Video Gamers Podcast - [DEEP DIVE] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [REMASTERED] - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

Gaming Hosts Josh, Ryan, and John are taking a deep dive into one of the most talked-about titles of the year - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. With its striking art style, deep story, and interesting spin on combat mechanics, this is one of the most unique gaming experiences in a long time. Does it live up to expectations? And more importantly—will this be the game that finally converts Ryan to the glory of turn-based combat? Tune in for our honest breakdown of why Expedition 33, and decide for yourself: Oui or Non! Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps, Bobby S, NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and NightWizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: Milkman, Drewsky, Jigglepuf and BadGam3rDad   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@videogamerspod Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod     Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range, infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function, and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you.

Discover coffee plus on nispresso.com. You gotta try breakfast at A&W. And what better way than with a delicious pret organic coffee? Starting with just $1 all day, every day now until December 31st. You gotta try breakfast. I'm participating in W locations in Ontario. Hey everybody, it's Josh, and we all just wanted to wish you all out there a very happy Labor Day. We hope you've got the day off and you are enjoying some time with your friends and family.

We're going to re-release this episode of our initial deep dive on Expedition 33. Don't worry, it is the non-spoiler episode. So if you have not played this game yet and this episode doesn't get you excited, I don't know what can. Expedition 33, in my mind, is still the front runner for Game of the Year. Now, we all know Silk Songs coming out this week. Will it compete with Expedition 33 for Game of the Year? There's a good chance it might.

But my money is still on Expedition 33. We hope you enjoy this episode. We'll be back tomorrow with our abysses deep dive And let me tell you you do not want to miss that one Enjoy this episode Hello fellow expeditioners And welcome to the video gamers podcast Expedition 33 looked glorious

From the first trailer up until its launch Just after Oblivion remaster shadow dropped on us Hype levels were astronomical And it seems like there was no way a game can live up to that level of excitement. Well, on today's episode, we're breaking down our time with Expedition 33, and we're finally ready to give our thoughts on it. But first, some introductions are in order.

I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he's got a fear of missing out on epic games crafted with passion and love that happen to have amazing combat, incredible stories, beautiful worlds and interesting characters. It's John. Hey, what's up, Expeditioners? Happy to be here. Check out my sweet shirt. Ooh.

Ah, 40. I like it. And joining us, he told us he's got a fear of mimes, and that's why he couldn't keep playing. It's Ryan. Oh, come on. You know what? I tell you what, hold on one second.

Let me see if you like this. Where do you go? Uh-oh, Ryan, Ryan has stood up. He has left. If he comes back with no clothes on, we're going to have to start charging for this on only fans. Dude. Yeah.

Bonjour, I mean, it is Ryan. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Okay, listen, listen. I can't look at right. I am here for the show's sake to Amazon. Listeners, if you have never done the visual part of this show, if you've never watched this on video, this is the one to do it. Oh my gosh.

That is the best thing I've ever seen, dude. Oh, my gosh. Okay. All right. Hold on. I'm just going to read. We can go ahead and end the show here. I was so excited.

I knocked out my headphones. All right. Oh, my goodness. Okay. I am back. this but listen we have video on spotify i don't know if you listen on spotify or not but you need to go this here you need to go and and and watch the video on this we're also on youtube if you want to watch it there but oh my goodness i am ready for the episode my friends i don't i just say i am boosting

this in france so hard oh my gosh i'm giving everyone your personal address i'm doing the whole rest of the episode this way too. I just help you know. Ryan's got the mustache going. He's got the full. Now, you had to kill a mind to get that, Ryan. So maybe, maybe my intro for you was not very accurate. Wow. Oh, like, remember, we have video now. You got to come see this because it's somewhat ridiculous. If there was ever a time to tune into the video, this is the one. This is the one. Oh, my gosh. That is great. Also, vaguely racist. I don't know. Hey, you type in French costume on Amazon.

This is what comes up, bro, in one pack next day in the morning. This is, okay, okay, I just have to, where since we're completely off base here, the other day, Greg makes a reel, you know, that's a little bit about Expedition 33. And AKDM's me and he's like, Josh, I got an idea, do you have a baguette laying around? And I'm like, do people have baguettes just laying around all the time?

And he was like, well, I figured I'd ask. Like, I can Photoshop one. on you, but I just wanted to see if you had a baguette. This is what this game is doing to us, man. Oh my God. I can't tell you how excited I was to do this. That's the best surprise I have ever

seen Ryan. Oh my goodness. Ace and Greg knew about this too, by the way. I swore him to secrecy. So John, just so you know, Ryan DMs me right before recording and he's like, hey, can you introduce me second? And I'm like, dude, that's going to throw off the hole. We don't introduce you second.

And then he's like, trust me, just do it. And I'm like, all right, man. Well done. well done guys oh man all right well welcome into the video gamers podcast people

this is this is what we do man we uh we we have fun we love talking video games and we love being stupid and I can't look at Ryan's face while we're going here okay

okay I can do this I'm a professional okay get it together man let's say the weird thing is that that is not very inaccurate from what many French men dress like for my observation. In Paris, like non-ironically, too.

Oh, man. All right, get to the show. Come on. We got to the show here. Okay, I'm just going to not look at Ryan while I'm talking here. All right. So we are covering Expedition 33 today. We have been playing it.

We have been playing it a lot. But our community is a buzz with Expedition 33 chatter. Social media is a buzz with it. I mean, if anybody has been listening to this show for any time over the last six months, you have heard us or me and John hype this game. Ryan has been cautiously optimistic. Admittedly, this is not his type of game. So we're all very curious to hear Ryan's take on this as well.

So we're going to get into that. we do have one tiny bit of housekeeping to do and that is a huge thank you to a new supporter of the show. Juan Masari signed up for rare status. Juan, thank you so much. Listen, you know, this podcast exists because of the support of our listeners. We would not be here if it wasn't for that support. So if you love this show and you think that this podcast should continue to happen and continue to do really dumb things like Ryan has done today, you know, come support that you can head over the there's a link in the episode description you can just click that you can sign up for as little as five bucks a month to help this podcast keep going so juan thank you once

again guys yeah let's let's let's get guys we got to get into this because we have so much to cover with expedition 33 i want to start with the pre-release hype on this because you know there's a lot of people that have gone, Josh, I don't know that I've ever heard you hype up a game quite this much. John, you were so excited for this game that you went let, before you joined the podcast, you went legendary and said, I am making Ryan play Expedition 33. This was before we knew very much about this game at all. And so, John, you have been extremely excited for this game as well. Ryan, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not picking on you because to your credit, you have said, listen, I do not like turn-based combat at all. And I worry that this game is going to have turn-based combat and it's going to ruin it for me. And so, like, where was your hype level, like legitimately now that we're in the, the episode and we're going to be talking about this? Like, where were you at with this? For sure. Um, it was, it was, it was. It was.

I always just have that anxious fear with any sort of turn-based combat because I just, everything I've ever tried, I just, you know, no matter how good it is, no matter how critically acclaimed and all the people that love it, I never seem to vibe with it or get that, that love for it that people find. I feel turn-based combat a lot of times just breaks up the flow of a game. I love, I'm so big on story. I love action RPGs and the story, and it just continues to flow when you can just get into like a fluid battle.

I feel that takes away from it, but I was very excited with what I saw. I loved the trailers, the gameplay, the graphics looked amazing, the story looked compelling. So I did have more hype than I ever would have for like any other turn-based combat, if that makes any sense. Fair. And John, you are you, I mean, I feel like you're a fan of this genre in particular. I mean, you've played persona recently. you played metaphor refontasio. You're a huge fan of Final Fantasy.

And I feel like this game was just a perfect blend of that kind of neat art style of the Final Fantasy series, some of the turn-based combat and the story of the Persona series. So like, where was your hype meter at for this game? My hype meter was about as high as it's ever been for a game in recent memory. there is a particular chord that it was striking with me like peak turn-based combat for me was sort of in the era of Final Fantasy 10

Final Fantasy 12 I really loved 12 12 is an underrated game and this sort of checked a lot of the same boxes it was like this dynamic turn-based RPG but what really kind of caught me from the trailers was with a lot of RPGs

and a lot of games in general, you have to worry about whether the acting and the story component is going to be up to par and there's like, especially in the Final Fantasy series, there's a lot of really weird like anime tropes that you know, it's over exposition and

the plot lines are really diluted and this really seems to be laser focused on the storytelling component with a what looked like a really creative turn-based combat system. So it was my, my hype level was about as high as I can remember

for a game in a very, very long time. Maybe ever. I, and this is, this is going to give people like a very clear view on how excited I was for this game. Cyberpunk 2077 is the most hyped I have ever been in my entire extended life for a video game.

I mean, I requested days off of work and then it kept getting delayed and I had to keep pushing those. Expedition 33, my, like, as we got closer to release, my hype level was almost, I'll say almost equal to cyberpunk 27. Like, it was legitimately that high. Now, the reason that I say that is that's an unhealthy level of hype. Like legitimately, I mean, like, I'm just going to be fair.

At least for me, it's fun to be excited about something. But when your hype level gets to a certain point, you kind of go, there's no way this game can live up to these like expectations, man. It's not fair to the game at that point. cyberpunk was a kick in the old berries because it didn't live up to the expectation. You know, I mean, it failed miserably at release. And it was like, that was crushing disappointment. And it's like, you've been down this road.

Don't do it again, man. Don't get so hyped up over a game release because it's like there's no way that a game can live up to that. And so as much as like my brain would go, yeah, that makes sense. You know, my gamer brain was like, no, man. I'm like, no. So I just, I kind of wanted to set the stage a little bit for this because, you know, that's where we kind of were at with going into Expedition 33 before we even started playing it. And so it's like, it's one of those things where, you know, obviously we're going to talk about it.

Does it live up to that level of hype? Was there disappointment involved? You know, that kind of thing. So one thing I want to be very clear, because we're going to start getting into some of the details of the game and the combat and the world and the music and all of the stuff that is, Expedition 33. We are going to do our best to avoid any kind of story spoilers. This game has an incredible story that really needs to be experienced. And we don't want to spoil that for people. We actually had a long conversation about this before we started recording because it's like, listen, sometimes we do spoil games and we talk about that later on and we'll say,

hey, spoiler warning. This is the kind of game where if you are on the fence about playing it, you'll make that decision after this episode. But if you choose to play it, we do not want to spoil that. And I know there's people that will listen to the spoilers and go, I'll play it anyway. No, this game needs to be experienced kind of blindly. So we're going to not spoil things. We will talk about combat.

We will talk about monsters and some skills and things like that. So there will be very minimal spoilers, but nothing that will ruin the experience or the gameplay or the story or something like that. So if you want to go in completely blind, you shouldn't be listening to this episode, you know, because we're going to talk about the game, but don't worry, we're not going to spoil things for you. All right. Guys, I kind of want to just say what we think, man.

Like, I want to build up like the gameplay and the story and the music and all that stuff, but I know that there are people that want to know what we think about this game. I would love to take a stab at this if you don't mind me asking, and it kind of bounces right. up what we were just talking about with like hype meter and I'm good this this is a little story so I'm going to keep it as brief as possible Sarah and I last year late last year went to New York for our first time mainly most of our vacations that we take are like centered around food it's like you're going to New York because we wanted to get that New York cheesecake we wanted to get the New York pizza which by the way disappointing and we wanted to visit this famous deli called Katz Deli

Oh, yeah! Yes! Yeah, Katz's Deli, which is a, it is a, basically just a big giant pastrami sandwich. Get that $35 pastrami. Oh, but you get like three pounds of it. With the line out the door and stuff. So I've been honestly salivating over this sandwich for, I don't know, 10 years or something, the first time I saw it on YouTube.

And Sarah and I were getting closer. We were disappointed after disappointed after there was good food, but it just doesn't live. thought to the hype, you know, I mean, like you have this picture of what it is in your head, and then you get there and you go, oh, it's just food, you know, this is just another meal. So by the time we got to Katz's Deli, I was like, gosh, man, you know, I've literally been thinking about this sandwich for like 10 years. How could it possibly, how could it possibly match what I've got in my head? And I took that first bite and I almost cried because it was so good.

It's so good. Expedition 33 has surpassed. my expectations in every single quantifiable way. I am obsessed. I'm actually pissed to be talking to you guys right now because I want to be playing the game. My wife and I were just celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary. And the whole time I was sitting there thinking about that I'd rather be playing the Expedition 33. And I'm like, how can I get access to it?

Just like scratching my face like a crackhead, like trying to figure out how to get like a little fix. I love it. Love it, love it, love it, love it. I, we're just doing this now because I know there's people that said, like, hey, we just, you know, what are your thoughts? But then I might play the game based on that. So we're going to just do this kind of in backwards order. I, whereas cyberpunk 2077 was a huge letdown and it really disappointed me. And again, that's partly my fault from my hype level.

Expedition 33 for the people that know this show and know me and the amount of hype I had for this, Expedition 33 has literally exceeded my expectations for it. I cannot think of a game that has captivated me like this game has that is better in every aspect than I thought. Like the story, we knew the story was going to be good, but it was kind of like the painters

and all this stuff and these people are disappearing and they're going on this expedition and can it really work? Oh, oh, maybe does it work? The combat, turn-based combat. but with quick time, like, you know, action elements to block and parry. Oh, my goodness, the combat in this game is freaking spectacular. The builds. Okay, so it's like, well, you know, what about the RPG elements?

And there's different party characters and their builds. And the build crafting goes so far beyond what I thought that this game could put in front of somebody. It's bananas, dude. The music? Don't worry. We're going to be talking about the music in this game. But like we just got done talking about some of the best music soundtracks in a game. Dude, Expedition 33 will forever belong in that conversation now for games that have incredible soundtracks.

The graphics in this game are incredible. The world is incredible. I am going to come out and say it right now. This game exceeded every expectation that I possibly could have hoped for. It is one of the best games I have played in years, dude. like years. And I don't say that lightly. People know I do get hyped,

but then I'll be like, nah, man, this game wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. I cannot tell you how good Expedition 33 is. And the thing I love is there are people that are in our community that were like, dude, you're freaking hype levels that you guys had for this game and talking about it all the time. I finally picked it up.

And we have people that have literally said, dude, this might be my favorite game ever, like ever. And it is like, it is that caliber of game. So we're going to get into why. But Ryan, the people are here for you, man. I mean, John and I have not hidden our thoughts on this game. You know, it's one of those things that people that are in our Discord server, they know because we've been obvious about it. But everybody in the world has been like, yeah, what I want to hear what Ryan thinks about it.

Can I predict? Can I make a prediction? Go ahead, lay it on me. Because if I get it right, then you're going to just sound really dumb if you echo what I say. Lay it on me, laid on me. All right.

So my prediction is Ryan is going to say, I can see why this game's incredible. I can see why people love it. I can see how beautiful it is and the music's great and the characters are neat. But man, the turn-based combat really just kind of throws it off for me. So it's, you know, I appreciate it for what it is,

but it's not for me. So if I nailed it, now you look silly, Ryan. And if I didn't, well, then people are going to be excited. All right, Ryan. Well, you didn't nail it. Oh, I didn't. You didn't nail it. Okay.

But you were close. All right. All right. But you were close. So I, I, I, okay. It's really hard to take it serious right now. I don't want to say what Josh just said. Don't, don't, listen, dude, this is, this is all real right here.

This is how excited I got about this game. No. Dude, you can kind of pull it off. honestly man so I it did I will say

this game did exceed my expectations having said that my expectations weren't very high I was excited

I did think it looked good and I and I was ready for something to you know blow my socks off as

as far as as a turn base combat would go it just I think the world building was beautiful

absolutely insane the the music like you said, Josh, was next level. The story, it draws you in. You get kind of absorbed in it and want to be part of it.

Oh, man, that turn-based combat, no matter what little extra little junk you do. And I've said it before. Chunk? Yeah, how do you? How do you? Oh, cool, it's turn-based, but now I can

parry. Whoopty-do, or I can jump. Oh, wow, I can jump now. It just, to me, it just breaks up the flow of the story. it's like having to add in the middle of your show or your movie to me. Like that's what it feels like. I am so sucked in and I'm exploring. And then I have to go fight a trash mob and it takes seven minutes, you know,

to just fight this little trash mob. And I'm like, okay, whatever. And then it just, it breaks everything up for me. I know you guys are both shaking your heads. But that doesn't take away that I do think this is the best turn-based game I've ever played. By far. That's fair praise for me. Far and away.

I was before this probably Legend of Dragoon because I played that when I was a kid and I just really got sucked into that game when I was a kid. But other than that, like this is far and away. I think it had like I said, amazing story. I think the gameplay was great. But to me, the ability to Perry or dodge or jump like didn't change the chore that it was to go into a battle. If this was an action RPG where I could go and all my fights and battles were fluid. and in the moment and just continuous of me running through like the area and exploration, this would be way up for up there for me on like just overall status of a video game.

That's fair. I mean, here's the thing, right? We say all the time that there's different games for different people, right? I'm not a fan of cozy games or sim type games. They just don't resonate with my brain. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with those games. It's just that for whatever reason, my brain likes a different style of game. we have people in our community,

you know, Patrick, one of them that was like, dude, I tried it. He was exactly like you, Ryan. He wasn't forced to play this game. So he kind of went in and said, I tried it. His turn-based combat really doesn't do it for me, man. Like, I can appreciate the story and the game and all that stuff,

but I just can't get past this. And I think that's a valid point. Debt, Debt mark, yeah. Wow. Him and I usually have like spot on. Well, here's the funny part. And I, and this is why I love this too.

Patrick, play it again, bud. Well, he is. That's the thing, right? So everybody, everybody that's been chiming in on this game being like, oh my gosh, this game is amazing. I haven't played a game like this in years. It just keeps getting better and better. Like, I can't believe a, like a developer, a 30-man development team made this game that will compete with the best of the best AAA titles in existence, dude. That blows me away.

I still can't believe it. But like, so Patrick was like, maybe I need to give this another try. Like, am I missing out on something? So I don't know Patrick's final verdict on this, but I do know that he has jumped back in and said, I need to experience this. Like, I need to kind of get past this,

my dislike of turn-based combat to kind of see what this game is as a whole. So again, maybe he's just going to come back and be like, yeah, never mind. But I think if you were the type of person that generally does not like turn-based combat, it is interesting for me to hear that the quick time elements, this dodging and paring that you have to time very, very well. Like, I think the best analogy of this is a turn-based souls-like a game. Now, people go, what the heck a turn-based souls-like? But it kind of is because you have to dodge at the right time.

And if you're going to parry, you have to parry. That window to parry is even smaller than the dodge window, but it comes with a huge reward at that point. But that being said, it is still turn-based combat. So even though they try to add that flavor, the heart of that turn-based combat is there. And if you're not a fan of that, it might be hard for you to overcome, which it sounds like it was for you, Ryan. A little bit. All right.

I'll tell you what, let's take a quick break. And then we're going to actually get into the story and the combat and what makes this game what it is. So we'll be right back to talk about that. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range. with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function,

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better way than with a delicious pre-organic coffee starting with just one dollar all day every day now until December 31st. You gotta try breakfast at A&W. I participating A&W locations in Ontario. All right, we're back. Okay, it's time to actually get into the nitty gritty here, boys. We have to start with the story in this game. For people that aren't aware of the story, this is all in the trailers, this is no,

you know, no spoiler stuff here, but the, I freaking love this premise, dude. The overarching story in this game is that the people in the world are, are, they're like, they're at the mercy of this being called the painter. Every year the painter's arises from sitting down in front of this monolith and she paints a number on this monolith and everybody that was older than that number fades away like being Thanos snapped into just dust. And they call that the gommage. So this is the event where if,

you know, if she had 34 on there and she paints 33, everybody that's 34 just fades away into nothingness. And this is how the game starts off. Like, your very first hour in the game is knowing that the gomage is about to happen. You meet the main characters. It's very

sad. It's very kind of gripping as in like, man, you know what's coming on this. What are y'all's thoughts as as the how they set up the story in the first hour of this game because it is a lot of cutscenes that is a lot of talking to characters i mean that it's kind of by nature required but what are your thoughts on that but it is a lot of cutscenes but i think that they perfectly tempoed the gameplay mechanics within those cutscenes so it never feels like gratuitous to me

and as far as cutscenes goes they are world class in my opinion like without giving too much away, this game almost had me in tears in the first 10 to 20 minutes of playing it. And I don't even know these characters. It does such an excellent job of establishing emotional weight behind these characters in this world and how desperate it is. And there's no caricatures either. It's not like these silly archetypes of Frenchie guy A and Big Tank Guy B. I mean, every single character, every single.

NPC has depth to them where you like, you can, you can visualize that there's a backstory behind this and that it was carefully thought out. Even, even the term gomage, the term gomage in French is a French technique for removing dead skin cells and debris. Like, even though the carefulness that they like titled these things, it's just so good, so good. The, the primary, antagonist as you were presented it is is this painter's and uh you know very very little about her and don't i don't i never got the feeling other than some like ambiguousness that this was like an evil thing you know like there's like this somberness behind everything where where it enhances it's just a fact of life for these people yeah exactly it's like a force in nature ah mash i'm like

Like, I'm, I'm absolutely, absolutely loving it. I, I wish I could shake the hand of every 30 person, person on that 30, 30, 30 main team and give them a baguette. What about you, Ryan? How does this beginning of the story and how they set it up? How did that strike you? It definitely drew me in. I did like, because I know I often mention, like, I like when there's, like, weight to a story. something that that is heavy and it brings you in and that's what this did right away you felt

the somber nature of that society of that world this was the part of their life it almost kind of made me think of just kind of ancient times ancient history where like war was just what it was like and they would just go off and and they weren't expected to come back like that was just the nature of it like you would hope and dream but you know that was that was your saying your goodbyes you know and that's what it felt like. I'm almost getting goosebumps now thinking about it. Like, that's just what it seemed like. And you see the festival and the way they tried to like lift everyone's spirits with it. But man, right off the bat, they did such a good job of drawing you in and giving you a sense of purpose as to why you're going to go do this, even if you'd never

come back. Yeah, we talk a lot about games that want to exposition dump on you and they kind of like try to catch you up on the story and tell you why you should care about something. You know, and it's like a lot of times that misses because it's like, I don't know these people. You haven't developed these characters. I know you're telling me that I should care about them, but I just don't care about them, man. Like, you've given me no reason to. And the way that Expedition 33 goes about their storytelling is a combination of cutscenes, character interaction, like mood.

Like the beginning of this game is somber. Like you said, it is, it's this weird, like celebration or you're. Beautifully somber. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like depressing somber. It's just like you said, it's this fort.

This is just the way life is and these people have accepted it to a degree. And you see that acceptance. But then at the same time, they haven't accepted it because they're sending this expedition of people out to go try to kill the painter. So she'll stop writing these numbers on the monolith and wiping out an entire age of people. And so you get that weird like juxtaposition of people. of people have accepted this. They know it's going to happen. Kids have lost their parents.

People have lost their friends because nobody is immune to the gomage. You're poof. That's it. You know, if you're that age, there is no exception to this. And so there, you know, you see that. But then at the same time, it's, hey, we're going to fight this. You know, and that's why it's called Expedition 33, because everybody that is 33 years old knows that they only have a year to live until the painter's wakes up and

wipes their number off the monolith. And so we're going to go try to fight her. And so that is where the game kicks you forward into the world and says, okay, now go play the game. And my goodness, dude, you get, again, we're not going to spoil anything because this is the first kind of like jaw hitting the floor moment in the game. But things don't go great for you. They kind of hint towards this in the trailer.

So again, this is very, very minimal spoilers here. Things don't go well. And now all poop has hit the fan and now you are left going, what the heck do we do now? And this is where you're kind of dumped into the gameplay world and you start adventuring and you start doing combat and things like that. So you hit him with a suckle boo. Yeah. Oh, man. So let's talk about the gameplay elements here, guys, because, you know, the story, we're not going to spoil anything else.

It's incredible. And I will say this, before we step off story for a little bit here, this game in the storytelling will absolutely gut punch you. I mean, in ways that I have not seen a game do in a long time, John, you mentioned it in the beginning about it will make you emotional. I have not had a game do this. I mean, honestly, since I'm going to put it up there with Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 in the weight that this story can affect you as the player.

I mean, I don't know that I can say any higher praise to a video game than that because people that have played those two games understand, but that's how good it really is. So, all right, gameplay-wise, sure, the story's great, but man, it's turn-based combat, Ryan, you know, you know, gameplay portion let's kind of break this down into a couple things. I want to talk about the exploration in this game because there is a lot of that to be done. It is an RPG.

It is a somewhat linear experience in a way. It is also a very refined experience because they have come out and said the campaign in this RPG, which normally have 60 to 100 hour epic campaigns, is a tight 30-hour campaign. There is a lot of side content you can do if you want. to beat this game, it's going to be about 30 hours. That's kind of unheard of for an epic RPG. So, like, let's just talk about it. Let's talk about you're dumped into this world.

John, what, you know, what's the first thing you do? Well, the first thing that I did, like, the game immediately hooked me. And so I immediately started exploring every nook and crane. Like, there ain't no way. And heck, this would be a, this is a 100-hour game for me. Like, easy. There's a point at which the game does a really good job of opening itself up in digestible bits. So you start out and it's very linear and it's very clear kind of where you need to go.

And there's like little avenues that you can explore. But once you progress to that point and it gives you enough time to get used to a specific gameplay mechanic, it opens up a little bit. And then you get another character and it opens up a little bit. and you meet somebody who gives you a new ability, and it opens up a little bit. Then there is this part, which, again, I don't want to give it away too much, but there's two instances that I've experienced so far

where you get a scope of how big the explorable area of this world actually is, and I was like, I am going to be playing this game forever. Like, there is so much to do, and I want to experience all of it. Unexpected stuff too. I mean, Josh, did you get to the vertical platforming challenge? Yep, I did. Yeah.

Never in a million years was I expecting that. I attempted that for about 10 minutes. So this is not, this is again not spoiler. It's an optional thing. But it's basically they give you a little mini game that's like the game only up, where you are just climbing and trying to jump on platforms at one point. and I did that for about 10 minutes and I was like oh man I'm making great pro then I fell off and I just went no no I will never beat this I will never beat this little mini game dude uh not doing it yeah I I plan to 100% this game yeah I'm honestly having a hard time with it because there's so many good game like uh midnight walk is coming out man yeah that looks amazing that's like right up my alley uh but I I just can't imagine a scenario where I'm going to want to put this game down.

I'm absolutely obsessed with it. Yeah. So, Ryan, take the people through because, John, you touched on this, but as far as exploration goes, this game does a neat thing where they give you zones, where you are running around in this zone that is its self-contained kind of environment, whether it's a biome or something like that. These zones are beautiful, dude. I mean, absolutely, the visuals and the world that this team has crafted, you know, you

is unlike anything I have seen. Like legitimately, dude. And later on in the game, like I am at a point where I got to a level and I just stopped and went, oh my goodness, this might be the one of the coolest levels I have seen like in a game.

Like legitimately. I mean, it's insane. But you have these zones that your main gameplay is in, but then you have an overworld that you can kind of run around in where that's how you get to these different zones. So Ryan, can you kind of touch on kind of the different.

between those two? It was cool because the overworld was, um, it almost was akin like back to those old school RPGs where you know, you, you get that crazy kind of bird's eye top of view where you're way zoomed out and you're running through and you can see your objective points off in the distance in different areas that you need to go through. Um, but, you know, you're, you're kind of way zoomed out and you can transfer through there and there's still, um, things that you can do. There's enemies you can fight. There's, uh, items you can pick up. So it doesn't take away from any of that, but even that was beautiful. Like, uh, as, as I was playing, I tried to get a lot of gameplay footage for, um, Greg to edit for us,

you know, when we do shorts and clips and everything. And I just kept finding myself stopping on cliff sides and just like panning across and looking and I'm just like, pan of this, pan of that. And I'm just, I was just recording nonstop, because it, it is just such a beautiful game. The transitions are amazing. The graphic, the graphical detail, even. even in that bird's eye view, like off in the distance, you see the flow. It's not kind of like, you know, halfway done. Like they really took their time making sure they, they made that detail fluid and they added depth to that world. And every corner is going to have something. Even if it's just like a little picose or, you know, whatever little item you need or something like that or just

another enemy, there's always something around every corner that you go, go around. I will say I think they did a masterful job of keeping this game somewhat linear, but giving you that exploration option at the same time. That's a hard thing to balance, you know? But it's in the overall world, like you said, you'll come across little groups of monsters, right? And you're like, well, I know I have to fight these guys, but in the middle of that group of monsters, you see a little glowing thing that says, hey, there's loot right here. So it's kind of like, well, do I want that loot? Because then I got to take these guys out. One of the things that this game does that I absolutely love is sometimes, you'll come up against a guy who absolutely just wipes the floor with you. And you're like,

well, what the heck, man? He's in the overworld. Am I not supposed to be there yet? So this overworld rewards you for exploring. Like you said, Ryan, it gives you that glimpse that there's going to be a lot more of this game that you are going to experience. But what the overall does is it also leads you to these zones. Now, some of these zones are part of the main campaign. And some of these zones are just optional for you to go into and explore and fight new monsters and find loot. And it's just optional side content that exists for no other reason than to just give you something to do. Yeah. Which I freaking love, dude. Yeah. You know, like, I went into a zone and I was like, what's this? And it was like, there was nothing there other than some loot and some monsters

that were way too tough for me to fight. But it was like, it was just rewarding to find it to go in there it's beautiful zone all in its own you know and again it was just this finally crafted little 20 minute experience of me getting my butt kicked by guys that I shouldn't be fighting at the time that's that's what I did right when I got there I went to some spot where I should not have been and I remember messaging you and I'm like I don't think I'm supposed to be here bro because he was just like base shot base attack was like 1800 damage and I was just like blah and I had like 400 help very very first very first attack on your whole party is done all all gone i'm like yeah i don't think i'm supposed to be here so but for me like i've been i've been taking my time with it like i've been grinding through

enemies to level up a little bit just so i've got like an edge and stuff and like grinding is something i hate doing in games usually but the the builds slash counter system is so engaging for me that i'm like i love every encounter but you know running into some of these like little nooks and crannies, this optional content, when I get absolutely housed by an enemy or group of enemies, I love it honestly because it gives me an idea of like

the progression that lays ahead of me. It's a glimpse. There's still so much more to grow in this game. I mean, it's great. Yeah. So this is kind of how they set up the structure of the worlds. And again, the zones themselves are very,

very well done. And again, this is where a ton of the beauty in the game comes from. The zones all feel drastically different to me. I mean, they are their own little worlds and they are crafted so well. It's ridiculous. Let's get into the combat because this is another major aspect of this game where, you know, this is what's going to put some people off. Admittedly, you know, I think the combat is absolutely spectacular.

It might be my favorite combat system in a turn-based RPG that is more like your classical. You can't really compare this combat to like Baldur's Gate 3 combat. Like while they are both turn-based, they are different in a sense. This follows the much more typical JRP, your party facing the enemies that you're fighting, you know, that kind of thing, all of Final Fantasy, you know, or any classic RPG that you are used to. But, oh my goodness. Number one, the animations in this game are incredible.

when your characters attack, I mean, you see this trail, like, behind their weapon that just makes it seem like they are swinging this thing in a thousand miles an hour. The impact sounds, the spells, the skills, the combos. I mean, even when you parry or a monster attacks you, there is, I can't think of a game off the top of my head that has the weight behind the combat that this game does. And it is masterful, man. Like, you know, the way that you feel when you attack an enemy or the way that you cringe when an enemy hits you and you're like, oh, that hurt. Like, because you just feel it, man. Combat system in this game is absolutely top notch. I don't think it reinvents the wheel in any way other than throwing in the Perry and Dodge system into a turn-based combat system.

So while it is insanely flashy and good looking, do you feel John? Because you're nodding and you're kind of like, do you feel like it changed or added anything like that we haven't seen before? First of all, full stop. I want to say, this is in my opinion the best turn-based combat system that exists. But I would agree. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. Much like Halo Combat Evolve didn't reinvent the wheel when it came out. It refined a, you know, it evolved combat.

It refined a premise or a idea that already existed and it, It just made it the best it could possibly be in. I think that this is an example of that. I think that an example, I always go to food with this kind of thing. I love bacon and blue cheese cheese burgers. Like bacon, black and blue burgers, I absolutely love them. But they're not for everybody. You know, there's a lot of people out there who don't like big sort of pub style burgers.

There's a heck of a lot of people out there that don't like blue cheese. But if you like... La Fomage. Le Fomage. But for people out there who like a black and blue burger, you know, there is a really good one out there. If you happen to like turn-based combat, specifically that JRP style fantasy, Final Fantasy 10, 12-ish, well, 12, actually, was kind of a something. But Final Fantasy 10-ish sort of combat style, this is the best it has ever been. Yeah.

I find the combat in this game to be absolutely incredible. It's engaging the timing of the Dodge and Perry system adds that risk-reward factor that my brain just absolutely loves. I do think the Souls-like turn-based combat makes sense, like, honestly. Absolutely. And I know that's hard for a gamer brain to kind of wrap our heads around. and go like what are you talking about but it like it it is man like you're fighting these fantastical creatures these giant boss fights and it's like if you're going to with a dodge you are going to pay for it man like this game this game says you need to know how to dodge now you don't necessarily

need to be good at parrying because the dodge window is much more lenient than the peri window is but if you are like it see this is where i thought it might get you ryan because it's like that risk reward that gamble because we know you're a gambler. Oh, I know. I know. And it's like the, were you a parrier or were you a dodger? So I was, um, there is that risk reward and I found quickly certain enemies that I very much was like a Dodge guy. And there's certain attacks that were, were Dodge only attacks. But then like the timing of some of them, because all the enemies, like they have their certain sequences and they have their, the way they attack. And there is little clues and kind of tip-offs on how it's going to come at you. And there's certain ones where

you can time it right. But man, so that, I guess the long of the short is for a turn-based game, I really did enjoy this combat system for what it was. I know you guys are tenfold what I enjoyed, but the ability to time these, figure out when a dodge makes sense, when a roll makes sense, or not a roll, there's the soul's part of it. The parry, when the parry makes sense, because of that, that counterattack and then just throwing up like 2K, 2,800 damage on a parry, and you're like, oh, okay, maybe that was worth trying to risk that to take my 400 damage when I missed it last time, you know? So there is a lot there, and I think there is that good risk reward, and that did entice me

quite a bit with a lot of these enemies. I was heavily obsessed with the boss fights. It's just all the other stuff I was just not a big fan of. But in those boss fights, this combat system was really awesome. There, the, when you, so to give people an idea, it's easy to dodge something and you just don't take damage. If you decide to parry, you have to time the parry much more tightly. But if you pull it off, not only do you get what's called an action point because your character spend action points to perform moves, to use skills to just a basic attack kind of thing. So you get an action point, which is very necessary.

component in combat, but you also get a counterattack and the game, the feeling of like parrying that attack and then getting that counterattack because it's a unique animation, the game kind of goes like, pooh. It like comes in and slows down. Yeah, and then it's like all slow motion. Yeah, it's so cool. It's freaking amazing, man. It makes it feel so good.

And so it's like you want to parry, but like 60% of the time you're going to whiff your parry. and then just get punched in the face by some epic monster. And you're kind of like, oh, I whiffed that, you know. And I love that risk reward that it gives you. And it's funny because I ask, because this is what we see people asking, like, oh, are you a Dodger or are you a Perry? You know, and we have people like, Perry only, baby. If I whiff, I whiff.

You know, and other people are like, I ain't going. Those are the Souls players too, yeah. And then you have people just going, no, man, I'm just dodging. I ain't risking that Perry. So combat to me, the other thing before we move on. from the combat is it is supremely entertaining to me. I love the combat in this game. The builds, we could talk about the builds

that you can do in this game for an hour straight. Oh man, yeah. You get, you know, you get your party. It's an RPG, you know, so your party might vary. And every person in your party has unique kind of systems that they use that play into a very unique making each character feel. And all of them are cool, too.

They're all cool, dude. They're all cool. I actually really struggle with my party composition because it's like, oh, but I want to play this person. Same. I want to play that person. Dude, in Final Fantasy 10 and 12, which like those are the two games that I've like keep coming back to a comparison because there's some of my favorite JRP's. My favorite JRP's. But I definitely had my party.

You know, like my party was like set for most of the game unless like you had to complete it with somebody. else for some story-based element. Like, I want to play every single one. It's a shame, you know, at the point of the game I'm at right now, I have five available characters, but you can only have three in your party. And I'm, like, bummed about it. I struggle with that. I legitimately struggle because, and then I try to swap them out,

but then some combos aren't as effective, and then I wind up going back to these other characters. The other thing that I'll say is there is a fantastic mix in combat of just easier mobs that let you kind of just practicing your dodging and your parrying and leveling up and just getting that XP to get stronger. You don't have to grind this game, but I think it is helpful if you enjoy the combat to do more of it to kind of level up,

you know, in that system. And then I love the fact that there are more challenging fights where maybe it's not even a boss fight. Maybe it's just a tougher monster that might take you a little bit longer, that hits a little bit harder or has a unique skill where it's like, dude, if I miss this Dodge, this character's probably dying,

I'll still win the fight, but man, watch out kind of thing. And then you get into these massive 20 minute long epic showdown boss fight type battles where I am just all clenched up sitting forward. My hands are sweaty. And I'm going like, don't miss this Perry. Don't miss this Perry. And then I whiff the Perry. And I'm like,

dang it. You know, it's just brings up six shields. No, come on. Yeah. And so I love that they give you that variety in the combat itself too, right? Where it's just the, you know, you're going to get easy fights, short fight.

You know, crazy fights, these epic long boss battles, those sorts of things. Do you have the favorite? Who's your main? My main is a loon. Yeah. Yeah. She's the one that I don't really ever pull out of my party. I tried for a little bit.

She's very versatile. And then I went right back to her like 30 minutes later. And I was like, no, I really need her in my party. You got to stay. You got to stay. Yeah. So, myel and C.L for, for, for, for me, man, C.L. I think I'm pronouncing that, right? But you get to a point where you can actually use her like Luna and, uh, and myel kind of like kind of split between the two. That was another one. I'm at the synergies between the characters is insane. I love it. The, the synergetic builds that you can have from character to character is absolutely insane. And even every character has their own sort of. of like combat

like mechanic buffing yeah combat buffing mechanic and they're all unique and they all work together pairing those up with super cool now did you guys have like when you're traversing the world because you can switch between your characters as you're like running did you guys have one

that you always used loon the floating yep the floating with that was me too dude not having to like stomp and run and just like floating through the world that's exactly what I did. I was so curious because I was excited to ask you guys that. So yeah, I was the same way. There's a few points in the game where there's some platforming elements, whether there are little challenges. And I use her for that because like the running and the arms flailing like where my character's running. Like that would throw me off, but she's just gliding peacefully.

Did you do the race? Yes. The beach race. Yep. So I don't think it lets you use her on that. I think she might actually have a speed advantage. I don't think she's faster. It just looks. looks she's just smoother like moving around. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. So combat's fantastic. If you, you know, if you're a fan, you're going to absolutely love it. If you're not a fan, I think it's so good that it,

you know, like, you know, like, you know, it's, hey, this is the best one I've ever seen for somebody that's not a fan of it. The music in this game, oh my goodness,

dude. Oh. Oh, yeah. I don't. I like I'm trying to think of a soundtrack in a game that will emotionally impact me like the soundtrack does in Expedition 33 and I'm not sure I can think of one dude. Not off the top of my head. Halo. Halo is close. Halo is close and I really like near Automata the soundtrack for that game. But it is it is amongst the very best. Like I know people are like you guys are just gushing over this game. You're just gushing over it. The soundtrack in this game is. absolutely top notch

and you hear it from the very beginning and you hear it all throughout the game to where there are songs where I'm like dude this song is incredible right now. Yeah, this is the only game so in lots of RPGs there's an element to him where you like can go around the world and from like the

vendors or whatever you want to call them depending on the game is where you buy like a track you buy like one of the soundtracks or whatever and I like I never do that. No I don't either I know. Yeah I just whatever the game is playing it at that given point is fine. This is the only game where I've, like, gone out of my way to get those because I know

when you go back to camp, which is sort of like the area where you enhance your character weapons and stuff, where you can play them. And I'm like, I love all of these. Like I, I remember the first day I played it, which I played it for like eight solid hours the first day. When Sarah and I, my wife and I were getting ready for dinner, like, I turned the game off and I put the soundtrack on my, on my Spotify, because I like couldn't get enough of it. It's so good.

I imagine it's like great study music for those smart enough to study. It's beautiful. It goes along with the like the feeling. If it's a somber part, you get this kind of haunting piano melody. If it's a kind of goofy, happy part, you get like it's just this perfect music that accompanies that. If it's a danger or battle, you get this like rousing like concerto type. It is insane, man. I don't, I need to look up who the composer will.

was for this, but oh my goodness. I'll go so far as to say this. We're going to talk about, you know, is this game a game of the year candidate right at the end of the show, which is coming up pretty soon because we're running low on time. But if Expedition 33 doesn't win best music at the game awards, I will be amazed, dude, amazed. I don't know. Greg puts together a pretty killer Doom clip recently. I don't know where that song came from, but that's from Doom.

Can you think of two games that have such incredible music that could be so different? That double bass. And the palm muted guitar. And then you have this slow haunting violin and piano going in Expedition 33. Oh my goodness. The graphics, I mean, people have seen this in the trailer. I love the graphics in this game. We don't really have to spend a lot of time on this.

The worlds are beautiful. We've talked about this kind of already. The animations, the style is just top-notch to me. I could not be more thrilled with the way this game just presents itself. graphically, whether it's through the environments, the characters, the animations, the spell effects in combat. The hair is trash, though, man. The hair is so bad, dude.

I know why it's bad, though. It looks like they have hay on. The reason for that is, is that there are a lot of cosmetic unlocks in this game, and you can unlock a lot of hair styles for the characters, and that's why. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care what you can unlock. The hair looks horrible.

I think in the cut scenes and in the slower scenes, it can look really good. There are a lot of hairstyles that are available for each and every character, and they are all over the range. I mean, it's every sort of esoteric hair cut you can think of. But I agree, there are certain scenes when the characters are moving around a bit where I'm like, like, you play the spaghetti hanging out their head or something. Yeah. All right, guys, we're running low on time. I want to, you know, we have been gushed. We're going to give our scores on this game here in just a little bit too.

But, you know, as much as we can gush on it, John, you and I, but, you know, there's got to be parts of this game that don't work. We always say what works for you, what doesn't work for you. So, Ryan, I'm going to start with you because I have a feeling I know what your what doesn't work for you is. But what works for you the best in this game and what doesn't work for you? Oh, brother. What works for me the best is just. I mean, it's just honestly, it's a great game. Everything they did, you can tell that there was time, thought, and careful input for every single aspect of this game.

Gordon Ramsey can make the best whatever, but if it's not my flavor, it's not something I like, then I just, I won't like it. You know, and that's, that's no shame on what these developers did, especially as a 30-man crew. Like, that's, that's insane. So I am extremely proud of what they made and what they created. And like I said, if this was an action RPG, I would be singing a whole different tune. It's just I don't vibe with that. I tried it a million times. Just like I get seasick.

I've gone deep sea fishing four times because I really want a deep sea fish, but I just keep getting seasick. Like I'm trying to love it. I just can't. Like I'm trying to love these turn-based games. I just can't. And I know what I'm missing out on. I know that you guys are just gushing over it over and over. I just can't vibe with it.

But I think they did an amazing job at the world, at the flow of the game as far as like the story and the structure and the base that they created. The graphics are amazing. Like everything about it is just a really, really great game. So is it just the combat that doesn't work for you? I just, every time, every time I, I find myself intentionally avoiding combat so I don't have to deal with it.

And that's not how a game should be played. And that's, I know it's a me thing, but I will avoid it. And then I'll get to a spot where I'm like, oh, I'm too low level. And then I'll be on those good old fashion,

you know, save spots where I can have an enemy right there. Go kill them. Rest, refresh. Go kill them. Just charge up, power up.

You know, get my XP. Yeah, XP burner. Just get them powered up. And I'm like, all right, now I can go to the next spot.

I don't want to play a game that I feel that way about. I'm bummed that that's the way it is because I would love to be as excited as you guys are. But that's just the way it played out to me. But yeah, man, it's a really, really cool game. And I get why you guys like it. It's just, you know, that combat setting just doesn't do anything for me. It's fair. John, what about you?

I mean, what works for you? It might be easier to just say what doesn't work. I'll put on my poncho while he gushes real quick. I'll start with the stuff that doesn't work. work. And it's really, there's one thing that's nitpicky and we already touched on it, that the hair animation is a little funky. It's a little dirty. I don't really know what the appropriate word is, but it's not quite right. I will say I've been impressed with the level of emotion they've been able to get out of the facial animations. I think when there's a lot of games that when they try to

capture realism, they sort of fall into that uncanny valley and it's like puts me off. But this game is excellent at it. The hair animation could probably use a patch or something. And then there are certain things. So we touched on it in the episode a couple of times, but there are like certain platforming elements. And they are really fun. Honestly, like I like the fact that they're in there and it breaks up the game. Like I never would have expected this in a game like this. But at the same time, it's not like the most crisp, you know, balanced platforming. You know, they're not designed to do this. So it's not, it's not perfect.

That being said, just about everything in this game works for me. Like, I don't want to, I'm hesitant to even score this game at this point because I, we'll just say that if the rest of this game goes the way that the beginning, you know, 20 plus hours that I put into this goes, my top 10 list will absolutely be shuffling. Yeah, I can understand that. So I think for me, the, what works for me is I don't know that I have played a game

that is a complete and total package like Expedition 33. I mean, normally if you have incredible combat, like you're giving me pixel graphics, you know, or something like that. Or if you've got, you know, a great story. in great combat, the music and the sound is atrocious or something along those lines. Like for me, Expedition 33 has literally perfected almost every aspect of the game and put it together in this package that I have not seen in a game. Like I said, I'm going to put it up

there with games like Red Dead, with cyberpunk, with God of War, where it's like every part of those games is incredible. There's not like this one glaring weakness that like holds those games back. It's like those games have the perfect combination of gameplay, story, characters, world building. I mean, you know, everything that you want to touch on. And Expedition 33 does that in absolute spades, in my opinion. I kept waiting for something to be like, oh, okay, well, this is the part that lacks or really drags behind. And it doesn't exist. Like, it doesn't exist for me.

What doesn't work for me, I'm like, I'm legitimately struggling to try to like figure this. out and that's not to be lame but I mean like I think if I had to say what doesn't work is like I mean sometimes I just I'm not 100% sure why I go to a certain zone or like why this boss is one-shotting me like there's optional bosses and stuff like that I'm like is this guy part of the story because they give you this this kind of open world and I come across things that absolutely obliterate me and then I kind of go like I'm going to forget about that there's no not a quest tracking system in this game. There's not a mini map in this game. That's a good point. The thing that doesn't work for me is unless I keep a notepad that says go back

to this zone and fight this mine because you couldn't kill him at the time or remember this boss is in this corner of this area. I'm going to forget. And so I think to me it's like what doesn't work is I'm afraid I'm going to miss some content, man.

That's legitimately like the only thing I can think of, man. That's a good point. The game would certainly benefit from a quest tracker. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, okay, we got to wrap this up, boys. We're going way too long on this.

Is this a game of the year candidate? I feel like I'm asking this question so many times in 2025 already. I mean, we've had Kingdom come too. I mean, you know, is this a game of the year candidate? Without a doubt. This might be a game of this one. a candidate game of all time for me. Okay.

I fully agree that I cannot see a world where Expedition 33 is not nominated. Like, I can't see it, man. With the score, like all the music and then the, I mean, these are typically like that, you know, you know, when you have like the movie premieres and like the awards and everything, like those artsy movies are the ones that get a lot of recognition and stuff. this is that style of game that always gets that recognition. It's not, you know, any of these kind of just shoot them up, kill them up, crazy fun games that are amazing, but they're just not as polished and have as much depth as

something like this. I think that without a doubt, it's going to be for sure nominated, and it has a really good chance to win. Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to put you guys on the spot because I want to, I want to score. I want to score this game. I will start off.

And I want to preface this by, yes, I understand I was insanely hyped for this game. I understand that it was like, you know, hey, I wanted this game to be everything that I dreamed of and more. And that's a very hard bar to meet. Expedition 33 for me is the definition of a 10 out of 10 game. Like I, you know, again, I don't say that. that lightly and I don't give tens out very often at all. But oh my goodness, if I cannot think of a game that is more perfect for what it is, you know, and part of that might be, and I said it for a long time was I was really, really hungry for this style of game. So there might be a little bit of that

right game at the right time kind of thing. But this game has so few flaws and it is so impressive in almost every single aspect that it throws at you. Like, this is the definition of a 10 out of 10 video game for me. I am like you, the second we're done recording, I'm going to play. You know, like, I got to see where this goes. I got to, like, experience the end of this game. And people know I don't finish video games. I am just compelled to play Expedition 33.

I am enamored of it. it is almost flawless, in my opinion. It's a 10 out of 10, dude. And again, I don't say that because I was biased. I don't say it because I was hyped about it. I say it because it is really that good of a video game, in my opinion. So for me, it's a 10. Ryan, I don't remember if it was you or Paul who sort of famously didn't like to give out 10.

That's Ryan. He's never given a 10. Never. Yeah. And I agree with that philosophy. Like, if you give something a 10, 10 is, perfect basically and and so like what if something is you know what if what if what if claibskeira part two comes out and they have a uh better hair quest track a quest track a quest

tracking oh man you know it's better but functionally for me this is a 10 out of 10 i mean like it it would be a 9.99 blah blah blah blah blah blah to the end power but uh it is it is about as perfect a game as I've ever played. Yeah. That's really good. Yeah, I mean, I get why you guys are giving it the scores for sure. For me, it's something a little bit different just because I couldn't really get into that

core of the game. I would say it's more of like an 8.3, 8.5 to me, which is a high score for a turn-based combat game for me. If it was action RPG with the same story, with the same world,

with all these abilities and the different things you could do, I'm in the nines all day. So great, awesome game. If you like this game style, if you're a turn-based combat type of person, you will love this game and it will absolutely be one of your favorites of all time, guaranteed. I've seen so many people say this. And this is what I love is that, like, again, people in our community that this wasn't on their radar, you know, and this is one of our joys.

It's one of the reasons we do this podcast is like legitimately, I can probably name 10 people in our community right now that went, okay, so I heard you guys talking about this game. I picked it up. Oh my goodness. I mean, we have people that said, dude, this is my favorite game. This is literally my favorite game that I have played.

Like, I mean, that is insane. But it's like, this is what we want to do is we want to put incredible video games in front of people and say, hey, this is a game that needs to be played. Guys, the craziest part about all of this is this is an indie developer, a 30-man team. This is a $40 game, 40 or 50. This is not a $70 AAA title or $100 quadruplea title, you know.

It's included in GamePass. It's included in Game Pass. You can play it. You don't even need an Xbox. You can play it on your cloud TV. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Like the fact that this is an indie studio that they had this kind of game and they just said,

hey, it's 40 or 50 bucks, you know, and it's doing so well. I could not be happier. I'm with you, John. I really wish I could like shake the hands of this development team and be like, number one, thank you for giving me a game that I- Done France, guys. I love this game more than a game that I had, like, honestly,

like I've played a lot of games, but this game has me so enamored and so in love with it that it's like, I haven't felt this in a while. So if you have been on the fence, this is your call to action to say you need to experience this. Even if you maybe aren't a fan of the turn-based combat, you know, see if you can get over it. If you can't, we get it, man.

You know, like Ryan, you said it best. I don't like mushrooms. Gordon Ramsey might make the best mushroom stew in the world, but I just don't like mushrooms, man. I'm not going to like it, you know. And I think that's fine. But I think that everybody should experience this game. It is worth it. And you might just find one of your favorite games that you have come across in years and years and years.

Because that is exactly how I feel. It's exactly how John feels. That is magic, man. That is the gaming magic that we all hope for. All right. That's going to do it, boys. I want to go play this game some more. I've been saying this.

I've got two weeks until Doom the Dark Ages comes out. I'm going to do all the side content. I'm going to beat this game. I'm going to do everything that I need to do so that I can just say, hey, I got the full experience out of it. So I'm definitely going to keep putting in the time. Listen, if you are new to this show and you enjoy this episode, please take a second to follow us in your podcast app.

It's a plus button. It's a follow button. But that way you get all of our episodes the day that they release. If you are not part of this community that we always reference, we are, you know, almost a thousand gamers strong. It is the best gaming community on the planet. We say it all the time. We have, it's not just us.

People come in all the time and they're like, yo. Like this place is awesome, man. Like people actually talk about games. They suggest games. They hang out together. we do community nights together where we all play games together because that's part of what makes gaming awesome. There is no toxicity. It's family friendly. People of all ages, men, women. I mean, it's welcome to everybody. If you are a gamer and you think that that sounds awesome, then you're

the kind of person that we're looking for. The links in the episode description there as well. And if you want to go the extra mile to support the show, there is a link in the episode description that you can click to sign up to support the show. We'll give you a share. Shout out. You get ad-free episodes, early episodes, and all that. All right, boys, that's it for this episode. Until, Ryan... Listen, I'm going to say it one last time. Go check out video. If you haven't done it, man. Oh, my goodness.

Ryan's... You're ridiculous, Ryan. All right, that's it, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. Toodaloo, everybody. Our son off with the French salute. Lévois. I surrender. could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siyaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned and today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better.

Apparently that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.