When I looked at CLair Obscur: Expedition 33 earlier this year I had a feeling it was going to be something special. The timing-based RPG combat was reminiscent of Super Mario RPG and felt extremely satisfying and flashy. What story cores were available had a strong sense of world building. And the visuals were incredibly striking and instantly hooked me. Based on just a few hours in the early game, I felt that if the rest of the game could match or exceed the preview content, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 it had a great chance to be my game of the year. And I was right.
Sandfall Interactive is already on a tear as the awards season is just getting started. Clair Obscuro cleaned up at the Golden Joystick Awards and I'd be shocked if it didn't come with some hardware from The Game Awards next week. While games like Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksongand Death Stranding 2 they deserve recognition and will certainly gain attention, it's like Clair Obscuro it has a certain dynamic.
I love Clair Obscur but it almost lost me in act 3
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a great game, but certain developments in Act 3 don't quite fit with the rest of the experience.
For me, the timing based fights, the story, the acting, the music and the visuals are an unforgettable experience. Its gameplay is satisfying and addictive, the world is inviting, and the cast of characters will stick with me for a long time. I have a few games in my backlog that I need to get to, but right now Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is my game of the year. I'm not surprised that it ended up at the top of my personal top 10 list, but what is surprising is that the game earned the nod despite featuring two of my biggest video game pet peeves.
The first pet pissed it off Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is guilty is unique to RPGs, and this includes forcing you to use certain characters as part of your team or swapping characters without your control. I know this is pretty common in RPGs, but I'm the type of player who likes to invest in a specific team composition and go all-in. I like to have my healer/mage, damage dealer and my utility character and then focus on leveling and optimizing them as much as possible.
I didn't know how much friction I might run into during an RPG, I usually do a fair amount of work to level/upgrade my core team members. Maybe I overshoot, maybe not, but I usually like to unlock new abilities, level up my weapons, and make sure I have money to spend on useful items. But then when the game decides I can't access a character for story reasons or whatever, I get frustrated because the weaker character then has to take turns. I have now lost a core member of my team and have to try to make this new member work.
as i mentioned Clair Obscuro is not unique in this approach. Final Fantasy IV switches it up with Cecil very early onChrono Cross makes a very significant change to your main characters after the first act and Final Fantasy 12 allows you to switch teams frequently. It's a pet peeve of mine and the one I practically expect at this point. But what's the difference? Clair Obscuro and other games handle it the way they handle it.
that's what i think Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 approaches this idea by allowing all members of your party to gain XP (albeit less than the main ones) from battles. So, if you choose not to use Maelle, Luna, or Gustav or whoever, they will still be close to the level of your base team. I won't go into too much for spoilers, but I appreciated that Sandfall made it easy to get past these potential switches.
Additionally, the mechanical differences between each character made it so I wanted to switch characters in and out. I enjoyed learning the value of each character's mechanics in relation to the enemy in front of me and experimenting with different roles. Also, I like how Sandfall handled the drop by allowing you to swap for a new expedition team if you're starting out with three members all eliminated. For every element of “forced switching” I could be frustrated with, Clair Obscuro he had a reasonable answer.
The other pet likes it Clair Obscuro includes platforming when the game has no mechanics to support it. You can search a lot of raging forums about Gestral Beaches in Expedition 33and I also share this frustration. Final Fantasy 15 had an optional platforming section that did a similar thing, seemingly in an attempt to mix things up. Without the precision of platformer-centric mechanics, jumping and sticking the landing pad can lead to a lot of frustrating moments, and these beaches feel like you're playing Only Up, not an RPG.
As are the ruins of Pitioss Final Fantasy XVthe vast majority of platforming in Clair Obscuro is optional. I still felt compelled to finish those sections because I'm a masochist and a completionist, but for others they can just leave. Still, this is perhaps my biggest knock against the game. If the casing had been more consistent, or if the lean after the sprint jump hadn't been difficult to control, I might have felt differently. I know I'm not alone in this.
Despite these two elements that would normally knock the game down a notch or two on my personal rating scale, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is my favorite game of 2025. When it comes to character swapping, I think Sandfall Interactive has some neat solutions that made it a non-issue in my playthrough. Platforming on the other hand is a pain point, but mostly optional. It's hard to hold that against the game overall.
Really, it's to the game's credit that I still think so highly of it, despite featuring those two pets. And if those elements affected your enjoyment of the game, I think that's fair. However, for me, everything else about the game is so fantastic that nothing “bad” ever affected my enjoyment.
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Older 17+ / Blood and gore, violent expressions, themes with subtext, violence
- Developers
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publishers
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Interactive Kepler
