It was only announced mid-last year, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 feels like an adventure that my fellow RPG fans and I have been waiting for all our lives. A flashy debut from studio Sandfall Interactive, all about mixing up beloved combat systems, fusing turn-based with real-time, alongside a killer narrative. A fusion promised to be more meaningful than those that have given it a stab before. Not like those other ones! Now that we finally have it in our hands, how does it fare? Sandfall damn well got it in one and made a masterpiece.

RPG parties are the foundation of the genre. Seeing a group grow and develop not just in combat capabilities and cooperation, but socially as they become a found family of individuals, getting familiar and close… It’s what many play these games for. What do you do when you’re a group living on borrowed time, awaiting your almost certain demise? You hold on to each other as best you can. 

For those who come after

Everyone in the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is living on borrowed time due to an annual event where a gigantic god-like figure known as the Paintress carves a new number into her monolith, visible across the horizon for the world to see. Anyone who is that age of the number will then soon die, evaporating into dust. This event is what’s known as the ‘Gommage’ (French for ‘erase’), and is an event that is as surefire as the sun rising tomorrow. For the past 67 years, this event has plagued this world, and expeditions of people have journeyed far and wide in hopes of putting a stop to the Paintress and bringing forth a new future and hope for the lands. You are part of Expedition 33. This is your journey.

Clair Obscur’s introduction is beautiful. In a setting inspired by Belle Époque France (set during 1871-1914), much like Lies of P, you’re seeing fantasy and the arts combine. Interior environments contain gorgeous masterwork paintings, architecture is vivid and inscrutable. Quasi science fiction visuals with some of the technology and tools the party has on hand. Simply put, you’re in a period where the economy should be blooming and the arts should be being celebrated. Instead, all around you is death, and not a soul over the age of 33.

Sandfall also do a stellar job of detailing the world in this intro. Playing as Gustave (Daredevil‘s Charlie Cox), you’re about to go on your expedition with friends and allies alike. The kick-off for this journey comes on the day of the Gommage, and as some are bracing to journey out and hopefully save the future, others are preparing to die right there on the spot. Walking down the cobblestone streets to the pier, there’s an uneasy aura in the air. You see people playing piano and guitar in the streets, children with necklaces made of flowers, all looking like they’re celebrating. Then tucked away in corners or against shop walls, you’re seeing lovers share a final embrace, you speak with people ambivalent about the expeditions due to their lack of success so far. Gustave meets someone who’s technically prime to go on the expedition with the party, but instead wants to spend his last year truly living rather than going out and likely being killed within days. What is the Gommage? It’s a sort of reverent doom for everyone.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s general aura and mixture of both hopelessness and resistance reminds me of last year’s 1000xResist where, during a scene of a riot, a character questions the point of protesting and resisting if they’re just always going to get crushed down to a pulp, resulting in their oppressors’ defences only growing stronger. Another replies: “Because then they’d say this is how it’s always been.” Expedition 33 is going through this same cycle of defeatism, feeling hopeless, but at least being iron-clad sure that the status quo needs to change. There needs to be a future, no matter how many of them or their lives it takes.

Along with that, the experience is all laser-focused on spectacle and wonder. The story beats and swings that Sandfall Interactive are going for here are ambitious, but are met beautifully. Some twists and turns change the fundamental being of the entire experience, and I was eagerly there with them for the duration of the ride. Many of these I can’t even talk about, nor would I want to; I started Expedition 33 thinking the game was going to be about one whole thing, until it became about countless others. When the narrative shows its real hand to you about a third of the way in, you’re sure to be even more invested and want to see where the whole thing goes.

There are so many intriguing ways that Sandfall Interactive have decided to tell their story visually too. Every so often, one of the characters will have these nightmare sequences where the image turns to black and white and is now in an old aspect ratio of 4:3, illuminating the players to the character’s disconnect and otherworldliness of these moments. ‘Clair Obscur’ also means strong contrasts of dark and light in artworks, something that becomes a regular motif in your journey. Early areas you explore will come back and become more relevant and have new contexts. 30 hours deep into the game, and I’m putting the pieces together of what the deal was with that odd building that looked out of place in hour 5. It’s stunning the way environments, themes and ideas all come together and loop back around despite Expedition 33 being able to run as far as 60 hours long.

I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an amazing triumph. Sandfall Interactive have delivered a fresh and original story that is full of unbelievably well-executed spectacle in both its narrative and visuals. It’s only made bigger by the fantastic soundtrack done by composer Lorien Testard. It’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth-level of efforts, where the list of songs is extensive and characters have their own themes. Whether it’s battle music that goes almost sci-fi with its synths when you’re battling rarer enemies, or rich orchestral pieces that envelop your ears as you’re exploring a new place of wonder… everything’s bigger. A personal shout of mine that you should check out that’s currently available to listen to is ‘In Lumiere’s Name,‘ a piece with accordions, guitars and violins. Yes, despite all the fantasy goodness, it’s a very French game and soundtrack.

A love letter to those before

What many will take away from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, heralding it as one of the all-time greats, is the combat. Thanks to nostalgia booms, a growing trend we’ve seen in the genre is western developers making titles heavily inspired by Japanese-made RPGs.  Though really great romps, none have quite hit the mark and nailed every little aspect. Here, Sandfall Interactive take a little bit of everything: the timed button QTE prompts of games like Paper Mario, the strategy of managing characters and how to make the most out of every turn like Shin Megami Tensei, even the occasional social aspects you find in Persona. Taking a little bit of each on paper sounds far from masterful, but it’s what the studio does with those strokes that carve a new path for the genre.

Expedition 33 is the most demanding combat you’ve seen in a turn-based RPG, and I promise I’m not exaggerating. What would otherwise be traditional turn-based combat becomes untraditional when suddenly you’re merging it with real-time. Abilities and attacks performed by your party can be given that little extra gusto or oomph of damage by correctly timing button presses; however, the same rules also apply when it is the enemy’s turn. Parties can, depending on how an attack is telegraphed, dodge, parry or jump over them, eliminating all possible incoming damage but also (in the case of successfully parrying an entire combo) dealing some back even though it’s not your turn.

Getting down parrying is unbelievably hard but exponentially rewarding. Learning each enemy type’s attack patterns so you know when there’s a move you must jump instead of parry is tough. This challenge expands tenfold when you come across foes doing a ‘clunky’ combo where they fight unpredictably and mix things up in the heat of the battle. Players not yet confident in how they’re reading a specific attack pattern can rely on dodging (there’s a more generous window to pull this off than a parry) just about every attack, removing all possible damage, but you’re still missing so many windows of opportunity if you don’t. Free attacks from your party only occur if you parry every single strike of a combo, or you jump over the right attack you’re told to jump over. None of that comes from dodging. You can probably make your way through the whole game by idly dodging, but you’re missing so much if you do.

This is where party DNA makeup can heavily complement the offensive and defensive. Along with a standard and ranged attack, each character has an ability gimmick: Gustave has a robotic arm that charges with every attack completed in combat. Once this reaches 10, you can do a devastating, fully charged attack. Spellcaster Lune is all about using every elemental type of attack possible, which consumes ‘stains’ each time a spell is cast. If you cast these in the right order (casting an ice spell while an enemy is on fire, etc), it leads to extra damage. Swordsmith Maelle is the melee inverse of this, able to swap stances on the fly whilst doing an ability, entering risk vs reward stances where both incoming and output damage is doubled. It’s a unique and really strong approach to have the cast charging meters or functions in different ways while using abilities. Without a doubt, a nice refresh from other RPGs where x character has the AOE attack and y character is the healer, and so on.

Players can also author what each party member does in combat by what they equip for their passive abilities, known as Pictos. Party members can equip three of them at a time, and once they’ve been equipped and see through four battles with these Pictos, they can be banked as Lumina, additional passive perks that you can equip as many as you like, provided the character has enough points. It’s a good idea to then learn high-value Pictos so they can then be banked as Lumina, stacking the countless number of additions of perks you have on your side.

Suddenly, your combinations and combat potential for each party member are tremendous. You’re equipping several stacked Lumina that allow you to start with extra AP in battle, meaning you don’t have to farm it with regular, weaker attacks at the start of a fight. Maybe you’re adding burn to your ranged attack so that when someone shoots an enemy’s weak point to kick off a battle, that enemy is already on fire and having their health chipped away slowly. Regardless of the character, you definitely want to invest in the Pictos and Lumina that add AP charges and health restoration for each parry. If you’re good enough at parrying that you can walk away from a six-strike combo unscathed, with this pair, you’ve essentially restored a fraction of your health and AP six times, leaving you untouchable and forever ready to perform an ability.

On top of this, the currency that you use to respec your stats (HP, Strength, Evade, Crit Hit chance, etc) is plentiful, and though I rarely am motivated to do that in games, it’s quintessential at some key parts of the adventure here. It’s yet again another way to specialise a party member in any given way you want. In some late bosses that I just couldn’t quite perfect, I went all in and maxed out defence and health, and it was my saving grace. If you can’t beat ’em, game ’em.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is undoubtedly a love letter to so many JRPGs and adventures that have come before it, but it’s a reverent and respectful one. It’s adapted all the right stuff meaningfully, adding much-needed and meaningful spins on formulas in just the right places. For one, there are Persona-style character quests that grow a social bond with your party members. Though they’re not huge in depth, there are incredibly personal ones in there, including the witchy card-wielding Sciel who lets you in on her past, feeling closer as you’re also scoring additional combat abilities for her every few bond levels. If you love superbosses and secret bosses in your Final Fantasy‘s, you’d be hard pressed to find ones quite like the ones here, colliding with monolithic beasts with gimmicks you have to work with. Some of these fights took me about an hour. One had an attack that kept removing AP; a nemesis I could only defeat when I had enough AP stacking Luminas. Some don’t give you a single attack turn until they’re stunned, meaning you have to simply successfully hold out, parrying attacks long enough until their stun meter fills. Only then do you get a turn.

Combine this with the fact that healing items aren’t something you can just buy bountiful supplies of at a shop and instead are limited to how many you’ve unlocked or found, and…Christ! Expedition 33 is an unbelievably rich and devoted combat game that demands you meet it on its terms.

The great expanse

It’s tacky and over-treaden ground to say ‘video games have come a long way since Pac-Man’ at this point. What I’ll instead say, somewhat facetiously but with full sincerity, is that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is living proof of how far RPGs have come. Just when you think a genre is out of innovation and ideas, a big hitter like this comes along. I mean this as no disrespect to everything that’s come before, but contrasting what overworlds in early adventure games did, having you stumble into a forest area lightly resembling a sparse few trees or town by a sparse few houses, versus what is happening here… It’s a magical evolution. Compare the original Dragon Quest, exploring this charming bit-crushed overworld in 2D, to the over-the-top 3D overworld here that plays with verticality, shortcuts and puzzles, and it still feels impossible and not real in your hands. Yet here we are.

The overworld is vast and exciting, filled with so many striking attractions pulling you in every direction. Not a single one of them is dull. Cave openings can become mini-dungeons, with snaking pathways that emphasise verticality and interesting traversal, and what awaits at the end could be a secret boss, meaningful loot or a charming cosmetic outfit called ‘Baguette’ where one of your party members is suddenly dressed up as a stereotypical Frenchman, white and black striped top, beret and all.

There are interesting additional mysteries to be found, taking place across several locations. Tidbits and worldbuilding await around every corner. Audio logs from previous expeditions can be found, and these heartfelt entries from those who have come before are yet another example of how reverent the Expedition as an institution for survival is. The Expedition aren’t just fighting for people to see tomorrow. They’re fighting for the people who will never get to see that tomorrow. Painfully real themes and ideas for the current times, aren’t they?

Esquie is a bulbous friend who joins your crew and quickly becomes your primary mode of transportation around the overworld. You quite literally climb atop his giant belly and ride him. Before long, he can swim across oceans, then fly, reaching sky islands, heights and depths you couldn’t prior. It’s incredibly well-paced when you get these traversal upgrades too; just when you think you’ve tidied up enough of the map and you’re ready to see more, a plethora of new locations opens up to you. All are exciting and never dull. I’ll spare detailing so many of what these are because another exciting part of the game is finding these all for yourselves, but exciting combat gauntlets, secrets, and the like are all begging to be found. One side activity type I’ll recommend you always keep an eye out for is locations known as Gestral Beaches. Whenever you see one, do it first thing if you’re after delightful side-tangents.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an epic, ambitious masterpiece that manages to never really falter. I could talk all about the minor tech issues I had (occasional audio dropouts and brief frame drops when the screen gets busy), but I’m not even entirely convinced that isn’t just my fairly recent PC trying to keep up with the beast of a game. I don’t know how Sanfall Interactive did it, but they’ve truly created magic that will be talked about for years to come.