The march of time waits for no one, and yesterday’s standards becomes today’s exceptions.

For example, back in the 90’s, the gaming industry use to operate within the context of a “low yikes” standard of financial viability, whereas these days, the industry is now deep in the “critical high yikes” stage of tolerable financial turmoil

The further I venture into Expedition 33 (E33), in all of its neo-classical, turn based, parry/dodging lavishness, the more resolutely comforted I am with my decision to take a chance on the game, as I generally avoid RPGs these days as a time management tactic, and I can’t say I’m always guaranteed a refreshing blast of cognitive wonderment when engaging with game of the year titles, either, as paradoxical as that premise may first sound. I will take a moment to put an almighty aftertouch on that statement, as I have no doubt some of you just interpreted the meaning behind it incorrectly, with your take away being “Pash is a ravenous hipster jackass who hates popular games”. It is not that I don’t have fun with titles that win game of the year awards, mind you, it is that they tend to be more on the formulaic side on some massively rudimentary level, and therefore, not quite as ripe for more introspective deconstructionism of significant value for someone who enjoys breaking down and writing about games. When you consider everyone and their mother will be playing those titles, too, it becomes quite difficult to stand out from the crowd, to have any meaningful contribution in the matter, and of the notion that the zeitgeist confronted by the GOTY winner won’t be, in some way, an already foregone conclusion in the realm of propositional value, the folly of men in being ruled by their passions, in the most deeply insidious of fashions once again.

On some level, I am lowkey impressed by the gaming collectives efforts in keeping spoilers on a lockdown, in reference to so many of the details of the narrative surrounding the title completely mum, especially for as much as E33 is brought up and discussed, astonishingly little is hoisted onto center stage in exposing the savory sweet spots of expositional value within E33’s story context. One can usually surmise how much respect a property has engendered within its respective fanbase and or culturally relative distance of protection to the majority’s hearts, based on their proclivities of safeguarding both the properties inherently powerful impact of narrative standards, and the innocent bystanders that may be caught up in the collateral of accidental incident and thoughtless exposure in regards to the matter. In fact, even though I’m not one who normally bathes in the waters of character exposition or gushes about the storytelling aspects of any particular woven tale of merit, usually far more intrigued in discussing the metaphysical realities behind the design aspects itself, I am quite thrilled with the tone, atmosphere, and overall philosophical implications E33 brings to the narrative table, as the discussion of the subject matter will allow me to wax philosophically about the themes and inherently essential properties of the games essences and spirit, without dwelling on the nitty gritty that spoilers would entail.

I don’t know if diving into said philosophies is going to be a “today post” kind of thing, as it being the end of my work week, I lack both the time and the energy levels to espouse about such powerfully grim realities with any comfortable breathing room in the matter, but I suspect at least one truly bangarang article involving these thoughts will occur, which will then spawn several more write-ups following thereafter, involving further breakdowns, in the matter of this introspective look at the inspirationally existential reinforcements, that keeps E33 rooted strongly in the soil of where introspective curiosity grows. I suppose in adding onto that point, one of the ways E33 makes itself fairly distinct in its approach is the overall cohesion of coherence the title is gifted with, is that so much in the way of both thought and effort make themselves so abundantly obvious in terms of time well spent on refinement of the game, there exists a dimensionality of depth binding the title together, from the smallest moments of whispered detail, to the grandest movements of thematic marvel, you feel as if nothing was taken for granted in the attempts at an appeal to the respectful senses present and accounted for.

All of that, and more yet unmentioned, feeds into this ridiculous notion of how overwhelmingly obvious this kind of game, in all the qualities and approaches that it is comprised of, leads one to have to ask the question aloud: why did no one try any of this before? Of course, and very much to my point I’ve already established in past dialogues, the game does a treat in reigniting the flames of passion that the Final Fantasy (FF) series use to burn so brightly with, so someone has done “this” (E33) before, in a sense at least, but clearly not recently, or since those days of old, as if it were otherwise the case, FF’s throne wouldn’t be so barren and absent of a royal ass firmly parked in said position, and or why E33’s attempt is so positively baffling in its outlandishly overt reclamation of such lost cultural imbuements.

As a point of fact followup to that line of thought, I was attempting to reconcile in my head how, and in all of my articles thus far, that I had failed to mention that Sandfall Interactive, which is the developer behind E33, is based in France, and that as a result, E33 is absurdly French due to this happening. However, as much as I’ve never had a need for the excitational standards that usually negatively begets shameful senses of nationalism, the expression of E33’s cultural foundational idiosyncrases is anything but toxic, acting as more of a whimsical pride in the background of their cultures flag, and much like nearly everything else that gracefully ties into the experience, exudes a genuine sense of charming sincerity that underpins and overall enhances the artistry found within. To make more explicit my assertion, as to why I brought up Sandfall’s cultural lineage in relation to E33’s quality, is likely due to ever evolving and forever shifting expectations that once comprised the development landscape and design machinations found in abundance once upon a yonder in Japanese studios the land over, but a mentality of which has shifted overtime, no longer in service of the ideas E33 wears on its sleeves so fashionably. If one then also considers the new blood and fresh perspective that comes with Sandfall’s attempt at putting their own je ne sais quoi into the mix, and the delightful blend of new age approach mixed in with old school sensibility, one begins to hone in on what helps to generate the compellingly gorgeous cultivation that E33 so romantically flourishes with.

-Pashford