Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ May Be The Highest User-Scored Game Ever

Draugoth

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' May Be The Highest User-Scored Game Ever


With hundreds of reviews in, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a 9.6/10 on Metacritic from players. That is not just the highest I've found, but the highest I've found by a good margin. Metacritic lists the highest user-scored games ever in a list, and while it's not in perfect order, it's full of all-time greats. Among these, clicking through as many as I can, I have only seen one 9.3, and that's The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC.

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Well deserved.
The game feels fresh, lovingly made, with an intense vision and an immaculate sense of direction.

Feels like a game the industry needed for years. Hopefully others learn from this example. Bravo.
 
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Because it's taking a gigantic hot shit on the industry.

  • Incredible story
  • Turn Based Combat at a AA budget
  • Made by 30-50 people
  • Banger soundtrack
  • No identity politics shoved in our faces
  • Reasonable price tag at $50

This game was not on a lot of people's radar, and had relatively quiet marketing. Then Bethesda shadow dropped Oblivion. Yet Clair Obscur defied the odds because it's that damn good.
 
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It's a excellent game but I stopped relying on Metacritic for reviews long ago. You can influence the score quite easily (Forza Motorsport comes to mind)

Edit: good to excellent
 
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I'm like 6 hours into the game and so far so good. I very much liked what I played. Got the feeling that unfolds slowly but with good pacing.
 
Because it's taking a gigantic hot shit on the industry.

  • Incredible story
  • Turn Based Combat at a AA budget
  • Made by 30-50 people
  • Banger soundtrack
  • No identity politics shoved in our faces
  • Reasonable price tag at $50

This game was not on a lot of people's radar, and head relatively quiet marketing. Then Bethesda shadow dropped Oblivion. Yet Clair Obscur defied the odds because it's that damn good.
Obviously Spencer saw something in it as it's on Gamepass, is it really this good?
 
All I see is a bunch of copied concepts and mechanics. It's nothing new.
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If you havent played it, then you havent seen enough

To call it unoriginal is an idiotic take. It's probably one of the most original new IPs in quite some time.

Combat UI might take some inspiration from Persona, but it shits all over it.

And Elden Ring havent created the "giant mystical tree", fyi

Dragon Quest XI from 2017

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If you havent played it, then you havent seen enough

To call it unoriginal is an idiotic take. It's probably one of the most original new IPs in quite some time.

Combat UI might take some inspiration from Persona, but it shits all over it.

And Elden Ring havent created the "giant mystical tree", fyi

Dragon Quest XI from 2017

lXxR07H.jpeg
Or Secret of Mana from 1993, and even then it wasn't totally original

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Or Secret of Mana from 1993, and even then it wasn't totally original

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How could I forget

But yeah, it takes inspirations from many places, but it has more than enough ideas of its own.

To me games are all about execution. Super Mario World is about a plunder jumping on turtles. The Last of Us is generic zombie apocalypse on paper. It's all about execution.
 
All I see is a bunch of copied concepts and mechanics. It's nothing new.
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Most games are unoriginal yet they still can be the funnest shit ever. Your pic kinda proves it, 3 amazing games and they are all quite unoriginal in their design.
 
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It's probably too early to take user reviews seriously if you are the type to take user reviews seriously at all.
 
I'm 21 hours in (not full play time - I've left it on while I work) but currently this is in BG3 territory for me as best game of the last decade. I'm obsessed with it. There are imperfections, sure, like pop-in and hands clipping through bodies at times during cutscenes, but those aren't things I'm going to knock points off for.

Will see post-completion where it ranks, personally.
 
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Most games are unoriginal yet they still can be the funnest shit ever.
Also the Persona 5's face button command is something all turn based RPG should use….it makes the combat fast and snappy.

Same way that lot of RPGs use job system, that doesn't make them "cheap copy".
 
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Because it's unoriginal, thoughtless and cheap. That is just the indie way.
I wish more games were unoriginal, thoughtless and cheap like Clair Obscur. It's so surreal, atmospheric and knows how to use music and art direction. And we haven't even touched upon the story and it's pacing. It's really well done.
 
If you havent played it, then you havent seen enough

To call it unoriginal is an idiotic take. It's probably one of the most original new IPs in quite some time.

Combat UI might take some inspiration from Persona, but it shits all over it.

And Elden Ring havent created the "giant mystical tree", fyi

Dragon Quest XI from 2017

lXxR07H.jpeg
Lol
Or Secret of Mana from 1993, and even then it wasn't totally original

33a8773be1793be0caafbb60287ad750.jpg
Yup.

And come on. Yggsdial (sp) has been apart of Norse mythology for over 1000 years.

This game is a breath of fresh air. A mature and deep story presented in a serious way is just fantastic.
 
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I .. uh think it might be because it only has 500 user votes so far.

Other bit game(s) often have thousand(s) of votes.
 
Also the Persona 5's face button command is something all turn based RPG should use….it makes the combat fast and snappy.

Same way that lot of RPGs use job system, that doesn't make them "cheap copy".
I actually hate this and wish we would return to old-school menu-based combat.
 
I actually hate this and wish we would return to old-school menu-based combat.
For this game case absolulty not, face button for command is just better.

We still have games like Bravely Default and Octopath that use traditional commands.
 
The game is pretty much among the best examples of what you hope the higher-end of AA can be (Divinity: Original Sin 2 is another).

Realistically I'm not expecting that many studios to replicate the fidelity they achieved with 30 people, but I think even getting somewhat close to this is a more sustainable goal than the 200+ million bloated AAA titles.

I just wanna see more US-based studios pull this off.
 
Because it's unoriginal, thoughtless and cheap. That is just the indie way.
This game is anything but unoriginal.

The story, cast, music, world lore etc are all unique.

The combat is the first time a turn based game keeps you engaged both on offense AND defense. With a perfect difficulty curve for scrubs and hard core gamers.

And the art style/world doesn't look like Elden Ring in the slightest in the game, but ok.
 
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