Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review

Former Ubisoft developers formed the studio Sandfall Interactive and released a JRPG called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Let me highlight two oddities right away. First, since the game was made by French developers, it should be an FRPG! Second, why did the French make a better JRPG than the Japanese?!

What is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Humans on the brink of extinction, adventures through a world of indescribable beauty, and the feeling of being in a philharmonic.

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Under our control is the 33rd expedition team, which sets out to try to stop the extinction of humanity. The key word here is "try." More than 60 expeditions failed, but each one paved the way for the next attempts. Succeeding in this mission is very difficult, and this is reflected in the gameplay.

Reactive Turn-Based Combat

The battles in Clair Obscur are in the style of Persona, Final Fantasy, and other JRPGs, but during the enemy's turn, you must defend against their attacks in real time. You need to track through animation when a hit or shot reaches the point where you can dodge.

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There are also parries, but they are more difficult. To understand when to perform them correctly, it's better to start by dodging. When you succeed, the game shows the "perfect" message—this means you could have parried right then. If you parry all attacks in a chain, the hero will counterattack.

By jumping, you avoid damage when the enemy's attack has a specific symbol. After a successful jump, a counterattack opportunity arises. There is another situational way to avoid damage, which you’ll learn about closer to the middle of the game.

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Do you know what all of this reminds me of? It’s like a turn-based version of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, including the difficulty. On normal difficulty, many regular enemies required several attempts, and some bosses took dozens. For me, this was a serious challenge because souls-like games are not my forte, but memorizing timings and thinking about combat tactics paid off.

I should clarify that Clair Obscur is not a souls-like game. It’s more of an innovation within the JRPG genre. Another feature to highlight for this genre is the absence of grinding. You can skip optional enemies and continue with the story. Yes, extra leveling up will give you an advantage, but the game can still be completed without it. Bosses are still defeated by avoiding their attacks, and here, playing skillfully is key.

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I believe this is a step forward for JRPGs. Those who appreciate the genre for build creation can still level up and create builds that deal massive damage to enemies. At the same time, those who have avoided turn-based combat games can now dive into them. This is a great entry point into the genre, after which a person might want to try other similar projects.

Something similar existed in some parts of Yakuza and South Park: The Stick of Truth, but it is in Clair Obscur where the possibility of completely avoiding damage first appeared. It is incredibly satisfying to defeat an enemy who is at a higher level thanks to your skills.

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Let’s move on to attacking enemies. Here, too, you won’t be able to just put the gamepad down because during the heroes' attacks, you need to participate in quick time events. Most of the time, they are simple. If they are not performed, the attack will be weaker or even canceled.

On your turn, you can use abilities, make a regular attack, aim and shoot, or use consumables. Abilities consume action points but can have special effects under certain conditions. Each hero has their own unique mechanics, making the gameplay diverse and never boring.

As for consumables, you won’t mind using them because they regenerate during rest. This is similar to Estus flasks and bonfires from Dark Souls, but it applies to all consumables, not just healing potions.

Leveling, Weapons, Pictos, and Lumina

When characters reach new levels, they receive three points to improve their stats and one point to learn new abilities. The damage dealt by weapons depends not only on the corresponding stat but also on others, which vary for each character. Once again, a nod to Dark Souls.

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While traveling the world, you’ll find pictos. These increase stats and grant unique passive abilities called lumina. A character can equip up to three such items. If you win four battles while equipped with them, you can transfer their passive effect to anyone for lumina points. It may sound more confusing than it really is. The essence is that with this system, you can create unique builds.

Now, back to weapons. As you progress through the journey, your arsenal will expand with new deadly sticks. Besides damage, they have their own passive effects. What if you don’t want to part with a weapon that you like for its appearance or bonuses? Upgrade it! Using a specific resource, any weapon can be improved, thus keeping up with the damage output of newer finds. Moreover, new bonuses will unlock with each upgrade.

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World Exploration

You can move through the world in third-person view, controlling any member of the expedition. The game consists of corridor-like locations. Within them, there are branches with optional puzzles and enemies.

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The puzzles are usually simple, and the rewards help with character progression or diversify their appearance. To preserve the atmosphere, there is an option in the settings to disable characters wearing non-standard outfits during cutscenes. I didn’t use it, so I saw the characters in whatever outfits I had dressed them in. It’s often amusing.

Between locations, travel takes place on the global map. The next story objective is always marked on it. In addition, there are always several side areas around where you can complete secondary quests or find something interesting.

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Graphics and Music

An expressionist painting come to life—this is how any location in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can be described. Every second spent in this game, you marvel at its appearance. The design of characters and enemies is at the same high level.

And then there’s the masterpiece of music! A wide variety of compositions, all of them beautiful and mesmerizing, equally captivating as the visuals on the screen.

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Clair Obscur sounds uniquely special. It has its own French style. The emotions the music evoked in me during battles were immense! The epicness combined with touching melodies, magical voices, and everything perfectly fitting what is happening in the game. At the start, I can tell from the melodies which location I’m in, and sometimes even which enemy I’m fighting.

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There are many projects with great stories and gameplay that I would like to recommend to people, but I have to clarify: "don’t pay attention to the graphics." After all, it’s not the most important thing. The essence is what matters! Clair Obscur came out, and I won’t have to say such things about it. I tell my friends: "I forbid you to play it on anything but maximum graphic settings!"

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Although the main draw here isn’t even the graphics themselves, their detail and realism, but the art design. The imagination and skill of the designers gave birth to such a masterpiece. I can’t even imagine how many concept art pieces were created during development.

Narrative

The best thing that can be said about the plot of Clair Obscur without spoilers is to remain silent. Everything here is a spoiler, from the moment you start the game until the credits roll. Every moment needs to be experienced and felt on your own to get an unforgettable experience.

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At the beginning, much is unclear, but gradually you explore this world, meet the characters, and empathize with them as if they were real. No piles of notes or codexes! Just excellent dialogues and voiced short diaries from past expeditions.

Visit the camp often. After completing certain story segments, characters will have new topics to discuss, and you can strengthen your relationships with them. Although most of the plot is linear, your choices do matter, and some things in your story will unfold differently.

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Optimization and Bugs

The title has acceptable system requirements, and on the appropriate hardware, FPS drops are nonexistent. The only issue is that there were occasional small freezes during cutscenes. I completed Clair Obscur on a laptop with a mobile version of the RTX 4050 and an i5-12450H processor. From my observations, the drops in cutscenes usually happened when the laptop overheated after long hours of continuous play.

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I didn’t encounter any bugs, but I saw another player experience missing textures on objects when setting the graphics to low. For example, the floor disappeared at the beginning of the game. The issue might have been with their graphics card. I also heard negative reviews about the game's appearance on the Steam Deck.

Overall, for a game built on Unreal Engine 5, optimizing it this well is a noteworthy achievement. Sandfall Interactive did an excellent job, though there is still room for improvement.

Does Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Have Any Drawbacks

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The unclear timings for dodges and parries. When a mistake costs a character's life, it’s frustrating to miss an attack because it’s unclear exactly when to press the buttons. It’s one thing to fail to press in time, and another to not know when to press at all. You have to take damage first, memorizing what the enemy does, and then try to respond to it in some way.

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The charm effect. I think it’s too harsh to punish a single mistake by nearly completely destroying the entire party. This is what usually happens if even one hero gets charmed by an enemy. Under the charm effect, the character either hurts themselves or their ally, often killing them immediately. The most frustrating part is that the charm doesn’t wear off with time, and you have to wait for the enemy to kill the charmed hero.

I don’t have any more complaints about the project. If there were any other small flaws, they were so insignificant that they don’t deserve to be mentioned. The game was made with love. The developers poured their hearts into their work, and you can feel it in every aspect of the game.
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This is what happens when experienced and skilled developers are given creative freedom. They create Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. A game about diving into art with all your heart! Those who have completed the game will find multiple meanings in some of the phrases in this article.

This is a rare occurrence, but after finishing the game, I wanted to play it again, this time exploring every corner. I aim to unlock all achievements and try out different builds. 

It’s difficult to rate the title. No matter how wonderful the work is, there is always room for improvement. Perfection can never be reached. On the other hand, you can compare it with what already exists. Other games in the genre or similar in some way. In that case, I have a rating: 10/10.

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