“Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” Review

As soon as it was announced, I was extremely looking forward to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Aside from the Switch 2’s eventual release, Expedition 33 was my most anticipated game of the year. It was also the game I covered…

As soon as it was announced, I was extremely looking forward to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Aside from the Switch 2’s eventual release, Expedition 33 was my most anticipated game of the year. It was also the game I covered most extensively leading up to its release. From constant mentions on our podcasts to thinking it was the best game at GDC this year, and even talking a little bit about it on my personal LinkedIn, I knew Expedition 33 would be something special.

While I definitely enjoyed the game, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could, and in all honesty, it’s my fault. My reasons for giving the game the score it’s getting today are entitled, and it’s solely due to the way I live my life.

I hope one of the reasons why you read SmashPad reviews is because given our existence as a small and independent publication that pays nobody (heck, I pay $240+ out of my own pocket a year to keep the site up), we aren’t afraid to give our unbridled opinion on any game, product, or entity that we review or talk about. As part of our policy, nothing is promised to the publisher in return for a review copy or code. That said, when we do get a code, which honestly (and thankfully) has been way more often these last two years than any period in our almost 20-year history, we do make every attempt to make sure we cover games that we redeem codes for. The earlier we’re provided such code, the more likely it is we’ll have something up by the time the embargo lifts.

If there’s any genre or category of game that SmashPad “specializes” in, it’s in JRPGs and indie games. The main reason this is the case is we generally have had good luck getting our hands on early content for us to get a head start on playing them, and for a lot of our staff (myself included) — JRPGs are a favored genre. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get our code for Expedition 33 until the day it came out. Is that why our review is almost three months “late”? Sort of.

Readers of our site should be aware that nobody does SmashPad full-time. I had a very busy April traveling three straight weekends: I flew to Michigan for Gamers For Giving on April 9, flew home as soon as I could for my girlfriend’s birthday on April 14, flew to Vegas on the 18th for Night 1 of WrestleMania, flew home on the 20th to be able to spend Easter with my family and girlfriend’s family, and then flew to Minnesota to drive to Green Bay for the NFL Draft on the 23rd — the day before Expedition 33 came out, so obviously I wasn’t even home to play the game much less redeem the review code when I got it. There simply was no time for video games both to play on my own or to play for SmashPad. In fact, it was while I was out in Michigan that I rolled credits on Assassin’s Creed Shadows. By then, I was already playing games like Lost Records, Lunar, and Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (thank you, Brandon!) for review. To put it plainly, it was a busy time, and the only time I really could’ve spent giving it my full focus was two weeks before it came when everybody else in games media got their codes.

So how is this entitled sob story related to Expedition 33? Aside from the fact that all of this happened during the game’s media review period, the main reason I’m talking about all this is because Expedition 33 is a game that requires all of your undivided attention. The reason I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could’ve is because I had nary a time where the game was my total focus. I had a ton of fun with it and was beyond entertained, but many moments that were really supposed to hit fell flat because a lot of the time I spent playing it was trying to remember what exactly I was supposed to do be doing. Eventually, I became on the hook for reviews of Onimusha 2, Pipistrello, and to a T, and they all took precedence because I got each of those games more than a week before their release and embargo.

The fact that I even rolled credits on Clair Obscur is actually a testament to the game’s overall quality, as I did it unplugged.

We typically spend part of the beginning of the review introducing readers to what the game is, and while I’ll still do that, I know I spent a lot of time ranting, so I’ll try not to overindulge. If you’re somehow unaware of what Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is, it’s a game with a plot very much entrenched in French culture and history, made even more obvious since “clair obscur” is French for light-dark. It takes place in a dark fantasy setting where every year for the past 67 years, the island of Lumiere goes through an event called the “Gommage,” where this being dubbed “the Paintress” paints a constantly decreasing number on a tower, and every human with an age equal to or above that number just disappears. So every year, Lumiere sends an “Expedition” out on a voyage to kill the Paintress before she can paint a new number. If you’re following, with the Gommage happening every year for 67 years, that means every Expedition from Expedition 100 down to Expedition 34 had failed.

It’s a pretty cool story made even better by its visual style along with its voice cast featuring the likes of Charlie Cox (Daredevil: Born Again), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings), and even Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI), who seems to be becoming the new Troy Baker. But what really sets this game apart is that while it comes off like any other Western-developed game, it’s an indie game from a new studio primarily consisting of around 30 people, and at its core, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG that draws a lot of inspiration from JRPGs in general.

That’s what got me into it in the first place. It was unveiled as this dark fantasy apocalyptic adventure with a star-studded cast, but once they showed turn-based combat, I was all in.

I don’t agree with the notion from diehard Expedition 33 fans that “turn-based battle systems are so back” as, in my mind, we’ve really started to enjoy their renaissance going back to the release of the original Persona 5 — but the attention Expedition 33′s battle system is getting is definitely worth its hype. The game’s battle system is unapologetically what you’d expect from a JRPG, and it looks and feels both fantastic and dynamic. Both Persona 5 and the modern Like a Dragon games do an amazing job at making their menus turn-based actions feel visceral, and while Like a Dragon would be an easier comparison because of its single-button commands and quick time events, Expedition 33 does come with a slight learning curve that’s tricky enough that even Soulslike fans have come to appreciate.

Every attack in the game is accompanied by a button prompt that, when timed correctly, can lead to more damage or more favorable status effects. These come extremely quick, but once you get the hang of things, the little sensation you get is incomparable. It’s the same thing when you don’t get the timing right: the amount of disgust you’ll feel when not getting the timing down is equal parts as good as it felt when you got it, and a huge part is just the way it all melds with the sound design and controller haptics. It’s something to really experience.

Defense has that same aspect and respect, except it’s more dynamic. When you’re about to be delivered a blow, you can choose to dodge or parry the attack. Dodging is easier to do and obviously allows you to avoid damage, while parrying is much harder because it requires you to hit the shoulder button just as enemies hit you. Every successful parry results in that character gaining Action Points (AP) that allow them to use more powerful abilities outside of standard attacks. Almost every enemy in the game has a multi-hit attack, so if you successfully parry each maneuver, your party gets to unleash a devastating counter on the enemy.

So what does this mean? Always parry.

It’s a toxic meme, but there really is no more enjoyable way to fight in Clair Obscur.

Parrying into a counter is the hardest thing to do in the game, but it’s also the most satisfying feat you’ll accomplish over and over. Turn-based RPGs have always been about exposing weaknesses and finding ways to attack them, and Clair Obscur’s counter system flawlessly inserts a sense of skill that does just enough to strike a delicate balance of chill and active vibes. Everything comes into play when it comes to effectively parrying an enemy in the game, and because they each have multi-hit abilities that can vary throughout each fight, you’ll find yourself looking for any sort of cue to block. One of the best instances of this utilizes both sound design as well as certain visual effects happening on the screen — success really depends on both your attention and reflexes, and there’s really no other game in the genre that does it this same way. 

You can be good enough to beat bosses in the game without taking a single hit. There’s even an achievement for pulling this off. That said, Clair Obscur can make you feel like quite a badass and less of a stats nerd.

And if you’d rather be that stats nerd? You absolutely can. In addition to having full control of every party member’s attributes during each level up, Clair Obscur features a robust “Pictos” system that lets you equip and level up different buffs that you’ll be able to mix and match with your party members. Not only can you break the system with different combinations of loadouts, the game actually encourages it with the sheer challenge you’ll come across should you tackle the game’s many optional super bosses.

That said, it’s not for everyone for a bunch of different reasons. I struggled a lot early on when it came to countering — and this WILL happen. It got so bad that I actually bumped down the game’s difficulty. Even after doing that, when I struggled, it seemed like I hardly put a dent in a lot of the game’s regular enemies. This made certain areas in the game feel bloated and affected pacing in a mostly negative way, and this really bogged down the experience given that exploration in the game leaves much to be desired.

For all the good things that Clair Obscur has going for it, one of the biggest issues in the game is in its exploration. When you’re not fighting, you’ll either be traversing the game’s world map or going through a bunch of towns and dungeons. Aside from the explorable World Map, which obviously takes a page out of so many JRPGs, every other area in the game has no map to accompany it. This was a design choice to make the world of Lumiere more immersive. For me, it just made going through each area more troublesome. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve walked around a dungeon area aimlessly only to end up at a save point or flag that I had already come across. This isn’t to say the level design is bad, but when you’re dealing with a dark apocalyptic setting, everything just looks the same. If Sandfall really insisted on omitting maps, it would’ve been nice to have some sort of breadcrumb system to keep from getting lost.

So when you go back to issues with battles and combine that with problems exploring the game’s levels, it just isn’t a good time. Throw in the fact that my focus on this game was separated four different times, and I just never really knew what I was doing. When it came to the game’s biggest plot twist — and that’s all I’ll say — I shrugged it off. Would this have happened if I didn’t have to review five other games or go on three straight weeks of travel for both business and pleasure? Probably not. And again, this is my own fault, but also — I rolled credits.

So what got me there? It was the relationships between the characters, but I also have to admit that this was a double-edged sword.

The voice cast of Expedition 33 did an amazing job, but I’m pretty sure given the talent on the cast, that wasn’t optional. Either way, the amazing performances with characters like Maelle, Lune, Verso, Esquie, and so many others really added to the experience. In between each of the game’s big beats, you get the ability to bond with each of your characters over a campfire, and while the scripting is fairly basic, it’s a wonderful way to get to know each of the character’s motivations both in and out of the expedition. These moments provide a nice intermission with the intense twists and turns you’ll find in both the main story and battles you’ll fight.

That said, because these campfire moments are rarely forced, it’s also very likely that you’ll have more than one conversation with the same character, and when this happens for multiple characters during one of these moments, they start to feel long and drawn out. This is probably because the developers intended for you to visit with your party both when you set out for your destination and when you arrive at it, and honestly — there’s no way to know that. It would be better if the game gave us a cutscene prior to when getting to a destination that moves the plot forward. And again, since not every area has a map, sometimes it’ll be hard finding each party member when you’re at a campfire. It just slows everything down.

One of the most approachable features of Clair Obscur is the fact that it’s pretty short for what’s essentially a JRPG. It took me around 25 hours to roll credits, and this is including all that time I ran around not knowing where I was going. Now if you actually want to do everything there is to do in the game, it could take you well over 60 hours, which also is really not that long compared to other more well-known franchises in the genre. I personally would have loved to Platinum the game, but the reason I didn’t was because a lot of hide-and-seek objectives and collectibles there are in the game are hard to track, and I didn’t want to start the whole experience over (and I’ve never really been a New Game+ guy).

All this said, 25 hours is also on the most minimum end when it comes to playing this game, so if you’re wondering — yes, I beelined the final act to get to the final boss and didn’t bother maximizing the relationships. For better or for worse, I just wanted to be done with it, and I’m glad I am. Will there eventually be a time where I actually go back to see the stuff I really shouldn’t have missed? Maybe, but again, I’m very satisfied with what I played even though it’s not going to be my Game of the Year. If and when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does win Game of the Year, I won’t complain.

At the end of the day, an amazing story, stylish visuals, fantastic cast both in the game and in the studio, and one of the most satisfying turn-based battle systems in the genre should easily make Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 one of the best games of the year. It just came at the wrong place at the wrong time for me, and I wish I was a part of another timeline that allowed me to enjoy it more than I actually did. So for those who come after, if you’re someone that hasn’t made time for it yet, do make sure that there are no other distractions when you begin your expedition.