Game Review: Clair Obscur - Expedition 33

Originality is a hard concept to find these days.  Whether it’s a book, movie or a video game, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything which doesn’t share a common, relatable element.  As time goes by and modern media becomes more and more saturated with the same tired ideas and formulas, it becomes even harder to find the ones that strive to be original for good or worse.  It’s safer to make a sequel to Call of Duty than it is to spend time making something brand new, because in the eyes of upper management and shareholders, they care more about retaining the revenue stream than risking losing it letting developers try something new. It’s also considered a risk to venture out and do something new because you can’t be sure how the audience will receive it and it must be a terrifying prospect to believe in that idea so much but when you put it out to the world you’ll be faced with a potential for dismissal or complete indifference.  My point is originality is a rare attribute to tout these days with the many, many reasons it often doesn’t work, but I don’t feel that should be a justification for never trying; because when you do try, you can get something truly phenomenal as a result. When one man got tired of the creative drought at Ubisoft he set out to try something original and 6 years later, we’re all here praising that decision because it produced Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Where do I even begin with this game? Well, I have a confession to make firstly.  I regrettably didn’t pay much attention to this game before it came out.  I was aware of its existence when it was revealed during the Xbox Game Showcase in 2024 and thought as a game it looked somewhat interesting, but after that it fell right out of mind for me and I honestly forgot about its existence until soon after it released. The problem with modern gaming is the market is so saturated with releases that it really is hard to pay attention to everything, in this games case it was only once it released and I saw the hype and reputation it was generating that I started to pay attention once again. Reflectively, I hate that it was only after the game came out and received the initial praise that I began to pay attention.  It highlights a key area I need to work on with paying more attention to new games and keeping them on my radar, as I likely missed a lot of solid releases by simply not paying them any mind prior.

Development on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is arguably one of its biggest stories to tell. As mentioned in the opening section, Guillaume Broche was an employee at Ubisoft at one time. Anyone who knows me, knows my disdain for this particular publisher.  I don’t doubt the people making games for them are good, decent people trying to make a living doing something they love, but it’s just a shame they are doing it for a company so creatively bankrupt as Ubisoft. The same Ubisoft who has milked franchises like Assassins Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six till the udder ran dry. The same Ubisoft who are clearly more interested in banking on EFT’s and tired live service formulas than new ideas. There’s a clear reason Ubisoft is hemorrhaging money left, right and centre as I truly believe the industry and the general gaming audience have finally caught on to the fact that this publisher is just not that good anymore. 

Maybe that’s why Broche left and formed his own development studio Sandfall Interactive with some other ex-Ubisoft employees. It’s after this point that the developers fully began to work on the passion project Broche was formulating. Broche noted that the standard turn-based role-playing genre that Japan popularized with the likes of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Persona had been neglected by the modern industry as of late.  Feeling the genre was suffering from notable ostracization from western developers, Broche and the team at Sandfall set forth to create a turn-based role-playing game which honed in on a high-fidelity feeling. Despite their high ambition, it’s worth recognizing the small roots that the game took during its development.  Broche began recruiting for the game’s development through Reddit and SoundCloud where he found the games respective writing lead and composer. After agreeing to a partnership with publisher Kepler Interactive in 2023, the wheels truly began to turn on the games development, with the studio getting an increased budget to utilize for hiring a larger team and acquiring big name actors like Charlie Cox, Ben Starr and Andy Serkis to voice some of the characters. Development was also able to move from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 which Broche credited as a major assist due to the engine’s higher fidelity tools and assets.

After 6 years of development, Sandfall Interactive were finally able to realize their passion project and released it to the world on April 24th 2025 across PlayStation 5, PC and Xbox Series consoles, and the rest as they say is history. Critically, the game received a plethora of high praise, aggregating a phenomenal 92 rating on OpenCritic; which is absolutely insane for a debut game from a brand-new studio. Commercially the game exceeded all expectations, with the latest sales figures as of May 27th 2025 highlighting over 3.3 million copies sold. 3.3 million copies sold in just over 33 days of release shows life has an ironic sense of humour but in reality, it is an incredible achievement that outlines the pure adoration the game generated from fans.  I just recently ventured to Fan Expo here in Canada and I couldn’t tell you how many people I saw dressed in the iconic Baguette outfits from the game.  Seeing the reception this game generated in real time was truly sobering.  It made me happy to see a debut studio with a debut title realize their dream and I made a solemn vow to play the game for myself before the year was out and confirm if the hype really was warranted; I’ll spoil that question for you right now, it was!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set in a magical world in which the lands have been upended and scattered by a cataclysmic event known as the Fracture. On the island of Lumière the last remnants of humanity live out their limited days in the ever-present gaze of the Paintress and her Monolith. Every year, the Paintress commences a tragic event known as the Gommage.  When the Paintress writes a number upon the Monolith, all the residents of the world who match or are over the age written are killed. With the number getting smaller every year, the residents of Lumière form an annual expedition to set forth to try and find a way to destroy the Paintress before it’s too late.  As the title of the game might suggest, the main cast of characters of the game are part of Expedition 33, correlating with the present age outlined by the Paintress. Leading this expedition is an ingenious inventor by the name of Gustave. Alongside him is his foster-sister Maelle who is the youngest Lumière resident to venture forth on an expedition. Joining them is Lune, a brilliant mage and scholar, inheriting the legacy of her parents to venture forth on her own expedition.  Sciel is the last notable member of the team, a warrior of sharp wit and a deft hand with her cards.  As they venture out to the main land in order to find a means of stopping the Paintress they will come to blows with forces beyond their wildest imagination as they try to navigate the heart of the world torn asunder by the Fracture.

To say anymore is to ruin all of the pure brilliance this narrative has to offer. Foundationally the game starts off so strong with its abstract world and setting. You can tell there’s a lot of inspiration taken from French culture and art with this world.  It’s designed in such a way that it constantly feels like you’re inhabiting a painted world, structured through the ideas of a lucid dream. While charming, it is easy to argue it’s appeal could easily wear off over a prolonged period, especially when you consider like a traditional Japanese RPG this game runs for a long period.  I think what helps ground this heavily abstract world though is its tone. While beautiful to a notable extent, the world’s primary emotion is tied to tragedy.  The Fracture, the Gommage, the Paintress, this entire world is governed by a constant sense of inevitability.  It’s through the tragic reality that the world is given a lot of weight to help support its larger themes and concepts. There’s so many moments where the story just completely shifts gears on you too and you never feel any sense of predictability from it, which is really refreshing to see in this day and age. That balance of wonder and sadness the games world and inhabitants are able to instill in you is never ending and it feels like you’re exploring a blissful dream that can so easily shift to a nightmare at a moments notice, it’s such phenomenal world design. 

The characters do a lot of the heavy lifting for the narrative as well. There’s so much depth and backstory behind both the main and supporting characters spread across the entirety of the game.  The central cast of Expedition 33 are written in such a compelling way that they each feel distinct from one another yet share a lot of commonalities in their goal to end the Gommage. Everyone in the group has lost someone to the Gommage so they all understand the stakes in trying to stop it.  So many Expeditions ventured forth before 33 and none ever returned, so the team rightfully understand they may be going on a suicide mission and the possible futility of their journey comes out in their interactions with one another. There’s so much definition behind each character too and their central role in the plot offers so many opportunities for them to share moments with one another and better showcase their personality. I have to say my absolute favourite character is Maelle.  It’s hard to dive too much in to her character without spoiling key story elements but all I’ll say is she anchors the plot so much and goes through one hell of a journey to define her place in the world.  It’s through her development and depth that so much of the narrative works. Everyone else feels just as well defined too, it’s a clear sign Sandfall cared enough to make each of these characters feel not only distinct from one another but give them so much room to grow individually and as a group throughout the course of the story.

On the gameplay end, the game completely nails it on so many fronts. The primary element is of course the combat and there was no expense spared in realizing the functionality behind it.  Turn-based role-playing games are definitely a required taste and it’s true their popularity has dwindled since the day of the SNES and Sega Mega Drive. Even Final Fantasy for all of its reputation, has chosen to focus more on real time gameplay as opposed to the traditional turn-based formula.  Clair Obscur’s approach to the gameplay format is actually really smart however. Each of Expedition 33’s central characters all hold a unique ability which influences how you play them in a battle.  Maelle for example has different stances which can increase her damage output and maximize her ability to take damage.  To prompt those stances, you need to use corresponding ability to put her into the stance for her next turn.  Lune as the primary magic character in the game uses her abilities to generate magical stains that can reinforce her powers for greater effect.  Sciel’s primary functionality is her Foretell cards, her abilities allow you to stack cards against an enemy and consume them through the use her abilities.  The fact that each character has a range of unique moves which work in conjunction with their abilities makes every encounter a unique one as you have so much room to play around with it. That’s not even considering the massive attribute and skill application system.  Pictos are unique buffs you can discover through the course of your game and by levelling them up you can apply them onto each character to give them additional buffs to utilize in combat. There’s an absolutely insane amount of depth behind combat and character builds in this game, so much so that your team synergy will be a major focus by the later stages of the game.

Looking at the framework of the combat system, it’s easy to see how intuitive it really is as well. Obviously you’ll be using turns to apply your abilities, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless during an enemy’s attack phase.  You actually have the ability to dodge, parry and jump enemy attacks to avoid taking any damage.  Dodging is the easiest component and doesn’t require too much in terms of timing, though it yields the lowest results as it just helps you avoid attacks.  Parrying is a little more precise, but by parrying attacks you gain AP which can help you apply more powerful skills, plus if you parry all of an enemy’s attacks in one go you can actually perform a counterattack to deal extra damage. This is a major risk/reward system which helps gives battles even more layers to appreciate.  What also helps is the enemy and boss design in the game.  There’s so much distinct variation to this games catalogue of enemies, with such vivid and unique designs that lend themselves to the wider world around them, they’re also capable of hitting you really hard if you allow them.  Sandfall really understood a good combat system is only as good as the enemies you are required to use it against and there’s so many moments in this game where you get truly pushed.  The bosses especially stood out for me, some of the later game bosses specifically stood out for me just because of how much they were able to surprise me and change up the flow of the combat constantly.  I won’t spoil the specifics but I will give a major shout out to my boy Dualliste for giving me such a fun boss encounter, his fight made me truly learn to master the art of the parry and for all intended purposes it turned into a true duel of precision.

Exploration also feels appropriately scaled in the confines of the games size.  Dungeons serve as the game’s primary locations, which each dungeon consisting of a variation of terrain to navigate.  For many an inquisitive player, there’s so many side tracks to explore too and game constantly rewards you for taking the time to navigate an environment properly with gear and customization items. There’s so much variation in their design too. The artistic expressionism that serves as a core design principle for the game is projected largely through its environments.  There’s so much abstract beauty found in the world and its explorable dungeons but not one area ever feels cheap or repetitive.  It’s all in service of the games core theme to invoke you with a sense of wonder and tragedy in equal measure. The HUB world also easily reflects this in its diorama style approach to an open world.  The entire HUB feels like a large-scale diorama or map that has been crafted by an artist and you are rewarded at every turn for exploring it.  There’s a nice sense of progression to the exploration too as you’ll be unable access certain areas until later in the game, justifying further exploration as you progress deeper into the games narrative.

On the design end, you can see why Sandfall elected to move to Unreal Engine 5 with this game.  Again, this is an indie studio bare in mind, even with Kepler’s budget, this isn’t a AAA game which an infinite development budget from Sony or Xbox.  To say this team was able build and craft a world teeming with much beauty and detail with all of their limitations just outlines why they deserve all the praise.  Character models are detailed and express so much emotion, the wider world around them emits a collage of colour and light that work to express the painted beauty for which the game so proudly exhumes. Animation-wise the game feels so fast and its motion works to keep the pace of the gameplay and story going constantly. There are a few moments in the games combat encounters where it will shift to dynamic cutscenes within the battle and you feel the scale of the fight truly shift in response to it.  Everything about the games visual design feels just as realized as every other component, it’s a bloody beautiful game to admire on so many levels.

I want to devote an entire section to the musical score of the game.  You know me by now, I love to give credit to the composers of the games I play, as I appreciate the music behind the game as much as any of its other components.  In Clair Obscur’s case I’d argue the music is way more important than anything else in this game. As mentioned at the start, Sandfall found Lorien Testard online through Soundcloud, the guy had no prior credits and was just an avid fan of video game and their music.  Again, I really want to emphasize the fact he had NO PRIOR CREDITS.  This was a brand-new composer to the industry and he composed 154 tracks for this game and not one single track in this game is anything less than a legitimate classic. The musical score is the heart and soul of this game; without it I’d argue it would not deliver the thematic success it so effortlessly weaves. It is beyond comprehension that one of THE best video game scores I’ve listened to in years was made by one man with no prior experience. I want Lorien Testard to know he deserves every bit of success coming to him and more. I truly hope he gets picked up to score more and more games, because I really want to hear his music again and again.

The more I think about it, the more I come to realize Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn’t just a game of the year, it’s a game of the generation.  I live for these moments where a game comes out of absolutely nowhere and delivers on every conceivable front and asks for nothing in return but your time and attention.  Guillaume Broche and his team at Sandfall reached for the very stars on their first try and yielded the very heavens. I hope people talk about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for many decades, I hope this game cements itself as the Final Fantasy VII of the modern generation when we all recount it so many years later to our children and our grandchildren. It is after all, for those who come after.