Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the best new games I’ve played in years.
This review does not mention plot points beyond the basic premise presented in the first hour of the game, but I will discuss gameplay aspects from later in the game. Some might consider these to be spoilers, so this is a spoiler warning.
What Is It? Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG with timed action events during combat for attacks and defense. Given that I list both Super Mario RPG and Sea of Stars in my top 10 RPGs of all time, two games which feature the same turn-based combat trick, Expedition 33’s combat was an easy sell for me. The only question for me was how the rest of the game stack up. Spoiler alert: this is one of my favorite new games in years.
You are introduced to the world through Gustave, an early-30s man living in a fairly bland fantasy-looking city. Lots of muted colors abound, with the notable exception being bright red flowers. The city is having a sort of festival, which you will quickly find out is because today is the Grommage; the one day a year where everyone of a certain age (34, in this case) vanishes into thin air because a mysterious, giant, witch-like figure erases a number on a massive, ominous, rock across the sea and writes the next descending number. The city has been sending off expeditions to try to take out this witch each year on Grommage day and, you guessed it, Gustave is a part of this year’s expedition; 33. You set sail across the sea and the adventure begins.
I won’t discuss further story points, but I will say that it shines. It takes turns throughout and is handled excellently by some high quality voice actors. The visuals, particularly the occasional use of monochrome, add to the experience wonderfully. You will meet memorable characters, fight with them, and watch them go through all of the emotions of the course of this game which can probably be finished in the low/mid 20 hour range if you rushed but will push 60 if you want to see everything.
On the gameplay front, Expedition 33 is one of the best takes on turn-based combat I’ve ever experienced. You will time a button press with nearly every attack and defense for the entire game. The attacks involve one or two “hit the button when this diamond shaped outline is in the proper quadrant” and will have varying effects based on success or failure. I found the attack timings to be pretty easy for the most part and the penalties for missing generally weren’t too harsh. The defensive moves, on the other hand, are brutally difficult. You can choose to dodge or parry any attack. The parry window is tiny and for most of the game each enemy’s attack is actually a combo, you will need to learn enemy patterns painfully until you get them down. Parrying all attacks results in a strong counterattack. The dodge window is a bit bigger, thankfully, but does not come with a counterattack. Dodging or parrying are absolutely not optional here, you will get destroyed if you can’t pull off these moves. There is a story mode in this game to help, playing on Normal was a brutal challenge for a parry novice like myself.
Combat is supported through a few relatively simple systems. Weapons are found or purchased and can be upgraded. Each provides an attack strength, element, and some special abilities. There is a skill tree for each character to unlock their own special moves, you get to equip six at a time per character and everyone will have their favorites by the end. There are also Pictos; attachable tokens which provide massive stat boosts and a passive ability. You can learn these abilities through the Lumina system, you will have a much better time if you make the effort to understand this system early on, a note I wish I knew before playing the game.
Aside from the action events in combat, you will primarily want to attack using your skills which are paid through AP. AP is earned in battle, one per turn by default but this can be augmented through various Pictos effects. You use AP to pay to use your special abilities; the more powerful abilities costing more AP. AP effectively replaces MP from traditional JRPGs, and not having to worry about a finite resource to use your powerful moves is a simple, but wonderful, twist.
Each character has their own unique abilities on top of the basic formula. You have the healer, the character who learns abilities from defeated enemies, the one who needs to build up a charge to deal serious damage, etc… You will get a handful of characters by about 40% of the way into the game and you will choose which three to keep in your main party, with the remaining pair coming onto the battlefield if, when, the first three die.
One last callout here is that the game pulls a Final Fantasy VI. The game is played on a large, open map, but your goals are fairly linear for the most part. However, at one point the game just sets you free with a big red mark over the place you need to go to fight the final boss. You can go directly there or you can spend 30 hours doing all of the optional content the game offers. A minor nit is that the final boss area, as well as the boss itself, is a relative cakewalk compared to the vast majority of the side content. If you do spend some time seeking out more stuff before heading to the finish, the ending will be a walk in the park.
That probably sounds like a lot of stuff going on when it’s written down, but it all comes together wonderfully and will become seamless fairly quickly once you get going. The combat menus are slick and fast, reminding me a lot of Metaphor ReFantazio with a bit less flare.
The Best Part: Probably the best turn-based combat I’ve ever played. It is brutally difficult, which is not something I tend to like out of my JRPGs, but the difficulty here is not because I didn’t equip my party just right, or I picked the wrong characters to take out. Expedition 33’s difficulty is that of an action game; learning the enemy timings and executing your dodge/parry moves. In my playthrough, a typical arc of finding any new enemy type looked like this: start first fight, get soundly crushed within a few turns, try one or two more times learning the attack patterns, then get good enough to win the fight easily. Every damaging attack in this game is dodge- and parry-able. If you are a parry wizard you can potentially never take any damage in this game. This true melding of action and turn-based is a wonderful bit of gameplay synergy I didn’t know I needed. A Souls-like JRPG? Sure, why not!
The Worst Part: The maps. This is a nitpick, but in a game this good you’re going to have to nitpick to select the biggest flaw. The overworld has a map but it doesn’t do simple things like mark when you’ve cleared an area, which areas you are underleveled for (this will pop up as you near the entrance to certain areas), or let you set waypoints. Also, when you are in an area, there isn’t a map at all. This is unfortunate because the landscapes, while nicely varied from area-to-area, often run together within a single zone, meaning I backtracked quite frequently after being turned around after a fight. A simple HUD style map showing the areas you have already walked would have gone a long way.
The Verdict: This game does such a wonderful job of providing a novel, fantastic combination of combat styles and backs it up with wonderfully simple equipment and ability systems. Wrap that all in a great looking game and a captivating story and, baby, you’ve got a stew going.
Simply put; Expedition 33 is one of the best new games I’ve played in a long, long time. If the genre and timing-based challenge appeals to you at all, you should seek this game out and give it a try.
How to Play: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X*/S, PC
*console played on for this review
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