The certainty of death is something we all grapple with. The uncertainty lies more in the when, not if. But in the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, death comes in the form of a number drawn by The Paintress.
The Paintress is a mysterious being who rouses from slumber once a year and paints a number on her monolith. Everyone who matches the age of the painted number turns to dust and fades away. Every year, a few brave souls undertake a journey, known in the realm as an expedition, to try and thwart The Paintress from sealing their fate with a painting. Every year, they fail.
Gustave, an expeditioner who has just turned 32, has about a year left to live and is determined to make it count. Racing against time, Gustave is on a mission to break the cycle so that the Paintress can’t steal anyone else’s future. Among the other expeditioners who join him are Lune, a researcher who functions as a mage-style player character, young Maelle, who’s determined to forge her own destiny, and Sciel, whose smile hides her painful past.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, in one line, plays like Final Fantasy XVI meets the Persona series.
The name itself, Clair obscur, is the French translation of the Italian term chiaroscuro, which literally means “light-dark.” Chiaroscuro refers to the technique of using strong contrasts between light and shadow to enhance the atmosphere, volume, and composition of a painting. While this technique originated during the Renaissance, it was widely prevalent during the Baroque era. Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Goya are among the artists who employed this style. It feels fitting that a game about fighting a Paintress who erases people one by one derives its name from such a dramatic art style.
Set against a backdrop of a dark fantasy Belle Époque setting, there is a very French aesthetic to the game—unsurprising as the development studio behind it, Sandfall Interactive, is from France. What is surprising, though, is how polished the game is despite being made by a relatively small development team. The game resembles a painting, with vivid colors, an intricate environment, and a distinct design identity given to both the monsters and characters. It’s a world that’s richly detailed, from the ripples on the surface of the water to the strands of hair that have escaped Maelle’s ponytail. As you run around the map, you fight unique-looking enemies—some of them are eerily humanoid forms, while others resemble abstract pottery or an orb with two legs. Taking in the world around you, it really feels as though you’ve stepped into a three-dimensional canvas.
Adding to the atmosphere is the soundtrack that washes over you as you embark on your quest. From the quiet calm that envelopes you when you return to camp to the thrum that matches your heartbeat while you are in combat. It haunts you long after you’ve put away your controller. In fact, composer Lorien Testard’s soundtrack has even topped Billboard’s Classical Album charts.
The expressions given to the characters, especially in the cutscenes, are impressively executed—animated and lifelike in a way that adds weight to their dialogue. They’re united by a common goal—and this shows even in their body language. Considering that the game has an emotional storyline, the way the characters grapple with the uncertainty of their mission, the helplessness of a task they feel they’re doomed to fail, and survivor’s guilt comes across clearly. They’re all very fleshed out, with their own motivations, goals, and approaches to the situation. With a stacked voice cast that breathes life into the game’s characters—Andy Serkis (Renoir), Charlie Cox (Gustave), Jennifer English (Maelle) and Ben Starr (Verso)—the emotions in the game get a little too real too quick. There are also different quirks and animation cycles for every character, from fighting to walking. Lune, for example, gracefully glides when she sprints, while Gustave has his legs firmly planted on the ground as he races ahead.
The combat in this game is a particularly unique blend of turn-based and real-time mechanics. On each turn, the characters can do a basic attack, use an item or skill, and even carry out a ranged attack in which you manually aim to target the weak points of your enemies. To use items or skills, you need Ability Points, which can be generated via basic attacks. Each skill has a certain number of Ability Points attached to it. If you want to unleash a devastating attack that can hit multiple enemies, it is best to generate and use those Ability Points strategically. To execute a skill-based attack, you must first successfully complete a quick time event to deal critical damage.
There are plenty of ways to approach a fight depending on your playstyle. You can create and customize a build that best suits you with the plethora of attributes and skills the characters have at their disposal. Levelling up also lets you unlock new skills like From Fire, Storm Caller, and Terraquake on the skill tree. Your weapons also get better as you level up, but you can also manually upgrade them with items you harvest in this world by visiting The Curator, a mysterious NPC who joins you at camp to help you with your journey. Even the weapons you get early on in the game are good enough to embark on this dangerous mission.
Items, weapons, and materials with which you upgrade can be purchased from vendors that you come across on your journey. Defeating them gives you access to secret and valuable goods that will no doubt serve you well.
No two playable characters have the same fighting style, skills, or weapons, and you can cherry-pick how you want to play them out on the battlefield. Invest in vitality if you’d like to tank out attacks, or perhaps agility if you want more turns on the battlefield, or luck to land those critical hits, the choice is yours.
You can allocate these skill points at the checkpoints known as Expedition Flags. These Expedition Flags also serve as save stations and rest stops where you catch up on that much-needed R&R. Beware, though, resting respawns enemies.
In a way, it is a blessing because there’s a lot to grind in this game. There are optional fights, some of them particularly difficult mini boss fights, where you could die with a single hit. But there is nothing tiring about the grind, even if it does get a little repetitive.
This is because the combat in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is both exciting and challenging. Some enemies are tough, and underestimating your opponent might just lead you to an early grave, even if they have a good loot. The most difficult aspect of these encounters lies in the difficulty of the timing.
This is where the real-time aspect of the turn-based combat comes into play. I don’t recall a single game that gives you the ability to parry attacks in a turn-based combat setting, in real time. Just like the player characters, enemies too can land devastating blows that result in one-hit kills. And there are two ways of preventing that—parrying and dodging. While dodging is easier, a successful parry results in getting those much-needed Ability Points and landing a cataclysmic counter. But there’s a very small window of opportunity to get the timing just right, and it does take a while to get used to the rhythm of the attack flow. With its highly stylized combat featuring a lot of flourishes, successful quick time events, and deadly skill attacks, combat sequences in this game are extremely satisfying.
A strong plot, well fleshed-out characters, breathtaking graphics, and dramatic soundtrack, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has all the makings for the Game of the Year.
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