Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Maybe finish the story? (If I’m ready to say goodbye?)
Another weekend, another few days I will be playing Clair Obscur.
Of all the pleasures and surprises of Expedition 33, one was particularly unexpected: It’s making me social! As I go out into the world and chat with people about games, this one keeps coming up. It seems, from my small sample size anyway, that this game is a rewarding nostalgia trip for us 30-somethings who grew up playing a ton of late-‘90s-era Final Fantasy and other JRPGs.
In our last couple of entries of the Weekend Guide, I’d said that while I may have been enjoying other aspects of it, I wasn’t totally sold on the game’s story yet. Well folks, that’s changed. Clair Obscur has a fantastic plot and premise, but its characters are what really pushed me over. This is a crew of complex 30-somethings (well, 32-year-olds and one 16-year old, to be precise), pondering how they should respond to a crisis. Yeah, that’s pretty relatable right about now.
Like in a good, classic Final Fantasy, these characters clearly need each other to get through the unexplainable journey they find themselves in. In that, the story also provides me with some headcanon-adjacent metaphors about getting older, relying on others, and living in fear of powers that loom over you.
Stuff like this is why I’m a lifelong lover of Final Fantasy VII and VIII (IX also has these elements, of course, but I haven’t spent enough time with that one). So if you’re looking for something to play and have ignored my recommendations for Clair Obscur the past two weeks, maybe the third time’s the charm!
Seriously. This is one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had playing a game in the past 10 years at least. — Claire Jackson
