Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review: An RPG Pièce de Résistance

When previously playing a three-hour Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 preview build back in March, we became quickly enamoured with Sandfall Interactive RPG’s distinct mix of turn-based combat blended with real-time mechanics, great-looking graphics, well-put-together soundtrack, and intriguing story. 

Be that as it may, we had to avoid getting too excited at the time before going into the full version. After all, the aforementioned sneak peek was a mere tenth-sized sliver of the full game that has a minimal playtime of 30 hours total.  Sometimes, gameplay or story elements that feel thrilling in a short demo can quickly become repetitive within the scope of a campaign that’s dozens of hours long. 

Thankfully, after rolling credits on the entire review build of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it’s a relief to say that caution was unnecessary — with this first game by Sandfall being one of the best studio debuts in recent memory.

An Artistically Creative Story

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s unique premise, shown off in its June 2024 reveal, was a big reason so many RPG fans were immediately hooked, and it’s just as engrossing in execution. 

In the isolated and Belle Époque France-inspired city of Lumiere, its inhabitants are being slowly wiped out by a supernatural being called “the Paintress”. Each year, on top of her faraway monolith, the Paintress will paint a new number — counting down from 100 for the past 67 years. Each time, anyone whose age matches the number that the Paintress writes dies instantly, known as a “gommage”, essentially getting closer to making its citizens go distinct as time goes by and lives grow shorter.  To stop her is Expedition 33, the latest of many crews that try to spend their last days setting sail for the Continent to reach the monolith, kill the Paintress, and stop the long-running cycle of death. 

Starting you off as Gustave, the soft-spoken and dedicated engineer voiced by Daredevil’s Charlie Cox, Expedition 33 does a fantastic job setting the stakes and showing what you’re fighting for vs. what you’re up against. Sandfall’s emphasis on high-fidelity visuals, utilizing Unreal Engine 5, first results in an utterly stunning Paris-inspired city of Lumiere inhabited by a bright and colourful set of characters. However, you’re soon thrown into the bleak reality of the annual gommage, and the defeatist attitudes of citizens who’ve already accepted their doomed fate in the years ahead. 

While you start among keen and confident fellow expeditioners ready to take on the Paintress or die trying, the perils of the Continent soon remind you why so many expeditions before you have failed. 

It’s a creative new dark fantasy take on the expectations vs reality of war, showcased in so many media before — portraying both the beauty of life and how horrifyingly brutal it can be brought to an end. With such a fantastic hook to draw you into a new world, it’s no wonder Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 already has a live-action film adaptation in development.

A Wonderful World

Despite the danger of death narratively being around every corner, Expedition 33’s main world of the Continent is a treat to explore visually and in terms of gameplay. 

With a larger hub map connecting you in between, you reach and explore multiple linear areas to achieve objectives to get you closer to the Paintress — each distinct and wonderfully well-designed in their own way. 

Including the shimmering ocean-based Flying Waters area from the preview or the haunting Visage Island, Sandfall have gone out of their way to make each stage of the game’s campaign feel fresh as you progress. That also makes spending extra time exploring for extra secrets more enjoyable, whether that’s challenging secret bosses, additional side objectives, or finding lost journals of previous expeditions for additional lore. 

It can seem like a chore trekking across the larger map at first, but you’ll unlock the means for faster travel toward the end of the first act to make it far more manageable. 

Cinematically Snappy Combat

With each area, Clair Obscur has a surprising amount of enemy variety, making its turn-based and real-time mix of combat all the more fun. 

While games that focus on just turn-based combat or real-time action can get repetitive, Expedition 33’s balance of the two causes you to think strategically and hone your reactions, all to satisfying results. 

Instead of just re-skinning most enemies, called “Nevrons,” later areas in Expedition 33 either introduce variations or unique monsters to fight entirely. With that, so many foes have their own particular attack styles and timings to master if you want to parry or dodge, which is important for survival on the higher difficulties — especially against bosses. 

On one hand, getting one-hit KO’d by a new strong enemy type with unpredictable moves is frustrating. On the other, acclimating to those attack patterns and pulling off a slick dodge or an epic counter, adds to the game’s well-made cinematic feel. By giving you just enough leeway to get a feel for every enemy or average boss after a couple of tries, it makes a brilliant effort to tread that fine line between “frustratingly impossible” and “tough, but satisfying to master”.

Pictos for Fun Experimentation

You could technically beat the whole game by dodging and parrying without getting hit, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s depth in gear and builds makes the experience far more gratifying. 

If you’ve played a lot of turn-based RPGs before, you’ll be familiar with many of Expedition’s elements in this department. Along with elemental attacks, buff and de-buff skills, upgradable weaponry, skill trees, and even movesets or abilities unique to particular party members, this game’s unique Pictos gear and Lumina ability system ended up being one of the best things to experiment with. That’s even more so than during the preview.

This is because of the way each mechanic works together. Every character can equip three Pictos at a time, each with their own bonus stats and Lumina with an additional passive skill. After having it equipped in battle after a while, the Lumina of a Pictos can then be learnt by other party members, as long as they have enough Lumina points to equip it. 

With that, there are many extra layers to have a blast with or incorporate into party builds. For example, one of the best early Pictos is “Dodger” — which lets a character gain an AP (needed for skills), with every perfect dodge of an enemy attack. Add those to the build of every party member, and you’ve got a much better team that’s faster at setting up expensive, stronger skills. 

Although it can occasionally feel a bit repetitive, continuously checking and swapping around Pictos between characters for better stats and bonuses, it’s RPG experimentation and customization at its finest most of the time. 

A Symphony of Story & Music

While all the good things said about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are indeed worth mentioning, the two biggest reasons for acclaim are its story and soundtrack. 

Both in its writing and world, as the remaining expeditioners explore the Continent across the minimal 30-hour campaign, the game will take you through an impassioned journey interweaving hardship and loss, as well as whimsy and wonder despite the group’s grim situation.

Like their combat styles, each of your party’s starting core members; Gustave, Lune, Maelle, and Sciel; feel diverse and likeable in their own way. Each hero isn’t afraid to have a bit of fun and laugh when appropriate, but the narrative never takes that step too far into wacky comedy that would make it clash with its heavy stakes and often sombre atmosphere.

Despite a substantial shift in the group dynamic at around the second of three acts, the whole narrative keeps you simultaneously enthralled with each mission as it comes, exceptionally maintaining the hidden mystique of the truth all the way until the end. That’s partly a huge testament to the dev team’s direction, motion capture performances, and voice performances by the cast’s skilled members like Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Andy Serkis, and Ben Starr — the latter of whom has given his best performance yet as the mysterious Verso.

The rest is because the impact of said narrative wouldn’t hit half as hard without the now-iconic set of awe-inspiring tracks. Composed by French genius, Lorien Testard, the game’s soundtrack demonstrates a range of enchantingly moving, orchestral soundtracks connecting you audibly with the elegance of life, art, the heartbreak of having what you love be taken away, and the righteous spirit of rebellion you’ll invoke trying to take it back.

For comparison’s sake, this puts Testard on the same level as video game composers like Bear McCreary and Gustavo Santaolalla for God of War and The Last of Us, respectively.

Final Thoughts

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a masterpiece, as if created on a canvas by the Paintress herself, and is an absolute must-play. 

Its inspirations from RPG series contemporaries like Persona and Final Fantasy are clear in its gameplay. However, Sandfall’s unique mix of turn-based & real-time combat, stunning world, impeccable soundtrack, and first-rate cinematic storytelling makes the debut title of this new studio stand out on its own. By not only honing the strengths of past RPGs and being bold enough to push them forward, this stands as one of the new greats within the genre. 

If this is what a brand-new dev team can create just for their first game, we should all be excited to see what they whip up for their second.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PS5.