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bookofdanielvol2Last month I caved and finally bought a PS5, along with my first two games for it: Clair Obscur; Expedition 33 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (funny thing about the latter is that the original version of Oblivion was also one of the two games I bought with my Xbox 360 back in 2007).
So far the majority of my PS5 time has been devoted to Expedition 33, and I. Love. This. Game.
Great story with some unforgettable twists, great characters, great gameplay, and stunningly-beautiful art direction in terms of both visuals and music.
I like that a lot about the mechanics of the game feel very old-school to an almost surprising degree, from the battle system being a true turn-based system (albeit with an evolution of Mario RPG-style timed hits/blocks/dodges/etc. and button inputs for special attacks to speed things up) and exploring back corners of certain areas leading you to run into super-strong enemies that you can't possibly beat at your current level and know you'll have to come back for. I wonder if, in an alternate timeline, the battle system of modern Final Fantasy games might have eventually evolved into something like this game's had no one at Square ever played Devil May Cry.
The only thing I’m not huge on his how the equipment/ability system works; weapons are fine but I’m not huge on the Picto/Lumina system. But it’s not nearly the worst equipment system I’ve played either; I mean, Final Fantasy VIII exists after all.) I also wish I liked Sciel's battle mechanics a little more since I do like her as a character, but I did warm up to her a bit after shifting to primarily use her as a buffer for the powerhouse characters. Maelle, on the other hand, is a near-constant in my party - when you get it and the Painted Power picto to break the damage cap, her Stendhal move is ridiculous - and Verso (and, earlier, Gustave) also make strong powerhouse characters, while Lune is a good mage (I focused her on fire and healing), and I dig Monoco's pseudo-Blue Mage setup (the way he acquires his skills actually more reminds me of Gau in FF6).
As far as my progress in it goes - while I won't say that I'm actually done with it, as there's still a good amount of optional Act 3 stuff left, I did go ahead and play through the final boss and credit roll of Clai, so I'm going to call it for the purposes of my completion list.
My final dungeon/boss team ended up being Maelle, Verso and Monoco, and they wrecked house - between Maelle's Stendhal, Verso's Endbringer and Phantom Stars, and Monoco's Portier Crash (and, by the end, Creation Void), nothing in the final dungeon stood much of a chance. While I don't think I was too overleveled (~65) to enjoy the final battle, the last round did end up getting more or less one-shotted by Maelle's Stendhal (as did the one fight after that).
As for the ending, I sided with Maelle. In reading a few articles and Reddit threads, it seems many consider this the "bad" ending, but for me it was an easy choice, and it didn't really even have to do with the fact that Verso's ending would see the world inside the painting erased. It mainly had to do with Maelle/Alicia's agency. In the real world, she had none - everything was decided for her, and from the fire her voice was quite literally taken away as well as her face. Is it better for her to give up the painted world and rejoin reality to heal and move on? Is descending into the fantasy world inside the painting the healthiest way for her to cope with her family, personal and bodily losses? Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn't matter. It's the one place she has agency over herself, and so it's her decision. I've seen and experienced enough grief in my time to know that everyone grieves differently, and it's not for anyone else but themselves to decide how someone should do it. It's Maelle/Alicia's choice, not Painted Verso's, not Renoir's, not Aline's, not Clea's, hell, not even the player's. In this kind of situation others can offer help, sure, of course, but they don't get to decide how grief should be handled on behalf of someone else, and there's a point where trying to "help" in the wrong way does more harm than good. So I really didn't have any hesitation or agonizing over this one like I did with the final decision in the first Life is Strange - for better or worse, "good" ending or "bad," I sided with her and I'd do it again every time.
Anyway, I've been working through the higher-level Act 3 stuff after getting the ending - did some of the optional areas, did some level grinding in Frozen Hearts and then Dark Shores, got some of the collectibles (lost gestrals, manor doors, etc.), etc. My team is currently around level 85. I did most of the Flying Manor but got crushed by Clea at the end of it, so I'll have to go back for her; accidentally flew into the flying dragon and succeeded in taking it down (it had destroyed me at the beginning of Act 3 when I flew into it just to see what would happen), and am currently working through Verso's Drafts. Having already seen my chosen ending, it's kinda nice to just be able to pop it in and enjoy a bit of the game without the urgency of getting to the end of the story (although some of the post-game stuff does add a bit to the story anyway).
Very good chance that this could end up on my Top 10 Games of All Time list the next time I update it, which is wild since there's only one game on the current list from after the year 2000, and that one's from before 2010 (Grand Theft Auto IV, for the record). I even ordered two t-shirts from the game's official merch, and put a preorder in for the Esquie plush for good measure.
So far the majority of my PS5 time has been devoted to Expedition 33, and I. Love. This. Game.
Great story with some unforgettable twists, great characters, great gameplay, and stunningly-beautiful art direction in terms of both visuals and music.
I like that a lot about the mechanics of the game feel very old-school to an almost surprising degree, from the battle system being a true turn-based system (albeit with an evolution of Mario RPG-style timed hits/blocks/dodges/etc. and button inputs for special attacks to speed things up) and exploring back corners of certain areas leading you to run into super-strong enemies that you can't possibly beat at your current level and know you'll have to come back for. I wonder if, in an alternate timeline, the battle system of modern Final Fantasy games might have eventually evolved into something like this game's had no one at Square ever played Devil May Cry.
The only thing I’m not huge on his how the equipment/ability system works; weapons are fine but I’m not huge on the Picto/Lumina system. But it’s not nearly the worst equipment system I’ve played either; I mean, Final Fantasy VIII exists after all.) I also wish I liked Sciel's battle mechanics a little more since I do like her as a character, but I did warm up to her a bit after shifting to primarily use her as a buffer for the powerhouse characters. Maelle, on the other hand, is a near-constant in my party - when you get it and the Painted Power picto to break the damage cap, her Stendhal move is ridiculous - and Verso (and, earlier, Gustave) also make strong powerhouse characters, while Lune is a good mage (I focused her on fire and healing), and I dig Monoco's pseudo-Blue Mage setup (the way he acquires his skills actually more reminds me of Gau in FF6).
As far as my progress in it goes - while I won't say that I'm actually done with it, as there's still a good amount of optional Act 3 stuff left, I did go ahead and play through the final boss and credit roll of Clai, so I'm going to call it for the purposes of my completion list.
My final dungeon/boss team ended up being Maelle, Verso and Monoco, and they wrecked house - between Maelle's Stendhal, Verso's Endbringer and Phantom Stars, and Monoco's Portier Crash (and, by the end, Creation Void), nothing in the final dungeon stood much of a chance. While I don't think I was too overleveled (~65) to enjoy the final battle, the last round did end up getting more or less one-shotted by Maelle's Stendhal (as did the one fight after that).
As for the ending, I sided with Maelle. In reading a few articles and Reddit threads, it seems many consider this the "bad" ending, but for me it was an easy choice, and it didn't really even have to do with the fact that Verso's ending would see the world inside the painting erased. It mainly had to do with Maelle/Alicia's agency. In the real world, she had none - everything was decided for her, and from the fire her voice was quite literally taken away as well as her face. Is it better for her to give up the painted world and rejoin reality to heal and move on? Is descending into the fantasy world inside the painting the healthiest way for her to cope with her family, personal and bodily losses? Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn't matter. It's the one place she has agency over herself, and so it's her decision. I've seen and experienced enough grief in my time to know that everyone grieves differently, and it's not for anyone else but themselves to decide how someone should do it. It's Maelle/Alicia's choice, not Painted Verso's, not Renoir's, not Aline's, not Clea's, hell, not even the player's. In this kind of situation others can offer help, sure, of course, but they don't get to decide how grief should be handled on behalf of someone else, and there's a point where trying to "help" in the wrong way does more harm than good. So I really didn't have any hesitation or agonizing over this one like I did with the final decision in the first Life is Strange - for better or worse, "good" ending or "bad," I sided with her and I'd do it again every time.
Anyway, I've been working through the higher-level Act 3 stuff after getting the ending - did some of the optional areas, did some level grinding in Frozen Hearts and then Dark Shores, got some of the collectibles (lost gestrals, manor doors, etc.), etc. My team is currently around level 85. I did most of the Flying Manor but got crushed by Clea at the end of it, so I'll have to go back for her; accidentally flew into the flying dragon and succeeded in taking it down (it had destroyed me at the beginning of Act 3 when I flew into it just to see what would happen), and am currently working through Verso's Drafts. Having already seen my chosen ending, it's kinda nice to just be able to pop it in and enjoy a bit of the game without the urgency of getting to the end of the story (although some of the post-game stuff does add a bit to the story anyway).
Very good chance that this could end up on my Top 10 Games of All Time list the next time I update it, which is wild since there's only one game on the current list from after the year 2000, and that one's from before 2010 (Grand Theft Auto IV, for the record). I even ordered two t-shirts from the game's official merch, and put a preorder in for the Esquie plush for good measure.
