So Mote It Be

Looking back, Expedition 33 was probably my sweet spot for posting-about-a-game. It was a game that I really enjoyed, but wasn't obsessed about. I'd play for a while, hit a good story beat, take some time to collect my thoughts and jot down a post, then move on. Sometimes I just don't really click with a game and it languishes in the backlog without me ever feeling motivated enough to write about it. Or, on the opposite side, I have way too much fun with a game and would much rather play it than write about it.

 

Hades 2 falls squarely into the latter camp. I'd intended to have a good two or three posts up by now, and haven't even started writing about it, despite having put a good 60-ish hours into the game and reaching the credits. It's somehow even more addictive than the first Hades, to the point where I'll strategize to squeeze in a run before dinner or during a load of laundry.

 

 

I do wish that I'd written those earlier posts, because the game does change a good amount over the course of playing it. The early part of the game is focused more on unlocking things and mastering the basic mechanics, while the point I'm at now is more about overcoming challenges and optimizing builds. I haven't been playing by that long as the calendar goes, so I remember those earlier parts all right, but it isn't where my focus is on today.

 

 

First things first: Hades 2, like the prequel, is a modern action roguelike with strong RPG elements, much like Diablo, but blessed with a fantastic, deep, rich storyline and oozing with atmosphere from its Greek mythology setting. I blogged a lot about the original Hades, but hadn't mentioned here that I replayed it two years ago or so on the Playstation 5. I was slightly wary about picking up Hades 2 - I am getting older, and my reflexes probably aren't what they used to be - but it's been pretty smooth. I feel like I've retained a lot of my Hades skills, and recently playing a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate with my youngest brother has also helped keep my skills sharp.

 

 

Supergiant has done a fantastic job at evolving the original game. This isn't just a re-release of the original engine with new maps and monsters: they've reworked fundamental aspects of the core gameplay. It's the perfect kind of sequel: you aren't going in cold and can reuse some of your skills and learnings from the previous one, but you're also kind of in the same boat as new players in figuring out how systems work.

 

 

To pick one example nearly at random: in the original Hades, Dashes were probably the single most important skill to master. You're briefly invulnerable during a Dash, so being able to dash frequently is a huge help for survival, and prioritizing everything that helps your Dash is a smart move; Dashing also forces enemies to hesitate and re-orient to your new position, further helping you out. Hades 2 still has a Dash, but you only have a single Dash: unlike the original Hades where you could upgrade to have three or more dashes you can fire off in rapid succession, in Hades 2 you need to wait for a bit after only a single dash. But Hades 2 also adds a Sprint - or arguably upgrades it, as previously it was only an uncommon Hermes boon. You aren't invulnerable during a Sprint, but you move MUCH faster than your normal speed, can get around slow enemies, and can further upgrade your Sprint for more abilities (like leaving a flaming trail behind you, or gaining a temporary barrier that blocks incoming damage). So you no longer dash-dash-dash-dash all the time, but you still have a Dash, so... yeah. It's a learning curve, but a fun one.

 

 

The big-picture progression feels fairly similar. Each run progresses through a fixed sequence of Regions, and each Region contains a random selection of Locations for that biome, the end of each Region has a powerful Boss, and so on. In between runs you return to a home base where you can relax, chat with NPCs, upgrade equipment and so on. One major change to Hades 2 is a much more complex resource system, which I've really been loving. Hades 1 had a few basic economy currencies (gems, darkness), some rare resources (diamonds, titan blood), and very late in the game you could catch Fish as a resource to exchange for Gems. Fishing was one of my favorite parts of Hades, it's kind of just a dumb minigame but I really enjoyed it. Fishing is back in Hades 2, unlocks earlier, and is only one of a lot of new resource-gathering activities. You can also aid Lost Shades in returning home, dig up seeds, mine ore veins for metals, and so on. There are a lot more resources in Hades 2: Ashes, Psyche, Moondust, Silver, Glassrock, Lilies, Nightshade, Lotuses, Olives, Fated Fabric, Poppies, Cinders, Pearls, Golden Apples, tons and tons more. In Hades 1, the Gemstones were the core of the economy, and basically everything else upconverted from those. Hades 2 has Bones, which are kind of equivalent to Gemstones, except they aren't used for anything, just a currency for buying a few select types of things. For the most part you need various combinations of different ingredients in order to unlock things. It's complex, but I love the complexity, and it's managed really well in-game. You can clearly see the requirements, there's a handy screen for seeing where items can be sourced from (once you discover them the first time), and in-game you can set a "Reminder" that will track the items, even showing you during a run when a given chamber will have a resource you need for something you're tracking.

 

 

One side-effect of the complexity is that, once you get as late in the game as I am now, you will certainly have surpluses of some types of items and deficits of others. I could use a lot more Nectars and Stardusts and Golden Apples; but I'm drowning in a ton of Rubbish and Ashes and Psyche. Ashes and Psyche were super-useful early in the game, but not so much now. But, once you get to that point, you can recycle any items you don't want into Kudos, which are then used to unlock cosmetics at your base. In Hades 1 these were done with Gemstones, so there was a tradeoff between spending Gems on things with a mechanical reward and spending on visual/audio/story cosmetics; here, there's a clearer demarcation between currencies with mechanical rewards and the sole currency for cosmetic rewards.

 

 

One very minor niggle is finding resources. In smaller chambers you'll easily be able to see everything. You can unlock an ability fairly early in the game that will additionally notify you of nearby resources: a chime will sound, and a glowing light will float from you over to the resource (maybe a patch of dirt containing seeds or a lotus floating in a pool). But a particular late-game region has some huge areas, which look cool and have good gameplay, but can be annoying to thoroughly sweep for resources. You'll either need to spend a previous minute backtracing your steps to look for items, or press on and risk missing something you could have collected. That's really my only complaint though, and even that doesn't have a massive impact. On the whole there's so much more stuff to get than in Hades 1 and I'm really loving getting all the stuff.

 

 

As far as the actual gameplay, everything feels a little different, not just from things like the Dash/Sprint changes but the core weapons themselves. Early on I kept catching myself trying to map the Hades 2 weapons back to the Hades 1 ones, like thinking of something as "like the bow" or "like the fists", but none of them are directly comparable. For example, the skull is a little like the gun in how you load it and then shoot it, but there's much less ammo and you need to collect it back after firing. My favorite weapon in Hades 1 was probably the base Zagreus Fists; nothing in Hades 2 feels quite as fast as that, but the Flames have a somewhat similar playstyle in that you are constantly attacking the whole time, but now at mid/far range rather than melee.

 

 

Keepsakes are back, and at first glance they are the same: you get a Keepsake the first time you offer Nectar to someone, they go into your Cabinet, and you can eventually swap them in between Regions during a given run. But they all work differently this time around. The biggest collection are the "god keepsakes". In Hades 1 this would increase your odds of seeing a god and give better rarity. This time it guarantees seeing a god, but only once; and you can elect once to manually increase the rarity of a specific Boon before choosing it. Overall the game seems to much more strongly urge you to swap out Keepsakes in between Regions. Lots of them have a single-time effect (similar to Charon's Purse from Hades 1), and it will warn you in the Cabinet that the effect has expired.  

 

 

Before starting to touch on some story stuff, some general tips and thoughts to share:

 

 

Don't sweat resource prioritization too much. You'll eventually need a lot of everything. If you don't have an immediate need for something, that probably means you'll save time in the future when a new requirement pops up. That said, this is where I personally would focus for early-game items with all else being equal.

1.  Nectar. It's a lot more limited than most other items, and is critical for getting Keepsakes that will aid your runs and unlocking Prophecies that will provide more permanent resources. It's also used as an ingredient in many recipes.
2. Psyche. Increasing your Grasp lets you run with more Arcana cards, which is a huge power boost.
3. Ashes. Unlocking more Arcana cards gives access to more stuff. In particular, getting the Healing and Death Defiance abilities is huge for making it further into the run, which in turn provides more resources.
4. Bones. These will always be useful, but in the early game are less valuable than directly getting Psyche and Ashes. 

Unlocking weapons should also be a high priority, though it's slightly less important here than in Hades 1. Unlike Hades 1, you get valuable resources from Guardians no matter what weapon you beat them with. If you're going to maximize your runs and/or enjoy a challenge, you'll want to use whatever weapon has Grave Thirst, which is roughly equivalent to Dark Thirst in Hades 1. Ideally you'll want to find a weapon you like within each category, then focus on upgrading that weapon; the base weapons use standard reagents to upgrade, while the unlocked ones all require Nightmares, the new equivalent of Titan's Blood. I've found this post a useful resource for prioritizing weapons, though of course it's important to try things out and see what feels best to you.

 

 

As a general comment, like Hades 1, you don't need to worry about making bad decisions in terms of story or dialog or build or resources or anything. The story progresses as you play the game, but it isn't possible to branch in different directions or anything. You will see a bit more story for things you invest more time into, so if there's a particular person you like or are interested in, you may want to give them more Nectar and be sure to chat with them as much as you can; but doing that won't lock you out of anything else, and not doing that now won't prevent you from doing it later.

 

 

Be aware of the Fated List of Minor Prophecies, and take options that help fulfill prophecies whenever they come up, but (in my opinion) don't go out of your way to fulfill a prophecy. Like, if you just need one Demeter boon left to finish her prophecy, just wait until you naturally see her in a run, don't take her Keepsake just to try and get that prophecy. You'll eventually fulfill all of them anyways, and I think it's more fun to achieve them as a side-effect to trying to beat the game.

 

 

As is unfortunately the case for a lot of games these days, there isn't a great single resource for information. The Fandom wiki is active and relatively up-to-date, but not always current, and more importantly is Fandom and trash. I've been prefering the fextralife one, which feels a bit better, but has some very outdated data. (Hades 2 was in Early Access for years, and the wikis still talk about things that were changed or removed long ago.) I think a lot of the community is on YouTube and maybe Twitch, but I loathe watching videos for games; that said, the one time I did watch a video to try and understand how to use a particular weapon I found it far more helpful than any amount of reading I could do. The r/HadesTheGame subreddit is probably my favorite overall resource, but again, it's important to look for information that's relatively recent, since older posts may have obsolete advice.

MINI SPOILERS

Some notes on my current loadout and preferences:

 

 

I always run Grave Thirst. I'm kind of all over the map when it comes to Fear (the new equivalent of Heat); I need to run 12+ Fear on some weapons, while others only need 2.

 

 

I usually take whatever run is lit up for my Grave Thirst weapon. There are a couple of points where I might really want to do an Underworld or a Surface run in particular, and if GT is going in the wrong direction, I'll instead do a Chaos Trial. This resets the GT weapon and gives me another shot at a target. This is also kind of a soft reset of the Crossroads. You can talk to everyone again, but they only have very brief canned responses. But you can give Gifts again, and may see some people who weren't there previously, which can be nice for advancing relations. You might be able to grow some plants, get a quick delivery or finish a quick recipe while in the Chaos Trial, so it's worth setting any of that up before popping in there.

 

This took me way too long to figure out, but Grave Thirst also applies to Chaos Trials! So it, say, the current GT weapon is the Staff, doing a Chaos Trial with any Staff will give you the bones and gems for completing it.

 

 

My current favorite weapons are:

 

 

Circe Staff. I like to run with Gale, which stays very close. This means I don't get much use out of the Soul Link thing, but it does mean it's pretty easy to lay a double Cast down on someone. I'll try and get as strong a Cast as possible, ideally including some Apollo and Demeter.

 

 

Artemis Daggers. This feels a little like the Zag Fists in that I end up zipping all around the battlefield, punching bad guys. I don't intentionally try to get hit to trigger Riposte, it's more like a freebie bubble that saves some health when it procs but I'm happiest if it doesn't proc. I prioritize everything that speeds up my Omegas, then stack Attacks.

 

 

Melinoe Torches. I want to try some other torches, but so far these have been super-fun. I'll usually trigger my Special, then just spam Attack nonstop, firing off a lot of Omegas. Getting a good Selene ability is great since I'll be burning through a ton of magic; the time-slowing one is usually my favorite, but anything besides Health is good. Getting something like Zeus or Hestia on attack is great, then some status curse on my Special. This is my one build that doesn't use Cast very much.

 

 

Charon Axe. Kind of the opposite of the last two, this build is slow but very powerful. At first I would run in, cast, run out, and detonate; these days I try to stay in the cast circle but still back away. As with Circe, stacking Cast boons is great, though here I prefer the one-time-damage casts like Poseidon over the DOT casts like Demeter and Hestia. This weapon rocks against Typhon.

 

 

Medea Skulls. Probably my least-used weapon. It's another zip-around build like Artemis Daggers, doesn't need nearly as much Magic, is a little squishier but seems to take enemies down quicker. I mostly just load up the Attack as much as I can.

 

 

Nyx Coat. Another one I haven't used very much, my first full clear was with Poseidon on attack, but I realized afterwards that this was kind of a waste since he doesn't proc on the split attack. I need to play with this some more. On the various aspects I often end up using the Specials, which are probably the best kiting attack in the game, a little like the Chiron Bow from Hades 1: you can line up some attacks, fire off, and then run away while they chase the enemy.

For keepsakes:

 

 

Like with Hades 1, I almost never bring god keepsakes. I head into a run with an idea of what type of god I want to see, and usually will find someone I can work with during the first region: I might prefer Aphrodite, but Demeter is totally fine, for example. If I somehow got through the first region without getting my primary boon I might take a god to fill it, but that's very rare.

I currently have my default/favorite keepsake set to Circe's Crystal Figurine. This is kind of a lottery ticket. If I'm very lucky, I will get Judgement after the first Guardian, which means that I'll get all of the Arcana by the end of the game. I'll often end up with mediocre or irrelevant arcana for my build, which is also okay.

 

 

I'll situationally take the Aromatic Phial from Narcissus after the first or second boss, if I'm low on Health and have a common Boon. It can actually be great if I have exactly one common Boon that I really want to rarify. I discovered that it doesn't work on Chaos Boons, but if you don't have any eligible boons when you first get it, you can still use it on the following Fountain and it can rarify one you've picked up in the meantime. Remember to equip the Phial before drinking from the first fountain and unequip it after drinking from the second one.

 

 

Early in my campaign, I really liked using Arachne's outfit if I was running low on health after a Guardian. The first few locations in a region tend to be easy, so I could get a lot of health refills from entering locations while keeping my armor intact. It's still a good keepsake, but I have better ones to use these days.

 

 

Echo's Concave Stone is another fantastic one. I'll try and take this after I have a boon from a god I really like. I did once shoot myself in the foot though, when the stone triggered on a Zeus boon and made me take the ranged Cast ability. This totally threw off my style and led to a Typhon defeat. Since then, I've spent rerolls if I have an unexpired Stone and see a Boon I definitely don't want.

 

 

Charon's Purse is always a great choice. In the past I would start a run with it. These days I don't, but I will grab it if I have Chaos and/or Hermes boons to boost Gold, as those will apply to the purse and can lead to 300+ gold.

 

 

For the final region, I'll usually take one of the Luckiest Tooth for the free revive, the Evil Eye if it applies to Chaos/Typhon, or the Knuckle Bones.

I've just recently picked up the Jeweled Pom but haven't used it yet, and I think there are a few other Keepsake slots, so I may have to revisit this list in the future.

Moving on to Arcana:

 

 

My must-have cards for every run include:

• Health when leaving a location
• Increase max health and magic at start
• Increase max health and magic as you progress
• Death Defiance
• 50% damage to enemies with 2 curses

Lately I've started taking the lower-left corner for more rerolls and starting gold. It's been making a bigger difference than I thought it would. That does mean giving up some things I would otherwise want, though. I'll consider my weapon playstyle and decide what I can best live without: some Cast benefits or faster Omegas or something else. 

I've had all my cards unlocked for a while. I've prioritized upgrading the ones I use the most, but it will probably be a while until I have everything fully upgraded. Moon dust is expensive!

 

 

Moving on to story:

It's pretty cool to be in uncharted mythological territory. Hades 1 is a new story, but feels like it is woven in the space between existing tales. Hades 2 is completely new, though: the idea of the Titans returning and overthrowing the gods is really shocking and as far as I know has no precedence in the literature. But once again, the story is focused on the characters, and the characters are fresh and believable interpretations of their recognizable mythological origins.

 

 

Having Chronos as the main antagonist is a brilliant move. Hades 1 was great for a roguelike because of the in-universe explanation of why you keep coming back after dying. Hades 2 has a great explanation in its pocket for the alternate question, why enemies keep coming back after you kill them. So much can be hand-waved away with a being who can control the flow of time, and fortunately the Greeks already had one of those!

 

 

I like how the returning characters seem like evolutions of their previous appearance, or seeing different sides of them. Artemis in particular stands out: in the first game she was the most standoffish and reserved of all the Olympian deities, and it took a really long time for her to begin to warm up to Zagreus. But here, she and Melinoe are friendly and warm from the very start. But that makes a lot of sense, both from what we already know about Artemis and the kind of people she likes, and the "Silver Sisters" backstory to this particular game.

 

 

It was pretty fun to eventually see all of the original Olympians. I think Ares was the last one I made contact with. Dionysus might be my favorite here, just the perfect embodiment of who he is and what he would be doing in this situation.

 

 

Random note: the omniscient narrator seems to be the same voice actor as the original Hades. In an early flashback sequence Melinoe directly addresses the narrator as Homer and I went "Oh..... duh!" I don't recall him ever being identified in the first game, but it's perfect.

END SPOILERS

No mega spoilers this time, I do have some (positive) thoughts on the overall storyline, but I'll probably save those for the next post. If this is like the first game, I'll probably keep jamming on this game until I reach the epilogue; plenty of people keep playing for fun after that, but for me that will likely be a good point to pause and wind things down. 

 

Camera Obscura

I've finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and really enjoyed it! I actually beat the game almost a week (edit: two weeks) ago, but have been finishing up a few side-quests and optional boss fights. I'll be talking about that more in spoiler-town below, but for now I'll note that it's been a fun and nicely-shaped game. According to the in-game timer I've spent nearly 70 hours in the game; I think I was probably around 60-65 or so when I beat the final boss. I probably could have wrapped up a lot earlier if I'd just beelined the main story, but I'm glad I took my time.

 

I don't think I have many technical notes to add to what I had in my earlier posts. The game has been extremely stable for me, I didn't encounter any crashes or freezes for the whole time. I don't think I've called out the music, but that has been especially great: I find myself constantly listening to the tunes in my head when I'm not playing the game. They're really catchy, and really diverse: there's a lot of vocal music, piano, modern-pop-sounding, jazzy themes. They seem very comfortable letting the music take center stage, adding drama and flair to the proceedings, not subtly supporting it in the background.

 

Overall I'd say this game has a nice combination of feeling familiar (Final Fantasy vibes, standard progression mechanics like XP, gear and currency) and feeling original (very French aesthetics, a unique story, innovative battle system). It probably won't convert many RPG-haters to the genre, but it is a breath of fresh air for people who already enjoy it and are interested in trying something new.

 

 

MINI SPOILERS

Some notes on my final loadout:

 

 

For the most part I tended to have the same Luminas on everyone instead of specializing. As noted in my previous post, since I rotated party members periodically I kind of needed them to be as interchangeable as possible, so I didn't have, say, a dedicated buffer like many other players do. By the end of the game the loadout looked something like:

• Painted Power to exceed 9,999 damage
• Cheater to go twice in a row
• Rush on Start and SOS Rush to proc this buff
• Then chain with Shell on Rush and Powerful on Shell to get all the buffs
• Energizing Turn for +1AP each round
• Energy Master for an extra AP each time you get an AP
• Base Shield to get a Shield if you don't already have one. This is pretty huge, you can shrug off one hit per turn entirely, which neutralizes some fights, makes others much more survivable, and gives a better chance at learning attack patterns against a new foe
• Dodger - I never really did Parries, and the extra AP comes in handy 

 

 

Those were the cores, I think. I gave Maelle Burning Shots so she could proc Burns to get back into Virtuose Stance. Sciel or Lune would sometimes get Energizing Starts to hit AP thresholds for their openers. Maelle and Sciel got Inverted for damage boosts. If people had spare Lumina points I would pick up things like Greater Powerful.

 

My team was mostly built around Maelle and Sciel as huge damage dealers. I really liked Lune for utility, but she tended to feel pretty weak. Monoco was usually in my party as my Pictos-learning mule. I would swap Verso in occasionally to make sure he wasn't too underleveled.

 

 

Maelle would try to stay in Virtuose stance as much as possible,  using Fleuret Fury. With the right Luminas and periodic Dodges she could usually stay in it for a while. Being able to Break is a huge bonus. If she got low on AP, she would Pyrolyse to inflict Burn and switch into Defensive, then Swift Stride to get back into Virtuose. In Act 3 most boss fights would end once we built up to Gradient Level 3 and she unleashed Gommage.

 

 

I built Sciel for damage. She wielded Tisseron, which extends Twilight and lets you play again on entering Twilight (very helpful before getting Cheater). She needs to start combat with 9AP, then opens with Final Path to apply 10 Foretell. Then Twilight Slash to consume all the Foretell, refill her AP to max, and enter Twilight. Re-apply Final Path and Twilight Slash again for double damage. When it works out, it's worth spending one Gradient Charge on Shadow Bringer, which adds 10 Foretell without costing any AP; then follow up with Twilight Dance, a 9AP finisher that does huge damage boosted by the (hopefully doubled) Foretell. This is another boss-killing move.

 

 

By the end of the game, I had Lune running with Colim, which helps you get more Light Stains and boosts damage while holding Light Stains. My end-game rotation was opening with two Lightning Dances to generate a lot of stains and soften up targets, then Terraquake to start doing ongoing passive damage for 5 turns. Depending on my stain RNG, I might then start a Typhoon to do still more per-turn damage and heal my party (except the inverted Sciel and Maelle). Lightning Dance is also a great one when I have the AP and the right Stains.

 

 

Monoco ran with Ballaro, which rotates the Bestial Wheel order. My primary rotation was Braseleur Smash for damage and burn, then Ramasseur Bonk for huge Break damage (especially clutch against bosses). From Almighty Mask I would use Chalier Combos if I had enough AP, otherwise Rocher Hammering. If I started off the track for Almighty I would also work in Stalact Punches to get back on track.

 

 

I didn't use Verso a ton, but I did run with Confuso, another Light-aligned weapon that can generate a lot of Burn. If any enemies had Weaknesses I'd try to use him to Free Aim shoot them. He would otherwise use Speed Burst to get up to rank B, then either Assault Zero (low AP, many hits) or Perfect Break (can break, and jump to rank S if you do). Passing through A tends to be quick, Light Holder makes it quick and cheap. Once in S he spends most of his AP on free-aim shots, then Ascending Assault. In long fights, this can be yet another boss killer.

 

MEGA SPOILERS

As I often do after beating an RPG, I want to jot down my personal impression of the plot as eventually revealed throughout the game. I am not certain about all of this and haven't correlated anything with online information. If I were to replay the game, I would be interested to see how well this stacks up with lore as described within the game.

 

 

The game is set in a different world from ours, but does share some recognizable similarities. There is a structure that looks darn similar to the Eiffel Tower, and some familiar ideas and vocabulary.

 

 

Within the "real" world lived a family called the Dessendres. They are Painters, who have the ability to sub-create realities within a Canvas. For the most part beings within a Canvas cannot affect beings outside it, and usually are not even aware that there is a reality outside the Canvas. Painters can work outside the Canvas, but to be most effective they must enter into it. Doing this is tricky, as they may lose awareness of their real existence and only remember their lifespan as a painted being inside the Canvas.

 

 

The family matriarch, Aline, is an incredibly strong and talented Paintress. She taught her husband Renoir; I have the impression he had latent Painting ability that Aline helped him develop, but maybe it's a skill that can be taught from scratch, I'm not sure. They married and had three children. Clea, the oldest daughter, was even stronger than Aline: she's the one being who is talented enough to paint over someone else's creation. The middle child, Verso, was sensitive and fun-loving, and enjoyed creating whimsical creatures like the anthropomorphic paintbrush Gestrals, the silly creatures Monoco and Esquie, and the enormous Grandis. The youngest daughter was Alicia.

 

 

There is another group in the real world called The Writers; I don't think we ever learn much about what their deal was, other than their enmity with The Painters. Alicia befriended The Writers in some way, which allowed them to access the Desendre Manor. They set a catastrophic fire. Verso was able to save Alicia from death, but her face was badly burned in the flames, and Verso himself perished.

This shattered the family. In her grief, Aline entered into Verso's canvas. She painted a new Verso inside there, in the image and personality of her son, and let him continue playing with his childhood creations. While the real Verso was dead, a part of his spirit lived on inside the canvas, taking the form of a faceless boy.

 

 

Renoir was upset by Aline's withdrawal. Verso was dead, and nothing she could do would bring him back; and by retreating to the Canvas, she was abandoning her living family. So Renoir took it on himself to erase Verso's canvas: if he could get rid of all the memories of Verso inside there, Aline would have no reason to stay and would return to the real world.

 

 

Clea was irritated: now both of her parents had abandoned her and Alicia, locked into a silly struggle inside the Canvas, while nobody was doing anything about the Writers. Clea decided to help Renoir: since he was the weaker Painter, he wouldn't be able to overcome Aline, and the sooner the canvas was erased the sooner the parents would come back. So Clea began to paint the Nevrons: monstrous creatures who ate up the Chroma within the canvas. (I think Chroma is a bit like soul-life-force, and also just pigment: there's a finite amount of material within the Canvas at a given time, a Painter can dissolve a painted being and turn it into Chroma, then use that Chroma to paint a new being, or to enhance another being.)

 

The creatures within the Canvas had no idea any of this was happening: they don't know they're in a Canvas at all. They experienced this as an event they call The Fracture, which separated the human inhabitants of Lumiere from the rest of the Continent. I'm a little fuzzy on the exact sequence here, but: I think Clea painted over the version of herself that Aline had made. In the first Expedition, she beguiled an expeditioner named Simon, tricking him into entering the Abyss, an underwater area far beneath the Monolith where Aline lived. This helps limit Aline's power. Clea also creates the Nevrons who populate the Continent. Renoir is trying to undo the painting, which the humans experience as an event they call "The Gommage," where people just dissolve into chroma petals. The Paintress opposes this, but her strength is steadily growing weaker against both the in-canvas Renoir and the painted Clea, so each year more humans are gommage'd. This starts with all people age 99 and over dying; the next year, everyone 98 and older, and so on.

 

 

After some years, the citizens of Lumiere kind of figure out what's happening, at least what to expect each year. The Continent is dangerous, but is also the source of the Gommage. Unfortunately they misunderstand the Paintress's role: they think she is the one killing them, when actually she's the one holding back total death. One or two Expeditions figure out the truth, but aren't able to return word to Lumiere.

 

 

An Expedition is a group of Lumierans who go to the Continent to try and stop the Gommage. It primarily consists of those who are due to die in the next year, but anyone can join. Each Expedition chooses its own leaders and spends a great deal of time preparing, and each one usually tries to focus on a particular strategy. One Expedition tried focusing on stealth, disguising its members as Nevrons. (This did not go well.) One focuses on traversal, leaving behind handholds to aid future groups in scaling difficult walls. One consists entirely of naked people. (This one actually was relatively successful!) And so on. Each Expedition knows that it is extremely unlikely to triumph, hence their enduring mottos: "So we continue." and "For those who come after." Each Expedition records their successes and failures and learnings, leaving behind a record so future Expeditions can learn from their mistakes and, hopefully, eventually triumph.

 

 

The painted Verso is part of the initial Expedition. At some point he learns the truth: that he is not real, just a copy of a dead boy. But, to be fair, he is as real as everyone else inside the Canvas. He has sort-of company, too: Aline has painted versions of Renoir and the deformed Alicia, who are also aware that they are not real. Verso generally tries to help the Expeditions when he can, while Renoir and Aline generally oppose them. But keep in mind that the Expeditions are trying to destroy the Paintress, so in aiding the Expeditioners Verso is trying to kill off the Canvas, while (painted) Renoir and Alicia are trying to preserve it.

 

 

Back in the real world, Alicia and Clea have a chat. Alicia has been wracked with guilt for what has happened to Verso and their family. Clea is very matter-of-fact about everything. Alicia has managed to hide Verso's canvas, which Clea approves of: if Aline does leave the Canvas, she will want to jump right back in, so it's best to delay that as long as possible. Alicia volunteers to enter the Canvas to appeal to her parents to leave. While they struggle in there, Clea is single-handedly trying to hold back the Writers. Clea is a bit skeptical that Alicia will succeed, but also doesn't really care, and thinks that at a minimum she can't do any damage. Alicia enters the Canvas, but as she is less strong and experienced than the rest of her family, she quickly loses her identity. She is born into the Canvas as an infant girl named Maelle.

 

 

Many years pass. The game starts here.

 

Expedition 33 comes around - it's now been about 67 years since the Fracture. Maelle is only 15, but determined to join the Expedition: her parents have died so she is orphaned, and she has never really felt deeply connected to other people her age. One of the leaders of the expedition is Gustave. The big innovation of Expedition 33 is the "Lumina Converter". Previous Expeditions have discovered "Pictos", special powers that can be obtained by defeating particular Nevrons. With Gustave's converter, a Pictos can be studied and analyzed, and eventually learned by anyone else. They hope that this will give this new expedition a new edge.

 

 

There are several other Expeditioners; other than Maelle, most are in their early 30s and nearing their own Gommage. These include Lune, a brilliant scientist whose parents were also famous researchers; and Sciel, a widowed schoolteacher.

 

 

When the Expedition reaches the Continent, they are swiftly ambushed on the beach by the painted Renoir; he knows who Maelle really is, and is concerned that she will upset the balance of the Canvas. (And I think that if Maelle dies in the canvas, Alicia will wake up in the real world, slightly weakened and dazed but otherwise unharmed.) Maelle is saved by the real Renoir, who manifests as a faceless man known as the Curator. He takes her into a painted version of the Manor, the mirror image of their real-world home. Most of the rest of the expedition dies. Overcome with grief, Gustave nearly commits suicide, but presses on and discovers Lune, then Maelle and Sciel. Together they agree to press on.

 

 

They start going on adventures, including finding the whimsical Esquie and the various Gestrals. But the painted Renoir is still out there. Maelle starts having visions where she sees Renoir and Alicia; I'm not sure exactly how this works, it makes sense that the faceless Renoir could interrupt the flow of time in the Canvas but I'm not clear on how the painted versions can. Renoir murders Gustave, but the rest of the party is rescued by the painted Verso.

 

 

Verso takes the place of Gustave, leading the party on their quest to destroy the Paintress. There are a lot of trust issues here! The others eventually learn that he is Renoir's son, which is devastating for them to discover; he says "Family is complicated" multiple ways multiple times, they can see that he doesn't get along with (painted) Renoir so they figure that he's really on their side. Which he is, but they don't know that their side is misguided.

 

 

The Monolith is protected by an enormous invisible forcefield called the Barrier. The real Renoir tells them that to get past it, they will need a special weapon, the Barrier Breaker, which will require an enormous amount of Chroma to create. They can't collect that much Chroma from mere Nevrons: they will need to defeat Axons, who are Titan-esque beings. (I'm not totally sure how Axons fit into the Canvas cosmology; I sort of head-canon that they were preexisting beings painted by the real Verso, but I could be wrong.) The party dutifully does so.

 

 

They proceed to the Paintress. She recognizes Maelle as Alicia, but immediately starts to doubt herself. After all, there are other painted versions of her family running around, and she knows Renoir is trying to trick her. They succeed in defeating the Paintress. For a little while everyone is happy: they fly back to Lumiere where there's a big celebration. But with the Paintress gone, the real Renoir can proceed with erasing the Canvas, and so everyone gets gommage'd.

 

Except Maelle - she came from outside the Canvas, so she still has an existence independent of it. And Verso still survives as well. I forget now why that is - Maelle may have sheltered him, or it may be because of his connection with the real Dessendres. Maelle has regained her memories now. She knows that she is Alicia, but she also remembers being Maelle, and crucially, she wants to be Maelle. She feels more connected to the experiences she's had over the last fifteen years in this world than her life in another universe.

 

 

Maelle now regains her Painting abilities. Like the real Renoir or Aline, she can directly affect the Canvas while she's inside it. Among other things, that means she can bring back the "dead" / unpainted beings. By collecting Chroma, she is able to restore Lune, Sciel, and Verso's old friend Monoco back to life. As a side note, I think this is one of the purposes of the Nevrons: when loose Chroma becomes available, Clea can capture it and lock it up in a monster, keeping Aline or anyone else from using it to their own ends.

 

 

Maelle wants to meet the painted Alicia, and they do. This is a really interesting scene, as the painted Alicia looks like the real Alicia, while Maelle is the real Alicia but doesn't look like her. Alicia is mostly unable to speak due to the damage from the fire: her painted form was unkindly created. Alicia asks to be unmade. Maelle accepts, and this leads to a big argument between her and Verso: Verso is torn up at losing her, enraged that he didn't get to say goodbye. This Alicia isn't "real", but she is as real as this Verso is, and they've been through a lot together. Maelle is adamant that Alicia should get to make her own decisions, and it would be cruel to deny or delay her.

 

 

The party collects a lot of Chroma with the goal of resurrecting the Expeditioners so they can take on Renoir. They eventually return to Lumiere and do this. (I was overlevelled for this fight and one-shot him.) Now both Aline and Renoir have been kicked out of the canvas, and only Maelle/Alicia is left.

 

 

At this point, Verso has an urgent request: he wants Maelle to unpaint him. I'm not totally sure why! In my game he was having a nice time with Sciel, he seems to genuinely enjoy goofing around with Esquie and going on adventures with Monoco. It might be that he's just tired: he's lived for many years and won't age and die like others. It might be that he can't stand the ongoing awareness of being the shadow of a dead person. Maelle is aghast at the suggestion: she has been doing all of this to preserve her friends' lives and bring them back, not to kill them.

 

 

There aren't many choices in this game, I think the only big ones are who to romance and whether you side with Verso or Maelle at the end. I automatically picked Maelle: not because I'd deeply thought through the ethical issues raised by their disagreement, but because she's my strongest fighter and I always pick her when I have the chance. She instantly annihilated Verso.

 

 

This led to an ending where everything seems happy again. At the opera house you see Gustave and his girlfriend smiling, Sciel reunited with her dead husband, Gustave's apprentices running around. Verso comes on stage to begin performing. He looks much aged; unlike everyone else, he isn't smiling. As he begins to play, the "camera" shifts back to Maelle's face. She has paint over her, which we've seen just a couple of times before, notably with Clea. Once again, I'm not sure what to make of this. It might mean that Clea herself is steering events: she somehow painted over the incarnate Alicia/Maelle. Or it might mean that Maelle is following in Clea's footsteps, enforcing her will on others. It's an interesting juxtaposition, the happiness of everyone in the scene set against Verso's tightly-wound despair and a possibly sinister twinge from Maelle.

 

 

I do think that the meta-question posed by the ending dilemma is really interesting, though. After beating Renoir and seeing the ending I reloaded and did the remaining content; I had already beaten Clea in the Flying Manor, and after seeing the ending I did the Painted Love fight against (seemingly) the real Aline and Renoir, talked with the real/shadow Clea there, then fought Simon in the Abyss and listened to his journal. These scenes add a lot of context that may have flown over my head if I hadn't already seen the ending, and I suspect there's other earlier content that likewise would scan differently once you understand the overall cosmology. Anyways, the root ethical question has to do with the proper mode of grief (whether to dwell in the past or "move on"), with Maelle joining Aline in arguing for the value in indulging in fantasies that comfort us, while Verso joins Renoir in ending those fantasies. Now that I write this, it feels almost like a reversal of their reactions to the painted Alicia, where Verso wanted her to continue while Maelle allowed her to end.

 

 

Anyways, I thought the story was really intriguing; like many JRPGs, I love that it embraces ambiguity and impressionism, leaving you to chew over the implications of sparse lore instead of fully exposing everything.

 

 

Let's do a random roundup:

• Favorite party member (combat): Maelle
• Favorite party member (non-combat): Sciel
• Favorite mechanic: Foretell
• Favorite weapon: Medalum
• Favorite NPC: Golgra
• Favorite battle arena: Paintress, with a close runner-up for the Abyss
• Favorite biome: Cliffs
• Favorite boss: Paintress
• Hardest boss: Simon. (I had to look up online how to cheese him.)
• Most skipped: Gestral Beaches
• Favorite historical Expedition: The naked guys, both for the VO and their successes. Runner-up is the climbing team.
• Favorite Lumina: Energy Master
• Favorite Nevron: Stalact
• Least Favorite Nevron: That speedy guy with blade hands
• Favorite gimmicky fight: Mimes
• Favorite Petank: Green-smoke guy
• Least Favorite Petank: Parry guy

END SPOILERS

Like I said up top, this was a blast. I haven't done any online reading yet, I'm already curious whether this new studio is planning some sort of follow-up to this game and world or if it will remain a one-off. It definitely stands on its own, but also feels rich enough to support more games within it. It's nicely scratched that Final Fantasy itch but in a way that feels like a loving homage and remix and not like a rip-off. I'm not sure if I'll ever replay this, but if I do I'll be very interested to see how the early story can be more deeply examined through the prism of later revelations. In any case, I'll likely be thinking of this game for some time to come.