The Magic of Expedition 33: A French Love Letter to JRPGs
Introduction
I've long fantasized about someone re-creating the plots of classic JRPGs with more mature dialogue and more realistic characters. I never thought that, in this day and age, my fantasy would be realized by the French in another way. I was truly taken aback by Expedition 33. It features stunning visuals of modern technological standards, yet its core feels like a product of the golden age of Japanese RPGs from the last century. It's a love letter from a 33-year-old French youth to the JRPGs he loved in his childhood. This passionate producer has incorporated some classic elements from the early Final Fantasy games, such as FF6 to FF10, into the framework of Expedition 33, but presented them in a brand-new way. You'll encounter battles that are more challenging than traditional turn-based ones, especially the design of continuous parry-triggered counterattacks, which gave me the feeling of playing Sekiro. At the same time, you'll also witness a different kind of plot presentation from JRPGs, no longer in the style of Japanese "2.5D exaggeration", but with the brokenness and restraint of adults, and the emotions are very real. There are also a large number of French cultural imprints in the game, from architectural styles and clothing styles to "French-speaking" magical creatures. It's really amazing. The beautiful innocence and profound pain set off each other, coupled with the imaginative visual imagination and the perfectly matched music, successfully pulled me into this cruel, strange, but incredibly romantic world. At the moment the journey ended, I really shed tears in front of the screen, and the feeling was so complex that it was indescribable. So today, I want to share with you not only the playthrough review of Expedition 33, but also my personal feelings as an "inheritor of old JRPGs". Since the plot of this game is very important, in order not to destroy your gaming experience, I will not reveal the plot development, and I will also avoid the mainline screen in the middle and late stages. All descriptions of the worldview and characters are limited to the information currently disclosed by the official. You can rest assured to enjoy it~
The World of Expedition 33
Expedition 33 has a high-concept worldview. It was once a beautiful and splendid fantasy continent, but it suddenly collapsed and shattered many years ago, throwing the prosperous human city [Lumen], which is the French "City of Light", into the sea and becoming an island outside the continent. In the shattered world, a terrifying rule emerged: a huge stone standing at the end of the world, with a number written on it, which decreases year by year from 100. Whenever the number is rewritten, all people over that age will be wiped out in an instant. This number was drawn by a sleeping female giant [Mother of Paintings]. She wakes up under the boulder every year, updates the number like a god, and then falls asleep again. No one knows where she comes from or why she does it, they can only watch the number get smaller and the number of humans get fewer.
To survive, the Lumen people send out an expedition team every year, using the number on the boulder as the number. Most of the team members are people who have one year left to live, but there are also younger volunteers. They will sail to the mainland and swear to reach the Stone of Records and defeat the Mother of Paintings. But more than 60 years have passed, and no team has returned. And the protagonist group we play as is the 33rd expedition team about to set off, following in the footsteps of their predecessors on an extremely dangerous journey. But as the player can vaguely expect, there are many major plot reversals in this journey, and there are even elements of "trailer bait". And you will gradually discover that this is not a kingly story of heroes saving the world. The truth behind this world is far more crazy, cruel, and helpless than it seems on the surface.....
Gameplay Structure
The game's flow structure is very familiar to old JRPG players. The main line is relatively linear, with clear plot events driving you to the next location. But at the same time, we can still freely explore the large map, looking for some side locations, hidden elements, and secret rewards, allowing you to understand the worldview better while also challenging enemies stronger than the main line. Of course, there are also funny mini-games to play, such as the "100 - floor challenge" beach jump. The interiors of each location are small box - level levels, with a realistic style and no map, and the structure is relatively simple. However, the roads and scene art in some levels are too integrated, resulting in an unclear visual focus point. It's easy to get lost when you first enter and you need to get used to it.
The large map part uses a very unique "micro - photography" style, just like manipulating toy figures to move on a sand table, which is very cute. In the early stages of the game, since you can only walk, many areas of the large map will be blocked by natural barriers, and the places you can go are limited. But as the main line progresses, we will gradually unlock more advanced large map movement methods, and the exploration range will become larger and larger until we can go up and down the sea and search every corner of the world, occasionally finding some surprises or being shocked by new scenes. It took me about 50 hours to clear the first playthrough, half of which was spent looking for side elements and fighting hidden bosses. The replayability is definitely up to standard. I also found a lot of easter eggs from other games in the exploration, such as the Odin raven from God of War and the typewriter in the mansion from Resident Evil, which really made me laugh out loud.
Combat System
The combat system of the game is a common three - person squad turn-based system. People who are not in the team can substitute when the main team is wiped out. This is not a fixed turn-based system where you take turns, but rather the order and number of actions are determined by the character's speed. If you encounter an enemy with much higher speed, he may attack several times before you can make a move, and vice versa. Therefore, skills that can change the order of actions or increase the number of actions are crucial to the strategy.
The game's combat performance is very gorgeous. Each character's skills can be enhanced by pressing QTE. And there is no concept of a mana bar. When using skills, it consumes not mana but action points. There are many ways to replenish action points, but the most basic ones are normal attacks and blocks. And this brings us to the key "parry" design. When the enemy acts, we have to observe his moves like playing an action game and press the button at the moment before the attack hits to trigger a dodge or block. The block has a more difficult judgment than the dodge, but the gain is huge. If you block, you can not only add action points but also automatically counterattack, with very high damage. If you combine it with weapons and passive skills that increase counter - damage, in theory, you can clear the game just by parrying. But the problem is that enemies often use combos, and there are fast and slow knives. To trigger a counterattack, you must block every hit of a combo. It's almost impossible to do at first sight, and you can only take a few hits first and remember the enemy's attack pattern before you can successfully parry.
The development team seems to think this is not difficult enough, so they have designed some moves that cannot be blocked by the block key, and you need to press two other keys to trigger "jump parry" and "ink parry". In other words, you not only have to parry but also alternate between several keys to parry. It really keeps me focused and I can't get sleepy for a minute. Some hidden monsters even use crazy 15 - or 16 - hit combos, which make me laugh. It's a pure rhythm game. The enemies in the later stages have very high damage. Unless you can directly kill the enemy, if you don't block well, you will be killed in an instant. But once you block well, the pleasure is unparalleled, turning a turn-based RPG into a hardcore action game.
So I strongly recommend that you start playing from the easy difficulty to avoid frustration. After getting used to the feel, switch back to the normal difficulty. Because the difference in the difficulty options of this game is mainly reflected in the judgment of dodges and blocks. As for the hard difficulty, it's still for action masters to challenge. Anyway, it's impossible for me~
Character Growth
At first glance, the character growth design in this game is very simple, just five - dimension points, and the classes and skill trees are fixed. But the gameplay logic of each character is very different, and coupled with the fact that you can only equip six skills in combat, it is actually very deep in actual play. For example, among the three heroines, the cute girl [Maier]'s gameplay is to switch stances through different skills to obtain corresponding bonus effects, and she also has the most violent single - target damage skill, which is the absolute main force in fighting hidden bosses in the later stages. The gameplay of the older sister [Seal] is more brain-burning. The skills are divided into two categories: sun and moon. You need to use the sun skills to stack "foresight" on the enemy, and then use the consumption of "foresight" to strengthen the effects of the moon skills. If the two skills are released alternately, she can temporarily enter the twilight state, with a significant increase in damage and stacking ability. She is a character with a relatively complex principle, but once used well, she is very versatile.
And my favorite great mage Yennefer, ah no, [Lunet], her gameplay is to accumulate elemental balls of the corresponding color through elemental skills, and then use the elemental balls to strengthen the attack effect or release special skills. For example, the devastating big move "Elemental Birth" can only be released when four different - colored balls are filled, and the effect is comparable to Thanos' spaceship firepower, which is so cool. So my idea of equipping Lunet is to fill four different - colored balls as quickly as possible.
There is also a funny old brush - head spirit [Morocco] in the team. His gameplay is also very interesting. By collecting the feet of all the small monsters in the world, he can learn the skills of these small monsters, and he can also increase the power through the corresponding mask wheel. The skill you release will be maximized only when you turn to the corresponding mask. So when equipping skills, you not only have to consider the skill attributes but also consider how many grids this skill will turn the wheel, so as to seamlessly connect the next move you want to make.
In addition to the differences in the skill logic of the characters themselves, the development team has also greatly increased the flexibility of the gameplay with one mechanism, that is, passive runes. There are hundreds of different runes in the game. In addition to adding values when equipped, they can also obtain passive abilities. There are those that enhance specific damage, those that increase action point acquisition, and those that change the order of actions, and so on. The most important thing is that any rune will "internalize" after several battles, allowing all team members to equip its passive ability at any time and also remove and replace it at any time. However, when equipped, it requires points. The more BUG - like the ability, the more points it takes. This point is called the aura point, which can be found and picked up all over the world. In theory, as long as you have enough aura points, you can equip all the passive abilities to everyone at the same time and stack them up for a great time. Of course, we actually have limited aura points, so how to choose and what kind of stacking bonus to trigger depends entirely on how you want to play. Through passive combinations, combined with the effects of weapons and skills, you can play various styles, such as pure normal attack style, pure shooting style, infinite buff style, extreme burst style, and of course, the always - most - enjoyable counter - attack style.
Camp System
In addition to combat, this game also has a very cute camp system. We can set up camp on the large map at any time, enter the camp to listen to music and write diaries, or communicate with companions to increase the friendship level and unlock special skills. Occasionally, new NPCs will join the camp to provide you with help such as strengthening weapons. This gives me a bit of the feeling of the camp system in Baldur's Gate 3. To be honest, during the playthrough, I often had a sense of déjà vu about a certain system or the design of a certain monster. But because of the unique temperament of Expedition 33, these designs that may have borrowed elements did not make me feel that it was a rip - off. Instead, I felt that the development team did a good job and knew how to turn the inspiration from other works into their own shape~
Art and Music
When it comes to the unique temperament, we have to mention the art and music of this game, which are also its most obvious advantages. The aesthetic inspiration for this game comes from the French [Belle Époque], that is, the short period from the end of the 19th century to the outbreak of World War I. The rapid development of science and technology and the economy led to the vigorous development of literature and art, and Paris was filled with singing and dancing. People's lives were full of the pursuit of entertainment and progress. So the designers of Expedition 33 not only used the elements of the Belle Époque on the surface, such as color matching, clothing styles, and architectural styles, but also gave "art" an almost religious symbolic meaning in the worldview setting behind, corresponding to the [Symbolist Movement] that emerged during the Belle Époque. In the end, the whole world we see is like the crazy imagination of a painter, with paint splashing in the sky and the earth divided by color blocks. Many scenes are completely composed of wonders, and the composition is very shocking, as if putting the player into a series of Symbolist paintings, from the underwater world to the tower in the clouds, some are happy and vivid, some are extremely beautiful, and some are dark and terrifying, with dreams and nightmares intertwined, and elegance and unease coexisting.
The role of the scene in this game is not only to show information but also to tell various emotions. And every time you come to an important scene, the perfectly matched melody will also sound in due course. In plain language, the feeling is that "the style is full". Really, the music of the game is too finishing - touch, it can be said to be a double buff for art and plot. From the first moment I opened the main menu, that song almost hooked my soul. The soundtrack of this game combines the elements of classical music and French folk songs, as well as the strong melody of Japanese game soundtracks. Throughout the playthrough, the music always pushed my emotions to the right place at the right time. The reason why I was moved to tears by the ending was not only because of the plot itself but also the double stimulation of images and music. The aftertaste was so strong that I couldn't recover all night.
Cutscenes and Dialogue
The cutscenes of a game are also part of the aesthetics for me, and this game does an especially good job in this regard. Most of the plot cutscenes, from color and light to camera language, as well as the actors' dubbing and the characters' facial expression details, have achieved a movie - level effect. And the real-time calculated dialogue outside the cutscenes is also done with care. It's not just a simple stand - still dialogue, but tries to add camera movements. Different camera angles are used every time the dialogue person is switched, coupled with the exquisite character facial modeling, the immersion is very strong.
And the character design of this game really suits my aesthetic. Even though it is politically incorrect to discuss whether a character is beautiful or not nowadays, I still want to say loudly that the human protagonists in this game are really too good-looking. This is not the style of Japanese 2.5D aesthetics, which is a bit artificial, but a real - style beauty. The facial details are full, and the flaws are clearly visible, but they are still full of charm. And none of them are vases because the screenwriters have given them distinct personalities, allowing the players to clearly understand their inner worlds and what they are pursuing. And the style of the lines is also very mature and restrained. This is indeed something that modern JRPGs can't do. After all, Japan has its own drama forms and ways of thinking, and "secondary two" and "not speaking human language" are the norm. It's hard for some older players to resonate. But Expedition 33 is not like this. If the combat of this game is a leap forward against the blade, then its plot is a gentle narration that can slowly penetrate the heart. The super - reversal of the truth is not the point, but the people struggling in the truth are the point. Faced with huge and real pain, they make completely different choices and fight against each other. You understand the motives of each of them, so you can't blame any party, you can only sigh at the helplessness of fate. This is an extreme fantasy story, but you will see the shadow of real life in it, experience the beauty of friendship and family, and also experience the pain accompanied by "growth" and "letting go". At the end, you will also make your own choice, but there is no right or wrong. No matter which choice you make, it is within reason.
Conclusion
When I wrote this paragraph, it had been a day since I cleared Expedition 33, but my mind was still full of the figures of my companions, completely immersed in the emotions of the game. In order not to spoil the plot, I really can't go on. Let's stop here~ In short, Expedition 33 is an excellent and unique role-playing game. The art, music, and plot performance are all top-notch. At the same time, it deeply pays homage to the JRPGs of the golden age and also makes its own innovation in the gameplay system, integrating into a game experience that is exclusive to it. You may shed tears because of the plot, or jump up in excitement because of a perfect parry, or just be so cute by a cute magical creature that you can't stop smiling. And all of this comes from the love and dedication of a small French team to their childhood memories. They are not imitating JRPGs, but re - understanding JRPGs in their own way and telling a story that truly belongs to them and also moved me. If you are also a player who once loved the JRPGs of the old era and are willing to try more challenging battles, or if you are a plot - party player who just wants to be moved, then I sincerely recommend that you don't miss this expedition. It won't make you return to that teenager, but it will accompany you to face the present that you have grown up.
Well, that's all for today's sharing. I hope it will be helpful to you. If you like it, remember to like and share and support me. I'm Leya, see you next time~