Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just released Patch v1.3.0, and while the update notes may be brief, it includes one major addition that fans of a serious challenge will appreciate: the ability to rematch the game’s toughest boss.
Yes, the infamous Simon fight, known for its brutal difficulty and relentless demand for precise parries, can now be replayed as many times as you like. If you’ve already conquered him once and feel the urge to test your skills (or your patience) all over again, you now have the chance.
Story mode is now actually easy, and for those who want even more of a challenge, there's something for you
Simon isn't the only change in Patch 1.3.0, Sandfall Interactive has also made significant adjustments to both ends of the difficulty spectrum.
For players who want an even tougher experience, new challenge modifiers have been introduced for Act 3 and beyond, that can be adjusted at the flag.
On the other end of the scale, Story Mode has finally been rebalanced to truly offer an easier path through the game.
Story mode, while the easiest difficulty claims that you don't need to master the art of parrying and dodging, anyone who's got into Act 3 will know this is nonsense. Even in Story mode, some bosses require parries and dodges to defeat.
While certain late-game builds using specific Pictos could help mitigate the difficulty, many of these tools weren’t accessible until much later. With this update, Story Mode now better lives up to its promise, making the game more approachable for those who want to focus on the story without the punishing combat.
Patch 1.3.0 full notes
Simon Rematch
- Players can now rematch Simon after defeating him!
Story mode rebalancing
- Parry and dodge windows increased by 40%
- Incoming damage reduced by 10% to 50%
Challenge modifiers (Act 3 onwards) at flag checkpoints, players can now:
- Limit max player damage to 99,999 or 999,999
- Multiply enemy HP by x2, x5, x10, x20, x50, or x100
Bug fixes (297 in total but notable examples below)
- Verso now gains Perfection correctly when in reserve
- Simoso weapon will no longer cause lag due to memory leaks
- General polish across collisions, terrain, and scripting
- Fixed soft lock when loading saves on Xbox Series X|S
- Cutscenes scale properly on ultrawide and non-standard resolutions
- Fixed a bug where loading a save after resting at a different location would spawn the player at coordinate zero
- Placeholder textures removed near Chromatic Boucheclier and his battlearena
- Fixed performance drops from repeated resting on certain levels
- Crash after dialogue sequences resolved
- Fixed stability issues after extended play sessions
- French voiceover now plays correctly when selected
System & Settings
- Audio can now be muted or unmuted when the game is running in the background
- Mouse and joystick sensitivity improvements
- Manual save file renaming is now supported (EXPEDITION_XX format required. XX must be a value between 00 and 09.)
Localization
- Rolling credits updated (added creature VO, refined IOI section)
- Font size adjustments for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
- New strings added and minor text corrections implemented
Steam users may need to download an additional hotfix
Specifically, the Steam patch resolves the mouse sensitivity problem, which should now function as intended. It also corrects localization for the vertical and horizontal sensitivity settings in languages other than English.
Additionally, the hotfix fixes a gameplay issue where Simon’s attacks couldn’t be countered, along with a problem in his second phase when deploying the reserve team.
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