Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

 Shortly after beating Lies of P, I started a new game with a cumbersome title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Set within a world enduring an ongoing doom - the "gommage" (French for "erasure") of anyone above a certain age. Within the city of Lumière, which appears to be a fantastical and magical-cataclysm-beset Paris (complete with warped Eiffel Tower and shattered Arc de Triomphe,) our central protagonist, Gustave, prepares to be with his ex-girlfriend Sophie as she awaits her gommage, having become old enough to be taken by a being known as "The Paintress."

This heart-wrenching opening sees Gustave doing his best to be there for a woman he clearly loves, and must watch as she and hundreds if not thousands of others evaporate into what looks like rose petals.

Gustave has volunteered for Expedition 33, the latest in a number of annual expeditions to sail out and slay the Paintress, with those who only have a year left to live trying to make that last year count for something (I'm given to understand that each year, the age limit goes down, so in theory two years' worth of people would be lost each time).

Gustave and the other expeditioners head to the continent (Lumiere is somewhere in the middle of an ocean, apparently transported there after the cataclysm that befell the world). Things immediately go to shit when an old man (and remember, no one is older than 33 in this world, or at least that's what we thought) attacks and kills most of the expedition.

Gustave awakens lost in the forest on this strange continent, and must find other survivors to continue his mission.

Now, let's talk gameplay:

Bringing joy to my heart, this is a turn-based RPG, where engaging with monsters (so far only the weird constructs called Nevrons, which come in many varieties) takes you to a separate battle screen, and you can take your time figuring out your next strategic move.

That said, it's not pure menu-navigation-based combat. Most attacks (other than your basic ones that just generate resources to spend on skills) have various timed "quick-time-events" that allow you to maximize their damage. Likewise, when foes attack you, you have a chance to dodge or parry them. Dodging gives you a wider window, but parrying with the right timing can allow for counter-attacks that can be quite effective.

It's honestly not entirely unlike Super Mario RPG, and learning to read monsters' tells and getting the timing right can make fights significantly easier.

There are definitely systems here I haven't totally figured out - I've gotten a number of resources to, for example, upgrade weapons, but I don't quite know how to use them yet. This is either something that hasn't yet been tutorialized or just something I've overlooked and will need to figure it out.

At this point in the game, I have two party members. Gustave fights with a sword and a pistol, and builds up an "overcharge" meter that he can then use certain abilities to unleash really big attacks with. Lune is your classic elementalist mage, and builds up elemental "stains," which can be consumed by spells of other elements, encouraging some kind of rotation of magic (something I certainly haven't gotten the hang of just yet).

The game is really gorgeous - I'm currently in an area that feels like the ocean, with colorful corral and sea life flying through the air.

And truly, if you're an old-school RPG fan, you might enjoy that this game actually seems to have a big overworld map, where you will encounter monsters sometimes, but that also breaks the regions of the game into discrete bits. My best friend is currently working his way through some of the PS1-era Final Fantasy games (he beat FFVIII around the time I beat Lies of P, and is now starting FFIX) and there's a nice bit of continuity there.

Anyway, despite the bleakness of the stakes in this story, it's really pretty and has a unique aesthetic. I'm eager to sink many more hours into it.