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On November 19 2025 19:09 Velr wrote:Show nested quote +On November 19 2025 06:03 Dekalinder wrote:
Let me be clear that I still think E33 is a good game, and a nice story. Just, not as perfect as many would lead you to believe. Horizon Zero Dawn as said above had a tighter story, even if maybe less emotionally impactfull. In my opinion depend wholy on how you get you dopamine hit, brain activity vs emotional impact. I like both in a healty mix so I tend to be disappointed a lot I found it's story much more enjoyable than Horizon Zero Dawn or basically anything I played since forever, despite not being extremly surprised by the big Twist, there was so much foreshadowing, something like that was just bound to happen. Some stuff in it just made the ending choice very, very obvious to me + Show Spoiler +Maelle just reviving the others and their reactions to it made me absolutely certain that these aren't actual people and Verso is right and that soured it a bit for me. Sound and Atmosphere of this game just felt like something special. I didn't 100% it because I had no interest in perfecting my parries or experimenting/googling the most broken builds just to go up against the super bosses but I did what felt like a decent amount of optional/3d act content, which sadly made the final story bit a total joke (whiteout using any of the really broken stuff), imho some sort of scaling was badly needed there... Just totally obliterating anything on the way to the final boss felt earned/decent but then also obliterating it like it's absolutely nothing didn't feel good. Iirc it's the only game since BG3 that I actually finnished, usually I lose interest in games much earlier these days.
Yeah, same here with the Bg3, I played the shit out of that game, as an comparison, the story there is much more detailed, bigger, choices are more impactful and I still vastly prefer E33 story for the emotional impact and "making you think" peace.
Since I did my first play-through on expeditioner by the time I did the game on Expert I had some favorite builds that could deal with everything so the frustration part never kicked in for me.
Now, for your spoiler note.
+ Show Spoiler +I didn't mind this part too much, because regardless of that my interpretation is that these were real "beings", a piece of Verso who painted the world in the first place is in every one of them, I mean, Monoco is his dog, Esquie is his plush toy, they have their "personalities" if you will.
In the end, I choose Verso every time, yes, it's kind of fucked up but everyone had a good run and it's not like they are 100 % full living beings, while Maelle on the outside is and this is killing her, so it makes more sense.
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You can nitpick any story.
Expedition 33's overall story is unique in the way where pretty much none of the nitpicks matter, as soon as you think about it outside the box + Show Spoiler +
What brings this one above the fold is that this is a game with phenomenal world building, amazing, relatable and likeable characters, a lot of heart and a lot of heavy hitting moments - as well as absolute frikkin' bombshells dropped at the end of every part.
The way the game made me care about the characters, their struggles and their fate, is something I will be endlessly praising.
The only game that has done this to me is FF14's best expansions, but you have to spend hundreds of hours to even get there.
Expedition 33 provided me a very similar experience but manages to do it much quicker.
And it also manages to be funny in the right way. Something almost no game of this type has ever been able to do.
I can't wait to see what Sandfall Interactive does next, they are currently the only studio in the world whose game I would pre-order.
EDIT: and holy shit, the soundtrack.
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Video Game stories are best viewed through a different lens in the same way other mediums of communicating a fictional story are viewed from a different perspective. One does not attempt to compare how the plot progresses in a full length novel to the plot progression in a 22.5 minute series episode.
Both SC1 and SC2 do a great job telling stories that fit well within the campaign whose job is to teach players the basics of RTS.
On November 19 2025 23:13 abuse wrote:You can nitpick any story. Expedition 33's overall story is unique in the way where pretty much none of the nitpicks matter, as soon as you think about it outside the box + Show Spoiler +
i agree. Thomas Sowell's great quote about being perfect doing nothing applies.
“The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to society, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior.”
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United States12240 Posts
E33 is an excellent game that I enjoyed very much. I 100%'d the game so I can shed some light on some of the misconceptions that people in this thread have:
1. Parrying is not required. There have been multiple challenge playthroughs where players don't parry or dodge at all, and purely let the stats run the game. And it works! I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding with some players where if a game has a parry mechanic that it is necessary to use it all the time. That is not the case. You don't have to parry in Elden Ring (hell, people have done entire playthroughs of that game where they only walk and attack!), but the perception is that you do. Similarly, you don't have to parry in E33, but that perception exists. If you build sufficiently for defense, you don't need to rely on parry/dodge.
2. The story.
+ Show Spoiler +I never thought there were plot holes in the game. You're SUPPOSED to think of Verso as this shifty, untrustworthy usurper of Gustave's role. The framing of the game, just like Metaphor: ReFantazio, is built such that you develop affinity for all the characters and races in the game first, and then later expand the scope to the real world and force you to choose between them. Is reality inherently more valuable than fantasy? There is no clear answer, which is why both endings are sad. Sometimes you have to do the hard thing with no payoff. By the time Maelle confronts Verso about whether he had the ability to save Gustave, she had already awakened as Alicia, so her personal horizons have broadened significantly. The fact that you the player still held a grudge against Verso speaks more to your bias than a story failing. Verso admitting that he could have saved Gustave and chose not to, and Maelle not getting mad about it, is a reflection of her experience as Alicia, where she is capable of understanding his reasoning, even if she doesn't agree with it.
3. The pacing. There are a few superbosses in the game, and the game lets you become extremely powerful. I wasn't aware that you could keep playing after finishing the story, and in hindsight, I should have completed the main story first before becoming too strong as to trivialize it. Sandfall has introduced some game options (such as capping your damage at 99,999 or 999,999) that you can employ in case you made the same choice, but I can't vouch for these, as they were introduced in an update that released after I was done with the game.
Personally I thought that the music was fantastic, and the story surrounding the development was really one of incredibly fortunate coincidences. The voice acting and motion capture are top notch, the emotional beats are spot on. The game lets you break it if you want, but it's not required. The post-launch support has been far beyond what I would have expected for a standalone game. A definite lightning in a bottle title.
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How good is the story? Personally not a fan of parrying in games or jrpgs at all really but I hear the story is good so that would be the one thing making me want to play this game potentially. Is the story really THAT good?
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On November 22 2025 15:47 CicadaSC wrote:
How good is the story? Personally not a fan of parrying in games or jrpgs at all really but I hear the story is good so that would be the one thing making me want to play this game potentially. Is the story really THAT good?
I think so. Also, parrying makes combat easier but it's not required per se.
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On November 22 2025 15:47 CicadaSC wrote:
How good is the story? Personally not a fan of parrying in games or jrpgs at all really but I hear the story is good so that would be the one thing making me want to play this game potentially. Is the story really THAT good?
It is that good, but usually if you go into a game with such a stance and expectations then you will likely end up finding reasons to be disappointed.
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France12907 Posts
On November 14 2025 18:45 Harris1st wrote:
Love the idea, story and basically everything about this game but the combat. I really dislike the combat. Turn based QTE with a horribly visualized parry "window". I tried. Really did. But can't do it
I understand this sentiment perfectly, I raged a lot on this game. The problem is mainly that basically until later in the game where you come OP enough not to care much, you are forced to learn parrying, and at worst fleeing, and it's a very one dimensional mechanic which can be unfun for most people
That's the sole default of the game for a first playthrough (and the game has not much replayability imo but you see that trying another playthrough)
Otherwise fantastic game, superb artistic direction, music, story, visuals... even if I weren't French the game would have been magical tbh
I finished it (all bosses etc.), tried new game+ and it's not super interesting once you have done it once
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EPT
