Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review – Bold New Wine, Familiar Bottle

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 aspires to be many things. First and foremost, it’s a love letter to the mechanics of Final Fantasy and classic JRPGs. At the same time, it’s a character-driven fantasy with echoes of Gulliver’s Travels or Alice in Wonderland. It wants to wow players with slick production values and make them think about the power of art and artists. That’s a lot of ambition for any game to carry, let alone a title from a new and relatively small developer. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swings for the fences, that’s for certain.

Destroy the Paintress and End the Cycle

I’ll save you a Google search. “Clair Obscur” is the French translation of the Italian “Chiaroscuro.” Chiaroscuro is a foundational classical art technique, using light and shadow to create three dimensional-looking forms. The reference is obviously no accident, because art and illusion permeate Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s world and story.

The game’s narrative premise is nothing if not interesting and original. Many decades before the game’s action, a powerful godlike figure called The Paintress appears across the water from an island called Lumiere. Every year, The Paintress illuminates her immense monolithic dwelling with a number, which represents the age of the people in Lumiere that she will kill that year. On a specific day called the Gommage, the people of a specific age simply disappear into dust.

Each year, an Expedition of volunteers is sent to The Paintress’ monolith to attempt to destroy her, but they never return. It’s an acknowledged suicide mission, and mostly ceremonial. The game follows the survivors of Expedition 33 — named for the age of doomed citizens — as they make their way to The Paintress and uncover answers to many questions. Are there survivors from other Expeditions? Who is The Paintress and what is the purpose of the Gommage? The Expedition does find some of the answers, but I’m not going to spoil them.

Meet the Cast

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a character-driven game. As soon as it lands on The Paintress’ island, Expedition 33 is nearly destroyed. The game follows a small band of survivors as they gather together to complete their mission. The principal cast includes Gustave, an engineer, and Maelle, his younger adopted sister. Lune is a mage, and Sciel wields a scythe. Eventually, non-human allies Monoco and Esquie join the party.

While one might quibble about the story’s pacing, there’s no fault to be found with the excellent cast. It’s a collection of experienced actors like Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Andy Serkis, and Ben Starr, basically a who’s who of video game performers. The game’s performance capture and fidelity of facial expression are effective and help create believable, engaging characters with complex relationships. The dialogue is as smart as the characters. That said, some sections of dialogue and the very long, thoughtful pauses between lines will make impatient gamers squirm. A handful of emotional beats are repeated a few too many times.

The game’s world and environments are often visually spectacular and striking, like the vast and surreal underwater area with whales swimming across the sky and 18th-century manors at the ocean’s floor. At the same time, some of those areas are also repetitive, a bit empty, and hard to navigate. Although Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is essentially a linear game with some side paths to explore, there are sections that would benefit from a breadcrumb trail or objective marker. Occasionally, the game shifts to an overworld-type map that moves the party towards the next destination.

Semi-Final Fantasy

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 largely borrows combat mechanics from turn-based RPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona, with blocking, parries, and dodging in real time. Special attacks also have timed button presses that increase or decrease their effectiveness. What makes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s combat interesting is that it requires both the smart use of special attacks and spells, coupled with precise defensive timing.

As the game progresses and the party grows, combat becomes more nuanced, layered, and interesting. Each character has six offensive or defensive attacks and three “pictos,” which can heal or revive incapacitated party members or provide other buffs. Additionally, weapons can be upgraded, and characters have both a skill tree and stats to increase. Although the game’s combat style and mechanics will be familiar to fans of the genre, I don’t think anyone would call them simplistic.

The game’s overall approach to combat comes undone a little in its lack of polish in a few key areas, and in repetitive encounters that slow the momentum. Jumping, parrying, and dodging enemy attacks felt inconsistent and occasionally unfair. Each area’s enemies were narrow in variety, and they all pretty closely followed a predictable pattern. Although the flashy combat effects were great and the addition of real-time elements added interest, some boss battles went on way too long.

Know the Score

Special mention needs to be made of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s score by composer Lorien Testard. Combining vocals and intimate instrumentals, the music often sounds more like elegant 19th-century chamber music than a typical video game score. Only occasionally does it grow repetitive, usually during long traversal sections where not much is happening. That’s really a perfect capsule summary of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as a whole: overall very impressive, with some lapses in pacing, precision, or polish.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a strong debut title for Sandfall Interactive, with compelling characters and an original, unsettling story that’s part allegory, part surreal fantasy. Its turn-based/real-time hybrid combat is well thought out and grows more interesting as the game progresses. Some narrative pacing issues and repetitive enemy encounters pull Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from the brink of greatness. Still, it remains a unique and engaging take on both fantasy storytelling and JRPGs.

***PC code provided by the publisher for review***