1/20/26
Art style
I don’t care for the anime-esque style Claire Obscure has going on. It has a more interesting spin on it that others in this style, but I just have no affinity for it.
I’ve never played a final fantasy or anything of that ilk. I don’t watch much anime in that style. I’m not into the overly dramatic anime style (for lack of a better term, it’s reductive, and not exactly what I mean) art. It’s off putting to me.
I suspect most of this is lack of exposure and ignorance. I don’t know that it’s something I would or could grow to like, but I know for sure I don’t like it now. I think part of the issue is that is seems to be seeped in tropes and insider knowledge that are off putting to me. There’s a bunch of significance I don’t understand that is under communicated to the layman (I assume, maybe there’s nothing underneath).
- I like some anime, but most are not in that style. Ping pong. Frieren. Castlevania.
- Other games in the aesthetic I’m talking about. Neon White. 1000xResist. Final Fantasy.
I’ve seen some cool/funky looking weirdos in some screenshots of this game. I’m very into that, it doesn’t out balance the rest for me.
I do not like how shiny and polished and vfx’d and dramatic everything looks when I see screenshots of this game. This is to my own taste again, but I think I’ve been trained to feel negative about art I perceive as over polished. My own taste in games pushes me toward much simpler aesthetics.
JRPG mechanisms and tropes
I feel the same way about JRPGS as I do about the aesthetics. I don’t have literacy with this genre. I’ve played very few of them. Basically only Pokemon. There’s a whole host of things I bump against when I try to play games of this ilk. Maybe with more exposure, I’d like them more, but jumping in the deep end feels overwhelming.
I don’t like the overwhelming set of skill trees and character builds these games tend to dump on you at the beginning. Showing me a giant character skill tree as soon as a I load into a game is a negative for me, not a positive. I don’t want to see crunchy stuff like that until I’ve decided I’m invested in a game.
I’m not interested in transactional character life sim style story arcs. I don’t want to “date” my fellow NPCs. I’m not interested in improving our relationship meters. I’m not against playing with dolls, thats fine! But I’m not that interested in it. This is more of a general RPG thing, no clue how this exists in this game. I could probably do a whole separate note on my feelings here, I won’t now.
Pacing + just let me play the game
I need to be able to just start playing a game when I pick it up. I need to be hooked fast. If I’m not interested quickly, I drop games. I almost never finish games. I’m not totally sure why I drop games faster than other media, but I do (maybe because game length is very opaque?)
RPGs very frequently ruin this for me. They start me in a weird tutorial zone for hours. They make me talk to characters and watch cut scenes for hours. They seem determined to prevent me from playing a game.
Larger budget games also seem to insist that a proper game needs to have fully voice acted scenes, beautiful cinematics, branching character dialogues, skill tree unlocks, etc. on top of a gameplay mechanic. I find these things to all be pretty infuriating and distracting. I don’t mind them used in moderation. But these days I prefer games that are more focused on specific gameplay mechanisms and systems.
Narrative
The main interesting thing I hear about this game is the story. It sounds intriguing, I like what I’ve heard. That said I have trouble playing narrative games. I generally prefer a good story to be a book or some other linear media.
Systems
This is what I’m into these days. I primarily want to see games doing cool, interesting, and surprising things with their systems and mechanisms. I want to see two skills interact in an interesting way. I want to see two things in the environment unexpectedly interact.
I’m sure that Claire Obscure is interesting in this department. I’m skeptical that it is novelly interesting in such a way that I “need” to play it for this purpose.
I play plenty of crunchy and interesting systemic games. Slice & Dice, Mechabellum, and Hitman World of Assassination are a few. I don’t think Claire Obscure is really about its systems in the same way these games are. That’s totally fine, but that’s what I’m interested in right now.
JRPG combat
This is ignorance, for sure. I’ve played very few RPGs again. But my limited interactions with them thus far are not very interesting. There’s usually not much incentive to experiment with the tools they give you. Pushing damage is usually the best action.
I’m not into real time combat additions in turn based games
I don’t like rhythm games. I don’t parry in souls games. I find it frustrating and don’t enjoy practicing this sort of thing to try and get better at it.
I don’t like quick time actions added to turn based games. I want to just think about the turn based layer. Adding a reflex check that’s going to entirely determine my strategy’s success on top is unfun to me.
I think Claire Obscure not just sprinkling QTEs on top is cool. If you’re going to do this, really remake the identity of the game. I get why people like that. I don’t have an interest in that.