Developer Sandfall Interactive has gotten just about everything right with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The game-breaking Stendhal ability has something to say about this, though, and it’s so powerful that it’s getting a nerf.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the surprise hit of the year. Not because it didn’t have the potential to succeed, but because it has succeeded, and then some. New sales announcements keep defying all expectations, and even the French President has chimed in with glowing words for the RPG.
Players have been loving it, but they’ve gravitated to one attack more than others.
Stendhal Ability To Receive a Nerf in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
If you use Stendhal, you deal a ton of Void damage. However, if you use it in conjunction with other abilities, the attack is capable of dealing hundreds of millions of points of damage!
Needless to say, it can one-shot any enemy in the game—even the final boss.
Sandfall is aware of this, and if you’re an avid user of the move, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news.
“We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early—just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out. Well, Stendhal did. It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance pass, we gave it a big damage boost—and clearly overdid it. It ended up overshadowing most other options. We still want you to be able to break the game—and you absolutely still can—but Stendhal was making it a bit too easy. You’ve got one more day to enjoy it in its current form and set some wild records,” said a message on the game’s X page.
This means May 9 signals the end of Stendhal as we know it.
Expeditioners, a quick note on Stendhal and balance changes: We hadn’t planned to make any balance changes this early—just bug fixes, unless something clearly stood out. Well, Stendhal did. It was underwhelming for most of development, so in our final pre-release balance
I’ve seen some divisive comments over this Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Stendhal nerf. People are arguing that just because it’s in the game, it doesn’t mean you have to use it. Players feel it should stay in as an option. Do you agree with this sentiment? Let us know through the Insider Gaming forum.
We also have news about Devil May Cry’s original director wanting to remake the first game, and Death Stranding 2 going gold.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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