Expedition 33
Thoughts on the game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
What an experience
Expedition 33 is a story on grief and how we cope around it. The game won several awards including The Game Awards where it won Game of the Year, among the other 9 awards that they received in that awards show alone.
As someone who has played Final Fantasy XIV, I love how this game is also an allegory of life. The music is top tier! I can somewhat hear how inspired it is from Final Fantasy series and Nier.
Which ending did I choose?
I chose Maelle’s ending. I think a lot of people see Maelle’s ending as the less logical option, and to some point I agree.
I resonate with her ending so much. When I think of my loved ones and the anticipatory grief that I have for them, for example my partner, and I was given the same choice as Maelle where I can stay in a place where my partner is alive, I would choose it in a heartbeat. Even if that meant I would slowly lose myself in the canvas because life outside of it is not somewhere I want to be if they aren’t with me. Outside of it, I feel like I’m already dead anyway.
A sentimental and admittedly an illogical take, but that is the point of the game: we cope differently in the face of grief.
If you asked me now, then no. I've seen how this torments you. I wouldn't wish that on others. But if you asked me back then, I would have done anything to see him again. To hear his voice. To feel his arms around me.
Get up! For Lumiere
I also chose the ending because I consider the people of Lumiere as sentient people. I love how in the first few scenes of the game where Gustave and Lune were arguing about the mission, Lune says:
The future of Lumiere is more important than any individual life. Do you still believe that?
… which I think is a question not just for Gustave, but for the player as well. When I think of our life in comparison to the vast scale of the universe, it makes me think that we are just small, but it also doesn’t mean that it’s meaningless.
This is the same perspective that I have for Lumiere.
There is this interview with the writer, Jennifer Svedbreg-Yen, where she settles the argument that people had on what’s real or fake in the context of Lumiere. A lot of people feel a bit betrayed that they aren’t “real”, that it was all for nothing, but I don’t think it was. I love how the interview affirmed what I also thought about Lumiere.
Regardless, I still think Maelle’s ending was chilling
I got to admit though, I didn’t expect her to… behave that way. I guess it just goes to show that no one is truly immune to the side effects of the canvas. Still, I love that this was the direction of the game, that Maelle doesn’t have some plot armor or something that makes her more special than Aline/Renoir when it comes to the effects of the prolonged stay in the canvas.
Quotes that stayed with me
I hate it too. Things we don't understand. They just make us feel small and powerless. But it helps, you know, to focus on the things I do understand. On the people I care about and who care about me. And you know, now, I feel a little less lost because at least we're lost together.
I envy them, those who can't see. Those who know not, that they are not. And those who live, blithe and free, sins forgotten and thus absolved. A fresh dawn in their playground, while we live in the shadows, swimming in ink. We are but a fragile dream, a singular weed, resisting, ever resisting. That iron dirt, that eternal law. Those who can't see. Those who know not, that they are not. Do you know? We are fellows. Those who know not, that they are not.
You swore the oath. 'When one falls. We. Continue.' When one falls. WHEN one falls. Not if. When. We knew not all of us would make it. But 'WE. CONTINUE.'
Sciel was right. Grief blinds us. All you see are walls.
My love... You who fought heaven and earth... and subdued giants... To find me. To free me from her grasp. Would you fall now to the likes of them? While your oath remains unfulfilled? Rise. Your enemies await.
