Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review
“Maelle’s above the competition” Written by: Hunter (@ReaperHunter23)
I was absolutely captivated by Clair Obsur: Expedition 33 when it was revealed in the summer of 2024. The trailer showed off the game’s striking visual design and very quickly outlined the interesting premise of the story. By the time they had gotten around to showing the gameplay it was pretty much a formality. I was hooked. More information was given as we got closer to the release of the game but I mostly stayed away since I was going to play it anyway. Well the game is out now so let’s take a look to see if my excitement was warranted.
Image Credit: Sandfall Interactive, Kelper Interactive
Expedition 33 has a rather enticing set up to its story. Every year, a seemingly omnipotent figure known as The Paintress puts a number on her giant monolith. When this number is painted everyone who is corresponding age is scrubbed from existence. Every year, the city of Lumiere sends a crew on an expedition to make it to The Paintress in order to stop her from painting the death of humanity. Expedition 33’s story is a flavor of artistically depressing that I find immensely captivating. The first 30 or so minutes are a wonderfully sobering tone setter. I went to work the day after starting the game being unable to shake thinking about the small amount of time I had put in at that point.
Expedition 33 is a very thematically rich game. The story explores themes such as: grief, what it means to create, and confronting your own mortality to name a few. I really liked the way the game presented the idea of legacy; both concerning what you leave behind for those that follow you and in regards to how much pressure is put on those who come after to build upon what was left for them. There’s a lot of weighty existentialism present in the game. Impressively, the game does a really good job at not being overbearing with it though. For every scene pondering the weight of humanity's future on the shoulders of the party, there would be another of Maelle mocking Gustave with a level of familial warmth that never failed to put a smile on my face.
The cast of this game is excellent. Every character has an intriguing angle and they all have a really good dynamic with each other. Gustave is the big picture guy, Lune is the most mission focused, Sciel serves to be the most calm and reasonable, and Maelle functions symbolically as the future they are all fighting for. Other characters such as Verso and Esquie come along later to bring additional interesting wrinkles to the party dynamic. I could go on forever about how great I think the story and characters in this game are, but it really is one of those things that is best if you experience it yourself.
Image Credit: Sandfall Interactive, Kelper Interactive
Impressively, Expedition 33’s gameplay is just as good as its world and story. It pulls from the action command flavor of turn based combat. What I mean by this is that you will have additional inputs to do when performing special abilities with each character. You are also given the opportunity to dodge or parry during the enemy turn. If you parry every attack in the enemy's string, you launch a counter attack. This is probably the most engaged I’ve been in a game to use this style of combat. Something about the way the parries feel combined with the massive damage output you can get on the counter attacks just tickles my brain in a manner that games with a similar system haven’t managed to.
The game does a great job at giving each character really intricate playstyles while still managing to make them really gratifying to use. Gustave’s playstyle revolves around setting himself up to do his overcharge move. It's essentially his big high damage super attack. This is done by using some of his weaker moves to charge it up before going in for the one big swing at the end. Lune fights using elemental magic. Her main feature is that every attack she does will generate a corresponding type of token. Different spells she uses can be buffed by consuming the tokens she generates. For example: you could have a fire spell that does a moderate amount of damage, but if it consumes two earth tokens, it will do a moderate amount of damage and a massive amount of stun. The main fun of Lune’s playstyle was figuring out what you wanted to get out of each spell and which ones you cared about using to their fullest potential.
Maelle’s play style is definitely my favorite of the bunch. Maelle’s main mechanic is that each one of her abilities will put her in one of three different sword fighting stances: Offensive, Defensive, and Virtuose. Offensive stance increases damage dealt by 50% but also increases the damage Maelle takes by 50%. Defensive gives a bonus AP on a successful parry, and Virtuose grants a 200% increase in damage output. The name of the game with Maelle is getting her into Virtuose stance and maximizing your time with it. Once you get the rhythm of her playstyle down, Maelle quickly becomes one of the most overpowered RPG characters I’ve had the pleasure of playing as, and smacking monsters around with ludicrous levels of damage never stopped being fun.
The playstyles of each of the party members synergize with each other really well too. Each character is given a fair amount of both DPS and support techniques. For example: In the second major area there was this enemy that would cast shield on its allies. Maelle had a move to get rid of the shield, which set up for Gustave’s Overcharge. All the while, Lune is setting these enemies on fire so that Maelle can use her one technique that switches her to Virtuose stance if it is done to a burning enemy. Every party composition I used had some really solid synergy to it in a similar way.
The way the game handles character progression is a lot of fun. There’s the basic things you would expect like getting a Skill point every time someone levels up along with a couple of stat points. However, the main thing you will be engaging with are the Pictos and Luminas. Pictos are pieces of equipment you can find that will give whoever equips it a passive buff. There are a variety of effects to find, such as: bonus AP on turn start, a 25% counter damage increase, starting the battle with three turns of Haste, and so many more. Once you use the Picto in question enough times you will have mastered it. This lets anyone in the party use it and the Picto no longer needs to be equipped. This is where the Lumina points come into play. Each Picto has a certain Lumina value depending on how helpful they are . A lot of the fun comes from mixing and matching these effects and seeing which ones suit each character’s kit the best.
I think the game did a great job at never getting too stale with these. The Pictos you would find in the early game would be very “basic but helpful”. But by the time you get midway through you’ll be able to find Pictos that let the character in question take two turns in a row or generate damage buffs that stack to an unreasonable degree.
The exploration and level design in this game were intriguing. I would not say that it was necessarily the game’s strongest point, but I always felt compelled to do it anyway. What I mean by this is that each dungeon zone is pretty much a straight line. If you use the notion of “Go north” as a general rule of thumb you will almost never get sidetracked from the main path. The weird part is that there really isn’t that much in the way of intricate side paths. Really most dungeons are just a collection of rooms that are kind of big. So if you just run to the left or right as far as you can go before moving on you’ll probably find a few Pictos or a Lumina booster.
I do think the exploration in the overworld was a bit more enticing. I really enjoyed wandering off to places I probably shouldn’t be yet and challenging monsters that were stronger than me. The combat putting the ball in your court so much made it feel like it was actually possible to explore these places rather than just bring gated out because my stats weren’t high enough.
Image Credit: Sandfall Interactive, Kelper Interactive
Everything about the way Expedition 33 presents itself is immaculate. The art direction, the music, and the performances are all top shelf. The game is a visual masterpiece. Whether it's the slow zoom into Lumiere’s crooked tower in the opening, the red and white flower petals that the people dissolve into, or the omnipresent monolith hanging in the background of almost every shot, so many moments embody the phrase “Every frame is a painting.” The creature design in this game is really cool as well. There are some that kind of ride the line of what you would expect, like stone automatons or crystal golems, but then later on you’ll see a thing that’s shaped like a dinosaur with clasped hands for a face. The more basic designs do a great job at propping up the more weird and surreal creatures.
The music in the game might be one of the best scores I’ve heard in a long while. It makes really effective use of leitmotif. In general the score hits all of the feelings of hopeful melancholy that the game is going for quite impressively. A lot of the score also has this really cool underlying ethereal sound that I really enjoy.
Picking a favorite voice performance in this game is so hard. Charlie Cox as Gustave is really able to sell both the existential dread of living in this world while also bringing in just the right spark of hope for the future. Kirsty Rider does a great job at portraying Lune’s mission above all else mentality while still being able to make her feel human underneath all of that. Ben Starr does an excellent job at portraying both Verso’s warmth and his overpowering tiredness. And Andy Serkis is wonderful in his role as the secondary antagonist. He brings a delightful level of gravitas to every scene he’s in.
Image Credit: Sandfall Interactive, Kelper Interactive
Summary
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an instant classic. It provides just about everything I’d want from an RPG like this. The combat is fun and addicting, with systems that remain entertaining throughout. The story provided a lot for me to chew on from beginning to end. And it's all brought to life by a wonderful art direction and excellent voice performances with a score that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since finishing the game. Whether I’m humming the main theme, remembering one of the boss fights, or pondering one of the game’s fascinating story beats I will be thinking about Expedition 33 for years to come.