Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has flashy, thrilling battles, however one of the best factor about them is how one can twist the sport’s many methods to your benefit. The turn-based RPG fight may really feel acquainted, however it gives lots of methods to customise your strategy to battles to be able to do completely devastating quantities of harm.
In Expedition 33, you play as a bunch of Expeditioners who purpose to destroy The Paintress, a mysterious being that erases everybody of a sure age yearly. In battles, you may have as much as three of your get together collaborating in a struggle, and may all of them die, you may name in your teammates who’re in reserve to try to end off the enemies.
To indicate you ways deep the rabbit gap can go in customizing your staff, right here’s my strategy to constructing out only one character, the fencer Maelle. Each character can equip three “Pictos,” which provide passive buffs like supplying you with the defense-boosting Shell standing at first of a struggle. However after you win a number of fights with a Pictos geared up, different characters can additionally equip the Pictos as a “Lumina” through the use of “Lumina Factors,” which you accumulate by leveling up and through the use of a useful resource you could find within the recreation.
Whenever you combine and match Pictos and Luminas to stack complimentary bonuses, issues actually get going. For my model of Maelle, I set a mix of Pictos and Luminas that might let her deal doubtlessly huge quantities of harm, particularly if a fortunate vital hit and a coin-flip 200 p.c injury buff went by. However as a counterbalance to Maelle’s enormous energy, among the Pictos and Luminas additionally elevated the quantity of harm she obtained, so I added defensive ones that helped her higher face up to hits.
In battle, every character additionally has a singular mechanic that, when used correctly, helps you to make their assaults simpler. Maelle, for instance, depends on completely different “stances” that you could shift into: an offensive stance that will increase the injury you give but additionally the injury you obtain, a defensive stance that reduces the injury you’re taking, and a “virtuous” stance that does 200 p.c injury however could be tougher to arrange.
With Maelle, you may transfer into the completely different stances based mostly on which of your six completely different “expertise” you utilize in battle — and like with Pictos and Luminas, these are additionally customizable and have their very own traits and potential synergies.
It may be quite a bit to handle, and the sport usually helps in battles by including a bit of sparkle to recommend a transfer on your present state of affairs. However even inside the first few hours of the sport, I used to be capable of grasp the potential of what was potential with the battle system. And with Maelle, once I nailed the mix of establishing the fitting stance and a fortunate break from my Pictos and Luminas, I commonly might completely demolish my foes by dealing hundreds of factors of harm. (A late-game Pictos that permit me exceed 9,999 factors of harm in a single hit was notably welcome.)
That’s simply my strategy with one character; every of the opposite get together members has their very own playstyles to experiment with and potential expertise to make use of. Your geared up weapons are a component to contemplate, too. The sport shines when everybody’s talents and expertise line up completely for a sequence of explosive hits, and it’s particularly satisfying when issues come collectively to soften down a difficult boss’s well being bar.
I undoubtedly didn’t use Expedition 33’s battle system, which makes issues simple to experiment with, to its fullest. As soon as I discovered a mix of characters and expertise that I preferred, I not often deviated from them. However I’ve plenty of concepts on attempt issues otherwise for a tough mode run — I’m positive there are much more methods to completely break the sport.