Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
analyzed 2026-08-14 · sample of 596 English reviews across the whole review history
Players consistently praise the story, with many describing it as immersive and emotionally resonant; one wrote that they "lived this world and this story in true sense," while another called it a "grounded story with real threats, mature plotline." The music is another near-universal highlight, frequently described as beautiful and immersive. Combat also earns strong approval, with players noting the parry, dodge, and jump mechanics and calling the twist on the JRPG genre effective. Characters, graphics, and the world are all mentioned in strongly positive terms, with the art style and voice acting receiving similar acclaim. Criticism is more scattered but clusters around a few areas. Balance is the most uniformly negative aspect, with players reporting that side content leads to becoming overleveled and that certain characters gain huge power spikes. The UI draws consistent complaints about missing options and organization, and stability issues appear, including softlocks and cloud save concerns. Performance and animation are more divided, with some praising smoothness and expressiveness while others report bugs and finicky controls. Difficulty also splits opinion, though many who mention it do so positively, including one player who "played on expert and loved it." Opinion divides most clearly on the learning curve and level design, where some find the systems deep and rewarding while others feel things are not fully explained. The recurring praise for emotional impact, atmosphere, and pacing suggests the game's tone lands well for most, while the negative notes on balance, UI, and stability are the main recurring cautions.
quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording
Aspects
share of sample, axis to 40% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share
- positive
- mixed / neutral
- negative
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story
173 positive · 5 negative · 5 mixed · 0 neutral
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Best RPG since Baldur's Gate 3, story heavy, emotional and with engaging combat system.
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The world, the music, the story, the characters, the theme(if you know, you know)
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gorilla grip story.
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music
131 positive · 0 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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2025 Game of the Year, and will without a doubt win OST of the year.
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The world, the music, the story, the characters, the theme(if you know, you know)
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The music is both beautifully elegant and hype.
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combat
112 positive · 10 negative · 7 mixed · 1 neutral
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you can parry, dodge, and jump in battle.
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Best RPG since Baldur's Gate 3, story heavy, emotional and with engaging combat system.
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Personally i played on expert and loved it, not sure how easy the easy mode is, but its well worth just for the experience of the story.
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gameplay
87 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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exciting gameplay.
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Fresh gameplay, beautiful world, great story.
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pinnacle of JRPGs; grounded story with real threats, mature plotline, likable characters, system mechanics are pristine and keep you active despite the stigma surrounding turn-based games.
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characters
66 positive · 5 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral
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The world, the music, the story, the characters, the theme(if you know, you know)
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pinnacle of JRPGs; grounded story with real threats, mature plotline, likable characters, system mechanics are pristine and keep you active despite the stigma surrounding turn-based games.
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Every single character is masterfully done, both in terms of their stories and how they intertwine.
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graphics
66 positive · 3 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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great visuals.
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Looks good, runs a bit bad.
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graphics are 10/10 music very good and gameplay loop excelent
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emotional impact
48 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Best RPG since Baldur's Gate 3, story heavy, emotional and with engaging combat system.
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I had tears in my eyes like 5 times throughout the game and I still can't believe its over.
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This was probably the most gut-wrenching, heartbreaking experience that I have had when it comes to games.
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world
46 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The world, the music, the story, the characters, the theme(if you know, you know)
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Fresh gameplay, beautiful world, great story.
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It's rare when a video game completely enthrals you in its world.
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art style
40 positive · 0 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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The art-style is gorgeous.
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The art is amazing, the combat isnt unique but refreshing and it runs relatively smoothly.
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It's an extremely beautiful game, with a great merge of realistic and fantasy art style, followed with a fantastic soundtrack, incredible voice acting, and innovative game designs.
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difficulty
21 positive · 9 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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Personally i played on expert and loved it, not sure how easy the easy mode is, but its well worth just for the experience of the story.
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i lose to the same boss on max difficulty for 3 hours and i run back in to try again w a smile on my face bc it's just that fun in a way i havent experienced since elden ring
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Even if you don't enjoy turn based combat, or the JRPG aspect, you can lower the difficulty and just enjoy everything else that makes this such a wonderful experience to play.
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see more
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voice acting
28 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The voice acting is immaculate, both from the greats such as Andy Serkis, Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English, and also from a lot of the other cast.
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This, alongside amazingly well-done cut-scenes and expertly performed voice acting, bring all of them to life and enhance the story to make it an unforgettable experience.
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It's an extremely beautiful game, with a great merge of realistic and fantasy art style, followed with a fantastic soundtrack, incredible voice acting, and innovative game designs.
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build variety
18 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The build variety of skills mixed with pictos (items that grant unique abilities) allows you to make unique, interesting builds and do an absurd amount of damage when working in tandem with one another.
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So many ways to play, none of them are wrong.
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There are a lot of skills and abilities to mix and match, comboing off between your party members to keep damage and action points high.
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exploration
16 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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its also got some open world to it as well.
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Exploration is both fun and rewarding, offering breathtaking views, hidden areas and secrets and items that will help you on your journey.
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The exploration feels rewarding, you actually want to walk around and snoop in every corner of the game.
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performance
9 positive · 7 negative · 2 mixed · 1 neutral
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The art is amazing, the combat isnt unique but refreshing and it runs relatively smoothly.
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Not a fan of UE5 so far as it is a resource hog, but game runs perfectly fine.
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+ Performance: Runs like butter. I have a pretty good PC but I was still amazed how well this game ran and how quick it loaded considering the demanding-looking graphics.
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writing
18 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The story's writing and characters' performances moved me to tears more than once.
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The writers execute on each method at very high quality, with details ranging from the careful arrangement of bodies around a journal entry, to the layered slow burn of the world building.
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The writing is great, the VA dialogue in cutscenes is superb, and the art of the game itself is incredible.
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animation
10 positive · 6 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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The animations are fantastic, the visual and sound effects never tipped me off.
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… in every aspect, the world is beautiful, characters have deep personalities with flaws and nuances, their expressiveness is incredible to the point character's emotions on their faces look real, the story is intriguing and will make you cry and smile like a good novel, the combat is fun and …
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Even in the heat of battle, the game doesn’t lose its visual identity—animations are smooth, attack effects are painterly, and environments feel alive with surreal, dreamlike beauty.
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price value
16 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The audacity to not be charging $70 for this is unbelievable.
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Also, this game not being $60 or $70 is crazy.
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This game is well worth the price!
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progression
12 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Gameplay feels good and progress is not to slow or to fast for that matter.
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… can give something like a souls-like hard experience for those who enjoy the challenge, exploration is rewarding, mechanics and character builds and synergies are deep and well thought, and the music.
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The picto and skill systems are deep and satisfying.
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level design
8 positive · 6 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The world-map especially is a treat to travel in, with a good amount of optional side areas and bosses to find.
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Spread out across this map are many small locations with carefully crafted pathways and secret items.
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The game is well designed, visuals are stunning, and the game play is amazing.
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balance
0 positive · 12 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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… thought this game was perfectly challenging and balanced until the start of Act 3 where you get a huge power spike. At that point my crew, specifically Maelle, got SO strong that I was one shotting everyone. Fun at first but when you finally face a tough boss you've been eyeing for a while and …
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5 because some bosses are kinda ♥♥♥♥ and if you do the side content you get way too overleveled
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But most cases (for me), most bosses/mini-bosses deal a whole health bar of damage so if you can't figure it out in 1-3 hits (the boss wiping your team) you have to start the fight over.
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developer conduct
10 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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If only other game companies would show the same love that this team does.
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The combat system is awesome, the world is beautiful, the characters are great, and the devs are unafraid to make fun of themselves or reference memes.
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To top it off, it's a small studio that made this game which makes it even more impressive.
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ui
1 positive · 11 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Could use some more options in the options menu (the game has way too much bloom lighting), as well as more thorough accessibility options.
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- Quality of Life: Here are some things I found myself asking for while playing: map markers, weapon favorites, saving a character build, maybe a whole crew build, better organization of pictos and augments, and changing the music while exploring the main map, as I mentioned.
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Pretty confident it's the best game I've played on these 30 years on earth, I cannot even think of complaints outside minor quality of life stuff (Restart battle option)!
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atmosphere
9 positive · 0 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral
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I was expecting a solid story with great atmosphere and world building going into this and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 delivered on those expectations better than I was even expecting by far.
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atmosphere 10/10
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Every score in every zone was giving the just right atmosphere.
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content amount
9 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Completing the story took me about 35 hours but I still have content I want to complete before moving into NG+, which I very much do want to do.
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Over 30 hours of pure content and barely scratched the surface. One of the greatest games ever made, story, gameplay, visually, music, everything.
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Currently have 47 hours or so logged in Expedition 33, and there is still a hell of a lot of endgame content and upgrades I havent seen yet--although a bit of the time was spent absolutely failing all the gestral beach challenges and parkour.
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game length
6 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 2 neutral
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A lot of people are beating this thing in 30-40 hours. I did everything to stretch it as far as i could and i have not even started NG+ yet. i cant recommend this game to people enough.
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60 hours, and I have not yet completed Act 2.
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(1st Playthrough = 89 hours, 10/10 Game of the Decade)
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addictiveness
7 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Not wanting to be spoiled, I put a full 60 hours in before a week had even passed; no game has managed to grip me this tight in years.
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I have not stop playing since I purchased the game I am definitely going to try my best to get 100% on it
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Hooked me in from the prologue. Haven't picked up and couldn't put down a game since Kingdom Hearts 1 / FFX
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bugs
1 positive · 7 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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It has a few buggy moments, but nothing crazy or breaking.
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Part of this, in fairness, was because i was dealing with the widescreen FOV glitch.
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There are minor bugs with the exploration system especially in the overworld, with myself becoming softlocked on a few occasions and needing to reload a save.
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learning curve
3 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Some things are not fully explained to the player that should've been earlier on.
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The game just doesn't simply state this.
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- Poor explaination of the Lumina and some characters abilities (I personally played through most of the game not understanding how the lumina systems works, nor Lunes abilities)
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pacing
6 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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Tight, well-paced, with the classic tropes of saving the world, family woes, and watching your world expand as you start to run, swim, and eventually even fly over the worldmap.
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No handholding, no padding on the gameplay.
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The story telling, pacing and suspense are excellent, finding the perfect balance of keeping things in the dark and slowly unraveling the story and secrets.
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stability
0 positive · 8 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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There are minor bugs with the exploration system especially in the overworld, with myself becoming softlocked on a few occasions and needing to reload a save.
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Beware: Steam might delete your cloud save if you need to reinstall your OS for any reason.
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i pressed to enter my save and i accidentaly hold the x button and then i lost everything i lost literaly 110 hours in the game.
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controls
2 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The only gripe I have about this game is the jumping mechanic, it's extremely finicky to the point where unless I NEED to do a jumping puzzle I just won't because the jumping system is so particular about how far away from the edge you need to be or you will just run right off instead.
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- Movement: The sprinting in this game is kinda wack. It could def be touched up.
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_ the character movement control is not quite adapted to platforming.
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sound design
7 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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10/10 sound design.
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The game is pretty, delightfully bizarre and with audio design rich as crème brûlée.
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Sound: Amazing
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quest design
2 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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IMO some of the side stuff definitely should have been made critical path.
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- The final act lacks some direction. I loved all the side content but it was difficult to divine what to do.
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Side quests seem pointless too, as theres the risk of getting OP way too quick.
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replayability
4 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral
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The ending had me messed up for a good week after beating it and it's one of the few games I actively enjoyed hunting for 100% completion.
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This is the kind of game I will gladly go back to and play all over again.
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I played it all the way through, did everything post-game almost immediately, then immediately went to play my first ng+ run of it.
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Review timeline
weekly peak 21,103 reviews · all languages
weekly share rated positive · 50% reference · weeks with <5 reviews faded
the timeline as a table
| week | reviews | up | down | positive | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| week of 24 Apr 2025 | 21,103 | 19,559 | 1,544 | 93% | |
| week of 01 May 2025 | 17,447 | 16,497 | 950 | 95% | |
| week of 08 May 2025 | 13,330 | 12,837 | 493 | 96% | |
| week of 15 May 2025 | 10,305 | 9,979 | 326 | 97% | |
| week of 22 May 2025 | 8,099 | 7,834 | 265 | 97% | |
| week of 29 May 2025 | 6,061 | 5,852 | 209 | 97% | |
| week of 05 Jun 2025 | 4,963 | 4,823 | 140 | 97% | |
| week of 12 Jun 2025 | 3,512 | 3,404 | 108 | 97% | |
| week of 19 Jun 2025 | 2,858 | 2,765 | 93 | 97% | |
| week of 26 Jun 2025 | 3,037 | 2,920 | 117 | 96% | |
| week of 03 Jul 2025 | 2,926 | 2,808 | 118 | 96% | |
| week of 10 Jul 2025 | 2,604 | 2,494 | 110 | 96% | |
| week of 17 Jul 2025 | 2,230 | 2,138 | 92 | 96% | |
| week of 24 Jul 2025 | 2,362 | 2,277 | 85 | 96% | |
| week of 31 Jul 2025 | 2,162 | 2,088 | 74 | 97% | |
| week of 07 Aug 2025 | 1,682 | 1,618 | 64 | 96% | |
| week of 14 Aug 2025 | 1,489 | 1,436 | 53 | 96% | |
| week of 21 Aug 2025 | 1,428 | 1,359 | 69 | 95% | |
| week of 28 Aug 2025 | 1,451 | 1,399 | 52 | 96% | |
| week of 04 Sep 2025 | 1,263 | 1,208 | 55 | 96% | |
| week of 11 Sep 2025 | 1,100 | 1,054 | 46 | 96% | |
| week of 18 Sep 2025 | 1,016 | 971 | 45 | 96% | |
| week of 25 Sep 2025 | 949 | 905 | 44 | 95% | |
| week of 02 Oct 2025 | 1,170 | 1,110 | 60 | 95% | |
| week of 09 Oct 2025 | 1,052 | 988 | 64 | 94% | |
| week of 16 Oct 2025 | 906 | 874 | 32 | 96% | |
| week of 23 Oct 2025 | 847 | 813 | 34 | 96% | |
| week of 30 Oct 2025 | 1,355 | 1,260 | 95 | 93% | |
| week of 06 Nov 2025 | 1,522 | 1,410 | 112 | 93% | |
| week of 13 Nov 2025 | 1,639 | 1,554 | 85 | 95% | |
| week of 20 Nov 2025 | 11,909 | 11,740 | 169 | 99% | |
| week of 27 Nov 2025 | 8,992 | 8,865 | 127 | 99% | |
| week of 04 Dec 2025 | 1,632 | 1,505 | 127 | 92% | |
| week of 11 Dec 2025 | 4,712 | 4,009 | 703 | 85% | |
| week of 18 Dec 2025 | 3,961 | 3,490 | 471 | 88% | |
| week of 25 Dec 2025 | 3,562 | 3,230 | 332 | 91% | |
| week of 01 Jan 2026 | 3,229 | 2,932 | 297 | 91% | |
| week of 08 Jan 2026 | 2,498 | 2,323 | 175 | 93% | |
| week of 15 Jan 2026 | 1,667 | 1,527 | 140 | 92% | |
| week of 22 Jan 2026 | 1,344 | 1,248 | 96 | 93% | |
| week of 29 Jan 2026 | 1,116 | 1,008 | 108 | 90% | |
| week of 05 Feb 2026 | 925 | 848 | 77 | 92% | |
| week of 12 Feb 2026 | 897 | 821 | 76 | 92% | |
| week of 19 Feb 2026 | 881 | 819 | 62 | 93% | |
| week of 26 Feb 2026 | 654 | 612 | 42 | 94% | |
| week of 05 Mar 2026 | 672 | 601 | 71 | 89% | |
| week of 12 Mar 2026 | 630 | 588 | 42 | 93% | |
| week of 19 Mar 2026 | 727 | 671 | 56 | 92% | |
| week of 26 Mar 2026 | 758 | 673 | 85 | 89% | |
| week of 02 Apr 2026 | 623 | 570 | 53 | 91% | |
| week of 09 Apr 2026 | 598 | 567 | 31 | 95% | |
| week of 16 Apr 2026 | 512 | 479 | 33 | 94% | |
| week of 23 Apr 2026 | 699 | 647 | 52 | 93% | |
| week of 30 Apr 2026 | 612 | 549 | 63 | 90% | |
| week of 07 May 2026 | 566 | 517 | 49 | 91% | |
| week of 14 May 2026 | 573 | 530 | 43 | 92% | |
| week of 21 May 2026 | 485 | 439 | 46 | 91% | |
| week of 28 May 2026 | 432 | 398 | 34 | 92% | |
| week of 04 Jun 2026 | 448 | 416 | 32 | 93% | |
| week of 11 Jun 2026 | 545 | 487 | 58 | 89% | |
| week of 18 Jun 2026 | 460 | 435 | 25 | 95% | |
| week of 25 Jun 2026 | 591 | 535 | 56 | 91% | |
| week of 02 Jul 2026 | 647 | 573 | 74 | 89% | |
| week of 09 Jul 2026 | 572 | 534 | 38 | 93% | |
| week of 16 Jul 2026 | 464 | 431 | 33 | 93% | |
| week of 23 Jul 2026 | 462 | 428 | 34 | 93% | |
| week of 30 Jul 2026 | 517 | 468 | 49 | 91% | |
| week of 06 Aug 2026 | 472 | 434 | 38 | 92% | |
| week of 13 Aug 2026 | 66 | 63 | 3 | 95% |
How this report was made
- Population
- all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
- Sample
- 596 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 68 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 596
- Aspect yield
- 304 of 596 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (51.0%); every share on this page divides by all 596
- Interval regime
- calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
- Fetch paths
- 68 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
- Language mix
- 1,000 fetched: english 598 · french 106 · brazilian 56 · 18 more
- Steam-marked windows
- none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
- Marked share
- 0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
- Narrative
- passed the grounding gate first try
- Evidence floor
- aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
- Instrument readings
- measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
- · aspect tagging vs. human labels
- 0.766 [0.713–0.811] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
- · quotes filed under the wrong aspect
- 11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better
- · independent model vs. production labels
- 0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model)
- Versions
- deepseek-v4-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
- Run
- serve-20260814T033804Z-deac10bf · code 6bbb8aa
full methodology in the milestone write-ups