Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

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Few genres of game have been through the wringer of public opinion quite so much as the humble Japanese RPG, or JRPG, if you prefer. It wasn’t that long ago when a game could expect to lose a fair chunk of Metacritic score if it featured turn-based combat or – horror of horrors – had an anime aesthetic. We’re slowly seeing progress in the opposite direction, however, thanks to undeniable bangers like the modern Persona series.

It’s hard to imagine a top-class game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a Western-developed RPG from Sandfall Interactive made in the spirit of the Japanese greats, doing poorly, come to think of it, because it’s a must-play experience available for a song.

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Getting old is never easy, but it’s especially tough in the town of Lumiere. Decades prior, a world-shattering Fracture occurred, sending Lumiere into the sea and stranding it from the rest of the world. At the same time, a mysterious Paintress appeared on the horizon, crouched in front of a monolith. Each year, the Paintress awakens and scrawls a new number onto the monolith – and everyone of that age vanishes in a puff of smoke and flower petals. This event, the Gommage, threatens to end human life, and so Lumiere sends out an annual Expedition to confront and defeat the Paintress. None have ever returned. We’ll follow the adventures of Expedition 33, including protagonist Gustave and his friends, as they try to do the job that so many Expeditions before have failed to accomplish.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a Japanese RPG in the classic style, the sort of game that we’d typically see on Sony platforms long before Microsoft, and it’s got a lot in common with prior titles in the same vein. Expedition 33 does the genre credit by taking ideas that have worked well in the past, modernizing and streamlining them for a contemporary audience. In particular, players who were fond of the Xbox 360 classic Lost Odyssey will find a lot to enjoy here, as both games share a somber tone and an emphasis on a memorable aesthetic. Gustave and pals run around a bizarre landscape, engaging in turn-based battles against eldritch monsters as they try to do the impossible. Victory leads to experience points and levels, which in turn allow characters to learn new skills, while a wide array of passive skills are available as the party learns them from equipment a la Final Fantasy IX.

The aforementioned turn-based combat is a relatively simple affair focused on overlapping layers of simple interactions. A basic idea like burning an enemy to deal damage over time, for example, can lead into a party-wide focus on exploiting the burning effect to get the most out of it, such as by boosting critical hit rate against burning enemies. There are quite a few avenues to victory, and by no means does Expedition 33 feel like the kind of game that punishes the player for experimentation; on the contrary, it’s great fun to try different setups and see what works, especially since there are several ways to approach each character.

Young fencer Maelle’s stance-based rapier attacks are great for dishing out damage, but she also makes a solid tank, for instance. Add in some simple quick-time event mechanics and a heavy focus on learning enemy attack patterns to properly defend against them and you’ve got the recipe for an addictive battle system.

It’s not really a strike against Expedition 33 to say that while its gameplay is solid and fun, there was a clear focus on aesthetics and presentation during development. This is an absolutely gorgeous game, full of interesting ideas and memorable moments that are bound to stick with the player long after they’ve wrapped things up. Monster designs in particular are bound to lodge in the head – a personal favorite are the Bourgeon, titanic beasts that eat party members and spit gastric fluid all over the survivors.

There’s a balanced combination of fantasy, horror and abstract art here, lending Expedition 33 a unique style that hits in a way we haven’t seen in gaming since…well, maybe since The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind came along and redefined what digital fantasy could be. It’s a trip and a half, and that’s not saying anything about the moving plot and relatable characters. Play this one on PC for best results, of course.

All that and it’s on Game Pass. For all the talk about the downfall of the games industry, you can play a potential Game of the Year contender for about $15. That doesn’t exactly strike me as a sign of the ever-eroding joy of the hobby, if you ask me. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a marvelous adventure that’s readily accessible from both a financial and gameplay perspective, a title that’s going to stick around in gaming’s canon for quite some time. You probably want to give it a shot.