Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – A Masterful Blend of Art, Combat and Heartbreak
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut title from French developer Sandfall Interactive, is a turn-based RPG that weaves a haunting narrative, breathtaking visuals, and a revolutionary combat system into a singularly unforgettable experience. Released on April 24, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, this game has swiftly carved its place among the pantheon of great RPGs, earning critical acclaim with a Metacritic score of 92 and a staggering 9.7 user score, one of the highest ever recorded on the platform. With a premise rooted in mortality, a world inspired by Belle Époque France, and gameplay that marries the strategic depth of JRPGs with real-time action, Clair Obscur is both a love letter to the genre and a bold step forward. Having spent over 40 hours immersed in its surreal landscapes, I can confidently say it’s a contender for game of the year—and one of the most emotionally resonant RPGs I’ve ever played.
At its core, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a story about defying inevitable death. In the city of Lumière, a twisted reflection of Belle Époque Paris, humanity teeters on the brink of extinction. Each year, a godlike entity known as the Paintress awakens to paint a number on a distant monolith. When she does, everyone of that age turns to dust in a phenomenon called the Gommage. For 67 years, she’s been counting down, and as the game begins, she paints “33,” dooming all 33-year-olds. You lead Expedition 33, a group of volunteers—most of whom are 33 themselves—on a desperate mission to cross the fractured Continent and kill the Paintress before she can paint again. It’s a premise laden with melancholy, as every expedition before yours has failed, leaving behind journals and relics that underscore the Sisyphean nature of your quest.
The world-building is nothing short of extraordinary. Lumière feels alive, its streets bustling with vendors, orphans, and citizens grappling with their mortality. The game’s aesthetic, described as “chiaroscuro” (a nod to the painting technique of stark light and dark contrasts), blends Art Nouveau elegance with high fantasy surrealism. Environments range from coral reefs inexplicably suspended in open air to dilapidated manors unmoored from time, each rendered with Unreal Engine 5’s jaw-dropping fidelity. One moment, you’re traversing a battlefield littered with suspended corpses; the next, you’re exploring an island of carved faces. These locales aren’t just visually stunning—they’re narrative tapestries, woven with environmental storytelling that invites you to linger and uncover their secrets.
The soundtrack is equally integral, a multifaceted masterpiece by composer Lorien Testard and a team of over 30 musicians, including a nine-person choir. From swelling orchestras to operatic metal and atmospheric synths, the music elevates every moment, whether it’s hyping you for battle or underscoring the story’s grief. Tracks like those accompanying boss fights are so powerful they could stand alone as concert pieces, yet they never overshadow the action. As IGN noted, “There’s almost too much good music,” a rare complaint that speaks to the score’s richness.
Combat: A Dance of Strategy and Reflexes
If the world and story are the soul of Clair Obscur, its combat is the beating heart. Sandfall Interactive has crafted a system that feels both familiar and revolutionary, blending the turn-based roots of JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Personawith real-time mechanics inspired by Sekiro and Paper Mario. The result is what TechRadar calls “active turn-based combat,” a dynamic system that keeps you engaged even during enemy turns.
Each party member—up to three in battle—has a basic melee or ranged attack that generates action points (AP). These points fuel skills, from powerful attacks to healing spells, which you can customize through an expansive skill tree. The twist lies in the real-time elements: you can dodge or parry enemy attacks with precise timing, with parries offering a tighter window but rewarding you with AP and devastating counterattacks. Quick-time events (QTEs) enhance your own moves, boosting damage if executed perfectly. A free-aim system lets you target enemy weak points, adding another layer of skill-based strategy.
This fusion is electrifying. Battles feel like a dance, requiring both tactical planning and split-second reflexes. On the default “Expeditioner” difficulty, even regular enemies demand focus, as their attacks can wipe your party if you don’t dodge or parry effectively. Boss fights, meanwhile, are screen-shaking spectacles, with enemies like the hand-faced Nevrons or towering mega-bosses challenging your mastery of the system. The Lumina system, a unique mechanic that lets you unlock special abilities through exploration, further deepens build customization, ensuring no two players’ parties feel identical.
Not everyone has embraced the combat, however. PC Gamer criticized the real-time elements as “solutions in search of a problem,” arguing they disrupt the flow of traditional turn-based gameplay and lead to exhaustion over the game’s 30-60 hour runtime. For me, though, the system’s demands were a feature, not a flaw. Mastering parries and QTEs delivered a dopamine rush akin to landing a perfect combo in a fighting game, and the ability to influence both offense and defense kept me glued to every encounter.
The narrative of Clair Obscur is its crowning achievement, a tale of grief, camaraderie, and defiance that resonates on a deeply human level. You play as Gustave, a scrappy engineer, alongside a cast of richly developed characters like his adopted sister Maelle and ex-lover Sophie. The story begins with a gut-punch: Gustave’s farewell to Sophie, who’s 34 and doomed by the Gommage. This sets the tone for a journey that’s as much about processing loss as it is about fighting a god.
The writing is earnest and unflinching, exploring themes of mortality, legacy, and the moral dilemmas of bringing life into a dying world. A conversation early on between Gustave and Sophie about whether to have children—one wanting
