I keep comparing it to to Metaphor Refantazio, and by all metrics Metaphor should've done better

>Well known studio that makes games their target audience likes (regardless of what this board likes)
>Released months earlier, good reviews and seemingly good sales

Yet here comes 33, out of nowhere, by a studio no one's heard of

>Sells a crap ton of copies, more then Metaphor in a shorter time
>Better reviews, highly stylized the way ATLUS games are
>It's not anime

Like, the fuck? I'm thinking as objectively as I can and the most noticeable difference is in aesthetics. We never see JRPG's outta the west, and then when we get one, it does better then the JP one?

It's confusing, discuss

It's automatically perceived as less juvenile, yes. Metaphor/Persona/SMT V's artstyle is shit in general though.

>>3779141 (OP)
Atlus RPG style is like when you first get into anime, at first its novel and cool but then you play more than 2 rpgs from them and you realize its all the same reused assets and the same one dimensional style.
not to mention the combat and the gameplay in general is ass and not the good type.
yes including SMT its a shallow gameplay driven game, so its even worse.

>>3779141 (OP)
compared to your image, the cover for Metaphor seems more designed to appeal to children. Normally I'd also criticize the name; 'Metaphor Refantazio' strikes me as meaningless Japanglish slop, but in this case 'Clair Obscur Expedition 33' is also nonsensical to the passerby.

Japanese games are undeniably marked by Japanese culture, as well. While that appeals to weebs, and is fine, that has long been a reason that wider audiences don't embrace them. To the average Westerner, Clair appears more coherent and closer to their own experience, which makes it much easier to engage with. You could criticize this, I suppose, but it's normal behavior.

One is made for teenagers and the other for adults, it's that simple. MF is rated for teens and E33 for mature audiences. This comes through in the marketing material. JRPG fans not understanding this is hilarious.

To me it's fundamentally a Nier Replicant clone writing-wise, which is to say it deals with interesting themes without quite managing to avoid the usual traps of ludonarrative dissonance, but the gameplay is definitely tighter and more engaging than most JRPGs. It does a lot of things well by contemporary standards. I'm sure the Western style helped it. Personally I enjoyed playing it in French, I think the prose is quite good and better than the English translation, and although at times it felt like it deviated from its intended setting to appeal to English speakers, it still felt novel in comparison to cookie-cutter Western or Japanese RPGs. The original worldview alone makes it memorable.

>>3779168
but you'd initially think a T rated game would sell better too though, as it's more accessible, I know no one on this site cares but normalfags do shockingly.

Maybe it really is cause it's anime

>>3779141 (OP)
Basically French people larping as anime characters - and every game journos lap around it

why do you people care if a game is successful or not or why? bad games do well, good games do poorly, sometimes things become a big thing randomly and most people are dumb.
your theories don't really matter.

>>3779168
Both are made for teenagers anon let’s not jump the gun here

>>3779141 (OP)
It's sucessful because
>had marketing budget
>wasn't full price (a big one, because when games are hovering around 80-90$, a game at half that price becomes very appealing, for reference it's even cheaper than the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster/re-release)
>to the casual eye it "looks" like quality with the decently high fidelity environments and characters and flashy combat
>cinematic focus appeals to casuals

This is not even a question of quality, since that is not how casuals and journalists judge things. You could even argue quality is unimportant, which it actually is when it comes to selling well.

It has nothing to do with "looking like for kids" (which it doesn't). Their minds have just been conditioned to associate "quality" with high fidelity. It looks "expensive" but is pricetag wise cheaper.

>>3779141 (OP)
the "i hate jrpgs but even i like clair obscur which means its good" crowd is very easily wowed by seeing their first dramatic story + qtes in the middle of combat

>>3779286
In this case because /pol/fags are trying to and have been using 33 as a vehicle to “prove” their /pol/shit. Especially here on 4chan

>>3779302
>It has nothing to do with "looking like for kids" (which it doesn't)
delusional weeb

>>3779305
sounds more like /int/shit, than polshit to me.

>>3779310
Yes anon, things looking like it's for "kids" clearly don't sell and adults don't buy it. Guess that's why things like Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts is so unpopular and literally only kids play them.

You're out of your element, leave this topic to people that actually know what they're talking about.

>>3779141 (OP)
successful because they marketed it as
>The next BG3, it even has Jennifer English in it!
simple as

>>3779141 (OP)
In part, certainly. People into JRPGs overlook the fact general public is allergic to anime aesthetic.

>>3779141 (OP)
Real question is whether this applies to CARTOON aesthetic in general. Did No No Kuni also lose out because of that or did people not mind because it was Ghibli?

It appeals to the demographic that otherwise only plays COD and FIFA

>>3779325
It's not that clear cut at all. Zelda, Fire Emblem and fuckton of other games do just fine.
It depends on how you're promoting it and to who.

Clair Obscur appeals to people that normally don't play RPGs and especially JRPGs. A more normie audience. That's why it also got so praised when it isn't even good or does nothing special. To them it's different from the games they normally play, while still seeming familiar.
It appeals more to people that play stuff like Uncharted or something.

>>3779141 (OP)
Yes. I bought it because it was not anime and it turned out to be a decent game

>>3779339
Here's the secret anon, it is anime.
You got schnookered.

>>3779345
No it's not. No uwu,no gay kiddie artstyle,no animespeak,no retarded dialogue and many other tropes

>>3779348
its just reskinned Final Fantasy

>>3779141 (OP)
Well Metaphor is a cartoon. Enough said, really.

>>3779141 (OP)
>rehashes FFTA plot
>"it's a masterpiece no other game has done it"

>>3779352
You're not wrong
The opposite with Chained Echoes who gets shunned for rehashing Xenogears. I'm not saying it's the best thing ever but it's the only indie that aped Xenogears, not perfect but adequate imo.

>>3779141 (OP)
looking like 2025 game instead of looking like a PS3 game helps a ton I guess

>>3779305
is 33 supposed to be based or woke?

>>3779357
Whatever works best for my latest shitpost

>>3779357
All it takes for anti-woke fags to be fine with woke is to make the women attractive.

>>3779358
Godspeed.

>>3779348
It's Final Fantasy XIII anon and they got you to love it by playing on your sensitivities.

>>3779141 (OP)
As someone who has played more JRPGs and CRPGs than most of you people.
>my thoughts on seeing Metaphor
Wow this looks cool, but I still haven't finished P5 and I want to replay SMT VV so I'll check it out several months later if not next year.
>my thoughts on seeing Clair Obscure
Huh this looks interesting, a western JRPG from France? Guess I'll give it a try and see what all the hype is about.

Eitherway I think it's pointless to make these comparisons and you are likely baiting for some sort of flamewar but it's easy to see why a game like this attracts more attention.

>>3779439
>As someone who has played more JRPGs and CRPGs than most of you people.
extremely low bar

>>3779439
>brags about playing more games than other anons
>then proceeds to state how he hasn't beaten a 9 year old game and mention how he needs months to have time for a new game
>then mislabels a game and admits to not knowing much about a game, only buzz

ah yes, the casual that thinks they're hardcore

>>3779141 (OP)
I haven't played either of these games because I don't play RPGs designed for a controller. I do enjoy seeing you consoletards attack each other though, so keep it up!

it's Western Anime in UE5 style

>>3779141 (OP)
where are these anime games i keep hearing about? None of these JP games are anime graphics. FF has never been, that's just pixel art. As soon as it hit 3d they went realism. DQ Kind of with 11 was anime cel shading. But otherwise everything is a realistic 3d modelling? So tell me what the fuck did you mean by this?

>>3779537
persona
trails
nippon ichi shit

>>3779541
Persona is popular, the other two are bottom of the barrel trash

>>3779552
>the other two are bottom of the barrel trash
They are anime games after all

>>3779552
this. Persona is the only anime game that hit the mainstream. The only other ones I can think of are licensed fighting games (DBZ mostly).

>>3779552
Lol. Only losers who DIDN'T peak in highschool play persona shit. It's like those boomer movies about their wannabe high school glory years but even more pathetic. Trails is an acutal respectable war story that's pretty much soikuden but better.

>>3779562
>this. Persona is the only anime game that hit the mainstream. The only other ones I can think of are licensed fighting games (DBZ mostly).

Yes because stuff like Pokemon, Zelda, Genshin, Honkai, Fire Emblem 3 Houses and shit isn't mainstream.

>>3779570
>Trails is an acutal respectable war story that's pretty much soikuden but better.
>Trails is an acutal respectable war story

>>3779575
>Pokemon
Respectable normieshit and proves to indies they don't mind shit looking graphics
>Zelda
Once it ditched cutscenescutscenescutscenes! Sure. Inly uncharted did that right
>Fire emblem
Mostly thanks to awakening, no other srpg's at the time, and people waking up to how shit nuxcom is
>Fighting games
Not all anime fighters are popular. The naruto games reironiclly do better than dbz these days.
>>3779578
It's true. Atlus is nippion icchi with outlines. From actual serious war story writing above great action and turn based gameplay, falcom blows personashit out of the water with zero cringe content in sight.

>>3779588
>actual serious war story writing above great action and turn based gameplay
>with zero cringe content in sight
>trails series

>>3779590
>Persona shitter who prob had zero friends in highschool can only greentext his shitposts
P to th a fucking ethic

>>3779593
>trails series
>serious war story
>great writing
>great action
>great turn based gameplay
>zero cringe

Absolutely no one can take such obvious bait seriously. Not even, Rean.

>>3779597
>Persona has better turn based gameplay than trails because, uhhhh...?
>ANY rpg, rice or burger, east or west having better action combat than ys not counting souls kino
You and I both know persona is cringe as fuck without being kino. 33 was right mixing ff tactics advanced with young adult fiction over persona like what most game journalists thought. Face it, falcom is still alive for a reason. Quality. Which is rare these days.

>>3779600
This post made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. For that reason alone you get a final (you), but beyond that you'll be breaking global trolling rules. Not even the most diehard Trails fanboy is that delusional, so tone it down attentionwhore.

>>3779345
It drops the anime-isms after Act 1. It may as well be a completely different game by that point.

>>3779141 (OP)
I don't think there's anything confusing about it at all. Weebs like anime artstyle, normalfags generally don't. There are more normalfags than weebs and e33 is discounted, so of course it's going to blow metaphor out of the water.

>>3779575
FE is a different genre, honkai is a gachatrash, zelda is a different genre, pokemon was sprites and mostly 3d it's not even cel shaded? Pokemon Let's go Eevee was not anime style. They're using gamecube grafix.

I would accept trails and probably xenogears as anime like rpg. Not many games really go for a real live animation cartoon feel. Cel shading really didn't take off like we all thought it would in 2003.

metaphor had a really stupid name and a 70 dollar price tag. A shin megami clone nothing original so even the die hard atlus fans not hyped for it. Its easy to understand why its not a hit.

>>3779141 (OP)
>is the JRPG for people who hate JRPGs more successful because it isn't anime
Is this a serious question or did you just want immediate confirmation?

>>3779141 (OP)
I think it was the whole, dei anti-racist thing. Anita doesn't buy video games, you need to make games that appeal to people who buy video games (Straight white men) and you generally want to avoid offending the secondary market of Asians for big budget releases you want to have a no-skelingtons version.

>>3779700
Pokemon is anime, anon.

>>3779141 (OP)
>We never see JRPG's outta the west
2025… Anachronox is forgotten

>>3779748
>posts something that isn't Let's Go

>slop like clair obscur praised to the heavens by people that barely play games
>genuine masterpieces like radiant historia is forgotten

>>3779748
only the character model.

>>3779777
>only the character model.
Using that logic there basically exist no anime games because no game replicates how anime looks 1:1.

>>3779141 (OP)
It also looks way better than anime games. It looks like a million dollars. Atluslop looks like a Pokémon game.

>>3779141 (OP)
Didn't play either but modern anime aesthetics are dogshit so I'm glad metaphor is getting mogged by e33

>>3779808
>mogged
>metaphor reviewed better and sold 1 million copies day 1 and was the fastest selling atlus game
nice headcanon.

and e33 will be forgotten after summer when the countless big games drop, so who cares.

>>3779448
damn
you didn't have to destroy him like that..

Yeah probably normalfags still generally don't play most anime(unless its pokemon or something) games even if a lot of the zoomer ones like to watch/read shounenshit now, but Metaphor didn't do poorly by any metric though, and Steam player counts aren't completely sufficient in its case a lot of the Atlus fanbase is on consoles.

>>3779784
well I mentioned the DBZ games which have been like that since PS2. Look at those and compare to everything else, they're probably the best example.

>>3779352
>rehashes old shit final fantasy game
>says the ESL
It doesn't, if you think that Expedition 33 is about escapism you lost and probably haven't paid attention on Renoir dialogue after he is defeated.

>>3780558
>so clear cut the story is about escapism and the dangers of it
>midwit anon says "nuh uh, it's not about escapism at all! ... it's about... I don't know? but not escapism ok! it's totally original!"
>even the endings are either embrace escapism or reject it entirely

It's actually impressive how the story actively got less interesting once they introduced the epik tweest where the entire world is fake.

>>3779352
Ogre Battle > FFT
Nubs!

>>3779141 (OP)
>the most noticeable difference is in aesthetic
I only allow cartoons to make up like 5% of my media consumption. This limits how much weebshit and tumblrshit I'm subjected to.

>>3780716
Hyping an auto-battler, yikes

>>3780558
>Everyone I disagree with is automatically an ESL
Your "anonymity" is showing..

I think there's a real JRPG fatigue, and I don't mean turn based gameplay because that's still quite popular especially the indie sphere, it's the generic template based on which most "japanese" JRPG are made that is tiring for people.
This isn't the NES to PS2 golden era anymore, everyone has already played those and they want something that feels fresh and not only derivative.

>>3783312
The ironic part of this is that Clair Obscur literally does all of the bullshit people claim to hate about JRPGs.
>long, dragged-out battles that aren't actually as engaging as they appear
>anime-tier tropes galore
>writing that sounds like it was pulled straight out of a modern seasonal anime
The only reason people are getting into it and tolerating it at all is because of the absence of OUTWARD anime styling, extremely clever marketing, and an artificial campaign before the game was even playable getting popular news and media outlets to push the game as "a breath of fresh air" and "a revival of the JRPG genre" - which people lapped right up.

>>3783334
Coping weeb

>>3783334
Correct, the game is nothing but generic jrpg #49236919 and people praise it like it's doing anything unique at all

>>3779141 (OP)
Actual JRPG are made for children. Japanese children.
For some reason, gaijin manchildren are in denial about this.

>>3783750
Most of the mainstream ones yea, which also happen to comprise most of what influenced Clair Obscur.

>>3779141 (OP)
Yes since tranime artsyle is linked with gachas and incels.

>>3783750
Who cares? If something is good, it's worth experiencing even if it's intended for children. Part of being an adult is being mature enough to realize this. You'll understand when you grow up.

>>3779141 (OP)

Not really. Personally i´m a big fan of the anime aesthetic when it´s done correctly like in Ni no Kuni, Granblue Fantasy relink or Dragon Quest XI. Fantazio just looks bad.

Full disclosure, i don´t like Persona games so in my case that piece of marketing plays against it rather than in it´s favor. Furthermore by now i´m pretty sure all of us have been let down by our favorite companies at least once. Too many mediocre companies still live of the glory and respect they earned when they still made good games.

I for one have learned to judge games by what they are rather than by what i want them to be just because a company name. Expedition 33 won me over by being a game i wanted to play. Full stop. At first sight it reminded me to games like Shadow Hearts and Folklore, which i loved, but it basically ticked all my boxes, from good story and characters to great gameplay, visuals and music.

>>3783882
See? Manchild in denial.

>>3783894
>See? Manchild in denial.
The irony of this post.
You're not behaving like like a rational adult.

>>3783334
Normalfaggots will like what their told to like at the end of the day.

>>3779365
That's an insane thing to say. FFXIII and E33 have completely different battle systems. XIII played itself and was absolute dogshit.

>>3779578
Yeah dude, just think about how many casualties there were in that Erebonian civil war, or the opening of the Great War. It may have even reached the double digits!

>>3780602
The world is artificial, it isn't fake. That shows you have a very shallow understanding of the story. The game's themes go against the very notion of the world being fake and the weight of one of the ending decisions hinges entirely on the fact that the people in the canvas world are sapient.
You got filtered

It's anime paper mario

>>3784561
>midwit does a desperate hail mary attempt over word usage
>"n-no, you didn't understand it!" (literally the most overused fanboy defence ever after 'you didn't play it')
Even ChatGPT could write something more intelligent and without being an overemotional fag like you. But that's par for the course with all E33 fanboys.

>>3779164
I adore dragons crown style, the rest they made is shit thoughbeit.

>>3779357
based because it was made by a small developer instead of in the AAA superstructure

>>3783882
No game made for a child is going to have worthwhile gameplay for an adult.

>>3779141 (OP)
Metaphor is nonsense made for children. There is nothing to the plot if you are over the age of 13. It's "deep" in anyway. In any game one would play you would expect, once you are met with extreme racism, that the next thing the game would expect you to do is not act extremely subservient to the racist for the 30 hours because you just "need to see things from their side" or some shit. You basically lose everybody but Fatlus who will play anything Atlus makes at that point. Even weeb websites had entire articles of how Metaphor doesn't understand racism or discrimination at all, which is very important considering that's what the entire game is about.

Same as Stardew Valley, yeah.

>>3779141 (OP)
>>3779188
>high quality netflix series

I had feeling this game was basic bitch redditcore but that just confirms it.