Every year on the same date, a godlike being known as the Paintress paints a new number in the sky above the city of Lumière.
Ticking down from 100, this year the number hits 33, and within seconds, everyone aged 34 and older turns to dust.
The next day, Clair Obscur’s titular Expedition 33, largely made up of volunteers with one year left to live, sets out for the continent to put an end to the Paintress’s terror.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s core premise is fascinating, and incredibly engaging – words can’t quite do justice to how truly gut-wrenching Clair Obscur’s first couple of hours are.
The name Clair Obscur comes from the Italian chiaroscuro, the contrast between light and dark found in your Rembrandts and Caravaggios, and it’s a motif that is continually reflected in the game’s tragic yet hopeful story.
[image id="2254476" size="full" title="clair-obscur-expedition-33-review-paintress" alt="Two characters looking at each other with a glowing number 33 in the sky behind them." classes=""] Clair Obscur’s opening hours are tragic and gripping. Sandfall InteractiveExpedition 33’s adventure is built, quite literally, on the bones of previous expeditions. The corpses of your predecessors are strewn across the continent, and along with them, their records.
You repeatedly come across voice recordings detailing the final days of these expeditions, covering everything from research findings and meticulous notes to a heartfelt goodbye from two lovers.
It’s a fantastic piece of worldbuilding, selling exactly how hopeless a task yours is. Your party routinely ruminates on this being their fate too, forlorn that they may simply be another stepping stone for the next expedition to build, but optimistic that one day, the Paintress will fall.
Getting to know the characters throughout the game is a joy. Each one is expertly voice acted by the likes of Ben Starr, Jennifer English and even Daredevil’s Charlie Cox, and here too, the game’s writing does an excellent of job skirting that line between light and dark.
We flit seamlessly between witty asides and tragic episodes. In an instant, otherwise jovial characters can experience moments so genuinely soul crushing that they had me on the verge of tears – it’s masterful writing.
Newsletter: GamingTitle: Stay ahead of the game!Description: For details on how we use your data, please see our privacy policy.Layout: horizontalEnvironment: live-likeLogged In Body Copy: Sign up for our gaming newsletter to receive the latest insights, reviews and expert recommendationsLogged In Success Message: Thanks, you are now signed up to our gaming newsletter! We look forward to sending you our email updates.Logged In Preferences Hyperlink Text: To manage your email preferences, click here.Logged Out Body Copy: Sign up for our gaming newsletter to receive the latest insights, reviews and expert recommendationsLogged Out Success Message: Thanks, you are now signed up to our gaming newsletter! We look forward to sending you our email updates.Logged Out Sign In Message: Sign in to/register for a RadioTimes.com account to manage your email preferences.As for the story itself, I want to say as little as possible because this is a game best experienced for yourself. Clair Obscur’s story is one of a kind, engulfed repeatedly by twists and turns that at no point feel trite or forced.
Once the game’s mind-blowing main conceit is unveiled, the layers upon layers of lore this world has built up reveal the sheer scope of this epic tale.
But the genius of Clair Obscur is that at multiple points in your journey, you’ll think the game has finally played its hand, only to later realise you’ve been strung along as if you were a part of the world itself.
Right until the end of the game, there are puzzle pieces falling into place. Every time I felt I finally understood what was going on, Clair Obscur dropped another bombshell to put me in my place.
It’s exceptional storytelling, and you’ll simply have to trust me on that and find out why for yourself.
In tandem with the story, Clair Obscur delivers a world that is equally as captivating.
The landscapes of the continent vary drastically, each one more stunning than the last. It’s very reminiscent of Elden Ring’s Lands Between both in terms of presentation and variety, but also in the palpable sense of wonder they each elicit.
It’s perhaps a somewhat reductive comparison, but anyone who has played Elden Ring knows quite how high a compliment this is.
Between the levels themselves, the overworld is displayed as a kind of explorable diorama, giving you the chance to head to one-off vistas to venture into side content or hunt for collectibles.
[image id="2254602" size="full" title="clair-obscur-expedition-33-review-environment" alt="A woman standing in an archway with various buildings and floating debris in the distance." classes=""] Some of Clair Obscur’s environments are simply breathtaking. Sandfall InteractiveAcross your journey, you come face to face with Nevrons, powerful beasts created by the Paintress herself, and the last sight of many an expeditioner.
Combat in Clair Obscur is turn-based. It makes use of timed button presses, à la Super Mario RPG and Sea of Stars, to deal increased damage, as well as to dodge and parry attacks. Later on, new mechanics like Gradient Counters and Gradient Attacks are added, keeping things fresh.
While dodge timing is quite lenient, I was surprised at how strict the parry timing was – it’s no joke. That being said, enemy attacks are well-telegraphed, and by the time I reached the end of a particular area, I found myself parrying the local enemies’ attacks with ease – director Guillaume Broche’s penchant for Sekiro is quite apparent.
Now, I’m one of those freaks that would mandate parrying in every game if I could, so it’s no surprise that Clair Obscur’s combat struck a chord with me. But to credit parrying alone would do it a disservice.
Each character in your party has a unique skillset. Maelle switches between stances, Lune can power up their moves using ‘stains’ generated from previous attacks and Monoco can even transform into Nevrons you’ve previously defeated.
Initially, I found each of these characters’ introductions extremely overwhelming. You’re confronted with walls of text about some fairly convoluted mechanics, and every time I thought to myself “I’m just not going to bother using this character.”
But as obtuse as Clair Obscur’s combat system can appear at first, it’s also incredibly intuitive. 10 minutes of playing with one of these new recruits and suddenly you don’t know how you ever played this game without them.
Green Video Post Element Video ID: "b5e2ff4e52aef139121f583f238b31cb776c12bb" Mix ID: "" Player ID: "Tw3-XowQ" If the player doesn't appear here within a few seconds, the Player ID or Licence Key (set via IM Green Suite settings) might be invalid.There’s also plenty of interplay between the different party members.
Lune sets an enemy on fire, burning it, allowing Maelle to switch into her Virtuose stance which boosts her damage by 200%, allowing her to break enemies’ stance meters more effectively, at which point Monoco can attack an extra time.
Clair Obscur’s complexity rewards creative thinking and planning ahead, to the point where constructing scenarios like this doesn’t just become easy, but second nature.
As if all that wasn’t complex enough, there’s the system of Pictos and Lumina. Pictos are buffs that you can equip to your party members – each character can equip three.
After winning four battles with Pictos equipped, they’re unlocked for your entire party to equip. Each Lumina has a point value, and you can equip as many for each character as they have Lumina Points to spend.
While this is, again, exceedingly obtuse at first, it adds another level of customisation to an already freeingly flexible combat system, and something you’ll undoubtedly get the hang of early into your journey.
Combining everything you’ve learned with the mechanical skills required for timed attacks and parries, and taking down the game’s often very challenging bosses is well-earned every time, making for a thoroughly satisfying gameplay loop.
[image id="2254623" size="full" title="clair-obscur-expedition-33-review-maelle" alt="A woman standing in front of a large monolith reading '33', surrounded by floating debris." classes=""] Despite some minor flaws, Clair Obscur is a magnificent achievement. Sandfall InteractiveOf course, there is no such thing as a perfect game, and Clair Obscur is no exception.
By the end of the game, once you’ve developed a strategy and levelled up far enough, combat can grow a tad monotonous, with mob encounters becoming little more than a foregone conclusion.
Levels are also often difficult to explore. While the overworld has a map, individual levels do not, meaning more labyrinthine levels such as caves can be quite disorienting to explore, especially if you’re someone who likes to search every nook and cranny like me.
But in the long run, my issues with the game are tiny imperfections on a grand canvas – they’re largely inconsequential.
Put simply, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a phenomenal game, and represents everything a modern RPG should be.
While the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring represent new gold standards for CRPGs and action RPGs respectively, I believe there is a strong case to be made that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 represents a new gold standard for turn-based RPGs – an astounding achievement for a studio’s debut game.
Clair Obscur was inspired by, and developed, in part, to try and capture the magic of gaming’s greatest turn-based RPGs: Final Fantasy, Persona, even EarthBound.
Sandfall Interactive has pulled this off with aplomb, rightfully earning a place among these greats, and I expect that in years to come, studios will be attempting to recreate the magic of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in turn.
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