Ever since its release on April 24 , the gaming domain has been buzzing non - stop aboutClair Obscur : junket 33 . The French RPG was instantly hailed as a generational chef-d’oeuvre upon exit , win players over with its fashionable visuals and telling fighting . It ’s most striking quality , though , is its emotional storytelling . Clair Obscurtells a moving tale about corporate grief as an expedition sets out to save humanity from an one-year pestilence that threats to wipe out every last person on Earth . It ’s a adulterate story about moving forward in the face of pain in the neck that has tie out gallons of weeping from players , no doubt .
But that was n’t the only game to launch on April 24 — nor was it even the only RPG about fighting for a better time to come released that day . It shared a release date withThe Hundred parentage : Last Defense Academy , the latest game from the squad behindDanganronpa . One part ocular novel , one part tactics game , The Hundred Line is unbelievably challenging in its own right thanks to its 100 endings across a gargantuan runtime . It ’s not only one of the twelvemonth ’s best , but it ’s also a perfect compliment toClair Obscur . Both RPGs cover up similar thematic territory in very different ways that are both indebted to video game history . If yourClair Obscurplaythrough is starting to twine down , The Hundred Lineis the perfect pursuer . I ’d even go as far as to indicate that it ’s the real main course of action .
Fighting for the future
The two games may not sound like on paper , but they ’re more connected than they seem at a glance . Both are about humanity ’s impend death as a timer ticks down and one group ’s fight to save the mankind . In Clair Obscur , the fight comes from the Paintress , a mystical being who appear once a year to paint a number in the sky . When she does , it touch off an outcome called the Gommage , where everyone whose age is above the current phone number dies . The phone number mark off down with each twelvemonth , so an pleasure trip is send out to seek and put an goal to the Paintress each year before everyone is inevitably killed .
The Hundred Line‘s impending disaster is more shrouded in mystery . When the story begins , we study that a group of students has been assembled at a school and chosen to defend a weapon put up within it from alien invaders . The group is told that the weapon will destroy the world if it gets into the improper hands and they must protect it for a full 100 twenty-four hour period . That only scratches the aerofoil of what ’s really going on , as the story plays out like multiple time of year of a idiot box show filled with turn of events and cliffhanger . believe of it like an anime version ofLost . Without getting too in the skunk , manhood is on a alike track to wipeout and the scholar only have so much metre to exchange that .
Though both assumption are incredibly bleak , each RPG is hopeful in its own way . They are n’t about knuckle under to despair as inevitability approaches , but find the will to continue the fight for a better future tense . And both do that by wielding the language of games in clever room . ForClair Obscur , that melodic theme number through in its ode toclassic RPGs . By draw on a history of party - tug games about assembling a bunch of misfit paladin , Sandfall Interactive speaks to the grandness of corporate natural action to fight forward in time of pain . The crew members are n’t just engagement companions , but a functional support organization that ’s secure together . Successfully parrying a liberal foe attack as a party trigger off a withering buffet . When the fighting company falls in conflict , the remaining one occur in for accompaniment rather than sit on their thumb like so many other RPGs . And when a battle is come through , a button on screen proclaims , “ We continue , ” motor home the idea that the squad is one singular building block .
Too Kyo Games
The Hundred Lineis relatively high conception in its approach . Its grand trick is that it does n’t just take place across 100 days as it initially claims to . That initial run almost acts as an elongate introduction to the factual hook . Let ’s just say that thing go a lilliputian south by the end of the first 100 mean solar day which transmit the once peppy group into desperation . Failure seems imminent as the students anticipate their own Gommage of variety . When things are their bleakest , players are hit with a tantalizing inquiry : What if you could change it all ? What would you do other than if you had another 100 twenty-four hour period ? That afford up the honest game , in which players go back through the story and look for divergent points in the timeline that could change that end .
What ’s so smart here is thatThe Hundred Lineleans into video secret plan language to give players the possible action of promise . The fateful 100th day is framed as an “ ending ” and the one you get after your first run may just be the “ bad ” one . For seasoned gamers , that ’s immediately tangible . I know how multiple endings function in games and know that getting a unspoiled one is entirely within my power . I just have to be willing to keep at it and picture out what I can do to get the ending that I want . We do n’t get a redo in real life , but games can fulfill that fantasy . The Hundred Linegives player the power to turn back the clock and see exactly how their actions can determine the inevitable . I do n’t feel down when I hit a bad ending : There are literally 100 style that this thing can go .
As different as these two games are , that estimation connect them . They are both about people face down hopelessness as stack extermination bulk large and being determined enough to fight as many times as it takes . Sacrifice is central to both stories , too . InClair Obscur , histrion discover logs left behind from every previous party that has died to get Expedition 33 where it is today . The Hundred Line is even more expressed about that theme , as character can give their lives in its tactical battles to pull off a devastating fire and supercharge the team ’s energy meter so everyone else can dispatch their own big moves . Death is ensnare a steppingstone in both game , a noble sacrifice that the living can expend to their reward . It ’s not an termination , but rather one important action at law in a collective effort that ’s build on courage .
Sandfall Interactive
ThoughClair Obscurhas been applauded for its emotionally gripping story , I bump just as much power — if not more — inThe Hundred Line . Through all of its ridiculous one - liners and tomato - headed heroes , there ’s a substantial substance to be found about our great power to barricade the inevitable . It is realizable through countless decision that can change history even when we do n’t realize they are leaving a mark in the second . It only makes sense to explore that through a digital take your own adventure novel where any outcome feels possible .
So , once you ’re done withClair Obscur , consider spring the right way intoThe Hundred pipeline . You ’ll find a plenteous continuation of its themes that play with the nomenclature of games even more . Neither game will lay aside our own world , but they might make you find a little less hopeless in this fearful moment .
