September 17, 2025 • 52 mins
We dive into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a stylish turn-based RPG set in a dreamlike, Belle Époque-inspired world where players must defeat the Paintress before she erases another year of humanity's history.
• The game's stunning visuals, world-building, and soundtrack create an immersive experience despite coming from a small development team
• Clair Obscur's combat system blends turn-based strategy with real-time action in a uniquely satisfying way
• Voice performances from Charlie Cox, Andy Serkis, and others bring emotional depth to the characters despite lip-syncing issues
• The game delivers a shocking moment at the end of Act One that forces players to confront grief—one of its central themes
• While attempting several gameplay mechanics beyond its core combat, some elements like platforming and climbing feel less polished
• At 30-40 hours of gameplay with Act Two being particularly lengthy, the game offers substantial content for its price
• Clair Obscur stands as a Game of the Year contender alongside titles like Silksong and Death Stranding 2
Interested in watching us play games? Follow us on Twitch! Want to hear more about how we got into gaming? Listen to the interview we did with Your Friendly Neighborhood Gamers!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.
Wait for it Gaming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Wait for it.
Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do
is wait for it.
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Hey, everyone, welcome back tothe Wait For it Podcast.
(00:37):
I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and
on this edition of the Game Room, where it Happens, we're going
to be talking about a verycurrent game, some would say the
frontrunner for Game of theYear in the year of 2025.
Our dear Lord Silksong Justgoing to ignore that, claire
Obscure Frontrunner Game of theYear.
(01:01):
People have been loving it andwe are excited to get into a
game, phil, that I never thoughtwe were ever going to play.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, for Claire Obscure.
This is actually a game thatcame on my radar last year
strictly because of how gorgeousit looked.
It looked very different.
Don't have a lot of experiencein the turn-based world, but
this was something I was like,yeah, we're gonna have to try
this out, especially with itcoming to game pass being very
(01:31):
accessible even if you don'thave game pass.
So we're gonna break all ofthat down here tonight.
And at the request, very recentrequest of one of our newest
weight watchers, botter from theshort box podcast, he literally
last week, when we wererecording with him, he was like
hey, I got a bone to pick withyou guys.
Where's the Clear Obscureepisode?
Well, here you go, botter.
Here it is, signed, sealed,delivered, all for you and
(01:54):
actually everybody that's here.
So, thank you so much forjoining us.
If you need a little refresheron where, stick around to the
very end.
We'll let you know where youcan find all of that.
But yeah, eric, let's get intoClaire Obscure, expedition 33.
It is a stylish, story-drivenRPG set in a dreamlike, belle,
opec-inspired world.
(02:14):
Every year, a mysterious entityknown as the Painteress awakens
to erase an entire year ofhumanity's history, wiping
people and places from existence, humanity's history, wiping
people and places from existence.
You lead a desperate expeditionon a journey to defeat her
before she awakens again,combining turn-based strategy
with real-time action combat ina visually stunning fight to
save the last remnants ofcivilization.
(02:36):
So yeah, eric, like I mentioned, this game came into my view
last year and I think it wasright around the time we were
recording like the mid-seasonfantasy draft for Friendly
Neighborhood Gamers at the timeand I was like what is this
again?
As far as graphically, it justlooks absolutely stunning
(02:56):
gameplay, very unique and from astudio in a developer I mean in
Sandfall Interactive that noone really knew about.
And we are very much in this age, especially over the last five,
10 years, where we're seeingdevelopers come out of nowhere,
put out these games that are nottechnically AAA titles but have
(03:16):
AAA delivery in terms of theirlaunch, in terms of their
gameplay, in terms of everythingthat comes after, and it's just
been really, really great tosee, especially with us entering
the pc gaming world.
So, eric, what has been your?
You know your history withturn-based rpgs.
Did you have any before?
Clear, obscure, or what wasthat like in terms of you know
(03:37):
your gaming backlog and yourgaming history god, what are
turn-based rpgs?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
is that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
even so a.
Thing so a game like finalfantasy.
7 so final fantasy 7 peoplewill say pokemon is turn-based,
which it is.
It's just at its very simplestform and that works.
You know pokemon has worked fordecades.
I would play.
If they released a turn like anoriginal turn-based pokemon
game right now, I would play,play it.
There is like a Mario and Luigigames that have came out
(04:07):
Current day.
You're talking about like aPersona.
You know games like that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
No, the answer is no.
The only more recent experienceI've had is Baldur's Gate 3,
which is a game I really amexcited to get back into now
that I have my PC.
It's something I've beenpushing off since I got my pc at
the tail end of last year.
Outside of that, especiallyduring the console years that we
(04:32):
are notorious for for a lot ofour adulthood, it is something
that I have not exactly exploredvery much, but I also don't
think it was very likeaccessible, like you mentioned
Final Fantasy, maybe yourpersona, but other than that,
like pure games that stuck withthat, like that's their thing.
(04:55):
I don't know that there's thatmany franchises.
It seems like we might betaking a turn in that direction,
but it is something that I'veavoided, not because I don't
enjoy it, because I again I'mlike I've enjoyed turn-based
stuff before, but it's just nota genre of gaming that I ever
jumped into, which, again, iswhy I think it's so surprising
(05:16):
that we this was one on yourradar.
Two, that we even played it and, three, that there was even any
enjoyment in the combat, whichis some of the most fluid combat
that I had the pleasure ofenjoying this year yeah, we're
gonna talk about all that forsure, and just what a grand
(05:37):
accomplishment this is.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
we're gonna talk about, obviously, positives and
negatives in this episode and wewe both do three takeaways.
If you're new to the podcast,eric and I both choose three
takeaways that we want todiscuss when it comes to the
game.
So let's go ahead and getstarted.
I will go ahead and go first,and mine is cheating a little
bit because it is going to beboth a positive and kind of a
negative.
I don't know you let me know ifthis is nitpicky or not, but I
(06:00):
feel like it's probably isnusing because I think we've
talked about it before and wealso need to provide the clarity
of where we both are at in ourjourneys.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yes, with clear right .
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So eric has beaten the game.
He played it all the waythrough and I have only gotten a
couple hours into act two, andwe'll talk about why that is in
a little bit too.
So that is where we sit interms of how much time we have
put in.
I don't have my save up righthere in front of me as far as
how much time I get into it, but, yeah, like I said, got into a
couple hours into act two.
So for us, you know, wecertainly want to talk about
(06:31):
performances in terms of thevoice acting.
I mean, obviously there aresome big names included here in
Claire Obscure, charlie Coxbeing the, you know, the main
one that I think a lot of peopleare going to recognize,
jennifer English, ben Starr, whohas a really, really great
performance, even though Ihaven't, like, fully gotten to
(06:52):
see him, you know Shayla Nix,andy Serkis, but, yeah, really
really great voice cast and theyreally portray that emotion in
terms of the story.
That can be a little confusingat times if you're not fully
paying attention.
There's a lot going on here.
They're not shy about throwingyou into this world and letting
you kind of learn about it asyou go and, again, the
performances are outstanding asfar as how they're delivering
(07:16):
their lines, but the mouth flapsare off a lot.
And again, this is not a AAAtitle, it's a team of less than
50 people, so they clearly maybethey prioritize some things
over the other.
But as people who watch, youobviously watch a lot of anime.
I watch a decent amount ofanime.
That's something that can takeme out of it and that's why I
(07:38):
don't watch a lot of older animeis because the mouth flaps
don't really match.
So you let me know, did thattake you out of any of those
really emotional moments or am Iagain?
Am I being nitpicky?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, well, we're starting with shots fired.
Fucking Christ, I said it was alittle bit of both.
How is it both?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I said that the performances were really good,
but the mouth flaps don't match.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay.
No, I mean the mouth flaps,flaps.
The lip sync is an issue.
It is an issue.
In fact.
I distinctly remember when I wasin the first hour of the game,
before the title happens, andobviously you know what occurs
we are going to talk about.
I think we're going to prettytalk pretty freely about act one
(08:22):
up until that moment, and thenwe'll put like a spoiler tag on
there just for those of you thatmaybe don't want to hear that
part.
But I will say the beginning ofthe game, like you're
introduced to this town andthere's options for dialogue
leading up to the pier thatyou're trying to get to, for the
first like moment of the gameto happen, for it to truly start
and phil, I breezed throughthat fucking part.
(08:44):
The second, the lip sync wasn'ton.
I was like, oh okay, I was likeI'm not interested in that and
it didn't work for me all thetime.
I don't think that itnecessarily ruined the
performances in any way.
So I see what you're saying.
Maybe that's like the goodtakeaway is that verbally they
were good performances.
It is taken away, though, alittle bit by the bad lip sync,
(09:06):
and I still have no like.
Anytime I look it up.
It's more theorizing why thisis not a real explanation.
Maybe the devs have given that,maybe this team has provided
that and I just haven't found it, or it's not easily accessible.
I think there should be sometype of explanation, though,
because it is pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and I didn't watch a couple of reviews from
other content creators andnobody seemed to really bring it
up, so I just wanted to makesure that we did, because I
obviously, I mean, I don't thinkwe're crazy.
I mean, who knows, maybe thecomment section will go nuts
with this.
It'll be like our secondyoutube video to ever pop off.
That.
That's how that's gonna work.
(09:46):
So thank you algorithm.
But yeah, but again, like Isaid it, just it still does not
take away from the emotionaldepth of the characters.
They're all very well written,at least the ones that I have
come across so far, and I I'mcertainly excited to learn more
about them as we go on.
But yeah, yeah, that is thefirst, unfortunately.
That is the first thing Iwanted to bring up because, yeah
(10:07):
, because there is so muchdialogue in this it's impossible
to ignore because it happensimmediately.
So that was my first takeaway.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, no, I mean, listen, we're off to a great
start because, like, I really dofeel a little bad about maybe
how some of these things basedoff of, kind of what you're
hinting at and what I've beenvocal about with this game,
which is that this game a lot ofpeople jumped to it being a
(10:37):
game of the year contender andthe reason I took so long with
it was because I didn't want torush through it.
And I did take my time withthis game, but there are pretty
significant issues.
So before I get to those andagain it may sound like there
are going to be some nitpickythings and there are going to be
some things maybe I'm in theminority about.
We'll see where that kind ofends up I do want to praise the
(11:01):
biggest thing, which I alreadymentioned earlier in passing,
which is the combat.
This is not, phil, a combatthat I thought I would vibe with
.
The turn-based combat here withthe characters is a lot of fun
Getting to learn how to play asthose characters If I was to
have one.
My one caveat to everything I'msaying right now I hate that
(11:25):
it's limited to three.
I understand it would be alittle too excessive to increase
that to four or five, but Ireally felt like I missed out on
playing as certain charactersthat I would have liked to learn
a little bit more, and thereason for that is because you
have a team of four to fivepeople, I believe, at max and
(11:45):
you essentially play three perturn and if those three die then
you have, like the lastexpedition, the last, like
resort, and it's the remainingone to two players that jump in.
That didn't always work for me,but when you do have your core,
you have your favoritecharacters, which, phil, I'd
love to know your rotation ofcharacters as well.
It is a ton of fun getting tolearn them, getting to rebuild
(12:09):
their skill tree, sometimesmaking complete course
corrections.
All of that is a great time,especially when you learn about
the Luminas and the Pictos aswell.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah.
So, as we already mentioned,this is really a departure from
a lot of the gameplay that wehave experienced really just in
our gaming history, and it was alot of fun to learn and there
is really no learning curve,like they throw you into it
right away and kind of expectyou to figure out how things go
(12:41):
as you play the game, and Ithink that is a.
I feel like that's a hugepositive.
It could be an immediatedetriment and a turnoff for
other people.
As determined as I was to figurethis out and get better, I just
wasn't.
And the big thing for me I'm sobad at parrying.
(13:01):
I'm so bad at parrying anddodging.
It's just not my thing acrossall of gaming.
The only thing I really feellike recently that I got even
like okay at was Ghost ofTsushima, but everything else I
just have not.
And then, of course, batman,because it's I don't want to say
it's easy to do in batman, but,like you know, and spider-man,
(13:22):
you know those those types ofthings, but I just couldn't
figure this out.
So, to get through the game,because I wanted to experience
the story, I did lower thedifficulty down to story mode,
but it is still a lot of fun andyou still do run into those
more challenging enemies.
That can be a lot of fun.
I wish there was some sort ofin between between the standard
difficulty and then the storymode, but unfortunately that's
not the case.
Who knows, maybe that'ssomething they add in the future
(13:44):
.
But yeah, as far as thecharacters, eric, early on, the
first ones that you run into, atleast in the first act, of
course there's Gustav, there'sLuna Mael, and then it's
pronounced Sayel, correct?
Lune maiel, and then it'spronounced uh syl, correct, yeah
, syl yep and I ran mostly.
Once I got syl I I switched outmy l for the most part um in the
(14:05):
latter half.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
I could not figure out thestaff oh yeah, I did yeah oh, no
, buddy yeah, I couldn't figureout the stances.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I I think it's because her like quote unquote,
like the loadout.
I just didn't have the rightloadout to get her into the
correct stances and I figuredthat out a little bit too late.
So, like upon a replay, I woulddefinitely swap out gustav.
But yeah, the stance is becauseI I could not get her into the
ones that I needed the most.
That's why I swapped her out.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah.
So Luna was my favorite,probably like consistently
across the board.
Yeah, she's great.
I did start to really enjoyMael as the game progresses and
you know we'll talk about that.
But this game is really hergame, like from a story
perspective.
A lot is built around her, sothat was really prevalent.
Sae-el is one that I didn't getto spend as much time with,
(14:59):
because once you get to act twoand you're introduced to the
character Monoko, he kind ofcame into rotation.
But yeah, gustav, I wanted toget off of him so fucking fast.
And we'll talk about the othercharacter we're kind of quietly
not discussing when we kind ofgive that very blanket spoiler
warning.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, those characters I did not want to
play immediately and whenever Iwas forced to play them I I was
not having a great time yeah, soit's certainly about figuring
out what that balance is and,again, because it's like my main
point of reference, when itcomes to turn-based, it is
obviously very similar to likefiguring out the right team that
(15:36):
you have in Pokemon.
I think that three works justfine.
It's also the more traditionallayout when it comes to
turn-based games.
So, like I'm fairly certain, inFinal Fantasy it's also three
people, but also in FinalFantasy you have like the
summoning as well, so that's awhole different thing.
Yeah, as far as the, thecharacters, once again, I
(15:58):
thought they were all very, veryinteresting, fleshed out very
well.
The only thing I don't reallyknow too much about is syl, but
yeah, lune is also also probablymy favorite out of all of them.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But yeah, again, like kind of my first take, very,
very good characters and veryinteresting for sure yeah, what
did you think about the, uh, thepictos and the luminous, like
the whole concept of those, likeit was pretty.
Again, this game doesn't reallyexplain a lot to you and even
when it does, a paragraphdoesn't exactly explain
(16:30):
everything you need to know.
And, uh, I'm curious, like howmuch you dived into it to really
understand it.
Or did you utilize it?
Or are you just learning nowthat you could essentially have
this ability where you max outthese things with each
individual person and theneveryone can reap the benefit?
Like again, what was yourexperience?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I kind of learned that a little bit too late, I
won't say too late, but liketowards a little bit closer
towards this recording.
So now, having that information, I do plan on upping the
difficulty back up to now that Ihave the character.
Now I'm using the characters, Ibelieve I'm using them
correctly, but I did, you know,did see those once I started
doing the upgrades and, like youknow, going to camp and
(17:12):
utilizing all that.
It's not just as simple as, oh,here, use your skill points and
upgrade your weapon andutilizing all that.
It's not just as simple as, oh,here, use your skill points and
upgrade your weapon and do allthis.
So, like, figuring that out alittle bit later will certainly
be helpful as I continue to playthe game.
But, yeah, again, it reallydoes just throw you in there.
I mean, I used to watch mycousin play Final Fantasy and
I'm pretty sure there was atleast a ramp up period in Final
(17:36):
Fantasy.
So I was like if I ever wantedto play this game, I could this
one again, like the, thelearning curve is so steep that
I'm just really happy that ithas had all this, all of its
success.
But I have asked like I don'twant to say casual gamers, but
like I was curious if this gamehad come across like people that
aren't always like have theirlike their pulse on what's going
(17:59):
on in gaming.
So I asked, like a coworker whois a big PC gamer, if he had
played this game and he actuallyhe said no, and it wasn't,
didn't even seem like it was onhis radar.
So I'm kind of interested likeoutside of people that were
really had their finger on thepulse of where gaming was and
like what this release was like,how many people played this,
you know?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
it'll be an interesting conversation, to say
the least, because I feel likemost people that are in the
gaming space at the very leastheard of this game.
Um, it's very much like againsilk song.
Everybody knows that becauseeverybody talks about it.
But hollow night is a series,is something that most gamers
know, even if they're not into,like Metroidvanias, a game that
(18:39):
came out this year.
Talking about another group ofdevelopers, small indie games,
you know, from Team Cherry toHollow Knight, to Landfall and
Agro Crab with Peak, andbringing that game out and the
story behind that game.
Like most people in the gamingspace, even if they're their
friend, slop is not that genreis not for them.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So much so.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I get it.
I was in a lonely gamer.
I gave very like very sassy airquotes for that, because it
looks like a friend slop.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
If I pay five dollars for this game and me and my
friends play it for two hoursand have a good time, that's a
good five dollar spent.
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Good five dollars spent, yeah so again, I I
wouldn't agree with the term,but uh, you know, everybody
knows about peak because it'sreally made the rounds.
I think clear obscure sitssomewhere in that same vein,
this year in particular.
So I I think it does depend onthe type of gamer that you're
dealing with, like, if you'vegot somebody who's just
(19:39):
exclusively on consoles, maybenot, but I think most people
that have a PC especially knowabout all of these games that
I've mentioned.
And clear obscure, you know,falls in that definition as well
.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I will say our buddy Jay, my co-host over Touchdown
Jaguars, has been playing thehell out of this, but he's also
like really good at games likethis.
He's a fighting game guy too,so like parrying, dodging,
that's like second nature to him.
So he's been doing really,really well in this game.
I think he's well into Act 3.
But yeah, eric, what is yoursecond takeaway here for Claire
(20:12):
Obscure?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah.
So when it comes to clear,obscure, um, I'm thinking we
kind of have to pull.
We have to pull the rug under,you know, out from under the
episode here, which is, you know, we've told you a little bit
about the game, some of thethings we like, some of the
things we don't like, but now wegotta rip the band-aid off and
talk about the end of act one.
So that is going to be mysecond takeaway, because I don't
believe.
Get out.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Pretty, pretty intense Spoiler here.
So yeah go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, so Gustav dies.
I didn't love it.
I didn't love it.
I did not really care for thecharacter, I did not care for
the Godfather.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Gustav insists upon himself.
What does that even mean?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Eric.
I just don't think we spentenough time with him and it was
kind of already starting topoint towards Mael being a
pretty big part of the game.
There's a lot of stuff when itcomes to character work here
with this particular game.
Again, I really love the combatwhen it comes to character work
.
I think this game thinks we'regoing to give it more leniency
(21:28):
in those areas when I wasexpecting a little bit more of a
deep dive into a lot of thesecharacters and for most of them
we don't really get that.
So for a character like Gustav,who is propped up to be this
main character, and then youbasically replace him with a
discount version in Verso,that's my opinion.
I know that's going to probablypiss people off, but I did not
(21:49):
enjoy Verso at all in act two orthree Did not enjoy Verso at
all, and it's because he hassimilar move sets.
He's also kind of equallyboring, honestly, even though
he's a very crucial part to thegame.
It just didn't work for me,phil, and I think for me how you
react to the end of act one isan important takeaway, because
(22:13):
that to me, determines is thisan investment of time you want
to keep making?
Are you enjoying the game?
I continued to play it becausethe combat is so stellar and I
like the world and the opponentsand the boss fights and all
that shit's cool.
But yeah, story-wise, characterdevelopment-wise, definitely
(22:36):
some of the weakest areas hereand we won't dive into too many
spoilers beyond Act 1.
But I will tell you I did notlove that theme of like.
It wasn't really fleshed outenough for some of the themes
they were hitting.
That continued into Act 2 andthrough Act 3.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Do you think it would have impacted you differently
if we had spent at least moretime with them in act two?
Cause, from what I understand,act two is pretty long, isn't it
?
Is that actually?
The longest, so fucking longCause I was like I was looking
through like a gameplay and thevideo was like 11 hours long.
Yeah, no shit.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So and that's just the story.
Like there was a point in acttwo where I was like I'm gonna
stop doing side stuff and I'mjust gonna focus on the story.
It took forever.
Act three is super short incomparison to the first two.
So, yeah, it's um.
I don't know that you wouldhave wanted to do an action like
that that late in the game yeah, or in the middle of an act,
(23:34):
maybe make act one longer andact two shorter.
I don't really know what thesolution was there, but I know
that I just didn't feel enoughof a connection for daredevil
voice, robert Pattinson, that itjust didn't work for me.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I would say it certainly affected me more than
it did you, because I did buyinto this relationship between
Gustav and Mael, this brothersister connection that they had
not so much because of, like thelove interest in the beginning.
Again, we didn't really spendenough time with that for me to
really care, but it wascertainly shocking.
(24:09):
I think, with with the main,one of the main themes of the
game being grief, I think itdoes make sense for the game to
force the player to also sit inthat grief as well.
It is a very shocking and itdoes happen right away.
And not only does it happenright away, they also make you
sit in it and still play as himwhile you know that he is dying.
(24:30):
So I think it impacted me alittle bit.
Well, I know it impacted memore.
Um, was it like some one of themost shocking gaming deaths of
all time?
No, certainly not.
But I have seen people compareit to the death of eric in final
fantasy 7, which is, like,famously, one of the most famous
gaming deaths of all time.
So I don't know how many peoplehold that opinion.
(24:52):
But yeah, I didn't.
I can tell you right now.
I do agree with you early on.
I haven't spent much time withhim.
I am not very interested ininverso, like you said.
It just seems like we got onerelatively handsome
medium-haired guy swapped outfor another one, so, like his
inclusion, he was like I'm gonnacome with you and we're like,
(25:14):
oh okay, all right, I guess he'swith us now that's honestly how
it goes, and there's a lotbehind his story and all of that
that we're not going to getinto on this episode because
phil hasn't gotten, uh, that far.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But that's maybe I'll open it up, phil, just to kind
of make sure that we're on thesame page.
Like where do you and I don'tknow if this is part of any of
your takeaways, but like wheredo you sit?
Going into act two, youobviously kept playing a little
bit.
You've talked about maybemaking some changes with what
you know now, is this a gamethat you're going to continue to
play?
Because, again, I think for meact one is a huge deciding
(25:53):
factor and ultimately, for me,the combat was so enjoyable that
I wanted to stick through it.
But if it was purely a story orcharacter driven decision, I
would have dropped the game, andthat's about 11 hours in which
is about our threshold.
We could put in about eight to10 hours into a game before it's
really starting to getmiserable.
(26:13):
So where are you at in yourstopping point as far as this
game?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, I will certainly continue to play the
game because I'm very interestedto see how this ends.
I also want to support adeveloper who pulled off
something incredibly amazing.
I think I would have actually Iknow I would have gotten
through this a lot faster if Iwas playing this on PlayStation.
One thing that I've learned,and where we have kind of
(26:41):
separated in our PC gamingjourneys, is you have been able
to sit here, sit at your deskand sit at your at your monitors
and play through a story drivengame where for me I have to be,
game where for me I have to be.
I like have a certain cadencewhen I play games and it's being
comfortable and putting my feetup and sitting there with a
(27:03):
controller in front of a largeTV and I'm what I'm learning is
I've learned this with Cyberpunk.
I learned this as I was playingthrough like Sleeping Dogs and
Far Cry is I can only sit hereso long for a story driven game
before I get uncomfortable.
It's not that this chair isuncomfortable.
I can just only sit here solong for a story driven game
before I get uncomfortable.
It's not that this chair isuncomfortable.
I can just only sit at it forso long.
A lot of physical reasons or alot of like health stuff goes
into that too, but I can onlysit here so long and play a
(27:25):
story driven game.
If this was on, if I'd beenplaying through this on
PlayStation, I probably wouldhave gotten through it a lot
faster.
So that's one thing I'mlearning, because I went back to
Cyberpunk just on thePlayStation and I've gotten way
way farther than I have on onthe PC.
So I've learned that my PC is avessel for for me, obviously,
for podcasting and voice actingand all that stuff.
But as far as gaming, it is asimulator thing that I I really
(27:50):
love being able to sit here andI can spend hours on Jurassic
World Evolution three.
I won't ever be uncomfortableplaying Jurassic World Evolution
3.
October 21st, don't call me.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It doesn't make any sense.
None of what you're sayingmakes sense when you're telling
me you're going to sit here.
You're going to sit here forfive hours.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Don't call me, bro, don't, I will be unreachable for
the remainder of it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, and at your fucking desk.
That's what I'm saying.
You just like undid that wholefucking soliloquy you just
fucking spilled out, you ruinedit.
Cinema.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Cinema.
I'll stay here and do it.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That's okay, all right yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
But to your original question, I have every intention
of playing all the way throughthis because I would like to
speak to you about the endingand see if I come to some of the
same conclusions.
But as far as Verso goes likeyeah, Claire, Obscure narration,
Expedition narration, thatseems what he's there for.
Yeah, I was in Expedition ZeroSweet Want to expand on that.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
He's just going to piss you off more.
I'm immortal.
What?
What do you mean?
So, um oh really quick.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I want to talk.
I want to say I want to mentionwhat we talked about before we
got started, because charlie coxwas making rounds, because he
was doing, you know, daredevilpress and it was very
interesting because it wasbefore, way before I got to the
death of gustav, and he wastalking about how he recorded
all of his lines in one day andyou're like, wow, I think this
is like a 40 hour game.
(29:23):
That's crazy.
And I've never put it togetherLike what a natural.
Wow, he's good, that guy's good.
So, yeah, it's funny puttingthat together after it happened.
Because you're like, oh, and Iguess that is.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I think you're telling us that you, you did
avoid that spoiler, like I did.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I avoided it the whole time.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, I mean, that is the spoiler.
There are other things thatcould get spoiled, but what I've
learned with this game, that isthe spoiler.
You either know it or you don't, and I think it's a pretty
important one in considerationof everything.
But, phil, what is your secondtakeaway for?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah.
My second takeaway is, you knowI'll just revert to a positive
when it comes to the artdirection, world building and
music.
We'll put all that all into one.
The music Remember the firsttime you heard the Halo music?
Like loading up your Xbox forthe first time and that loads up
.
It's very similar for ClaireObscure.
(30:23):
I mean one of the songs is myringtone.
It's very similar for a ClaireObscure.
I mean one of the songs is myringtone.
I like went out of my way tomake a ringtone in 2025 because
I just really love hearing.
What?
Yeah, you've never noticed that.
It's been that for months.
No, Claire.
Obscure.
Yeah Well, a lot of times myphone's on silent because who
wants to hear a ringtone?
But when I do hear a ringtone,I hear Claire Obscure.
So that's one of the firstthings that stood out was the
(30:46):
art style.
It's absolutely beautiful,especially weaving in not only a
beautiful world, but it's justsurrounded by death and it still
pulls off like this sense ofawe and like it doesn't ever.
I don't ever want to notexplore it, and there's a
conversation to be had aboutwhether or not some of that
exploration is actually worth it.
(31:07):
A lot of times it really isn't.
But in terms of characterdesign and also the enemy design
, there's no lack of it and youcan tell me if I'm wrong,
because you've obviously beatenthe game, but it doesn't seem
like there's any lack of enemyvariety.
So that is also very, very good.
But yeah, art direction worldbuilding I thought was very,
very intoxicating and, again,it's one of the main reasons
(31:29):
that it caught my eye in thefirst place.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
No, I mean that's all good to just pack into one,
because we could talkindividually about them in a lot
of positive light.
But I feel like most peoplethat have heard about this game
know a lot of those, so that wasa perfect way to kind of
encompass it for those of youthat don't, because it is a game
that I think when it came outhad a lot of buzz around it and
(31:55):
then you know, until you get tothe story and all of that, like
that's kind of what's happeningwith silk song.
Now again, it's kind of thetopic of the month of september,
which is why it keeps coming up.
But like most people aretalking about that game and the
way Claire Obscure was gettingthat hype, which is like the
game looks beautiful, the combatfeels like this, the difficulty
(32:15):
feels like this.
These are the things I like,these are the things I don't
like, where you're not reallyfocusing so much on the story
and the character driven stuffthat eventually you have to make
a decision on how you feel andyou can kind of judge.
So when that game first cameout and a lot of people heard
about it, they were hearingfantastic music, fantastic world
building, all of the above andagain, great combat to boot.
(32:39):
So I think that's a good one.
And, phil, we have our last onescoming up.
I'm trying to decide.
Do I continue to talk shit?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I don't want to ask you a question.
Maybe this will this, maybethis will set you up as far as
going from.
I don't know if this is anegative, but some people didn't
like how the lack of a mini mapdid that.
Did you care at all?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
No, not as much, I think.
What?
What bothered me more, and andthis will be my third takeaway,
is that this game felt like itwas trying to do a little bit
too much.
Um, and what I mean by that andI think you've seen some of
this already this game will havetimes where, like so again it's
you're walking around.
You know you're floating aroundif you're luna, because I don't
(33:27):
know why you pick any othercharacter to walk around with
other again, why?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
would you run when you could float?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
when you could float.
It's kind of stupid, kind ofstupid.
So you're kind of floatingaround, you're walking around
and you're, you know,encountering enemies and all of
that's fine.
If that was the game mechanic,if that was kind of the game's
thing, that would be fine.
But it's not, um, because thenthere are areas you have to like
assassin's creed, wall climb,but it's not very intuitive,
(33:56):
it's not very like polished,it's just kind of there.
Uh, there are platformingsections that you can do that
are optional.
Why it's also not?
It's not like a cleanplatformer, it's like a chained
together platformer like it'ssupposed it almost is, like it's
supposed to feel wonky, becausethat's not what the game is
(34:19):
built for.
So they do that.
Then the open world map it'snot the worst thing, but it's
like this game felt like itcould have just kind of stayed
in its zone a little bit more,instead of introducing all these
little elements that aren't aspolished or, again, are just a
(34:40):
whole different way to dosomething in the game.
Maybe this is a JRPG thing.
Again, this game is heavilyinspired by a lot of those, so I
can't speak to that.
But I can just say that itwasn't a huge negative in the
way the character-driven and thestory stuff didn't really work
for me, but it was a nitpickthat ultimately you know, when I
look back at this game, I wouldnever replay this game because
(35:03):
of some of those little things.
Like I just didn't enjoy thoselittle moments to moments.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, there are.
I mean, we've already said it,it is not the most.
You got to want it.
If you want to get in this game, you got to want it.
There's no dipping your toeinto the waters of clear obscure
, like you figure out prettyearly whether or not you're in
or out.
I did find it like a tad bitannoying having to pull up like
(35:31):
the whole world map.
There were times that Idefinitely got lost.
I had to go to camp like what'smy objective again, what am I
doing here?
So there were definitely pointslike that.
But yeah, and I think, yes,they probably tried a little bit
more than they should have.
Maybe they could have condensedit a little bit.
But also, if they didn't takethe big shot, we probably
(35:52):
wouldn't be discussing it.
It probably wouldn't be a gameof the year contender.
So it'd be interesting to see ifthey either on their second
attempt, whether it be a sequel,whether it be another game,
because I think if you talkabout anybody that has a lot of
momentum, it's definitely thesedevelopers.
So I think they'll.
It's certainly not the lasttime.
I hope it's not the last timethat we hear from them.
So maybe they rein it in alittle bit and focus on the
(36:15):
things they did really wellwhile still innovating, because
that's a big part of this isthere's a lot of innovation here
.
So I think I've seen somesimilar things in terms of where
there are those rooms, forimprovement is like it's just a
little bit.
There is a little bit too muchgoing on for some people to
continue playing the game.
So, yeah, I can, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
One thing I was going to say was like it just came to
my mind was there's also like arelationship building aspect.
Did you know that?
Did you know a?
Romance Like a romancenecessarily a romance, but like
you will, there's literally whenyou talk to characters for a
certain amount of time, you willget a prompt on the screen that
says I learned that like twodays ago when I was Verso
(37:00):
talking to who's the to SK andit said like relationship or
relationship goes up.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I was like what so?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
again, it's like just jarring stuff where, like I
don't know, I kind of do thinkthat if they took some of those
things out it would have madethe game better and still be a
game of the year contender.
Some of them just felt sounnecessary, like there were
some bold swings.
So I guess I'll take the thebad with the good in this
scenario.
But yeah, it just like.
Again, it was those littlenitpicky things where it's like,
(37:38):
well, why, why is that?
You know, if I wanted to evendive deeper into this, this game
is like has like souls, likeelements, almost as well that I
think every game feels like ithas to give you, and that's
probably why you also struggledvery much with like some of the
stuff, like the parrying, likethe dodging um it it takes, it
(37:59):
takes a lot out of you.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It takes a lot out of you, you feel you feel like
getting your shit kicked in forhalf an hour is demoralizing,
which is why I stepped away fora while.
Yeah, let me ask you this assomeone who's beaten the game Is
there a better character in thegame than Francois?
Probably not, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
At least I've seen that.
Again, minoko's probably myfavorite, but yeah, I mean it's
like 1A, 1b situation prettymuch there.
I yeah, I mean it's like 1A, 1bsituation pretty much there.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I get that.
Well, my last one, since we'vekind of like covered everything,
I'll like pivot a little bitinto kind of a general
conversation, because we aregoing to have this talk in terms
of one.
Where does it sit in terms ofgame of the year?
I think, obviously Silksong isin the pole position, and it's a
really good place for gaming tobe too, because they are both
small developers.
(38:45):
So I think that would justcontinue to kick the industry in
the ass and be like hey,rockstar, ubisoft, stop fucking
around, do the right thing.
So I think that's a good placefor it to be and then like
another game.
You know what I'm trying tothink of some other games that
(39:08):
might be nominated, but it'sgood to have those two as far as
front runners go.
So, like, where do we thinkthis is going to sit?
Because if I had to guess, ifit's not silk song, then it's
going to be donkey kong, justbecause nintendo wins, lol.
That is where I would do it.
I do see some people mentioningwhat was it called split
fiction after having beat game.
It was a lot of fun.
It is not a game of the yearcontender.
(39:29):
It is not in the samestratosphere as their last game,
which is escaping my mind ittakes two.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Which one game of the year?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Which one game of the year.
So again, it's a lot of fun.
Co-op couch gamers definitely arecommendation, but because
they came off, it takes two.
Um, it's.
It's not the same, but I wouldsay those three are probably the
front runners, um, and then tocombine that, what, if any,
interest do you have in therebeing, because they're making it
(39:57):
a live action, clear, obscurebecause it's happening, and I
don't think I like it.
So those are my last.
We'll go.
We'll start there.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, so I'll give you both of those.
So for Game of the Year, deathStranding 2 is also in the
conversation.
Sure, so that is definitely inthe conversation.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Would you ever play that?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
No.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Okay, good.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
You know, Walking Simulator with Baby is what.
I hear yeah, yeah, amazonDelivery Driver.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That seems like more of your jam.
I'm actually shocked you won'tplay.
No, man, I I watched our buddyjosh play the first one, like
when he had it on theplaystation.
Um, he just, you know, sharescreen.
I was like what the fuck isthis?
And I've watched the endingbecause, like that's something I
do for games.
I know I'll never play.
So yeah, I've never been a whois that konami, kojima that's
just.
I've never really beeninterested, but which is
interesting because I reallywant to play snake eater.
But anyway, yeah, no um not foryou I'm not gonna play any
(40:55):
death stranding game ever that'sfair what?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
about blueprints, uh, blueprints well, blueprints for
game of the year is nothappening, like it's not even
gonna get the nomination.
Um, it definitely will probablywin some awards.
I think the luster from thatgame has definitely fallen off a
lot.
It definitely made a mark whenit came out, but it also came
out like very close to whenclear obscure came out, and I
think that's gonna havesomething to do with this phil
(41:18):
because, like, ghost of yotai iscoming out and we might oh yeah
, we might might be getting aMetroid Prime 4 drop just
randomly at some point.
At least that's what.
That's the only reason Ihaven't counterpicked it in our
in our fantasy league that we dowith your friendly neighborhood
gamers.
So there are other games thatwill probably be in contention
(41:40):
where, like, blueprints will getkicked out.
But yeah, I just like when Ilook at this list and we talk
about some of the games thatyou've mentioned here as
contenders, like maybe DonkeyKong, but even then I think it's
Silk Songs to lose, and that'sunfortunate for a game like
Clear Obscure, which I think atone point was a valid front
(42:01):
runner.
And the reason I say that isbecause I don't personally
believe after playing it, thatit is, and it's because of the
story which, weirdly enough,justifies the live action.
Like Phil, this game has a lotof like lore and a lot of a
story it's trying to tell.
(42:22):
That I think might work forlive action.
It the combat right.
It's like the combat's myfavorite thing about this game.
So I don't know that I wouldenjoy a live action version, but
having experienced the wholestory from start to finish, I
could see it happening.
I could see it happening.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, I guess I'm just so against these live
actions, although we have gottensolid ones here pretty recently
.
I guess it would depend on ifit's like clear, obscure
expedition 50.
Okay, I would like to know whathappened on some of these other
expeditions.
I don't want a shot for shotremake.
(43:05):
I don't want the last of us, Idon't.
I do want fallout.
You know what I mean.
Like that's what I want.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
So I will say I don't know that it would be too
spoiler, spoilery to say this,but this game does close pretty
neatly.
Uh, I won't say that I enjoythe endings, sure, because there
are two, but I would say, yeah,I would say that this game does
kind of tie itself in a nicelittle bow where I don't think I
(43:32):
would, I would see the reasonto kind of expand this world
more and I literally, I actuallyliterally can't tell you this
part because it would bespoilery.
I don't know that this would bea live action universe as an
example, like I don't think wewould see like different
expeditions, honestly, unlessthey were going backwards like
prequels.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Right, right, yeah.
So that's why I'm saying like Iwould love to learn a little
bit more about some of theprevious expeditions.
I think that would beinteresting.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So well, the most fun game we have here, of course,
on the podcast Eric, that webring up from time to time, is
let's fan cast this thing.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Uh, obviously robert pattinson is the most, the most
uh, popular choice to play couldhave gotten him the last time.
Like I love charlie cox, butlike right, come on now.
Uh, sadie sink as my l that'ssolid red hair girl yeah,
natasha liu uh as lune.
Oh, I'm sorry, natasha leobordizzo as lee as uh lune.
Anya charlotte, anya charlotteas syell.
(44:38):
Fabian finkel, uh fabianfrankel, sorry as verso.
Suki waterhouse as sophie.
Uh.
Clancy brown as monaco.
Monaco, is that how youpronounce?
I haven't gotten to monaco yeah, okay, and then andy circus as
renoir, because andy circus doesvoice that character.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
So yeah, I mean that could work.
I don't know if he has thephysical presence for that as
that, but also, yeah, also, healso like kind of has like a
coat, like it's kind of like thebulky coat shoulders, like yeah
, it could work, it could workyeah.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
So that's again, if they go shot for shot or at
least a similar story and theyand they keep those characters.
So that is um.
But yeah, I mean, will I watch?
I mean they're gonna have.
It's gonna have to be a hell ofa budget to make this thing,
because you cannot half-ass anytype of special effects or the
(45:36):
monsters can't look shitty like.
You're gonna have to put timeand money into this thing.
So hopefully they are committed.
But yeah, I see damson idris aslucian here.
Let's see who is isabellasermon for my l pom, I always
forget how to pronounce her name.
She was mantis in guardians ofthe galaxy.
(45:59):
Oh, as lunae that could workpierce brosnan as renwa love me
some Pierce Brosnan yeah,matilda Swinton as the Patrice,
benedict Cumberbatch as Minocono although I mean, yeah, he's
got the voice for it.
Maybe those are all interestingfan castings, you know, but I
(46:22):
don't know congratulations PedroPascal and Sidney Sweeney Slop
he can't keep getting away withthis or maybe the Rock, now that
he's slim, Did you see?
Side note, I'm going to go offon a tangent here.
Did you see somebody askingBrian Danielson about his
opinion on the Rock's slimmerfigure?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
He's got a big-ass head.
Now, no, his opinion on therocks slimmer.
He's like he's got a big asshead now.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
No, he was like well, maybe he just wants to live
longer, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, but also true.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
But I digress.
But yeah, you know, we'll see.
We're going to keep gettingthese live actions and with the
way that it was received, I'm,I'm wasn't really surprised when
they announced it.
So but overall, as you can tell, like from the way that we're
talking about it, we certainly,if you're one of those people,
one of the few people that solda ton of copies if you have for
(47:14):
some reason been avoiding this,maybe the turn-based style turns
you off, but like, give it ashot.
Like give it a shot, maybeyou'll feel completely
differently when it comes to usabout this, about, you know,
story beats, and maybe the mouthflaps and the and that doesn't
really bother you.
So let us know if we're beingnitpicky, because, again, I
haven't heard too many peopletalk about it, but it is an
experience, I think, because itis on game pass that is worth
(47:37):
trying out.
And then, if it, you know, goeson sale during the holiday
season, give it a chance and,again, support a developer that
pulled off something prettyincredible.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, and I would agree with everything there.
You know there's this is a gamethat you're going to sink at
least 30 to 40 hours in andthere's so much that you can
still explore.
Yeah, you're going to get yourmoney's worth for sure.
So it's a game that I would Iwould highly recommend checking
out.
When it comes to storycharacter beats, like Phil
mentioned, I'm kind of in theminority there with some of
those.
I think we're kind of in theminority in general, so it's
(48:09):
just one of those things where,again, we need to be mindful
that we're giving our opinions.
We might have felt some type ofway, but again, even with my
issues, I wanted to play thisgame to completion and that
should say everything it needsto about Claire Obscure.
So let us know if you played it.
Did you like it?
Are we on point?
Do you agree?
Are we alone?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
those are the questions should we stick to
friend?
Speaker 1 (48:32):
slop.
Should we stick to friend slop?
Speaker 2 (48:35):
uh yeah, let me ask you this the last thing and then
we'll wrap up.
Does this have you?
I know you mentioned, of course, boulders gate earlier, but do
you have?
Do you now have the propensityor the interest to jump into a
persona, like a more modern day?
You know?
Um turn-based type of game isthat there?
Is there any interest there?
Uh, because I don't think we'reever going to be the type of
gamers that go back and play afinal fantasy, even with the
(48:57):
remasters I think that's aninteresting question because,
like well, first off answer no,absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
But the reason for that is because those are, like,
really established franchises.
I think with this one it was apoint of entry into this genre
that felt a little bit moreaccessible.
So, would I ever play this typeof game again?
Yeah, yeah, I would.
Uh, this type of combat, thisturn baseness, like I, I really
enjoyed a lot of my time withclear obscure in that aspect.
(49:27):
But yeah, would I go to like aestablished franchise, like a
persona or a final fantasy?
Speaker 2 (49:34):
very unlikely, no, and that's just because of the
daunting nature of it yeah, Iwill say the only one that has
interested me lately is persona.
I did look into it, but yeah,because it is one of those
franchises where there's so much.
That's why we haven't reallyjumped into Yakuza or like a
dragon.
You know there's all that aswell.
So, yeah, but again, a gamelike this being successful is
great for the industry and ithelps us, the consumer, and
(49:57):
hopefully puts boot to ass whenit comes to some of those other
big developers that are draggingtheir feet.
So we will see how it goes.
But did you enjoy this episode?
What did you think of ClaireObscure?
Did you try it out because ofthis episode?
You know, what do you think?
We would love to hear from you,which means you can keep up
with us pretty much everywhere.
You can find the linktree linkin the show notes of this and
every single episode.
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(50:20):
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(50:41):
having a hand in the episodeand the content that we put out,
like our current WeightWatchers are doing for the month
of October, eric, we'll let youknow all about that before we
get out of here.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah.
So what are our Weight Watchers?
Well, you've heard them beingreferenced many times over the
podcast and they are our patrons.
So, over on Patreon, they'resupporting us monthly in
exchange for things like behindthe scenes and early access to
episodes like this one.
So shout out to all of ourpatrons, from Briar to T3, kato,
vintage Macaroni, nick Casbaro,the author of the Vidularium
(51:14):
series, corey from the World ismy Burrito, and Botter from the
Short Box podcast.
We appreciate your monthlysupport and in return, we're
also very excited for october,which is patreon month, where
they have selected movies andgames for us to check out things
.
We were late to the party onsome international stuff and, of
(51:36):
course, games that we didn'tplay, that we should have.
So you got that to look forwardto in october.
If you want to support us there, you can.
If you can't, that's okay.
All the stuff that Philmentioned, all the things that
cost you nothing but your time,is much appreciated.
But that is the end of ourepisode and we must bid you
(51:57):
adieu.
My name is Mr Eric Almighty.
That is my co-host, phil theFilipino, and please don't
forget, we release new episodesevery Wednesday on the podcast
and all you have to do is waitfor it.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.
Wait for it Gaming.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Wait for it.
Anime PLUS ULTRA.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do
is wait for it.
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
Hey, everyone, welcome back tothe Wait For it Podcast.
(00:37):
I am your co-host, phil Barrera, aka Phil the Filipino.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And I'm your other co-host, mr Eric Almighty, and
on this edition of the Game Room, where it Happens, we're going
to be talking about a verycurrent game, some would say the
frontrunner for Game of theYear in the year of 2025.
Our dear Lord Silksong Justgoing to ignore that, claire
Obscure Frontrunner Game of theYear.
(01:01):
People have been loving it andwe are excited to get into a
game, phil, that I never thoughtwe were ever going to play.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, for Claire Obscure.
This is actually a game thatcame on my radar last year
strictly because of how gorgeousit looked.
It looked very different.
Don't have a lot of experiencein the turn-based world, but
this was something I was like,yeah, we're gonna have to try
this out, especially with itcoming to game pass being very
(01:31):
accessible even if you don'thave game pass.
So we're gonna break all ofthat down here tonight.
And at the request, very recentrequest of one of our newest
weight watchers, botter from theshort box podcast, he literally
last week, when we wererecording with him, he was like
hey, I got a bone to pick withyou guys.
Where's the Clear Obscureepisode?
Well, here you go, botter.
Here it is, signed, sealed,delivered, all for you and
(01:54):
actually everybody that's here.
So, thank you so much forjoining us.
If you need a little refresheron where, stick around to the
very end.
We'll let you know where youcan find all of that.
But yeah, eric, let's get intoClaire Obscure, expedition 33.
It is a stylish, story-drivenRPG set in a dreamlike, belle,
opec-inspired world.
(02:14):
Every year, a mysterious entityknown as the Painteress awakens
to erase an entire year ofhumanity's history, wiping
people and places from existence, humanity's history, wiping
people and places from existence.
You lead a desperate expeditionon a journey to defeat her
before she awakens again,combining turn-based strategy
with real-time action combat ina visually stunning fight to
save the last remnants ofcivilization.
(02:36):
So yeah, eric, like I mentioned, this game came into my view
last year and I think it wasright around the time we were
recording like the mid-seasonfantasy draft for Friendly
Neighborhood Gamers at the timeand I was like what is this
again?
As far as graphically, it justlooks absolutely stunning
(02:56):
gameplay, very unique and from astudio in a developer I mean in
Sandfall Interactive that noone really knew about.
And we are very much in this age, especially over the last five,
10 years, where we're seeingdevelopers come out of nowhere,
put out these games that are nottechnically AAA titles but have
(03:16):
AAA delivery in terms of theirlaunch, in terms of their
gameplay, in terms of everythingthat comes after, and it's just
been really, really great tosee, especially with us entering
the pc gaming world.
So, eric, what has been your?
You know your history withturn-based rpgs.
Did you have any before?
Clear, obscure, or what wasthat like in terms of you know
(03:37):
your gaming backlog and yourgaming history god, what are
turn-based rpgs?
Speaker 1 (03:45):
is that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
even so a.
Thing so a game like finalfantasy.
7 so final fantasy 7 peoplewill say pokemon is turn-based,
which it is.
It's just at its very simplestform and that works.
You know pokemon has worked fordecades.
I would play.
If they released a turn like anoriginal turn-based pokemon
game right now, I would play,play it.
There is like a Mario and Luigigames that have came out
(04:07):
Current day.
You're talking about like aPersona.
You know games like that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
No, the answer is no.
The only more recent experienceI've had is Baldur's Gate 3,
which is a game I really amexcited to get back into now
that I have my PC.
It's something I've beenpushing off since I got my pc at
the tail end of last year.
Outside of that, especiallyduring the console years that we
(04:32):
are notorious for for a lot ofour adulthood, it is something
that I have not exactly exploredvery much, but I also don't
think it was very likeaccessible, like you mentioned
Final Fantasy, maybe yourpersona, but other than that,
like pure games that stuck withthat, like that's their thing.
(04:55):
I don't know that there's thatmany franchises.
It seems like we might betaking a turn in that direction,
but it is something that I'veavoided, not because I don't
enjoy it, because I again I'mlike I've enjoyed turn-based
stuff before, but it's just nota genre of gaming that I ever
jumped into, which, again, iswhy I think it's so surprising
(05:16):
that we this was one on yourradar.
Two, that we even played it and, three, that there was even any
enjoyment in the combat, whichis some of the most fluid combat
that I had the pleasure ofenjoying this year yeah, we're
gonna talk about all that forsure, and just what a grand
(05:37):
accomplishment this is.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
we're gonna talk about, obviously, positives and
negatives in this episode and wewe both do three takeaways.
If you're new to the podcast,eric and I both choose three
takeaways that we want todiscuss when it comes to the
game.
So let's go ahead and getstarted.
I will go ahead and go first,and mine is cheating a little
bit because it is going to beboth a positive and kind of a
negative.
I don't know you let me know ifthis is nitpicky or not, but I
(06:00):
feel like it's probably isnusing because I think we've
talked about it before and wealso need to provide the clarity
of where we both are at in ourjourneys.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yes, with clear right .
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So eric has beaten the game.
He played it all the waythrough and I have only gotten a
couple hours into act two, andwe'll talk about why that is in
a little bit too.
So that is where we sit interms of how much time we have
put in.
I don't have my save up righthere in front of me as far as
how much time I get into it, but, yeah, like I said, got into a
couple hours into act two.
So for us, you know, wecertainly want to talk about
(06:31):
performances in terms of thevoice acting.
I mean, obviously there aresome big names included here in
Claire Obscure, charlie Coxbeing the, you know, the main
one that I think a lot of peopleare going to recognize,
jennifer English, ben Starr, whohas a really, really great
performance, even though Ihaven't, like, fully gotten to
(06:52):
see him, you know Shayla Nix,andy Serkis, but, yeah, really
really great voice cast and theyreally portray that emotion in
terms of the story.
That can be a little confusingat times if you're not fully
paying attention.
There's a lot going on here.
They're not shy about throwingyou into this world and letting
you kind of learn about it asyou go and, again, the
performances are outstanding asfar as how they're delivering
(07:16):
their lines, but the mouth flapsare off a lot.
And again, this is not a AAAtitle, it's a team of less than
50 people, so they clearly maybethey prioritize some things
over the other.
But as people who watch, youobviously watch a lot of anime.
I watch a decent amount ofanime.
That's something that can takeme out of it and that's why I
(07:38):
don't watch a lot of older animeis because the mouth flaps
don't really match.
So you let me know, did thattake you out of any of those
really emotional moments or am Iagain?
Am I being nitpicky?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, well, we're starting with shots fired.
Fucking Christ, I said it was alittle bit of both.
How is it both?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I said that the performances were really good,
but the mouth flaps don't match.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay.
No, I mean the mouth flaps,flaps.
The lip sync is an issue.
It is an issue.
In fact.
I distinctly remember when I wasin the first hour of the game,
before the title happens, andobviously you know what occurs
we are going to talk about.
I think we're going to prettytalk pretty freely about act one
(08:22):
up until that moment, and thenwe'll put like a spoiler tag on
there just for those of you thatmaybe don't want to hear that
part.
But I will say the beginning ofthe game, like you're
introduced to this town andthere's options for dialogue
leading up to the pier thatyou're trying to get to, for the
first like moment of the gameto happen, for it to truly start
and phil, I breezed throughthat fucking part.
(08:44):
The second, the lip sync wasn'ton.
I was like, oh okay, I was likeI'm not interested in that and
it didn't work for me all thetime.
I don't think that itnecessarily ruined the
performances in any way.
So I see what you're saying.
Maybe that's like the goodtakeaway is that verbally they
were good performances.
It is taken away, though, alittle bit by the bad lip sync,
(09:06):
and I still have no like.
Anytime I look it up.
It's more theorizing why thisis not a real explanation.
Maybe the devs have given that,maybe this team has provided
that and I just haven't found it, or it's not easily accessible.
I think there should be sometype of explanation, though,
because it is pretty bad.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, and I didn't watch a couple of reviews from
other content creators andnobody seemed to really bring it
up, so I just wanted to makesure that we did, because I
obviously, I mean, I don't thinkwe're crazy.
I mean, who knows, maybe thecomment section will go nuts
with this.
It'll be like our secondyoutube video to ever pop off.
That.
That's how that's gonna work.
(09:46):
So thank you algorithm.
But yeah, but again, like Isaid it, just it still does not
take away from the emotionaldepth of the characters.
They're all very well written,at least the ones that I have
come across so far, and I I'mcertainly excited to learn more
about them as we go on.
But yeah, yeah, that is thefirst, unfortunately.
That is the first thing Iwanted to bring up because, yeah
(10:07):
, because there is so muchdialogue in this it's impossible
to ignore because it happensimmediately.
So that was my first takeaway.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, no, I mean, listen, we're off to a great
start because, like, I really dofeel a little bad about maybe
how some of these things basedoff of, kind of what you're
hinting at and what I've beenvocal about with this game,
which is that this game a lot ofpeople jumped to it being a
(10:37):
game of the year contender andthe reason I took so long with
it was because I didn't want torush through it.
And I did take my time withthis game, but there are pretty
significant issues.
So before I get to those andagain it may sound like there
are going to be some nitpickythings and there are going to be
some things maybe I'm in theminority about.
We'll see where that kind ofends up I do want to praise the
(11:01):
biggest thing, which I alreadymentioned earlier in passing,
which is the combat.
This is not, phil, a combatthat I thought I would vibe with
.
The turn-based combat here withthe characters is a lot of fun
Getting to learn how to play asthose characters If I was to
have one.
My one caveat to everything I'msaying right now I hate that
(11:25):
it's limited to three.
I understand it would be alittle too excessive to increase
that to four or five, but Ireally felt like I missed out on
playing as certain charactersthat I would have liked to learn
a little bit more, and thereason for that is because you
have a team of four to fivepeople, I believe, at max and
(11:45):
you essentially play three perturn and if those three die then
you have, like the lastexpedition, the last, like
resort, and it's the remainingone to two players that jump in.
That didn't always work for me,but when you do have your core,
you have your favoritecharacters, which, phil, I'd
love to know your rotation ofcharacters as well.
It is a ton of fun getting tolearn them, getting to rebuild
(12:09):
their skill tree, sometimesmaking complete course
corrections.
All of that is a great time,especially when you learn about
the Luminas and the Pictos aswell.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah.
So, as we already mentioned,this is really a departure from
a lot of the gameplay that wehave experienced really just in
our gaming history, and it was alot of fun to learn and there
is really no learning curve,like they throw you into it
right away and kind of expectyou to figure out how things go
(12:41):
as you play the game, and Ithink that is a.
I feel like that's a hugepositive.
It could be an immediatedetriment and a turnoff for
other people.
As determined as I was to figurethis out and get better, I just
wasn't.
And the big thing for me I'm sobad at parrying.
(13:01):
I'm so bad at parrying anddodging.
It's just not my thing acrossall of gaming.
The only thing I really feellike recently that I got even
like okay at was Ghost ofTsushima, but everything else I
just have not.
And then, of course, batman,because it's I don't want to say
it's easy to do in batman, but,like you know, and spider-man,
(13:22):
you know those those types ofthings, but I just couldn't
figure this out.
So, to get through the game,because I wanted to experience
the story, I did lower thedifficulty down to story mode,
but it is still a lot of fun andyou still do run into those
more challenging enemies.
That can be a lot of fun.
I wish there was some sort ofin between between the standard
difficulty and then the storymode, but unfortunately that's
not the case.
Who knows, maybe that'ssomething they add in the future
(13:44):
.
But yeah, as far as thecharacters, eric, early on, the
first ones that you run into, atleast in the first act, of
course there's Gustav, there'sLuna Mael, and then it's
pronounced Sayel, correct?
Lune maiel, and then it'spronounced uh syl, correct, yeah
, syl yep and I ran mostly.
Once I got syl I I switched outmy l for the most part um in the
(14:05):
latter half.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
I could not figure out thestaff oh yeah, I did yeah oh, no
, buddy yeah, I couldn't figureout the stances.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I I think it's because her like quote unquote,
like the loadout.
I just didn't have the rightloadout to get her into the
correct stances and I figuredthat out a little bit too late.
So, like upon a replay, I woulddefinitely swap out gustav.
But yeah, the stance is becauseI I could not get her into the
ones that I needed the most.
That's why I swapped her out.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah.
So Luna was my favorite,probably like consistently
across the board.
Yeah, she's great.
I did start to really enjoyMael as the game progresses and
you know we'll talk about that.
But this game is really hergame, like from a story
perspective.
A lot is built around her, sothat was really prevalent.
Sae-el is one that I didn't getto spend as much time with,
(14:59):
because once you get to act twoand you're introduced to the
character Monoko, he kind ofcame into rotation.
But yeah, gustav, I wanted toget off of him so fucking fast.
And we'll talk about the othercharacter we're kind of quietly
not discussing when we kind ofgive that very blanket spoiler
warning.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, those characters I did not want to
play immediately and whenever Iwas forced to play them I I was
not having a great time yeah, soit's certainly about figuring
out what that balance is and,again, because it's like my main
point of reference, when itcomes to turn-based, it is
obviously very similar to likefiguring out the right team that
(15:36):
you have in Pokemon.
I think that three works justfine.
It's also the more traditionallayout when it comes to
turn-based games.
So, like I'm fairly certain, inFinal Fantasy it's also three
people, but also in FinalFantasy you have like the
summoning as well, so that's awhole different thing.
Yeah, as far as the, thecharacters, once again, I
(15:58):
thought they were all very, veryinteresting, fleshed out very
well.
The only thing I don't reallyknow too much about is syl, but
yeah, lune is also also probablymy favorite out of all of them.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But yeah, again, like kind of my first take, very,
very good characters and veryinteresting for sure yeah, what
did you think about the, uh, thepictos and the luminous, like
the whole concept of those, likeit was pretty.
Again, this game doesn't reallyexplain a lot to you and even
when it does, a paragraphdoesn't exactly explain
(16:30):
everything you need to know.
And, uh, I'm curious, like howmuch you dived into it to really
understand it.
Or did you utilize it?
Or are you just learning nowthat you could essentially have
this ability where you max outthese things with each
individual person and theneveryone can reap the benefit?
Like again, what was yourexperience?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I kind of learned that a little bit too late, I
won't say too late, but liketowards a little bit closer
towards this recording.
So now, having that information, I do plan on upping the
difficulty back up to now that Ihave the character.
Now I'm using the characters, Ibelieve I'm using them
correctly, but I did, you know,did see those once I started
doing the upgrades and, like youknow, going to camp and
(17:12):
utilizing all that.
It's not just as simple as, oh,here, use your skill points and
upgrade your weapon andutilizing all that.
It's not just as simple as, oh,here, use your skill points and
upgrade your weapon and do allthis.
So, like, figuring that out alittle bit later will certainly
be helpful as I continue to playthe game.
But, yeah, again, it reallydoes just throw you in there.
I mean, I used to watch mycousin play Final Fantasy and
I'm pretty sure there was atleast a ramp up period in Final
(17:36):
Fantasy.
So I was like if I ever wantedto play this game, I could this
one again, like the, thelearning curve is so steep that
I'm just really happy that ithas had all this, all of its
success.
But I have asked like I don'twant to say casual gamers, but
like I was curious if this gamehad come across like people that
aren't always like have theirlike their pulse on what's going
(17:59):
on in gaming.
So I asked, like a coworker whois a big PC gamer, if he had
played this game and he actuallyhe said no, and it wasn't,
didn't even seem like it was onhis radar.
So I'm kind of interested likeoutside of people that were
really had their finger on thepulse of where gaming was and
like what this release was like,how many people played this,
you know?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
it'll be an interesting conversation, to say
the least, because I feel likemost people that are in the
gaming space at the very leastheard of this game.
Um, it's very much like againsilk song.
Everybody knows that becauseeverybody talks about it.
But hollow night is a series,is something that most gamers
know, even if they're not into,like Metroidvanias, a game that
(18:39):
came out this year.
Talking about another group ofdevelopers, small indie games,
you know, from Team Cherry toHollow Knight, to Landfall and
Agro Crab with Peak, andbringing that game out and the
story behind that game.
Like most people in the gamingspace, even if they're their
friend, slop is not that genreis not for them.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So much so.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I get it.
I was in a lonely gamer.
I gave very like very sassy airquotes for that, because it
looks like a friend slop.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
If I pay five dollars for this game and me and my
friends play it for two hoursand have a good time, that's a
good five dollar spent.
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Good five dollars spent, yeah so again, I I
wouldn't agree with the term,but uh, you know, everybody
knows about peak because it'sreally made the rounds.
I think clear obscure sitssomewhere in that same vein,
this year in particular.
So I I think it does depend onthe type of gamer that you're
dealing with, like, if you'vegot somebody who's just
(19:39):
exclusively on consoles, maybenot, but I think most people
that have a PC especially knowabout all of these games that
I've mentioned.
And clear obscure, you know,falls in that definition as well
.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I will say our buddy Jay, my co-host over Touchdown
Jaguars, has been playing thehell out of this, but he's also
like really good at games likethis.
He's a fighting game guy too,so like parrying, dodging,
that's like second nature to him.
So he's been doing really,really well in this game.
I think he's well into Act 3.
But yeah, eric, what is yoursecond takeaway here for Claire
(20:12):
Obscure?
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah.
So when it comes to clear,obscure, um, I'm thinking we
kind of have to pull.
We have to pull the rug under,you know, out from under the
episode here, which is, you know, we've told you a little bit
about the game, some of thethings we like, some of the
things we don't like, but now wegotta rip the band-aid off and
talk about the end of act one.
So that is going to be mysecond takeaway, because I don't
believe.
Get out.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Pretty, pretty intense Spoiler here.
So yeah go ahead.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah, so Gustav dies.
I didn't love it.
I didn't love it.
I did not really care for thecharacter, I did not care for
the Godfather.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Gustav insists upon himself.
What does that even mean?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Eric.
I just don't think we spentenough time with him and it was
kind of already starting topoint towards Mael being a
pretty big part of the game.
There's a lot of stuff when itcomes to character work here
with this particular game.
Again, I really love the combatwhen it comes to character work
.
I think this game thinks we'regoing to give it more leniency
(21:28):
in those areas when I wasexpecting a little bit more of a
deep dive into a lot of thesecharacters and for most of them
we don't really get that.
So for a character like Gustav,who is propped up to be this
main character, and then youbasically replace him with a
discount version in Verso,that's my opinion.
I know that's going to probablypiss people off, but I did not
(21:49):
enjoy Verso at all in act two orthree Did not enjoy Verso at
all, and it's because he hassimilar move sets.
He's also kind of equallyboring, honestly, even though
he's a very crucial part to thegame.
It just didn't work for me,phil, and I think for me how you
react to the end of act one isan important takeaway, because
(22:13):
that to me, determines is thisan investment of time you want
to keep making?
Are you enjoying the game?
I continued to play it becausethe combat is so stellar and I
like the world and the opponentsand the boss fights and all
that shit's cool.
But yeah, story-wise, characterdevelopment-wise, definitely
(22:36):
some of the weakest areas hereand we won't dive into too many
spoilers beyond Act 1.
But I will tell you I did notlove that theme of like.
It wasn't really fleshed outenough for some of the themes
they were hitting.
That continued into Act 2 andthrough Act 3.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Do you think it would have impacted you differently
if we had spent at least moretime with them in act two?
Cause, from what I understand,act two is pretty long, isn't it
?
Is that actually?
The longest, so fucking longCause I was like I was looking
through like a gameplay and thevideo was like 11 hours long.
Yeah, no shit.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
So and that's just the story.
Like there was a point in acttwo where I was like I'm gonna
stop doing side stuff and I'mjust gonna focus on the story.
It took forever.
Act three is super short incomparison to the first two.
So, yeah, it's um.
I don't know that you wouldhave wanted to do an action like
that that late in the game yeah, or in the middle of an act,
(23:34):
maybe make act one longer andact two shorter.
I don't really know what thesolution was there, but I know
that I just didn't feel enoughof a connection for daredevil
voice, robert Pattinson, that itjust didn't work for me.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I would say it certainly affected me more than
it did you, because I did buyinto this relationship between
Gustav and Mael, this brothersister connection that they had
not so much because of, like thelove interest in the beginning.
Again, we didn't really spendenough time with that for me to
really care, but it wascertainly shocking.
(24:09):
I think, with with the main,one of the main themes of the
game being grief, I think itdoes make sense for the game to
force the player to also sit inthat grief as well.
It is a very shocking and itdoes happen right away.
And not only does it happenright away, they also make you
sit in it and still play as himwhile you know that he is dying.
(24:30):
So I think it impacted me alittle bit.
Well, I know it impacted memore.
Um, was it like some one of themost shocking gaming deaths of
all time?
No, certainly not.
But I have seen people compareit to the death of eric in final
fantasy 7, which is, like,famously, one of the most famous
gaming deaths of all time.
So I don't know how many peoplehold that opinion.
(24:52):
But yeah, I didn't.
I can tell you right now.
I do agree with you early on.
I haven't spent much time withhim.
I am not very interested ininverso, like you said.
It just seems like we got onerelatively handsome
medium-haired guy swapped outfor another one, so, like his
inclusion, he was like I'm gonnacome with you and we're like,
(25:14):
oh okay, all right, I guess he'swith us now that's honestly how
it goes, and there's a lotbehind his story and all of that
that we're not going to getinto on this episode because
phil hasn't gotten, uh, that far.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
But that's maybe I'll open it up, phil, just to kind
of make sure that we're on thesame page.
Like where do you and I don'tknow if this is part of any of
your takeaways, but like wheredo you sit?
Going into act two, youobviously kept playing a little
bit.
You've talked about maybemaking some changes with what
you know now, is this a gamethat you're going to continue to
play?
Because, again, I think for meact one is a huge deciding
(25:53):
factor and ultimately, for me,the combat was so enjoyable that
I wanted to stick through it.
But if it was purely a story orcharacter driven decision, I
would have dropped the game, andthat's about 11 hours in which
is about our threshold.
We could put in about eight to10 hours into a game before it's
really starting to getmiserable.
(26:13):
So where are you at in yourstopping point as far as this
game?
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, I will certainly continue to play the
game because I'm very interestedto see how this ends.
I also want to support adeveloper who pulled off
something incredibly amazing.
I think I would have actually Iknow I would have gotten
through this a lot faster if Iwas playing this on PlayStation.
One thing that I've learned,and where we have kind of
(26:41):
separated in our PC gamingjourneys, is you have been able
to sit here, sit at your deskand sit at your at your monitors
and play through a story drivengame where for me I have to be,
game where for me I have to be.
I like have a certain cadencewhen I play games and it's being
comfortable and putting my feetup and sitting there with a
(27:03):
controller in front of a largeTV and I'm what I'm learning is
I've learned this with Cyberpunk.
I learned this as I was playingthrough like Sleeping Dogs and
Far Cry is I can only sit hereso long for a story driven game
before I get uncomfortable.
It's not that this chair isuncomfortable.
I can just only sit here solong for a story driven game
before I get uncomfortable.
It's not that this chair isuncomfortable.
I can just only sit at it forso long.
A lot of physical reasons or alot of like health stuff goes
into that too, but I can onlysit here so long and play a
(27:25):
story driven game.
If this was on, if I'd beenplaying through this on
PlayStation, I probably wouldhave gotten through it a lot
faster.
So that's one thing I'mlearning, because I went back to
Cyberpunk just on thePlayStation and I've gotten way
way farther than I have on onthe PC.
So I've learned that my PC is avessel for for me, obviously,
for podcasting and voice actingand all that stuff.
But as far as gaming, it is asimulator thing that I I really
(27:50):
love being able to sit here andI can spend hours on Jurassic
World Evolution three.
I won't ever be uncomfortableplaying Jurassic World Evolution
3.
October 21st, don't call me.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
It doesn't make any sense.
None of what you're sayingmakes sense when you're telling
me you're going to sit here.
You're going to sit here forfive hours.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Don't call me, bro, don't, I will be unreachable for
the remainder of it.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah, and at your fucking desk.
That's what I'm saying.
You just like undid that wholefucking soliloquy you just
fucking spilled out, you ruinedit.
Cinema.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Cinema.
I'll stay here and do it.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
That's okay, all right yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
But to your original question, I have every intention
of playing all the way throughthis because I would like to
speak to you about the endingand see if I come to some of the
same conclusions.
But as far as Verso goes likeyeah, Claire, Obscure narration,
Expedition narration, thatseems what he's there for.
Yeah, I was in Expedition ZeroSweet Want to expand on that.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
He's just going to piss you off more.
I'm immortal.
What?
What do you mean?
So, um oh really quick.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
I want to talk.
I want to say I want to mentionwhat we talked about before we
got started, because charlie coxwas making rounds, because he
was doing, you know, daredevilpress and it was very
interesting because it wasbefore, way before I got to the
death of gustav, and he wastalking about how he recorded
all of his lines in one day andyou're like, wow, I think this
is like a 40 hour game.
(29:23):
That's crazy.
And I've never put it togetherLike what a natural.
Wow, he's good, that guy's good.
So, yeah, it's funny puttingthat together after it happened.
Because you're like, oh, and Iguess that is.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I think you're telling us that you, you did
avoid that spoiler, like I did.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah, I avoided it the whole time.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, I mean, that is the spoiler.
There are other things thatcould get spoiled, but what I've
learned with this game, that isthe spoiler.
You either know it or you don't, and I think it's a pretty
important one in considerationof everything.
But, phil, what is your secondtakeaway for?
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah.
My second takeaway is, you knowI'll just revert to a positive
when it comes to the artdirection, world building and
music.
We'll put all that all into one.
The music Remember the firsttime you heard the Halo music?
Like loading up your Xbox forthe first time and that loads up
.
It's very similar for ClaireObscure.
(30:23):
I mean one of the songs is myringtone.
It's very similar for a ClaireObscure.
I mean one of the songs is myringtone.
I like went out of my way tomake a ringtone in 2025 because
I just really love hearing.
What?
Yeah, you've never noticed that.
It's been that for months.
No, Claire.
Obscure.
Yeah Well, a lot of times myphone's on silent because who
wants to hear a ringtone?
But when I do hear a ringtone,I hear Claire Obscure.
So that's one of the firstthings that stood out was the
(30:46):
art style.
It's absolutely beautiful,especially weaving in not only a
beautiful world, but it's justsurrounded by death and it still
pulls off like this sense ofawe and like it doesn't ever.
I don't ever want to notexplore it, and there's a
conversation to be had aboutwhether or not some of that
exploration is actually worth it.
(31:07):
A lot of times it really isn't.
But in terms of characterdesign and also the enemy design
, there's no lack of it and youcan tell me if I'm wrong,
because you've obviously beatenthe game, but it doesn't seem
like there's any lack of enemyvariety.
So that is also very, very good.
But yeah, art direction worldbuilding I thought was very,
very intoxicating and, again,it's one of the main reasons
(31:29):
that it caught my eye in thefirst place.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
No, I mean that's all good to just pack into one,
because we could talkindividually about them in a lot
of positive light.
But I feel like most peoplethat have heard about this game
know a lot of those, so that wasa perfect way to kind of
encompass it for those of youthat don't, because it is a game
that I think when it came outhad a lot of buzz around it and
(31:55):
then you know, until you get tothe story and all of that, like
that's kind of what's happeningwith silk song.
Now again, it's kind of thetopic of the month of september,
which is why it keeps coming up.
But like most people aretalking about that game and the
way Claire Obscure was gettingthat hype, which is like the
game looks beautiful, the combatfeels like this, the difficulty
(32:15):
feels like this.
These are the things I like,these are the things I don't
like, where you're not reallyfocusing so much on the story
and the character driven stuffthat eventually you have to make
a decision on how you feel andyou can kind of judge.
So when that game first cameout and a lot of people heard
about it, they were hearingfantastic music, fantastic world
building, all of the above andagain, great combat to boot.
(32:39):
So I think that's a good one.
And, phil, we have our last onescoming up.
I'm trying to decide.
Do I continue to talk shit?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I don't want to ask you a question.
Maybe this will this, maybethis will set you up as far as
going from.
I don't know if this is anegative, but some people didn't
like how the lack of a mini mapdid that.
Did you care at all?
Speaker 1 (33:05):
No, not as much, I think.
What?
What bothered me more, and andthis will be my third takeaway,
is that this game felt like itwas trying to do a little bit
too much.
Um, and what I mean by that andI think you've seen some of
this already this game will havetimes where, like so again it's
you're walking around.
You know you're floating aroundif you're luna, because I don't
(33:27):
know why you pick any othercharacter to walk around with
other again, why?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
would you run when you could float?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
when you could float.
It's kind of stupid, kind ofstupid.
So you're kind of floatingaround, you're walking around
and you're, you know,encountering enemies and all of
that's fine.
If that was the game mechanic,if that was kind of the game's
thing, that would be fine.
But it's not, um, because thenthere are areas you have to like
assassin's creed, wall climb,but it's not very intuitive,
(33:56):
it's not very like polished,it's just kind of there.
Uh, there are platformingsections that you can do that
are optional.
Why it's also not?
It's not like a cleanplatformer, it's like a chained
together platformer like it'ssupposed it almost is, like it's
supposed to feel wonky, becausethat's not what the game is
(34:19):
built for.
So they do that.
Then the open world map it'snot the worst thing, but it's
like this game felt like itcould have just kind of stayed
in its zone a little bit more,instead of introducing all these
little elements that aren't aspolished or, again, are just a
(34:40):
whole different way to dosomething in the game.
Maybe this is a JRPG thing.
Again, this game is heavilyinspired by a lot of those, so I
can't speak to that.
But I can just say that itwasn't a huge negative in the
way the character-driven and thestory stuff didn't really work
for me, but it was a nitpickthat ultimately you know, when I
look back at this game, I wouldnever replay this game because
(35:03):
of some of those little things.
Like I just didn't enjoy thoselittle moments to moments.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, there are.
I mean, we've already said it,it is not the most.
You got to want it.
If you want to get in this game, you got to want it.
There's no dipping your toeinto the waters of clear obscure
, like you figure out prettyearly whether or not you're in
or out.
I did find it like a tad bitannoying having to pull up like
(35:31):
the whole world map.
There were times that Idefinitely got lost.
I had to go to camp like what'smy objective again, what am I
doing here?
So there were definitely pointslike that.
But yeah, and I think, yes,they probably tried a little bit
more than they should have.
Maybe they could have condensedit a little bit.
But also, if they didn't takethe big shot, we probably
(35:52):
wouldn't be discussing it.
It probably wouldn't be a gameof the year contender.
So it'd be interesting to see ifthey either on their second
attempt, whether it be a sequel,whether it be another game,
because I think if you talkabout anybody that has a lot of
momentum, it's definitely thesedevelopers.
So I think they'll.
It's certainly not the lasttime.
I hope it's not the last timethat we hear from them.
So maybe they rein it in alittle bit and focus on the
(36:15):
things they did really wellwhile still innovating, because
that's a big part of this isthere's a lot of innovation here
.
So I think I've seen somesimilar things in terms of where
there are those rooms, forimprovement is like it's just a
little bit.
There is a little bit too muchgoing on for some people to
continue playing the game.
So, yeah, I can, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
One thing I was going to say was like it just came to
my mind was there's also like arelationship building aspect.
Did you know that?
Did you know a?
Romance Like a romancenecessarily a romance, but like
you will, there's literally whenyou talk to characters for a
certain amount of time, you willget a prompt on the screen that
says I learned that like twodays ago when I was Verso
(37:00):
talking to who's the to SK andit said like relationship or
relationship goes up.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
I was like what so?
Speaker 1 (37:16):
again, it's like just jarring stuff where, like I
don't know, I kind of do thinkthat if they took some of those
things out it would have madethe game better and still be a
game of the year contender.
Some of them just felt sounnecessary, like there were
some bold swings.
So I guess I'll take the thebad with the good in this
scenario.
But yeah, it just like.
Again, it was those littlenitpicky things where it's like,
(37:38):
well, why, why is that?
You know, if I wanted to evendive deeper into this, this game
is like has like souls, likeelements, almost as well that I
think every game feels like ithas to give you, and that's
probably why you also struggledvery much with like some of the
stuff, like the parrying, likethe dodging um it it takes, it
(37:59):
takes a lot out of you.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
It takes a lot out of you, you feel you feel like
getting your shit kicked in forhalf an hour is demoralizing,
which is why I stepped away fora while.
Yeah, let me ask you this assomeone who's beaten the game Is
there a better character in thegame than Francois?
Probably not, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
At least I've seen that.
Again, minoko's probably myfavorite, but yeah, I mean it's
like 1A, 1b situation prettymuch there.
I yeah, I mean it's like 1A, 1bsituation pretty much there.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I get that.
Well, my last one, since we'vekind of like covered everything,
I'll like pivot a little bitinto kind of a general
conversation, because we aregoing to have this talk in terms
of one.
Where does it sit in terms ofgame of the year?
I think, obviously Silksong isin the pole position, and it's a
really good place for gaming tobe too, because they are both
small developers.
(38:45):
So I think that would justcontinue to kick the industry in
the ass and be like hey,rockstar, ubisoft, stop fucking
around, do the right thing.
So I think that's a good placefor it to be and then like
another game.
You know what I'm trying tothink of some other games that
(39:08):
might be nominated, but it'sgood to have those two as far as
front runners go.
So, like, where do we thinkthis is going to sit?
Because if I had to guess, ifit's not silk song, then it's
going to be donkey kong, justbecause nintendo wins, lol.
That is where I would do it.
I do see some people mentioningwhat was it called split
fiction after having beat game.
It was a lot of fun.
It is not a game of the yearcontender.
(39:29):
It is not in the samestratosphere as their last game,
which is escaping my mind ittakes two.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Which one game of the year?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Which one game of the year.
So again, it's a lot of fun.
Co-op couch gamers definitely arecommendation, but because
they came off, it takes two.
Um, it's.
It's not the same, but I wouldsay those three are probably the
front runners, um, and then tocombine that, what, if any,
interest do you have in therebeing, because they're making it
(39:57):
a live action, clear, obscurebecause it's happening, and I
don't think I like it.
So those are my last.
We'll go.
We'll start there.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, so I'll give you both of those.
So for Game of the Year, deathStranding 2 is also in the
conversation.
Sure, so that is definitely inthe conversation.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Would you ever play that?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
No.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Okay, good.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
You know, Walking Simulator with Baby is what.
I hear yeah, yeah, amazonDelivery Driver.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
That seems like more of your jam.
I'm actually shocked you won'tplay.
No, man, I I watched our buddyjosh play the first one, like
when he had it on theplaystation.
Um, he just, you know, sharescreen.
I was like what the fuck isthis?
And I've watched the endingbecause, like that's something I
do for games.
I know I'll never play.
So yeah, I've never been a whois that konami, kojima that's
just.
I've never really beeninterested, but which is
interesting because I reallywant to play snake eater.
But anyway, yeah, no um not foryou I'm not gonna play any
(40:55):
death stranding game ever that'sfair what?
Speaker 1 (40:57):
about blueprints, uh, blueprints well, blueprints for
game of the year is nothappening, like it's not even
gonna get the nomination.
Um, it definitely will probablywin some awards.
I think the luster from thatgame has definitely fallen off a
lot.
It definitely made a mark whenit came out, but it also came
out like very close to whenclear obscure came out, and I
think that's gonna havesomething to do with this phil
(41:18):
because, like, ghost of yotai iscoming out and we might oh yeah
, we might might be getting aMetroid Prime 4 drop just
randomly at some point.
At least that's what.
That's the only reason Ihaven't counterpicked it in our
in our fantasy league that we dowith your friendly neighborhood
gamers.
So there are other games thatwill probably be in contention
(41:40):
where, like, blueprints will getkicked out.
But yeah, I just like when Ilook at this list and we talk
about some of the games thatyou've mentioned here as
contenders, like maybe DonkeyKong, but even then I think it's
Silk Songs to lose, and that'sunfortunate for a game like
Clear Obscure, which I think atone point was a valid front
(42:01):
runner.
And the reason I say that isbecause I don't personally
believe after playing it, thatit is, and it's because of the
story which, weirdly enough,justifies the live action.
Like Phil, this game has a lotof like lore and a lot of a
story it's trying to tell.
(42:22):
That I think might work forlive action.
It the combat right.
It's like the combat's myfavorite thing about this game.
So I don't know that I wouldenjoy a live action version, but
having experienced the wholestory from start to finish, I
could see it happening.
I could see it happening.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Yeah, I guess I'm just so against these live
actions, although we have gottensolid ones here pretty recently
.
I guess it would depend on ifit's like clear, obscure
expedition 50.
Okay, I would like to know whathappened on some of these other
expeditions.
I don't want a shot for shotremake.
(43:05):
I don't want the last of us, Idon't.
I do want fallout.
You know what I mean.
Like that's what I want.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
So I will say I don't know that it would be too
spoiler, spoilery to say this,but this game does close pretty
neatly.
Uh, I won't say that I enjoythe endings, sure, because there
are two, but I would say, yeah,I would say that this game does
kind of tie itself in a nicelittle bow where I don't think I
(43:32):
would, I would see the reasonto kind of expand this world
more and I literally, I actuallyliterally can't tell you this
part because it would bespoilery.
I don't know that this would bea live action universe as an
example, like I don't think wewould see like different
expeditions, honestly, unlessthey were going backwards like
prequels.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Right, right, yeah.
So that's why I'm saying like Iwould love to learn a little
bit more about some of theprevious expeditions.
I think that would beinteresting.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
So well, the most fun game we have here, of course,
on the podcast Eric, that webring up from time to time, is
let's fan cast this thing.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Uh, obviously robert pattinson is the most, the most
uh, popular choice to play couldhave gotten him the last time.
Like I love charlie cox, butlike right, come on now.
Uh, sadie sink as my l that'ssolid red hair girl yeah,
natasha liu uh as lune.
Oh, I'm sorry, natasha leobordizzo as lee as uh lune.
Anya charlotte, anya charlotteas syell.
(44:38):
Fabian finkel, uh fabianfrankel, sorry as verso.
Suki waterhouse as sophie.
Uh.
Clancy brown as monaco.
Monaco, is that how youpronounce?
I haven't gotten to monaco yeah, okay, and then andy circus as
renoir, because andy circus doesvoice that character.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
So yeah, I mean that could work.
I don't know if he has thephysical presence for that as
that, but also, yeah, also, healso like kind of has like a
coat, like it's kind of like thebulky coat shoulders, like yeah
, it could work, it could workyeah.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
So that's again, if they go shot for shot or at
least a similar story and theyand they keep those characters.
So that is um.
But yeah, I mean, will I watch?
I mean they're gonna have.
It's gonna have to be a hell ofa budget to make this thing,
because you cannot half-ass anytype of special effects or the
(45:36):
monsters can't look shitty like.
You're gonna have to put timeand money into this thing.
So hopefully they are committed.
But yeah, I see damson idris aslucian here.
Let's see who is isabellasermon for my l pom, I always
forget how to pronounce her name.
She was mantis in guardians ofthe galaxy.
(45:59):
Oh, as lunae that could workpierce brosnan as renwa love me
some Pierce Brosnan yeah,matilda Swinton as the Patrice,
benedict Cumberbatch as Minocono although I mean, yeah, he's
got the voice for it.
Maybe those are all interestingfan castings, you know, but I
(46:22):
don't know congratulations PedroPascal and Sidney Sweeney Slop
he can't keep getting away withthis or maybe the Rock, now that
he's slim, Did you see?
Side note, I'm going to go offon a tangent here.
Did you see somebody askingBrian Danielson about his
opinion on the Rock's slimmerfigure?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
He's got a big-ass head.
Now, no, his opinion on therocks slimmer.
He's like he's got a big asshead now.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
No, he was like well, maybe he just wants to live
longer, which is crazy.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, but also true.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
But I digress.
But yeah, you know, we'll see.
We're going to keep gettingthese live actions and with the
way that it was received, I'm,I'm wasn't really surprised when
they announced it.
So but overall, as you can tell, like from the way that we're
talking about it, we certainly,if you're one of those people,
one of the few people that solda ton of copies if you have for
(47:14):
some reason been avoiding this,maybe the turn-based style turns
you off, but like, give it ashot.
Like give it a shot, maybeyou'll feel completely
differently when it comes to usabout this, about, you know,
story beats, and maybe the mouthflaps and the and that doesn't
really bother you.
So let us know if we're beingnitpicky, because, again, I
haven't heard too many peopletalk about it, but it is an
experience, I think, because itis on game pass that is worth
(47:37):
trying out.
And then, if it, you know, goeson sale during the holiday
season, give it a chance and,again, support a developer that
pulled off something prettyincredible.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah, and I would agree with everything there.
You know there's this is a gamethat you're going to sink at
least 30 to 40 hours in andthere's so much that you can
still explore.
Yeah, you're going to get yourmoney's worth for sure.
So it's a game that I would Iwould highly recommend checking
out.
When it comes to storycharacter beats, like Phil
mentioned, I'm kind of in theminority there with some of
those.
I think we're kind of in theminority in general, so it's
(48:09):
just one of those things where,again, we need to be mindful
that we're giving our opinions.
We might have felt some type ofway, but again, even with my
issues, I wanted to play thisgame to completion and that
should say everything it needsto about Claire Obscure.
So let us know if you played it.
Did you like it?
Are we on point?
Do you agree?
Are we alone?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
those are the questions should we stick to
friend?
Speaker 1 (48:32):
slop.
Should we stick to friend slop?
Speaker 2 (48:35):
uh yeah, let me ask you this the last thing and then
we'll wrap up.
Does this have you?
I know you mentioned, of course, boulders gate earlier, but do
you have?
Do you now have the propensityor the interest to jump into a
persona, like a more modern day?
You know?
Um turn-based type of game isthat there?
Is there any interest there?
Uh, because I don't think we'reever going to be the type of
gamers that go back and play afinal fantasy, even with the
(48:57):
remasters I think that's aninteresting question because,
like well, first off answer no,absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
But the reason for that is because those are, like,
really established franchises.
I think with this one it was apoint of entry into this genre
that felt a little bit moreaccessible.
So, would I ever play this typeof game again?
Yeah, yeah, I would.
Uh, this type of combat, thisturn baseness, like I, I really
enjoyed a lot of my time withclear obscure in that aspect.
(49:27):
But yeah, would I go to like aestablished franchise, like a
persona or a final fantasy?
Speaker 2 (49:34):
very unlikely, no, and that's just because of the
daunting nature of it yeah, Iwill say the only one that has
interested me lately is persona.
I did look into it, but yeah,because it is one of those
franchises where there's so much.
That's why we haven't reallyjumped into Yakuza or like a
dragon.
You know there's all that aswell.
So, yeah, but again, a gamelike this being successful is
great for the industry and ithelps us, the consumer, and
(49:57):
hopefully puts boot to ass whenit comes to some of those other
big developers that are draggingtheir feet.
So we will see how it goes.
But did you enjoy this episode?
What did you think of ClaireObscure?
Did you try it out because ofthis episode?
You know, what do you think?
We would love to hear from you,which means you can keep up
with us pretty much everywhere.
You can find the linktree linkin the show notes of this and
every single episode.
You'll find our TikTokInstagram, our growing Discord
(50:20):
community.
You can find us on Twitch,where we are streaming all the
time.
If you watch this on youtube,make sure you like, share,
subscribe.
You know the standard drill.
If you're listening on anypodcast platform, please give us
five stars.
That is one of the best waysyou can help support the show
and shout out to those of youwho have done so already.
But if you find yourselfwanting to get some additional
perks from the podcast, maybegetting these episodes early and
(50:41):
having a hand in the episodeand the content that we put out,
like our current WeightWatchers are doing for the month
of October, eric, we'll let youknow all about that before we
get out of here.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah.
So what are our Weight Watchers?
Well, you've heard them beingreferenced many times over the
podcast and they are our patrons.
So, over on Patreon, they'resupporting us monthly in
exchange for things like behindthe scenes and early access to
episodes like this one.
So shout out to all of ourpatrons, from Briar to T3, kato,
vintage Macaroni, nick Casbaro,the author of the Vidularium
(51:14):
series, corey from the World ismy Burrito, and Botter from the
Short Box podcast.
We appreciate your monthlysupport and in return, we're
also very excited for october,which is patreon month, where
they have selected movies andgames for us to check out things
.
We were late to the party onsome international stuff and, of
(51:36):
course, games that we didn'tplay, that we should have.
So you got that to look forwardto in october.
If you want to support us there, you can.
If you can't, that's okay.
All the stuff that Philmentioned, all the things that
cost you nothing but your time,is much appreciated.
But that is the end of ourepisode and we must bid you
(51:57):
adieu.
My name is Mr Eric Almighty.
That is my co-host, phil theFilipino, and please don't
forget, we release new episodesevery Wednesday on the podcast
and all you have to do is waitfor it.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
This is the Wait For it Podcast.
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