The art direction of this game is sensational!
the music is peak and varied, gameplay gives a bit of a challenge for a turn based veteran like me, and there’s still plenty of humour and light-hearted moments in a game full of melancholy, sadness, and struggles.
I can understand it’s not for everyone though, the parry system is quite a bit tricky to get a good timing.
I’ve recently been playing it and I’ve been blown away.
I find the parry system not too bad actually. I’m more than half way through the game and I’ve only recently started properly learning how to parry, but I love how easy the game makes it to learn. Context for anyone who hasn’t played the game: when you successfully dodge, you see the words “dodge” rather than damage numbers. When you do a perfect dodge, you see the words “perfect dodge”. The window for parrying is smaller than for dodging, but this dodge system meant that when I started noticing I was somewhat consistently getting perfect dodges, I decided I should try parrying more often.
I find the overall difficulty tuning to be excellent. Even on normal difficulty, it’s definitely challenging at points, but it feels extremely fair. You won’t be able to defeat all enemies that you’re able to access at any given time — there’s so many times that I’ve tried my chances with a big guy just hanging out on the map, only to get my team wiped in one hit. However, the open world and much to explore means I can go away and come back later. Upgrade materials are scattered all over, so exploration is super powerful.
I agree with you that the highlight of the game is how beautiful it is. There have been a few times where I’ve had to stop for a moment and just take in the scenery when it was so soul achingly beautiful that I could scarcely think.
If I remember correctly, parries and perfect dodges have the same timing window. It’s just that messing up a perfect dodge still leaves opportunity to regular dodge, which is safer than parrying by far.
To anyone saying they like the battle system of “turn based with QTE/rythm” you might also like Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario (original N64 and Thousand Year Door), and the Mario and Luigi series (first three of them). Mother 3 also has a rythm element matched to the >40 battle tracks. Go emulate them rather than trying to track them down at scalper prices.
They all use turn based battles with timed button presses for extra damage with attacks, blocking/dodging, and specials. Definitely not as pretty, as good a story, or as complicated mechanics, but same sort of battle system.
I was hearing people talking about innovative brand new mechanics with the QTE parry system. I was so excited because how could it be new? What could they possibly have done? And its basically Mario RPG super hard mode.
Yeah, my wife has historically loathed JRPGs in part because the turn-based combat was too dull. She tried Expedition 33, fell in love immediately, and tried to show me the combat system like, “Look! It’s so new and innovative! This is how all those old games should’ve been!”
…So I’m putting Barkley Shut Up & Jam Gaiden on her computer next time she leaves it unattended.
I’ll add south park and wrestlequest to this list
Yes there is just something magical about it
Truly magical
The only problem with the game is it’s a UE5 game. So you have to use upscaling frame generation. It hurts the look of the game. Outside of that, it’s my GOTY.
I’m on the fence about trying it. On one hand, I’ve heard you shouldn’t even try if you don’t have good reflexes, but its apparently turn based and I don’t know how a turn based game needs reflexes.
I have problems with my hand coordination, so if it really does need reflexes, I don’t want to waste my money on it.
Hi! I have had two strokes and the mobility issues that come from that. There’s a story mode with greatly increased timing windows that helped a lot.
You need to play this.
It is profound.
From what I’m seeing around, it’s really starting to sound like the exact kind of hard that I can’t do. I had hopes that it was normal turn-based because I can do those games, but I wound up installing a god mod so I could play through the Witcher 3 on easy.
I was already dealing with a tumor in my thalamus, then got t-boned by a SUV, cracked my skull, had a brain bleed, and the whiplash gave my neck bone spurs that are compressing my spinal cord. It’s like my brain/body connection is dropping packets, and it’s so incredibly frustrating lol.
Even if you can’t play the game, watching a 100% playthrough with no commentary is worth it. The story is easily the best part of the game.
At least, in my opinion.
Yes, it’s turn based. But for every attack there is one (or more) indicated QTE to buff the attack, if you hit it. This one is consistent in timings (per chosen attack) and well telegraphed by a consistent animation for the button, so it is basically a little rhythm game. This one is not hard and easy to pull off. After a bit, you should be able to hit them perfectly without even looking at the screen.
Then there’s dodge and parry. Those are not obviously indicated by a consistent animation but the timing varies per enemy AND attack. Also the timings of the enemy animations are randomized a bit, so that this one needs reactions instead of a consistent rhythm. Dodge has the most lenient timing, parry is tighter (equals to perfect dodges) and a counter requires you to parry every single hit (hardest).
You can use story mode, which dials the need to parry/counter way down and also makes you tankier, I think.
It’s still fun to experiment with the fighting mechanics and building OP combos. I accidentally one shot the final (story) boss as I expected a way harder fight and missed out on that cinematic fight…
Well, dang. I absolutely loathe QTE, so that’s a hard no for me. Thanks!
@tatann@lemmy.world You can deactivate the QTEs in the game’s settings. But you still have to hit the parries or dodges.
Though technically it is possible to beat the game even on expert without any dodges, but that requires much grinding and good tactics.
On the easy difficulty you should be able to get by either way.
I just hope for a mod to bypass them
I would say it’s really not about reflexes at all, and it’s actually timing based dodge mechanics. Anyone who says reflexes is incorrect imo. Good reflexes can allow you to avoid learning the mechanics, but that’s really it.
I’ll give you an example:
While driving in the USA, at a red light at a four way intersection, the stoplight will typically turn green after a certain amount of time. Each stoplight is different, and assuming there are no other indicators, trying to go exactly when it turns green is a reflex (unless you memorize every stoplight pattern in the country).
In Europe, when stopped at a red light, it will actually give you a yellow light before the green, giving you an indication that a green light is proceeding. It’s no longer reflexes and is now timing based, which is more predictable.
Expedition 33 is the latter timing based situation. Some enemies are more frustrating than others, but they typically telegraph their moveset (that you learn over time) and then you try to time a dodge or parry. For the first hour or two of gameplay it’s more important because your stats are low, but as you progress it becomes less critical.
To summarize, you really don’t need good reflexes, and you don’t need to nail the dodge mechanics to play and love it! It’s just helpful to dodge a few times when possible, and once you learn it it’s actually quite gratifying i think.
If you play it on PC (and have a proper HDR monitor/TV), check out RenoDX’s HDR mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/6
Absolutely gorgeous.
It sound great but turn based is an immediate ‘no thanks’ from me.
Reconsider that position, try the game for a few hours before committing to buying it.
I’m not into turn based games either, but this hits completely different.
The brief QTE damage modifiers, parry, and dodge mechanics make the gameplay much more active/involved than your typical turn based game. People describing it as a rhythm game are spot-on - these systems all integrate with the music in a way that makes it incredibly satisfying when you’re nailing it.
Each party member has their own unique and interesting gameplay mechanic and they can be set up to play off of one another, adding a really cool element of strategy that, again, is really satisfying when it all comes together just right.
It’s more of a rhythm game anyway.
Gustave, don’t die! *bam bam bam slice whack… bangbangbang smash whiff, proceeds to die to giant mime Pinocchio
Parry it!
It’s hyperactive turn base. It’s even LSD turn base if you are quick enough on your choices (and the personna style UI permits that).
Forgetting about everything else that makes it a goty, the gameplay can be hella gratifying if you play fast and manage all the timings correctly.
I don’t usually play them either, but do it. Its a really phenomenal game
I’ve tried playing turn based games but they just kill any story pacing / flow of gameplay and I just can’t get into them.
