With every year that passes, game design seems to get more and more streamlined. I’m not always convinced that that’s a good thing since some titles feel like they’re catering to the TikTok generation’s minuscule attention span, but Metaphor: ReFantazio’s ‘retry battle’ system streamlines turn-based RPG combat in a way that I just can’t live without anymore.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has become my latest turn-based fascination, but it doesn’t give players the option to retry a battle if things go south (and they will go south quickly if you’re not careful). While I’m hesitant to try and crowbar a system from one game into another, Expedition 33 desperately needs a ‘retry battle’ option like Metaphor had.

Dying A Slow Death While A Boss Laughs

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s ‘retry battle’ system is incredibly straightforward. If a battle isn’t going your way, you can simply restart it without any consequences. The system is well-regarded because the game’s enemies rarely wipe your entire party in a single turn, which means if you’re playing poorly, you’ll likely suffer a slow, drawn-out death that you’ll see coming from a mile away.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is often the same way. The game’s reliance on real-time parrying and dodging means that it only takes a few mistimed parries before you’ll realize the battle is doomed. When the realization sinks in, you’re left spending a few minutes trying to turn things around as you’re fighting a losing battle or just holding down the ‘skip turn’ button to get things over with as quick as you can.

On top of that, there are plenty of overpowered, optional bosses packed into every nook and cranny of Expedition 33 – bosses that can down a party member in a single hit. The game gives you a fighting chance against high-level enemies with its parry system, however, mistiming a single parry means that your chances of beating the boss immediately drop to zero whenever a character goes down like a sack of potatoes. When that happens, you still have a few turns before you completely wipe where there’s just not much you can do to turn things around.

There are so many instances where having the ability to retry fights quickly would save me the time of having to watch my party get taken out one by one with each passing turn.

The Argument Against Giving Players Another Chance

Some people pushed back against the retry mechanic in Metaphor because they argue it trivializes combat. By giving you the freedom to spend a first attempt at a fight testing an enemy’s weaknesses before giving it a shot for real with no consequences, it takes away some of the threat the enemies are supposed to have. But this has always been a thing in turn-based RPGS. It just takes longer in other games because you have to reload your save once you’ve gotten the information you want.

There’s no real downside to giving players the option to restart a battle in any turn-based RPG. Unless the game is intentionally meant to be punishing and make the player consider their choices at every turn, like in Darkest Dungeon, then giving people the option to restart battles quicker should be the standard. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can be punishing, but it’s not meant to be a hardcore RPG, so giving players the chance to retry a fight if they’re struggling with getting the timing of a parry or dodge down feels like it just makes sense.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Turn-Based RPG Fantasy Systems 41 9.6/10 Released April 24, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence Developer(s) Sandfall Interactive Publisher(s) Kepler Interactive
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