idk if i'm reaching but the mask the lady in Maelle's dream was wearing reminds me uncannily a lot of the Gueules Cassées

the English wiki is pretty incomplete but it was the post-WWI phenomena of people coming back from the war in the trenches completely disfigured, and the medecine advancements of the time trying to "fix" the faces first with clumsy reassambling and later on prosthesis that looked like masks on people's face.

I wouldn't dare bringing the comparaison out if not for the fact the game is set with the aesthetics of La Belle Epoque, aka right before WWI.

Something something also with the way The Paintress sundered Paris in two evoking the imagery of city in trenches.

idk i'm sensing possible WWI vibes in the aesthetic at least, using La Belle Epoque as its backdrop without romanticizing the period into forgetting the horrors of the war that happened at the same time.

Because People (esp in France, but also lbr because a lot of the imagery people outside of France have of France, even not-french people) view the Belle Epoque as the Peak of French culture and the one you will always see represented in media.

But it was a period where, for as much beauty and revival that came after the Great Depression, lots of turmoil still were happening, the shadow of the war was looming, the inequalities, the drastic rise of antisemitism ect... still haunts this period and it's a fair warning of the romantization of said period without acknowledging its bad sides as well

there's an enemy in Clair Obscur

that is like. Totally what it would look like if the monster in Tevinter Nights' "Luck in the Garden" was carrying lamps instead of heads

this is the type of things i expected from VG when i read the books

and then i was told it was unrealistic to expect it

C'EST UNE BOULE DE PETANQUE LMAOOOOOOO THAT'S SO FUNNY, SOUTHERN FRENCH REPRESENTATIONNN

the studio that made COE33 is actually from the South of France and while the cultural shift aren't too drastic, there's very different culture in the North/Paris/Center/South. And that's SO Southern French.

La Pétanque is well known in all of France i think but in the south it's so important we have competitions and stuff about it. In my city there's multiple Pétanque courts where people can come and participate with strangers to play it. My childhood home has a small Pétanque Court because we used to play it every sunday during the warm seasons. It's so funny to me.