Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 SPOILER POLL [WARNING: The poll contains spoilers]

Who’s side did you pick for ending?


  • Total voters
    194

CLW

Member
Just finished Expedition 33 - my favorite game since at least TLOU 1 and I'm not a turn based player very often but the combat music story were REALLY good.

Thought Verso/Renoir had the better arguments and went with Verso at the end. The family would finally have to accept reality and stop living in their fantasy world.

But curious if anyone went the other way and chose Maelle to give her the fantasy world to never address/escape the emotional pain of reality.
 
I picked Maelle and I enjoyed that "bad" ending, I think I also wanted things to stay the way they were even if that wasn't a healthy choice for her. With that said I was disappointed you can't just reload the last save and see Verso's version. And I suck at combat way too much to play it again in New Game Plus.
 
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Just finished Expedition 33 - my favorite game since at least TLOU 1 and I'm not a turn based player very often but the combat music story were REALLY good.
E33 has very similar key points to TLOU1-2. Prologue kills the character we are emotionally attached. Middle game kills "main" character. Teenager as a co-main character we should care about. Ending is about a hard choice between "happiness" of one and many.
 
I picked Maelle and I enjoyed that "bad" ending, I think I also wanted things to stay the way they were even if that wasn't a healthy choice for her. With that said I was disappointed you can't just reload the last save and see Verso's version. And I suck at combat way too much to play it again in New Game Plus.
After i finished Verso's ending i loaded my save and it puts you right before the garden.
 
E33 has very similar key points to TLOU1-2. Prologue kills the character we are emotionally attached. Middle game kills "main" character. Teenager as a co-main character we should care about. Ending is about a hard choice between "happiness" of one and many.
Yes except E33 kills these characters in a far better/more logical way in its story than TLOU.

TLOU - I'm supposed to believe that two badasses who KNOW there are TONS of people looking to kill them just blurt out who they are to random people they just met 30 seconds ago?

33 - the unstoppable at the time gommage takes away a love story and then Gustave goes down to an invincible at that time painter/final boss
 
Verso. The real remnant of his soul was suffering keeping the painting alive, and the fake Verso was tired with being forced to live and wanted to move on. Keeping the painting going would ultimately kill Maelle, which would have doomed the painting as well. In the real world the family would have shattered even further. It's not perfect, the beings inside the painting are all clearly sapient, but it at least offers some sort of future for Maelle. Tragic situation all around.
 
TLOU - I'm supposed to believe that two badasses who KNOW there are TONS of people looking to kill them just blurt out who they are to random people they just met 30 seconds ago?
Joel saved one of these random people (Abby). These random people saved Joel. Abby heard Joel's name while being saved.

Keeping the painting going would ultimately kill Maelle, which would have doomed the painting as well.
No, it wouldn't. It would be the same situation as with maman, who lost herself in the canvas.
 
After i finished Verso's ending i loaded my save and it puts you right before the garden.
But from what I understand you can't fight the final boss again to pick a different ending. This is simply where endgame starts to clean up with the locations and boss fights (and a New Game Plus option shows up in the pause menu).
 
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It was killing her as well. Hence why Renoir was so desperate to get her out of the painting.
It's unclear to me at least but implicitly it seems if you stay in the painting too long you would eventually die IRL. The mom certainly wasn't doing well physically but whether it would lead to death or just some sort of zombie like physical state short of death I don't believe is established.
 
I hope for sequel the canon ending is Maelle's.

First the other characters are too good to disappear from now on, and second I would love to see Maelle as the anti-hero/co-antagonist for what is next in the "Clair Obscur" universe.

Another I would like to see clarified is how much times passes in the real world for each year inside the canvas.
 
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Verso. The real remnant of his soul was suffering keeping the painting alive, and the fake Verso was tired with being forced to live and wanted to move on. Keeping the painting going would ultimately kill Maelle, which would have doomed the painting as well. In the real world the family would have shattered even further. It's not perfect, the beings inside the painting are all clearly sapient, but it at least offers some sort of future for Maelle. Tragic situation all around.
I think if anyone from Lumiere has a chance to return in a Sequel it'll be Lune since she doesn't Gommage and resisted fading away. But I think that's contingent on Alicia painting a new Canvas world. Side content with Fake Clea reveals that Alicia/Maelle isn't experienced enough to repaint and reshape another Painter's creation. Which means that if she learns to improve her abilities as a Paintress she could theoretically create new worlds and transfer the Chroma or Essence of E33 into them.

But there is much we do not know about how their Pictomancy works.

What is clear in the Maelle ending however is the happiness is shortlived as the ending shot implies Maelle died. It's also clear the Verso in Maelle ending is a different Verso with none of the original's memories so she really didn't capture the essence of who Verso was...which is due to him hiding so much underneath.
 
Copy/pasting my spoiler tagged post in the OT, but also adding some to it:

I've been playing this game entirely with my wife as an audience and she was annoyed that I chose Verso at the end. We ended up having a debate about it during the credit roll because she thought I should have sided with Maelle since I had spent the entire game with the cast of characters from the painting.

My argument was that the game was clearly a lesson in learning to process and manage grief, not hide from it through escapism. Aline/The Paintress' escapism into grief is what started the entire chain of events and caused countless tragedies both with and without the canvas. Alicia/Maelle was allowing her grief and guilt -- for her role in Verso's death and her disfigurement in the real world, and the loss of the 'people' of the canvas -- to dominate her emotions, which was the same kind of thing that clouded her mother's judgement.

At my wife's request, I loaded the save just before the canvas choice and chose to side with Maelle, and it vindicated my original decision. The Memory of Verso was being exploited as a puppet to keep the canvas alive. Verso pleading for Maelle to end his life, end his suffering after she defeats him was haunting. The way he looked defeated in the Epilogue because she had clearly 'repainted' him to be a constant pianist in the Opera Hall. The very last shot we see of Maelle with her face paint/chroma distorted like her mother's had become proved that Maelle had turned into the same kind of monster her mother had been, manipulating the canvas for the sake of her own happiness at the expense of Verso, and her real world family.

Thinking back, this was sort of telegraphed during the Maelle relationship quest with Painting Alicia in the Reacher when Verso had a blow up with Maelle about Gommaging Alicia without talking to him. I'm paraphrasing from memory but I believe he says something like "You Paintresses do whatever you want without considering the feelings of others."

I've seen debate online about "good" or "bad" endings. I feel like this is a game where there isn't really a "good" ending. There was going to be loss either way. But, personally, I think choosing to side with Verso and end the painting is the right choice. Maelle's choice is denying reality and living in mental delusions.

But from what I understand you can't fight the final boss again to pick a different ending. This is simply where endgame starts to clean up with the locations and boss fights (and a New Game Plus option shows up in the pause menu).

If you go into the menu and select "load previous saves", scroll down a couple and you should find one where it autosaved just before the choice. On mine it was 4 save slots down. Though if you play more in the post game it'll eventually drop off.
 
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I hope for sequel the canon ending is Maelle's.

First the other characters are too good to disappear from now on, and second I would love to see Maelle as the anti-hero/co-antagonist for what is next in the "Clair Obscur" universe.

Another I would like to see clarified is how much times passes in the real world for each year inside the canvas.


There will undoubtedly be a sequel maybe it's in side quest but VERY little is known about the "writers" and their dynamic with the other painters. I assume the dlc or sequel will likely go that way.

With such wildly different endings on the fate of the painted world I don't think they can revisit that specific painted world in a sequel.
 
There will undoubtedly be a sequel maybe it's in side quest but VERY little is known about the "writers" and their dynamic with the other painters. I assume the dlc or sequel will likely go that way.

With such wildly different endings on the fate of the painted world I don't think they can revisit that specific painted world in a sequel.

Maybe Maelle can adquire the power to move certain people from one canvas to another, as part of the world magic. We don't know how the rules of the Clair Obscur world.
 
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If you go into the menu and select "load previous saves", scroll down a couple and you should find one where it autosaved just before the choice. On mine it was 4 save slots down. Though if you play more in the post game it'll eventually drop off.
Thanks for the tip, unfortunately it's too late for me since I've already spend some extra time post-story. It's a shame that the devs simply didn't add option to make manual saves, even one or two.
 
I understand where Maelle is coming from, I really do--but so do Renoir and Verso. I went with Verso.

Renoir and Verso both have processed enough grief in their lives to know what's probably best for Maelle, and they both came to the conclusion that it was time to destroy the canvas.

Maelle's desire to live on in the Canvas can easily map onto unhealthy coping methods people choose in real life when confronted with grief. Drugs, video games, overeating, etc.

And in the Verso ending, when you see Curator-style Verso endlessly painting, essentially trapped, I felt I made the right call in finally letting him rest.
 
Maybe Maelle can adquire the power to move certain people from one canvas to another, as part of the world magic. We don't know how the rules of the Clair Obscur world.
Requires pure Chroma/Mana to create something. Lune/Sciel Chroma was right in front of Maelle after they Gommaged so she snatched them. Renoir controlled the rest and the best Maelle could do is play Necromancer afterward with impure Chroma. It also was difficult to bring back Lune/Sciel and needed Verso's guidance to successfully bring them back.
 
I re-rolled and saw both sides but obviously Verso's side is meant to be the bittersweet quote unquote happy ending. The canvas's reality gets erased, despite the fucking murder-stare Lune gives to Verso.

The other choice is basically realizing that you live in the Matrix, your beloved from the Matrix telling you to pull the plug but you refusing to do so for your own selfish reasons and manipulate them to live the ideal life you want them to, against their will or consciousness.
 
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Just did Versos ending. Fuck that hit hard
I wasn't expecting it to, but it did, and not for the reason I expected. It wasn't the saying goodbye to my party; it was the "real" Verso stuff that got me. How unfair it was he died young, for him to be kept "alive" as a husk by people who couldn't let him go, and for him finally getting to rest.
 
Incredible ending to an amazing game. Verso was the only real choice to me. I didn't even bother watching the other one cause I don't care. I'm just wondering where they will take it during an eventual sequel to this game. The obvious choice is the war between the writers\painters but not sure if that's where they will take it.
 
I have chosen Maelle ending fully knowing that it won't be a good ending, but I wanted to see what she will do next - Gustave reincarnation etc.
But she clearly lost herself there...

Verso ending is "bad" as well but it gives the family some hope. Maelle can always paint something herself...

Writers probably have abilities close to the ones of the painters. World in this game is "our" world but it has supernatural/magic element to it, painters can create entire worlds with sapient beings inside them, even live inside them.

How many years in the painting = time in the real world? What about the body, does it have to eat, shit, sleep etc.? Many questions were unanswered but of course they are not really important to general theme.
 
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Verso ending is "bad" as well but it gives the family some hope. Maelle can always paint something herself...
I did both endings but for me the only bad ending is picking Maelle, that whole scene is just sad. Verso's ending is at least positive, the family will finally be able to grieve and move on, it's the whole game's point imo, people who couldn't overcome grief.
 
Verso all the way. It was his canvas, and he was forced to keep painting. He was tired and wanted to stop, but Aline trapped him and kept him painting against his will. There are a lot of hints about it from the "hidden boy" when you talk to him in all the Acts. Alicia also wanted to do the same thing. So, without hesitation, I gave the boy peace.

Edit:

Also, when you replay the game, take notice of Verso's behavior when he joins the team. You can clearly see how tired he really is. His voice actor also did an INCREDIBLE job.
 
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As much as I love Ben Starr, he sounded exactly the same as Clive in FF16 throughout the whole game

Hell no, this line alone is more emotional than the entirety of FF16 (his voice breaks when he says "I'm tired too". It's one of the most natural lines you will hear in a video-game. His voice also breaks in numerous other scenes, you really feel how tired and broken Verso is at that point. It's an amazing performance, at least IMO).

 
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I picked Maelle and I enjoyed that "bad" ending, I think I also wanted things to stay the way they were even if that wasn't a healthy choice for her. With that said I was disappointed you can't just reload the last save and see Verso's version. And I suck at combat way too much to play it again in New Game Plus.
Indeed you can reload just to the point you enter the paint with verso... so you just have to side with one of them instead of fighting from start.. by loading the game by pressing the touchpad and loading the previous autosave on PS5 (there should be en equivalent button in PC Xbox)


I choose Verso... 'cause Maelle deserved a better Shinji's ending
 
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a youtuber that i shall not name here has shown both endings and i am very grateful , i will buy this game when i get myself a ps5 or ps5 pro
 
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Also was Maelle the EASIEST final boss of all time?

Her hits were WEAK and I could just use a reheal skill if I ever got in trouble. It was grindy but I was NEVER in serious trouble of losing the fight. Was the same true the other way as well?
 
Also was Maelle the EASIEST final boss of all time?

Her hits were WEAK and I could just use a reheal skill if I ever got in trouble. It was grindy but I was NEVER in serious trouble of losing the fight. Was the same true the other way as well?
Wasn't a boss fight really, just a way to select your ending. I did both, both were the same.
 
Also was Maelle the EASIEST final boss of all time?
I couldn't tell because at that point my characters were level 80 and above, they were just crazy overpowered for the main story.

I even managed to beat Clea which I think suppose to be super boss with ease because Maelle took 98% of her health with one attack.
 
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I picked Maelle. Mostly because I invested in her as a playable character and was curious how her story would end.

Verso feels more cannon and I generally think it's healthier to let go like Verso and the father believe.

That said, I really feel like a secret ending where you find the middle ground would have completed the game. As a move l movie I'm fine with the tragic endings. As a game you interact with it and I like the concept of growth, compromise, and unlocking a middle ground. Something where Verso and Maelle have a stalemate. Or where Maelle, with the help of her friends, comes to terms with the idea that she has done her part, but reality requires her to leave and only visit briefly going forward.

I believe in letting go. But I do like the concept of holding onto a few good parts of someone's memory. Ultimately the story is about grieving, coping, and unhealthy addiction. What makes it more complicated for me is that while it is "just" a painting, we get the impression that the world characters have a form of free will. Like the painter being a god creating life with free will. This makes me dislike both endings. It also makes me dislike Verso trying to earn forgiveness only to fail them (the painting world).

It's a very good game. As I said, as a movie I'm more accepting of the tragic ending. But since you play with the characters, grow with them, etc. I really like the idea of one more ending. The studio can still choose their cannon ending for sequels. But it's rewarding to see multiple endings and grow towards a better one with extensive play. Like the concept of self improvement. You can learn to grieve better. Verso can learn to accept him and his family can find a peace, a compromise.
 
I picked Maelle. Mostly because I invested in her as a playable character and was curious how her story would end.

Verso feels more cannon and I generally think it's healthier to let go like Verso and the father believe.

That said, I really feel like a secret ending where you find the middle ground would have completed the game. As a move l movie I'm fine with the tragic endings. As a game you interact with it and I like the concept of growth, compromise, and unlocking a middle ground. Something where Verso and Maelle have a stalemate. Or where Maelle, with the help of her friends, comes to terms with the idea that she has done her part, but reality requires her to leave and only visit briefly going forward.

I believe in letting go. But I do like the concept of holding onto a few good parts of someone's memory. Ultimately the story is about grieving, coping, and unhealthy addiction. What makes it more complicated for me is that while it is "just" a painting, we get the impression that the world characters have a form of free will. Like the painter being a god creating life with free will. This makes me dislike both endings. It also makes me dislike Verso trying to earn forgiveness only to fail them (the painting world).

It's a very good game. As I said, as a movie I'm more accepting of the tragic ending. But since you play with the characters, grow with them, etc. I really like the idea of one more ending. The studio can still choose their cannon ending for sequels. But it's rewarding to see multiple endings and grow towards a better one with extensive play. Like the concept of self improvement. You can learn to grieve better. Verso can learn to accept him and his family can find a peace, a compromise.

Fully agree with this.

Painters are basically gods in this world, they can create, kill and reshape anything they want. From the perspective of beings living inside the canvas both endings were bad (verso one way worse for sure). They should be left alone.

For painters this is "just" the painting, they kill entire worlds with little remorse. Power like this should be banned. Wasn't it suggested that this ability is inherited?
 
When I was fighting Renoir and he "vanished" on my characters it fucking broke me.
Given the context of everything you learn after that fight and the WAY that move was executed was stunning.

The FX for the move were fucking amazing and it broke me for about 15 seconds.

Thematically an incredible Big Baddie attack.
 
Verso. Maelle was incredibly selfish and her ending so fucking sad. Only her, Lune, and Sciel knew what was up and I get the feeling the moment she's not happy she's going to wipe everyone and paint a new reality. Verso at the piano was pretty depressing.

Learn to deal with grief, people lol.
 
I did Maelle first but did both endings, Maelle ending basically shows selfishness and living a lie, Renoir was right basically.

Verso ending is sad but it's the right choice, Maelle needs to let Verso go as per his wishes and let go of her own selfish needs/wants.

Great game.
 
Well I did both but the first time I sided with Maelle. I kinda like how the game more or less reveals how immoral of an act it is through what I can honestly only describe as a jumpscare, lol.
I think I consider Versos ending the more "canon" one for some reason. I guess it has more of a finality to it.

Edit: Can't really say why I went with Maelle, I guess I had come to consider her being the main character at the end, whereas Verso never felt that tired of living.
 
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Maelle - Verso "might not want this" but shut the fuck up you whiny bitch. I'm a god in this painting so get your fucking arse on that stage and play the fucking piano.
 
Copy/pasting my spoiler tagged post in the OT, but also adding some to it:

I've been playing this game entirely with my wife as an audience and she was annoyed that I chose Verso at the end. We ended up having a debate about it during the credit roll because she thought I should have sided with Maelle since I had spent the entire game with the cast of characters from the painting.

My argument was that the game was clearly a lesson in learning to process and manage grief, not hide from it through escapism. Aline/The Paintress' escapism into grief is what started the entire chain of events and caused countless tragedies both with and without the canvas. Alicia/Maelle was allowing her grief and guilt -- for her role in Verso's death and her disfigurement in the real world, and the loss of the 'people' of the canvas -- to dominate her emotions, which was the same kind of thing that clouded her mother's judgement.

At my wife's request, I loaded the save just before the canvas choice and chose to side with Maelle, and it vindicated my original decision. The Memory of Verso was being exploited as a puppet to keep the canvas alive. Verso pleading for Maelle to end his life, end his suffering after she defeats him was haunting. The way he looked defeated in the Epilogue because she had clearly 'repainted' him to be a constant pianist in the Opera Hall. The very last shot we see of Maelle with her face paint/chroma distorted like her mother's had become proved that Maelle had turned into the same kind of monster her mother had been, manipulating the canvas for the sake of her own happiness at the expense of Verso, and her real world family.

Thinking back, this was sort of telegraphed during the Maelle relationship quest with Painting Alicia in the Reacher when Verso had a blow up with Maelle about Gommaging Alicia without talking to him. I'm paraphrasing from memory but I believe he says something like "You Paintresses do whatever you want without considering the feelings of others."

I've seen debate online about "good" or "bad" endings. I feel like this is a game where there isn't really a "good" ending. There was going to be loss either way. But, personally, I think choosing to side with Verso and end the painting is the right choice. Maelle's choice is denying reality and living in mental delusions.



If you go into the menu and select "load previous saves", scroll down a couple and you should find one where it autosaved just before the choice. On mine it was 4 save slots down. Though if you play more in the post game it'll eventually drop off.

Nailed it. I mean, I would highly question someone's media literacy if they thought Maelle's ending was the 'right' or 'good' one. I know that sounds snooty but come on, you'd have to not be paying attention to literally anything the game is trying to tell you.
 
Nailed it. I mean, I would highly question someone's media literacy if they thought Maelle's ending was the 'right' or 'good' one. I know that sounds snooty but come on, you'd have to not be paying attention to literally anything the game is trying to tell you.

It's funny because I forget when but when you initially find out what's going on I was still going with the idea that we need to save the painting. I don't think it was until I saw Maelle's mom that I thought the father was right. Everything after that only reinforced that position.

So in a way I can kind of understand his wife's position. She just like me got very attached to the paintings in the canvas. It was going to be a painful decision either way but getting rid of the paining will at least put them on the road to healing whether or not they actually heal who knows.
 
Just finished the game. I think the Verso ending is presented as the objectively "better" ending given the way Maelle is portrayed in her ending. The game was phenomenal, and I even enjoyed the ending, but I wish they had done a third route true ending style where maybe if you returned the Dessendre family portrait to the manor + defeated Clea and Simon then you get an ending where all the painted family members are allowed to move on, the real life counterparts finally coming to terms with their grief and the painted world lives on as an independent world of its own. Maelle is shown visiting in a way that makes it clear she does not live in the painting, but she enjoys the world her brother created while striving to make her life better in the real world.
 
The only way to consider the Verso ending the 'good' choice is if you don't consider the denizens of the Canvas to be 'real'. Otherwise what may well be 'good' for the OG family is coming at the cost of a genocide, and you know that at the time of making the choice.

I don't think the Canvas can strictly be considered a 'fantasy' world. The OG family are effectively gods visiting a world of their own creation, but it is still portrayed as being a real world with real people in it, not merely an imaginary world with imaginary people.

The game is essentially asking the same questions as Blade Runner: can a created person ever be considered a real person, with the same rights as a real person, or are they always 'less than' real and therefore disposable / less worthy of consideration?

Maelle and Verso both take a different position on that, but both of them are having their position influenced to an unknown degree by their own selfish reasons too.
 
Finally finished it, picked Verso... His reasoning made more sense to me... Then I regretted, but after seeing Maelle ending on YouTube I really felt better about my decision. Amazing game, I'm still doing secondary stuff until I get enough.
 
+1 Verso ending. Maelle was doing it for selfish reasons and she's also naive to believe her grief could be paused somehow inside the painting. Nice touch at the end with Verso's soul being the small boy on the painting. Very well done.
 
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