Not my usual genre of game but I've heard nothing but praise for it. Need to play soon

Fwiw, that single player games are dead line is almost two decades old at this point and is often misrepresented and misunderstood in how games would be made in terms of priorities and shifting of design which was largely true.

I haven't played the game but checked out the song mentioned and it sounds pretty epic. Almost like how the old uematsu osts used to sound but more modern obviously. Its a funny contrast against something like ff16's soundtrack which was forgettable despite winning that game award.

Album Rating: 5.0

It’s not like some old cliche. I mean, it’s still being said routinely to this day by big execs. It’s getting even worse — we have companies like Ubi now telling us we don’t own any media, nor should we expect to. Death to live service, ftp, and the endless microtransactions that accompany them.



And yeah, in hindsight maybe I should have also namedropped FF OSTs. This definitely has a similarly epic, operatic quality to it that some older FF soundtracks had. More appropriate to relate it to NieR tho. Also FF16 was just… ugh. I wanted to like it. The story started so promising, taking seemingly bold risks, making it seem like none of our heroes are safe, etc. But then it walks all of that back. It’s such a pretty-looking game but its ambition runs a mile long and an inch deep. Combat is a monotonous spam fest, most enemies are basically walking pinatas just waiting for me to stroll by and mercilessly beat the shit out to them, the story becomes cartoonishly lame, the level design is so empty and boring to explore. I could go on and on. The soundtrack does have some bright spots, imo, but this one smashes it effortlessly.

Album Rating: 5.0

Really happy to see people digging this! Seemed for a day or two there that it was perhaps too obscure (lol awful) for Sputnik. Easy goty 2025 for me atm.



Mongi: 2.5 for this is wild, yeah lol. Can’t tell if troll ratings or just rly bad taste

Stuff like live service and f2p games are the direction the aforementioned execs meant when they said single player isnt where the money is and they are right to a point. I dont think people realize how long games like overwatch or fortnite have dominated the gaming landscape. I read some interview from the uncharted 1 director saying you dont make a game like those anymore where you have a robust single player game with a full fledged mp mode. People dont want to invest in that type of model anymore. It does feel extra special when we get good games still but it also sucks how much gaming has changed. I think we take for granted how rare it is for certain groups of people to come together to make something like this or new vegas or ff7. The game has changed if you pardon the pun.

Just platinumed this game a few days ago. The best OST I’ve ever heard in a game

Album Rating: 4.5

Until execs move away from their love affair with continual monetization, games like Clair Obscur will continue to get pushed to the sidelines. There is still so much ingenuity and brilliance within game development but so much of that is being allocated into the AA and indie gaming space which doesn't benefit from massive promotions and expensive rollouts like these AAA and "AAAA" mega-budget video games. CO benefitted from fantastic WOM and being placed on Gamepass so it became a relative juggernaut given its fairly humble origins.

Laced records have the vinyl for this up for preorder

This game has been so incredible to play and the music is gas, glad to see this with a review

@Gyro so so glad I didn't waste my time with FF16. I loved playing FF7 remake/rebirth, FFX and Crisis Core this past couple years.

Funny so many of you have mentioned Nier Automata... I stopped playing it when I learned about and downloaded 33 haha

Album Rating: 5.0

I really need to play Automata after seeing all of the OST comparisons... I started Replicant a few months ago and it's fun but the beginning is a bit of a slog.

Damn guess I should pick this game up huh

Album Rating: 4.5

It's a really fantastic game and I really dug the twist on the turn-based combat with the parry and dodge system. People complained that they couldn't adapt to the timing but the game gives you tons of visual and audio cues to aid in timing your dodges and parries. Plus the game encourages super OP builds.

Holy average rating batman! This must be quite something

@Christ the game has great subtle signaling. I got better at parries when I realized it was better to focus on sound than visuals for most hits. Also, lantern paths guide you where you need to go to continue; non-lit paths generally bring you to hidden fights/items.

Album Rating: 5.0

I’m gonna give you guys another pro tip that’s gonna blow your mind a little when you realize: just before the enemy attacks you, the screen will be zoomed out as far as possible. It’s a rly subtle detail, but you can parry most attacks with a degree of consistency, by just using your peripherals and noticing the screen zooming out. It’s not gonna instantly turn you into a parry god, but it’ll likely help you — especially with some of the more egregious boss wind-up moves. You can also rely on just audio pretty heavily. Most attacks have a sharp sound just right before they connect with the player.

But yeah, anyone claiming the parries aren’t telegraphed enough/feel bad, just hasn’t engaged with the systems enough to know how great they actually are. Which is fair. At first they seemed a little janky to me, too. It’s like Sekiro tho. When that game launched, a lot of people were complaining that deflects aren’t intuitive. ff years later and we know how that it’s one of the tightest, most responsive parry systems in all of gaming

Album Rating: 5.0

FF7 remake was decent. Honestly, I think I’m just not a super big FF fan. Other jrpgs do what they do a lot better imo. Never been a fan of the stories, the characters, most of the level design. The soundtracks are usually incredible tho. FF16 was particularly disappointing, as someone who enjoyed 15 well enough, and loved the initial hours of 16. I hear combat has been tweaked, and new difficulty settings not available at launch, so it’s not just a mindless spam fest anymore… but it’s not enough to make me return to it. I shouldn’t paint it as some kind of unmitigated disaster. It’s not. But it’s like a soft 6/10. This, however, this is that masterpiece stuff

I'll let you know if this is actually good, or just the typical sputnerds gooning over some experimental junk while they sniff their own farts.

Album Rating: 5.0

“Plus the game encourages super OP builds.”

It’s really cool that they give the player so much agency to break the game with some wild builds — like the obvious Maelle one-shot build, or the deathless Verso one — but it’s also a bit of a shame knowing that (most likely) the vast majority of players will one-shot Simon. Imagine if overcoming a boss like Sword Saint from Sekiro was as easy as pressing a button and watching his entire healthbar get annihilated. How many people would’ve gotten tilted and opted for that path? Part of what makes super bosses like Sword Saint, Vergil, Nightmare King Grimm, Nameless Puppet/Laxasia, Simon, etc., so much fun is taking the time to learn their moveset and master it. And I think an enormous amount of players will miss out on that dopamine hit you get from overcoming a crazy hard boss when they fight Simon. And that sucks, because he is an immensely rewarding boss to learn. His design, the track to his battle, the entire area leading up to it and the atmosphere heading into the fight. The devs went so unnecessarily hard for a boss that the vast majority of the playerbase will just cheese 😂

Album Rating: 4.5

The game is one of the best pieces of media ever released in any medium.

Very mild spoilers ahead:


There was a section in Old Lumiere, when you're on some rooftops, I think either before or after the opera house, that had an very minimal, extremely melancholy ambient piece playing. I've skimmed the OST a bit trying to find it but haven't had luck; any one know what I'm talking about? Is that on the OST somewhere?