Well, I've finally done it. I started playing Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, my very first time playing a turn based RPG! The game creates a beautiful world with interesting enemies and areas to explore. I'm quite liking that. Clair Obscure has been getting accolades for being made by a 30 member development team over 5 years who released the game at a $50 price point too, in their words, reach as many people as possible. Nintendo doesn't talk like that anymore!
There's even talk about Game of the Year. Not best game ever, that's reserved for Nintendo for reasons I can't fathom. The team is entirely from Europe and unmistakenly influenced the design choices and the voice acting and avoided the "Ohh God, another damn bowl of rice!" feeling I get from playing Japanese games.
Expedition 33 is available on the PC, Xbox and PS5, but not the Switch. That's probably a good thing because the game would be ruined at 16 colors 480p or what ever it is that the Switch outputs. I know, I know, but you get to play in bed with the Switch while mommy tucks you in! Well, there is something to be said for that, right.
Since I have nothing to compare Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 too, I'll just say that as a newbie I'm aproximately half way through the game and only thought of putting down the game once when a character I liked playing was knocked off.
I really wanted to buy a guide for the game, but there were none available, so I scour the internet for playing tips where I'm learning new jargon like tanks, DPS and Glass Cannons. As a novice to the genre I thought all RPG's were required to have a dungeon with rats to kill. I haven't run across any rats yet. But the girl team member who leaps in the air to sprinkle life giving fairy dust on dying team mates is definately in this game. I guess some rules of RPG's can never be broken.