One of the year’s most anticipated games, from the premise alone, has to be Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Coming as a debut from a new French studio named Sandfall Interactive, the story follows one of the most metal-as-hell premises ever: A god-like figure known as the Paintress awakes once a year to paint a number on her monolith. Everyone that is that age turns to dust and dies. With the numbers ticking down year by year, it’s up to a ragtag crew to save the day, stopping the annual slaughter once and for all.
This premise was exciting and the trailers thus far looked to depict the game in luscious high fidelity glory. It all sounds too good to be true. However, after about three hands-on hours it looks to be the RPG event of the year. Believe the hype.
The demo was an excellent vertical slice of what’s to come. Glossing over the early preamble on the inciting incident with a quick summary cutscene and getting me right in the action, I was laid bare on the exciting world that awaits.
Situated across 2 biomes with Gustave (Daredevil‘s Charlie Cox), Lune (Sifu’s Kirsty Rider) and later on Maelle (Baldur’s Gate III‘s Jennifer English), you come to know your party. Gustave is a swordsman with a gun that can use an overcharge ability that is more powerful the more you stack it thanks to blocks, parries and attacks. Lune is a magic caster who can use various elements in her attacks and then later absorb these for more powerful attacks. Maelle has an épée sword that can have her constantly change stances on the fly, including one that leaves her susceptible to more damage, but expands her damage output tenfold. Though I don’t quite have ample reads on them as characters yet, they are incredibly strong party archetypes that complement each other.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is looking to emulate so many beloved turn-based RPGs from over the years and thus far it does that really well, also offering its tactile spin on the combat. AP (Action Points) determine what abilities (or firing of a given character’s ranged weapon) you can do at a given time, but a standard attack uses no points and instead regenerates them. These ideas are pretty stock standard for turn-based affairs but it’s when Sandfall Interactive fuses some real-time elements that the powerhouse that is Expedition 33’s combat becomes apparent.
Whether an battle is a scripted boss fight or random encounter, gusto and importance is added by adding Super Mario RPG-esque real-time button prompts. This isn’t just when the party is performing an attack either; but when it’s the enemy’s turn, with certain attacks being able to be dodged, parried or jumped over. Nail the latter two (if there’s a combo every hit will have to be mitigated) and a bonus attack is doled out by the party or individual being attacked.
“…it looks to be the RPG event of the year. Believe the hype.”
Enemy weakpoints that can be shot with a party member’s projectile attack, actually being able to add and stack elemental damage such as burn on bosses instead of rudimentary invulnerabilities… in only a handful of hours in Expedition 33, I’ve been able to be more strategic in turn-based gameplay than I ever have throughout the entirety of some long-running franchises. Add with that the monster and creature design and billions of particles and flourishes that’ll be filling your screen mid-battle, and it’s quite a sight to see.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set during the Baroque period of history, fusing this imagery of French architecture with sci-fi and fantasy. The first biome has a forest that makes way to a decrepit cave with corpses while the latter is set under the sea, with seaweed and nautical flora towering over the party. Between all of this, the demo found time to introduce me to other oddities; in the overworld you can see a crumbling Eiffel Tower in the distance. You meet up with Maelle in a gorgeously lit ancient mansion. Off a beaten path, I came across a rare boss encounter that was a tough-to-beat doll with high defense that was dressed like a mime. If I’m already running into such sights with limited gameplay time, it’s safe to say the entire experience is going to be very bespoke.
The big question mark that still remains with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the narrative. Though the broad strokes and character work thus far are exciting and grandiose, I’ll be counting down the days until I can see if Sandfall Interactive successfully nail their ambitions. The nitty gritty story bits, character development and so on… can they pull it off? I hope so!
At least we don’t have to wait long. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 releases on April 24th on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5. Stay tuned!
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
