FRPG? Expedition 33 a “new” sub genre?

CLW

CLW

Member
I've played about 10 hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a big turn base fan but this games combat system sound track characters and story so far have been really enjoyable.

We recently had the birth of the "souls borne" genre. Is Expedition 33 the beginning of a FRPG sub genre (turn based qte/parry heavy rpg)?
 
They're not new mechanics, the two recent Yakuza games already have them and I wouldn't be surprised if qtes in turned based games are even older.
 
CLW said:
I've played about 10 hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a big turn base fan but this games combat system sound track characters and story so far have been really enjoyable.

We recently had the birth of the "souls borne" genre. Is Expedition 33 the beginning of a FRPG sub genre (turn based qte/parry heavy rpg)?
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Play the Mario & Luigi games. You can dodge or counterattack every enemy attack if you are good enough.

Also in Paper Mario TTYD, you can Supergaurd every attack to take no damage. Glad to see Expedition 33 taking inspiration from some great JRPGs.
 
It's a 'guetteRPG

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Those mechanics are not new. The Yakuza games, Persona games, and the Mario RPGs have all had them for years, if not decades.
 
I hate parry mechanics. I'm old and have slow reflexes. Can it be turned off or is there a way to make them easier?
 
The best joke I've heard today is that this is a J'RPG.

But just played the first one hour and had the same question, is it a FJRPG? FRPG? A Persona-like? 😄
 
Ar¢tos said:
I hate parry mechanics. I'm old and have slow reflexes. Can it be turned off or is there a way to make them easier?
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Not only can you not turn them off, there are no telegraphs from the enemies. You just have to watch their attack and dodge/parry at the last second. Takes some getting used to, but most enemies just spam the same two attacks, so you're good.
 
Ar¢tos said:
I hate parry mechanics. I'm old and have slow reflexes. Can it be turned off or is there a way to make them easier?
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They aren't necessary. There are both parry and dodge. They aren't necessary at easy and medium, according to what the description say, but might be at hard.

I think the dodge is easy to pull off, as long as you knoe the enemy attack pattern.
 
FingerBang said:
They aren't necessary. There are both parry and dodge. They aren't necessary at easy and medium, according to what the description say, but might be at hard.
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I'm playing on medium, and I'd say it's necessary. The mime enemies alone will wreck you if you don't parry/dodge. There's an attack that hits 4 times, and if you get hit once, it applies mute on your character. If you get hit 4 times, your health goes down to around 20%. That's 1 turn. Chromatic boss will 1 shot you on any difficulty.
 
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it's a JRPG... that's it.

JRPG = the main characters are predefined often with predefined classes, most/all of the story progression is predefined and linear, focus on story, combat systems and stats.

West RPG = custom character with custom classes and custom story background, lots of choices that change the trajectory of your playthrough, focus on player expression by offering tons of build possibilities and playstyles
 
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FingerBang said:
They aren't necessary. There are both parry and dodge. They aren't necessary at easy and medium, according to what the description say, but might be at hard.

I think the dodge is easy to pull off, as long as you knoe the enemy attack pattern.
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they are indeed necessary on hard. I play in hard and if you don't parry, or at least dodge, you basically lose every fight.
 
Well, JRPG is not only Japanese because it's made in Japan, but because they clearly have Japanese idiosyncrasy heavily ingrained in each characteristic so that's why they feel Japanese no matter if they are turn based or whatever, there's "something" you can feel around them that you can't just put into words. Even Dark Souls and Elden Ring are clearly JRPGs as you can feel Japanese "souls" in them.

It would be the same for "FRPG", but they'd have to be more in quantity so you can get a pattern.

That happens to me also when talking about American or European storytelling, stuff like TLOU doesn't impress me in the slightest, they too "straight to your face", while stuff like Alan Wake or Hellblade feel way better to me, they feel more like Japanese storytelling to me in that they let you "feel" in silence and that I associate to Europeans idiosyncrasy as well.
 
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kevboard said:
it's a JRPG... that's it.

JRPG = the main characters are predefined often with predefined classes, most/all of the story progression is predefined and linear, focus on story, combat systems and stats.

West RPG = custom character with custom classes, lots of choices that change the trajectory of your playthrough, focus on player expression by offering tons of build possibilities.
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Pretty much how I see it.
If people are going to loose their shit because "it's not made in Japan" then just call it JRPG-like or JRPG inspired or whatever.

I'd argue at this point JRPG is more like a genre than a "RPG made in Japan". Games like Chained Echoes and Expedition 33 feel more like JRPGs than Elden Ring or Dragons Dogma 2.
 
Dude needs to play more games asap.

Also, in my opinion the J in JRPG isn't because it's an rpg made in Japan, but because it follows the conventions settled by the classic JRPGs, mostly being a narrative driven, linear, party based and with turn based combat.

So something like fucking YIIK would be more of a JRPG than, let's say, Dragon's Dogma.
 
Fbh said:
Pretty much how I see it.
If people are going to loose their shit because "it's not made in Japan" then just call it JRPG-like or JRPG inspired or whatever.

I'd argue at this point JRPG is more like a genre than a "RPG made in Japan". Games like Chained Echoes and Expedition 33 feel more like JRPGs than Elden Ring or Dragons Dogma 2.
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yup.
JRPG has clearly become its own subgenre genre over the years, with clear differences to typical western RPGs.
Elden Ring and Dragons Dogma are western RPGs made in japan, Expedition 33 is a JRPG made in france.
 
Fbh said:
I'd argue at this point JRPG is more like a genre than a "RPG made in Japan". Games like Chained Echoes and Expedition 33 feel more like JRPGs than Elden Ring or Dragons Dogma 2.
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Yup. This isn't even the first JRPS not made in Japan.
 
It's just a JRPG made by Europeans

The use of real time elements in a turn based combat system isn't anything new. Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario already did that
 
Not enough devs in France to need any kind of term, and while the game builds-on and innovates some mechanics, they are an extension of what some other JRPGs have done.

One thing devs in future doing turn-based games need to draw from is this game and Atlus on how they do presentation for the combat. Stylish menus, sweeping camera usage, fast animations, and concise descriptions of abilities just remove the tedium that I think can put off people on turn-based combat....especially dozens of hours in.
 
Skifi28 said:
They're not new mechanics, the two recent Yakuza games already have them and I wouldn't be surprised if qtes in turned based games are even older.
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lost odyssey had them but nothing like 33, i dont know about yakuza. Lost odyssey only had them during basic attacks i think. That's not what makes 33 great, i could live without that, it's the dodge parry jump that makes the game combat so great.
 
kevboard said:
yup.
JRPG has clearly become its own subgenre genre over the years, with clear differences to typical western RPGs.
Elden Ring and Dragons Dogma are western RPGs made in japan, Expedition 33 is a JRPG made in france.
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This is the only thing that makes sense and everyone who disagrees is being disingenuous. Like if there was a thread here asking for JRPG recommendations, they're not looking for elden ring, that's a useless suggestion. Those people might go in those threads making that suggestion but they know what they're doing. They're just trying to derail the thread, they know OP is not looking for that kind of game.
 
CLW said:
There is NOTHING "new" in the souls borne genre either
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Dunno man. I think the bonfire and estus mechanics adds a lot to those games by turning exploration into a risk-reward thingy the player has to balance.
 
As others have already said, this is a JRPG. In fact, this is more of a JRPG than all the modern Final Fantasy games combined.
 
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