Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5) Review

It might be on-the-nose to say that a game which is so strongly focused on literal art has reminded me of the potential of video games as an artistic medium, but that’s exactly what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has done.

The beauty of video games is their potential to bring every aspect of art—visual art, music, drama, writing—to bear through a technological medium, and give players the ability to interact with and control these experiences. And this debut title from France’s Sandfall Interactive excels in all of these departments, providing a feast for the eyes, ears, and soul alongside a stimulating gameplay experience.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a beautiful hybrid of several genres. At its heart, it is a turn-based RPG following strongly in Persona 5’s footsteps, but featuring prominent action-based prompts—Quick Time Event-like inputs to increase the power of certain attacks, or precise reactions to avoid being attacked in return. Exploration feels reminiscent of traditional classics like Final Fantasy X, while the camp feature evokes memories of speaking to companions in Dragon Age or Baldur’s Gate 3.

However, while one can say “this feature looks like that game,” or “this mechanic reminds me of something else,” Expedition 33 does not feel derivative. The true beauty here is that Sandfall has taken all of these components and woven them into something new, self-sufficient, and thrilling, thanks in large part to its premise and setting.

“Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can be quite an unforgiving game, where parrying successfully makes all the difference.”

In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s world, the city of Lumiere has long lived under the thumb of an enigmatic sorceress known as the Paintress. Every year she paints a number upon a grand obelisk, and everyone of that age dies on the spot. (Think the snap from Avengers: Infinity War, but targeted and annual.) The city sends out expeditions of adventurers in response to try to put a stop to her, but every effort thus far has been thwarted either by the Paintress or by monsters called Nevrons who block the way.

The game introduces us to this world through the perspective of Gustave (portrayed in English by Daredevil’s Charlie Cox), an engineer, mentor, and all-around good citizen. We meet him just as the next annual culling (or Gommage, as they call it, a French word meaning “erasing”) claims someone dear to him, and then he departs on the latest mission as part of—you may have guessed it—Expedition 33. Gustave knows his number will be called the next year, and he is determined to spend his remaining time doing whatever he can to make things better for those he will leave behind.

A rocky start leaves the team decimated and scattered, however, and Gustave must meet up with teammates like his younger foster sister, Maelle; the scholar, Lune; and Sciel, a friend of his lost love. Together they desperately move forward forward across the alien continent that separates them from their target.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 seamlessly introduces us to this whole paradigm through a well-disguised tutorial process interspersed with the stoic tragedy of the Gommage and the team’s departure. It cleverly avoids bogging us down with exposition, giving just enough detail to know what our stakes are—and then we go through the looking glass at a pace that would make Alice’s head spin.

Through the journey, players will explore a variety of beautifully surreal locales, like the grim forest where Gustave awakens, a region that feels like being underwater, a valley dotted with massive stone faces, and the bizarre village of the Gestrals. Each environment has a distinct personality steeped in eldritch horror, a stark contrast to the Belle Epoque France-inspired Lumiere from which our heroes set forth.

These settings are the backdrop for a thrilling 30-hour story rife with emotional highs and lows, as Expedition 33 unravels the truth about the Paintress. I was truly on the edge of my seat for most pivotal story moments. The cast has an incredible rapport, supported by a dense script. Each expeditioner is complex, as are the allies they encounter, and better yet, we get the luxury of seeing them interact in a variety of combinations; unlike other RPGs, characters can interact at camp without the protagonist being on-screen to facilitate their conversations.

It’s also refreshingly bold in evoking both levity and gravity in proper balance. Along the road to a truly earth-shaking plot point, you might take a detour to an optional challenge, where an enemy that looks like a haunted mime doll can knockout your party with mimed attacks. Beat it, and you can unlock a matching costume for a party member, and wear that goofy look into that somber cutscene. It can be absurd and heartbreaking in all the best ways.

Beyond the story, the battle system is captivating. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s blend of turn-based combat with action inputs offers the best of both worlds. Regular encounters and boss battles alike are strategic affairs, where optimizing your party’s composition and utilizing it well is paramount, while the action prompts bring the pace back up.

In fact, Expedition 33 can be quite an unforgiving game, where parrying successfully makes all the difference. Enemy attacks can be either dodged or parried, except for certain attacks where characters must evade by jumping. Dodging is easier to pull off while parrying every hit of an attack can open the path for a devastating counter, so the trade-off is a choice between a better chance of avoiding damage or turning the tables.

“Everything pulls together exquisitely in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s back end, where even some sillier moments that I wrote off as simply relieving the tension end up resonating for their own reasons.”

Admittedly, this could be a sticking point for some who play RPGs to avoid such precision inputs. I’ve always been one to dodge instead of parry, so each new enemy encountered brought a learning curve as I tried to read their attacks. Parrying seems like the objectively better choice strategically, given the power of the counterattacks, and it’s certainly rewarding to get a handle on the timing in the early hours. Rest assured, though, that more options will open up as the party finds more abilities to equip.

On the other hand, if you love a challenge, there are plenty to be found off the beaten path in just about every corner of the world, from the aforementioned mimes, to slippery foes who will drop a bounty if you kill them in time, to overpowered monsters that will put your skills to the test for rare boons.

In the second act, an additional mechanic, Gradients, is introduced. These are super-attacks with the potential to kill a party member outright, signified by a big black-ink charge. It goes both ways, though, and parrying them with R2 can be just as devastating. The party can learn to use their own Gradient Attacks, which charge as they spend AP to attack.

Preparation is half the battle, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s robust ability system will give players plenty of toys to tinker with. Each character has a unique ability, like Gustave’s Overcharge or Sciel’s Foretell (applying tarot card markers to enemies to stack benefits later), and can equip up to six skills to use in battle. There are several elements and status effects one could build their party around—I was drawn toward a build that used Maelle and Lune to stack as many instances of burning onto enemies as possible.

Along the way, the party picks up Pictos, similar to accessories in other RPGs, which provide stat buffs and a certain benefit (like doubling the amount of debuffs applied, or increasing damage on counters, etc). Beat four battles with a Picto equipped, and that ability becomes permanently available for anyone to use. Combine this flexibility with upgradeable weapons with their own benefits, and Expedition 33‘s customization system offers nigh-limitless possibilities to offset the difficulty of combat.

While I gravitated towards one particular party setup for most of the game, I’m eager to revisit it through New Game+ and experiment more with the characters I used less. The last companion, Monaco, is fascinating alone, thanks to his ability to learn the attacks of monsters.

There’s a lot more I’d love to say about later developments, but to do so would ruin the surprises, and this is a game that truly deserves to be experienced. The story juggles expectations and emotions so masterfully, I can’t believe it’s the studio’s first title. Everything pulls together exquisitely in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s back end, where even some sillier moments that I wrote off as simply relieving the tension end up resonating for their own reasons. And even now, a day after rolling credits, I’m still sitting with the weight of its ending.

Before concluding, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the quality of the aural experience. The voice cast is simply exceptional—not just for big Hollywood actors like Andy Serkis and Charlie Cox, or for recent breakout stars in games like Jennifer English and Ben Starr, but the entire cast. The script is fantastic, but the actors truly imbue it with soul. Shala Nyx as Sciel and Kirsty Rider as Lune sustain the heart of the party, while Rich Keeble as Monoco and Maxence Cazorla as the overgrown teddy bear Esquie nail the tricky transition from comedic relief to world-weary sage. This is certainly one of the most heartfelt ensembles to ever grace a video game.

And soaring through it all is a stellar score composed by Lorien Testard. The orchestration is sublime, always perfectly suited to the moment, whether the operatic main theme, character-specific motifs, or quirkier numbers reflecting the bizarre culture of the Gestrals. Testard knew exactly when and how to reuse and rearrange these themes for pivotal moments, and the result is one of the best soundtracks I can name in any medium over the last decade.

All told, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is both an encapsulation of all the best the medium can offer—remaking proven mechanics as its own and telling an uncompromisingly bittersweet tale with inspired artistic vision, all while presenting a well-tuned, surmountable challenge, and plenty of content. There are nearly as many optional things to do as there is main storyline, even before sinking into a New Game+.

True to one of its main themes, I expect Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserves to stand as a monolith for future game developers, a pioneering legacy “for those who come after.”

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