Hailed with titles like “game of the year” and “surprise of the year,” is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 really that good? Let’s dive into this detailed review.
I’m not a fan of fantasy fiction. I’m not a fan of turn-based combat. But I loved this game.
I first saw this game during one of the Xbox showcases last year. But it didn’t grab my attention at all. I thought it would be just another generic AA RPG. I was so uninterested that I didn’t even watch the trailer properly. I didn’t even know it was turn-based. While I was completely oblivious to the game’s existence, suddenly I saw its review scores being published. Everyone was racing to praise it. Then I noticed a review code had landed in my inbox. “Alright,” I thought, “let’s give it a look,” and I launched the game. The only thing I knew when I started was that it was set in a fantasy world. I mistakenly believed, “It’s a universe set in the Middle Ages, something has happened, and everyone over the age of 33 is dying.”
Story of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
I started the game and, surprise, it’s definitely not the Middle Ages. It’s set in a time closer to the modern era. This immediately piqued my interest. The game unfolds with a slow, deliberate presentation, gradually introducing you to its universe. There’s a character called the Paintress. Nobody knows exactly what she is. All that’s known is there’s an island, and in the middle of this island, in a tower-like structure, there’s a number. Every year, the Paintress reduces this number by one. They started counting down from 100. When it hit 99, everyone aged 99 died. When it hit 98, everyone aged 98 died. And so it continues. The people in this game world, wondering if there’s a way to stop this, started organizing expeditions to the island. But none have succeeded, and the countdown has reached 34.
When the game gives us control, the countdown is just a few hours away from dropping to 33. The character we’re initially connected to has a loved one who is 33 and will die when the number changes. The entire city has gathered to bid farewell to those who are 33.
The Paintress arrives, changes the number to 33, and everyone aged 33 turns to dust. This has apparently become a tradition, as after the number drops, a team composed of those who will die next year organizes an expedition to the island. So, we, as part of a team of 32-year-olds, head to the island.
Gameplay Mechanics
This is where the game truly begins. We don’t control a single character; the game doesn’t have one sole protagonist. We manage the entire expedition team. While exploring the open world, we can switch characters with a single button press. Each character has their own abilities, and when entering combat, you select three characters to fight with. You defeat enemies by comboing these characters’ abilities.
For instance, one of my characters might set an enemy on fire. When another character attacks a burning enemy, they regenerate their own health. And so on. In this way, the abilities of different characters complement each other, allowing you to take down whatever comes your way.
The game features a remarkably diverse range of enemies. I can’t remember the last time I played a game with such varied foes. New enemy types constantly appear, and these aren’t just reskins with different colors. Each has unique abilities and movement patterns, which prevents the game from becoming repetitive.
Right at the beginning of the game, as soon as I entered the first combat, I thought, “Oh no! This game is turn-based.” For someone like me, whose only past experience with turn-based games was Angry Birds RPG, a potentially incredibly boring game awaited. “I’ve got the review code for this game, how am I going to make a video about it?” I reluctantly started playing. However, the more I played, the more I grew to love the game.
Still, the game’s magic didn’t last indefinitely for me. I finished it in 25 hours, and around the 15-16 hour mark, I started to get a bit weary. Actually, “weary” might not be the right word. I simply stopped deriving the same level of enjoyment I had at the beginning. I began avoiding regular enemy encounters as much as possible, focusing only on boss fights. You can actually evade almost all enemies in the game. If you just run past them, they often can’t catch you, and you don’t have to engage in combat. Realizing this contributed somewhat to breaking the game’s spell for me.
Now, about the boss fights. There’s a wide variety of them, and almost all are excellent. I think there were only 1 or 2 boss fights I didn’t particularly enjoy. In fact, I can probably say that some of the best bosses I’ve ever encountered in a game were in this one. The game has a genuinely massive map and a lot of side content. Something emerges from everywhere you go, a boss from every corner. I finished it in 25 hours focusing only on the main story, but if you were to tackle all the side content, the game’s length would nearly double.
This isn’t a big-budget game made by a giant corporation. You wouldn’t expect such abundant content from smaller games like this, but they’ve done it. The developing team, Sandfall, consists of about 30 people. Of course, they’ve collaborated with many external companies, but the core team is very small. Despite this, they’ve produced an excellent piece of work.
Atmosphere and Presentation
The game has its own distinct visual aesthetic. It looks very French, and while it might be a bit jarring at first, you get used to it. It looks beautiful, but due to improper optimization, the game appears very hazy and blurry. I fixed this with mods. If you’re planning to play the game on PC, I recommend these mods.
The game looks good and all, but some areas are too bright, and some are too dark. I don’t know the exact term for it, but the lighting and colors in some scenes look very amateurish. The way lights bloom, etc., looks like my own shoddy game development attempts in Unreal Engine. Something isn’t quite right, but I can’t pinpoint exactly what.
Apart from that, the atmosphere is great; animations, cutscenes, and so on are very well done. They’ve paid attention to story presentation and have done a good job. Although I didn’t like where the story went towards the end, the story presentation itself was genuinely excellent. The game’s voice cast is top-notch. Many famous actors are part of the voice cast and they’ve done a great job.
The music is also good-ish. Yes, it’s beautiful, but for a film, series, or game score, being good isn’t enough. It also needs to fit the scene. Here, most of the time, the music that plays, while beautiful, doesn’t suit the scene.
You’ll find yourself listening to the game’s music on YouTube, etc.; it has some great tracks. But the music-scene synergy, in my opinion, is poor. Speaking of music-scene synergy, the pinnacle of this is this example.
What’s the one thing you hate most in a game? For me, it’s getting lost on the map. Mass Effect 1 is one of my favorite games. It has many problems; it’s very old, very clunky. But when recommending it to someone, my biggest reservation isn’t any of those. It’s the near impossibility of not getting lost in the Citadel section at the beginning of the game.
This game is like Warband. You know, it has a huge map. But when you enter castles or cities, there’s no map or anything. You find your own way. It’s the same here. We enter locations, which you can think of as dungeons. However, there’s no guidance inside them. Am I going the right way? Am I lost? Is where I’m going the right place? Where am I? You can never be sure. And this constantly starts to bother you. When you reach a fork in the road, the fear of getting lost and having to restart the section diminishes the enjoyment you get from the game. I come to a crossroads. I feel like exploring to see what’s around, but I don’t, fearing I won’t find my way back.
Conclusion: Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Worth It?
If even someone like me, who has no affinity for turn-based games, loved this game, I recommend everyone at least give it a try. By the way, the game is also available on Game Pass. If you want to play it cheaply, you can try it on Game Pass. The game is already being hailed as “Game of the Year” in many places. I don’t think it quite deserves that title, but it’s a very good game nonetheless.