It’s truly astounding how impressive Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is, despite being the first game from the French video game studio, Sandfall Interactive. Launched in early 2025, this game manages to grab the player’s attention and interest from the moment it begins.
From a compelling story to amazing visuals inspired by the European “Belle Époque” art movement, this new addition to the turn-based RPG genre has it all.
The game leverages Unreal Engine 5’s next-gen features to create smooth animations and mesmerizing visuals. Clair Obscur even has its own unique take on a turn-based combat system.
The melodramatic story successfully captivates the player’s interest with unexpected twists in the story as we progress through the game.
Even for players who’re not into the genre of turn-based RPGs, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 will feel like a refreshment in the next-gen game industry. With over 500k copies sold within the first day of launch, the game keeps attracting more players.
Clair Obscure Expedition 33 is a Must-Play For All the Right Reasons
1) Flawless art style powered by Unreal Engine 5
Clair Obscur Expedition 33’s early development stages began on Unreal Engine 4, which was later updated to Unreal Engine 5 for its features. Using Lumen and nanite features of Unreal Engine 5, Sandfall Interactive was able to achieve stunning visuals, which will often leave players in awe.
But all of Clair Obscur’s fantasy world doesn’t rely on the Unreal Engine 5, the European “Belle Époque” art style. In this way, Clair Obscur maintains a balance of light and dark in its design and art, which complements the game by making the visuals more vibrant and fantasy-like.
It’s safe to say that you are bound to find yourself mesmerized at the world this game has to offer.
2) Highly engaging narrative
The story starts during the event called ‘The Gommage’ in the city of Lumière where a 32-year-old Gustave bids farewell to Sophie, who’s just turned 33. She vanishes along with everyone else who turned 33 with her, just after ‘The Paintress’ writes 33 on a tall structure across the ocean known as the monolith.
With just a year left to live, Gustave joins the 33rd expedition team in hopes of slaying the Paintress. The game keeps introducing new characters and your party size keeps growing.
Throughout the journey, you find logs from previous expedition teams, shedding more light on what the monolith actually is. While your party size increases as you progress, the enemies that you encounter also increase in difficulty.
The story consists of 3 main acts followed by an epilogue. The game presents you with a choice in the final encounter, which ultimately determines the ending that you unlock.
The narrative of Clair Obscur has a balance of humor, suspense, and drama, which makes the story so captivating for players, and experiencing it without spoilers will be the best way to feel it.
3) Action-filled turn-based combat
For most players, turn-based combat is boring and slow. However, Sandfall Initiative took that as a challenge and redefined the combat, adding their own twist to it.
Clair Obscur has a very simple and fun-inducing combat system. Like any other turn-based RPG, the characters attack when it’s their turn. The game introduces a total of five characters, but only three can be in your party.
What makes the combat system unique is that you can actively choose to either parry or dodge the attacks in real-time. This adds a new layer of strategy on top of the already deep RPG systems. On parrying successfully, your character or party will execute a counterattack.
Parrying a large combo perfectly is the most satisfying part of the combat, and the combat music is a cherry on the top. With its real-time elements, Clair Obscure Expedition 33 feels engaging to play, even if you aren’t a fan of the slow and methodical nature of turn-based games.
4) The enemies, more so, their designs
Clair Obscur has a moderate variety of enemies. While it doesn’t sound like a lot, it doesn’t affect the fun factor at all.
Some bosses are like the ultimate versions of smaller enemies, while others are so tough they’ll make you reconsider your entire character build. Some enemies have a weak point, and almost all enemies have an element they’re weak to.
The enemy design of Clair Obscur is like nothing we’ve seen before. The colours, clothing, and the overall structure make players want to interact with each of them. While some enemies are challenging, defeating them adds a massive sense of accomplishment.
5) The mesmerizing world design and rewarding exploration
Expedition 33’s art is based on late 19th-century and early 20th-century France, particularly on the Belle Époque era. The game’s world is divided into 3 parts
- The first part is a semi-open world which feels like navigating through an interactive map.
- The linear biomes make up the second part of the map. You can enter and exit these at will.
- Your camp is the final part of the world where you can manage your party, make a build and so on.
The entire world is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The attention to detail is immaculate, which makes the environment visually appealing. The mesmerising score compliments the visuals that you see, making it a complete package.
6) The RPG elements
Clair Obscur Expedition 33, like any other RPG, gives you the freedom to build your characters and characters in any way you like.
Similar to soulslike games, every character has a unique skill tree. Whenever your characters level up, they earn skill points. You can then invest these skill points in any way you deem fit.
Throughout the game, you will uncover ability charms known as Pictos, which give the character they’re equipped with a stat bonus. As you progress through different enemy encounters, you can convert these Pictos into Lumina, which unlocks a special passive bonus.
Your characters can have multiple Luminas, but the number that they can have is goverened by the Lumina points they have.
Overall, Clair Obscur makes its RPG mechanics very minimalistic and easy to understand for all players, so you spend less time on the menu screen and more time in the world that Sandfall Interactive has built.
7) The robust endgame
The world of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 offers much more than one linear storyline. Once you reach the epilogue, you have the option to go explore the world. Or, go towards the final segment of the game.
If you head towards the ending first, there’s the option to explore even after you’ve defeated the final boss. Also, Clair Obscur has a lot of end-game content to peruse through at your leisure.
From character missions to hidden bosses, each part is just as fun and rewarding in experience as the main storyline. While it does have a few flaws, it’s still one of the best RPG experiences that you should try out!
