I am playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I cannot avoid to notice that there are flaws mainly under the gameplay/UX perspective. Also the GOTY is not immune to imperfections, and that’s actually one of the main reason why Players play games. We love imperfect things!
There is a system which is very interesting, it permits you to create different builds for your team. It opens when you decide to see the detail of one of the members of your team.
Weapons
Each character has a set of weapons available. You can find weapons mainly by beating specific monsters (in the game they are called: Nevrons) like bosses or mini-bosses. These weapons are related with damage, but also with 1-2 stats each.
Weapons may offer extra benefits, and they can be leveled up at the camp. They are readable, and also different: you can see the weapon currently equipped in battle.
The struggle with weapons is that you cannot predict where they can arrive, how powerful they can become. So it’s hard to decide to invest in a specific one, especially sooner in the game.
Pictos
During the game, you collect Pictos, which are things you can put in 3 slots per character to get extra benefits on stats and effects in battle. In theory, you can study the advantages you have in certain stats and decide accordingly which Picto to equip to your character.
In practice, you are overwhelmed by them, and it’s hard to make a choice of which to equip, in my opinion. Also because the stats they influence are not directly the main ones, but secondary/calculated. So you should be very knowledgeable about the game systems to understand properly this one. Also, when a Picto is equipped on one of your member, you cannot use it with another.
Luminas and Lumina Points
In order to solve the Picto issues and to encourage you to swap them continuously, Sanfall Interactive designed Luminas: using Pictos more than 3 times (in more than 3 battles) unlocks the possibility to use their special effect only using another resource, called Lumina Points.
This system is complex and hidden in the menus, I am sure that most players will ignore them completely and focus on mastering the dodge/parry mechanics in combat. I believe that the UX doesn’t serve well the system, which is already very complex to be fully understandable. Maybe in the future, with the integration of more systems to provide real-time guidance to the Players, these things will be easier to grasp.