Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Among the games announced at Summer Game Fest 2024, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made a strong impression. Art style, production value, cinematic cutscenes and reactive ideas for turn-based JPRGs catapulted the game onto many gamers' wish lists.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was developed by Sandfall Interactive in France, which employs 33 people, and published by Kepler Interactive. The premise of the story alone is as idiosyncratic as it is outstanding. Once a year, the Paintress awakens to paint a cursed number on her monolith, and everyone of that age instantly turns to smoke and disappears. Year after year, the number ticks down. Tomorrow she'll wake and paint '33'. And that's the starting point for Gustave and his fellow expedition members as they embark on a quest to break the Paintress' cycle of death, retracing the steps of dozens of failed expeditions before them.

This journey takes place in a dreamy and fractured fantasy world inspired by Belle Époque France and is powered by Unreal Engine 5. To defeat her, players must engage in reactive, turn-based combat with real-time offensive and defensive commands, that makes battles more engaging. Players will master their offensive and magical skills, dodging, parrying and countering enemy attacks in real time. For those who don't want to actively parry and dodge in the turn-based mode, there's Story Mode, a difficulty level that doesn't require this. Basically, the battles in this mode are much less challenging, and the focus is on the narrative. The third and highest difficulty level, Expert, is quite the opposite: Dodging and parrying are mandatory, with dodging usually easier than parrying. The aim is also to learn the attack patterns of the enemies. In addition to the basic attacks, there is also Free Aim, which also costs action points but allows players to target weak points or hit flying opponents.

Lots of things look familiar, including the UI design, which is reminiscent of recent JRPGs such as Persona or Metaphor, but has been adapted and made to look very cinematic, even if the enemy design is sometimes out of this world. Players will also be able to customise each character's stat growth, skill tree, and equipment, as well as a wide range of passive traits to fine-tune their preferred strategies.

Of course, a JRPG wouldn't be complete without a navigable world map that connects explorable locations and battles. In addition to level-based environments that allow players to explore and traverse, the overworld features discoverable caves and custom locations that host challenging optional battles and side quests. Players will be able to set up camp in the overworld, spend time upgrading their character's weapons and builds, and engage in conversations with their fellow adventurers to learn more about their stories and motivations.

The main story, by the way, is said to take just over 30 hours to complete, in addition to the considerable amount of side content for just under 50 Euros. The length of the optional content and combat challenges in the Endless Tower is also estimated at 30 hours, as the game world opens up much further in Act III, with new traversal options through Esquie in familiar areas.

The developers say about the World Map: "Our world map lets you explore a variety of locations and uncover secrets as you work toward defeating the Paintress. Alongside level-based areas like the Ancient Sanctuary and Gestral Village, the overworld is packed with hidden oddities to explore and unique locations. These spots feature tough optional battles and side quests, giving you plenty of chances to test your skills and dive into the game’s deep character-building mechanics. (...) You'll also be able to set up camp on the overworld, where you can upgrade weapons and tweak builds, enjoy the game’s beautiful original score on an in-game record player, and chat with your teammates to learn more about their stories and motivations."

"We poured our hearts and souls into creating the game of our dreams, something that would feel fresh and new, so we sincerely hope you will enjoy discovering the world and characters we crafted with love. With an incredible and epic story, a unique reactive turn-based system, and a vast hand-crafted world to explore, we gave our all to make the journey in 'Expedition 33' one that you will never forget. We can’t wait to share more with you as we get closer to release!" - Guillaume Broche, Founder of Sandfall Interactive and Creative Director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

All of this is accompanied by a soundtrack by Lorien Testard, but the English voice cast is outstanding too, with Charlie Cox (Daredevil: Born Again, Stardust) as Gustave, Jennifer English (Baldur's Gate III, Elden Ring) as Maelle, Kirsty Rider (The Sandman, Sifu) as Lune, Shala Nyx (The Old Guard, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty) as Sciel, Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings, Black Panther) as Renoir and Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Warframe: 1999) as Verso.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be available on 24 April 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S (available day one with Xbox Game Pass), and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. A physical boxed edition for PlayStation 5 will be distributed by Bandai Namco.

Conclusion

Impressive audio-visuals, reactive combat and a gripping story. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a true JRPG highlight from France. This also means that the game will be in the running for Game of the Year Awards.