Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs admit "we were wrong" about "practice is everything" advice for the RPG's difficult parries: "The true strategy is dying over and over until you land a counter"

A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, showing a man named Verso covered in dirt and blood, looking into the camera. — (Image credit: Sandfall Interactive)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is far from the first turn-based RPG to spice up its battles with action elements for attack and defense, but it is unique in making you dodge wild strikes with awkward rhythms that'd feel right at home in a FromSoftware game. The devs at Sandfall Games are trying to offer some advice to players struggling with the difficult parry system, but even they've gotta acknowledge some fans would rather just die over and over again.

"Remember, you can always practice your parries by dodging first, and learning the enemy moves," reads a post from the official Expedition 33 Twitter account. "Dodging is a little easier, which allows you the time to start memorising patterns. Practice is everything!"

Remember, you can always practice your parries by dodging first, and learning the enemy moves. Dodging is a little easier, which allows you the time to start memorising patterns.Practice is everything! pic.twitter.com/v00z6m9XgWApril 30, 2025

You'll get much the same advice from the in-game tutorials, and yeah, it's a good tip. The timing window for dodging is relatively generous, and if you nail the timing to get perfect indicators on your dodges, you can use that exact same muscle memory to successfully parry, too, which will let you quickly build up action points and deal serious counter damage.

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Of course, you don't have to practice with dodges, a fact which players were quick to remind the devs of. "OKAY, we were wrong, we get it," a follow-up tweet reads, "The true strategy is dying over and over until you land a counter. This is the second option."

I mean, hey, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and if you never take off the dodging training wheels, you'll never know how good you could be at parries... so at some level, sticking to the harder move out of the gate is a viable option.

However, there is a third option, too, and one I've found myself gravitating toward as I get deeper into the game: only dodge, never parry. This strategy has served me in pretty much every action game I've ever played, and I see no reason to give it up now.

Expedition 33 is quickly proving its strength among the best RPGs out there.