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The Wait For It Podcast
Hosted by MrEricAlmighty and PhilTheFilipino, the guys discuss all things in Pop Culture from movies, gaming, anime and anything in between. New episodes every Wednesday, all you have to do is...WAIT FOR IT!
The Wait For It Podcast
The Game Room Where It Happens - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
We dive into Claire Obscure: Expedition 33, a stylish turn-based RPG set in a dreamlike, Belle Époque-inspired world where players must defeat the Painteress before she erases another year of humanity's history.
• The game's stunning visuals, world-building, and soundtrack create an immersive experience despite coming from a small development team
• Claire Obscure's combat system blends turn-based strategy with real-time action in a uniquely satisfying way
• Voice performances from Charlie Cox, Andy Serkis, and others bring emotional depth to the characters despite lip-syncing issues
• The game delivers a shocking moment at the end of Act One that forces players to confront grief—one of its central themes
• While attempting several gameplay mechanics beyond its core combat, some elements like platforming and climbing feel less polished
• At 30-40 hours of gameplay with Act Two being particularly lengthy, the game offers substantial content for its price
• Claire Obscure stands as a Game of the Year contender alongside titles like Silksong and Death Stranding 2
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Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment. Wait for it Gaming.
Speaker 2:Wait for it. Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1:Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is wait for it. This is the Wait For it Podcast. Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Wait For it Podcast. I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1:And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and on this edition of the Game Room, where it Happens, we're going to be talking about a very current game, some would say the frontrunner for Game of the Year in the year of 2025. Our dear Lord Silksong Just going to ignore that, claire Obscure Frontrunner Game of the Year. People have been loving it and we are excited to get into a game, phil, that I never thought we were ever going to play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for Claire Obscure. This is actually a game that came on my radar last year strictly because of how gorgeous it looked. It looked very different. Don't have a lot of experience in the turn-based world, but this was something I was like, yeah, we're gonna have to try this out, especially with it coming to game pass being very accessible even if you don't have game pass. So we're gonna break all of that down here tonight.
Speaker 2:And at the request, very recent request of one of our newest weight watchers, botter from the short box podcast, he literally last week, when we were recording with him, he was like hey, I got a bone to pick with you guys. Where's the Clear Obscure episode? Well, here you go, botter. Here it is, signed, sealed, delivered, all for you and actually everybody that's here. So, thank you so much for joining us. If you need a little refresher on where, stick around to the very end. We'll let you know where you can find all of that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, eric, let's get into Claire Obscure, expedition 33. It is a stylish, story-driven RPG set in a dreamlike, belle, opec-inspired world. Every year, a mysterious entity known as the Painteress awakens to erase an entire year of humanity's history, wiping people and places from existence, humanity's history, wiping people and places from existence. You lead a desperate expedition on a journey to defeat her before she awakens again, combining turn-based strategy with real-time action combat in a visually stunning fight to save the last remnants of civilization. So yeah, eric, like I mentioned, this game came into my view last year and I think it was right around the time we were recording like the mid-season fantasy draft for Friendly Neighborhood Gamers at the time and I was like what is this again? As far as graphically, it just looks absolutely stunning gameplay, very unique and from a studio in a developer I mean in Sandfall Interactive that no one really knew about.
Speaker 2:And we are very much in this age, especially over the last five, 10 years, where we're seeing developers come out of nowhere, put out these games that are not technically AAA titles but have AAA delivery in terms of their launch, in terms of their gameplay, in terms of everything that comes after, and it's just been really, really great to see, especially with us entering the pc gaming world. So, eric, what has been your? You know your history with turn-based rpgs. Did you have any before? Clear, obscure, or what was that like in terms of you know your gaming backlog and your gaming history god, what are turn-based rpgs?
Speaker 1:is that?
Speaker 2:even so a. Thing so a game like final fantasy. 7 so final fantasy 7 people will say pokemon is turn-based, which it is. It's just at its very simplest form and that works. You know pokemon has worked for decades. I would play. If they released a turn like an original turn-based pokemon game right now, I would play, play it. There is like a Mario and Luigi games that have came out Current day. You're talking about like a Persona. You know games like that.
Speaker 1:No, the answer is no. The only more recent experience I've had is Baldur's Gate 3, which is a game I really am excited to get back into now that I have my PC. It's something I've been pushing off since I got my pc at the tail end of last year. Outside of that, especially during the console years that we are notorious for for a lot of our adulthood, it is something that I have not exactly explored very much, but I also don't think it was very like accessible, like you mentioned Final Fantasy, maybe your persona, but other than that, like pure games that stuck with that, like that's their thing.
Speaker 1:I don't know that there's that many franchises. It seems like we might be taking a turn in that direction, but it is something that I've avoided, not because I don't enjoy it, because I again I'm like I've enjoyed turn-based stuff before, but it's just not a genre of gaming that I ever jumped into, which, again, is why I think it's so surprising that we this was one on your radar. Two, that we even played it and, three, that there was even any enjoyment in the combat, which is some of the most fluid combat that I had the pleasure of enjoying this year yeah, we're gonna talk about all that for sure, and just what a grand accomplishment this is.
Speaker 2:we're gonna talk about, obviously, positives and negatives in this episode and we we both do three takeaways. If you're new to the podcast, eric and I both choose three takeaways that we want to discuss when it comes to the game. So let's go ahead and get started. I will go ahead and go first, and mine is cheating a little bit because it is going to be both a positive and kind of a negative. I don't know you let me know if this is nitpicky or not, but I feel like it's probably isn using because I think we've talked about it before and we also need to provide the clarity of where we both are at in our journeys.
Speaker 1:Yes, with clear right.
Speaker 2:So eric has beaten the game. He played it all the way through and I have only gotten a couple hours into act two, and we'll talk about why that is in a little bit too. So that is where we sit in terms of how much time we have put in. I don't have my save up right here in front of me as far as how much time I get into it, but, yeah, like I said, got into a couple hours into act two. So for us, you know, we certainly want to talk about performances in terms of the voice acting. I mean, obviously there are some big names included here in Claire Obscure, charlie Cox being the, you know, the main one that I think a lot of people are going to recognize, jennifer English, ben Starr, who has a really, really great performance, even though I haven't, like, fully gotten to see him, you know Shayla Nix, andy Serkis, but, yeah, really really great voice cast and they really portray that emotion in terms of the story.
Speaker 2:That can be a little confusing at times if you're not fully paying attention. There's a lot going on here. They're not shy about throwing you into this world and letting you kind of learn about it as you go and, again, the performances are outstanding as far as how they're delivering their lines, but the mouth flaps are off a lot. And again, this is not a AAA title, it's a team of less than 50 people, so they clearly maybe they prioritize some things over the other. But as people who watch, you obviously watch a lot of anime. I watch a decent amount of anime. That's something that can take me out of it and that's why I don't watch a lot of older anime is because the mouth flaps don't really match. So you let me know, did that take you out of any of those really emotional moments or am I again? Am I being nitpicky?
Speaker 1:Okay, well, we're starting with shots fired. Fucking Christ, I said it was a little bit of both. How is it both?
Speaker 2:I said that the performances were really good, but the mouth flaps don't match.
Speaker 1:Okay. No, I mean the mouth flaps, flaps. The lip sync is an issue. It is an issue. In fact.
Speaker 1:I distinctly remember when I was in the first hour of the game, before the title happens, and obviously you know what occurs we are going to talk about. I think we're going to pretty talk pretty freely about act one up until that moment, and then we'll put like a spoiler tag on there just for those of you that maybe don't want to hear that part. But I will say the beginning of the game, like you're introduced to this town and there's options for dialogue leading up to the pier that you're trying to get to, for the first like moment of the game to happen, for it to truly start and phil, I breezed through that fucking part. The second, the lip sync wasn't on. I was like, oh okay, I was like I'm not interested in that and it didn't work for me all the time.
Speaker 1:I don't think that it necessarily ruined the performances in any way. So I see what you're saying. Maybe that's like the good takeaway is that verbally they were good performances. It is taken away, though, a little bit by the bad lip sync, and I still have no like. Anytime I look it up. It's more theorizing why this is not a real explanation. Maybe the devs have given that, maybe this team has provided that and I just haven't found it, or it's not easily accessible. I think there should be some type of explanation, though, because it is pretty bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I didn't watch a couple of reviews from other content creators and nobody seemed to really bring it up, so I just wanted to make sure that we did, because I obviously, I mean, I don't think we're crazy. I mean, who knows, maybe the comment section will go nuts with this. It'll be like our second youtube video to ever pop off. That. That's how that's gonna work. So thank you algorithm. But yeah, but again, like I said it, just it still does not take away from the emotional depth of the characters. They're all very well written, at least the ones that I have come across so far, and I I'm certainly excited to learn more about them as we go on. But yeah, yeah, that is the first, unfortunately. That is the first thing I wanted to bring up because, yeah, because there is so much dialogue in this it's impossible to ignore because it happens immediately. So that was my first takeaway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, listen, we're off to a great start because, like, I really do feel a little bad about maybe how some of these things based off of, kind of what you're hinting at and what I've been vocal about with this game, which is that this game a lot of people jumped to it being a game of the year contender and the reason I took so long with it was because I didn't want to rush through it. And I did take my time with this game, but there are pretty significant issues. So before I get to those and again it may sound like there are going to be some nitpicky things and there are going to be some things maybe I'm in the minority about. We'll see where that kind of ends up I do want to praise the biggest thing, which I already mentioned earlier in passing, which is the combat. This is not, phil, a combat that I thought I would vibe with. The turn-based combat here with the characters is a lot of fun Getting to learn how to play as those characters If I was to have one.
Speaker 1:My one caveat to everything I'm saying right now I hate that it's limited to three. I understand it would be a little too excessive to increase that to four or five, but I really felt like I missed out on playing as certain characters that I would have liked to learn a little bit more, and the reason for that is because you have a team of four to five people, I believe, at max and you essentially play three per turn and if those three die then you have, like the last expedition, the last, like resort, and it's the remaining one to two players that jump in. That didn't always work for me, but when you do have your core, you have your favorite characters, which, phil, I'd love to know your rotation of characters as well. It is a ton of fun getting to learn them, getting to rebuild their skill tree, sometimes making complete course corrections. All of that is a great time, especially when you learn about the Luminas and the Pictos as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, as we already mentioned, this is really a departure from a lot of the gameplay that we have experienced really just in our gaming history, and it was a lot of fun to learn and there is really no learning curve, like they throw you into it right away and kind of expect you to figure out how things go as you play the game, and I think that is a. I feel like that's a huge positive. It could be an immediate detriment and a turnoff for other people.
Speaker 2:As determined as I was to figure this out and get better, I just wasn't. And the big thing for me I'm so bad at parrying. I'm so bad at parrying and dodging. It's just not my thing across all of gaming. The only thing I really feel like recently that I got even like okay at was Ghost of Tsushima, but everything else I just have not. And then, of course, batman, because it's I don't want to say it's easy to do in batman, but, like you know, and spider-man, you know those those types of things, but I just couldn't figure this out.
Speaker 2:So, to get through the game, because I wanted to experience the story, I did lower the difficulty down to story mode, but it is still a lot of fun and you still do run into those more challenging enemies. That can be a lot of fun. I wish there was some sort of in between between the standard difficulty and then the story mode, but unfortunately that's not the case. Who knows, maybe that's something they add in the future. But yeah, as far as the characters, eric, early on, the first ones that you run into, at least in the first act, of course there's Gustav, there's Luna Mael, and then it's pronounced Sayel, correct? Lune maiel, and then it's pronounced uh syl, correct, yeah, syl yep and I ran mostly.
Speaker 2:Once I got syl I I switched out my l for the most part um in the latter half.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. That's crazy. I could not figure out the staff oh yeah, I did yeah oh, no, buddy yeah, I couldn't figure out the stances.
Speaker 2:I I think it's because her like quote unquote, like the loadout. I just didn't have the right loadout to get her into the correct stances and I figured that out a little bit too late. So, like upon a replay, I would definitely swap out gustav. But yeah, the stance is because I I could not get her into the ones that I needed the most. That's why I swapped her out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Luna was my favorite, probably like consistently across the board. Yeah, she's great. I did start to really enjoy Mael as the game progresses and you know we'll talk about that. But this game is really her game, like from a story perspective. A lot is built around her, so that was really prevalent. Sae-el is one that I didn't get to spend as much time with, because once you get to act two and you're introduced to the character Monoko, he kind of came into rotation. But yeah, gustav, I wanted to get off of him so fucking fast. And we'll talk about the other character we're kind of quietly not discussing when we kind of give that very blanket spoiler warning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those characters I did not want to play immediately and whenever I was forced to play them I I was not having a great time yeah, so it's certainly about figuring out what that balance is and, again, because it's like my main point of reference, when it comes to turn-based, it is obviously very similar to like figuring out the right team that you have in Pokemon. I think that three works just fine. It's also the more traditional layout when it comes to turn-based games. So, like I'm fairly certain, in Final Fantasy it's also three people, but also in Final Fantasy you have like the summoning as well, so that's a whole different thing. Yeah, as far as the, the characters, once again, I thought they were all very, very interesting, fleshed out very well. The only thing I don't really know too much about is syl, but yeah, lune is also also probably my favorite out of all of them.
Speaker 1:But yeah, again, like kind of my first take, very, very good characters and very interesting for sure yeah, what did you think about the, uh, the pictos and the luminous, like the whole concept of those, like it was pretty. Again, this game doesn't really explain a lot to you and even when it does, a paragraph doesn't exactly explain everything you need to know. And, uh, I'm curious, like how much you dived into it to really understand it. Or did you utilize it? Or are you just learning now that you could essentially have this ability where you max out these things with each individual person and then everyone can reap the benefit?
Speaker 1:Like again, what was your experience?
Speaker 2:I kind of learned that a little bit too late, I won't say too late, but like towards a little bit closer towards this recording. So now, having that information, I do plan on upping the difficulty back up to now that I have the character. Now I'm using the characters, I believe I'm using them correctly, but I did, you know, did see those once I started doing the upgrades and, like you know, going to camp and utilizing all that. It's not just as simple as, oh, here, use your skill points and upgrade your weapon and utilizing all that. It's not just as simple as, oh, here, use your skill points and upgrade your weapon and do all this. So, like, figuring that out a little bit later will certainly be helpful as I continue to play the game. But, yeah, again, it really does just throw you in there.
Speaker 2:I mean, I used to watch my cousin play Final Fantasy and I'm pretty sure there was at least a ramp up period in Final Fantasy. So I was like if I ever wanted to play this game, I could this one again, like the, the learning curve is so steep that I'm just really happy that it has had all this, all of its success. But I have asked like I don't want to say casual gamers, but like I was curious if this game had come across like people that aren't always like have their like their pulse on what's going on in gaming. So I asked, like a coworker who is a big PC gamer, if he had played this game and he actually he said no, and it wasn't, didn't even seem like it was on his radar. So I'm kind of interested like outside of people that were really had their finger on the pulse of where gaming was and like what this release was like, how many people played this, you know?
Speaker 1:it'll be an interesting conversation, to say the least, because I feel like most people that are in the gaming space at the very least heard of this game. Um, it's very much like again silk song. Everybody knows that because everybody talks about it. But hollow night is a series, is something that most gamers know, even if they're not into, like Metroidvanias, a game that came out this year. Talking about another group of developers, small indie games, you know, from Team Cherry to Hollow Knight, to Landfall and Agro Crab with Peak, and bringing that game out and the story behind that game. Like most people in the gaming space, even if they're their friend, slop is not that genre is not for them.
Speaker 2:So much so.
Speaker 1:I get it. I was in a lonely gamer. I gave very like very sassy air quotes for that, because it looks like a friend slop.
Speaker 2:If I pay five dollars for this game and me and my friends play it for two hours and have a good time, that's a good five dollar spent. I don't care.
Speaker 1:Good five dollars spent, yeah so again, I I wouldn't agree with the term, but uh, you know, everybody knows about peak because it's really made the rounds. I think clear obscure sits somewhere in that same vein, this year in particular. So I I think it does depend on the type of gamer that you're dealing with, like, if you've got somebody who's just exclusively on consoles, maybe not, but I think most people that have a PC especially know about all of these games that I've mentioned. And clear obscure, you know, falls in that definition as well.
Speaker 2:I will say our buddy Jay, my co-host over Touchdown Jaguars, has been playing the hell out of this, but he's also like really good at games like this. He's a fighting game guy too, so like parrying, dodging, that's like second nature to him. So he's been doing really, really well in this game. I think he's well into Act 3. But yeah, eric, what is your second takeaway here for Claire Obscure?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when it comes to clear, obscure, um, I'm thinking we kind of have to pull. We have to pull the rug under, you know, out from under the episode here, which is, you know, we've told you a little bit about the game, some of the things we like, some of the things we don't like, but now we gotta rip the band-aid off and talk about the end of act one. So that is going to be my second takeaway, because I don't believe. Get out.
Speaker 2:Pretty, pretty intense Spoiler here. So yeah go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Gustav dies. I didn't love it. I didn't love it. I did not really care for the character, I did not care for the Godfather.
Speaker 2:Gustav insists upon himself. What does that even mean?
Speaker 1:Eric. I just don't think we spent enough time with him and it was kind of already starting to point towards Mael being a pretty big part of the game. There's a lot of stuff when it comes to character work here with this particular game. Again, I really love the combat when it comes to character work. I think this game thinks we're going to give it more leniency in those areas when I was expecting a little bit more of a deep dive into a lot of these characters and for most of them we don't really get that. So for a character like Gustav, who is propped up to be this main character, and then you basically replace him with a discount version in Verso, that's my opinion.
Speaker 1:I know that's going to probably piss people off, but I did not enjoy Verso at all in act two or three Did not enjoy Verso at all, and it's because he has similar move sets. He's also kind of equally boring, honestly, even though he's a very crucial part to the game. It just didn't work for me, phil, and I think for me how you react to the end of act one is an important takeaway, because that to me, determines is this an investment of time you want to keep making? Are you enjoying the game? I continued to play it because the combat is so stellar and I like the world and the opponents and the boss fights and all that shit's cool. But yeah, story-wise, character development-wise, definitely some of the weakest areas here and we won't dive into too many spoilers beyond Act 1. But I will tell you I did not love that theme of like. It wasn't really fleshed out enough for some of the themes they were hitting. That continued into Act 2 and through Act 3.
Speaker 2:Do you think it would have impacted you differently if we had spent at least more time with them in act two? Cause, from what I understand, act two is pretty long, isn't it? Is that actually? The longest, so fucking long Cause I was like I was looking through like a gameplay and the video was like 11 hours long. Yeah, no shit.
Speaker 1:So and that's just the story. Like there was a point in act two where I was like I'm gonna stop doing side stuff and I'm just gonna focus on the story. It took forever. Act three is super short in comparison to the first two. So, yeah, it's um. I don't know that you would have wanted to do an action like that that late in the game yeah, or in the middle of an act, maybe make act one longer and act two shorter.
Speaker 1:I don't really know what the solution was there, but I know that I just didn't feel enough of a connection for daredevil voice, robert Pattinson, that it just didn't work for me.
Speaker 2:I would say it certainly affected me more than it did you, because I did buy into this relationship between Gustav and Mael, this brother sister connection that they had not so much because of, like the love interest in the beginning. Again, we didn't really spend enough time with that for me to really care, but it was certainly shocking. I think, with with the main, one of the main themes of the game being grief, I think it does make sense for the game to force the player to also sit in that grief as well. It is a very shocking and it does happen right away. And not only does it happen right away, they also make you sit in it and still play as him while you know that he is dying. So I think it impacted me a little bit. Well, I know it impacted me more.
Speaker 2:Um, was it like some one of the most shocking gaming deaths of all time? No, certainly not. But I have seen people compare it to the death of eric in final fantasy 7, which is, like, famously, one of the most famous gaming deaths of all time. So I don't know how many people hold that opinion. But yeah, I didn't. I can tell you right now. I do agree with you early on. I haven't spent much time with him. I am not very interested in inverso, like you said. It just seems like we got one relatively handsome medium-haired guy swapped out for another one, so, like his inclusion, he was like I'm gonna come with you and we're like, oh okay, all right, I guess he's with us now that's honestly how it goes, and there's a lot behind his story and all of that that we're not going to get into on this episode because phil hasn't gotten, uh, that far.
Speaker 1:But that's maybe I'll open it up, phil, just to kind of make sure that we're on the same page. Like where do you and I don't know if this is part of any of your takeaways, but like where do you sit? Going into act two, you obviously kept playing a little bit. You've talked about maybe making some changes with what you know now, is this a game that you're going to continue to play? Because, again, I think for me act one is a huge deciding factor and ultimately, for me, the combat was so enjoyable that I wanted to stick through it. But if it was purely a story or character driven decision, I would have dropped the game, and that's about 11 hours in which is about our threshold. We could put in about eight to 10 hours into a game before it's really starting to get miserable. So where are you at in your stopping point as far as this game?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will certainly continue to play the game because I'm very interested to see how this ends. I also want to support a developer who pulled off something incredibly amazing. I think I would have actually I know I would have gotten through this a lot faster if I was playing this on PlayStation. One thing that I've learned, and where we have kind of separated in our PC gaming journeys, is you have been able to sit here, sit at your desk and sit at your at your monitors and play through a story driven game where for me I have to be, game where for me I have to be.
Speaker 2:I like have a certain cadence when I play games and it's being comfortable and putting my feet up and sitting there with a controller in front of a large TV and I'm what I'm learning is I've learned this with Cyberpunk. I learned this as I was playing through like Sleeping Dogs and Far Cry is I can only sit here so long for a story driven game before I get uncomfortable. It's not that this chair is uncomfortable. I can just only sit here so long for a story driven game before I get uncomfortable. It's not that this chair is uncomfortable. I can just only sit at it for so long. A lot of physical reasons or a lot of like health stuff goes into that too, but I can only sit here so long and play a story driven game.
Speaker 2:If this was on, if I'd been playing through this on PlayStation, I probably would have gotten through it a lot faster. So that's one thing I'm learning, because I went back to Cyberpunk just on the PlayStation and I've gotten way way farther than I have on on the PC. So I've learned that my PC is a vessel for for me, obviously, for podcasting and voice acting and all that stuff. But as far as gaming, it is a simulator thing that I I really love being able to sit here and I can spend hours on Jurassic World Evolution three. I won't ever be uncomfortable playing Jurassic World Evolution 3. October 21st, don't call me.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make any sense. None of what you're saying makes sense when you're telling me you're going to sit here. You're going to sit here for five hours.
Speaker 2:Don't call me, bro, don't, I will be unreachable for the remainder of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at your fucking desk. That's what I'm saying. You just like undid that whole fucking soliloquy you just fucking spilled out, you ruined it. Cinema.
Speaker 2:Cinema. I'll stay here and do it.
Speaker 1:That's okay, all right yeah.
Speaker 2:But to your original question, I have every intention of playing all the way through this because I would like to speak to you about the ending and see if I come to some of the same conclusions. But as far as Verso goes like yeah, Claire, Obscure narration, Expedition narration, that seems what he's there for. Yeah, I was in Expedition Zero Sweet Want to expand on that.
Speaker 1:He's just going to piss you off more. I'm immortal. What? What do you mean? So, um oh really quick.
Speaker 2:I want to talk. I want to say I want to mention what we talked about before we got started, because charlie cox was making rounds, because he was doing, you know, daredevil press and it was very interesting because it was before, way before I got to the death of gustav, and he was talking about how he recorded all of his lines in one day and you're like, wow, I think this is like a 40 hour game. That's crazy. And I've never put it together Like what a natural. Wow, he's good, that guy's good. So, yeah, it's funny putting that together after it happened. Because you're like, oh, and I guess that is.
Speaker 1:I think you're telling us that you, you did avoid that spoiler, like I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I avoided it the whole time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that is the spoiler. There are other things that could get spoiled, but what I've learned with this game, that is the spoiler. You either know it or you don't, and I think it's a pretty important one in consideration of everything. But, phil, what is your second takeaway for?
Speaker 2:Yeah. My second takeaway is, you know I'll just revert to a positive when it comes to the art direction, world building and music. We'll put all that all into one. The music Remember the first time you heard the Halo music? Like loading up your Xbox for the first time and that loads up. It's very similar for Claire Obscure. I mean one of the songs is my ringtone. It's very similar for a Claire Obscure. I mean one of the songs is my ringtone. I like went out of my way to make a ringtone in 2025 because I just really love hearing.
Speaker 2:What? Yeah, you've never noticed that. It's been that for months. No, Claire.
Speaker 2:Obscure. Yeah Well, a lot of times my phone's on silent because who wants to hear a ringtone? But when I do hear a ringtone, I hear Claire Obscure. So that's one of the first things that stood out was the art style. It's absolutely beautiful, especially weaving in not only a beautiful world, but it's just surrounded by death and it still pulls off like this sense of awe and like it doesn't ever. I don't ever want to not explore it, and there's a conversation to be had about whether or not some of that exploration is actually worth it. A lot of times it really isn't. But in terms of character design and also the enemy design, there's no lack of it and you can tell me if I'm wrong, because you've obviously beaten the game, but it doesn't seem like there's any lack of enemy variety. So that is also very, very good. But yeah, art direction world building I thought was very, very intoxicating and, again, it's one of the main reasons that it caught my eye in the first place.
Speaker 1:No, I mean that's all good to just pack into one, because we could talk individually about them in a lot of positive light. But I feel like most people that have heard about this game know a lot of those, so that was a perfect way to kind of encompass it for those of you that don't, because it is a game that I think when it came out had a lot of buzz around it and then you know, until you get to the story and all of that, like that's kind of what's happening with silk song. Now again, it's kind of the topic of the month of september, which is why it keeps coming up. But like most people are talking about that game and the way Claire Obscure was getting that hype, which is like the game looks beautiful, the combat feels like this, the difficulty feels like this. These are the things I like, these are the things I don't like, where you're not really focusing so much on the story and the character driven stuff that eventually you have to make a decision on how you feel and you can kind of judge. So when that game first came out and a lot of people heard about it, they were hearing fantastic music, fantastic world building, all of the above and again, great combat to boot. So I think that's a good one.
Speaker 1:And, phil, we have our last ones coming up. I'm trying to decide. Do I continue to talk shit?
Speaker 2:I don't want to ask you a question. Maybe this will this, maybe this will set you up as far as going from. I don't know if this is a negative, but some people didn't like how the lack of a mini map did that. Did you care at all?
Speaker 1:No, not as much, I think. What? What bothered me more, and and this will be my third takeaway, is that this game felt like it was trying to do a little bit too much. Um, and what I mean by that and I think you've seen some of this already this game will have times where, like so again it's you're walking around. You know you're floating around if you're luna, because I don't know why you pick any other character to walk around with other again, why?
Speaker 2:would you run when you could float?
Speaker 1:when you could float. It's kind of stupid, kind of stupid. So you're kind of floating around, you're walking around and you're, you know, encountering enemies and all of that's fine. If that was the game mechanic, if that was kind of the game's thing, that would be fine. But it's not, um, because then there are areas you have to like assassin's creed, wall climb, but it's not very intuitive, it's not very like polished, it's just kind of there. Uh, there are platforming sections that you can do that are optional.
Speaker 1:Why it's also not? It's not like a clean platformer, it's like a chained together platformer like it's supposed it almost is, like it's supposed to feel wonky, because that's not what the game is built for. So they do that. Then the open world map it's not the worst thing, but it's like this game felt like it could have just kind of stayed in its zone a little bit more, instead of introducing all these little elements that aren't as polished or, again, are just a whole different way to do something in the game. Maybe this is a JRPG thing. Again, this game is heavily inspired by a lot of those, so I can't speak to that. But I can just say that it wasn't a huge negative in the way the character-driven and the story stuff didn't really work for me, but it was a nitpick that ultimately you know, when I look back at this game, I would never replay this game because of some of those little things. Like I just didn't enjoy those little moments to moments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are. I mean, we've already said it, it is not the most. You got to want it. If you want to get in this game, you got to want it. There's no dipping your toe into the waters of clear obscure, like you figure out pretty early whether or not you're in or out.
Speaker 2:I did find it like a tad bit annoying having to pull up like the whole world map. There were times that I definitely got lost. I had to go to camp like what's my objective again, what am I doing here? So there were definitely points like that. But yeah, and I think, yes, they probably tried a little bit more than they should have. Maybe they could have condensed it a little bit. But also, if they didn't take the big shot, we probably wouldn't be discussing it. It probably wouldn't be a game of the year contender.
Speaker 2:So it'd be interesting to see if they either on their second attempt, whether it be a sequel, whether it be another game, because I think if you talk about anybody that has a lot of momentum, it's definitely these developers. So I think they'll. It's certainly not the last time. I hope it's not the last time that we hear from them. So maybe they rein it in a little bit and focus on the things they did really well while still innovating, because that's a big part of this is there's a lot of innovation here. So I think I've seen some similar things in terms of where there are those rooms, for improvement is like it's just a little bit. There is a little bit too much going on for some people to continue playing the game. So, yeah, I can, yeah.
Speaker 1:One thing I was going to say was like it just came to my mind was there's also like a relationship building aspect. Did you know that? Did you know a? Romance Like a romance necessarily a romance, but like you will, there's literally when you talk to characters for a certain amount of time, you will get a prompt on the screen that says I learned that like two days ago when I was Verso talking to who's the to SK and it said like relationship or relationship goes up.
Speaker 2:I was like what so?
Speaker 1:again, it's like just jarring stuff where, like I don't know, I kind of do think that if they took some of those things out it would have made the game better and still be a game of the year contender. Some of them just felt so unnecessary, like there were some bold swings. So I guess I'll take the the bad with the good in this scenario. But yeah, it just like. Again, it was those little nitpicky things where it's like, well, why, why is that? You know, if I wanted to even dive deeper into this, this game is like has like souls, like elements, almost as well that I think every game feels like it has to give you, and that's probably why you also struggled very much with like some of the stuff, like the parrying, like the dodging um it it takes, it takes a lot out of you.
Speaker 2:It takes a lot out of you, you feel you feel like getting your shit kicked in for half an hour is demoralizing, which is why I stepped away for a while. Yeah, let me ask you this as someone who's beaten the game Is there a better character in the game than Francois? Probably not, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:At least I've seen that. Again, minoko's probably my favorite, but yeah, I mean it's like 1A, 1b situation pretty much there. I yeah, I mean it's like 1A, 1b situation pretty much there.
Speaker 2:I get that. Well, my last one, since we've kind of like covered everything, I'll like pivot a little bit into kind of a general conversation, because we are going to have this talk in terms of one. Where does it sit in terms of game of the year? I think, obviously Silksong is in the pole position, and it's a really good place for gaming to be too, because they are both small developers. So I think that would just continue to kick the industry in the ass and be like hey, rockstar, ubisoft, stop fucking around, do the right thing. So I think that's a good place for it to be and then like another game.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm trying to think of some other games that might be nominated, but it's good to have those two as far as front runners go. So, like, where do we think this is going to sit? Because if I had to guess, if it's not silk song, then it's going to be donkey kong, just because nintendo wins, lol. That is where I would do it. I do see some people mentioning what was it called split fiction after having beat game. It was a lot of fun. It is not a game of the year contender. It is not in the same stratosphere as their last game, which is escaping my mind it takes two.
Speaker 1:Which one game of the year?
Speaker 2:Which one game of the year. So again, it's a lot of fun. Co-op couch gamers definitely a recommendation, but because they came off, it takes two. Um, it's. It's not the same, but I would say those three are probably the front runners, um, and then to combine that, what, if any, interest do you have in there being, because they're making it a live action, clear, obscure because it's happening, and I don't think I like it. So those are my last. We'll go. We'll start there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll give you both of those. So for Game of the Year, death Stranding 2 is also in the conversation. Sure, so that is definitely in the conversation.
Speaker 2:Would you ever play that?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Okay, good.
Speaker 1:You know, Walking Simulator with Baby is what. I hear yeah, yeah, amazon Delivery Driver.
Speaker 2:That seems like more of your jam. I'm actually shocked you won't play. No, man, I I watched our buddy josh play the first one, like when he had it on the playstation. Um, he just, you know, share screen. I was like what the fuck is this? And I've watched the ending because, like that's something I do for games. I know I'll never play. So yeah, I've never been a who is that konami, kojima that's just.
Speaker 2:I've never really been interested, but which is interesting because I really want to play snake eater. But anyway, yeah, no um not for you I'm not gonna play any death stranding game ever that's fair what?
Speaker 1:about blueprints, uh, blueprints well, blueprints for game of the year is not happening, like it's not even gonna get the nomination. Um, it definitely will probably win some awards. I think the luster from that game has definitely fallen off a lot. It definitely made a mark when it came out, but it also came out like very close to when clear obscure came out, and I think that's gonna have something to do with this phil because, like, ghost of yotai is coming out and we might oh yeah, we might might be getting a Metroid Prime 4 drop just randomly at some point. At least that's what. That's the only reason I haven't counterpicked it in our in our fantasy league that we do with your friendly neighborhood gamers. So there are other games that will probably be in contention where, like, blueprints will get kicked out.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I just like when I look at this list and we talk about some of the games that you've mentioned here as contenders, like maybe Donkey Kong, but even then I think it's Silk Songs to lose, and that's unfortunate for a game like Clear Obscure, which I think at one point was a valid front runner. And the reason I say that is because I don't personally believe after playing it, that it is, and it's because of the story which, weirdly enough, justifies the live action. Like Phil, this game has a lot of like lore and a lot of a story it's trying to tell. That I think might work for live action. It the combat right. It's like the combat's my favorite thing about this game. So I don't know that I would enjoy a live action version, but having experienced the whole story from start to finish, I could see it happening. I could see it happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess I'm just so against these live actions, although we have gotten solid ones here pretty recently. I guess it would depend on if it's like clear, obscure expedition 50. Okay, I would like to know what happened on some of these other expeditions. I don't want a shot for shot remake. I don't want the last of us, I don't. I do want fallout. You know what I mean. Like that's what I want.
Speaker 1:So I will say I don't know that it would be too spoiler, spoilery to say this, but this game does close pretty neatly. Uh, I won't say that I enjoy the endings, sure, because there are two, but I would say, yeah, I would say that this game does kind of tie itself in a nice little bow where I don't think I would, I would see the reason to kind of expand this world more and I literally, I actually literally can't tell you this part because it would be spoilery. I don't know that this would be a live action universe as an example, like I don't think we would see like different expeditions, honestly, unless they were going backwards like prequels.
Speaker 2:Right, right, yeah. So that's why I'm saying like I would love to learn a little bit more about some of the previous expeditions. I think that would be interesting.
Speaker 1:So well, the most fun game we have here, of course, on the podcast Eric, that we bring up from time to time, is let's fan cast this thing.
Speaker 2:Uh, obviously robert pattinson is the most, the most uh, popular choice to play could have gotten him the last time. Like I love charlie cox, but like right, come on now. Uh, sadie sink as my l that's solid red hair girl yeah, natasha liu uh as lune. Oh, I'm sorry, natasha leo bordizzo as lee as uh lune. Anya charlotte, anya charlotte as syell. Fabian finkel, uh fabian frankel, sorry as verso. Suki waterhouse as sophie. Uh. Clancy brown as monaco. Monaco, is that how you pronounce? I haven't gotten to monaco yeah, okay, and then andy circus as renoir, because andy circus does voice that character.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I mean that could work. I don't know if he has the physical presence for that as that, but also, yeah, also, he also like kind of has like a coat, like it's kind of like the bulky coat shoulders, like yeah, it could work, it could work yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's again, if they go shot for shot or at least a similar story and they and they keep those characters. So that is um. But yeah, I mean, will I watch? I mean they're gonna have. It's gonna have to be a hell of a budget to make this thing, because you cannot half-ass any type of special effects or the monsters can't look shitty like. You're gonna have to put time and money into this thing. So hopefully they are committed. But yeah, I see damson idris as lucian here. Let's see who is isabella sermon for my l pom, I always forget how to pronounce her name. She was mantis in guardians of the galaxy.
Speaker 2:Oh, as lunae that could work pierce brosnan as renwa love me some Pierce Brosnan yeah, matilda Swinton as the Patrice, benedict Cumberbatch as Minoco no although I mean, yeah, he's got the voice for it. Maybe those are all interesting fan castings, you know, but I don't know congratulations Pedro Pascal and Sidney Sweeney Slop he can't keep getting away with this or maybe the Rock, now that he's slim, Did you see? Side note, I'm going to go off on a tangent here. Did you see somebody asking Brian Danielson about his opinion on the Rock's slimmer figure?
Speaker 1:He's got a big-ass head. Now, no, his opinion on the rocks slimmer. He's like he's got a big ass head now.
Speaker 2:No, he was like well, maybe he just wants to live longer, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but also true.
Speaker 2:But I digress. But yeah, you know, we'll see. We're going to keep getting these live actions and with the way that it was received, I'm, I'm wasn't really surprised when they announced it. So but overall, as you can tell, like from the way that we're talking about it, we certainly, if you're one of those people, one of the few people that sold a ton of copies if you have for some reason been avoiding this, maybe the turn-based style turns you off, but like, give it a shot. Like give it a shot, maybe you'll feel completely differently when it comes to us about this, about, you know, story beats, and maybe the mouth flaps and the and that doesn't really bother you. So let us know if we're being nitpicky, because, again, I haven't heard too many people talk about it, but it is an experience, I think, because it is on game pass that is worth trying out. And then, if it, you know, goes on sale during the holiday season, give it a chance and, again, support a developer that pulled off something pretty incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would agree with everything there. You know there's this is a game that you're going to sink at least 30 to 40 hours in and there's so much that you can still explore. Yeah, you're going to get your money's worth for sure. So it's a game that I would I would highly recommend checking out. When it comes to story character beats, like Phil mentioned, I'm kind of in the minority there with some of those. I think we're kind of in the minority in general, so it's just one of those things where, again, we need to be mindful that we're giving our opinions. We might have felt some type of way, but again, even with my issues, I wanted to play this game to completion and that should say everything it needs to about Claire Obscure. So let us know if you played it. Did you like it? Are we on point? Do you agree? Are we alone?
Speaker 2:those are the questions should we stick to friend?
Speaker 1:slop. Should we stick to friend slop?
Speaker 2:uh yeah, let me ask you this the last thing and then we'll wrap up. Does this have you? I know you mentioned, of course, boulders gate earlier, but do you have? Do you now have the propensity or the interest to jump into a persona, like a more modern day? You know? Um turn-based type of game is that there? Is there any interest there? Uh, because I don't think we're ever going to be the type of gamers that go back and play a final fantasy, even with the remasters I think that's an interesting question because, like well, first off answer no, absolutely not.
Speaker 1:But the reason for that is because those are, like, really established franchises. I think with this one it was a point of entry into this genre that felt a little bit more accessible. So, would I ever play this type of game again? Yeah, yeah, I would. Uh, this type of combat, this turn baseness, like I, I really enjoyed a lot of my time with clear obscure in that aspect. But yeah, would I go to like a established franchise, like a persona or a final fantasy?
Speaker 2:very unlikely, no, and that's just because of the daunting nature of it yeah, I will say the only one that has interested me lately is persona. I did look into it, but yeah, because it is one of those franchises where there's so much. That's why we haven't really jumped into Yakuza or like a dragon. You know there's all that as well. So, yeah, but again, a game like this being successful is great for the industry and it helps us, the consumer, and hopefully puts boot to ass when it comes to some of those other big developers that are dragging their feet. So we will see how it goes.
Speaker 2:But did you enjoy this episode? What did you think of Claire Obscure? Did you try it out because of this episode? You know, what do you think? We would love to hear from you, which means you can keep up with us pretty much everywhere. You can find the linktree link in the show notes of this and every single episode. You'll find our TikTok Instagram, our growing Discord community. You can find us on Twitch, where we are streaming all the time. If you watch this on youtube, make sure you like, share, subscribe. You know the standard drill. If you're listening on any podcast platform, please give us five stars. That is one of the best ways you can help support the show and shout out to those of you who have done so already. But if you find yourself wanting to get some additional perks from the podcast, maybe getting these episodes early and having a hand in the episode and the content that we put out, like our current Weight Watchers are doing for the month of October, eric, we'll let you know all about that before we get out of here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what are our Weight Watchers? Well, you've heard them being referenced many times over the podcast and they are our patrons. So, over on Patreon, they're supporting us monthly in exchange for things like behind the scenes and early access to episodes like this one. So shout out to all of our patrons, from Briar to T3, kato, vintage Macaroni, nick Casbaro, the author of the Vidularium series, corey from the World is my Burrito, and Botter from the Short Box podcast. We appreciate your monthly support and in return, we're also very excited for october, which is patreon month, where they have selected movies and games for us to check out things.
Speaker 1:We were late to the party on some international stuff and, of course, games that we didn't play, that we should have. So you got that to look forward to in october. If you want to support us there, you can. If you can't, that's okay. All the stuff that Phil mentioned, all the things that cost you nothing but your time, is much appreciated. But that is the end of our episode and we must bid you adieu. My name is Mr Eric Almighty. That is my co-host, phil the Filipino, and please don't forget, we release new episodes every Wednesday on the podcast and all you have to do is wait for it.
Speaker 2:This is the Wait For it Podcast.
