this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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I’m at the end of the game, I didn’t notice any especially long corridors? Just seemed like pretty standard jrpg level design
I'm not a big jrpg person. Persona 5 seemed to have higher fight density and more excitement (random enemies, juking patrols etc), Pokémon has the trainer battles at a pretty high density. Xenoblade's world is very full of enemies and X has challenging world traversal with navigational puzzles to solve. Also in all of these games I have the same question but to a lesser extent.
Maybe it's standard for like ff or something. In which case, why is it there is just the same question.
Like is it fun? does it help the story hit harder? what is adding?
Can't speak for Clair because I haven't played it but generally it's exploration, world building and world immersion. I am particularly fond of older JRPGs with a separate worldmap vs town/dungeon view because the entire world is constructed this way, you can place events and happenings in the story in their geographic locations and it just feels good to have a good feel for place and setting.
So there are sections of world building and interesting vistas or whatever. Then there are just corridors.
It's not like, bingo card, dark souls or something where as you're exploring some corridor you find an item with some implied story. Oh an expedition member ran from this monster I just fought, fell here, and dropped their shield or something. There are moments like that kinda, usually the entrances to boss arenas with corpse piles and shit. Mostly though it's a narrow corridor, repetitive scenery, 10 costume bucks.
It's also not well signposted where the useful or interesting exploration is (going forward/challenging fight) and where the 10 costume bucks dead ends are.
For me, I don't need rewards or items or whatever on a path if what's down that path is meaningful part of worldbuilding.
FF9 had tonnes of things like this. Treno in particular is a fucking maze with loooooooong empty pathways between parts of the city that are kinda annoying but it's one of the most memorable locations for me because it was annoying... I wouldn't change it. For a JRPG the architecture of the location is a memorable feature in a sense, and by architecture I don't mean the appearance/art but the traversible paths of the area.
Haven't played a ff game (tried 7, was a snoozefest and apparently that's the peak of them?) so idk. Maybe it's like dad game stuff.
The mindset of someone who would want to play power wash simulator vs practice an instrument/do decorative knotwork/crossstitch/bake/read/whatever is pretty much inaccessible to me. So I guess I'm must a mechanic pilled pacemaxer while you're fillercore and vibing.
It's bookreading vs extreme sports. Different tastes I guess?
I enjoy both though. For different reasons and different moods. You do actually have to genuinely get into a world and story in order to enjoy the quieter parts though. If you don't, they do become a factor for burnout on those games.
I like chill as fuck games too. But like in slime rancher traversal is like the game and the mechanics support that. There isn't (at least as of last time I played it) a part of the map where you go and play a bad piano rhythm game or something.
If fans of jrpgs just sort of expect filler wandering and half executed minigames and that's the reason they're there then it explains why human lives were spent realising them. I didn't know what was a thing though.
That’s how Clair is constructed yeah, overworld with dungeons. For the most part every little passage to explore has an item to find or is a shortcut back. The level design shares a lot with soulslikes too, woth the flags serving as bonfires to respawn/level up/refill your heals (though I have never ran out).