Clair Subbur: Adventure 33: Final Preview
Blog Andrew Joseph 04 Mar , 2025 0
A few years ago, a mentor told me that the most important part of any story is a surprise. A few years later, I deeply respect a writer saying that the difference between good and great writing is perhaps technology, although that may not be as important as belief. But what makes us invest in stories is curiosity, the gap between what we know and what we want to know, and the issues that drive us. Combining these three, you tend to create something special. We each played a game that freed us from jumping and connected us in some unexpected way. A game that surprised us. From the first frame, his beliefs were obvious. That makes us want to explore. I've played a lot of This feeling is getting rarer to me for my video games, friends and this feeling, especially in the AAA space. So when I tell you Clair Cover: Adventure 33 grabs my throat from the jump, I played the three and a half hours of demonstration without letting a second, twice, trust me when I tell you it's powerful magic.
If you are not familiar with it, Clair masks it: Expedition 33's setup is very interesting. Look, this is called the “painer”, and every year, she paints a new number. When she did, everyone at that age died. po. disappear. Turn to dust. Don't pass, don't charge $200. The truth is, she is counting down. Every year, dying people become young. Therefore, every year, the people of Lumire will send a year of volunteer expedition, and the remaining one year of people live on a desperate, impossible, doomed mission: to go to the sea continent to kill the dragon dragon so that she can no longer paint death.
The expedition has been going on for some time. You'll find the journal of Expedition 84, so if you can do math in your head, how desperate this whole thing is, and the youth of your character (but still younger than the average RPG protagonist).
Once your crew lands on the mainland, things get weird. They met an old man almost immediately who sent the entire expedition almost alone. You play Gustave, one of the survivors: traumatized, alone, walking through other expeditions and countless bodies of his own. He was about to shoot when he was discovered by Lune, another member of the expedition. She is not blind to reality (they may all die), but the expedition members swore: “When one falls, we continue.” As long as one of them stands, their battle is not over.
Lune and Gustave obviously care about each other, but they don't always get along. When they find an unsigned message indicating another member of Expedition 33, Maelle may still be alive, Gustave wants to give up everything and try to save her, and then leave Dodge. Lune is worried that the whole thing is a trap. Expedition members should always sign their message. Once, Lun later asked Gustav if he was a coward because he just wanted Mel to get out. He is not; he is just looking at almost everyone who knows death. And lune? She is saying they should land on that beach first. Neither of them is easy. These characters are adults and they are written like this. They don't always agree; they are dealing with innocence, loss and trauma, and in the zeal of the moment, they are not always kind to each other. But they care about each other. At the end of the exchange, they laugh once they calm down. The fascinating characters are complex and flawed, and Expedition 33 seems to understand that.
Even if it's not them, Expedition 33 could slip through the world. My demo is quite linear: there are some branch paths with hidden grab points, platforms, odd and secrets to find, and tough optional enemies, but this is not an open world game. And better. Expedition 33 reminds me of Final Fantasy X; these environments may be linear, but they are beautiful, whether you are standing on the hill watching the top of an indigo tree or underwater, somehow Expedition 33 is a visual feast where I pause in each environment and amazed at the beauty and composition I show. You even have a world map that you can get from one place, such as an old RPG.
However, what really attracted me was the battle. Clair Buckur may be based on turns, but not DVD menus. have a lot of The depth here. Each character has melee and ranged attacks, which must be targeted manually. Melee attacks build APs and spend ranged attacks. You also need the skills of the AP, and each character has unique attacks in their arsenal. Most importantly, each character has a specific property. Gustave can use certain skills to build a bunch of overcharges that he can spend money on devastating attacks; Lune’s spell grants elemental stains that enhance her other spells for additional effects and damage; and my favorite Maelle (you did rescue her; this is not a spoiler. She switches between three different positions in the trailer for Clair Buckur, providing bombs for attack, AP generation, and defense. Manage your AP, build large combos and plan ahead; like FFX, the turn order is displayed on the left side of the screen, so you can plan each turn ahead, but the strategy is only half the battle.
The other half is execution at all times. Not only will you choose an option, but you will also wait for the canned animation to play. When enemies attack you, you can dodge, parry or jump to avoid it. Dodge avoid attacks while parrying, making you a huge counterattack possible and granting APs, but with tighter windows. Sometimes the only way out is to skip something. Of course, you can participate in a long and long facial tradition, but the hard battle will force you to interact with these defensive mechanics. And, if you put out the attack that hits the entire team? They all fought back in a beautiful counterattack that never ages.
Earlier, I encountered a very powerful enemy who could strike my character at once. But the truth is, he had to hit me. If I can parry him, I can win. I made a few attempts (he made a tricky attack that forced me to PARI or dodge twice in a row), but once I found out I could put out the first strike and dodge the second, I managed to take him away.
Then there's the backend stuff called Pictos and Luminas. You can equip any character with up to three Pictos that provide buffs like “Shoot this enemy may ignite them on fire” or “attack causes more damage” or “kill enemies more APs” and statistics upgrades. Equipped with Picto, you win enough battles so that everyone can equip their effects, minus the stat bonus, as long as they have the points they need. This is where you can do something that really degenerates. Of course, Maelle has a skill that puts her in the attitude of using it when the enemy burns (she does 200% damage). Usually you have to have someone use another skill to set this up, but if you give Gustave and place a Lumina on Lune, that means their ranged attacks could potentially catch the enemy on fire? Or maybe you equip a Picto that causes damage to your basic attack, or grant an AP for you to pin Parry's ap, thus making your attack life longer than your usual ability. Then, you are cooking with gasoline.
Combining all of this and fighting provides many interesting options. Will this character dodge or risk trying to land that parry? If someone is not in good health, did you spend an item or an AP to recover them, or would you bet that all dodge or fire the next attack? How do you upgrade your character? Who can get what skills as a Picto so that they can stack the correct statistics without having to spend Lumina points to get this effect? Then continue.
Through all this, Expedition 33 is always looking for new ways to make itself interesting. What is pregnancy and why is Ruon obsessed with them? Who is the pain and what does she want? Why is this the world? Are all these creatures actually hostile? Some of them seem friendly and you can choose to fight them or leave them alone. What should that old man do? How do these things work? In my demo, Clair masked it: Expedition 33 didn't stop explaining itself, and I appreciate it. It trusts me to figure things out and ends up being more involved in what is happening. Most importantly, I can never predict what will happen next. By the time the “Thank you for the game” appeared on my screen at the end of the demo, I was completely obsessed with it. On the second run, I discovered more hidden areas and dropped SmackDown in an optional battle that left me in the first time.
When my time Clair masked: Expedition 33 started, I wasn't ready to stop. I want to fight more battles, learn more about the world, and spend more time with these characters. Sandfall Interactive is a new studio, but you will never know this is the first game they played. surprise. conviction. curiosity. Clair Subbur: Adventure 33 nails are all three. Before I played it, it had my interest; now, it caught my attention. If Sandfall can land, they will put together something outstanding.
