Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

A game about grief; intent on giving you firsthand experience

Why

Why Not

Impressions

Some games are so hyped it seems impossible for them to ever meet those expectations. Most don't, especially in the AAA space. I'm pleased to report Expedition 33 is not one of those, instead joining the Silksong pantheon of games you've been endlessly told are the best thing you'll ever play then turn out to be better.

To be fair, Clair Obscur may as well as well have been grown in a lab to appeal specifically to me. It takes the turn based, unbelievably stylish but ultimately unengaging combat of Persona 5 Royal and adds... quick time events. Not the most original idea, Paper Mario did it long ago as did plenty of copycats. What sets these particular quick time events apart is the sheer impact of them, and tying the defensive ones to enemy animations rather than flashing button prompts.

Right from the tutorial you can dodge attacks with a well timed button press, or parry them with tighter timing to gain energy for your skills and trigger a high-damage counterattack if you parry every attack in the chain. As if the gameplay rewards weren't enough to encourage parrying it's further promoted by how much better it feels through sound design and animation, peaking when you nail every attack in the chain and annihilate the enemy with damage than you otherwise could do in several turns (at least early game). This burst of damage, coupled with complete damage negation on successful parries and dodges, leads to the other inspiration for the Expedition's brilliant combat; Elden Ring.

Just like any good souls-like, if you learn their patterns well enough Clair Obscur's toughest enemies will fall even if you're well below the recommended level. This more or less eliminates any need for typical JRPG grinding; just following the main story will give you enough levels to take down bosses in a reasonable time. Enemies also don't just scale their numbers, they scale in attack pattern complexity (as well as introducing two new counters for different situations) and gimmicks to solve.

Something like an SL1 run probably isn't feasible; this is a JRPG after all. One notorious lategame boss has 50 million health; that'd probably be a multi-week ordeal of perfect parries with your paltry level one damage. But in more realistic scenarios you're unlikely to struggle; I followed the main story to exclusion of all side content up until the end of Act 1 and despite feeling challenged never struggled unduly.

Which is good, because the main story is really tough to set aside. The characters carry it, thanks to strong writing an predictably fantastic performances from a star-studded voice cast, but the overall plot is also strong and packed with twisty mystery. As expected of a world whose premise is a yearly culling of every human above a certain age, the story is pretty damn dark. However the writers managed to find plenty of opportunities to inject just the right amount of levity and silliness, keeping things from getting unbearably heavy. I won't go into details on the story because if you've somehow managed to avoid spoilers like I did you're in for a treat; suffice to say I'll think back to this game plenty over the years to come.

In conclusion Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 absolutely deserves all the accolades and praise which have been heaped upon it. If you like JRPGs, souls-likes, good stories or just games in general you absolutely need to play it. Fantastic work to the team at Sandfall, the voice actors and the composer; can't wait to see what they cook up next.

Some assorted thoughts to close: