Hoku Grinds Seven Hours in Clair Obscur but Ends One Level Short of the Cap

POLYGON — Hoku spent a stream of about seven hours on Tuesday walking in circles and fighting the same enemies in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, trying to raise her whole party to the level cap of 99 before going any further in the story. She did not get there. Her characters were sitting at level 98 when she ended the broadcast, the 21st in her playthrough. She told viewers early on that it would be a boring stream, a promise she repeated through the evening, and said that anyone who wanted to leave for something livelier was welcome to.

She opened by laying out the plan: farm until the levels were full, then finally go to meet “Papa,” the next step in the story. She said she was done with Simon, whom she described as not worth three phases of fighting for a single reward, and later in the night she told chat that trying him had cost her a great deal of time. Near the start she also said her voice had not fully recovered from an illness.

“Verso, I’m sorry I thought you were bad all this time. I never changed your moves for you.” — Hoku, after giving Verso new skills

Much of the evening went on the menus. She kept swapping Pictos and Luminas, and at one point decided to strip a 50 percent chance effect out of her party’s setup, explaining that she dislikes anything that is not guaranteed. A little later she gave Verso a set of new skills and apologized to him, saying she had written him off as weak when she had simply never changed his moves. Chat suggested a combo for Maelle that drops the character to one health point; she tried it and called it interesting. Between fights she answered questions about the weather, theme parks and the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners sequel, which she said she had not yet seen.

Verso reached level 99 about four hours in, and she pulled him from the party so the others could catch up. The rest crept up through the mid-90s over the next hours. She said she raises everyone evenly because unequal levels bother her. By the last stretch she was fighting at speed, watching the clock because she had to pack for a trip the next day. Her hits were landing in the hundreds of thousands, still short of the millions she said the story’s boss would demand. Of the game itself, she said she plays for the story and that the one thing it lacks is a map.

She also pointed viewers more than once to the final of her agency’s anniversary card-game tournament, held on the official channel that evening. When midnight passed with the party at 98, she called it. Next time, she said, she would finish the climb to 99 and then go to see Papa.