Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

Side Quest - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 First Impressions.

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In this Side Quest episode of Gaming The System, Jem and Matt dive into their first impressions of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — the surprise hit that’s quickly becoming one of the year’s most talked-about games.

From the moment-to-moment combat to the sweeping, surreal story, Jem and Matt share where they’re at in the game (up to the Forgotten Battlefield) and what’s drawn them in so far. Expect honest reflections on difficulty spikes, character design, and why turn-based combat can be more satisfying than frantic button-mashing. Plus SPOILERS!

We explore how an indie studio pulled off a stunningly beautiful, ambitious game using off-the-shelf Unreal assets making Expedition 33 a serious contender for Game of the Year.  

Also, anyone else getting Final Fantasy, Dark Souls, Baldur’s Gate 3, and even Silent Hill vibes from this game or is it just us? Will it maintain this standard or lose it's shine as we continue to play through?

And Jem shares her secret weapon to managing the combat system. 

Whether you’re deep into Expedition 33 yourself, or just curious about the hype, this episode is worth a listen!

Join us as we explore a game that’s already reshaping expectations.

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Speaker:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today, I'm your host. I'm Gem, and I'm joined by Matt. So before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our patron at patron.com/gaming the system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us US a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Today, we are talking about the amazing game, Claire Obscure, expedition 33. We're both recently started playing it, so we haven't completed it. We just thought we'd get together and have a little chat about what. Our thoughts are at this early stage in playing and get a feel for this game. I just wanted to, give a little heads up that we are talking about the game up to where Matt and I have reached, which is the forgotten battlefield, and therefore there might be some spoilers if you haven't gotten this far. It is not game of the year yet. Is it?

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It is probably gonna be. Up there I can't imagine it going without a single nomination for it.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

No, I know that up until it was released, everyone's money was on split fiction, which is another. Amazing game that I'm currently playing with my daughter. And then Expedition 33 came along and is a serious contender. So. Obviously I quite like it. I think you can probably tell from that intro, but what do you think about it so far, Matt?

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I've been on quite, a nonlinear journey to playing it because I started off trying to watch a stream from Angry Joe, who's one of my favorites YouTube channels, and him and, his mate. so he's angry. Joe and his mate is also called Joe, so he's called other Joe. They're AJ and OJ and they're very fun. At first I. Didn't take it very seriously. I wasn't very, captured by it. I thought it seemed a bit just non-serious because they were making fun of the faces and that he looks exactly like Robert Pattinson to start off with. immediately the writing in that first little bit just didn't click with me very much just because you shouldn't be allowed to use okay. when you're writing in games or okay, or coup or are you all right? Or just those little tiny, little millennial words of dialogue that I hate. So immediately went like that, and then finding out that Charlie Cox plays Gustav, which I'll be interested to see your opinions on given the things he said at Comic-Cons about it. The bodies are shaped a bit weird, the combat turn based, I hadn't expected. I, I've been in a phase of wanting fast action melee stuff recently so it didn't really fit then for me. And I tried playing it a little bit and didn't really click with me either then. But then it the last few months about how la it's been, the story about how it being a, an independent studio making it and that they've made this incredible, very, very popular work. Sold 3.3 million copies within 33 days so it's wildly popular. You mentioned that you'd been playing it and were really enjoying it. So I thought, there are many more reasons for me to go back and try it, it's a lovely game. Very well made. A wonderful little sliver of uniqueness in the gaming landscape that came out of nowhere. It looks beautiful. The writing gets better once you relax into it. mystery is excellent. I love a, apocalyptic mystery that no one understands. That is just damaging you over and over again. Have you watched much of attack on Titan?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

No.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I finally watched the last episode of it that's been out for a while, but I've been scared to watch it because I knew it was gonna be the best thing ever. Attack on Titan is the best piece of art that I've ever experienced, and, and I got the, the vibes from this in that the Titans, no one, I, no one knows what they are, where they come from and why they eat humans. They just do that. You're faced with all this suffering and drama in the ignorance of what's going on. So I really like that. I've finished act one. Where are you in it?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

I have finished act one and just entered the forgotten battlefield.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

well that's good then.'cause I think we're pre pretty much the same place. And so, Charlie Cox, Gustav died. That was, a bit and.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

That was a real moment. I was definitely like, that was a real ooh moment for me.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And Circus. Big, mysterious, bad guy. He's awesome in everything that he's in.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And the voice actor for Verso, Ben Starr probably has the sexiest voice in voice acting at the moment because he plays the main character in Final Fantasy 16, and I bought that game because of his voice in it.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

It Really?

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

just posh.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I'm going to save the world voice. So that was a nice surprise to have him come up with it. The combat really grew on me quickly. I will give the caveat that I've used a mod for the dodging and, paring to make it easier because it's just a little bit too harsh.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

In

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

So that's my first positive impression of it. What's your,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

first

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah, so it's interesting'cause I had a similar reaction to it as you've described initially. When it first came out, I did hear the buzz about it, but, nothing about it inspired me really. I do like a post-apocalyptic storyline, but I just don't like the world because they're always so bleak and depressing, and I don't game for that. You know, the world is bleak and depressing enough without going into your game world and finding it even worse. Also, I'm not a big combat person I would like to be, and I've certainly enjoyed combat heavy games in my gaming history, but I just don't have the reflexes or the patience for complicated combat. So I was looking for a new game to play I was chatting to chat GPT about it and I was like, these are the games that I like. This is what I'm looking for, what can you suggest? One of the outliers that it suggested was, Expedition 33. And I was like, okay, I'll have another look at it. One of the things I really enjoyed about Baulder's Gate 3 was that the combat is turn based. That takes out some of the stress for me, because I don't have to be hitting all the buttons at the right time. Is that, is one of the things that causes the biggest arguments between me and my daughter when we're playing is that I'm always pressing the wrong button or, going in the wrong direction for me, having to make a decision about what button to press very quickly is something I find quite challenging. So the fact that this was turn based combat was actually one of the reasons that I picked it up. And every review I read about it was just saying, this is amazing. It is just such a good game. We talked the other day, about. Open world gaming, and it was really this game that inspired my desire to discuss that topic because I just find the open world things a bit overwhelming. It's too much of a time commitment, and this felt like a contained story. So I felt that I could go into it and know that there was an end in sight, even if it's around lots of, windy corners. It probably was one of the quickest game purchase decisions that I've made ever made. On Steam, I got it from Steam.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Do you not have, Xbox Game Pass?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

No.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It's free on there,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Uh uh.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I've been caught out by that because the reason I bought a PC and now I do all my gaming on my PCE rather than on my PlayStation, was because. X Xbox exclusives were Hellblade two and Starfield, Both of them were dreadful games. Absolutely dreadful games. But now I've been playing all these other awesome games as well. So it's a good twist of

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

But you don't like Xbox.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Now it's, I can bite my tongue. I use mods that force, the. pad to be PlayStation Sils. And I go, i'm playing a PlayStation game. So, ha. And not having to spend 60 pounds on a game like Doom

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Dark age, just to find out that it's dreadful. So yeah, any money saving thing, it's only been out for. A month or so, not very long at all,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It wasn't like a 70 or 60 pound game to start off with.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

No, it was a quick decision on a game that's slightly more expensive than what I normally buy. And I think it was really well spent. I agree with everything really. The one thing I really like is that the characters. Feel quite real. They feel like real people to me. The voice acting is excellent. It feels quite natural and they have put things in there, I think eyes are always a problem in games because they're not quite right yet, but. They have some quite nice eye movements and just some looks and the connection between the characters is something I've actually felt the relationships between the playable characters. Is is something that is developing and that I did feel, male's, grief at losing Gustav was played nicely. It wasn't overdramatized. They're very much like we are on a mission, we have a job to do, but these things happen. They come from this background of. Loss and sadness, that's all they know as people. The broader story, I have no idea what's going on. I've got some ideas about what it could be, but it's a really interesting story because it's so fantastical and yet in some ways so mundane on one hand, you feel that you are in a organized military scenario. It all feels structured and there's a history there and you know about the previous expeditions, they're building on their experience. But on the other hand, you are in this completely bonkers world where there's these, creatures that you are attacking and that are attacking you, that are absolutely insane, like something out of some kind of fever dream. Alice in Wonderland. When somebody asked me, how would you describe the game? I think Part Boulder's Gate 3 part, dragon Age. inquisition, and Part Silent Hill. It's got elements of all of those. There's definitely a strong sense of old school Final Fantasy. I think that comes through a lot in the complexity of the combat system and character development, it's a really interesting mashup

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Extremely creative.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

yes.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I've cracked open, modding again, trying to make some, learn some new stuff about how to make mods, which I haven't done for a while. I, so I cracked open this game and the, the insides are extremely interesting and cool. We'll get onto that at some point. I love the turn based combat. I think that I'm the verge of a turn based combat phase because have been looking at EXCOM two to play again and South Park Snow Day, it's hard to know whether you're gonna be in the mood for a. Turn base combat game, this one, it is, it's very satisfying. The paring is very satisfying. The attack animations are very cool. some of the coolest bits I've enjoyed the most are when I've gone to an area that I am massively underpowered for, and there are these massive things that at the start of the battle, eat one of your. Party members, so you've only got two

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Oh

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

and then it,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

I haven't come across those.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

They've got this big sucker faces that go

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Oh.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

So you're just left with two and it can kill you in basically wad shot. But with, if you parry everything perfectly, you can kill anything. And I've found that really satisfying.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. I think that's what gives it that nice balance, between being turn based and still having a bit of real time action in it, because you can't just. Walk into a fight and go off and get a cup of tea, unless you are starting the combat, they might attack you, and you need to be there to deal with that. So I think that is quite fun. Have you done the big fire monster in the battleground area? He was off, like down a side room.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

If I have, I don't remember.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

you would remember him. He heals from fire damage most of my characters were doing mostly fire, and it took ages for me to work it out. It was really nice because it was a way for me to get my head around the way the combat works. I had to sort out all my skills, make sure I was using a weapon that didn't use fire the reason I mention it now is that. When he hit you, he would put a fire dot on you, damage over time and then suck, health back from you and heal himself back up to full. So. You haven't met him.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

No.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

You would remember that. It didn't matter how much damage he'd done, if he managed to do that, then he would be full health. So the fight took ages. I died loads of times and then I worked out how to do it. It was all about the dodging. The paring. And the healing those three things and suddenly. It became a completely different fight for me once I got my head around it for me, it was a bit of a watershed moment. I literally just did that last night, so, I feel like, I'm, getting my head around the way the. Game works. The other thing that happened was that all my party died. And at the end of the fight it said, do you want to bring in your backup team? And I didn't even know I could do that'cause I hadn't had that happen before. And I was like, what do you mean I didn't? Because I was just like, no, everyone is gonna die. I dunno how to do this. But I did kill him in the end. And I was like, yay. And I think for me that was a really good sign of a really good game because I have very little patience when it comes to games, and if they're too difficult, I just walk away. I do like a challenge, but I want to have fun.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

scale of challenge.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. The fact that I stuck it out, the fact that I was like, no, I'm gonna get this guy, meant restarting, it meant. Doing a bit of research online, it meant learn really properly, understanding what my characters were doing rather than just button mashing, which is basically what I'd been doing up till then. Was really satisfying and then going in and doing the fight and dying, but knowing I was on the right track doing it again and finally getting through I was just like, yes. Everyone in the house thought I lost the plot, but that is a good sign for me. That's a really good sign of a good game.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I think it's easier with first person shooters, it's easier to do like me a real time, me a compact. It's just action, action, action, action, action you can't Film your way through turn base combat. and it needs to, it needs to ebb and flow it's quite skillful for them to have built it up like this. They've taken a lot of inspiration clearly from the Dark Souls and the Elden Ring games because of the, they must be the original ones where if we're on audio, just imagine you can picture a massive Elden ring enemy and they've got an ax and they swing it. And they swing it and they lift up and then they jump and then they around and. Then they hit you and you're going, ah, Perry, Perry par

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I like the element of timing that they force

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

with Pokemon where you attack and then they attack and then you attack you really have to learn the timings it feels insurmountable at first. But then you realize each enemy only has one or two attacks for most of it, and then you need to go ping ping. So yeah, that's another satisfying element.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

You do have to learn the timing. I did read somewhere that some people were saying that listening is the key that they all have sounds.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

You can, when you do the, button press, when you attack and you have to hit those two timing things. You could do it with your eyes shut if you listen for the ting town that comes up,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

So that's another immersive element where you go, it's not just about what you can see it doing, it's about the sound it makes,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. About getting properly into it.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

You mentioned you have flow charts of some sort, are they on spreadsheets

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Oh

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

love spreadsheets and I have no idea what it means, but I, I'm fascinated at what, you mean by.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

yeah. It's a very complicated combat system, obviously step in if I'm talking rubbish. You have action points which you build up through dodging, doing damage and various other things you can gain through the game. Each skill costs a certain amount of action points. And then each of the characters has their own little system that works for their skillset. It's about learning a different system for each character. For example, luhnay uses stains. When she casts a spell, it creates an elemental stain, fire ice or electricity. They have a light one, which is a, wild card. Other skills will consume those stains and do more damage because she's built up three fire, stains. She might do three times damage when she uses a certain skill Gustav had this overcharge, which built up, and then he could blow that on a certain scale. Maelle doesn't have that so much, but she works very well in synergy with the other characters. Sciel I found so difficult to get my head around.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

get that, but it's the most powerful one. I've done 9,999

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

of nowhere with that.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

She kicks ass. She does everything with her cards. She's like a gambler type she's very cool, when she uses certain attacks, she builds this thing called tel, if you build it, you gain sun charge, and if you spend it, you gain a moon charge. When you've got a certain amount of those two, you go into twilight, which is when you do your serious damage, quite how all that actually works. I'm not sure, but that's basically the thing. And then you've got, Verso, and he has perfection. Of course he does. So he builds up his skills and the more perfection he gets, the higher grade he gets and that, that then increases the amount of damage he does. You're trying to build, whatever they've got up and use it in the right way with their, with their various skills. And I dunno if we're going to get access to more skills, but at the moment, each character can only have six. They can use in a fight. They can have more skills available, but you have to move them across. I don't think you can do that in the middle of combat. So that's hard enough. That's complicated enough. Get your head around how all of that works so that you can get those amazing high damage hit. And I think that was the thing when I brought Sciel in. I was like, why is she doing thousands and my other guys are doing 235 and 43, and I was sort of like, what's going on? So that was one of the things that made me kind of go, no I need to get my head around how this all works. So the flow charts were basically me trying to work out like, under what circumstances do I do this? What order should I use my skills in to get the best? Results out of it. You know, how am I supposed to build up overcharge or how do I build up Luhnah's stains? And then, it's also about how they all interact together. You play with three characters it's a huge amount of information to keep track of. So yeah, I've created these little, like, if this is applied and that's not applied, then you can use this skill. And if that's applied and that's not applied, then you should do this. Way too complicated to even go through in the middle of a fight. But was a way for me to start learning how to actually use these spells.'cause it is by no means, intuitive at this. Stage, but I feel like it will become more so.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I think this is a really good way to lead into the characters and The gender split, which, only just occurred to me, which shows how good the, the characterization is, that you don't really see the gender with it. each of the characters has a very specific combat profile, combat identity, Gustav feels like a very gentle person. All the way through. He's not your stereotypical leading man. He seems just out of place in that kind of situation. I used his big attack his overcharge thing

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

to build up. He was most useful'cause he wasn't particularly powerful. I would use him for casting, using items or, buffing one of the other companions, then it would go to Luna and Luna's an absolute powerhouse all of her attacks, escalate damage with each turn. You spend two turns applying fire stains, and then on the third one you apply the. I stain or one of the, one of the opposite ones. And then Sciel, I love Sciel's. Awesome. I love the way that she was introduced, her being the champion of the

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

cute neons.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

wonder what on earth we're gonna find out what their genesis is. And she's just extremely powerful and a completely different kind of energy. That they come with and I like. I wonder what her opinion is of Charlie Cox as the voice actor for Gustav. So for anyone who doesn't know, Charlie Cox is Daredevil in the TV show.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Know that.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Really? So Good, that's one tick in the box. And he was asked about Claire obscure, Comic-Con, he said that someone came up to him and said, oh my God, you're Gustav. His response was, who? And he, he said that he own, he feels a bit like a fraud because he only did one. He showed up for one day and did all his lines in one day and clearly forgot about it. And he's having a massive impact on people. People are really excited with his performance, but knowing that about the actor being with it like that just, it adds a little jolt to it I had the same thing with, Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. Michael Gambon said, I don't understand any of it. I don't really care about it. You go

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

dumble door, are the most powerful wizard in the world. Just you need

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

an actor needs to be able to. a shit about the thing in

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

it to have a good

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah, I mean, when you, put that next to like Neil

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Hmm.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

How much he's lent into the whole Astarion character and the fan stuff that came off the back of that. You want your actors to be connected to their characters. You want to feel that they invested in them. When we did our, comic Con in Cardiff, my daughter was very excited'cause she got to meet, widow maker, the voice of widow maker from, Overwatch was there. Chloé Hollings and my daughter was thrilled because she'd, been playing that character for years. I think it was really interesting for her to, meet her, to see her and, say hi. She messaged her on, Instagram and got a message back saying like, oh, it was really nice to meet you. It was just really sweet. I'm sure that Charlie Cox isn't dismissive of, the character, but he perhaps didn't appreciate the cultural impact of what he was doing or the popularity that might come with the game and therefore him.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Yeah, I read a little bit of the development of the game and how it went from, indie studio and then they managed to get funding from a bigger studio.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And then they invested in some big names for the acting. And it feels like they just oh, we'll give you a load of money to come in for one day's work. And you went, oh, well I'll be in London at that time. I'll just go in and do it. But when he died, realizing that, he's not the main, main character. And I think that puts a, a different flavor on it because he comes across as very gentle

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

He has, it's just good.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

His performance is just. A sound decent performance, I think that actually really nicely because he's not at the front of everything and everything's all about me. It very quickly becomes an ensemble thing

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

and very quickly it's three women and him,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

and they all have a very. Organic feeling lots of very good chemistry with them. I think Charlie Cox is an excellent actor, some people you hear their voice and you go, Ooh, there's a massive flavor and character

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

with it. So he's obviously struck a chord. And if

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

been the main character, I would've had more of an issue with it.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Maelle is going to end up being the.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah, it feels like it's a story about her, doesn't it?

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

You recognize the Maelle voice?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

That's, Jennifer English,

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

I only really pay attention to her because my grandmother's surname was English. So I have this idea that maybe she is related.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Now she has, when I remember us talking about Shadowheart and we were talking about how old she was,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

We know that she's in her forties, and in this, she's playing someone in her early twenties

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

got a youthful voice.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

She does.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

very good actor

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

really comes through

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

they're not afraid to have just silence. Let the visual actors, they got someone else to play gustav's part in the motion capture and he did a really good job. So yeah, just an excellent job by all.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

They've put a lot of effort into the depth of the story and the, and the character development. They've wanted to put money into ensuring that it's properly voiced, and then it's a. Good old running around, beating up monsters game final fantasy, like random encounter experience. And then you go into this map world which is just really bizarre where you can run around, but it's a completely different environment and then you've got Eski.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I love esky.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

It's just insane.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

very fun.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

it feels like they've taken a lot of things that they've gone, I love this bit, I love this. Game. I liked this from that game, and they've pulled it all together and so often that kind of combination of things just ends up being a mess. But what they've done here is made a really good game I'm just crossing my fingers that it's good all the way through. I'm just scared that it's going to lose me or disappoint me

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

crack of doubt came in when Verso appears. And then he comes down and speaks to them and just says, oh yeah, me and him we're from the first expedition. We don't age. He wants to keep the Paintress alive so that he can live forever

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And he revealed it in that way. I'll be very disappointed.​The Paintress is. A fascinatingly designed thing because her posture

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yes.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

We've got a little statue in our music room that is a statue of a woman in that pose.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

the most, if you're listening, just Google it quickly and you'll see it's such a pitiful pose of someone who looks like they're in terrible. Terrible emotional

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah, yeah,

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

what that is.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

yeah. Right at the start, is it Male? Says she doesn't seem happy.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It was his, girlfriend,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

and she says she seems really sad. I thought that was really interesting. And then there's the spooky Renoir character and the strange girl that he is running around with

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

of the. Of the,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

the,

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

walking

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Bong.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. That's intense. Isn't that?

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

What do you think of the music?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Well, I'm not a massive fan of the French genre, music. So I was. Quite reserved about how I was going to feel about it because it does kick off with some quiet French, but some of it is just amazing and I just really enjoy it actually. The vast majority of the music I just really enjoy. I did read somewhere that they were saying, they really admired the guts for a game that would create, over half of its content off the beaten track. You don't even have to go to it. The other thing they said was that the music they'd created, like huge amount of different music for the game. I think increasingly game makers are understanding how important the music is.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And how lucrative it can With all the concert. There have been more and more concerts of full orchestras. Doing game music and I guarantee that this is gonna have a big tour at some

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. I mean it's excellent for the whole steam punk cosplayer genre. Although this isn't specifically steampunk, it definitely has a lot of steampunk elements to it.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I really enjoy the music. I think the music's really good. It just needs to calm down a bit there isn't much ebbing and flowing of it. It's always, no matter where I am, some dramatic music's happening, and it just needs moments where it's a bit more. Subtle. This brings me on perfectly to when I cracked open the game files to see what was inside

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

This game is incredibly inspiring and encouraging because. Almost 80, like 80 90% of the game files are assets that they have bought from the Epic Games, sort of asset store where you can, like creators will make something like a modular Victorian mansion then you can buy it and then put it into your game.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Okay.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I opened it and was reading through it. And most games I look through, I go, oh, I don't recognize any of these things. I assume most of them are custom made. They have to custom make everything. And that's, that makes something feel very insurmountable for someone wanting to make their own game. But this, I opened it and thought, I recognize that folder, name I went into the Unreal Engine store. And searched for every folder on it. There are 96 separate Unreal engine assets they have bought from the store.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Okay.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

So everything that they have, it's one of the most visually stunning

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I've seen in a long time,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

and they have taken, all of it creatively used. Pre-built assets, I look through this list and go, oh wow, all of this unique, incredible stuff you can literally just collect this big toolbox of assets then use them creatively and make a stunning game.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And that's a wonderful thing to see.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

That you can literally just buy a load of stuff and turn it into something incredible. It won't be just generic stuff.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

So without checking into the modding, I have to change my tune on the stellar blade criticism we did recently because I found this guy who changed some of the textures in stellar blade. And this guy makes the, the sexy mods of putting in bikinis and boob physics and all that kind of stuff. And it was a 20 minute tutorial worked immediately. The best tutorial. I've ever seen for it. so that's made me go, well, kudos to that, that helped me with this. And then that led me into looking into Claire Obscure, which has led me into looking inside the game and coming to this realization. that encourages me for my own development ideas. So this game has had a wonderful impact in a

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

of unexpected ways. It's ended up as more than a game for me.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah,

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I just hope that they have the mystery and reveal it well, and that there's an awesome revelation at the end.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Based on everyone's, reviews of it, I think that, that's my hope. That's my hope. That's my belief. It's just nice to have a game that is a bit of a challenge and a bit of fun and has a really good story

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

And

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

to play.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

bullshit?

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yep.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Want proper coming in from the side and going, oh yeah,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

do this. This

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

that's possible and you are not doing it because you're bad at making games.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

It's not that it's, impossible to make good games. We can make it

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

a fraction of the resources.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yeah. That is really positive actually. Thank you for sharing that because that's a world that I haven't dabbled in at all. It's nice to know, as you say, that these are effectively sort of off the shelf things that they have then taken and turned into something that couldn't be less off the shelf, it's such an exciting game and I'm, I'm hope, I hope it will be, yeah. Like you say, inspirational to other people that you, Baldur's Gate 3 was amazing and an excellent game, everyone was like, we can't all do that. We haven't got the money, we haven't got the time, and then something like this comes out and says, it, it can be done. I'm not saying that this is equivalent to Baldur's Gate 3, but there are better games than Fortnite out there.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Yes.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Right. Did you have anything else that you wanted to say about 33

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I used a mod to the volumetric fog, which is the hazy atmosphere that's

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Mm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Thought that was a bit too much volumetric fog stuff that just makes it feel a bit weird. And so I removed that and

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Hmm.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

The other thing, map, give

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Yes.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

I don't know where I am. I dunno where I'm going. I don't know. I don't know where I've been.

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Which is interesting, isn't it? Because you can fast travel between the flags and I'm thinking, well, yeah, but I don't know where anything is. So until you go onto that weird map place, I dunno how to get there, you have to pop out of an area sort of like dungeons, aren't they? But yes, I agree with you. I've been really longing for a map. I've even considered drawing my own. But it's a little bit impossible for that. I think what we'll do is come back for another conversation once we've both finished it. And see what our thoughts are on it post play.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Yeah,

jem_1_08-13-2025_142920:

Thank you so much for listening if you haven't started playing Expedition 33, I recommend giving it a go. I think even if you only. Plays up to where we've got to, you'll have a really enjoyable time. It's a really interesting game and gives us a lot of hope for the future of games, it'll be interesting to see where, where they go next. We have something out every Thursday if you've got anything you want to say about this game or our podcast in general, please let us know we'll see you very soon. Bye.

matt-guest194_1_08-13-2025_142915:

Bye bye.