Video Gamers Podcast
Final French-asy? Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Deep Dive | Gaming Podcast
Mon, 05 May 2025
Gaming Hosts Josh, Ryan, and John are taking a deep dive into one of the most talked-about titles: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. With its striking art style, deep story, and interesting spin on combat mechanics, this is one of the most unique gaming experiences in a long time. Does it live up to expectations? And more importantly—will this be the game that finally converts Ryan to the glory of turn-based combat? Tune in for our honest breakdown of why Expedition 33, and decide of yourself: Oui or Non! Your weekly hit of gaming insights, hot takes, and all the video games that matter—from the Video Gamers Podcast. Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, and Gaius Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/ Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1 Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the premise of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Hello fellow Expeditioners and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. Expedition 33 looked glorious from the first trailer up until its launch. Just after Oblivion Remaster shadow dropped on us, hype levels were astronomical and it seems like there was no way a game can live up to that level of excitement.
Well, on today's episode, we're breaking down our time with Expedition 33, and we're finally ready to give our thoughts on it. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's got a fear of missing out on epic games crafted with passion and love that happen to have amazing combat, incredible stories...
beautiful worlds and interesting characters it's john hey what's up expeditioners happy to be here check out my sweet shirt oh 40 i like it and joining us he told us he's got a fear of mimes and that's why he couldn't keep playing it's ryan oh come on you know what i tell you what hold on one sec let me see if you like this
Where'd he go? Uh-oh. Ryan has stood up. He has left. If he comes back with no clothes on, we're going to have to start charging for this on OnlyFans.
He's stood. Bonjour, les amis. It is Ryan. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Okay, listen. Listen. I can't look at Ryan.
I am here for the show. Thanks to Amazon.
Listeners, if you have never done the visual part of this show, if you've never watched this on video, this is the one to do it. Oh my gosh. That is the best thing I've ever seen, dude.
Oh my gosh. Okay. All right.
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Chapter 2: What are the hosts' initial thoughts on the game?
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not picking on you because to your credit, you have said, listen, I do not like turn-based combat at all. And I worry that this game is going to have turn-based combat and it's going to ruin it for me. And so like, where was your hype level? Like legitimately now that we're in the episode and we're going to be talking about this, like, where were you at with this?
For sure. Um, I always just have that anxious fear with any sort of turn-based combat because everything I've ever tried, no matter how good it is, no matter how critically acclaimed and all the people that love it, I never seem to vibe with it or get that love for it that people find. I feel turn-based combat a lot of times just breaks up the flow of a game. I'm so big on story.
I love action RPGs and the story, and it just continues to flow when you can just get into a fluid battle. I feel that takes away from it but i was very excited with what i saw i loved the the trailers the the gameplay the the graphics looked amazing the story looked compelling so i did have more hype than i ever would have for like any other turn-based combat if that makes any sense there
And John, you are you I mean, I feel like you're a fan of this genre in particular. I mean, you you've played Persona recently. You played Metaphor Refantasio. You're a huge fan of Final Fantasy. And I feel like this game was just a perfect blend of like that kind of, you know, neat art style of the Final Fantasy series. Some of the turn based combat and the story of the Persona series.
So like where was your hype meter at for this game?
My hype meter was about as high as it's ever been for a game in recent memory. There is a particular chord that it was striking with me. Peak turn-based combat for me was sort of in the era of Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII. I really loved XII. XII is an underrated game. And this sort of checked a lot of the same boxes. It was like this dynamic turn-based RPG.
But what really kind of caught me from the trailers was...
a lot of rpgs and a lot of games in general you have to worry about whether the acting and the story component is going to be up to par and there's like especially in the final fantasy series there's a lot of really weird like anime tropes that you know it's it's over exposition and the plot lines are really diluted and this really seems to be laser focused on the storytelling component
with what looked like a really creative turn-based combat system. So my hype level was about as high as I can remember for a game in a very, very long time. Maybe ever.
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Chapter 3: What is the backstory of the game's main characters?
But if you like... Le fromage.
Le fromage.
But for people out there who like a black and blue burger, there is a really good one out there. If you happen to like turn-based combat... specifically that jrpg style fantasy final fantasy 10 12 ish well 12 actually was kind of at something but final fantasy 10 ish sort of combat style this is the best it has ever been yeah
I find the combat in this game to be absolutely incredible. It's engaging. The timing of the dodge and parry system adds that risk-reward factor that my brain just absolutely loves. I do think the Souls-like turn-based combat makes sense, honestly. Absolutely. And I know that's... That's hard for a gamer brain to kind of wrap our heads around and go, like, what are you talking about?
But it is, man. Like, you're fighting these fantastical creatures, these giant boss fights. And it's like, if you're going to with a dodge, you are going to pay for it, man. Like, this game says you need to know how to dodge. Now, you don't necessarily need to be good at parrying. Because the dodge window is much more lenient than the parry window is.
But if you are like... See, this is where I thought it might get you, Ryan, because it's like that risk-reward, that gamble, because we know you're a gambler.
Oh, I know, I know. And it's like the... Were you a parrier or were you a dodger? So I was... There is that risk-reward, and I found quickly certain enemies that I very much was like a dodge guy. And there's certain attacks that were dodge-only attacks.
But then, like, the timing of some of them... Because all the enemies, like, they have their certain sequences, and they have their way they attack. And there is little clues and kind of tip-offs on how it's going to come at you. And there's certain ones where you can time it right. But, man, so that...
I guess the long and the short is, for a turn-based game, I really did enjoy this combat system for what it was. I know you guys are tenfold what I enjoyed, but the ability to time these, figure out when a dodge makes sense, when a roll makes sense... Or not a roll. There's the souls part of it. The parry...
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Chapter 4: How is the combat system in Expedition 33?
I'll go so far as to say this. We're going to talk about, you know, is this game a Game of the Year candidate right at the end of the show, which is coming up pretty soon because we're running low on time. But if Expedition 33 doesn't win Best Music at the Game Awards, I will be amazed, dude. Amazed.
I know Greg put together a pretty killer Doom clip recently. I don't know where that song came from.
Can you think of two games that have such incredible music that could be so different? That double bass. And the Paul Newton guitar. And then you have this slow, haunting violin and piano going in Expedition 33. Oh, my goodness. The graphics, I mean, people have seen this in the trailer. I love the graphics in this game. We don't really have to spend a lot of time on this.
The worlds are beautiful. We've talked about this kind of already. The animations, the style is just top-notch to me. I could not be more thrilled with the way this game just presents itself graphically. whether it's through the environments, the characters, the animations, the spell effects in combat.
The hair is trash, though, man. The hair is so bad, dude. I know why it's bad, though.
It looks like they have hay on. The reason for that is that there are a lot of cosmetic unlocks in this game, and you can unlock a lot of hairstyles for the characters, and that's why.
I don't care. I don't care what you can unlock. The hair looks horrible.
i i think in the cut scenes and in the slower scenes it can look really good there are a lot of hairstyles that are available for each and every character and they are all over the range i mean it's that every every sort of esoteric haircut you can think of but i i agree there are certain scenes when the characters are moving around a bit where i'm like like you played a spaghetti hanging out their head or something yeah
All right, guys, we're running low on time. I want to, you know, we have been gush. We're going to give our scores on this game here in just a little bit, too. But, you know, as much as we can gush on it, John, you and I. But, you know, there's there's got to be parts of this game that don't work. We always say what works for you, what doesn't work for you.
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Chapter 6: How does the game compare to other RPGs?
I, I, I, Ryan, I don't remember if it was you or Paul who sort of famously didn't like to give out 10. That's Ryan. He's never given a 10.
Never.
Yeah. And I, I agree with that philosophy. Like if you give something a 10, 10 is perfect basically. And, and so like, what if something is, you know, what if, what if Claire Obscura part two comes out and they have a, uh, a better hair quest, a quest tracking. Oh man. You know, it's better.
but functionally for me this is a 10 out of 10 i i mean like it it would be a 9.99 blah blah blah blah blah to the nth power but uh it is it is about as perfect a game as i've ever played yeah
That's really good. Yeah, I mean, I get why you guys are giving it the scores for sure. For me, it's something a little bit different just because I couldn't really get into that core of the game. I would say it's more of like an 8.3, 8.5 to me, which is a high score for a turn-based combat game for me.
If it was action RPG with the same story, with the same world, with all these abilities and the different things you could do, I'm in the nines all day. So, great, awesome game. If you like this game style, if you're a turn-based combat type of person, you will love this game and it will absolutely be one of your favorites of all time. Guaranteed.
I've seen so many people say this, and this is what I love is that, like, again, people in our community that this wasn't on their radar, you know, and this is one of our joys. It's one of the reasons we do this podcast is like legitimately I could probably name 10 people in our community right now that went, OK, so I heard you guys talking about this game. I picked it up. Oh my goodness.
I mean, we have people that said, dude, this is my favorite game. This is literally my favorite game that I have played. Like, I mean, that is insane, but it's like, this is what we want to do is we want to put incredible video games in front of people and say, Hey, this is a game that needs to be played. Guys, the craziest part about all of this is this is an indie developer, a 30-man team.
This is a $40 game. $40 or $50. This is not a $70 AAA title or a $100 quadruple-A title. You know, it's included in game pass. It's included in game pass.
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