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Although I’ve long made peace with the notion that JRPGS can be made by developers outside of Japan, clair obscur: Expedition 33 might be the first I’ve played that doesn’t just see seek strict but strike out with its unique vision.
From the first arresting visual of an impossibly fractured Eiffel Tower, Montpellier-Based Sandfall Interactive’s debut title is quintessentially French in its Belle epoque style in a world of perpetual yet beutiful decay. But it also imagines an alternative timeline of what Final Fantasy 16 might have been if it did not sacrifice the series’ traditions in the name of high fidelity and maturity, or Rather if Xbox 360 CLASSIC Lost odyssey got the chance to have a sequel. Ironically, the themos is almost the opposite to mistwalker’s exploration of immortality. Instead, the lives of the people of lumiere are literally numbered as, each year, a mysterious God-like figure known as the paints paints on a distance monolith a number that instantly snuffs out everyone of that age.
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
Fast Facts
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Platform (s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Developer: Sandfall Interactive
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
By the time the story beginns, this number has counted down to 33, means a population where the old has long ceased to exist. Against such doom, the people are widely consisted to this hopeless situation, to the extent annual festival is Held to celebrate and say goodbye to those who are about to ‘gommage’. Yet this also follows with an expedition made up of members whose number will be next making their last act of challenge to reach and kill the paintress in a bid to break this cycle of death.
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A party of world-weary 32 year-olds who have all experienced unimaginable loss is then something of a change from the usually wide-eyed teenage protagonists of jrpgs, albeit with just as impeccable fashion sense.
But as telegraphed by all the failed expeditions that have come before them, this is also essentially a suicide mission. Those stakes are rammed home almost Immedialy after the prologue where upon arriving on the Mysterious continent, your expeditioners encounter the first of the story’s many rug-pulls, and it becomes apparent you kneely wow know if every one make it.
Parry, at t’aime
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
“Lengthy Battles are rewarding, never descending into a mindless grindfest”
The High Stakes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story also translates to its hybrid take on turn-based battles. While its command menus look every bit as dynamic as Personal 5 or Metaphor: Refantationand action-based inputs might have you think of paper mario, a more accurate comparison is Sekir: Shadows Die Twice (it even shares some FromSoftware Elements like Limited heals that only refil after resting at checkpoints, which also respawns enemies). That is to say it tests your nerve and every battle feels far from trivial.
While each party member has their own unique mechanics to get to grips with there are more straightforward qte prompts to boost an ability, the real challenge comes from defending yourself from enemy attacks by dodging or parrying. The latter is obviously the more rewarding option not only because you should be given a counter attack but also gain ap as a result, which will try an advantage when it’s your turn to attack by allowing you to hit back with stronger, more costly attacks.
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
Countering Party-Wide Expedition attacks are even more satisfied, since all three active party members dish back combined damage. The risk, of course, is if you miss the precise timing you can end up taking a bit of damage, especially if you can not find the rhythm in a chain of enemy strikes.
Dodging meanwhile has a more generous window and if you misread an enemy’s attack there’s even a chance you can dodge again just in time. Once I humbly accepted i wasn’t going to be a parry wizard, it became more tactical to Dodge the long combos.
But what an absolute rush it is when you nail a parry. It also helps that several other less questioning counter mechanics – then to certain move types – are later introduced so that you have other opportunities to deal damage outside of your own turn.
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
Last Stand
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
Although you cannot swap your party members out with reserve members during battle, the good news is if your party falls, you have the choice to send your resorts in to continue the fight-a few of our hard-you victories were clinched precisely this way.
Similar to other RPGs, party members and enemies are also susceptible to elemental weaknesses or status effects, though ultimately they feel secondary to parrying. Apart from the occasions where enemies might absorb an element, I didn’t feel it crucial to have the right attack or party composition for exploiting weaknesses, as you don’t have a comprehensive bestiary to refer to, and it becomes more important to simply study the way.
As your expeditioners are left visibly covered in dirt, and noise the more their health is depleted, it really drives home how each hard-won battle is earned, and that these defensive mechanics aren’t gimmicks you can opt out of-even lowering the dig. You Off Scot Free. But these often lengthy battles are also rewarding in their generous XP, often enough to level up at least one of your party members, so it never descends into a mindless grindfest that other jrpgs can fall victim to. Each area feels like it has just enough battles to test you, Rather than having you slog through hundreds.
To map or not to map
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
If Battles are the most forward-thinking aspect of clair obscur: expedition 33, even its nods to old-scoool jrpg design such as bringing back a world map you can run around feels somewhat refreshing compared to the modern urgent for content bloat. Given the already impressionistic abstraction in this world, where you find yourself exploring ‘underwater’ locales on foot and looking up to see environments floating and fractured in suspended animation, it’s fair to say i never found the idea of realistic-locking characters on a diorama-sized map out of. Place. I almost wish this was something that that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Did instead of overwhelming me with open world distractions that get in the way of the story.
That isn’t to say there aren’t optional extras as there are still fully of secrets to discover in both the overworld and the dungeon areas. There’s interesting collectibles such as journal entries from past expeditions where you can find out how they met their untimely end, outfits and hairstyles for your party members, as well as treasure cests that make good use of the guns you can also with in battle. But the bulk of its most challenging optional content is also wisely left for the endgame, so that the 30-hour critical path isn’t bogged down with optional objects that turn out to be not so optional.
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
It does then strike me a bit odd that it nonetheless includes a form of social links, a modern jrpg staple, that occurs while resting at camp in the overworld, but which is also introduced relatively late.
The quality of these conversations are by no means Poor but they also feel superfluous and stilted when there are already more naturalistically performed story cutscenes at camp showing the different emotional bonds between between expedition members, usually after a hard-wo When these also involve little more than speaking to party members one by one every now and again Rather than any action you make to improve these relationships, it can’t help but feel a bit tacked on.
Instead, one modern feature i would have preferred is a mini-map for dungeons, as I did sometimes find my sense of direction disoriented when some routes to secrets inevitably loop you back to an area you had previously been, or especially Map, I found i wasn’t always facing the same direction as before. While flashing items you port yet picked up or new triggered dialogue indicate you’re going the right way, it’s not helpful if you have to run through that area the second time.
Encore, Avec Émotion
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
These Minor criticisms hawever fall by the way when in the Grip of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Epic Story That Examines Big Weighty Themes Like Loss, Life, And the Will To Keep Going Despite Overwhelming Odds. It’s a further turbo-charged with a beautifully sweeping score, its enchanting themes accompanied by heartbreaking French soprano vocals destined to linger in the same way as the music of Nier Automatic.
But like that cult series, this is also no one-note hammed-up melodrama trying to force your tear ducts to work overtime. On the contrary, there’s a reason to feel for every member of this expedition, and it’s all anchored by a fantastic script and pitch-perfect casting that includes screen veterans like andy serkis and acclaimed voice-over talent talent like ben starr giving nuanced performance performance.
My personal standout would have to be maelle, voiced by the excellent Jennifer English Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni), who has chosen to join this expedition despite being only half the age of its other members but holds her own with a sardonic wit.
(Image Credit: Kepler Interactive)
Even as gloomy as the premise might see on paper, it often breaks from the trappings of dark murky fantasy for a little more chromatic diversity. In understanding the best jrpgs, it’s also not afraid to get a little weird and whimsical when it comes to some more people creatures found on the continent, including a large entity that also doubles – ERM, Triples? – As your Land, Sea, and Air Transportation.
Given the life-and-dieath stakes that you face, there is a certain magic when unexpected moment of levity result in a smile from your expedition members. On the strength of this confident and captivating debut, I’m only assured that sandfall interactive has a bright future ahead too.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was reviewed on PS5 Pro alongside some additional PC testing, with a code provided by the publisher.
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