Over the last few weeks I have been obsessed with Clair Obscur Expedition 33. I'm still obsessed with it, in fact. This game has been living rent free in my head ever sicne I started playing it, and the experience will stay with me for a very long time. It's such an impressive piece of art, I'm not sure how to articualte it.
The story touched something deep within my soul. The sad melancholic part of me that fundameltally knows that grief and loss are an existential part of life. The part of me that knows what it means to create. The time and emotion that goes into it. The joy and excitement, the frustration and pain. How an idea plants itself and just blooms to life.
It is a game that captures a specific aspect of the human experience. Which I think makes it one of those games that don't come around very often. I hesitate to call it the game of a generation, but it's undeniable that this game is one of the greats.
For me personally, it made me feel the absolute wonder of discovery again. Something I first felt in a video game when I played my first RPG, which was Final Fantasy X. The act of actively discovering a whole new world, the glee of walking around the corner and knowing that something new is waiting for you. It's a feeling I felt less and less as the years went on and games changed. I changed.
There is a kind of grief in that, I think. In knowing how you felt as a child playing those games. The excitement. The joy. The wonder. The wonderful stories and characters. And then the world changed. You got older, and your views shifted. And as you changed, video games did, too.
Maybe I am reaching here (and maybe I'm not making sense for anyone but me), but in a weird way that is what the Canvas meant for me. And also why I sat for a long while before the choice of whom I would follow to the very end. Maelle or Verso.
In the end I chose Verso.
And I could probably write a whole essay as to why. Maybe I will. This game has left a profound impression.
