Review – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

There’s not a lot I can say about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that hasn’t already been said, but here’s my take anyway. The game deservedly garnered a heap of attention when it came out for being a fantastic example of a JRPG, that happened to be made in France. Technically, ignoring the fact that the team includes a bunch of ex-Ubisoft veterans, it’s the debut title from developers Sandfall. And what a debut game it is. 

I was grabbed right from the offset, as I took control of Gustave standing on a roof overlooking the surreal yet distinctively French-vibe city of Lumiere. That certainly looks like the Eiffel Tower, but it’s broken, leaning at an impossible angle and is it…melting? The visual design of Expo 33 is breathtaking. As you discover throughout the story, it’s all set inside a ‘painted’ world, with the visual language of that concept spilling into everything from the landscape, the enemies and even an entire race of NPCs. 

Gestrels, a mischievous race of imps look like living artist mannequins, the ones you can manipulate into different poses, with paintbrush fibers for hair. Large slabs of dried paint are spattered across bits of the land, acting as a physical barrier to the edges of certain locations. At any point you can look to the sky and see chunks of rock all streaking in the same direction, paused in mid-air, as if an enormous explosion just went off but a god hit pause on time, stopping them all mid-flight. Follow their general direction and you’ll see your goal rising out of the horizon – the monolith, home of the Paintress, and her glowing warning sign in the form of a giant painted number ‘33’.

The Paintress is counting down. She started at 100, almost seventy years ago, and on the same day each year, she enacts “the gommage,” a magical ritual that turns every human who has come of age, into dust. Everyone in this world knows their death is coming, and they can calculate how much time they have left. Gustave and his friends are all 32 years old, and this is their final year alive. Rather than sit around and wait for death, Lumiere’s citizens organise annual expeditions to try to reach, and kill the Paintress, stopping the gommage once and for all. So far, no team has succeeded. 

But that’s not to say the previous expeditions didn’t achieve anything. You come across remnants and signs of all the previous expeditioners, some of whom have left useful equipment in the form of Pictos (more on this in a moment), or footholds you can use for climbing to new areas, and often you’ll be able to hear a snippet of their story in the audio diaries they left behind. The people of Lumiere have a few poignant mottos – “tomorrow comes”, and “for those who come after,” which are poetic ways of saying “even if we die, we are helping the next expedition.” You, as part of Expedition 33, get to reap the benefit of all the dozens of people that set off before you, and it helps connect you to the grand desperation of everyone’s situation.

I managed to avoid all the hype throughout its development and release, and even when it was out I still went in pretty blind. I highly recommend you do the same, so that the game’s twists and turns hit with their intended impact. The story is grand, epic and incredibly thoughtful, with heavy themes of death and grief often taking centre stage. Despite this, it can also be a very funny game, not afraid to laugh at itself and offer up heartwarming moments of tenderness whenever the main characters get to rest at their camp.

Your expeditioners are an eclectic bunch. You’ve got Maelle, the young duellist who has chosen to come with you despite potentially having many more years left to live back home. Gustave acts as her father-figure, determined to keep her safe during the perilous expedition. Lune, your primary mage, is super curious and just wants to learn as much as she can before she dies. Sciel has a mysteriously dark past, and uses tarot cards and a magical scythe as her weapons of choice. Esquie is the embodiment of childlike whimsy. Verso and Monaco join the group later on, and their relationship might be one of the best buddy-stories in recent gaming memory. Each character is brought to life with an incredible cast of voice actors and some of the best Unreal-engine models and facial animation I’ve ever seen. I mean just look at the eyes.

Combat is a typical turn-based affair that most classic JRPG’s use, but with a bunch of modern mechanics thrown in to give it a unique identity. There’s a simple but satisfying parry and dodge mechanic which is easy to learn but difficult to master. If you get good enough at it, you’ll literally be able to parry every single attack thrown at you, but the enemies are so varied and cleverly designed that there are hundreds of different combinations to memorise and timings to learn. Each enemy, the Nevrons, feel unique and offer their own challenge, often specialising in certain elements and they come in either grounded or flying sub-types.

I played on Normal difficulty, despite being fairly familiar with JRPG’s, and it felt like a solid challenge most of the time. I do, however, wish I had focused on the main story instead of wandering off to do side quests and optional areas as early as they presented themselves. I ended up leveling up my team so much in optional content that by the time I returned to the main story, I was one-shotting everything, diminishing the epic battles that were supposed to be happening during the entire final act. I simply wish I had known to focus entirely on the main story until I reached a certain point, which I’m not going into specifics of as I don’t want to spoil anything, and then I could have done as much of the optional areas as I like. This would have maintained the difficulty curve a bit longer, but no matter what, if you do the optional stuff before finishing the main story, you will not find much of a challenge at the game’s climax.

What really makes this game’s combat special is the Picto system. There are literally thousands of possible combinations of powers and abilities for you to customise your characters with. Whenever you find a new Picto, you must first assign it to a character so they can learn it. Defeat four enemies with the Picto equipped, and it unlocks for everyone else, and they can also equip it, if they have enough lumina points. You find colours of lumina throughout the game and can assign them to whoever you like. It’s a mind-blowingly detailed system, and the only reason it doesn’t overwhelm you is because you unlock them all slowly as you play. By the end, I was juggling hundreds of options and customising my party to allow for insane combos and strategies. 

With over 50 hours of story content, and basically zero grind, plus at least 40 hours more of optional bosses, regions, and collectibles to find, it’s a massive game to sink your teeth into. The combination of excellent presentation, a deep and engaging story and one of the most likable cast of core characters, its truly earned its place among the best of the best JRPG’s. It’s already won numerous Game of the Year awards, and I’m inclined to agree. I can’t wait to see what Sandfall does next.