

[languid gyro]

Oh no, maybe it's best for the both of us if I stop here then 😭

[green escarp]

I mean you can keep going I can spare a bit more lol

[languid gyro]

I did reach the original stopping point I was aiming for after all

I am also quite eepy myself

[green escarp]

Probably for the best tbh lol

[languid gyro]

Okay yeet I have closed the game

[hasty halo]

Uggggh

[languid gyro]

Unfortunately, this also will be the last time I get to play for a while (maybe I can squeeze a little bit in tomorrow morning)

Am gonna be out of town for a convention from tomorrow afternoon till about Sunday afternoon/evening

So no E33 during that timeframe for me 🥲

[hasty halo]

||This game really trying to kill me with feels again||

[green escarp]

Is it at least a fun convention?

Or is it work related?

[languid gyro]

Ye it's an anime con lol

[green escarp]

Awesome! Have fun!

[languid gyro]

I wonder if there'll be any E33 cosplays or goodies 👀 (mostly doubt it though, with the game still being as new as it is)

[green escarp]

On the off chance you see a Lune cosplayer take a picture lol

(with consent, naturally)

[languid gyro]

On the off chance I see a Lune cosplayer I might have to just propose on the spot tbh 💍

[green escarp]

Alrighty y'all have a good one! I need to eep

[hasty halo]

Have a good eep shadow!!

[coarse scarab]

major p3 relationship + act 1 finale dialogue spoiler WHAT THE FAWKKKKK

[pallid gull]

||this happening after the alicia cutscene fucked me up so bad because they hurt each other in such a similar way||