Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - The biggest revelation of 2025
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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
About the Plot
It’s been 67 years since the event called Fracture that destroyed the city of Lumière, severing it from the mainland, and since then every year at the obelisk, the Paintress counts the years backwards from 100. Every year all the people whose age is superior to the number painted on the obelisk get erased from existence, an occurrence that’s now called Gommage.
Every year, expeditions are sent to the mainland with one objective: stop the Paintress and put a stop to this endless death cycle. To this day no one has succeeded, but there’s still the hope in the hearts of Lumière that someone will get further each time, and thus succeed in the trial.
It’s the Gommage of the year 34, and our main character, Gustave has been forced to say goodbye to the woman he loved his whole life. Their love for each other never actually vanished, in spite of them breaking up some time ago. Gustave is convinced that this time the expedition will succeed thanks to his new invention, the Lumina Converter, granting them the advantage they need against the threats of the mainland.
As soon as the expedition goes ashore on the mainland, everything takes a turn for the worse: a group of Nevrons, guided by an Old Man, a person that shouldn’t have survived through various Gommage at this point, slaughters the expedition. Those who survive end up separated. Gustave and the other few survivors manage to put themselves back together, the expedition has only just started, there’s a mission to accomplish, and it doesn't matter how many other monsters, called Nevron in this world, would put themselves in the way, the motto is still the same.
“When one falls, we continue!”
The plot captured me from the very first minutes, the prologue of this game should be taught in text books. You feel and live every single moment in Lumière as if the town was alive. Every line of dialogue has weight, no words are wasted, all the information is given to the player without the need of exposition, every dialogue is well thought out and makes sense in universe. In just 30 minutes I learned to know this couple who’s about to be tragically separated by fate and I couldn’t help being stunned in front of the screen.
This approach and care of the narration continues throughout the entire game. The dialogues between party members gave each one a lot of depth, you learn to know every single aspect about their life, their hobbies, the reason they’re into this expedition and their hopes and dreams once the journey’s complete.
The mystery is also handled perfectly: the nature of the Paintress, the reason behind the Gommage and how to stop it, the fracture that tore the world, and why an old man is still alive and well in a world where no one should survive over the age of 30? The game does an excellent job spreading the hints around and I was glued to the screen making hypotheses and trying to figure out what was happening.
The game explores very heavy subjects with an incredible tact and consideration. What would you do if this was the last year of your life? Would you live such a short life to its fullest? Would you let yourself go to despair? Would you fight tooth and nail for your remaining time? How would you react to the loss of someone dear to you? This game will take you on an emotional rollercoaster. The moment everything was coming to light I was shocked, I wasn’t so surprised with a story for a very long time.
To complement all of this there’s an excellent visual and musical compartment. This game is visually gorgeous, despite not being a AAA budget game, it doesn’t look out of place when compared to the biggest productions. Every character in this game is extremely detailed and expressive, the world you explore is incredibly varied and almost dreamlike. You can see it’s a world that has just overcome a big catastrophe but it’s not devoid of colours, suggestive locations, and picturesque creatures.
The sheer curiosity to find out what was waiting for me in the next area, combined with discovering new clues and mysteries about this story, and also gaining new members for my party, were the main reasons that kept me going. Another great choice was to have the shape of the monolith always perfectly visible, a great incentive to remind us that yes, we are slowly getting closer, maybe do another dungeon for today!
The music is nothing short but masterful! Lorien Testard is only 25, and this is very first videogame experience. Yet he was able to put together a soundtrack extremely varied and enjoyable, a work that mixes together Rock, Opera with a sprinkle of EDM and Jazz to put together a very unique sound that will stick to you the very moment you start listening. An applause also for the wonderful voice of Alice Duport-Percier, who’s gonna accompany us throughout the whole game. I also suggest you, if you don’t know French, to go and read the lyrics of the songs once you’re done with your adventure. I’ll keep following both of their careers wishing for them the brightest of futures!
About the Characters
The party of this game is absolutely exceptional, we have six characters in total and each one of them manages to be unique and memorable.
Gustave is the main character of this story, one of the most gifted inventors of Lumière, and thanks to him the city has been able to prosper after the fracture. He loves his girlfriend, his adoptive daughter Maelle and his group of apprentices, who he feels are the greatest treasure for the future of the City. Gustave always has a keepsake diary where he catalogues his whole journey with the expedition so that it could serve to them as inspiration for the future.
Gustave is the optimist of the group but also the more sensitive and fragile, after losing his dear Sophie he’s not really ready to see someone else he loves die in front of him, and his spirit gets very close to despair and fear that all those efforts were worthless. Gustave is a great protagonist and one you really end up caring for, you wanna see him succeed with the expedition. And as much as he looks like someone who gives up easily, he has a very powerful driving force with him.
Lune is the engine of the party, and maybe my favourite character in the game. Daughter of a couple of scholars, she was taught about her role in the expedition since she was very young, and thus she takes her role extremely seriously, and her ways to approach problems are mostly cold and pragmatic. She doesn’t let herself go to emotions.
It doesn’t mean that she’s insensitive, far from it. She’s always ready to help and be supportive to those who need help. She gives everything to help the others get back on track, even if her approach can be a little too direct and maybe even rude at times. I really feel that without her this expedition probably wouldn’t have succeeded.
Sciel is a character that, for the longest time, I was struggling to read on, but by the end of the game it finally clicked. She’s the only one to have experienced trauma that wasn’t related to the Gommage, and this left a very deep scar on her. She managed though, after a lot of work, to overcome depression. For this reason, Sciel is the one that tries to enjoy her time the most, she’s very happy and positive, which is absolutely necessary in such a dire situation.
Maelle is the youngest of the group, being only 16, and she’s Gustave’s adoptive daughter. She lost her parents at a very young age, and thus she went from foster family to foster family until finally landing on Gustave as a solid parental figure. Their relationship is very sweet, you can feel the strength of their bond and how they’re irreplaceable for each other.
Her participation in the expedition is often put into question with her being so young and still having many years ahead of her. Maelle though is determined to take on this voyage, not only because she would never be able to leave Gustave, but also because there was always a sense of uneasiness in her, a feeling of not belonging to Lumière, which is what draws her to the continent. She’s the linchpin that makes the family feeling of the party really work, since everyone basically treats her like a younger sister, not only Gustave, and many of the moments they share with each other are wonderfully sweet.
Verso is a peculiar addition to the party , he’s a survivor from another expedition that joins with the party once he meets them on the continent. Since the beginning he’s very evasive with them, and this inevitably leads into building a wall between them. But that’s what’s so beautiful about Verso’s relationship with the party; this fish out of water that slowly tries to gain everyone’s trust, and break down that wall. Despite being a character that by nature would like to keep himself detached he has an almost primordial need of connecting with others, creating a beautiful contrast.
Monoco is the comic relief character. He comes from the Gestral tribe, a tribe of constructs that looks like a mix of a doll and a brush, who live on the mainland and are often met as merchants. His passion is fighting with stronger enemies and completing his collection of Nevron’s feet… No, it’s not a joke!
Monoco joins the group being Verso’s best friend, and the interactions between the two are comedy gold. It’s that type of friendship mixed with rivalry, where the two of them are constantly teasing and trying to one up each other, and every time it’s assured to get a laugh out of you.
The best thing about their relationship is that unlike many JRPGs, where the party seems to act like satellites to the main character, here everyone talks to each other, everyone has intimate moments by themselves, not everything needs to be seen by the main character in order for it to be shown to the player. This not only ends up being a breath of fresh air compared to some of the latest JRPGs I’ve played, but it also contributes to create a group of people that really feel alive, that have their own urgencies, their necessities, and their moments… is something that I wish to see a lot more in games of this genre.
I cannot close this paragraph without first mentioning Esquie, our trusted friend who’s gonna follow us for the whole adventure. Esquie is a mainland creature, it has ungodly strength, loves to collect rocks and he’s everyone’s friend. When you feel sad, when you feel everything is going bad, when you think all hope is lost, Esquie will be there to give you a big hug and some comforting words. Thank you Esquie for being with us throughout the whole journey.
About the Gameplay
Often when it comes to big productions we find ourselves asking what could this game possibly bring in terms of innovation, of something new and unseen, something that could push the genre onward to the future? Just as often though, we forget that not everything has to reinvent the wheel, sometimes you just need to build onto solid foundations and just put that something extra that would make you pop over the rest.
Clair Obscur is the perfect amalgamation of 40 years of videogames, taking the foundation of the classics and introducing mechanics and ideas that are inspired by the games of today.
In terms of combat we have a classic party of 3 on the field with a turn-based system that’s taken straight out of Final Fantasy X, where our own speed and actions will dictate the number of turns we can gain before the enemy attacks. To enrich this we have a lot of traits, not just for the characters, but also for reacting to enemy attacks.
In a move that reminded me of Mario & Luigi, of all games, we don’t passively suffer enemy attacks in this game: it’s mandatory to do everything possible to avoid them instead. To our disposal we have both a dodge and a parry. The parry is naturally the hardest way to go but once you manage to parry every single enemy attack in that turn, you’ll find that your reward is a very powerful counterattack.
I won't lie: when I found out about the parry system I was scared. I’m awful with this mechanics and I thought most of my tries would’ve ended up with my characters taking a lot of attacks straight in their faces, but that’s when the excellent sound design came into play. Every attack is punctuated by a very audible sound effect which dictates a certain rhythm to enemy attacks, this helped me a lot. Granted, I wasn’t perfect, but it was very satisfying to actually parry a full string.
Parrying isn’t a mandatory mechanic so don’t worry, if you can’t get the rhythm and aren’t comfortable with it, you can still rely on dodging, the important thing is that you avoid as many attacks as possible, because even with the tankiest of builds it’s gonna be very hard to survive some of these battles.
The characters have an extremely high margin of customization for the offensive. For every level we gain, we gain more points to spend for a skill tree to unlock new skills. We can equip up to six of those for each character, each of them has a different AP price, which are the ability points our characters gain in battle. You start from a base of 2 and you gain one for each turn, or by other means, like for example parrying.
I like this freedom with attack choices, because it lets the player decide which style fits the most for his character. Monoco is the best in this regard, thanks to his Blue Mage archetype, which is a class that learns skills by defeating enemies, which this game uses extremely well.
Every time Monoco fights an enemy he adds their feet to his collection, and thanks to them he manages to obtain their form and use their attacks. This not only means that managing his arsenal is extremely easy (Just have him in battle) but his move pool is massive both for offensive and supportive purposes.
I also really enjoyed how everyone had his own personalized mechanics to use when on the offensive in order to get the most damage. It’s like a little game within the game where you plan your own preferred skill rotation depending on your style, it really helps a lot with the player's expression.
For example with Lune I was able to put together a route that right at the second turn I was able to dish out a lot of pain, making her my main DPS for the final sections of the game.
Customization is probably the strongest aspect of this game, not just in terms of active abilities but passive as well. During the game we find special objects called Picto, we can equip up to 3 of these items and they serve a double function: raise your base stats and teach up a passive skill that can later be used by the entire party. These Pictos are plentiful and the more you gain of the same type the more they level up giving better bonuses for your stats.
The weapons' choice is also pretty varied with each one of them who could reach a max level of 33, the more they level up the more passive abilities can be unlocked giving you a lot of options to decide for your preferred approach in battle. All the weapons also have a particular quirk, they damage scale depending on your stats!
This game has a lot of tropes taken straight from the influence of Dark Souls: during explorations we have various rest spots where we can refill our life, recharge every item usage and all the monsters in the area will respawn. The stats of our characters are also handled entirely by us, every level we gain 3 skill points and the more points we put on the stat that our weapon damage scales on the more will be our attack power.
I’ll admit that the stat management was immediate choice paralysis for me, and the same thing I also felt when it came time to choose what abilities to unlock. But the more I continued the less worried I got, not only because I was still managing to get by just fine in spite of my very sporadic distribution, but the game showers you with items that allow you to completely reset your character progression and thus redistribute every stat point spent with zero repercussions.
At normal difficulty the game isn’t exactly a cakewalk. In spite of that, once I found confidence with dodging and parrying, learned the correct timing for various attacks and found the right team with the right build, the game really took off, and once the gameplay clicks this game becomes a lot of fun.
I realize that during this section I mentioned a lot of other videogames, and to some this might sound like I’m trying to paint Clair Obscur as completely unoriginal, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact that Clair Obscur managed to take all of these elements for various series, putting them all together and creating his own identity and formula, it’s testament to his originality.
I’ve always been of the opinion that, especially in the world of videogames, there’s a constant cycle of reiteration, Clair Obscur is clearly handled by people who are really passionate about the genre, knew the ins and outs of it, and know how to build on its foundation something that both familiar and unique.
Personally I really appreciated how this game wore its classic inspiration like a badge of honor, even with simple things like having a world map between the cities and dungeons, map that we can explore with both a ship and an airship. It’s something that we see so little these days that I couldn’t help but smile.
If you’re one of those players who play more for the challenge and gameplay depth than to be immersed in the story, I feel Clair Obscur’s gameplay has a lot to offer you, especially if you want to enjoy something that’s both modern but also exquisitely classic and familiar.
In Conclusion
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been a wonderful surprise under every aspect: the game mixes up both classic and modern to perfection, the soundtrack is wonderful and the story grabbed me in the first first minute and did not let me go until the very last second. I still cannot fathom how this was the first game of this new studio. I’m almost scared for their future projects because they’ve already set the bar so ridiculously high that it’ll be quite the challenge to one up themselves after this.
If you’re a JRPG fan and you still haven’t played Clair Obscur then you really should absolutely remedy that, the game is available on every console with a budgeted price compared to other major releases of today. Try and get into this experience as spoiler free as possible. Because to me this game is best enjoyed with as little previous knowledge as possible.
Let me know what you thought about it: Which characters are your favourite? Did you see the plot twists coming? The themes resonated with you? How much did you enjoy the gameplay?
I’ll wait for your comments and I hope you manage to fully enjoy this expedition, in the meantime for everyone else who's already played this game, follow me to the…
SPOILER SECTION - Proceed at your own risk
Let’s talk about the first major event that left me shocked: Gustave’s death. That was the first moment where I understood this game wasn’t gonna pull its punches. This scene is devastating, because you immediately think of Maelle and Gustave enjoying their many moments together, when they kept throwing rocks at the horizon hoping to finally hit the Paintress’ obelisk, the awareness that they were getting closer and closer, and everything gets completely destroyed by Renoir.
The final moments with a dying Gustave, who tries everything he possibly can against a ruthless and uncaring Renoir, aware that there’s nothing he can do against him, hit hard. In spite of everything, he does anything he possibly can to defend the life of his adoptive daughter. The following scene of his funeral is also very touching, because you see the whole group reunited for the final farewell to the man who guided them with his hope for that entire journey. You see and feel the devastation on everyone’s faces, especially Maelle, and everything that remains is his mechanical arm in the shadow of a tree. It was pure poetry.
It’s in that moment that Verso makes his entrance, putting himself against Renoir to save Maelle’s life and from there he takes it upon himself, to help the expedition forward. Since the beginning I was very mistrustful of Verso, for as much truth he was telling to the party I felt there was something he was intentionally hiding from them, and I wasn’t mistaken. The death of Gustave for as unplanned as it was, could’ve been avoided, but Verso thought having him around would’ve been a wrench into his true plan.
For as much as his bonding with the party was anything but false, for as much as it was apparent that he was trying to use everyone, there was always some resentment showing in his actions, but there was something that he needed to do no matter the cost… And once I found everything out, I couldn’t help but to agree with him.
Discovering that the world of Clair Obscur was really a world within a painting was a surprise that I half expected, since the narrative does an excellent job sprinkling clues all over the place. The really tragic part was discovering the true nature behind the Paintress and the Curator, how the world of Clair Obscur was the result of a conflict between a fractured and broken family, and that everything revolved around the grief of someone very dear to them that still hasn’t left their hearts.
In the real world Verso is dead, his mother Aline has found refuge in one of the paintings he made as a child, and within it she became the Paintress. She created a replica of their home and their family, so that she could keep on living pretending everything was still the same. The more time you spend in the painting though, the more the canvas consumes you both physically and mentally and it’s at that moment that Verso’s father and Aline’s husband, Renoir, decided to take matters into his own hands.
The conflict between the two is the reason for the fracture and consequent annual gommage which consumes all life at Lumière. Renoir is trying to gain supremacy over the painting so that he can eject his wife from it and thus trying to reunite the family. His wife though has no intention of leaving because keeping the memory of her son alive, even if he’s just a copy, it’s more important to her than everything else.
I love how their conflict is represented in the song Une vie à t'aimer, where the lyrics are about Aline that desperately wants to stay close to her child, while Renoir is pleading her to let him go and stop living in an illusion, the force and intensity of this song is something that will remain stuck with me forever.
Grief is probably one of the most traumatic experiences a person can have through his whole life, especially for a parent that expects to see himself being buried by his own sons, not the other way around. Verso died when he was barely over 20, his sister Alicia was left disfigured after the event, the trauma completely tore this family apart irreparably and for Aline this was too much to bear, and she wanted to go back to an easier and happier time. The game doesn't put the guilt over anyone’s choices but I feel it recognizes fully how the healthier way to go is to cope with your loss and try to move forward and I feel this is really apparent by the game's two endings.
After ejecting both Aline and Renoir, the final choice is left to Verso and Maelle, which we’ll find out she’s actually Alicia, Verso’s sister who entered the painting with the intent of stopping their parents from fighting but couldn’t keep control over herself and thus was reborn as Maelle.
As her, she lived a whole new life: knew and appreciated new people, lived in this world like it was theirs, a world where she doesn’t have to carry the weight of being disfigured. Of course the same dilemma that struck Renoir and Aline shows up again for Alicia and Verso.
So, which side would you choose at the end of the battle?
I’ve spent many minutes in front of that choice, completely in crisis, weighing motivations of both parties, but in the end I think the best choice was going with Verso’s ending.
As long as that world exists it’ll be like a drug, which this family will always be tempted to return to in order to live with the ghost of a fake happiness that will only consume them. The trauma of course will never completely leave them, but it’s not like pretending it didn’t happen that you can realistically move forward.
Alicia’s ending was incredibly creepy, as much as I like to see Lumière completely reborn, Gustave and Sophie together again, Sciel back with her husband and Verso finally realized his dream of becoming a famous musician… It’s all an illusion, an escape from reality. Throughout this scene there’s a tension that permeates through all of the characters: they’re smiling but their eyes look empty, the color slowly fades away. Verso, in spite of being about to perform, has a stone faced expression that doesn’t show any emotion, and the last shot of Maelle with her face covered in the tincture of the painting lets us know that she’s going to die consumed by the same world she’s creating… This entire scene was just chilling.
I don’t wanna judge those who feel that Alicia’s ending was the better choice, because honestly I can understand where you’re coming from, how after going through this entire adventure, falling in love with the characters, it doesn’t feel right that everything has to end with their disappearance. It does feel like a hollow ending where you become the executioner of the world you were desperately trying to save.
Personally though I feel it was right to move forward. Verso, Lune, Sciel, Monoco, Esquie, Gustav, Sophie… They’ll always live in Alicia, their memories will make it like they never actually went away.
Life will inevitably force us to face some losses, for some of them we’ll never be ready, probably we’re never gonna be able to face them, but I feel the message of this game is clear: we have to find the courage to look forward and not run away.
What do you think? Did you enjoy the ending? There were things you would’ve changed from the third act? Some death left you shocked? Who are your favourite characters? Which moments have stayed in your heart the most? Let me know with your comments, let’s keep the memory of this glorious expedition alive.
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