#brilliant!

The Dark Shore Our first location when the expedition 33 reach the continent. This is place already set the tone really dark compare to Lumiér.

The Dark Shore colours are combination of black, muddied purple and grey, gives the dark, and depressing feeling, the ship wrecks and human corpses scream DEATH to our face, but this also what the Expeditioners expected in their journey, they just didn't expect it will be this soon (me too, and our first trauma from the game)

The Spring Meadows

After that we switch to Gustave, survived and covered in blood and suddenly we're at Spring Meadows, and how's the place looks like? CALM, RELAXING, beautiful and bright, we can hear the sound of waterfall, the breeze, and see so many lush greens, completely 180 of what just happened.

Gustave may have thought he was dead and like "is this heaven?" until he met a Nevron. It's like the game telling us "okay, you got your trauma, here's a place to make you calm down"

There are some areas in this location that have a dominant colour, when we will be fighting the first boss fight, Évêque. Blue-Cyan, Cyan represent calm, tranquility, rejuvenation, and relaxing (although fighting the boss is not relaxing at all) narratively the location of Spring Meadows is the calm after the storm.

These two locations (Dark Shores and Spring Meadows) show that contrast of Clair Obscur, Light Dark, Death and Rejuvenation.

The Flying Waters

This next location is my favourite, Flying Waters (or weird corals as Verso wrote it lol) speak surrealism to me. Like we're dreaming, sense of wonders and creativity. Water also symbolize tranquility and calmness, still related to Spring Meadows a bit with the theme.

My meta explaination in this, is the game wanted to show that "painting" aspect, hence it use surrealism for this place, a dreamlike atmosphere, this also could distract us from the traumatic tragedy.

The Manor

From the Flying Waters to this, is like we're waking up from a dream, and back to reality. The Manor feels like the anomaly in this world, because everything looks weird and more surrealist, but this place looks normal. It's a luxurious manor, very luxurious. The golden lights dominate the whole manor atmosphere.

This place scream RICH, but empty, and cold, the big space in the manor really showed the hollowness although they have furnitures and paintings filing the walls, and all of the walls in every rooms have motifs, there's no empty, bland wall, but yet the place still feel empty and lonely.

Could be mirroring how the Dessendre family is feeling, they have everything (material) but they also loose everything, because of the grief that consume them.

Flying Waters and the Manor also symbolize that Clair Obscur, Dream and Reality.

The Ancient Sanctuary & Gestral Vilage

From Blue to Red, this is also another contrast shifting, Blue give us sense of calm, while Red give us adrenaline, but red also represent danger and alert, because the Gestral want to fight because they just love to fight.

It's like the game telling you "okay now you calm down a bit from the storm, let's get ready to fight again!" the previous two locations are for us to get used with the combat, so the environment atmosphere didn't scream at you.

Although there's another location that use red as the dominated color (Crimson Forest) but compare to the Gestral location, this location still have harmony and sense of warm, combine of red leaves and grass with woods and warm lighting from the sun, this can also showed although the Gestral can be aggressive and fight you, they still have that welcoming side.

Esquie Nest

Esquie's Nest is interesting, the colours atmosphere are mix shades of purple from Indigo and Violet. I say interesting because the previous locations are dominated with Blue and Red, two colors that mix into purple. Indigo lean more into the blue side, while Violet lean more into red.

Another contrast location from the previous, outdoors to indoors and limited lights.

Indigo symbolize: tranquility and mystery. Violet symbolize: imagination and dreams.

The symbolization of the colors is exactly how I feel when I enter Esquie Nest, feels calm and dreamy, but yet mysterious because we don't get much information about Esquie from the location, beside so many mushrooms and hanging lamps, only the carving of Esquie statue showed us a hint who's the host of this place, but we still don't know what is he?

The Stone Wave Cliff

Can you feel the DRASTIC change of tone, from Spring Meadows, Flying Waters, Ancient Sanctuary, Esquie Nest to this? the obvious is the desaturation of color, this place smells grey and ash. VERY depressing, and it fit with the story.

After we met Esquie we help him find Florrie, but the shock revelation is Gustave died here, the tone of this place told you already that another storm will hit you, and just like when we were at the Dark Shore, we didn't expect it will be this soon (or even happen)

and of course Renoir is there again, the grim reaper, taking another soul of an expeditioner.

After I arrange all of the locations for act 1 story, it's like the locations make us to forget what happen in the Dark Shore, and hit us again where we didn't expected. I expect there will be a fight of course, just like the whole Expedition 33 when they arrived at the Dark Shore.

But to loose Gustave this quickly?! NO! and it's amazing how the game play with us, give us sense of wonder seeing the locations and how different they look and feel from one another.

Until we enter Stone Wave Cliff, it's that atmosphere of depressing, somber and death. Coming back to us.