Maelle's Stendhal became overpowered after Sandfall's last‑minute change

Gamesradar reports that Sandfall made a last‑second change to Maelle's Stendhal attack in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that left the ability far stronger than intended.

The development team admitted during a chat with Edge magazine that "[Maelle's Stendhal skill] was very bad during all the playtests," and "we decided to change it at the last second [before launch] so we didn't test it properly." Maelle gains the move in the transition between acts two and three, and players found it easy to upgrade in battle; because the damage is physical it threatens nearly every enemy, and there are ways of making it deal tens of millions of damage in a single turn.

That power proved especially useful in the post‑game, where superboss encounters such as Simon, a member of Expedition Zero who has been stuck in the Abyss for years, demand nearly max level characters and high‑end equipment, making nukes like Stendhal valuable in those fights.

The overpowered effect was later dialed back by a nerf to more regular levels of damage, so players can no longer rely on the full exploit and must instead progress by grinding and careful strategy.

Key Topics

Culture, Maelle, Stendhal, Clair Obscur, Sandfall Interactive, Expedition Zero