Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s new patch shadow-dropped earlier this week, and Sandfall Interactive sure wasn’t kidding when it promised “challenging boss battles for late-game players to overcome within the Endless Tower”.

Along with new playable environment Verso’s Drafts, localisation efforts, and costumes, Patch 1.5.0 introduced “new boss battles for late-game players to overcome in the Endless Tower”, described as “variations of iconic bosses from the main game, designed to be even more challenging”. This includes a brutal reimagining of Simon, one of the RPG’s hardest bosses.

Almost unbelievably, the Divergent Star version of Simon is even more challenging than his brutal vanilla appearance, and social media is filling up with players who are stumped, shocked, and struggling not just with Simon, but the new red ring diving board challenge, too.

“I honestly played many games considered ‘hard’, but this is driving me insane….,” said one player. “I beated [sic] Simon in expert within 10 tries, then Osquio also in expert on my second attempt. But these 4 bosses in the Endless Tower are something else… I don’t think i’ve ever encountered anything that hard ever, Simon specially.”

Another, in a thread entitled “This DLC thing is a joke?”, wrote: “I finally ‘beat’ Osqio after hours upon hours of trying. The last battle took about 1.5h, no joke. And then I mistime a gradient attack at the end and it’s all over? No reserve team, no resurrection? So I’ll have to go through those 1.5h again without failing just to get another chance, and probably fail, the gradient parry again?

“I mean overall this DLC is amazing, but this is something I honestly hate. I won’t give this more tries probably, I don’t have 8 hours to waste to get maybe 5 tries at parrying something that leads to instant death.”

The previously revealed expansion to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is available right now, as announced at The Game Awards. Developer Sandfall Interactive told Eurogamer back in October the update would include “a bit of whee, and a bit of whoo”, hinting at a focus on lovable sidekick Esquie. The expansion’s availability was confirmed by director Guillaume Broche as Expedition 33 won Game of the Year, and the free update comes from the team “as our way of saying thank you” to “celebrate an incredible year”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has once again publicly congratulated Sandfall Interactive for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, this time for securing a record-breaking nine wins at The Game Awards earlier this week.