Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a Masterpiece

In this episode, Vance, Jamie and Tony break down how Clair Obscur totally blew us away with it's tight and addictive gameplay, epic story and one of the best soundtracks ever created for a video game. 

Transcript

00:00:00.12
Sentfrmheaven
practice you know so so and you know that was the i guess as they say like the dark story behind it like his friend has just you know passed away his best friend would have liked that but yeah man like practice

00:00:01.12
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah.

00:00:13.83
Jaime G 
So we're here for graphics, man.

00:00:16.52
Sentfrmheaven
that's what we here for me see here me see here give me a

00:00:19.82
Tony Sisk
All right. So, Jaime, you said you finished the game, right? 100%

00:00:25.53
Jaime G 
ah No, no, no, no, I haven't.

00:00:28.07
Tony Sisk
complete.

00:00:29.67
Jaime G 
What I did is I got to the final boss fight with Renoir. And once you get through him, you're going now towards the paintress.

00:00:40.85
Tony Sisk
Okay. So you're not at the end. Gotcha.

00:00:43.69
Jaime G 
um all right I'm pretty much there.

00:00:44.32
Tony Sisk
Also, I'm not at the end. But you're further along than I am. How much of the story do you got?

00:00:49.25
Jaime G 
What?

00:00:50.42
Tony Sisk
The

00:00:52.55
Jaime G 
What do you mean?

00:00:54.04
Tony Sisk
story.

00:00:56.15
Jaime G 
you can You can tell how much story you've got?

00:00:59.72
Tony Sisk
Well, I mean, how much have you figured out? Like, what's going on?

00:01:04.23
Jaime G 
Oh, well, there's there's a couple of plot twists along the way.

00:01:04.72
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:01:11.37
Jaime G 
There's a main character who dies.

00:01:11.60
Tony Sisk
I mean, when...

00:01:12.69
Jaime G 
I don't know what i don't know if I want to tell you.

00:01:13.13
Tony Sisk
Yeah. Well, mean, there's not a it's not a spoiler cast, so we save that for extra subscription-based content.

00:01:23.52
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:01:24.09
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:01:26.33
Jaime G 
Well, I'm actually careful about saying this because I know Vance stopped playing it, so.

00:01:32.41
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:01:35.55
Jaime G 
I don't know.

00:01:36.95
Sentfrmheaven
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

00:01:44.29
Jaime G 
Tony, what level are you on? I mean, what level is your character right now?

00:01:49.21
Tony Sisk
Like 21.

00:01:51.71
Jaime G 
Dude, I'm in level 60 at this point.

00:01:54.38
Tony Sisk
Level 60. Sounds

00:01:55.74
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:01:57.83
Tony Sisk
like you're just doing a lot of, you know, XP grinding.

00:02:04.35
Jaime G 
I sure have

00:02:05.88
Sentfrmheaven
Man.

00:02:08.68
Tony Sisk
Couldn't beat those bosses.

00:02:08.80
Sentfrmheaven
really

00:02:09.60
Tony Sisk
You had to go back and beat up with some peons.

00:02:11.42
Sentfrmheaven
hey

00:02:12.53
Jaime G 
Well, and that's actually something.

00:02:13.10
Tony Sisk
Try to level yourself up. Yeah.

00:02:14.84
Jaime G 
That's honestly something I want to talk about today because they this that there's a certain flow to every single fight.

00:02:25.38
Jaime G 
I don't care what how overpowered you are.

00:02:29.22
Tony Sisk
um

00:02:34.79
Tony Sisk
So when you fought the Nevron right after exiting the

00:02:47.62
Tony Sisk
battle, 100-year battle area, whatever it was, where he ambushes you on the bridge. Remember that one? And you fall down into the pit.

00:02:55.72
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:02:58.82
Tony Sisk
How many tries it take you to beat that one?

00:03:02.79
Jaime G 
Two.

00:03:04.68
Tony Sisk
Not bad. Not bad. What level were you?

00:03:08.77
Jaime G 
At that point, I must have been like in my early 20s.

00:03:12.81
Tony Sisk
yeah Okay. Okay.

00:03:15.57
Tony Sisk
That's good then.

00:03:15.63
Jaime G 
but But I know what you're where i know where you're talking about, Tony.

00:03:18.67
Tony Sisk
I mean, I was level 20, but you know, Oh,

00:03:20.57
Jaime G 
This is this is like where you're like in this maze right before you get to that point, right? um Somewhere around that maze, there's this character who looks very different than all the other Nebrons.

00:03:34.10
Jaime G 
He looks like he's on flames.

00:03:35.85
Tony Sisk
Right, yeah.

00:03:36.18
Jaime G 
that you Did you find him?

00:03:37.82
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah, iphon I found him.

00:03:39.96
Jaime G 
he He would like one-shot me several times.

00:03:42.30
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:03:42.84
Sentfrmheaven
Thank you.

00:03:42.97
Tony Sisk
after after After two times of getting one shot of that guy, I just won around him.

00:03:47.50
Jaime G 
Yeah. so So in every area, every area, yeah there's like one overpowered character that's like leaps and bounds beyond everything, anything else that you can find, even even more powerful than the actual boss fight.

00:03:58.31
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:04:07.18
Jaime G 
And I always find them and I'm like, forget this, I'm out.

00:04:15.23
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:04:16.88
Jaime G 
Yeah, but in good news for everybody, you you'll know this. I'm a collector. i Expedition 33 came back on stock physically for like a day, and I scooped it up from Amazon.

00:04:31.66
Tony Sisk
Oh, nice.

00:04:34.42
Sentfrmheaven
Nice. There you go. That's a win.

00:04:37.68
Jaime G 
i'm I'm telling you, this game is is is the start of a new either a new franchise or a new power studio.

00:04:49.83
Tony Sisk
ah Yeah, it'll be nice to have a hard copy.

00:04:54.13
Jaime G 
Yeah. I'm going to have it, and I'm just not going to open it. And like whenever ive I hit 80 years old, I'm be like, I'm retiring with this.

00:05:05.79
Tony Sisk
Yeah, well, I feel you.

00:05:08.95
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:05:09.79
Tony Sisk
it's It's definitely... um

00:05:19.34
Tony Sisk
when everybody said, to me, I'm like, before we actually get into the episode, before we, to me, like, everybody was talking about this game, like, a month ago, and they're like, ah, this is game of the year.

00:05:32.86
Tony Sisk
like, come on. Never even heard of this this game. No, it's definitely game of the year.

00:05:39.93
Sentfrmheaven
Thank you.

00:05:40.01
Jaime G 
it's and It is definitely game of the year.

00:05:42.18
Tony Sisk
I don't, ah i sorry, sorry, Vance, you know, it beat up on you, but This game is... This game of the year. um I just don't see how anybody's going to be able to knock it off that pedestal.

00:05:56.04
Tony Sisk
Even this early on.

00:05:56.19
Jaime G 
Well, well, I,

00:05:57.82
Tony Sisk
I just don't see anything coming down the pipeline that's going um

00:06:01.91
Jaime G 
um I'll tell you this. i don't I don't... I think it's going to be a solid contender for game of the year, but somebody's going to launch like Shadow Drop a game in November, like but what they did with Alan Wake 2.

00:06:14.08
Tony Sisk
No. No, I'll tell you what game though that will... that could beat it.

00:06:21.05
Jaime G 
Death Stranding.

00:06:21.41
Tony Sisk
it's No. go its It's just like through two years ago when Spider-Man i lost to this game. or no No, no, no.

00:06:30.09
Jaime G 
Alan Wake.

00:06:30.73
Sentfrmheaven
Hey, don't worry.

00:06:31.57
Tony Sisk
Not Spider-Man.

00:06:31.73
Sentfrmheaven
This is going to be, like I said, an island wake.

00:06:32.33
Tony Sisk
Not Spider-Man. Ragnarok.

00:06:35.26
Sentfrmheaven
ah It takes two.

00:06:35.48
Tony Sisk
ah

00:06:36.36
Sentfrmheaven
Don't worry about it.

00:06:36.54
Tony Sisk
God of War It Takes Two Split Fiction is going to be that game where it's like oh yeah this is another co-op great just like It Takes Two of the year even though like one out of a hundred people played it.

00:06:49.51
Jaime G 
hey dude do we have Hey, we how we have a fourth podcaster tonight?

00:06:56.57
Tony Sisk
Wait who?

00:06:57.82
Jaime G 
Somebody's joining.

00:07:01.69
Tony Sisk
I have no idea. Okay. Maybe there's an option I didn't know about.

00:07:06.31
Sentfrmheaven
Right, I see guests at the bottom.

00:07:13.01
Jaime G 
Oh, they dropped off.

00:07:15.87
Tony Sisk
o

00:07:17.53
Sentfrmheaven
That's funny.

00:07:19.02
Tony Sisk
I don't know how they would get the invite link.

00:07:21.67
Sentfrmheaven
Some random person.

00:07:21.78
Tony Sisk
And then somebody shared it.

00:07:23.94
Jaime G 
hey Hey, look, I think that this is not, by the way, that split fiction game, Tony, didn't get all the the word of mouth and all the hype that this game got.

00:07:35.28
Tony Sisk
Alan Wake didn't get squat either. They won game of the year.

00:07:37.73
Sentfrmheaven
Right.

00:07:37.93
Jaime G 
Yeah, that Alan Wake was, Alan Wake was, there there was something fishy behind it.

00:07:38.40
Sentfrmheaven
or Or it takes two.

00:07:45.10
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:07:48.68
Tony Sisk
No. No, I think this one will win. I mean, it's kind of got that like everything kind of going for it.

00:08:01.49
Tony Sisk
Really. Yeah.

00:08:02.50
Jaime G 
Yeah, right.

00:08:06.95
Jaime G 
it's It's got everything going for it. And it's got even the underdog story, like how they they started with like out of nothing, and then they started getting traction, funding.

00:08:13.09
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah.

00:08:13.74
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

00:08:16.05
Tony Sisk
Oh, yeah. the

00:08:16.35
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:08:17.11
Tony Sisk
The underdog story. the du Yeah, that's funny. It's like Barter's Gate. Barter's Gate was like, oh, you know, we only had 30 people working on this game. And it's like fabulous. and Game of the year.

00:08:28.39
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:08:28.93
Tony Sisk
it it was it did win game of the year, right? It did, right? Yeah.

00:08:32.01
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:08:32.78
Jaime G 
yeah

00:08:33.09
Tony Sisk
um

00:08:34.45
Sentfrmheaven
it See, that's the true testament, though.

00:08:34.68
Tony Sisk
And we predicted that. ah Just saying, we did predict that on the show.

00:08:38.89
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:08:38.96
Tony Sisk
Remember? What was... a

00:08:40.99
Sentfrmheaven
Great prediction.

00:08:41.10
Jaime G 
I didn't.

00:08:42.22
Tony Sisk
What was our buddy who came who's from who lives out in LA?

00:08:45.06
Jaime G 
ah but Oh, Barron.

00:08:46.54
Sentfrmheaven
Baron.

00:08:47.49
Tony Sisk
Baron. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:08:48.45
Sentfrmheaven
Baron. Yeah.

00:08:49.65
Tony Sisk
He didn't think he would win because he had too big a hill to climb. But we were like, nah, it's winning.

00:08:53.98
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah. He climbed the hill, Anselm.

00:08:56.21
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:08:56.28
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:08:58.08
Tony Sisk
What hill?

00:08:58.62
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah. Right. Right. And just hit that four-wheel drive. We'll be all right.

00:09:03.47
Tony Sisk
but But...

00:09:05.03
Sentfrmheaven
But yeah, but I mean, but that's a a big testament to when people say less is more. That's what they mean. and We don't need 30,000 hands on a project. we just need 30 people that's on the same page with the same end goal.

00:09:15.01
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:09:19.45
Sentfrmheaven
That's it.

00:09:22.13
Jaime G 
It's people who who who know how to do a good game, and that's it, man.

00:09:22.27
Tony Sisk
Yeah, that's that's pretty much...

00:09:26.78
Tony Sisk
Well, that's the fascinating thing about it.

00:09:31.44
Tony Sisk
ah

00:09:33.99
Tony Sisk
Like, a lot of these people... don't have like a game that to their name right um now they might have worked on games and stuff small bits maybe projects that were canceled or or something like that but they actually have their name and the credits for a game like you know uh

00:09:40.59
Jaime G 
No. The music director, like nobody.

00:09:50.42
Jaime G 
Mm-hmm.

00:10:00.23
Tony Sisk
Like the lead writer, Jennifer Svidberg-Yen, one of the lead writers. But I watched a podcast with her. She was on a podcast that was talking, they they talk about creativity and gaming.

00:10:18.25
Tony Sisk
And she was talking about coming on board and how she got on board. And she had never worked on a project before.

00:10:28.32
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:10:29.18
Tony Sisk
ah she She was responding to a voice actor

00:10:36.45
Tony Sisk
ah post that the director, Guillermo Brochet, or whatever, the guy that's one of the guys that run the game, or founded the studio, was looking for a voice actor, and she responded.

00:10:47.56
Jaime G 
ah Is

00:10:52.64
Jaime G 
But it's also like the music director, right? This was a guy who never composed anything for for a video game. I think he posted his music. I saw this on a video and the video you sent.

00:11:02.54
Tony Sisk
SoundCloud.

00:11:03.84
Jaime G 
SoundCloud, they contacted him, right? And then like but I think within a day, they he had like an offer to go and compose the score for this game, and the music is ah is epic.

00:11:18.35
Tony Sisk
Yeah, the music is fantastic.

00:11:18.45
Jaime G 
So this is complete.

00:11:19.01
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:11:20.65
Tony Sisk
it's It's one of those...

00:11:20.68
Jaime G 
this is

00:11:20.79
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:11:24.00
Tony Sisk
Damn.

00:11:24.29
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:11:24.47
Tony Sisk
We're talking the whole game. We haven't even started the podcast yet. All right.

00:11:27.24
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:28.09
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:11:28.50
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:11:29.20
Tony Sisk
ah We'll get into it.

00:11:31.90
Sentfrmheaven
Well, we've been live on Twitch, so.

00:11:32.07
Tony Sisk
ah

00:11:33.98
Sentfrmheaven
if you

00:11:34.54
Tony Sisk
Oh, have we?

00:11:34.82
Jaime G 
Oh, no way.

00:11:35.64
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah. hey Hey, hey, hey, hey. Every week we miss the best part of the pie, okay? Not this week. Not this week, all right.

00:11:44.36
Tony Sisk
Okay, well, let's continue on. But, you know, yeah, the guy, the guy's post, he has a biography.

00:11:46.14
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:11:51.41
Tony Sisk
oh Well, not really a biography. He's his commenting on, I can't remember, it's on the website for Sandfall Entertainment.

00:11:58.45
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:12:01.49
Tony Sisk
and ah interactive, and he's talking about, you know, how he became a music composer. he he He teaches guitar, like he was teaching guitar on his spar in his spare time, and and he would write, you know, new music,

00:12:12.57
Jaime G 
yeah

00:12:22.96
Tony Sisk
uh, for ah video game or whatever on his personal time, just him, just doing it on his own. His, his father worked in the video games industry. And that's kind of where he kind of, you know, we got that bug.

00:12:37.45
Tony Sisk
And he was, he just, he'd said he would make like a new piece of music every week.

00:12:37.60
Jaime G 
Yeah. Yeah.

00:12:42.99
Tony Sisk
And, you know, he put it up on SoundCloud whatever. And that's where he was approached by one of the founders, ah and asked if you you know he would want to be a part of the team.

00:12:55.77
Tony Sisk
And he gets a dream come true for him to be able to work on a project.

00:13:01.67
Jaime G 
yeah

00:13:01.89
Tony Sisk
no And he made the he made the the distinction that the most important part was being able to come on board in the very initial stages, right? Because since he was involved right from the beginning,

00:13:16.83
Tony Sisk
He got to read the scripts. He got to be in on the like you know sessions where they're just kind of bouncing ideas back and forth about what this game is going to be about, how the story was going to evolve through this creation process.

00:13:33.11
Tony Sisk
And he was that's he basically was able to get a full understanding of what what they're trying to create, and he's able to implement that seed within the game yeah so that's why the music the music is epic um and you don't have to wait till late in the game it's right at the very beginning some of the best best music right at the very start of the game um

00:13:44.04
Jaime G 
He was part of that. Yeah.

00:13:55.85
Jaime G 
No.

00:13:59.64
Jaime G 
Even ah at the port, right, where they're like you know saying goodbye because of the, how do you pronounce it? The gommage? The gommage?

00:14:08.01
Tony Sisk
The gommage. So, yeah, I guess that's French for gommage is French for the word erase.

00:14:15.61
Jaime G 
OK, well.

00:14:15.62
Tony Sisk
So it's erasure or stuff like that.

00:14:18.91
Jaime G 
so So even at the beginning where they're parting ways, The music, man, just gets you. like you're You're hooked because it's it's a powerful scene, really. It was really well executed. ah The motion actors, the face expressions, but the music really sold me into the whole environment that they were creating.

00:14:41.73
Jaime G 
right It's this really deep moment of you know goodbye. And you can feel it.

00:14:48.62
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:14:50.88
Tony Sisk
Oh, when when the when the scene, they're on the dock, and it's right the beginning the game, so it's like, yeah, you you don't have to, if you have the game, like it's literally like 15 minutes in, and and um all you hear about is gommage, gommage, gommage, you know, this is...

00:14:51.87
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:14:57.31
Jaime G 
Yeah, right.

00:15:03.25
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:15:10.25
Tony Sisk
you know, this is day of the gamage. And so what is the gamage? So I'm playing it and I'm thinking, what is Gamage? What are they talking about?

00:15:15.83
Jaime G 
I had no clue.

00:15:17.09
Tony Sisk
Because when I came in, I had no clue, right? I heard everybody talking about this game. I had no clue what about the story behind the game. So I really came in blind, which is great, right?

00:15:28.21
Tony Sisk
Because

00:15:28.24
Jaime G 
Mm-hmm.

00:15:30.87
Tony Sisk
the through the introduction of the prologue, it's a mystery. Like, oh, these people, what are they talking about? Why is it so like, you know, melancholy, the way they're talking, the sadness, you know, and you could tell that's kind of building up to something not good.

00:15:47.81
Tony Sisk
And then when they're on the dock and they're waiting, they're talking about the paintress and it's almost like ah you get this like eclipse effect going on where the sun is setting on the ocean.

00:15:48.12
Sentfrmheaven
Right.

00:16:01.59
Tony Sisk
the ocean And there's like a monoth a monolith or an island or a continent, what do you want to call it? But you see this gigantic figure just kind of crouch down. And then when that sun or that eclipse happens and she kind of awakens, that piano music, when it goes, when it just drops, you you know, you like that.

00:16:26.88
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:16:27.83
Tony Sisk
And they kind of, it was like this really weird, focus where they the camera angle was really low behind them and and somehow they still magnified what was in the distance that was a really great cinematography but um yeah just in in combination with the music that was happening and then to see how the play how the scene plays out man powerful powerful scene and storytelling

00:16:58.95
Jaime G 
Yeah. And this is in the first 15 25 minutes. blip.

00:17:05.04
Tony Sisk
Yeah, and it really gets a hook into you, too, because like you see what happens to everybody. that It goes from 34 to 33 on the monolith, and everybody just kind of, you know the snap effect from Marvel or whatever, but...

00:17:24.03
Jaime G 
yeah the bli

00:17:26.58
Tony Sisk
yeah the flip uh and then afterwards you know you see because they've been talking about the expedition up to this point i'm like so what is the expedition right so after the fact you have the the people that signed up for the expedition for the thirty three

00:17:29.32
Jaime G 
Okay.

00:17:46.31
Tony Sisk
and and they're getting together, getting, getting ready to cross the ocean and stop the next Gamache. Basically that's their go.

00:17:58.50
Tony Sisk
And like after experiencing the very first portion, uh, where, um, our, our main character Gustav is, is with, uh, Sophie, right.

00:18:11.82
Tony Sisk
After kind of experiencing what he goes through on the dock, uh, Like I was ready, man. I was like, man, let's get this expedition going. We got to stop this, this evil that exists in the world.

00:18:22.08
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:18:24.26
Tony Sisk
We have to stop it. So, I mean, most games don't give you any good hook, you know, to motivate you into to play the game even. But, you know, if there's a story, if they even give you one.

00:18:41.03
Tony Sisk
um there is no motivation really you're just oh i bought this game i want to play it because i spent this my own this game and i want some great graphics and some good you know effects going on and i you know ah whatever other things you like in gaming but uh it's rare to get like a narrative story that just really grabs you like that and

00:18:51.62
Jaime G 
yeah

00:19:05.75
Tony Sisk
So, and then you go off on the expedition to stop the next gammage and you just, you know, it really is like, you know, you just, you don't know what's around the corner.

00:19:19.55
Tony Sisk
Like it's a total mystery.

00:19:19.85
Jaime G 
Right.

00:19:21.18
Tony Sisk
And it's like, man, are we, is this group of people going to survive? Are you going to survive? You know, and it's, you know, we know Vance doesn't. so

00:19:30.12
Jaime G 
and And Tony, like it did this game did two did two things really well for me. One is the whole setup, like this the thing that just happened, right?

00:19:42.32
Jaime G 
It doesn't take too long right after that where it's like, all right, you're on the ship. let's go Let's go to the island, right? And it wastes no time. As soon as they land in the island, it gets real, real fast.

00:19:57.81
Jaime G 
and

00:19:58.01
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:19:58.71
Sentfrmheaven
Real fast.

00:19:59.03
Jaime G 
and and And to your point, it's like, you don't know what's going on. I have no idea. I mean, there's no like, hey, let's go set up base over here. It's like, we just landed. You dead, man.

00:20:10.37
Tony Sisk
Right. So, yeah, remember, like, you're Expedition 33 entitled to the game, right? This has has been going on since Expedition, what, 0 or 100 or whatever. It's been going on for like 67 years.

00:20:26.63
Jaime G 
Yeah, it's it's so it's backwards, right? Because there was a 34, 35.

00:20:29.11
Tony Sisk
Yeah, it goes down.

00:20:29.90
Jaime G 
Uh-huh. Yeah.

00:20:31.62
Tony Sisk
So every expedition has failed. So you these people pretty much know. You don't really catch it when you're starting up the game and hear some of the conversations that are going on.

00:20:44.23
Tony Sisk
Like, oh, you know, the expedition has, you guys are better than last year's expedition. They only had three tables. You guys have five tables of people, of volunteers, right?

00:20:53.94
Jaime G 
yeah

00:20:57.07
Tony Sisk
i mean, what does that mean? And then you go and you, when you get to the, to the other continent where you're going and you just see the amount of what's left of all the other expeditions, you can see why. Oh yeah. I can see why there's nobody volunteering to go.

00:21:17.08
Tony Sisk
Cause it's just, it's just, these people have gotten to the point where they're just accepting their fate.

00:21:19.63
Jaime G 
it's

00:21:22.47
Tony Sisk
Like, yeah.

00:21:23.06
Jaime G 
you're You're not coming back is basically what you're signing up to.

00:21:26.77
Tony Sisk
Yeah. It's a suicide mission.

00:21:28.94
Jaime G 
Yeah. So, but, but, but I'd like, I'd like to get, maybe hear Vance's thoughts on this because, but because, because Vance, don't get me wrong, but this is admittedly not the type of game that you would normally would gravitate to.

00:21:35.07
Tony Sisk
Yeah, let's hear Vance.

00:21:46.57
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah, I definitely had, it's funny to say this, but I had fun playing it. arm Like, ah I have trouble with games that where you have to distribute the the attribute points and different things like that because it's, you know, one of the situations where, like I was telling funny you all, like, so fought some optional boss you know and it took me it took me almost an hour to beat this to to beat this individual but then when i went to youtube and like just looked after i played it well the guy he had like you know he had the two characters but he has so many more points than i did i'm like okay what did he do different because i thought i you know explored everything found all the little um chrome chrome and stuff like that you know so i'm thinking i'm doing pretty good you know

00:22:37.38
Sentfrmheaven
Nah, not at all. But, you know, to you all's point, um the gang definitely definitely captivates you as soon as you turn it on because of all the visuals, all the sounds, because, you know, like one of the first things I found was the flower, you know, before i even figured out how to do the ah little thing. know, was like, hey don't forget the flower.

00:22:57.38
Sentfrmheaven
And you like, OK, so you get the flower, but then you understand what the flower means later on. it then along the way, you're getting... like a love story because you know everybody is asking you know like hey are you two back together for good or whatever you like she's about to die in 10 minutes what you mean like are we back or good like you know and like you said like the music i'm like i don't know if i can continue like like you know but but i mean is it definitely uh you know like like sucked me in first uh you know like as soon as i turn it on you know like have fun

00:23:15.93
Tony Sisk
Thank you.

00:23:32.65
Sentfrmheaven
You know, and I mean, man, you know, like it's quick. it It definitely gets to the action quick, you know, once you get off that boat. So, man, you like, mean, I just laugh, man, but it's a good game, dude. I like it. I like it. And what Tony sent me earlier, sent us earlier, it definitely makes me want to go back and like finish it because it gives you a greater appreciation for how it all came together.

00:23:58.88
Sentfrmheaven
So it's like, man, you know, like, They all came out of nowhere, shining nights, put this game together. least I can do is try to complete it. I may not complete it, but I'm give it another, you know, another push.

00:24:12.27
Tony Sisk
Right. Yeah. To, to that point, it's like this, this team that put this game together,

00:24:13.41
Jaime G 
Yeah. Right.

00:24:19.95
Tony Sisk
it's It's headed up by two former Ubisoft employees. The fact that these guys were coming from Ubisoft, that's amazing in the itself. Ubisoft has kind of been known as as a place where they just manufacture the same type of game over and over again and just slap a different title on it.

00:24:38.59
Jaime G 
right

00:24:38.69
Tony Sisk
of But, you know, these two guys, are they got... They had a vision. They didn't think that Ubisoft would back them up in this in this game.

00:24:50.06
Tony Sisk
So they they went out on their own and and found, a yeah, they crushed it.

00:24:53.89
Jaime G 
They crushed it. hmm.

00:24:56.26
Tony Sisk
ah Like Jaime says, you know they found people that didn't. came on board and, you really had a love for the vision of what the, what they were trying to do.

00:25:08.28
Tony Sisk
And then the publishers Kepler interactive and ah apparently, you know those guys apparently did an amazing job of helping them, you know, kind of like really make, take this from a small project to just like,

00:25:25.05
Tony Sisk
this massive undertaking and helping them cross that finish line with it, man. It's the, the backstory to this, to this is just a pretty entertaining in itself.

00:25:39.04
Tony Sisk
Like we were talking about, you know, the composer, how, you know, he was just guy they found on SoundCloud and, but his music man is so powerful. I just, it's just like, you know,

00:25:52.66
Tony Sisk
he He mentions it in his kind of like biography. like He's inspired by Legend of Zelda. And Legend Zelda, when I was a kid, the music from the Legend of Zelda, man, I still have that...

00:26:04.62
Tony Sisk
and and You know?

00:26:07.69
Jaime G 
Oh, every, everybody remembers that, that one, man.

00:26:09.82
Tony Sisk
Yeah. It's just epic adventure music, right? And Expedition 33. It's not... it does have, like, it's music is epic, but it's, know, different sort of way.

00:26:24.52
Tony Sisk
But it's just as, like, memorable, right? And that the the use of that music to just keep it, like, I can be sitting... you know, at work or driving in the car or whatever.

00:26:37.71
Tony Sisk
And that music is in my head and it makes me want to play the game, right? Oh, I got to go play that game. I got to go play the game because I've got the music this that is just playing in my head.

00:26:49.04
Tony Sisk
So he crushed it with that. Like they that's exactly what you want. Like if you can't, if you may not be thinking about the game for for the game for the game itself, but the music just kind of keeps you in that world.

00:27:06.23
Tony Sisk
you can't ask for much more if you're the developer. Man, you crushed it. You're that I raised. and

00:27:13.05
Sentfrmheaven
yeah Yeah, because I mean, music...

00:27:14.05
Tony Sisk
And the writer...

00:27:16.24
Sentfrmheaven
No, go ahead, go ahead.

00:27:16.41
Tony Sisk
No, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no. I don't want to transition to a different point until you finish.

00:27:18.55
Sentfrmheaven
ah you Oh, yeah, because I mean, like, the music is is so important, you know, because, you know, like you said just like you said, you have certain parts of the gang where, you know, like, it just makes it that much more intense, and I don't think people who...

00:27:37.69
Sentfrmheaven
don't really have like an understanding of it like doesn't realize it and you know you have so many soundtracks that you know we associate with certain movies certain characters and I mean I definitely think this is going to be one of the ones that you know like uh you can hang your hat on it you know because uh it's definitely gonna be ones that's gonna be mentioned for a long time

00:27:59.18
Tony Sisk
Yeah, the just if you have a chance, go on YouTube and just look up the Clear Obscure soundtrack or the Behind the Music video.

00:28:13.57
Tony Sisk
And the videos themselves that they have on YouTube ah for the soundtracks, or they're great too. with ah With the orchestra pieces and Violins and cellos and, you know, and stuff going on.

00:28:27.87
Tony Sisk
Just, just great. Like everything, everything, every detail there's, they took the time to really just make sure that they were hitting a home run with it.

00:28:39.81
Tony Sisk
So that's like that quality attention to detail. That's great. And I'm, I'm fascinated. Like the story, the writer, one of the main writers, I was like, I was like, i was talking about earlier.

00:28:52.88
Tony Sisk
They said that the story, originally the story that she was introduced to by ah one of the founders was similar but different.

00:29:06.56
Tony Sisk
But they ended up kind of scrapping that and starting from scratch. And the story kind of came out of a dream that she had. where she she she she had this dream and she apparently she gets all her writing from her dreams. And now she's not like a major writer. Like she's like literally writing at her kitchen table, right? And just as a hobby.

00:29:31.60
Tony Sisk
And she was, she was brought on as a voice actress initially. And then she, she came over to, to writing and she got the, the, the primary seed for the game.

00:29:43.58
Tony Sisk
Like literally, don't want to spoil, uh, any, any plot points whatever, but basically the the whole background to the story comes from a dream that she had.

00:29:51.43
Sentfrmheaven
you

00:29:56.24
Tony Sisk
And then, they still couldn't figure out like how to get it to work. Like there was one important piece that they were missing and they got it from like the, the, the develop, the main developers, like mom or something. They were like sitting at the kitchen table and like, Oh, you should, that sounds like this might, you know, something like this.

00:30:21.60
Tony Sisk
When they're like, you know what, that might work, you know? So there's a lot of material out there listening to about the background stories about, the the uh the development of this game from its initial uh stages that's pretty fascinating and it's just you know this is a game i think this is a game like a man this is a game made by like people that you know we all all think that we're starting from right you know like I want to be, ah i want to make games, you know, and this is actually a story of people doing that.

00:30:57.62
Tony Sisk
Like all the, a lot of this stuff was just on Reddit, you know, people responding to Reddit posts or posting on Reddit messages, looking for like, Oh, you know, who wants to come on and do this? And people were just like, how many times have you seen a message from somebody and like, yeah, whatever, whatever.

00:31:11.53
Sentfrmheaven
here

00:31:12.44
Jaime G 
No, man.

00:31:13.62
Sentfrmheaven
Right. I'm about to go on Reddit right now.

00:31:14.11
Jaime G 
if

00:31:15.62
Sentfrmheaven
either

00:31:15.71
Jaime G 
If I see something, i'm like, man, this is This is sus. this is so

00:31:19.55
Tony Sisk
Yeah. Right. It's like, Oh, come on.

00:31:21.89
Sentfrmheaven
Right.

00:31:22.35
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:31:22.45
Sentfrmheaven
Right. I mean, yeah, you're sitting there on Reddit.

00:31:23.19
Tony Sisk
And people responded. Like, I think she said there was like, man, there might've been 10 people that responded this Reddit post.

00:31:25.84
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:31:30.43
Sentfrmheaven
Yep. It was 10 people.

00:31:31.62
Tony Sisk
And to think, to think that, that, you know, that just taking that step off the, you know, off the edge and responding back to that, you know, is now she's like, not only ah

00:31:31.77
Sentfrmheaven
Yep.

00:31:47.18
Tony Sisk
into the video game industry, but like now she's got her name on maybe one of the greatest games that's been out this year for sure. Now let's get into the game itself.

00:32:00.97
Tony Sisk
Jaime, you want to talk about graphics, but that's a great place to start.

00:32:01.45
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:32:04.40
Jaime G 
Okay, graphics on this game, man, I don't think they're like God of War type graphics, but they make them they make them work.

00:32:16.54
Jaime G 
That's the whole thing. It's like this whole game in many areas is just completely optimized where they're like, look, I want this to look smooth. I want this to play well.

00:32:28.05
Jaime G 
I want the expressions on the characters to convey fear, excitement, even panic. They make that work. I mean, the whole game is all is always like surrounded by like this mist in many places, I guess, to like limit how much how much they want to show in the environments, et cetera.

00:32:36.53
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:32:47.03
Jaime G 
I think those are all like some tactics to say, OK, let's focus on the frame rate in these areas and not on these others. um But it's I really think that considering everything that they had going against them, you know, the size of the studios, probably the limited budgets, they've cranked out a game that looks and plays better than what, you know, AAA developers are doing.

00:33:14.36
Jaime G 
ah I really think that... that ah I was wowed. I was surprised i because all of a sudden, man, all my feeds are just blowing up with like Expedition 33. You got to play this. it's It's a once in a console generation kind of like ah launch title or that for for a new studio, right?

00:33:36.15
Jaime G 
um It's not perfect. I'm not going to sit here and say like, this is the greatest game ever. And if you guys have played this for more than an hour, I know you'll agree that we need to start a fundraiser or a GoFundMe or something to make these guys develop a mini map in here because I get lost so many times just trying to find my way through a maze.

00:33:58.88
Jaime G 
And it's like, maybe it's intentional, but that is to me, the one frustration that sounds sometimes I'm like, okay, did I go this path already? Did I not?

00:34:06.03
Sentfrmheaven
Right.

00:34:07.23
Jaime G 
That's,

00:34:07.26
Sentfrmheaven
yeah Right.

00:34:08.12
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:34:08.58
Sentfrmheaven
Like I'm looking for landmarks in the middle of a game. Ooh, there's a lamp.

00:34:11.36
Jaime G 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:12.52
Sentfrmheaven
yeah

00:34:12.80
Jaime G 
I mean, so many times this kept on popping into my head, like, I wish I had a mini-map. I wish I had a mini-map. If there's one thing that came up, it's that.

00:34:21.94
Tony Sisk
I would think that based on the level of detail that they've put in so many other aspects of this game, that a mini map had to be part of the discussion and that it was ah conscious design, you know, decision to know to not include the mini map within like the, you call it?

00:34:37.57
Jaime G 
Dude.

00:34:45.39
Tony Sisk
Instanced area that you're in, right? Because you had a broader, you have a broader world map.

00:34:50.67
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:34:50.81
Tony Sisk
Right. That's that has the, you know, like the fog where unless you've actually gone there, you can't actually see what's there.

00:34:56.96
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:34:57.36
Tony Sisk
But so they have that.

00:34:58.94
Jaime G 
Man.

00:34:59.13
Tony Sisk
and That's beautifully crafted, by the way.

00:35:01.83
Jaime G 
Man, I'll pay for DLC, for ah a mini-map DLC, man.

00:35:07.38
Tony Sisk
Right. But I think I think they they don't want you to like. Yeah. They they want the the mystery of what, like I said earlier about what's around the corner.

00:35:18.69
Jaime G 
well Well, that's true.

00:35:18.91
Sentfrmheaven
Mm-hmm.

00:35:19.24
Tony Sisk
And it's born.

00:35:20.06
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah. Because you're on the expedition.

00:35:21.06
Tony Sisk
um

00:35:22.77
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:35:23.42
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:35:23.83
Jaime G 
oh

00:35:24.00
Tony Sisk
Leads right into the title expedition. Nice point, Vance.

00:35:26.88
Jaime G 
Right. So I mean, graphic wise, man, i'm I'm surprised what they were able to crank out again. It looks it looks like it was developed by a bigger studio. And I'm just like wowed, like literally wowed on what they did.

00:35:39.77
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:35:42.08
Tony Sisk
Yeah. Well, originally, you know they when it was a smaller project, and they were using Unreal Engine 4.

00:35:53.53
Tony Sisk
And then they transitioned to Unreal Engine 5, which you know a lot of people are using nowadays. And it's you know itics fantastic. um But it's a beautiful game. The environments are beautiful.

00:36:08.51
Tony Sisk
But it plays super smooth. like

00:36:10.91
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:36:13.50
Jaime G 
Now, go ahead.

00:36:13.73
Tony Sisk
But the detail...

00:36:16.21
Jaime G 
ahead go ahead

00:36:17.25
Tony Sisk
Yeah, one of the points I wanted to make about the detail is like when you're fighting and the more damage you take, like it starts to show up on... like Your uniform starts to be ripped. You got blood on your face, scratches, whatever. And then when you get healed all the way back up, you know all of a sudden, you're all cleaned up.

00:36:36.13
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:36:37.81
Tony Sisk
But yeah.

00:36:39.17
Jaime G 
So here' here's one of the things, though.

00:36:39.40
Tony Sisk
But the graphics great.

00:36:44.22
Jaime G 
The graphics look great. The controls. OK, if you ignore the one piece, I'm going to say the controls are tight. They're solid. They're responsive.

00:36:56.86
Jaime G 
I mean, I like the fact that you can engage with an enemy. And if you're able to you know you know do the one shot and then you know do the attack, you You initiate battle. Otherwise, they they have first turn, right?

00:37:12.09
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:37:12.75
Jaime G 
So it felt like some mini game in there. The one thing i don't like, man, and I don't think and neither of you have gotten this far. There's some optional areas that you can find in the game later, much later, that where the game tries to become a platformer.

00:37:32.42
Jaime G 
It's like, hey, get get from here to this like area where you have to like be jumping across different platforms.

00:37:38.49
Tony Sisk
Oh, no, I know what you're talking about because i I can almost see it in the way things are kind of like designed with stuff kind of floating in certain areas.

00:37:49.08
Jaime G 
ah

00:37:51.71
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:37:52.10
Tony Sisk
And then there's like stair-stepped rock formations and stuff. There's a lot of that.

00:37:58.12
Jaime G 
Right.

00:37:58.92
Tony Sisk
you do You do a lot of of that limited platforming to get to stuff that you can see.

00:37:59.38
Jaime G 
Right.

00:38:03.61
Jaime G 
ah what what Well, you do limited.

00:38:06.16
Tony Sisk
But I think there's hidden stuff. hidden stuff.

00:38:09.55
Jaime G 
ah Right.

00:38:09.99
Tony Sisk
Mm-hmm.

00:38:10.49
Jaime G 
But but there's there's two areas that I've gotten to where you have to... It it it becomes a platformer kind of Prince of Persia style where you have to do a perfect jump.

00:38:22.47
Jaime G 
When you land, you have to roll to like a certain direction so you don't fall off this ledge. ah If you dash and jump, you're going to miss it. If you... ah jump, it has to be there.

00:38:34.94
Jaime G 
So I think where it failed for me at least is that in in those two areas, the the the controls are are at best janky when you're just trying to focus on doing platforming consistently versus like, hey, here's a rock formation. Let me just tap X until I climb it.

00:38:53.67
Jaime G 
But when it's like tap X, so you have to land platforming, land in a specific way, it gets frustrating really fast.

00:39:04.06
Tony Sisk
Yeah, the platforming where there is specifically required platforming like to get like to an item that you can see, but you know you there's no easy way to get to it other than to you know try to jump from this rock to this rock to that rock.

00:39:10.03
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:39:21.46
Jaime G 
Mm-hmm.

00:39:21.99
Tony Sisk
I did have some difficulty in that regard because, like you were saying, it was a little loose.

00:39:28.86
Jaime G 
Uh-huh.

00:39:29.16
Tony Sisk
in the controls, which is odd. I mean, which is strange because like the combat is tight. Like, you could not play this game if it was not like, because the, the, the combat mechanics basically are, uh, quick time events, right. Or, um, for when you're attacking, you're trying to hit, you know, uh, quick time event to get a perfect strike.

00:39:58.59
Tony Sisk
But then when you're on the receiving end, the enemy, uh, launches it its attacks.

00:39:58.80
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:40:04.98
Tony Sisk
Now there's no, you know, there's no helpful cue to when you need to respond. You just need to watch the animation and figure it out.

00:40:16.13
Tony Sisk
And then you either parry or dodge out the way. Parrying is hard because I prefer to dodge, but you know, there's different types of parries ah that they introduce you to, but yeah, if it was not tight controls, I don't, there's no way you could, this game would, would not work.

00:40:20.52
Jaime G 
yeah

00:40:35.17
Jaime G 
Right.

00:40:35.47
Tony Sisk
Uh,

00:40:35.98
Jaime G 
So I said that it's got really, really tight controls in the areas where it matters. Where it tries to go outside of its lane, it's frustrating.

00:40:47.46
Tony Sisk
Right. Well, yeah, have with platforming. if I mean, if that's really like, if we're if we're talking like as an explorer of the map and you're just trying to see if you can get to these high up areas or you think there's hidden areas, which I do think there are hidden areas, ah at least the maps look like they're hitting areas.

00:40:50.47
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:41:03.15
Jaime G 
No, there are.

00:41:07.09
Tony Sisk
There's probably people just spending hours and hours and hours trying to get to these areas. But yeah. there's probably a lot of hidden stuff. I, I feel, I would, I would think there's a lot of hidden stuff here in this game.

00:41:19.91
Tony Sisk
Um, just because again, with the attention to detail and in so many other areas and just, ah it's like bonus content, right.

00:41:31.07
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:41:31.51
Tony Sisk
But for people just who want to just hang out and and and continue to play the game, but, um,

00:41:38.17
Jaime G 
Now, here's something else that I got peeved at as I was going through. and And I was telling you earlier that I grinded a lot because every enemy can kill you.

00:41:54.10
Jaime G 
And that's kind of frustrating in the later game because I grind it at some point, like, let me just grind 10 levels to make sure I can get into this area and I have a hard time. It doesn't matter.

00:42:06.89
Jaime G 
No, it really doesn't.

00:42:08.02
Tony Sisk
Right. Well, this game is inspired by Elden, like Elden Ring type games, like front software type games where any enemy can kill you.

00:42:14.49
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:42:16.91
Jaime G 
and and that's And that's kind of where it was frustrating because usually in RPGs, part of the fun is at some point you feel like you're very overpowered.

00:42:17.27
Tony Sisk
Um,

00:42:26.35
Jaime G 
um But here, I don't care how much more level, how much more I level up, I'll run into any enemy and they will give you one blow that will do like 50 to 60% damage.

00:42:44.60
Jaime G 
And then, and this is like the natural flow of every battle. You have your first turn. You try to do as much damage on that first turn. The enemy attacks.

00:42:56.12
Jaime G 
If you do not pair your dodge, your health is going to, for one or multiple characters, is going to go beat below the 50% mark. So then you're going to scramble and be like, do I try to continue attacking or do I ah restore health of my character?

00:43:12.80
Jaime G 
But that part where you lose 50% or 60%, it doesn't matter hey if how how much leveled how much you've leveled up.

00:43:23.07
Jaime G 
It'll always be the same.

00:43:23.27
Tony Sisk
Well, I mean, I think this all falls under they like, man, there's a lot of depth to this game because if you look into the characters, the attributes, there you go, Vance, the attributes that you can add attribute points to his vitality, which is the health your character.

00:43:28.98
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:43:40.88
Tony Sisk
ah Agility, which is the speed of your character. And that, so on the left-hand side of the screen, you have the turn order.

00:43:50.08
Jaime G 
The turns right.

00:43:51.02
Tony Sisk
right so the higher your your agility you might actually get it high enough to where you might actually be an extra turn ah before the enemy

00:44:00.40
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:44:00.42
Tony Sisk
um

00:44:01.33
Sentfrmheaven
See, i didn't know that at all.

00:44:05.38
Tony Sisk
then you have what are some other attributes uh might might is kind of like your combat power right how much you're going to deal it's basically how much you deal with your base attack right

00:44:11.13
Jaime G 
Yeah, defense. it it does Again, it doesn't matter, man. i I leveled up so crazy much at one point in the game because I felt like my attacks were doing nothing.

00:44:24.84
Jaime G 
To level your attack, you just need to get stronger weapons. that makes a difference or leveling up your weapons.

00:44:31.04
Tony Sisk
Right. So ah defense. Defense reduces the amount of damage that you take. So what I would do in my playthrough,

00:44:44.17
Tony Sisk
whether be with Gustav or somebody else. ah you know i would does You have a four-character party but like with characters in reserve. No, three characters, right?

00:44:55.50
Tony Sisk
There's three active characters that you combat, right?

00:44:57.43
Jaime G 
Three active. to to to reserve.

00:44:58.67
Tony Sisk
And then reserve, right? um I basically, kind of like an RPG, like you know I have a tank, right? And I have a damage dealer.

00:45:10.16
Tony Sisk
And then I have ah support. That's how I would kind of set the attributes up. and i So my take, I put all my points into my vitality and defense.

00:45:22.24
Tony Sisk
Right? And he would have like twice as much health than anybody else and tons defense. And he would absorb most of the blows.

00:45:32.92
Tony Sisk
So I wasn't getting that 50% health reduction if the targets, if he was getting targeted.

00:45:40.89
Tony Sisk
he would he could actually take multiple, multiple hits, which is beautiful because that just basically, it was like, he, ah one of them actually had, i think both of them, if you set them up to the tank, can heal themselves.

00:45:43.49
Jaime G 
But.

00:45:56.92
Tony Sisk
And one of them heals himself if the other if the enemy is on fire. So, I would just let him take all the damage and then my support character,

00:46:08.84
Tony Sisk
would just, or my damage dealer would just make sure that the enemy was on fire and then he would hit him and heal himself back up. So it's like this, like you can really like set up this ah combination between the team members where they're, they're working together.

00:46:25.04
Jaime G 
So what you just bring up is a really interesting aspect of this game that we haven't even started talking about is the whole Pictos and Lumina um mechanic.

00:46:40.45
Jaime G 
Because when you're saying right now there's one character that does this this, this, this, I can guarantee you that if I had a character set up the same way, it probably isn't the same character.

00:46:53.46
Jaime G 
and And more than likely, I have ah setup for a character that I'm used to that might be completely different than yours.

00:47:02.29
Tony Sisk
Right, yeah.

00:47:03.42
Jaime G 
Like my whole party. So this opens up a really interesting perspective because you and I might be playing Mael, right?

00:47:12.38
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:47:12.82
Jaime G 
but But I might be playing here as a glass cannon. You might be playing here in a support role, et cetera. and And because you have this adjustment through which luminous are you using, which Pictos are you attaching, what are the buffs that you get with the Pictos that you attack that you equip, it creates a very different experience for every character, for every player.

00:47:39.57
Tony Sisk
Right, yeah, you can set these guys up um so many different ways, um which is

00:47:43.61
Jaime G 
Yeah. and And there's there's there's some Luminas or some Pictos that I picked up in the in the later game, Tony, that give you like some mad, crazy buffs if you're playing solo.

00:47:54.91
Jaime G 
Like if you basically just remove everybody from your party and you just go in with one character. And it's like, what?

00:48:05.81
Jaime G 
Like... Like, it it even... You even break like the the damage limit. Like, usually the max max damage that you can do is like 9,999.

00:48:19.05
Jaime G 
it It's like you're doing 200,000 damage.

00:48:22.70
Tony Sisk
I need that build.

00:48:26.14
Jaime G 
ah so so and So...

00:48:26.68
Tony Sisk
Fans, you need that build.

00:48:28.64
Jaime G 
At some point, it gets it starts getting ridiculous, but in a ridiculously different way.

00:48:29.20
Sentfrmheaven
ah Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

00:48:35.40
Jaime G 
Again, that's why I...

00:48:35.81
Tony Sisk
But that's where you start feeling overpowered because you you have developed a combo or a system that makes your guys overpowered.

00:48:46.01
Jaime G 
yeah

00:48:46.14
Tony Sisk
um So that's that's where you're talking. When you're talking about feeling that overpowered, that's where that's how you do it you know you just kind of analyze how you're uh what's available to you weapon wise uh what pictos you've leveled up you know and are using and which characters can you benefit from them and then

00:49:01.50
Jaime G 
right

00:49:11.65
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:49:12.41
Tony Sisk
you know, and then like, even just like how they're, uh, interacting in the combat themselves. Like, like you were talking about mayo my L my L for me is her primary function for me was, she has like a ability called engage, uh, engagement or something like that.

00:49:29.01
Jaime G 
ah

00:49:30.33
Tony Sisk
but And that makes it, where the enemy would be more susceptible to fire damage. Right? And usually she had the highest agility, so she would be the first one to attack.

00:49:45.16
Tony Sisk
So I had high agility for her. That was like her highest stats were agility for me. And then she would be first one attack. She would engage the enemy, make them vulnerable to fire.

00:49:57.88
Tony Sisk
And then I would have, you know, Luna, uh, uh, uh, use her ability to set them on fire. And then my tank,

00:50:10.67
Tony Sisk
can heal himself if the enemy is on fire and deal big damage. So it just worked as a cycle. It's just a matter of keeping Miel and Luna alive when they were getting attacked.

00:50:21.45
Jaime G 
Keeping the flow, right? so So imagine, if you may, that I kind of took a similar approach as you did. But I i set it up where my L was always my second character that that we go into offense, right?

00:50:36.94
Jaime G 
The first character, i put some Lumina on it that whenever that character does damage, it applies ah Oh, man, what's the the, it's got a name, like like Armor Break or something. like I forget what it is. But anyway, Maelle's got like ah a trait that you can apply to her that that basically says, if you use this ability on a character that's got Armor Break, you immediately get a second turn.

00:51:05.35
Jaime G 
so

00:51:05.47
Tony Sisk
yeah.

00:51:06.37
Jaime G 
So then I do this where like I have one character who does some damage, applies the stat, Maelle does two attacks, and she's quite overpowered because I set up something where her first attack is going to like do crazy damage.

00:51:22.54
Jaime G 
And then the third character, the third character i always play Monoco because you know the bestial wheel,

00:51:22.57
Tony Sisk
yeah.

00:51:29.64
Tony Sisk
yeah.

00:51:30.43
Jaime G 
Because it's so random and it moves, like I end up have making a build where, depending on where the bestial wheel lands, I can change kind of what I can do. like I can try to go for like stun damage, ah healing, or so or like physical damage based on you know where it's at and maximize that too. Because he's also he is an interesting character that you If you're using the bestial wheel well, you're not playing the same attack patterns every time.

00:52:00.52
Jaime G 
You're kind of adapting to where where it lands every so every single round.

00:52:03.04
Tony Sisk
Yeah. Yeah. And we haven't even talked about skill points.

00:52:06.87
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:52:07.96
Tony Sisk
So there's a lot, lot to the combat system and yeah, it's just great.

00:52:14.01
Jaime G 
I think so if you've ever played a Persona game, it takes the best elements out of Persona. It puts them into this brand new concept, which is not a you know Japanese game.

00:52:28.68
Jaime G 
One thing that it doesn't do quite like a Persona-style game does is, Tony, you've played Persona, right?

00:52:37.34
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:52:38.33
Jaime G 
ah Vance, have you ever played to Persona?

00:52:41.72
Sentfrmheaven
No, I have not.

00:52:43.31
Jaime G 
is the and strengthening your bond with with characters. In Persona, you only had certain time windows to do this, and the characters had to be in the mood for for them to go hang out and and you know strengthen your bond with them. And if you did that, you could you know unlock abilities or they would help you out more, et cetera.

00:53:07.23
Jaime G 
Here, it's like you get to certain milestones in the game, and it's like, You can go and and strengthen your bond with all the characters. And then you get to another milestone in the game, you can do with it with all the characters. But I feel that if they would have like gave you the option, like a persona game where it's like, you have to choose which one you're going to do this with, it'd be a lot better, right? Because then there's a risk reward.

00:53:36.62
Jaime G 
Like, do I go this path or do I go that one?

00:53:37.57
Tony Sisk
they kind of leave themselves room for improvement for the sequel

00:53:42.68
Sentfrmheaven
That is true. That is true.

00:53:43.60
Tony Sisk
yeah

00:53:44.16
Sentfrmheaven
I can't give you the complete game right now.

00:53:44.37
Jaime G 
yeah

00:53:44.35
Tony Sisk
they got they gotta they gotta have stuff that they can add to the sequel man come on now mini maps mini maps and uh relationship building which you could definitely see within like the story that that

00:53:48.34
Jaime G 
Dude, if they had a mini map, that's all that's all they need.

00:53:53.39
Jaime G 
Oh, the ability.

00:53:59.83
Tony Sisk
the relationship because with the party system where you can like, you choose which people I wish, I wish there was more characters you could add to the party. Right. Uh, that would be nice.

00:54:09.60
Jaime G 
Yeah. Yeah.

00:54:12.38
Tony Sisk
Again, you gotta to leave something for the sequel or the next, you know, the, whatever, next idea that they have, because people, I'm here to you, uh, interact, uh, Sanfall um,

00:54:27.25
Tony Sisk
I mean, they're they're they're getting they're getting whatever budget they want, you know. it's like But hopefully they can stay focused, right?

00:54:33.67
Jaime G 
For the sequel, yeah.

00:54:35.17
Tony Sisk
like Hopefully they can continue with this kind of small studio mindset and just continue to make what they want, right?

00:54:36.03
Jaime G 
Yeah.

00:54:40.43
Sentfrmheaven
you

00:54:43.95
Tony Sisk
And, you know, you got to give credit to Xbox. who signed these guys to game pass and kind of made it, you know, financially feasible for them to, you know, uh, kind of do the stuff that they wanted to do, I guess, you know, they needed some financial resources and they had that locked in game, uh, Xbox, uh,

00:55:05.89
Tony Sisk
you know sign them to day one drop on game pass so if you want to play this game this uh piece of art basically uh you can play it on xbox game pass that's where uh vance and i are playing it ah so it's it's fantastic

00:55:16.44
Jaime G 
It is a piece of art, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:55:22.99
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:55:28.08
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah, because I think what they announced, I think in 2023 that they were going to be a Game Pass ah day one. Day one.

00:55:36.52
Tony Sisk
Yep.

00:55:36.64
Sentfrmheaven
um

00:55:36.67
Tony Sisk
yep

00:55:37.70
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah. And then, um you know, like, i you know, and I never... dove into like ah how long it takes to really like develop a ah game of either this size or you know any size but it was like you know the fact that they got this done in like what five six year time span is like it's crazy

00:55:58.64
Jaime G 
It was it was ah a different time window than other big games. It was a different budget. And these guys made everything work with what they made what little they had go so much longer than everybody else would have.

00:56:14.69
Tony Sisk
Yeah. What's kind of so cool is that the yeah they basically started during COVID.

00:56:21.78
Jaime G 
Uh-huh.

00:56:22.30
Tony Sisk
So... like to be able to like communicate and kind of get ideas moving forward and stuff, probably all over a computer, you know, instead of meeting together. i mean, I'm sure they met together later on, but in 2020 is kind of when they started this.

00:56:43.91
Tony Sisk
Um, you know It's a six year. took them five or six years for the development cycle. But again, they don't have a they don't have like 3,000 people working on it.

00:56:56.45
Tony Sisk
they

00:56:57.18
Jaime G 
No, no.

00:56:57.29
Tony Sisk
Ubisoft, these guys are from Ubisoft. They're used to like huge studios all around the world working on the project.

00:57:01.83
Jaime G 
But but you know you know what they had? They had the right people working on it. they i mean I mean, I read that they subcontracted out a bunch, like a ton of work to developers in Korea.

00:57:17.03
Jaime G 
and

00:57:17.03
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

00:57:18.24
Jaime G 
They had to have like project managers and like the right quality control people to be like, is what you're sending a me back something that as a gamer I want to play?

00:57:28.26
Tony Sisk
Right.

00:57:28.59
Jaime G 
Or you're just sending me back something that mechanically works, right?

00:57:34.05
Tony Sisk
Yeah. But.

00:57:36.93
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah.

00:57:38.89
Tony Sisk
So and you guys.

00:57:39.02
Sentfrmheaven
Yeah, because it's funny because when ah I was watching a little mini documentary, I was like, yeah, you know they started out with like six people and then they grew to 15.

00:57:39.64
Tony Sisk
Go ahead.

00:57:49.91
Sentfrmheaven
I was like, that's still not a lot of people.

00:57:52.92
Jaime G 
No, dude.

00:57:54.05
Sentfrmheaven
It's still a lot of he was sweat listen man fifteen people. fifteen ah superheroes no capees

00:58:03.38
Tony Sisk
yeah so alright do you guys if you haven't already caught on if you've been watching the episode ah your guys' opinions on the game this what do you think

00:58:23.09
Sentfrmheaven
I definitely think it's must-have in the collection. Got to have it, got to play it, and I think it's a good game. And as long as they, like you said, stay hungry, as long as they keep their eye on the prize, I think ah they'll pump out another great sequel.

00:58:40.99
Jaime G 
If they continue having this like small studio mentality and put the quality of their output above anything else, taking they can make this they can make this work for the next sequel or whatever the their next project becomes.

00:59:00.15
Tony Sisk
Right. Yeah. I think, uh, this, this is a game that, um, is going to win a lot of awards. I think this is the game that is going to be, they're going to be calling this, uh, this development team up to the stage many, many times, uh, at the end of year when we, ah when we go back and do our you know, award show, uh, episodes later in the year, you know,

00:59:28.14
Tony Sisk
Game of the Year definitely is a possibility.

00:59:29.50
Jaime G 
This is going to take something. Yeah, this is going to take something home.

00:59:33.32
Tony Sisk
Soundtrack. I mean, just whatever the different episodes, I mean, the categories that have, these guys, they're going to be right there because this is a fantastic game. The acting is fantastic. The voice acting.

00:59:47.62
Tony Sisk
The music is just epic.

00:59:53.03
Tony Sisk
And yes, you the gameplay is really good. yeah But like I'm just a mini-map.

01:00:00.41
Jaime G 
Absolutely, man. A minimap, a side quest tracking system, and you know don't give me no janky controls for areas where I definitely need to be doing platforming for.

01:00:09.65
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

01:00:13.14
Tony Sisk
Yeah. So it's highly recommended you guys go check out this game.

01:00:14.85
Sentfrmheaven
yep

01:00:17.25
Tony Sisk
Like I said, if you're on Xbox, there's no excuse. If you're on Game Pass, you've got to play this game.

01:00:23.30
Sentfrmheaven
mm-hmm yeah Jaime said he wasn't a Jarman

01:00:23.78
Tony Sisk
And PlayStation guys, hey, buy it. I mean, um ah I'm going to be like Hami. I want a copy of this game.

01:00:35.09
Jaime G 
i I had to like, dude, I had to like be continuously checking to see if they had restocked it and across multiple retailers.

01:00:35.70
Tony Sisk
Definitely to add to my collection.

01:00:44.92
Tony Sisk
Yeah.

01:00:45.27
Jaime G 
And when I saw it, like not the European version, not like, you know, the PAL disc. No, i when I found like the ah North American disc back on stock, I was like, I scooped it up right away.

01:00:58.99
Tony Sisk
Yep. Hard to find right now, but as soon as ah it's more available, definitely adding it to my collection.

01:01:01.57
Jaime G 
Mm-hmm.

01:01:07.04
Tony Sisk
So if you guys have played it, be sure to let us know um in our show description on our podcast. We have the fan mail option.

01:01:19.12
Tony Sisk
Click on there and let us know. the Are you playing Claire Obscure Expedition 33 and what you thought about the game? And you know if you're watching this on Twitch, let's hear your thoughts on the comments.

01:01:36.54
Tony Sisk
And if you're interested in looking for a Discord community, click on our Discord link at the in the show description and join our community. And if you're wanting to hear more episodes, yeah we have a good backlog.

01:01:53.37
Tony Sisk
This is, I think, episode 144 of our podcast. of our podcasts right. Five years, 144 episodes, continuing to produce content and, you know, grow

01:02:00.75
Jaime G 
We made it. it

01:02:09.61
Tony Sisk
So be sure to, ah you know, check us out, subscribe either to our podcast or on Twitch. And we'll catch you guys on the next episode.

01:02:20.52
Tony Sisk
Have night.

01:02:22.99
Jaime G 
See you fellas.