I don’t think I’ve been this blown away by a game’s art and music direction… Quite frankly ever.
I’ve yet to even dive into this game, but the little I’ve been spoiled on has left me shell-shocked. It’s warped my perceptions on the medium. It’s surfaced emotions that I didn’t know I still had. It’s a turn-based RPG in 2025 that is shattering sales records and critical review scores alike. Bear with me here, I’m having to realign everything I knew just to try and put a description into words.
They’ve really brought to life a world of dreamlike melancholy through sound and visuals, unlike anything I could compare it to. The continent which makes up Expedition 33’s setting is in equal parts morbid and beautiful, and often intertwining the two in ways that make you have to stop, look and listen. It’s uniquely creative in ways which I have perhaps been deprived of for years without realizing it. Add in well-defined party members, story hooks which are gripping from the start, incredible enemy designs and a combat presentation that compliments the flashiness of the world it takes place in, and the end result is something uniquely special for its time.
Flying Waters – Goblu is a battle theme for one of the earlier areas in the game. You’ve got a mix of acoustic instruments, of which prominently include an opera vocalist and a ship sonar. If it reconfigures you the way it did for me, know that there’s 8 hours more soundtrack where that came from. It defies belief. I’m certain that I won’t be able to approach the gaming medium the same way again by the time I’ve journeyed to the credits screen, and I hope the same can be said for many ‘risk-averse’ large game studios of our current time.
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