Clair Obscur Expedition 33 expert beats the game without parries or dodges

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is certain to wind up among the year's most memorable games, but the stylish JRPG can also be an immensely tough experience at times. Its slick combat typically requires you to parry, or at least dodge, the hardest-hitting strikes of your foes in order to survive. The good news is that if you take the time to learn all of its encounters, you can beat the entire game without taking a single hit. One particularly enthusiastic soulslike veteran, however, has turned that challenge on its head with a Clair Obscur Expedition 33 'all hit' run, where they tank every single blow with no parries or dodging, and I'm seriously impressed by their ingenuity.

YouTuber 'ymfah' has long been known for their Fromsoftware challenge runs, which see them attempt to clear the best games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring without core features such as dodge rolls or even walking. Now, they've turned their attention to one of the best JRPGs in years to ask the question: Can you beat Clair Obscur Expedition 33 on expert difficulty without dodging or parrying, and even take down the game's hardest optional encounters? The answer is a resounding yes.

You can watch the entire video above, which is edited down from a full-length run to a tight 84 minutes, complete with full text commentary. Things start badly, as they struggle in the first tutorial battle between Gustave and Maelle, but the pace quickly starts to pick up as additional party members join and they gain access to some of the best Expedition 33 weapons.

It's still not an easy task; they're frequently forced to grind for levels in order to meet the challenges posed by major boss fights. At one point, they even make use of a particularly cheeky out-of-bounds trick to sneak past an early encounter and speed up the process of earning levels and gear before returning to finish off the troublemaker.

From here, the process begins to scale up much more dramatically. If you've already spent time in the endgame, you'll know just how powerful the best Expedition 33 Pictos get. Lune sets enemies ablaze, Maelle makes use of Virtuoso stance and supplements that with the Medalum sword, and things start to quickly swing in ymfah's favor.

I won't spoil the whole run here, as the video is well worth a watch. Despite getting access to increasingly strong tools, ymfah is still forced to come up with some rather creative Clair Obscur Expedition 33 builds to get past certain roadblocks. They do a good job of explaining the challenges presented and the solutions found, so it might even help you to come up with some particularly strong loadouts of your own in the future.

To answer the obvious final question, yes, the video does climax with a showdown against Simon and some of the other optional 'challenge bosses' that Expedition 33 has to offer. At this point in the playthrough, however, ymfah notes that "All enemies can be one shot. There is literally no single enemy that can't be." Even when facing multiple foes, tricks such as the 'Cheater' and 'Shortcut' Pictos let you dispatch groups before they have a chance to fight back. It's yet another reminder of just how versatile Sandfall's beloved JRPG can be.

If you're yet to try one of this year's best PC games, take a look at the Clair Obscur Expedition 33 system requirements to make sure your machine is ready for action.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.