So, is Expert difficulty fun?

[NinjaGuy]

I'm getting the game tonight, and I'm still struggling to decide if I'll be playing on normal or expert.

I usually play all of my games on the hardest difficulty. Doom 2016's nightmare difficulty kicked my ass, but I still had a lot of fun.

From what I'm gathering here, expert seems really frustrating? And HP doesn't seem to matter since you get one shot anyway, which doesn't seem too RPG-like (can you grind to make it easier?)

So is Expert fun as a first playthrough?

[Jice]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

The game is too easy bordering on trivial even on Expert, it just asks you to be more exacting with your parries. I would say Expert is less about making you feel more challenged (owing to the game being poorly tuned) and more about shifting the satisfaction off of your individual decisions and towards your ability to hit parry in time.

So, to answer the question "is Expert fun as a first playthrough?" I would say whatever is different about its "fun" will depend on you. Do you enjoy your turn-based decisions mattering less and your ability to press a button on cue mattering more? You have your answer.

Speaking to the rest of your message, yes, you should play on Expert, because most of this game insults your intelligence even on Expert, so you may as well do all you can to eek out challenge.

This is not true. A guy speaking if “intelligence” should know better. Of course parrying matters a lot but your skills, pictoz, stats, stances etc also play a huge roll in surviving and beating a fight quickly so you don’t have to parry a lot more attacks. (Especially If you do miss some parries) There is a lot of fun combinations you can try, and it gets you thinking a lot on how to improve skill synergy and stats for specific fights. It would probably be easy if you look up stuff online, but that ruins the game imo copying other peoples builds as and it’s truly a shame if you’ve done so

[DJ Rocket X]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

Originally posted by NinjaGuy:

I'm curious about this. Do you mean that it doesn't matter how you build your character up, because it goes down the drain no matter what? Or do you mean something else by insulting your intelligence?

That's mostly what I mean, yes. Individual decisions - attributes, skills, gear, moment to moment battle choices - have almost no actual impact on how you do. You can self-sabotage by skipping turns or healing yourself at full health or something completely inorganic and aimed to deliberately fail, but if you are making any attempt at lowering the enemy's health, the vast majority of your success hinges on whether or not you pushed the parry button in time.

Clair Obscur on Expert is overwhelmingly your dexterity and almost none of which your out of or in-combat decisions. Hence, insulting your intelligence; the illusion of choice doesn't matter and the points are made up.

Now, I'm still early on, so maybe my opinion isn't as grounded as yours, but playing expert on my first playthrough... So far to me it's felt like it does incredibly hinge on whether or not I can hit the parry/dodge timing like you've said, but it feels like everything else I do is important as I'm constantly wanting to maximize damage or keep health as high as possible after a fumble, since I can only miss a few parries before I get overwhelmed.

[Jice]

Originally posted by DJ Rocket X:

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

That's mostly what I mean, yes. Individual decisions - attributes, skills, gear, moment to moment battle choices - have almost no actual impact on how you do. You can self-sabotage by skipping turns or healing yourself at full health or something completely inorganic and aimed to deliberately fail, but if you are making any attempt at lowering the enemy's health, the vast majority of your success hinges on whether or not you pushed the parry button in time.

Clair Obscur on Expert is overwhelmingly your dexterity and almost none of which your out of or in-combat decisions. Hence, insulting your intelligence; the illusion of choice doesn't matter and the points are made up.

Now, I'm still early on, so maybe my opinion isn't as grounded as yours, but playing expert on my first playthrough... So far to me it's felt like it does incredibly hinge on whether or not I can hit the parry/dodge timing like you've said, but it feels like everything else I do is important as I'm constantly wanting to maximize damage or keep health as high as possible after a fumble, since I can only miss a few parries before I get overwhelmed.

It gets a lot better as you get more Pictos, skills, equipment, character abilities, etc. tons of customization to help improve fights

[Vacenti]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

The game is too easy bordering on trivial even on Expert, it just asks you to be more exacting with your parries. I would say Expert is less about making you feel more challenged (owing to the game being poorly tuned) and more about shifting the satisfaction off of your individual decisions and towards your ability to hit parry in time.

So, to answer the question "is Expert fun as a first playthrough?" I would say whatever is different about its "fun" will depend on you. Do you enjoy your turn-based decisions mattering less and your ability to press a button on cue mattering more? You have your answer.

Speaking to the rest of your message, yes, you should play on Expert, because most of this game insults your intelligence even on Expert, so you may as well do all you can to eek out challenge.

Mfw when I beat almost all end game bosses without parrying once

[Ojustme]

Ye, it's fun and then you find build that breaks the game and steamroll vast majority of the bosses - happened to me in act 3, I did a lot of optional areas though, some of them very tough.

At this point i don't really need to parry, i just alpha strike things into oblivion, including supposedly hard bosses.

So honestly, i recommend chossing expert becaue it will make you interact with game , find builds and strategies that suit you and it won't be too hard anyway.

[Vacenti]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

Originally posted by NinjaGuy:

I'm curious about this. Do you mean that it doesn't matter how you build your character up, because it goes down the drain no matter what? Or do you mean something else by insulting your intelligence?

That's mostly what I mean, yes. Individual decisions - attributes, skills, gear, moment to moment battle choices - have almost no actual impact on how you do. You can self-sabotage by skipping turns or healing yourself at full health or something completely inorganic and aimed to deliberately fail, but if you are making any attempt at lowering the enemy's health, the vast majority of your success hinges on whether or not you pushed the parry button in time.

Clair Obscur on Expert is overwhelmingly your dexterity and almost none of which your out of or in-combat decisions. Hence, insulting your intelligence; the illusion of choice doesn't matter and the points are made up.

Saying attributes, stats, and equipment don't matter or is less important than parrying is just a flat out lie lmao. Parrying is good but it doesn't make or break anything. The difference in build can change a 30 minute fight to 5 minutes tops. Also counterattack damage is pitifully low. I can easily hit 10-25 mil on single target attack. Parrying counter attack will never get close to that.

Not even to mention your weapon scales heavily on attributes.

Survivability is good early on, especially due to the damage cap. That's why parrying is so good. Post game bosses are parryable but aren't worth it when I can just 2 turn them with the correct set up.

Also yes HP/defence matters. It literally can stop you from getting 1-shot to 2-3 shot in most cases.

[Cr8ToR]

just find a "secret" boss in area witch was not "DANGER" area, bro had like 8 hit combo. hah yeah im not playing expert like ever

[Managedant]

Originally posted by NinjaGuy:

I'm getting the game tonight, and I'm still struggling to decide if I'll be playing on normal or expert.

I usually play all of my games on the hardest difficulty. Doom 2016's nightmare difficulty kicked my ass, but I still had a lot of fun.

From what I'm gathering here, expert seems really frustrating? And HP doesn't seem to matter since you get one shot anyway, which doesn't seem too RPG-like (can you grind to make it easier?)

So is Expert fun as a first playthrough?

Whirl is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who waxes poetic on difficult games about how theyre too easy. Please dont take anything they say seriously lmao

[Tygris]

Just completed the game on expert difficulty. The game can be "trivial" if you can get the timing down for parry and dodge but not everyone can do so. If you do wish to play on expert difficulty, getting the parry timing down is a must :) In saying that, this game is an RPG with a dynamic gameplay, your build also matter. One thing I can say that I actually enjoy is the freedom to build your characters. Glass cannon, support, tank-ish and whatever build you can think of is totally viable.

TLDR; Expert is challenging but fun

[Malu]

Originally posted by Tygris:

Just completed the game on expert difficulty. The game can be "trivial" if you can get the timing down for parry and dodge but not everyone can do so. If you do wish to play on expert difficulty, getting the parry timing down is a must :) In saying that, this game is an RPG with a dynamic gameplay, your build also matter. One thing I can say that I actually enjoy is the freedom to build your characters. Glass cannon, support, tank-ish and whatever build you can think of is totally viable.

TLDR; Expert is challenging but fun

I honestly love how they made defensive stats fun to invest in. Not only do they give a nice cushion of safety that matters even on Expert, but weapons can actually scale on them so you don't feel like you're sacrificing as much as it feels like in other games.

[Jotun]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Yeah, it also sounds not true.

Notice how they don't specify any reasons, hoping I won't notice they just called me a liar.

I've got time.

To begin with: consistently parrying everything is unlikely in Expert, you're bound to screw up and sometimes that can mean a one shot (then you have to train on that enemy until you are consistent). Playing with good builds and taking the right decisions just decreases the chances of makings a mistake by speeding up fights. It's the same logic in the vast majority of games, from Elden Ring to Path of Exile 2.

[Philipe Vilela]

Originally posted by Whirblewind:

The game is too easy bordering on trivial even on Expert, it just asks you to be more exacting with your parries. I would say Expert is less about making you feel more challenged (owing to the game being poorly tuned) and more about shifting the satisfaction off of your individual decisions and towards your ability to hit parry in time.

So, to answer the question "is Expert fun as a first playthrough?" I would say whatever is different about its "fun" will depend on you. Do you enjoy your turn-based decisions mattering less and your ability to press a button on cue mattering more? You have your answer.

Speaking to the rest of your message, yes, you should play on Expert, because most of this game insults your intelligence even on Expert, so you may as well do all you can to eek out challenge.

Where is your Renoir and "Aline" No Damage Full Parry run? Do you have it on youtube? Can't wait to see you proving expert is too easy.

[Viper]

Probably frustrating. Normal mode very challenging.

[NinjaGuy]

Just for the record, I've decided to go with expert, and I'm quite enjoying it! It's not a one hit kill at all and there's a lot of strategy to it in my opinion.

[Windfire]

On expert even after 40hours the game remain challenging, and that is a good point for me, depends on you.