Earlier than Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has been the speak of the city since launching on April 25, inventive director Guillaume Broche was working on a precursor often called We Lost. Whereas technically completely different initiatives, this title remains to be becoming of Clair Obscur’s general temper. As its protagonists set out from Lumière to attempt to stop the godlike Paintress from wiping humanity from existence, the palpable concern amongst Expedition 33 is that their onerous work will, just like the voyages earlier than them, merely be a suicidal stepping stone on the trail of future generations’ success.
(This piece incorporates spoilers for Clair Obscur’s journal entries, and a few obscure late-game spoilers for the top of Act II.)
Not solely is that this sense of impending failure baked into the mission’s motto, “We lay the path for individuals who come after,” nevertheless it’s additionally a part of why expeditions maintain a journal to depart behind for subsequent expeditions. The typical participant will come across a number of of those journals whereas enjoying Clair Obscur, every one filled with tales describing the actions taken by earlier expeditions and, generally, the risks that in the end defeated them. Not each journal gives helpful info: Expedition 36’s entry, for example, is a stupendous albeit strategically ineffective poem, whereas Expedition 47’s merely describes the self-styled “Drunken Brigade’s” theories on sustaining inebriation throughout battle. However the majority drive house the truth that Expedition 33’s success is based not solely on their very own expertise but in addition the progress made by their predecessors.
Clair Obscur heightens this sense of asynchronous cooperation by plopping its heroes down in hostile, unfamiliar territory and giving them no different selection than to depend on what earlier expeditions left behind. Many areas could be not possible to traverse with out numerous handholds and grapple factors; the participant ultimately learns these aren’t pure, however relatively artifical options constructed into the setting by Expeditions 69 and 70. Equally, a fleshy overpass in a late-game space is revealed because the grisly work of Expedition 35, who used their last moments after falling to a strong monster to construct the walkway over an in any other case unnavigable crevasse with their very own corpses.
“In order that’s what it means to put the path,” Expedition 35’s journal reads, its long-dead creator combining gallows humor with quite a few passages from the general mission assertion. “They used their our bodies to create a bridge for individuals who come after. Expedition 35 is over however tomorrow comes.”
Even when earlier expeditions haven’t left tangible assist, their journals perform like navy intel for the challenges Expedition 33 faces. Expedition 59’s journal cautions towards consuming defeated monsters, whereas a member of Expedition 66 left behind comparable warnings for toxic mushrooms they got by Esquie, a lovable touring companion you meet midway into the sport who features like a Ultimate Fantasy airship. The participant may glean perception into allocate character stats from, say, Expedition 49, who targeted solely on therapeutic and defensive expertise, solely to appreciate this turtle-like technique solely extended their struggling with out offensive skills to shortly dispatch enemies. This journal can remind the participant that it is helpful to unfold factors round relatively than focus too closely on a single facet of a personality’s construct.
Generally Expedition 33 should actually stand on the shoulders of their ancestors to forge forward, however different journal entries aren’t fairly as ugly or on-the-nose. Expedition 40 found the forcefield surrounding the Paintress’ monolith after two explorers flew into it on hold gliders and had been vaporized. Expedition 44 tried to disguise themselves as monsters, however the true monsters weren’t fooled and reduce them down.
None of those journal entries maintain a candle to Expedition 60. Whereas a lot of Expedition 33’s success comes from its use of the Lumina Converter, the in-universe software that powers Clair Obscur’s Picto trait customization system, Expedition 60 was capable of make all of it the best way to the Paintress with out such frivolity. They even managed to interrupt by means of the barrier surrounding her monolith by means of pure power alone, and did all of it whereas solely bare in addition. I’ve included all the textual content of the journal under as a result of there’s no manner a mere abstract may do it justice.
They mocked us once we stated the human physique is the strongest of all of them. We educated relentlessly and now our our bodies have achieved the top of human efficiency, with which we’re capable of crush our enemies!
We’re SO rather more agile and aerodynamic with out the heavy uniforms constraining our superb muscle tissues. With Leslie’s unstoppable coaching regime, WE ARE IMPERVIOUS.
That’s how we had been capable of cost by means of that ghostly gommage barrier and attain the Paintress. Nevertheless it appears we’ve been incorrect about what she is. The Paintress is simply as trapped as we. The true terror lies beneath the Monolith.
The remainder of Expedition 60 marched on to confront him, whereas I used to be tasked to warn Lumière. Nevertheless it appears I may need run out of time. One final swim separates me from Lumière, however even with my mighty muscle tissues, I don’t know if I can outswim the Gommage.
So right here I write my last message. Naked bare muscle tissues will save the world! And don’t waste time on the Paintress, goal for the underside of the Monolith!
Regardless of a push for extra variety in video games, they’ll usually lean libertarian and even conservative of their worldviews. Some, in pursuit of gratifying participant energy fantasies, fall into subscribing to a model of Thomas Carlyle’s “great man” idea, which argues historical past belongs to people born with superior traits. Clair Obscur’s remedy of its protagonists not as particular heroes however as merely the following hyperlink in a series of successes and failures makes for a far richer story than we frequently see from the medium.
Expedition 33, although maybe higher outfitted than those that got here earlier than them, are solely capable of accomplish what they do due to the a whole lot of reinforcements who paved the best way earlier than them. The power to defeat a boss in seconds with an overpowered construct means nothing if you happen to can’t bodily attain the enemy within the first place. Information accrued over many years and shared between generations will all the time trump what one individual can do on their very own.
In his 1935 poem “Questions From a Employee Who Reads,” author Bertolt Brecht asks, “Caesar defeated the Gauls. / Did he not also have a cook dinner with him? / Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. / Was he the one one to weep?” Clair Obscur might not be as overtly political a textual content as Brecht’s Marxist leanings, nevertheless it actually interrogates the view of historical past – and online game narratives – that singular heroes succeed by means of their very own power. And very like “Questions,” it involves the identical conclusion: None of us, from the rich entrepreneur to the struggling freelancer, accomplish something on our personal.
