Complaints from a Deaf Gamer.

[NKato]

Yes. I'm deaf. That means I cannot hear very well, or if at all.

The game relies on me dodging or parrying enemy attacks to get through most, if not all, fights.

Guess what? Someone explained to me that there was an audio cue to the attacks that helped with timing dodges and parries. Which I cannot hear. At all.

The only OBVIOUS cues are the Jump cues. My success at dodging and parrying have been 50/50 at best, because of this lacking element in game design.

I posted this because I'm very pissed with two of the Lampmaster's attacks - the ones where it attacks with all of its arms one at a time after the other, and the "Dark" magic attacks.

They are extremely difficult for me to time against, and I do not have the added benefit of hearing gamers being able to hear the sound effects that precede the attack.

So, yes. I spent money on this game to enjoy it, not deal with what amounts to audiovisual QTE's that leaves me at a disadvantage. The story is great. The gameplay is great. It's the lack of thought in gameplay accessibility that is the problem.

How do I solve this? Clearly, I cannot get into the guts of the game and add a "Improve Defense QTE Cues" button. Audio visualizers don't help, either.

My frustration with these QTEs are getting to the point where I wanna just huck the game controller against the wall, even though they should be stupidly easy to deal with.

Right now as I type, I have only Gustave alive, and everybody else got knocked out because I couldn't dodge for crap.

UPDATE: Got wiped out because I mistimed the dodge as I saw it coming - pressed slightly too early and now everybody's dead. BRAVO! The fact that I dodge or parry oh so slightly early is extremely freaking punishing and I hate it.

ALT+F4'd out. Done for the night. Not happy. I've been stuck at this fight for three days now.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by NKato:

How do I solve this?

https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/28

Use one of those mods. They lengthen the time window of the dodge/parry.
Choose one you are comfortable with so that the visual attack indicators are enough for you.
The rest of the difficulty (enemy damage, HP, player damage) and so on is not changed, just the parry/dodge timing window.

Also it really is unfortunate to be deaf in this game, not only because of the audio attack indicators but missing out on one of the best video game OST of all time.

[0wnz0r]

thats tough bro. i feel for u. only suggestion i can giv is to watch closely... or die enuff times that u pik up the timing instinctively. sry for ur troubles man.

[MakitaRotSprout]

I'm not deaf but I still can't hear the audio cues no matter how many times someone points them out to me. I play by memorising the moveset and using visual cues.

[NKato]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by NKato:

How do I solve this?

https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/28

Use one of those mods. They lengthen the time window of the dodge/parry.
Choose one you are comfortable with so that the visual attack indicators are enough for you.
The rest of the difficulty (enemy damage, HP, player damage) and so on is not changed, just the parry/dodge timing window.

There's a mod? Cool. The fact that the devs didn't consider scaling it in the first place is an issue to begin with.

"Hey, Florent. Do you think deaf people play this game?"
"Non."
"Okay, we don't need to add a feature to help them handle our game design then."

Thank you.

[cooperativewaffles]

There is a zoom out on attacks. You can learn the peak of each attacks zoom and use that as the queue.

[FWDKILLER]

Originally posted by NKato:

Yes. I'm deaf. That means I cannot hear very well, or if at all.

The game relies on me dodging or parrying enemy attacks to get through most, if not all, fights.

Guess what? Someone explained to me that there was an audio cue to the attacks that helped with timing dodges and parries. Which I cannot hear. At all.

The only OBVIOUS cues are the Jump cues. My success at dodging and parrying have been 50/50 at best, because of this lacking element in game design.

I posted this because I'm very pissed with two of the Lampmaster's attacks - the ones where it attacks with all of its arms one at a time after the other, and the "Dark" magic attacks.

They are extremely difficult for me to time against, and I do not have the added benefit of hearing gamers being able to hear the sound effects that precede the attack.

So, yes. I spent money on this game to enjoy it, not deal with what amounts to audiovisual QTE's that leaves me at a disadvantage. The story is great. The gameplay is great. It's the lack of thought in gameplay accessibility that is the problem.

How do I solve this? Clearly, I cannot get into the guts of the game and add a "Improve Defense QTE Cues" button. Audio visualizers don't help, either.

My frustration with these QTEs are getting to the point where I wanna just huck the game controller against the wall, even though they should be stupidly easy to deal with.

Right now as I type, I have only Gustave alive, and everybody else got knocked out because I couldn't dodge for crap.

UPDATE: Got wiped out because I mistimed the dodge as I saw it coming - pressed slightly too early and now everybody's dead. BRAVO! The fact that I dodge or parry oh so slightly early is extremely freaking punishing and I hate it.

ALT+F4'd out. Done for the night. Not happy. I've been stuck at this fight for three days now.

don't worry that hoes the game is designed this is why i hate these types of games,
just spammed the dodge button thats i do there not much you can do the game is broken on arrival.

[Some Rando]

Honestly, and hear me out guys: I can understand where OP is coming from. I play rhythm games sometimes and I'm not bad at them... So I react to audio decently. And so with some tricky attacks, the audio really does, at least to me, help with timing. So I would say it's kind of a disadvantage not to have that.

Sorry, OP.

[Gillx83]

Originally posted by NKato:

Originally posted by Ogami:

https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/28

Use one of those mods. They lengthen the time window of the dodge/parry.
Choose one you are comfortable with so that the visual attack indicators are enough for you.
The rest of the difficulty (enemy damage, HP, player damage) and so on is not changed, just the parry/dodge timing window.

There's a mod? Cool. The fact that the devs didn't consider scaling it in the first place is an issue to begin with.

"Hey, Florent. Do you think deaf people play this game?"
"Non."
"Okay, we don't need to add a feature to help them handle our game design then."

Thank you.

Stop being so offended -- im sure they dont dislike deaf people, was just an oversight. I know you view everything from a deaf person -- and im sure the developers view everything from a hearing person. Relax -- it was an accident and im sure they will patch.

[causality]

Originally posted by NKato:

Yes. I'm deaf. That means I cannot hear very well, or if at all.

The game relies on me dodging or parrying enemy attacks to get through most, if not all, fights.

Not really but I get it. Thank you for trying at least.

[Skatters]

Hey I'm deaf too. This annoyed me in games like Vermintide as well - people even made a captioning mod there, but the Devs dont allow it on the official servers cos its seen as 'cheating' to get a written warning etc. Happens in lots of games, very annoying.

You CAN learn the parry timing by visual alone - you just have to learn the attack animations/hitboxes. Its definitely harder as they're all different so the audio cue would be a huge help. But it can be done, I'm on Act 3.

There's also mods that increase the parry window frame, and you can opt for only a slight increase.

[Moon Rabbit]

Originally posted by Gillx83:

Originally posted by NKato:

There's a mod? Cool. The fact that the devs didn't consider scaling it in the first place is an issue to begin with.

"Hey, Florent. Do you think deaf people play this game?"
"Non."
"Okay, we don't need to add a feature to help them handle our game design then."

Thank you.

I know you view everything from a deaf person -- and im sure the developers view everything from a hearing person.

Unless of course, you're even the slightest bit thoughtful. Which apparently, you are not.

Believe it or not many of us do consider things like this. Like if I were creating a game system dependent on hearing I WOULD absolutely consider the hard of hearing and how it would affect them and I would consider a means to allow them to play effectively.

I'm willing to bet nearly all accessibility features in games are introduced to them by people that don't actually need the features. I don't need to be color blind to consider whether or not a color-based cue system would suck for people who are. Because I think like a person.

You have no idea what patches are coming, and for crying out loud how do you expect the developers -that you already presenting a those who don't "think like deaf people"- to even consider a patch for deaf people, if the deaf people DON'T SPEAK UP???

Think.

Take your own advice. Stop being offended because someone criticized a game they purchased, that you happen to enjoy. You told someone to stop complaining about a problem you assume will be fixed by people that you also claim never considered in the first place...♥♥♥♥.

[Merfyn]

yeah, i'm deaf too but not enough to not hear the clues, the game should include a more obvious visual clue for accessibility
but hey it's done in France, and french society is very ableist, i can say it, i live in it. So i'm not sure if the devs would add that option, but i hope for it

for now on PC we can mod the game to help this problem, but sadly console player won't had this option

[Shark]

Very sorry you are experiencing this :( Maybe the devs or a modder can add something to help you out. Expedition 33 is a beautiful masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed by everyone.

That being said, I very much doubt they intentionally designed the game to be difficult for deaf folks. It seems you may have let your frustrations get the best of you.

Tomorrow comes, mon ami.

[NKato]

Originally posted by Gillx83:

Originally posted by NKato:

There's a mod? Cool. The fact that the devs didn't consider scaling it in the first place is an issue to begin with.

"Hey, Florent. Do you think deaf people play this game?"
"Non."
"Okay, we don't need to add a feature to help them handle our game design then."

Thank you.

Stop being so offended -- im sure they dont dislike deaf people, was just an oversight. I know you view everything from a deaf person -- and im sure the developers view everything from a hearing person. Relax -- it was an accident and im sure they will patch.

Not offended, just disappointed that they make gameplay mechanics partially reliant on audio cues. I've had to deal with this kind of short-sightedness from game designers for the better part of 30 years.

[NKato]

Originally posted by Shark:

Very sorry you are experiencing this :( Maybe the devs or a modder can add something to help you out. Expedition 33 is a beautiful masterpiece that deserves to be enjoyed by everyone.

That being said, I very much doubt they intentionally designed the game to be difficult for deaf folks. It seems you may have let your frustrations get the best of you.

Tomorrow comes, mon ami.

I don't doubt that it was not intentional to make it difficult for me. But as a person replied earlier, there are indeed mods to help with parry/dodge. So I've installed that and am now trying to progress the game.