Earlier this year I sat down to play what had been described to me as “The Lost Odyssey sequel we wanted, but with baguettes”. Needless to say I was excited. Final Fantasy was never quite the same after Hironobu Sakaguchi left after Final Fantasy X. Even though Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey was a fantastic game, we are many that have been waiting for a modern take on what Final Fantasy once was. A grand story that tugs at your heartstrings set in a unique fantasy world with memorable characters and turn-based combat.
That’s what I hoped Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would be. Luckily, that’s also what it is.
Developed by newly formed French studio Sandfall Interactive, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a role-playing game set in a dark fantasy version of Paris called Lumière. In this broken world a paintress paints a number on a large monolith in the distance every year, slowly counting down from 100. When she paints a new number, every person alive that’s that age or above gets erased from existence. The citizens of Lumière don’t know why this is happening or how to stop it, so all they can do is send out an expedition of volunteers to hunt for answers. Over and over again. And now it’s time for Expedition 33, your expedition.
This set-up alone should be enough to tell you that this game has high ambitions with its world and story. Luckily, Sandfall also manages to live up to these ambitions. As we follow the titular Expedition 33, more and more is revealed about the strange world they live in. The characters you meet are all well-written, well-voiced, and intriguing. In the event that someone is reading this who haven’t played the game yet, I won’t go into detail on the story or characters but let it be known that it’s both unique and quite amazing.
If I had some criticism in this department, it’s that the mood in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is quite one-note. The game so good at establishing the dark, moody world and the characters’ struggle against what feels like inevitable death and sorrow that it forgets almost every other feeling except sadness. A seldom talked about but very important part of the Final Fantasy games that influenced this game is how they managed to also incorporate humor, joy, hope, curiosity, and more among the world-threatening seriousness. While there are some moments of joy this in Expedition 33 (notably the adorable Esquie and the weird, wooden Gestrals), most of the story, characters, and even the environments are so melancholic that it can at times feel oppressive.
In the end though, this is not a big problem as long as you’re in the right mood yourself. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a tour de force of good writing. There are a number of big twists and turns and just like an old Final Fantasy game, you’re not quite sure if you understood everything perfectly once it ends—just the way I like it.
In terms of gameplay, Expedition 33 wears its inspiration on its sleeve. The turn-based combat takes ideas from Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, and even Shadow Hearts and Sekiro. It’s classically command-based at its core, but the addition of timing-based attacks, dodges, and parries means you’re always involved and rewarded for skill. This, to me, is a double-edged sword.
The pacing of the difficulty is such that you can suddenly get brickwalled by a tough enemy if you haven’t been practicing your parrying consistently. The game never tells you how key the parry is and initially encourages you to dodge, which is easier but also much less effective later in the game. The timing window is strict and the animations (your main cue for when to parry) vary a lot in complexity. I sometimes felt it wasn’t because I was bad that I lost, it was because the only way to learn the timing was to get absolutely crushed until you figured out the patterns. Some people will of course love this, but I turned down the difficulty because I was much more interested in the continuing the story and exploration than getting challenged. I much prefer getting challenged with strategic thinking than with my reflexes.
Thanks to difficulty adjustments, this really isn’t a big issue though. Expedition 33 also offers a lot of strategic depth, with classic status effects and elemental weaknesses playing a big role. Each playable character have unique abilities and finding synergy between them and the abilities you can learn from equipment made for a very fun puzzle. I was especially fond of the character Monoco, the Blue Mage of this game and almost as much of a comedic relief as Quina in Final Fantasy IX. I spent a lot of time running around the semi-open world to learn new monster abilities.
Speaking of the world, the game is littered with secrets to find and locations to explore. Once you unlock flying (a Final Fantasy staple), you realize that the developers really understood the Final Fantasy games. There are side quests, super bosses, puzzles, mini games, equipment, and much more to find if you avoid going straight for your objective. To me this is part of what makes a good JRPG-like, understanding that exploration is still a key aspect of the experience. Expedition 33 could have been a very pretty and engaging straight corridor, but luckily Sandfall knows better.
How about how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looks and sounds? That’s easy: amazing. It’s hard to believe this is a new studio because both the art direction and graphical fidelity is jaw-dropping. I loved the few more colorful areas, the enemy design, and the consistently tasteful lighting and special effects. In terms of audio, everything also fits super well together and the voice cast is superb. My only complaint is, again, that it can get a bit one-note. The music relies on a style and harmonies that at first feel fresh and exciting but by the end I felt had worn out its welcome. Yes, it’s a dark French game, but I would’ve loved some more variation. Still, the composer did a great job and you can argue that it very much goes hand-in-hand with the consistent mood of the game at large. If you like that mood, you’ll REALLY like how well it all fits together.
It might sound like I have a lot of complaints, but those pale in comparison to how good this game actually is. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is probably the best game of 2025 and one of the best games I’ve played in the last few years. Even if it doesn’t perfectly align with what I love in video games, it does so much right. Paying tribute to my favorite Japanese RPGs while still managing to feel new and engaging is no small feat.
For all of this, and for being a truly amazing game, I tip my beret to Sandfall Interactive.
Things I liked:
- Unique and well-written story, like nothing I’ve experienced before
- Characters with both depth and incredible voice acting
- Looks absolutely gorgeous
- Tight, turn-based combat with lots of strategy
- A perfect balance of rewarding exploration and story progress
Things I didn’t like:
- The mood is quite one-note throughout the game and the music could do with some variation, too
- The timing-based parries become very difficult late game