The debut title of French studio Sandfall Interactive, Expedition 33 got a lot of attention for its visual design and stated goal of bringing big budget turn-based RPGs back to the limelight. But does this expedition reach its destination, or does it just stop short?
Clair Obscur was hyped up a fair bit before its launch, especially by its developers, who admitted that it drew inspiration from the Final Fantasy and Persona franchises, yet touted several added flourishes like quick-time events during combat. It certainly made a strong first impression with trailers showing off its flashy presentation and relatively fast-paced design, and it sold like gangbusters on launch, breaking a million copies sold in only three days and having nearly 130,000 concurrent players on Steam at its peak.
Visually it's easy enough to see where E33 takes its inspirations from. The game utilizes relatively realistic characters in worlds of fantastical monsters and surreal sights a la Final Fantasy, and the zippy movement and combat menus clearly draw inspiration from Persona 5. It's also apparent in the combat system, with each character wielding a gun that can be fired multiple times per turn as long as they have AP, though unlike P5 you can precisely aim at specific targets on some enemies to deal heavy damage. Gunshots are relatively weak otherwise, though they can be augmented with special properties to make them a more efficient use of your AP, and they come in handy against flying enemies (which tend to dodge melee attacks); they come into play out of battle too, where they can be used to stun and slip past enemies without a battle or solve the occasional puzzle by shooting at hidden targets.
The overall design of E33 showcases a few minor elements of Soulslikes as well, giving you a limited supply of healing items that can only be replenished at save points or by camping on the world map (though you can find or purchase upgrades to get more uses between rests), and enemies only respawn in an area once you choose to rest. The game's backstory is largely filled in by finding logs of previous Expeditions that met with disaster, though it has plenty of its own narrative, characters and cutscenes as well so you never feel like you're just vicariously experiencing all the interesting events after the fact.
Combat in E33 is indeed turn-based, with a bar on the side showing each participant in the current battle and some attacks able to delay or cancel turns when they land; slightly reminiscent of games like Final Fantasy X or Grandia. Also familiar is the ability to press buttons to power up attacks and dodge enemy strikes a la Paper Mario. Also like Paper Mario, you have two major defensive options in parries and dodges; dodges allow you to avoid damage when successfully timed, while Parries have a tighter window. However, Parries recover AP when successful, and parrying every attack in an enemy's combo will also give you a free hit on them. Some especially large attacks must be jumped, and if successful the the entire team can do a followup counterattack for heavy damage. Getting relatively adept at these quickly becomes key to survival, especially on higher difficulties where one or two good hits will usually take out a character. Even on lower settings, though, combat in the late game gets downright brutal; enemies get five to eight attacks per turn and every hit has a chance to inflict a status effect that can stop you gaining AP or even render unable you to block or dodge at all, which is basically a death sentence on the next turn. Basically you end up having to evade upwards of 20 consecutive attacks or you just get downward spiraled into oblivion, which is a lot more frustrating than fun.
Per JRPG-inspired title standards, there is a pretty big focus on unique character skills and customization present in the game. Leveling up grants each character spendable stat and skill points, and each has a unique skill board on which to unlock new combat abilities (a bit like FFXII's license boards), up to six of which can be equipped at a time. Further adding to this are Pictos, which grant stat bonuses and bonus effects (termed "Luminas") while equipped. Once a Picto is "mastered" by winning battles with it equipped, the Lumina effect becomes freely equippable by all characters using their limited pools of Lumina points; the base amount is equal to the character's level, though you can also raise it by using collectible items. Weapons likewise have elemental properties and traits that can be unlocked by raising their levels, though unlike Pictos, these can only be utilized while equipped with that particular weapon. As a result new weapons don't serve as straight upgrades, but are more or less "side-grades" with comparable stats and traits, and one can increase weapon levels via items or (randomly?) by winning battles.
Building on this even further, each character has unique combat mechanics that can be set up to cleverly interplay with one another. For example, Gustave builds up lightning charges by attacking and avoiding enemy strikes, and once powered up enough he can unleash them all at once in a single attack that deals heavy damage and can potentially Break an enemy, stunning them for a turn. Lune utilizes elemental abilities that "paints" spaces on her weapon; said Paints can be spent to add bonus effects like extra damage or reduced AP cost for a later attack. Maelle's mechanics are reminiscent of the Watcher from Slay the Spire, swapping between three different Stances - Offense boosts the damage she deals and receives, Defense reduces damage she takes and allows her to build AP by dodging or parrying, and Virtuouse doubles the damage of her next attack. Special moves often get added effects when certain conditions are met, which can lead to some very fun synergies - for example, Gustave can Mark an enemy, Lune can follow up with Immolation to deal bonus Burns to a Marked enemy, and Maelle can instantly be put into Virtuouse by striking a Burning enemy, then follow up on subsequent turns with skills that take advantage of Virtuose state, having reduced AP cost or even keeping her in Virtuouse for another turn if they land. It cleverly encourages the player to experiment with each character's available skills, Pictos and Luminas, and you can build some extremely powerful teams once you get into the swing of it.
Of course a major selling point for any modern RPG is its worldbuilding and storytelling, and Expedition 33 succeeds in fine fashion here too. The world it depicts is an extremely bleak one, kept under the thumb of a dark witch known as the Paintress, with human survivors largely relegated to a single town, finding joy wherever they can despite their bleak scenario, with a small select few embarking on the titular Expeditions in hopes of eventually hunting their nemesis down and freeing their world. It tells its tale brilliantly through its imagery and emotion, adequately explaining itself without over-relying on naked exposition. The acting throughout is fantastic, with dialog feels very human and organic - characters emote naturally throughout, getting into heated back-and-forth arguments at particularly tense moments and facing moments of indecisiveness, doubt, fear and pain, all acted with surprising credibility. They even manage to find beauty in their unrecognizable ruined world, encountering constant bizarre sights and imaginative creatures, and joke around and make wisecracks to add a little levity to their grim situation. Basically, they think and act like real people, which is not an easy thing to pull off in any medium, but especially in the oft-contrived realm of video games. Even the story's antagonists have a surprising amount of depth and humanity and aren't just nuanceless straw men for the protagonists to knock down, which is something I've gravely missed in the era of incel-coded armchair revolutionary rubbish like Persona 5 and Xenoblade 3 and Metaphor.
E33 takes care to keep hold of something so many modern games lack, which is pacing. It's a fairly brisk game by modern standards, with a main story that runs about 25-30 hours and full completion taking around 50, which keeps surprisingly well in step with many of its inspirations. One can experience the story again while keeping their powered up characters and weapons via New Game Plus as well, which is always welcome, and of course there's plenty of challenge for die-hard gamers through optional battles, hidden secrets and three difficulty modes, the highest of which requires some very on-point parrying and dodging if you want any hope of survival. Personally I found one playthrough to be enough; it told its story very effectively and I didn't feel any real desire to punish myself with even more difficult and harrowing battles when the normal fights were getting into the realm of one missed parry being an automatic death.
I also would like to see a few more quality of life improvements; an option for more precise visual feedback on when to time dodges/parries would be welcome. The camera does pan in slightly to tell the timing for melee attacks, but for projectiles and some of the flashier moves that have a lot of screen shake it can be difficult to judge at times. The other is is that the game lacks a minimap for dungeons and towns, which can be annoying during some of the larger and more maze-like areas. They do go out of their way to make each area feel very distinct, with a lot of distinct landmarks and a compass you can bring up via the quick-menu to help you navigate, but still, even a map screen that gradually fills in as you explore a la Ultima Underworld or Final Fantasy XII would be nice.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was a surprise to many gamers when it was announced, and though I was skeptical at first, I quickly found myself impressed by it. Its story and characters are captivating, its gameplay highly polished and efficiently designed, and it's easily one of the most visually striking games I've seen in some time, showcasing a world that's bizarre, beautiful and strangely compelling in spite of its bleak and often depressing storytelling. Its inspirations are apparent, with many of its mechanics reminiscent of elements from other games, but it blends them together in a way that feels surprisingly fresh and unique as a whole. The fact that it's a relatively brisk and filler-free ~30 hour experience, tells a surprisingly strong and mature tale without relying on lame straw man villains or spoonfeeding you mountains of naked exposition, and costs only $50 at a time when games and even consoles are jumping in price is nothing short of commendable too. Companies and fanboys are always eager to equate sheer runtime with a game's value, even when they rarely having enough compelling gameplay or storytelling to fill it, so games that maintains a high level of quality and solid pacing as they do it are becoming increasingly rare. All told, an excellent first effort for Sandfall and a fine homage to the '90s/early '00s era of Final Fantasy. I just wonder how many of the people fervently worshipping this game now are going to stick with it once the honeymoon period ends and how many are going to drop it and go back to whining about how modern Final Fantasy isn't good anymore even though they haven't actually played anything with Square Enix's name on the box since 2003...
Developer: Sandfall Interactive
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Released: 2025
Platforms: PC, Playstation 5, XBox Series
Recommended Version: I have only played the PlayStation 5 version but they all seem to be more or less on even footing.
