Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review
Final Fantasy, Persona, Chrono Trigger are some of the inherent influences, but it was the inspiration from Sekiro and the French heritage of Sandfall Interactive that made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 feel like the dawn of a new era of turn-based RPG’s, as it equally pays tribute to those who came before, as much as it innovates for those who will come after.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stands out as not only one of the best games of the year, but also a JRPG that has the potential to convert players who are not fond of the genre or haven’t given it a chance before. It has the power to be an RPG that a generation will look back on decades from now as the game that got them into the genre.
However, Expedition 33 isn’t perfect, but let’s discuss what makes it great and what could be improved and try to help you decide if this game is for you by distilling our thoughts at the end.
EXPEDITION 33 REVIEW
What is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the debut title from Sandfall Interactive, a studio that was only founded in 2020 and at its core is a turn based JRPG. Expedition 33 blends fantasy with the Belle Epoque of France, which translates to the beautiful era. A period in the late 1800’s after surviving a war when France thrived across multiple facets of life including science, technology, art and culture.
To better understand the story, it helps to understand the definition of Clair Obscur, which is a painting term, and is very germane to the experience as Expedition 33 constantly echoes this sentiment, but the easiest way to comprehend the meaning is the blending of light and dark elements like love & death, hope & despair and happiness & suffering.
Once a year, The Paintress awakens and paints a number upon her monolith for all the people of Lumiere to see. Once she has finished, everyone above that age disappears into a cloud of smoke and flower petals for reasons unknown in a supernatural event known as “the gommage”.
Every year, an expedition departs from Lumiere, determined to reach the monolith, destroy The Paintress, and finally put an end to her relentless chaos. Tragically, all previous expeditions have met their demise in the field, succumbing to the hardships of their mission. You begin by taking on the role of Gustave, the leader of the 68th expedition, known as Expedition 33. With the support of a few close friends, Expedition 33 embarks on an unforgettable quest to The Continent that will test your every facet of your skills.
What’s good?
The brilliance of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lies within the unique vision for the game and the unwavering commitment not only to the concept of Clair Obscur, but of the Belle Epoque time period. This vision transcends to every aspect of the experience from the Beautiful Era inspired world, its architecture, the character design, all the way down to their stunning wardrobes and even their demeanour, the exquisite score, and the enemies, which are at times both beautiful and grotesque.
Everything comes together in such a cohesive manner. However, what truly consumed my attention was the catalyst for the entire experience: The Paintress and her ability to cause people to disappear. This unique premise immediately evokes emotion. Why is this happening? What would you do? Would you try to stop the paintress somehow or would you spend your last year living life to the fullest with the ones you love? The closest parallels for a story so unique is Children of Men, but instead of a world stripped of fertility, the world of Expedition 33 is slowly stripped of its loved ones.
The world of Clair Obscur is unforgiving and as a result the story follows suit and doesn’t hold back any punches. It also respects the players intelligence by not providing any origin stories, throwing the player into the middle of the madness and allows the player to figure things out on their own. Due to this, your curiosity is instantly provoked. Why is Gustave’s arm mechanical? What happened to this world?
Following the Clair Osbscur vision, the story is full of light and dark moments. Moments that make you laugh and moments that leave you speechless. Expedition 33 is effortlessly genuine and not once features a snarky character, which I think is due to the French Culture where the game was created and is full of quotes that could easily becomes iconic in gaming including “Tomorrow Comes”, and “When One Falls, We Continue”
These lines are memorable not only because of how they are written, but how they are delivered. The performance of Gustave, the leader of E33, by Charlie Cox is rich with nuance. We see a man who is stricken with grief from recent loss of a loved one at the hands of The Paintress, but it’s masked by a sense of confidence and devotion to the people of lumiere and the Expedition. Charlie Cox anchors the other performances as they are all equally on par with the ability to portray shades of joy and pain from Ben Starr, who is becoming a household name in gaming and Andy Serkis, who might not have as much screen time as others, but maximizes all opportunities.
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the classical inspired composition by Lorian Testard, which perfectly captures the tone of the world, but also the trials and tribulations of Expedition 33. The score for Claur Obscur is arguably one of the best original gaming soundtracks I’ve heard in a very long time, especially the titular song which is instantly recognizable and remains with you long after the game is over.
As exquisite as all of these elements are, the piece de resistance, as the French would say, is the combat of Expedition 33. While most JRPG’s created today focus on modernizing their game with real time combat, Expedition 33 not only embraces the past with a turn based combat system, but makes it feel incredibly fresh with a modern reactivity that still manages to pay tribute to genre heritage.
The “Reactive Turn-Based Combat” as Sandfall labeled it, takes the idea of active turn based combat, which implies hitting a button at the moment of impact, but cranks the dials to 11. Mainly you'll need to dodge or parry and occasionally jump. The window for dodging is much more forgiving, but it only negates you from taking damage. A well timed parry allows you to counter as well, which deals massive damage and these are essential to victory. They might be optional, but without mastering the parry system, success will be nearly impossible in the later stages of the game.
The timing window for parries is precise and demanding like Sekiro, which was a major inspiration. There is no option to make the timing more forgiving and no abilities or items to find that will help you with this either, but like a Fromsoftware title or any other soulslike, when you eventually master the parry and timing or at least become somewhat fluent with it, the feeling is extremely rewarding. There is a massive amount of enemy variety, not only in visual appearance, but in attack patterns and it’s important to remember that the game can be beat without taking a single hit.
This parry system also allows for huge emergent gameplay moments. If you have make a few mistakes and one or even two of your party members go down, you’re not out of the battle. You can still rally with or without them as long as you can be perfect and adapt your strategy. Expedition 33 is full of these unforgettable moments when the odds were stacked against you, you were down to the last party member with minimal health and no revives left, but somehow overcame the odds.
Complimenting the fantastic combat system is a roster of characters that feel very different and will require a high level of strategy to find success. Each character has different weapons, a different battle mechanic, and feature very unique skills trees. The skill trees are vast and you will juggle between which six skills you will take into battle, but there are also Pictos and Lumina to learn.
In short, Pictos are skills you find and can equip up to three per player. However, once the character has won enough battles with that a certain Picto equipped, it is now considered learned and able to be used by any other character by using lumina points. It all might sound confusing, but everything is laid out as well as it could be for as complex as everything is.
Most importantly, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't overstay its welcome at around 30 hours, I couldn’t wait to continue exploring the rest of the world, which should take an additional 30.
What’s Not?
When critiquing a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it often distills to personal preference or minor nitpicking. While most criticisms are negligible to the overall experience, they can also be attributed to Sandfalls’ first expedition since their founding in 2020. While this doesn’t give them a pass, it does afford them understanding.
Lumiere and The Continent are vast as you frequently transition between the world map and locations within. The allure of venturing off the beaten path is always intriguing, however, the platforming mechanics can be imprecise and the presence of invisible walls hinder an experience that is otherwise rewarding and respectful of the players time.
The cutscenes in Expedition 33 lack polish with facial animations feeling stiff and hair distracting. Despite these shortcomings, the writing and performances are exceptional, compensating for these surface flaws.
The reactive turn-based battle system kept me engaged throughout every battle. However, it wasn’t immune to improvement. There’s no way to change the party’s order between battles, which should have added another layer of strategy.
During battles, certain skyboxes can obstruct your vision and hinder your ability to dodge or parry projectiles. Tracking is also challenging in the reactive battle system’s prompt at times as the timing icon can sometimes get lost amidst the impressive visual effects of battle.
Clair Obscur: Expedtion 33 Review Verdict
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a breath of fresh air because it prioritizes a compelling vision over following trends. It doesn’t resort to witty sarcasm in its dialogue or try to capitalize on current popular settings for the story, and there isn’t an attempt to infuse the latest real-time gameplay gimmicks. Sandfall have made a bold decision, especially considering it’s their debut title, to deviate from modern RPG conventions. Trends don’t age well, but artistic vision does and Expedition 33 has all the markings of becoming a timeless classic.
Without a doubt, Expedition 33 is a strong contender for “Game Of The Year” as well as one of the most unique RPGs I’ve ever played.
