I finished this a couple weeks back on medium difficulty in 60 hours with 2 of the 3 superbosses down and I won't be bothering with the 3rd.
Overall it's a great game but it's not game of the generation material for me it won't even be my game of year. However it does some things brilliantly especially in the JRPG turn based space these are things that stood out to me.
1. Best in class voice acting. This games voice acting is up there with Rockstar and Naughty dogs best which in the JRPG space puts it a mile above everything else
2. Great story. Very good moving story with character's that had motivations that made sense. I did have to Google what the fuck was going on at one point though.
3. Great loot to find. None of this 0.0001% damage increase just on a Sunday bullshit. The Pictos in this game make a difference either fundamentally to the gameplay or by huge stat increases. One could argue they are too good as everyone seems to be breaking the game.
4. Zero Junk loot. I absolutely hate how some games especially openworlds fill there beautiful maps with endless junk loot almost certainly crafting materials. Horizon and FFVII rebirth are particularly bad offenders but even FromSoftware aren't immune to this disease. It's particularly offensive when the games UI ruins the aesthetic of the world by highlighting them. Everything you pick up in Exp33 will have some value, at worst it will be money at best a game changing Picto.
5.Restraint in Combat Encounters. In the JRPG space combat encounters can make exploring a real pain in the ass. Not here both in the dungeons and the overworld there's just enough encounters that they remain interesting and not get In the way of exploration.
6. Cool experimental combat. Parrying and QTEs kept the combat engaging throughout. I have issues with it and if this becomes the norm in a JRPGs it will become a problem. As a one off it's fine and gives Exp33 a unique identity.
7. The Openworld map. It was great and nostalgic to see an openworld map in modern graphics it might have come too late though.
8. The Gestal Village. Simply one of the best villages/towns I've experienced in a game it's a shame there was just one of them.
9. The Gestal beach tower. This was amazing I actually had my heart in my mouth as I got closer to the top.
10. Realistic Character's models in a Turn based game. Some fool at Square said you couldn't do this. He's been proven wrong hasn't he!??
11. Amazing Sound track. Not much to add other than it's brilliant.
I will list my quibbles in another post so this post doesn't become to wordy!
Now for quibbles about the game! I will say that I didn't think anything was outright bad in this game. It's just certain things could be a bit better or have been done better by other games.
I've not played many JRPGs I would personally rank FFVII, FFIX Dragon quest 11 and much to the laughter of some FFVII remake/rebirth above Exp33 as better games overall. Well if you want to find out why here we go.
The less good things about Expedition 33!
1. F/JRPG Elden Ring edition.
The classic PS1 Final Fantasy's have a great sense of adventure and pacing . A really good mix of Dungeons, Overworld, Villages with some mini games thrown in to spice them up. Basically you go on grand globe trotting adventure and meet a bunch of interesting characters along the way. In Act 1 you think your getting that and it threatens to be all timer. You seen realize your not getting that your getting something else. What your getting is a game with lots of exploration where all you find is dungeons super hard optional bosses... like Elden Ring.
2. Lack of Villages/ Towns.
There what 3 of them if we include the Prologue? Only the Gestal Village feels fleshed out. This made the world feel small and uninteresting compared to the other rpgs mentioned above.
3. Only Combat.
I'm one of the people that really enjoyed Rebirth mini games... at least about 95% of them. It made each town feel unique and gave you a fun breather from the combat. Exp33 only has the Gestal Beaches which are fun but very bare bones. It doesn't need to be Rebirth but I feel it could have added a bit more. Even just one mini game you keep playing throughout the whole story would have been enough.
4. Overly cluttered overworld and dungeons.
Navigating the dungeons and even the overworld can be a real pain in the ass. I'm not sure why but I remember watching a gameplay demo of Phantom Blade X and thinking that looks so much easier to Navigate than Exp33!
5. Overworld has come too late.
If this game had released in 2023 it would have made Square Enix look like a laughing stock. (In a lot of ways it still does) Squares attempts at replacing the Overworld since FFX have been laughable. However it's 2025 and Rebirth exists. Rebirth openworld has issues but it's insanely impressive that square managed to recreate a seamless 1 to 1 openworld of FF7. Exp33 Overworld is good but Rebirths openworld is better it's more impressive and immersive.
6. Too much exploration too early.
This game let's you explore a bit more, a bit earlier than the classic ps1 FF. I think the sense of adventure and momentum is lost in doing this.
7. Parrying was fun then became annoying.
I'm glad I played this on medium as it allowed a bit leeway with the parries and encouraged a bit of build variety in other areas. If i wanted a challenge even on medium the game was not lacking optional bosses that killed me one hit. Pulling off parries was always satisfying however what the game expects later is a bit ridiculous. Parrying 1 to 3 hit strings is fine, parrying 4 to 5 hit strings is less fine , parrying 6 to 8 hits strings from bosses that have millions of hp is not fine. Almost like the game expects players to make broken builds to avoid this....
8. Optional Boss fights were annoying then became trivial.
The dozens of super hard boss fights especially at Act 3 became rather tedious to the point I nearly dropped the game. The game at that point essentially became try and find the boss most balanced to your level or learn to parry motherfucker. Anyway I did find the right order in which to attempt these bosses and enjoyment peaked with Sprong or Sprog? After I got his picto let's just say the game became much easier which was Cathartic but I feel I missed a lot of interesting fights.
Closing thoughts and Budget
A lot has been made about this games budget and what they achieved with it. Personally I found it fairly obvious, a lot of what I moaned about can probably been explained by lack of manpower. It's still insanely impressive what they pulled off.
The Future
I most intrigued but what this studio does next. I believe this game will outsell every Final Fantasy game ever. This means the next game could have a budget like nothing seen before in this genre. What are they gonna do? Expand and go full AAA, stay the same size and become the next Silksong, Stay the same size and release a similar game of size and scope.
Whatever the choice I will be there. Well done Saber and Sandfall
