Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based JRPG developed by Sandfall Interactive. Last year, at the Xbox Games showcase, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was shown off in a brief and stunning trailer. It was a surprise to see not only a JRPG of its caliber at an Xbox show, but also when the game was shown off more in its dedicated Developer_Direct, which showed that the game was not just all style. But it had an insane amount of substance that made it explode into the mainstream.
As such, when I finally sat down to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I was overwhelmed by the game’s gripping setting and storytelling chops. But not only was it able to create a story that refused to let go of my attention when it started. It also has one of, if not the best, turn-based combat systems I have ever played in its genre. With a level of customization that helps solidify it as an absolute achievement for not only the developers but the genre as a whole.
Developer & Publisher // Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive
Platforms // PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
MSRP & Release Date // $49.99, April 23rd, 2025
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X/PC/Steam Deck
The Paintress and the Expedition
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 opens up in the shattered world of Lumiere. 67 years ago, a mysterious Paintress shattered the world and began painting numbers that would kill everyone at or above that age. Every year, Lumiere calls this event the “Gommage”. Where every person who is about to perish is given flowers and farewells from their loved ones before vanishing when the Paintress awakens. Following the Gommage, a group of soldiers depart on an Expedition to take down the Paintress.
The story of the game follows Expedition 33 from the perspective of Gustave. Gustave, alongside other members of the Expedition, Sciel, Lune, and his adopted sister, Maelle, depart to stop the Paintress. But after their departure, things take several twists and turns in a very concise three-act structure. On top of this, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story is told in a very gritty and mature manner.
On top of facial animations in cutscenes that perfectly convey character emotions. The way dialogue is delivered in cutscenes feel movie-like, characters will interrupt each other in perfect flow with each sentence, and talk over one another sometimes. Characters like Gustave, voiced by Charlie Cox, and Maelle, voiced by Jennifer English, deliver stunning performances throughout. Whether it’s tragedy in emotionally gripping moments or some of the lighter comedic moments, everyone, including a later character named Verso, voiced by Ben Starr, gave performances that leave lasting impacts throughout every Act.
But one part of the game’s story that surprised me the most was the surprise shifts in its cinematography. Some eerie cutscenes will play in black and white with shifted aspect ratios. The scenes that follow created such a riveting mystery that I wanted to unravel as the story continued. It’s a surprise, like the rest of the world in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
The Stunning and Eerie Environments of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a smaller-scale experience. Clocking in at under 30 hours for its main story, the game does not waste a second. Whether you are in a cutscene or a combat encounter, the game has nearly endless variety in locales. Lumiere itself is no exception. It is a fairly simply designed town, but the constant flying red and white flower petals flowing through the air. As well as the crooked Eiffel tower, it paints a very decimated and hopeless town.
But beyond that come even more jaw-dropping locations. Such as the Flying Waters, which feels like you’re at the bottom of the ocean. A giant serpent slithers by, with decimated boats hovering above, but you are not in the ocean at all, making it feel dream-like. Other places like the Gestral Village, home to friendly monsters, have vivid and soft hues of red. The environment is also filled with giant toy-like creatures and remnants of the old society before the Paintress shattered the world.
Speaking of which, every location in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 either has roads, streetlamps, statues, or decimated buildings mixed into the environment. It paints a picture of the world that came before it was shattered. You can also find the dead bodies of Expeditioners who lost their lives in past Expeditions. You can also stumble upon journals from those past Expeditions. Every journal features stellar voice acting with a recount of events before they lost their lives to the Nevrons, the monsters in the game.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also has one of the most unique worlds that begs to be explored.
Oh Brave New World, Map
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 features a modern-day world map feature. This feature has a small layout of a world with several nodes for different areas to load into for exploration. There will also be enemies, hidden bosses, treasures, and shortcuts to discover on top of hidden locations like Gestral beaches that feature platforming puzzles and various cosmetic rewards. One of these beaches even feels like a small homage to Only Up, which is just as frustrating as that game was.
The world map in the game feels lovingly crafted, just like the game’s combat system.
Next Level Turn-Based Combat
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 features a turn-based combat system with many twists. On top of normal attacks, unlockable abilities, and stats to focus on, the game also features quick-time events. These come in the form of button prompts for abilities. Hitting these button prompts at the right time boosts the damage of the attack. Think of something similar to the combat system in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, for example. But there is one other twist that helps it stand out.
In every turn-based JRPG, there are mechanics like evading, guarding, and damage mitigation through various other means. Where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 revolutionizes its combat system is with a simple, yet effective addition. You can both dodge and parry all enemy attacks in real time. Instead of having to rely on luck-based evasive stats. You will be able to dodge attacks at the press of a button. Dodging has a pretty generous window to avoid damage, while parrying has a reward at the risk of a smaller window to avoid damage.
Parrying every attack in a combo will send a counterattack dealing massive damage to the enemy. There are also other mechanics, like a jump that allows your whole team to counterattack if you time it perfectly. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 rewards you for putting in the time to understand attack patterns and time your reactions accordingly. Parrying a 6 to 8 hit combo and landing a counterattack that kills the foe feels so satisfying. The game also features a shooting mechanic that is easy to use to target enemy weak points to trigger mechanics or deal massive damage to them. All of this is wrapped up in crazy skills and a very deep passive system called “Pictos”.
Picto-Perfect Customization
The Picto system in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is very deep with multiple aspects to it. Pictos will function like accessories with stats on them and a unique passive. After winning a few battles, these Picto’s passives will be unlocked to use on any character through a secondary Lumina system. The Lumina system functions on a numeric system that lets you use unlocked passives if you have enough points to activate them.
It seemed confusing on the surface, but it became second nature and led to crazy combinations for certain characters. For example, for Gustave I stacked Pictos that gave extra damage on normal attacks, but also had passives that boost his damage for a few turns and made the enemy he hit take more damage for a few turns as well. Combining this with Maelle’s fire-focused abilities, where I was able to boost how many stacks of burn she inflicts with each ability, it created insane damage output potential in the early, middle, and late game.
Finally, every character has unique skills and quirks to their playstyles. Gustave is simple and only has an electric arm that builds up a charge for an ultimate-like payoff. While Maelle uses different stances that alter her damage output and how much damage she takes. Gustave and Maelle also have various abilities to take advantage of. Maelle can have higher initial damage, dealing physical and void attacks instead of fire-focused abilities. While Gustave can have self-healing abilities, multiple attack combos, and the ability to offer boons to his teammates. The buildcrafting potential is varied and fleshed out, like the enemies and bosses in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Souls-Inspired Enemies and Bosses
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a lot of unique enemies that the game has unique attacks and animations for. At the beginning of the game, there will be some interesting designs. Such as walking knights made of stone in shapes of diamonds, and Scuba divers carrying underwater mines while they float. While later in the game you will either be fighting against towering ogres, knights with shields that have faces on them, or massive slender dolls that crawl on all fours while their bodies are twitching and arched upwards. All of them have various combos and smooth animations to pick up on to dodge and parry them. The same goes for the various bosses in the game.
Early in the game, you will be going up against wizards who throw spells you can time perfectly to dodge. While later on you will be tackling many different bosses that feel inspired by the Dark Souls games. Such as a Pontiff looking boss that wields a fiery and purple sword in each hand. Some of the world map bosses, on the other hand, have more outlandish designs. Such as a slender figure with a weird symbol for a head, and a pink serpent with a lighthouse for a head.
The game is also filled with optional bosses to take on in each area. Like “Chromatic” enemies, which are much harder variants of existing enemies that rely on parrying and dodging to survive the encounter. Or more creepy designs, like the Mimes. The Mimes need to be parried and then broken through certain abilities to start dealing any real damage to them. The enemy and boss designs in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are eerie, beautiful, and very well designed, and never felt out of place in the setting of the game.
Simple and Inspired UI with Glorious Ambient Music
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 keeps it simple when it comes to its menus for the most part. The main menu is easy to navigate, but the character menus have a bit of jank when navigating from the Pictos to the cosmetics and the Luminas. You do get used to it, but there is some friction in the initial experience. The combat menus are directly inspired by the Persona series. You will see options to just attack like normal, use a skill, or an item.
One part of the items that I found unique is that, similar to the Dark Souls series as well, is that you can use the three different items in combat as much as you can between Expedition flags, which serve as Bonfires. You also get free out-of-battle heals for your whole party that replenish at the Expedition flags.
Finally, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 absolutely nailed its soundtrack. Everything from Lumiere’s dour theme, when beautiful French vocals, to the Flying Waters combat and boss themes that feel more ethereal and upbeat in their tones. Not to mention glorious tracks that wear their rock influences on their sleeves. The soundtrack is arguably one of the best parts of the game, and taps into many different genres, even jazz.
Technical Aspects of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Across Console, PC, and Steam Deck
The bulk of my time playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was spent on the Xbox Series X, where it ran flawlessly on performance mode. There was not a single stutter, freeze, or crash in my entire experience. The game’s fidelity or image clarity took no hits in performance either, offering a silky smooth experience with its jaw-dropping visuals. With that being said, I also tried the game on Valve’s Steam Deck and had an interesting experience with it.
The game runs at a locked 30 frames per second (half of the Series X performance mode) with no graphics options available. There is also a lack of FSR available, which I also noticed was missing on PC with my Radeon 6600 GPU. While the game is playable and still enjoyable in the two hours I tried on the Steam Deck, the PC version itself suffers from similar issues.
The PC version does have those missing graphics options, but lacks the ability to run the game without an upscaler enabled, such as XeSS, which I was not familiar with before looking in the settings menu. You can tune the graphics options to your liking, I just wish there were either FSR or native options to test performance gains further.
Hit and Miss Accessibility Settings
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has a few accessibility settings. Such as colorblind options, and the ability to auto-complete the button prompts in combat. It does, however, lack auto-dodging or parrying for those who would opt out of the button prompts due to reaction problems. Finally, there are difficulty options, such as easy, medium, and hard. These are unique in the sense that they either give more dodge and parry timing, or reduce them while also tuning damage across the board.
I experimented with the easy mode on Steam Deck and found myself breezing through the first area within the first hour. On the Series X, I played on medium and found a very enjoyable challenge otherwise.
A Stunning Achievement
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as a new IP from a brand new studio, feels like a miracle. The game’s storytelling, character performances, visual fidelity, and art direction either match or exceed most AAA games in the space. While the combat, exploration, and customization are all deep and layered that harken to the JRPG genre titans in their heyday of yesteryear. Sandfall Interactive created a rare and stunning achievement that is worth every single penny of its price tag. It will be a legendary classic that you owe it to yourself to play, even if you are not a fan of turn-based games, its combat system and story will grab you and not let you go until you finish it.
Final Score: 9.8/10
Pros:
- Gripping Storytelling
- Incredible Characters
- Exciting Turn-Based Combat System
- Deep Customization
- Memorable Enemy and Boss Designs
- Wonderful Music
- Fantastic Visual Fidelity and Art Direction
- Some Great Accessibility Options
Cons:
- Some Character Menu Jank
- Weird PC and Steam Deck versions
Disclaimer – The Publisher Provided a Key for Review Purposes.
