Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Spoilercast - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Wishlist Now!Empyreal Steam Page - https://nwzo.io/click/dzexr/ Empyreal PlayStation Store page - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10012299 Empyreal Xbox Store Page - https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/empyreal/9nv4j14zzqqn Go to http://auraframes.com and use code KINDAFUNNY to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/kindafunny to get 10% off your first month. Enjoy this ad-free version! Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - CLAIR OBSCUR SPOILERCAST - The End - what did you choose? - Ads - Superchats! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tomorrow comes, everybody. Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Wednesday, May 7th, 2025. I am one of your host, Barrett Courtney, and here joined with me, we've got the Hispanic heartthrob, Texas Treat Latino Heat, clicking heads and ripping them their shreds, the globe trotting, headshot, and rooting, tuting three-point shooting, Nitro Rifle from Twitch.com, slash Andy Cortez. We can use this.

Whenever they pick up just something in the world, I love that. This will be useful. Next up, we have industry legend. Industry icon acts of the blood gods, very own, Kat Bailey. And God. Oh, I did it. I said it wrong. Hello.

I'm God. I'm God. And lastly, we have the boy who has won the award three times running of best person to close out bars with. It is the one, the only, Michael Hyam. Good stuff. That's not a good. Not a good...

An advantage. How's everybody doing today? My brother Joshua. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm replaying it right now. Replaying this little old video game. Yeah, you're freshened up.

I got that... I was just telling the squad right here that I beat Sprong last night for the first time because I didn't get to do it. My first play-through was I was like, all right, I'm getting kind of close to the edge. I got to beat the video game, right? Be them last night.

I got that the Pictos called Cheater, which does you go two times in a row, and whoever you put it on also gives you 1,200 health and, you know, as if Lune could not be killed with a nuclear bomb before,

she is a world ender now. Like, she is straight up, like, Dr. Manhattan just like, nobody has anything on me. I don't feel like I'm a part of this human race. I'm so much more powerful than everybody. Kat, how are you been?

The last time I think we saw you was for the switch to, like, full on direct. Wow. It feels like a lifetime ago. I know. Did you, were you able to secure a Switch 2 pre-order? Oh, not yet.

Oh, not yet. Okay, all right. I think I need to go to GameStop and actually try and get one because they might have supplies, hiding. But I'm going to get one. It's going to happen. I believe in you. Yeah. Michael, how you been?

It's been a minute. Bro, I'm so cooked. I feel that. April was a, was a wild month for me. Yeah. I did a lot of work. If y'all peeped the IGN first for the Outer Worlds, too. I headed that up all month.

in addition to reviewing South of Midnight and Claire Obscure Expedition 33 on top of all my other duties and some other stuff. April of this month I'm kind of try to chill. Be a sleepy boy. Lean into it. I'm a be aepy boy for a couple weeks

and then SGF's going to hit and we're going to turn up. Hell yeah. Well everybody remember this is the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest previews, reviews, reviews, and spoiler casts in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe.

If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube superchats as we go. Send in your biggest Claire Obscure Expedition 33 questions for us to answer on the show today because yes, this is the games cast spoiling. Full spoilers on Claire Obscure Expedition 33.

all of us are very passionate to talk about it, excited to talk about it. Andy Cortez is on a second playthrough of a turn-based RPG, which the hell has frozen over, I feel like. That's insane to me. It's, I mean, dude, if anything, you know, the game is so popular, right? The game, word of mouth has gotten to people that would have never tried this game. And I am so pumped up about it because now I'm like, dude, now from here on out, developers are taking notice and being like, what have we?

made turn-based games good. You know, like, we can do that too. We can also do that. This is not the panel to make a show. Ah, shit, yeah. We can also put parries at our games. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so interested to talk to you because there are so many people

who don't normally play this type of game who are really into it. So I just want to pick your brain and be like, what is this making you feel? Is it the action aspects that are really grabbing you, the story? Oh, yeah. Well, so narratively, right off the rip this game just kind of grabs you in that first sort of

section, right? When we see the first gamage happen. And immediately I was like, I haven't felt this way about a narrative in a long time. And when I think of how I played a decent amount of a freaking metaphor refontasio

and that's usually way more than I would put into a turn-based game that is not Pokemon. And the reason I didn't stick around with metaphor was legitimately because I was like, damn, I don't, this is going to be a 70 hour, 50 hour quest. I don't have time

like that right now for this title. Right. But, you know, even though I'm not generally a turn-based person, I still enjoyed it a lot, right? Like, I always talk, you're getting to the trash and all that. I talk more shit about turn-based games that I really, you know, it's just playing into it. But

for, definitely it is the action. It's the visuals. It's the characters. It's the parries that reward you. If you choose to dodge, it's easier. but the parry is a much higher risk reward. And then once you start kind of, you know, equipping all the different pictals and luminas and now I'm getting health back for everything,

it just feels so rewarding. Everything feels substantial. That and it being 30 hours, I think, is another plus for you. That helps. 1,000 percent. That helps. Me too, honestly. It does feel great when you pull off a proper counter

or when you have like 10 different attacks coming at you and you manage to parry every single one of them and get the counter attack off. Which is crazy. hugely great feels, yeah. We're vibrating in our seats, ready to talk about this game. But before we do that, let me get to some housekeeping. Remember, Greg is rocking Pax East Thursday.

That is tomorrow, and you need to be a part of it at 11 a.m. Eastern 8 a.m. Pacific. Greg's the keynote speaker kicking off Pax East, and we'll be doing a fireside chat with Final Fantasy and Expedition 30th very own. Ben Star, that's crazy. Good for Pax East getting Ben Star. Greg is there too, I guess. At 2 p.m. Eastern 11.

Pacific. Greg's also hosting the Mafia, the old country panel with the devs. If you're in Boston, you need to be there, but if you aren't, both will be streamed to our Twitch channel. So yes, tomorrow at 8 a.m. Pacific will be streaming exclusively on our Twitch the keynote. And then we'll be back at 10 a.m. on both Twitch and YouTube for Games Daily. And then at 11 will be off of YouTube streaming the mafia panel exclusively on Twitch. And then at 12, we'll be back on Twitch and YouTube for a games cast, which I think we can confirm Blessing talked about on Games Daily. His whole week of playing Death Stranding 2. So definitely tune in for that.

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow. Also, you are about to witness history. Snowbike Mike, the most athletic man in his own mind is embarking on his most daring quest yet going step for step with Sam Porter Bridges in a literal marathon stream on a treadmill. Come join Roger and Mike this Friday as they attempt to do a full. play-through of Death Stranding 1 through the weekend, but they can only do it with your support. Will Mike and Roger break this treadmill and have

to drive to Andy's home at 1am to borrow his? As someone who, you know, it's also his home. I would prefer that not to happen. Either way, find out Friday on Twitch.tv slash kind of funny games. Remember, we're an 11-person business all about live talk shows. Today, you already got games

daily about... What did y'all talk about today, Andy? I ran that show, I'm blanking. Let's see. We talked about a new PlayStation. LFG Studios Frog type game Xbox handheld Xbox handheld

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Prog type games. Frog type games. This is the Games cast And after it is the Pokemon

Nick Locke 2.0 finale where Nick Scarpino will battle the Elite 4 and finally finish Pokemon Heart Gold slash Soul Silver Nudge Nudge, wink, wink. We have like two more,

three more streams maybe. You don't think he can do the Elite 4 all today? I don't know. All right? You're a doubter. I think he does it for Mike's birthday. I think he truly locks in.

I hope so. Mike deserves this. He really does. If you're a kind of funny member, today's Gregway is a Mike takeover. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney Twining.

Today we're brought to you by Imperial Oraframes and Better Help, but we'll tell you about that later. Before we get to topic of the show, this is going to be the Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Spoiler casts, spoiler gloves will be coming off,

but just as a quick reminder, Andy and I were on the review for Expedition 33. I believe on that review, we both gave it a 9 out of 10. We were very high on the game. Michael Hym, you reviewed Expedition 33 for IGN. What score did you give it and give us a little pitch on your review? I also gave it a 9 out of 10. And I wrote a lot about it. You know what I'm saying?

Because that's what you do with the review. Damn, I'm so cooked. No, I think it was a really fun exploration of, I think, one of the big things I did in my review was picking apart a lot of the inspirations that I saw through and kind of breaking down why they're not just pulling like, look, look, we're like this game too. We're like this game. We're like this game. It's like, no, they really took ownership of their influences.

And I just got done doing an interview with them too. And they were like saying the same things. Like, we didn't want to just make a game like what we wanted to do. We wanted to put our own spin on it. We really wanted to make it our own. And in my review, like, this is before I talked to them. I was like, hey, I guess that came through because that's exactly how I felt.

Like, yeah, the UI looks like persona and all the camera cuts and stylish. And then, like, there are bits and pieces of Final Fantasy 10. And, like, I talked to them beforehand and they were like, yeah, those are the two games we, like, mainly drew inspiration from. But it's so much more than that.

And breaking down why it is not just an amalgamation of its influences kind of like drove my review, in addition to talking about, you know, where the story hit, where it didn't necessarily hit. And how fucking crazy this combat system is dog oh my god and how fresh this game yeah we wee cat uh how did you feel about the game and on the kind of funny scale what would you give it through a one out of 10 wow so

initially i went in and feeling a little bit skeptical thinking it can't be that good right and especially in act one it did grab me right at the beginning that opening sequence yeah really beautiful heart-rending. I haven't had that many feelings since Spider-Man disappeared. So many dustings, but I... But then I was kind of going, these dungeons are fine, I'm working my way into it. And then I think at

Act 1, the end of Act 1, it really grabbed me. The fight with the Lamp Lighter was very soulsy actually with the lamps lighting up, and then the fight itself, it's a two-part fight, and I think I soloed it with Seal when at the very end, like she came in

in the reserves. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. My heart was pounding at the end, and I was like, I'm in. And then, of course, we have the first big twist in that moment, which is a very Game of Thrones. Surprise. The protagonist is dead because we can't afford Charlie Cox for that amount of time. I had the same thought. Yeah. You're not saying.

You saw that, and that's where they had to cut off the budget. You're playing his right in the rest of the game. And then from Act 2 onward, I was very hooked, and it kept getting better and better. The battle system kept adding new layers. the story kept going in new and interesting directions. And by the end, I was, I was floored. I would give this definitely probably, if I were reviewing it for IGN, a 9 out of 10.

Maybe 9.5 out of 10. Okay. Our decimals. Yeah. Yeah, we can do that here. I was like, there's no way this is higher than 8. And then by the end, I was like, Naz is definitely.

I had a similar trajectory. Not only that, I think it's my game of the year right now. It's my goatee right now. For me, it's like, I'm still. I'm still rocking for blueprints, but the more I think about this game, I'm like, oh. I haven't played blueprints yet. So of the games I've played, this is the one for me. All right.

Let's finally get to it. Topic of the show. Dotts, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots, dots. It's the Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Spoiler cast. Spoiler gloves are fully off. So if you're hanging out in the YouTube or Twitch chat, you don't want to be spoiled, especially if people are sending in their super chats asking spoiler-filled questions. Maybe get out of here for now and go and, uh, go and,

beat the game on your own. Where I want to start is actually at the end. Because something that my immediate reaction to the first thing I want to ask people when talking about Clare Obscure Expedition 33 is

which ending did you choose. We get to the end after we've kind of, it's been revealed that this world we're in exists in a painting and it was all created by the real life version of Verso and this is like a childhood painting of his. And you're kind of given this question of

do you side with Verso this kind of painting version of Verso and destroy the painting, let him finally rest and make sure Mayel in real life can actually like not just fully engrossed

herself in art and run away from reality or do you choose Mayel's side and fight against Verso and make him dance like a monkey for the rest of time and you get to live a very hollow you know, happy life. Seems like you're really leading the jury writer.

I've seen both endings. You have an ending that you like, right? Yes. That's what it sounds like. Yes, yes, yes. Kat, I want to start with you. Which ending did you choose? I picked my else ending, actually.

Wow, all right. I wanted to be contrarian, as I tend to be, because I felt that the world can be what you make of it. And she had built this life for herself. And I don't know. It didn't feel right to take it away. I knew where the game was kind of leading me to. I think both games, both endings.

Yeah. I do appreciate that about the game, like where you can do one ending and then you can go back to a save and like immediately check out the other one. I think they're both bittersweet in their own way. And I appreciate that about this game because I like fiction where there's no right answers, honestly. But really, like, thematically, this game is about grief and found family.

and being able to move past that grief and taking a step forward into the world. So I think this game is kind of pushing you toward the Verso ending, but I like Myel and I like all my pals from inside the canvas, so I didn't want to say goodbye. Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes you've got to say goodbye, though. Hi, and what about yourself? I saw both. I picked Myel's ending first because I'm going to keep it real with you. It was a little hard to parse what I was choosing at the moment because the way it ramps up towards the very end is that Miles' motivations and what she actually wants is it's like evolving in real time as the scenes are playing out.

And so it feels like she's changing her mind. And Verso too. It's like they're both learning something new and making snap decisions in the moment from what they learn from real. And like the, I feel like the ending kind of happens because Verso makes a snap decision to go into the like core of the painting. Yeah, yeah. Because like no matter what ending you choose, you see them like, oh shit, I learn. something new what am I going to do in this in this moment and so I went with Miles first to see what it was and I think from an artistic perspective that ending is fucking wild and I would say it's the

more into like it doesn't feel right but it's the more interesting ending to myself yeah it is it's chilling because it plays it's almost like a it's like horror yeah very off key oh yeah and literally too like the way black mirror type shit yeah and I think think when I say like from an artistic perspective this is like so much so much better is because throughout the game the subtleties and facial expressions are so key to can like it's as a storytelling device without that a lot of its biggest story moments wouldn't hit as hard more like more so than any moment in this ending when you see old verso walk up to the to the piano and just be like man fuck this shit but just like you said he just has to he has to dance for her in this

this fake world and you just see it on his face like damn this is this is heartbreaking yeah and you like see gustav back as well and there's just like everything is anything yeah you see see out with her husband and it's like this this this this ain't right it feels like I mean the alternative ending to persona five royal that's what it feels yeah like the kind of like oh you get to choose to be with your friends but you know you throw away like all of your morals and stuff you know it's fake and you see on myel's face her she knows she knows like this shit ain't real yeah you know she's not content. She knows she's not 100% happy. She knows what she's doing.

On the flip side, Versos is the very straightforward ending. Where it's like, hey, it's because you be in that damn painting all the time. And it's like, you strip that away and you need to move on with your life. So I think that is, it's not the most exciting ending.

It's not the most interesting ending, but it is kind of, it feels like the right ending. And even that feels loaded. But I would say, like the, to me, it's fascinating of like which one is like the right ending which one's the quote unquote canon what have you like i think there's so many interpretations and to me like even though i like bursos ending more and i think there's a bit more of a like stronger message of what it

what it does to people to just be lost in art which is weirdly similar to what metaphors it's i call us the anti metaphor yeah because like at the end this is not a metaphor spoiler but the whole thesis of metaphor is like fiction can empower you in your real life whereas Claire obscure is like, hey, if you get lost in fiction, you will lose everything else in your real life. If you don't get the fuck out of, if you just, if that's, you need to live your real life as well. Exactly. In addition to that. So it's like similar messaging, but a very different conclusion.

But the Miel ending like ends with, you know, Verso starting to play the piano. And then it goes into the menu music. And I'm like, oh, that's, that's devious. Yeah. It hurts. But, yeah, last thing I'll say on the ending is that I like this. is how I felt about Phantom Liberty as well, is that there's two mutually exclusive endings

that paint a full picture. You wouldn't fully understand the story in the game if you did not see both endings. And then you get that fucking ugly piano hit with the jump scare. Terrifying. Verso's like, I'm a fuck of the... I'm gonna fuck this shit up. What about yourself? I chose Miles' ending.

I never saw Miel as wanting this life for her out of like an evilly selfish thing to do and also this kid's been painting forever keep painting what do you know what's it to you you'll be fine

you'll be fine verso but yeah to me it would be a lot different if maybe this reality that Maill had lived through was only I don't know a week's worth of simulation where they thought they had been

existing their whole lives but like I think that would be one thing but because they had lived lifetimes and seen relatives pass away like this is just because it's a a fake artificial world still like lives have been lived here

this isn't just something that was a computer simulation that was created 20 minutes ago and in their minds they have lived these whole lives but they really have and it's like no these are these are people with who have made relationships and also, Mael doesn't want to be

eyeless without a voice in reality. Yeah. I see, I totally see both sides. I understand that I think Verso's is the, the canon ending.

I think that's the, the true ending or whatever. But I also, I love when my movies or media end on a, kind of freaky, sour note and like kind of vague. You're an inception, man.

We get it. And this ends with that really kind of freak. you ended like, oh, that was so sick. And I'm just impressed by the storytelling and by these developers. So that's the ending that I chose. And then I let Ben Starr know that. And he said, damn, you didn't get to hear me sing.

Oh, you didn't get to hear. I didn't hear the end credit song, which is singing. This is for all you Star Trek fans. The end, Myel's story is very Captain Pike, the original Star Trek right here. because in the original Star Trek there's this guy in Captain Pike who goes through a horrible accident and he's terribly maimed

and he has a chance to go into a world where he's healthy and whole and yes it's a fantasy but at the same time he's not in horrible pain all the time and who are we to say to a person

it's like I want to not be miserable every single day of my life No go and be in the real world go touch grasp well but the real world is horrible actually Yeah, and like, yeah, that's what makes, that's what makes that decision hard, right? And that's what makes seeing both endings hard is because it's like, yeah, there's, there is no right way to go.

I will say picking Verso's ending, though, they do not make that easy. Yeah, like they really, so I get to the ending of the game. And then it's like, which one do you choose? And I had to walk away for roughly 10 to 15 minutes to think about it in my life. And then I came back and it was like, because it is one that really challenges you. and I talked a lot of shit about Myel's ending, but it did really challenge me in the kind of, again, this game reminding me a lot about metaphor.

And I would say metaphor does talk a little bit about, like, yes, fiction can inspire you to do things in your real life, but also what's it worth to just get lost in the fiction, which, like, I won't get too deep into why, and give you all a metaphor stray in the middle of this, but I was thinking a lot about that, but I was also thinking about how much Mayo has gone through, how much she has lived

through in this world, right? But I did choose Verso's ending. And from the jump, the dialogue is the same throughout the fight. It's just depending on who you're playing as. And like, they really make you feel like the villain playing as Verso fighting Mael. And it's like,

oh, this hurts. Especially after you finish the fight where you have to say goodbye to Esquay and Monoco, they get fucking Thanos snapped. It's like, It's heartbreaking. Real quick, this is just a side question. We can circle back to this in the main way.

Is there way to romance Lune or is it only CL? Yeah. Okay. I did, I fuck. I fucked up. Because Lune is literally like the greatest character of all time. Okay. I just didn't.

You have to finish her social link. Yeah. Well, and you probably have to do her and you have to do her stuff before you do CL stuff, I imagine. Or just not do CL stuff at all. Not 100% sure. Okay. Okay. I did all of the character quest, but I also chose to decline CL and her advancements.

Because I also felt like, man, if we snap your husband back in, I think is about the opposite. God, that shit is. You have to shut down. You have to shut CL down twice, I think. Okay. The second time I was given the option with CL, it felt like all options were just like, I guess we're just going to fuck. Yeah.

The text didn't feel like I was actually shutting her down all the way. So, yeah. I was the message. And I was like, you nasty. To bring it back to the ending here, we're like, yeah,

CL, at least for my playthrough, walks through and you kind of hug or nod or whatever. And Lune is the one kind of in the portal staring at you, like, pissed. And like, I don't know if that just gets reversed it,

like depending on who you romance. I think it's the same. But it felt very fitting for Lunei to like just be so fucking angry at you. Well, she's always. been the more, I mean, you know, the whole CLs, you know, wearing masks, faking how you feel, not ever showing your true emotions. And Luna's always been the more pragmatic. I'm going to, you know, when Miles dealing with a super traumatizing moment and Luna just keeps on like, you know,

give me more info. And everybody's like, chill the fuck out. Lune. Like, what do you do? You know, like there, I love, because I did end up watching that ending. And man, she stares daggers at you. Yeah. And it's awesome. Look, I think if I'm very easily swayed on character emotion, and I think I would have, and I'm glad they didn't do this, but I think if they gave me a moment with faceless Verso drawing and if he looked up and was like, help me, or some shit, that I probably would. I'm drawing. My hands tired. Bruce is on my knees. I wish I would, like, I think if they gave me anything like that and I'm glad they didn't because it made the decision that much tougher.

then I probably would have leaned towards Verso's ending, but I'm glad they kind of kept it as like open as they did and showed you the positives and negatives for both outcomes. I think for me, like just the Verso thing, especially him being this painting version and having to know everything he knows and then also seeing the kid constantly like drawing and thinking about like how long he has been there,

like the core of this painting. It's like, yeah, like y'all are using like your dead brother's thing for entertainment and what or not entertainment but like escapeism and if you're just going to use it forever and ever and ever like just like let this dude rest you know and it was i think that's what kind of pulled me towards it's not actually verso versos versus dead right yeah yeah yeah yes but still it's like a part of him and with these you know the painting version of verso being you know this again dancing monkey is like kind of always what i i go to is like just let this part of his soul rest. And I think that's really what drew me over to him. And not just the, like,

you know, maybe using art as escapism for the rest of your life is maybe a little bit unhealthy type of thing. But, um, and, and just because you do have to let go, it doesn't mean like, you know, those friends and those lives that, uh, you encounter don't, uh, kind of carry with you, right? I, I do really love the verso ending where, you know, they're, the family kind of comes together still a little bit broken, but finally like taking a moment to actually properly mourn Verso who had died in the real world

and then you get the shot of Mayo looking at all of her friends that she made and then they like they dissolve and gommage and it's like fuck. They weren't real. They were her imaginary friends. No, they were real. They just, she'll always carry them with her. She's holding the Skiy. Oh, that got me.

Like, oh damn. He was just making his toys in this painting and just to be his buddies. And it's so I love the contrast of like tragic sexy man Ben Star playing Verso and then being like the gruff manly dude who's gonna fucking do a million damage

if you spec them outright in one hit and just being like this like one of the like toughest characters and you know the way he looks and then you know contrasting that with like oh but like this the manifestation of his soft side is is that it's

it's Minoco and it's Eskiae and it's that childlike wonder didn't still came through in that. He embraced... And he embraces that as a character. And he embraces that as a character. We need the dog, monocle. It's so good.

To kind of work backwards from here, and this is kind of the second big question I have, mainly because talking to some friends of the show about them getting to kind of the end of act to us realizing what this world truly is,

all of this stuff. When we learn that we're in a painting and Mayel is a part of this family outside of the painting that have these painter powers or whatever and they're at war with writers and all this stuff. Once we get this big reveal and we also get the reveal that the painter's inside the painting has actually been trying to save the painting and warning all y'all. Like did that initially work for y'all initially getting to it? Because I think for me the cut scene where it's Verso reading the letter from the painted version

of Alicia and she's talking about like, Like, you know, the mom has actually been painting to give life. The dad has been painting for death or whatever. That was all like really shocking. And then to see everybody be gommage, who's like, that felt like the, we just got an inception ending right here. And then it's like, oh, no, there's more. It was like, whoa.

And then to kind of get that full scale, it took a little bit for me to get fully sold on it. And so I'm wondering where y'all kind of were at. I'm right there with you. It reminded me a lot of the, as much as I enjoyed a thousand times resist. I thought it ended about 12 times. And then you get more and then you're like,

ah, but it's good, so I don't give a shit, right? Yeah, there we go. But when you're in our line of work and you're in review season, it's like, oh, fuck, man, I really thought, like, I thought I was going to be an early night. And it's not. I'm going to keep on, like, playing through the end of, uh, to this video game.

And so, I am kind of met with, ooh, is this getting larger than it needs to be? Is this getting too conceptually out there with the writers and the painters war?

Like, I don't fucking care about whatever's happening out there. And then, you know, a couple of lines of dialogue and I'm like, that's actually kind of cool. Like, I want to learn more about it and it didn't take much

for me to be into it. It was only more of a time thing where I'm like, damn, it's already nine. And I was hoping it like shower and gets to bed early. So yeah, I enjoyed it.

Yeah. I mean, I like the twist. It made a lot of sense to me. When I got to Act 3, I had heard some people say, ah, we're a little mixed on Act 3. We don't know how we feel about it. Some people love it. Some people aren't so sure.

In some ways, I felt like I was playing a different game when I got to Act 3 because thematically, it becomes very, very different. The first two acts are, it's an impossible mission. You're following in the footsteps of those who have come before, who are paving the way for you there. you're trying to save the world. How do you exist in this world that is dying? I don't know.

And that's all very compelling in this day and age, at least to me. Well, I mean, literally in the first few minutes, they go, well, I decided not to be a mom because I can't bear to bring a child into this horrible world. And I'm like, well, that hits really hard for me in various ways. And then to act three, it's like, actually, it's about grief. Yeah. It's about family. It's about saying goodbye.

It's about family. And I said, oh, okay, so this is a totally. totally, it all connects to, it comes together, it's fine, but it did feel like almost a different story when I got to ask three. And you're essentially writing off an already impressive story and with world building that was already awesome to where it's like, God, I'm so interested in whatever the hell is happening here. Yeah, the, yeah, meeting all these random NPCs talking about living in this fracture and just how fucked up it is and you can't grow old and when you want to have a kid,

it's like, well, I'm not going to be around for them to grow up, but I want to have a kid to where I'm not old enough. But, you know, it's like all of that inner strife was so fascinating. And then it does kind of feel like, oh, damn, but it was all a dream. And I really loved that world and I kind of wanted that fiction to continue. And it just kept up getting more interesting, though, I think. Often I'm not the biggest fan of the, well, actually, none of this is real. Like, I like the stakes to be a lot more grounded.

But at the same time, when you get to Act 3 and you learn everything, it all starts to make a lot of sense that they were inside a painting. All of the really abstract elements of it, the bosses, the environments, the haziness. It all goes, oh, right, of course is a painting. And I was a little critical on the art in the first act. I was saying, well, these environments are a little like an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo. And then when all is revealed to you, you regret your words and deeds. And that's me.

I'm like, oh, no, actually, it's extremely coherent. Duh. You think it's like, oh, this is a bunch of floating stuff to like make this place look like something. Yeah. It's like, oh, no, a child just made this in there. It's like, ah, this looks cool. You put floating stuff. That's art direction.

I think I'm kind of with both y'all on that. That's exactly how I felt when the twist happened is that it took me a little while to come around on it. And when, because I was in the preview and in the lead up to it, I was like sold on the premise. It reminded me of a Xenblade Chronicles 3, which is. like one of my favorite games of all time at this point. And that theme of knowing when your time is coming and doing something about that. That's why Zina Blade Chronicles 3 hit with me so hard

when I had to come terms with that after heart surgery and being told that I'm not going to live... I have a shorter lifespan than everyone else around me. All things equal. When Expedition 33's story started to like unfold, I'm like, holy shit. They made a story that is going to like absolutely hit me. And it still does in many ways.

But then when you hit Act 3, it's like, Oh, it's about something else. And there's enough connect. Like, it took me a while to, like, pieces together. I talked to Eric, Eric Van Allen about this too when he finished it, is that there is enough connective tissue to make those two halves make sense. But I do wish that I wonder if there is a version, dreaming of things that don't exist.

But I wonder if there's a version of both halves of those stories that were like fully about those things. Yeah. Because like the stuff about the family, about Miles family, or. Pymiles paints it. She's fake. About the Renoir's family, whoever the fuck. Versa's family. That stuff is compelling and it's done really well.

But it happens very fast. So that's why throughout act three, I'm like, oh shit, I feel like, I need to really speed run or not speed run. I need to like really come to grips with what is happening in front of me. I need to like sit down with every line of dialogue and be like, what does this all mean? And I am kind of 50-50 on like, oh, it was all a dream time. type scenario, but in the context of what do you find out, like, oh, this is a fake world in which Miles coping within because of the tragedy that happened to the family, then it all came

together. So, like, it comes together. It does. But I'm still mixed on the transition. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of wish I had all 100% of that and 100% of the other thing as well. Exactly.

Yeah. It's crazy that how great the world building and concepts are that, like, they base, it's, It's almost like any other developer would have been like, damn, that content's really good. Let's say that for another game. And they kind of just put them all in here, which I think is like a pretty astonishing feat, I think. I want to say in fairness that they really lay the groundwork for saying,

it is about family from a very, basically from the moment that you meet Renoir and everything. Sure, yeah. But when I think about how all of this ultimately came together, I think it could have been a very different game and maybe a lesser game. if it had been like, oh, you killed the painter's, but actually she was defending everybody, and now you have to go save the world for real, for real, real. And that could have been a great story on its own

and very moving and all of that. But I think swerving hard and then really becoming introspective and thinking about grief and family and everything, I think it elevates it, actually. I think it takes it to another level. And that was when I thought Act II was like, I'm hooked.

I'm sold. I'm in. Act three, I was like, this game is special. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it really started to click for, uh, when you start to act three is pretty much like you get a, a good story chunk. And then it's like, all right, here's your last chance to like go do side quest stuff before you do your final run up to, uh, the final boss. And it really clicked for me of like exploring around taking it in that this is Verso's world as a child and putting together that like the angry turtle man, uh, who is like Skiy's, uh, uh, roommate is angry and is angry because he misses Verso's sister who used to come in and play in this world and when you first hear of this like woman's name you don't you don't know the context

of it and then coming back to visit him uh because of SGA's side quest you're like oh that hit me like a ton of bricks and then you know doing the other axon uh thing that leads into mayel doing a one v one boss fight with herself which is like some of the coolest like uh side option stuff in the in the game that really started to click with uh click with me and i think i think i forget who says this i think it might be verso to myel or maybe somebody else but at one point they say the whole world carries the burden of your family's grief and that was kind of the moment the two different themes clicked together for me that even though a lot of this game is about grief it also kind of comes in tandem with what they do and how that affects the people at who do now

have to live in the society that are dealing with all of these struggles. That's where it really all came together for me. I see a lot of people comparing this game to Final Fantasy 10's ending. And I have to say that it's like Final Fantasy 10's ending, but good. I never liked. Tita's catching strays. I never liked Titus's ending. It's Titus.

I never liked the Xanrican bit because it, yes, I know they established it and everything. You feel like I felt like if you had made it about Yuna, and just kept it to that. It could have been a really, really special story. And in this, I felt that it made a lot more sense. They did a really good job of establishing it within the bounds of the world, the idea of painting on a canvas,

that they're all living inside a painting and everything. It works well in this kind of abstract kind of sense. Yeah, it's much more coherent work, I think. Sorry, Final Fantasy 10 fans. And with that dunk on Final Fantasy 10, we'll be right back to talk more about Claire Obscure Expedition 33, right after word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Imperial.

We've told you all how important it is to developers to wishless games that you're interested in. So if this sounds cool to you, make sure you wishlist it. Imperial is a complex feature-rich action RPG where you'll be sent to a planet in a far-off corner of the galaxy to explore an imposing monolith. As an elite mercenary,

you'll join the expedition tasked with unearthing the secrets of the monolith and face off against the deadly automaton's within. In Imperial, you'll explore, four vastly different quadrants of the monolith, accessible only by using mysterious artifacts known as cartograms. Each cartogram affects which enemies, boss fights, and loot will appear when you enter the monolith, so no two excursions will be the same. Find even more cartograms to explore by looting defeated enemies or buy them from other players online at the trading post.

Imperial features three weapon archetypes, the fast-paced acrobatic glave, the defense-focused Mason Shield, or the devastating cannon, with a range of customizable skills, and abilities that can make short work of the awaiting automaton's. Your weapons and abilities can be changed before any excursion into a cartogram, so if a loadout isn't working for you, you can mix things up to create the perfect playstyle. Help the members of the expedition in deep-branching quests and aid other players in asynchronous multiplayer. Get ready, mercenaries. The monolith awaits. Imperial is available May 8th on PC Xbox Series X-N-S-N-S-5.

Wishlist Now. It helps so much. Imperial. This episode is brought to you by Oraframes. If you haven't called your mom in a while, here is your reminder to do it. But then you want to go above and beyond. Mother's Day is coming up and I have the perfect gift idea. Our frames are incredibly smart and easy to use, allowing you to upload unlimited photos and videos directly from your phone to the frame. Plus, you can order the frame online and preload it with photos and videos using the

aura app, so it's ready to go right out of the box. It's a gift so special, use it every day. Greg, Kevin, and a ton of people here are kind of funny are obsessed with their ORA frames. It takes about two minutes to set up a frame using the Aura app. So the next time you need to call your mom, you could also send her a new pick of you from that trip that you're telling her all about. Aura has a great deal for Mother's Day. For a limited time, listeners can save on the perfect gift by visitingoraFrames.com to get $35 off plus free shipping on their best-selling car from that frame. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code Kind of Funny. Support the by mentioning us at checkout.

Terms and conditions apply. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. It's super great that mental health awareness is growing, but there's still progress to be made. 26% of Americans who participated in a recent survey say they have avoided seeking mental health support due to fear of judgment. We can do better.

No reason for fear. BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching people with the right therapist from the diverse network of more than 30,000 licensed therapists with a wide range of specialties. Some of my best friends use BetterHelp and love how helpful it can be for learning positive coping skills

and how to set boundaries. It empowers you to be the best version of yourself. It isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

We're all better with help. Visit BetterHelp.com slash kind of funny to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash kind of funny. Betterhelp.com slash kind of funny. Welcome back, everybody. We're going to kick it to some super chats just because y'all have been coming through

asking questions for us to answer and ponder over. First, we're going to go to Zest Wispah, who says the devs have discussed potential DLC in the future. What would you like to see from the DLC, new areas and bosses, previous expeditions, more Monoco? I think previous expeditions could be like a really cool way to kind of go into some different types of story, different themes, but still keep it in this world.

It's a very complete work and it's sort of hard to jam in extra DLC. I suppose you could have a new area that you could explore, say, during Act 2 or something like that. But I think the side stories with previous expeditions where you get to meet new characters and have different abilities could be just a lot of fun as standalone content. What was up with those one little levels that, would have that one fixed camera angle

and you would just walk in super far away from the camera You just got an item Like yeah that to me was like I legitimately thought my game was broken I was like the camera The camera here is not working To me that was like a walk way far back

And I'm just like lost back there It was an homage to like the Yeah 90s era RPGs where you just like Kind of walk onto a screen You like kind of vibe out Pick up an item and then lead It's like one frequent that I thought it was broken I was like it's I've only experienced it

twice like there's no way it was just like hey look how cool this shit looks yeah like here here's an entire vibe that we couldn't work into like a full-on environment but we still wanted to use it you know um yeah going on the dLC thing i if anything i wouldn't really want something that substantial regarding like previous expeditions in the dLC because i don't know if i don't know their budget or their time or whatever but i would want like a full ass game for that i would want a full other game because straight up dude like I don't know how many of these voice memos I've collected at this point

but I'm listening to them all and the last one that I just listened to on stream last night was one that I hadn't heard during my first full play through and I'm like dude some games can't get one good voice actor this fucking game has a shitload of voice memos

from some of the best voice delivery acting you'll ever hear in your life and they're not even main character There's just like a random boy. Like, God, it's so impressive, dude. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of agree with, if you're going to explore a previous expedition, it might be like a standalone expansion or like the size of a Phantom Liberty.

Miles Morales. Yeah, yeah. Because there's, and like the fact that Verso has been involved with previous expeditions is that there's connective tissue there. I mean, considering how big Claire Obscure is as a base game, like, I wouldn't mind if they did that. And the more you dig into those logs, you realize how rich this world is to explore those things. I would love to see that. But I don't know if opening up an extra area for like extra bosses

would necessarily move the needle for me or get me excited because there is so much side content already in the game. Like you can spend an additional 30 hours on side content alone. And I've spent a lot of time on that side content. You learn so much more about the story. some of those super bosses and you learn to break the fucking game in some crazy ways. Some of the things Jesse

Fitelli's post and I'm like, how's your brain working? Yeah, yeah. So I feel like that desire is fulfilled already inside content. So yeah, the only thing I can think of is like here's an exhibition. What about an endless tower? Somebody was saying this in the chat. I really like this idea actually because the

battle theme is, the battle music, sorry, the battle system is so good that I could just spend a long time grinding through battle after battle after battle. I mean, there is the endless tower. Did you do the endless tower? The endless tower? No.

Oh, shit. Yeah. There is an endless tower. But it gets so hard that you think it's endless. Yeah. I forget. I think there's... Okay, then I'm going to go do that.

Yeah. There you go. There's a lot of... Wow. I keep hearing about this boss name Simon. And how it's like, that's the one Andy that's really going to like fuck you up and fuck everybody up.

Yeah. And then I thought of like, man, Simon, man. Andes and Liza P was also painting the ass. I don't know what it is about this Simon guy, but I got to go find him out. Yeah. In a similar vein, Dropkick Tondo asked, do you think the war with the writers hints at franchise possibilities?

Oh, shit. I think so. See, that's where the story, like, I was so not interested in that stuff. Like, I get where it comes into it being about grief and all this stuff. I would have preferred if it was like Verso's stuff was kind of kept within like the confines of just like this family

them teasing this whole like we're at war with writers We're a gang wars I hate them It becomes the matrix with the flying robots Yeah and that's where I let I get that but I'm also such a sucker for Proper Nouns versus proper nouns

Yeah Destiny the fucking the floaters against the fucking weeners Or what I don't know But like dude Like the writers versus the painters is such a cool sounding thing. I have to have that. That sounds so nerdy and honest. I would be sold on it if they gave it a full exploration, is what I'll say.

I think they could do a great job. At the same time, I'm good. I don't really need a sequel because it's a very complete story. I feel like it came to an end. I don't know where you could go with this particular world. I guess we could do writers versus painters, but I'd rather see them do something new with their next story. I think they could keep it in the world, but it's just not, I forget their family named

Bessandre. Yeah, like it's just not about them. It's just like a different... There have been so many other paintings, right? Yeah, like there are a lot of other paintings? Go back to the matter. Are they the only painter family? Do we start in a world that's like,

you know, from the writers or something? I don't know, man. There's a lot that you could do here. Give me that Bob Ross, D.L.C. boss. Oh, that should be crazy. When you all, uh, when Gustav bites,

bites the dust, right? You can say it out of life. We rest in peace. Gustav. When you dies, you know, were you, uh,

true. Yeah. Were you expecting to, uh, to take over as my L? Cause I was and I was kind of disappointed I wasn't. And then I wonder what the decisions were there to not have that be the case. Cause I feel I,

I could see a lot of different explanations for why you would and why you wouldn't of well, if you can't be verso, that takes away the relationship big level ups or whatever. Um, because at a certain point you'd have to be an unknown entity kind of talking to your squad mates

or whatever I'm catching strays out here I'm like God I don't want to relive this moment when that happened I was like that's fuck it that's Sephora Sav and Mario in the smash trailer but like for me in that moment

I was like it felt like it would have been so fitting to take over as my helm but I could totally see the storytelling reasons for why you wouldn't because things would need to be a bit more obscure.

So what you're saying is, did we need Verso? Was Verso an essential character? No, I totally see the need. For me, it was like, I don't want to take over as Verso. I wanted to take over as my own.

Because I just felt this guy. It's similar to when you get the reveal of what the world is. And then like in the first couple of hours, you're like, why? It seems so sudden. And then like once you get like halfway through, or like, yeah,

halfway through Act 2, that's where I became more like, okay, I get why we're Verso right now. Yeah. Once you kind of learn that like, oh, Renoir is his dad. And like, there's a bit more of,

connective tissue here. Because in my like gut instinct as well, it's like, why aren't we playing as the other person who's been set up in the last 10 hours as like the other person? I think that's interesting because I saw the story through Myel's eyes. I mean, she's in most of the cutscenes. I was running around the world as her. So I don't know if I would say that I was Verso. I only felt that way when you're at the home base going to go interview everybody and

talk to everybody. When you're talking to people, you are Verso. Yeah. And because of that, it. I kind of wish I could have appreciated more of the distrust of this Verso character because he is introduced in such an odd way where I'm like, Hello, I'm here. You were just hanging with that dude.

And now you're saying you're with me? Like, I can't really trust you. And I kind of, I wonder if the whole sole purpose of like was like, no, you're going to play as him at the home base because we want you to trust him more as opposed to him still being this mysterious figure that's just kind of lurking around the base. I say lurking. It would have been interesting if he had been a mysterious figure lurking around the base.

Yeah, I think so. But then, you know, that doesn't let you, I can't, you know, romance Lune. And what's the point of the game if I can't do that? I just think it happens too fast. They don't give you a moment to, like, really sit with Gustav's, like, passing. Yeah. Or his death. And they're just kind of like, all right, here's the new Gustav.

And then you don't get to, like, have a moment of Gustav's death until, like, a couple hours in where they finally like there. You do the dungeon and you do that. but Verso's already in the mix so it's like ah I guess I didn't really I didn't really feel I didn't have the feeling of like oh there's something missing

in this party right now so it's just like a little nitpick in terms of I get like the games like brevity like hey we need to move we need to put these things as soon as possible get to the point but that is one moment of which like okay Gustav's gone

enter Verso cool your party is still complete move on and I'll give it a little bit more time I like that Lune is essentially the game does in these moments where Lune is like, no, we got to move on. We can't ban him.

We got to continue with the mission. That's what we do. Mellowfellow asks, what's everyone's favorite boss? And why is it one of the axons or the duelist? My God, those bosses were next level in this game. The dualist is so Eldenring. I mean, it's basically Shadow of the Earth Tree. There's a boss down to the starting the swords on fire.

And I was like, wow, this game went full from software. I'm here for it. I like the Lamplighter boss. That was the one that really grabbed me right. from the start, I think. The Renoir fight at the Louvre was a lot of fun. Actually, the final Renoir fight

was one of my favorites. I finished it in one go. Damn, damn. You're a real gamer. I had fine, well, here, okay, my dark secret, I didn't figure out that the Pictos boosted your stats until well after I had beaten the axons. I was like, God, why is this so hard?

Why am I getting killed so easily? And then somebody mentioned it offhand. It's like, oh yeah, I was using the Pictos to boost my stats, I'm like, what? And then I see, like, oh, I could get 2,000 health off of this pictos. Uh-huh. I was using low-level pictos because I was like,

well, this is a really good ability. I want to have this on my character. No, it's the stats. It's all stats. My favorite boss fight, I still think about it, is, um, what's the, the dancing boss? Ciren or whatever. C-Ren.

Oh, yeah. That whole dungeon, like, that got me. Um, like, the dungeon, because of how it uses music, because it has this song and you as you progress in the dungeon different layers of that song play in and out and you have an instrumental version you have an a cappella version you have like a scaled

back version with a few instruments and then you get to like the final phase of that dungeon and it's the full song with everything and I was like yo these motherfuckers cooked and it is like one of the most beautiful songs like I sat there like staring at the boss for 20 minutes just listening to the dungeon theme like damn

this shit is beautiful and then you fight the boss and it's like a big boss battle version arrangement of that song. And that is such an RPG thing to do. And at that moment, I was like, oh, they understood the assignment from every single. And they executed it. Yeah. Perfect.

And they did it their own way. And like that fight was super cool because of, you know, when Siren calls in the other dancers and you have to layer all these attacks, there's like a jump dodge and there's like a multi-hit dodge all in one go. And you have this music playing and the environment is like fucking flying at you. The Maskkeeper boss, don't get me wrong, was incredible. It's one of my favorite boss themes in that. It's been bornful. Yeah, that was yours.

Anybody beat the Maskkeeper without defeating the mask? No, I did the first time. Really? Which one did you stay at Keep Alive? Oh, no, wait, wait, no, sorry. Because Joy, yeah, yeah, so check it up. Joy heals it so fast. Yeah, so the one you should kill out of him.

My first time playing, I didn't go to the, optional paths. I was like, I'll save that for the stream next time I do this. Little did I know what the whole point of the boss was, right? But the whole point of this boss fight is you can main path and go straight for the boss, or you can go these alternate paths and essentially weaken the boss and make their moves less shitty for you. And I didn't know that.

I thought it was just kind of like extra shit to get maybe more pictos. So I saved that for stream and I was like, whoa, this is really fucking cool. and then for the Siren fight when a big homeboy Spindle band Spindle man yeah and you know it's like hey this this enemy's not hostile

he's mind in his own business I thought I would have been rewarded for not attacking it so I was like I'm not going to attack it I'm not going to fight it it seems like it's one of those like you know hey this might help us take down the boss but it's saying hey it's not hostile do you want to attack it I said no because I bet you's going to pop through

me at the end of the fight and like and he's going to be a good at the end of the fight and like And he's gonna be, I'm tired of working for you, C. Ren or some shit. And like, no, it turns out it became a lot easier if you fight him and kill him in that moment. So I was able to do both of these on my most recent play-through. But my favorite fight would be C-R-R-N as well, mainly because of the visuals and the music. It's gorgeous. I don't think it was my favorite mechanically.

It was still fun as hell, like a lot of the fights are. But I wish that a lot of the fights echoed a lot of the creativity that the Lamp-Liter had. With the Lamp-Liter having the Simon Says kind of thing, shooting the lamps. thought we'd get a lot more gimmicky things like that throughout the game. Yeah. And we start to see it a bit more in, I think, like the end game optional stuff for sure. Yeah. Like I was really hoping to get more of that sort of goofy shit of this weird memorization

game of hitting the lamps in the right order. Oh shit, that's kind that's really cool. I am excited to see what they do with the rest of this. And now the rest of the game still kicks a huge amount of ass. But I thought there would be more creative moments like that of, I guess we do get some spots of like, oh, you shoot those little floating things here and there. I just thought we'd get more of that creativity.

But yeah, so you're right and I thought was like the one where I just would always do the, I would always do the E3 walk for the chat and just be like, look at this shit. Welcome to the world of Claire Obscure. This is, this is our direction to the max. I cannot say enough about how fun the boss fights are in this game. because so many RPGs, turn-based RPGs, you get in, you fight a boss,

and yeah, there's some interesting aspects of it. Well, is this one more status-effecty? Is this one more hitting really hard? Should I be buffing? What kind of build do I need? This one, every boss felt totally different in their own way. And most of the time I would lose my first fight because I wouldn't know how to parry any of their attacks, what's going on.

It would take me a few times to get into the rhythm. And once you get into the rhythm by the end, you feel so good when you finally take it out. And I think that's kind of the secret sauce of Expedition 33 is just how satisfying it is to get over the hunt with each of these bosses. And it doesn't feel impossible. It feels very doable, but it is a really significant challenge if you're not extremely over-leveled, which some people are. And they like the boss started introducing them hezi attacks like an Lerden Ring. It's like, oh, you're going to swing in me in the next two minutes. I hate it.

Mine was male versus Alicia. For me, like emotionally that hit for me and then it was fun to fight against somebody who you've been utilizing their attacks the entire time and now you're on the other end of it where it's like, now I've got to figure out how my male fights on the other end

and how to parry all of these attacks that I've been using the entire game. For me, that was really cool. And then to let that action go, does that action show up still if you don't do that before the end of the game? I don't know. No, it does.

Because I did that dungeon after the fact. Okay. And, but yeah, that's, I'm surprised that that was a piece of side content. I know. It feels like a big piece of male story. I do like that it's like, hey, if you discover this, you are rewarded with something so crucial. Yeah.

Because it's not super crucial to where the main story goes. But just like the kind of closure you get from it and like this exchange that Alicia and myel have. It's just kind of like, in a way, it is, it's heartbreaking, but it's also heartwarming. It's like an acknowledgement of both of their sides and like, here's a parting gift. Mad Rock says he does show up at the end of end game Renoir fight. Yeah, but if you don't do that side. Maybe, whoa.

If you don't do that fight beforehand, does he still show up? Yeah, that's. That's what I'm interested in. And then Sean McAlpine reminds me of my other favorite fight. The fight for Monoco's side story was very tough for me, but felt so good to beat it. That's the village leader of the gesturals. And that lady is insane. But so far.

Golgra. Yeah, Golgra. Yeah, dude. Golgraw was one of those that I, I remember beating the, you know, kind of, maybe I hadn't gotten the full, unlocked full power type shit yet, whatever that Pictos is, where you can go past the 10K damage camp or whatever. But I remember going back to me being like, I'm sure I'll be good now. And I was like, I'm still not.

What the fuck is up with this boss? I don't understand it. And I do love that I love how influence they are by Sekiro, where there are so many bosses, just like in Sekiro, that you get the, you immediately get the notion that, all right, you are one that I have to do counterattack damage to, because once I break you,

then you're taking massive damage. Or, you know, if I just do a normal attack on you, I'm going to see maybe a half of a pixel go down. I'm like, God damn. dude. You must be the strongest human strongest creature in this whole universe but then once you start breaking them down more then you hit that break where

bam you knock them down they get stunned and then you do one normal hit and it's suddenly 12,000's like oh shit that's what I needed to do this like I just I love how many cues they took from Sekiro boss fights really quick just to go back to some super chat. Rai Guy

2141 says I just want to know is this not just a game of the year for the panel but also a a game of all time a la ogy final fantasy seven o'courina of time elton ring etc for me it deserves to be in that combo with industry changing games we have a thing on acts of the blood god called

the pantheons okay and our rule is after five years yeah I think it's too early to really after five years but I do think that this can be in like the disco elysium tier of an indie RPG that just shocks you and by the way indie disco alesium was our pick for the best RPG at the last 10 years Oh, wow. Like higher than Balders Gate 3.

That's crazy. So I do think it's really special and I do think we'll still be talking about it. Oh, yeah. Sanfall Interactive is officially on the map now. Yeah. And like I said, if it's not my game of the year, it's going to be very, very, very high on that list. Sure, yeah, for sure. Chocolate Fox 9 is a member for 12 months and says, I want to thank Barrett for getting me into Persona games.

Because this game is just a beautiful, the art style, the story, the music, Lune. I mean, floating around is. Lune. It's just an incredible game. Glow Sticky says, how do a bunch of Ubisoft Devs, afford wages, voice actors, Andy Circus, and Charlie Cox, and orchestral soundtrack to make this game. Loved it, by the way, worth every cent. That is still crazy to me. They were able to raise money

before all the money dried up, I guess, and then they spent it wisely. Good for them. Rye Guy 2141 says, also please talk about the fade-to-black and then startup of Monoco's music when he's introduced before. The battle. Oh, man. That was a moment where I'm like, these, these dudes are just, the composer, Lorient Testar.

It was just like, I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. And it's going to work one way or the other. I mean, dare I say, like that song has like low key persona vibes. But it is also like, this dude is just just in the studio making music. He has like emotional themes. He has big boss battle themes. There's electronica in here. there's you know French classical music

there's opera style vocals and then boom we got jazz in here too it just it all it all works too I don't know this that dude's a genius is the bow wow wow wow reference to it being a dog they're being named after their dog oh maybe I never thought about that thing about it

sorry you just saying bow wow wow took me to Final Fantasy 7 I was thinking that too well I thought the same thing as soon as I experienced this and I see it like bow wow wow well but then whenever he'll catch he'll get an item he says Wow, wow, wow. So I'm like, he's saying bow-w-wow or I-w-w-waw?

He has dog-ish manners. Cool. He's so good. The conversation between him and Verso and Verso and Verso convincing him to, like, join him, he's like, I will never join you. He's like, there will be a lot of fighting though. Oh, yeah, you're right. That's true.

He's like, yeah, that's true. The cutting between them, the pacing of it all, their performances together, it's such a funny game. 10 out of 10. Oh, yeah. It's a great hint to humor. CJ splits on. It says, it's scary that they all. have to keep male happy or she can just get up and leave and Renoir burns the painting.

It's like Bearest in Dragon Ball Z Super. Cameron Abbott says, what up Cameron? Says, I've been of two minds and hearts of the twist about the world while I think it lands the plane well. Do you think the twist tiered, tears agency away from the now fake characters? That's been my hang up. I don't think so. I mean, the characters are as real as you want them to be, I suppose.

Big facts. Yes, their imagination. but they all have agency, right? They're still doing things in this world. I guess you could say that they were saying that Verso's a marionette, so maybe you could say that they were a marionette in their own way, but this is a living, breathing world where these... They're real.

They exist. And that's why it's like Verso, painted Verso feeling real. It's like, man, just let this man sleep. Let them go to rest. Yeah, I guess, like, again, the reason why I didn't bother me, the reason why I sided with my L was, again, this wasn't just a simulated world, where these characters were created two minutes ago and feel like they've lived forever.

It's like, no, man, they, like, who gives a shit if it's a simulation? When you've lived 33 years of life? And they still want to fight, like, even after, like, they tell Lune and Seattle, like, what the fuck is up with this world? And they're like, yeah, fuck that. Like, we still want to fight for our existence

and all that stuff, so. If we found out that I was just in a painter's world right now, I'd be like, well, I've lived for 37 years, I'm not going to just suddenly do different shit now. Like, I still got to make money and try to live and survive, you know, where you get really existential and say, well, maybe we are all figsments of the imagination of the universe.

Are we all real? What is consciousness? Damn, cat. That's how I fall asleep every night. Jessica Henkel says, I love this game, didn't know about it until I saw the one and only Andy Cortez playing and raving about it over on Twitch. How hilarious would it be if Jeff got Robert Pattinson to present an award?

I mean, I think it'd be even more funny if they got Robert Pattinson to play Gusab in the movie adaptation. He dresses up in the blue suit. suit. Happy day. You're giving Jeff ideas. I know. I'm saying this, I want, like, I need somebody who's really good with cosplay.

I want to commission 33. I want to be Verso for Halloween. So if you, like, I don't care how much it costs to make me a suit. No expense will be spared. Okay. Well, unless it's, like, too expensive. But, like, you know what I mean? I want the whole get up.

I want to, you know, have a look down. A friend of the show, Yusuf, also pointed out to me. that it's not just Robert Pattinson looking like Gustav. It's Pierce Brosnan looking like Renoir. And when he said that to me, like in my mind's eye, I was like, I don't quite see it. But there are a couple moments, like just on my phone, he sent a couple of pictures. Oh, sure. Okay.

Okay. I could see it. You cast them. I definitely had some references of that last night. I had never seen it until people sort of brought it up. But the Robert, like, we were worried for a while, y'all, that Tim Getty's just had face blindness, because Tim was like, who are they saying looks like Robert Pattinson?

I was like, Gustav in the game, he's like, really? I was like, he's the only person to not notice that. I was like, that's fucking crazy,

Tim. And then that one actor in fucking limitless or whatever the pill where you take the pill, the one who looked like Tom Hardy. Yeah. It's like the American Tom Hardy

that like is always like Tom Hardy diet, you know, when you can't afford actual Tom Hardy. We were watching a movie with him and I was like, oh yeah, it's the guy with that everybody says

looks like Tom Hardy. And Tim was like, man I don't see that. And I was like, Tim. Like, I think you have an issue, right? And then he texted me out of nowhere, out of the blue and the week. And he's like, damn, he does look like Robert Pence. I was like, oh, thank God, he's okay.

It takes him a minute. I feel like that was him trying to like save face or something like that. Maybe, maybe, pun intended. Yang fam, trying to close out the show here, says, do we think major studios move forward, adopt copy Expedition 33 style of turn-based combat moving forward in terms of action? parrying, all that stuff. I would call it Mario RPG style

of combat, but... Who would do that? I mean, EA certainly wouldn't. I think a lot of people have been pointing fingers at Final Fantasy. I think there's a little bit... The Square Enix might be taking notes. Actually, I'm writing an article right now.

This is the game that Square Unix won to make for more than 10 years. Yeah, of trying to combine action and turn-based RPG elements. Exactly, right? Strike the balance. And I would be surprised actually if studios were trying to copy this. In fact, I think one of the developers said

that this game could not have been made at a major studio. This was a passionate project to the core. And I think if you see it being picked up anywhere, I think it would probably be in more indie projects because there's still command-based systems are having a little bit of a renaissance, but it's still, I think, a really tough sell

when you're saying, hey, we want to hit with mainstream audiences. We're making a command-based strategy systems. whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on there. Yeah, the politics of it all get involved in terms of trying to pitch that to higher ups and all that. And the thing too is, not that I'm giving it an excuse, but when if a company like Squarionics goes in that direction, there's a certain scale that they expect.

You know, like two million to them is like... That's a failure. Yeah, to them that is. And to others, it's a massive, massive success. and I think that that's that I think honestly when you come down to it so far so yeah so far who knows to say it at the end of the year but I mean I think that's also indicative of how broken AAA game development is where that kind of success is not success to some and like not to talk about Vailgard but that is part of the conversation where when sales like don't scale for what EA expects so it's all about expectations for that sort of thing what I love to see it influence other games that are made in the future absolutely and I think we'll see it in some in some regards. But it's going to be a while because it always takes, you know, a couple

years for games to incorporate those sorts of things. I would love to see, I mean, like Squaring's still puts out turn-based games and they, again, their success is scaled differently. Octopat Traveler 2 is one of my favorite games in the past. It's in my top 20 of all time.

Right. And that is because largely because of its turn-based combat system. But of course, like Octopath is not held to the same regard. as a mainline Final Fantasy. So I would love to see Final Fantasy 17 do something like Claire Cuerre wants a Final Fantasy to sell 30 million copies.

At least 10, but they would like it to be 30. Yeah, but what is going to sell that much? Regardless of genre, really, unless you're a GTA or like Elder Scrolls. Yeah. Not everyone can be that level of success. Certainly not in this world. We're going to do a quick hit of Super Chats

and get out of here. Tim C. says I absolutely hate Verso's ending. The Painted People have sentient. they dream and feel and it removes agency from Mayal. Yangfam says also shout out to one of my favorite characters in the game, the gesturals. So lovable, silly goofballs. I love the gestural so much. The only up challenge that they are dancing at the top of

at one point is just like, it's so fucking. I gave the only up challenge one try and I was like, you can do it, I gotta move on chat because I will be here until fucking one in the morning. I can't do this right now. I also love that in the middle of like, you know, this culture of jessels who are all about fighting and all of this stuff in any way, shape, or form. Like, in the middle of it, there's a couple

like fighting, and they're just like, it's like a petty, like, grievance and like, even in that aspect. They're just goofy. And shout out to the boy, um, is it just Noko? Noco. Noco. And bring him back to life and all that stuff. Like that being a part of Monaco's

side quest, it's like, ah, I love that little boy. Named after the other puppy. Yep. Andy, you're going to have to help me out with this one. Sheaulet? Chesley, yeah. Shees-A-Lai, I believe.

Ches-A-Lai. Haven't beaten it, but the 40 surprise reminds me of Star Ocean till the end of the game. Should really check out that game. Oh, wow. Yeah, I suppose so. Star Ocean.

Maybe one day. Mr. Hawks 182 says, Simon destroyed me, so I spent 15 hours in Act 3, just grinding levels, going through each dungeon, unlocking specific luminas, and got powerful enough to three hit him

while taking zero damage. Game of the year. Hell yeah. Chromonable. Cromazoneable says for me I keep reliving the music kick in for the music kick in for Renoir's boss before the Pinterest

what a soundtrack yeah that fight is goddamn that's a good one and then to close out the show EJRP says the whole final dungeon was so hype the music the summoning of past expeditioners to fight alongside you

Renoir just being a father and having understandable actions Chef's Kiss that and the monolith dungeon as well where it's it's a reprise of the entire game world was so fucking cool to me. It could have felt really cheap being like,

oh great, they're reusing assets, fighting all these enemies again, but it felt right. It was a good thematic fit because I noticed I was like, oh, they're redoing all the dungeons again. I'm fine with it because I just want to keep playing the game and fighting tough enemies.

But then now when I think about like, oh, it's a painted world and it's like all these drafts of different paintings, unfinished things, it's like, oh, okay, like in the monolith, you see that stuff again. It's like, oh, yeah, this makes sense. Except when you're in the gestural village version of it, the red foresty area or whatever.

And there's that one painted cage that you can't get the third one. Unless you have an ability to unlock it. Yeah. I didn't know you needed an ability. Oh, really? I just was going around in circles over and over again. I was like, I don't know what the fuck to do here. I never found it.

But I kept on walking near that one little lit up piece of bark. And I would hear it. I'm like, it's right the fuck here. And then I looked it up. And I think it was like an IGN guy and it was like, you need to unlock something with SkiA that allows you to break those things. I was like, I didn't know that was a thing in the game. That's crazy. What I need is I need Atraeus to be like, we can't get that yet, Dad, or something like that, you know.

I like this game does not hold your hand at all. In some ways, it's frustrating when you get lost in a level. But overall, like, down with waypoints. Yeah, they said, y'all figure the shit out. Oh, that's what it was. you need to find four lost gesturals. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. I just assumed that they were just going to keep giving me stupid hairstyle. Me too. I was solely up for it. It kept being their little like hair brush. I love the French Bob. Hello.

It was the gestural paint brush. Where they just have like the brush hair. One of my homies had those setting for custom outfits that will show up in cutscenes and finished act one with Gustav. He didn't, he didn't have the beret and the glasses, but he didn't. did have the stripe shirt on. Hell, yeah. Everybody, any last

thing you need to get out there before we close out the show today? I love you, Luna. Call me. Through the painting. Renaissance continues, honestly. What a time to be alive. We're about to get C of Stars D.LC. Oh, let's go.

Louie, text me as well. I will. Hey, hey. With that, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for our Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Spoiler cast. If you're watching Alive,

right after this is the Pokemon Nicklock 2.0 finale question mark question mark question mark and then after that we'll be back for the rest of the week with more live talk show content each and every weekday we get together right here on the Kind of Funny Games cast

to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and spoiler casts in video games live on YouTube Twitch and podcast services around the globe. Reminder if you love what we do please support us with the kind of funny membership that lets us do very passionate episodes like these where we get to, you know, take a moment to be like, all right, let's not talk about the big hottest new release this week.

Let's go back and, you know, do a spoiler cast for a thing that we are very passionate about. Catch up on today's KFGD on YouTube or podcast services. And know that until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.