Clair Obscur’s three female characters make me never want to switch my party

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could be essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had taking part in a role-playing sport since 2023’s Baldur’s Gate 3. Its turn-based fight is extra participating than at first blush, and defeating highly effective enemies supplies the identical elation that taking down a boss in a FromSoftware sport does. It additionally affords a number of the tougher gameplay I’ve encountered in a while, with dodge and parry timing that’ll depart even essentially the most skilled soulsborne vets pulling their hair out.

Clair Obscur’s six playable heroes all have distinctive fight mechanics, so no two heroes play the identical. That is nice when you’ve mastered Gustave, Maelle, and the remainder, however mastering them takes loads of trial and error. You’re solely offered every character’s tutorial as soon as, so that you’ll must discover ways to use them on the fly in battles with Nevrons. How does Sciel enter Twilight once more? What precisely are Lune’s stains? How does Monoco’s Bestial Wheel transfer? There’s a studying curve to every character, however as soon as they click on for you — understanding learn how to finest leverage Maelle’s stance switching, rapidly overcharge with Gustave — you’re off to the races.

Utilizing my A-team of Maelle, Lune, and Sciel makes the sport nearly too straightforward, and I barely felt in any hazard throughout Act 2’s late-game boss fights. They bounce off each other nicely, and at larger ranges, can simply knock off enemies earlier than your opponents have even had a flip. Sadly for Clair Obscur’s different characters, the strengths of Maelle, Lune, and Sciel put the remainder of the group on the sidelines.

Look, I like Verso — good man, nice hair, performs the piano, ageless marvel. However his abilities largely depend on not taking injury, which is troublesome when combating enemies for the primary time as you’ve but to be taught their assault patterns. Parrying is probably the best problem in Clair Obscur’s fight, and making an attempt to parry as Verso simply opens the door to getting hit and subsequently reducing his Perfection Rank, his personal particular capacity. (Did I point out there’s rather a lot to be taught in Clair Obscur? As a result of there’s rather a lot to be taught.)

Monoco, too, finally ends up getting the brief finish of the stick in my celebration. He arrives within the sport after I’ve already settled on an excellent rhythm with Clair Obscur’s three girls main my celebration, and timing his Bestial Wheel to take advantage of use out of it’s one thing I’m nonetheless fighting going into Act 3. Alas, Monoco and Verso are warming the bench as my “B-team Boys,” itching for some taking part in time.

Verso and Monoco gave option to my A-team trio late in Act 2. Round after I needed to go struggle the Axons, I lastly began to get the hold of utilizing Maelle, Lune, and Sciel as a group, synergizing their skills in a means that I may wipe the ground with enemies earlier than these enemies even acquired a flip. As soon as I hit that stride, I by no means had any use for the opposite playable characters (Sorry, Monoco and Verso. See you at camp?).

Clair Obcur’s battles depend on leveraging your characters’ abilities and distinctive mechanics, like Maelle’s Stance switching or Sciel’s Foretell stacking, to pummel your foes to mud. Lune could be the hardest hero to pin down as producing and utilizing her elemental stains at first is a complicated matter. When utilizing Lune’s abilities in battle, the factor(s) between the talent identify and the Motion Level (AP) price are what stains are generated. Every of her powers can eat these stains for added results, like enhancing injury or growing the period of an influence.

Once I absolutely understood learn how to leverage Lune’s stains, the sport opened up for me. Lune can use Wildfire to burn all enemies, however I favor positioning Maelle first and utilizing her Rain of Fireplace proper off the bat. Lune’s Thermal Switch can then generate AP for her when used towards the burning foe, that means, relying in your Pictos and Luminas setup — Clair Obscur’s system for stat bonuses and passive results — she may have the max of 9 AP by her subsequent flip.

With foes on hearth, Maelle can then use Swift Stride to place her in Virtuose Stance, and on her subsequent flip keep in Virtuose Stance with Fleuret Furyuse. Maelle’s Virtuose Stance sees her dealing 200% injury, and utilizing it along side her excessive damage-dealing abilities is your path towards hitting — or exceeding in Act 3 — the injury cap. Even post-nerf, she’s nonetheless a powerhouse.

With Lune’s Chapelim weapon, I fall right into a little bit of a rhythm for every bout. At stage 20, it generates an Earth Stain on every flip, and Thermal Switch consumes two Earth Stains to permit Lune to play once more and proceed to wreak havoc. If Lune and Maelle are low on AP, irrespective of — Sciel’s Plentiful Harvest consumes all of an enemy’s Foretell and distributes AP among the many celebration for every Foretell consumed. When in Twilight with 20 Foretell utilized to a foe, this talent can simply prime off everybody’s AP, leaving you free to proceed your onslaught.

Venturing into Act 3, with much more “Hazard” areas and difficult Chromatic foes forward, understanding the tip is in sight, I’ll be sticking with Maelle, Lune, and Sciel for the battles to come back. They’ve gotten me this far.