Remember the days when RPGs involved exploring worlds, telling a story and taking a turn in battles? Developer Sandfall Interactive remembers, and at some point the RPG genre began to go in different directions, whether that was an action RPG that took the turn-based element away or full exploratory worlds thanks to series like Fallout and Fable. Sandfall wants to take you back to the original age, and while these types of titles never truly went away, there hasn’t been a major AAA release completed like this since arguablyFinal Fantasy X.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33is a turn-based RPG that pushes the technical aspect of modern hardware to the limit while providing a dark story that presents all the feels.
The Paintress and Her World
The plot forExpedition 33involves a world that is painted in the eyes of a God-like figure. Simply known as The Paintress in this story, every year she paints a number upon her monolith that wipes away everyone above that age.Expeditioners seek out to end the Paintress and can never seem to complete this unbearable challenge.Expedition 33 consists of (eventually) four soldiers or Expeditioners to end the reign of terror from The Paintress, but this team unknowingly has an ace up their sleeve.
The world ofExpedition 33is unapologetically French that feels like a fantasy world taking place during the Industrial Age. For every bit of brown and dark color palette, there’s overwhelmingly worlds full of color and immersion. This is a beautifully tragic world that just experienced the apocalypse and the writers' ability to convey that visually with this world has been unseen elsewhere. The creature designs seem to be based on French history and lore as either being comedic or dark. Take what Denis Villenueve has created in the modern Dune movies and Blade Runner 2049 in terms of visuals and that concept is present inExpedition 33.
Players will traverse a map that features enemies and different areas to explore. Some of these areas are one-off locations that don’t offer anything, others are areas with one big enemy and the rest are related to the plot. While there’s some exploration, the game is linear.The lack of a map within the worlds makes traversing them difficult.There are no indicators on where to go, you just kind of have to figure it out. Some of the worlds are dark and it is hard to see where to go. A few hours were wasted in backtracking trying to advance in an area because the path wasn’t lit.
While the worlds are beautiful and the idea is to truly appreciate the art and designs of the areas, they are fairly empty. You’ll go minutes just progressing through an area with no enemies just for the sake of eating up time. The game can get boring, but thankfully the combat helps to alleviate that. There are loot opportunities but some areas to visit in the world seem like a gray area. The enemies are known as Nevrons and are based off of puppet or marionette designs. Gestrals are a big part of this world as well. Some feel like they are based on horror designs, but there isn’t a huge variety of enemies to encounter.
Story Progression and Character Design
The game immediately throws you into the last day before The Paintress sets the date. Gustave, who is aimed as the main protagonist early on, has to watch the love of his life burn up in front of his eyes much like how half of the world was erased inAvengers: Infinity War.The original Expedition featured many more than four characters, but they were all intercepted and mostly wiped out by a man with white hair.All of the sequences are dark as this story isn’t for the faint of heart.
Gustave is able to eventually find and team up with who survived as they were spread out on the map. Gustave starts as the Physical type in combat and comes off as a leader who is lost and not superbly confident. Lune is smart and confident and is purely the elemental queen in the game. Elements can be seen with weapons, but not applied. If a weapon is unlocked and happens to have an element, while it can be upgraded by leveling it up, the element remains. Elements include Ice, Fire, Lightning, Earth and Light. Elemental Affinities also play a role in combat and some are extreme in their results.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Channels Old School Final Fantasy to Satisfy Longtime Turned-Based RPG Fans
Turn-based fans might finally get their game this April when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Maelle plays as almost Gustave’s daughter, but they’re not related. Maelle’s combat revolves around different types of Stances, whether it be Offensive, Defensive or Viruose. All provide buffs in different departments. Sciel is the final of the four as she’s portrayed as having more dark magic for the four characters. She uses cards to attack much like Gambit does from the X-Men. A buff system much like Maelle’s is also used here as applying Fortell generates either a Sun Charge or Moon Charge that allows for bigger damage during a battle.
The overall story progression leaves the player asking questions and overlooking aspects that all come back into play at the end. There are a few plot twists that sway what you think is actually happening, but the whole design of the story is to keep the player guessing. There are no individual character arcs for a majority of the characters here and there’s no basis for why they are doing what they’re doing other than they have to end the Paintress. Some of the story feels pushed, but it goes in deep at the end and that’s when the satisfaction hits.
The Modernized Combat System
There are four distinct combat systems for four separate characters that are used at the same time. It can become convoluted and the full power of everyone isn’t felt until later in the game.The boss battles are the shining component of the combat and are typically large in scale.A few other characters are introduced later in the story as the game almost feels like two separate games thanks to how the story shifts (no spoilers). Gradient Attacks become a big component later down the road.
Base physical attacks and skills are the two components for combat inExpedition 33. There are also projectile attacks that can be used to take out enemy weakpoints that are shown as blurry orbs around them. While there are different systems for each character, certain attributes can be applied to enemies that allows for other’s skills to stack damage. The entire focus is to stack the ability to do massive damage later in battle, but strategy plays a role. What modernizes this combat is the ability to dodge and parry, which is crucial to winning fights. Parrying all incoming attacks from enemies allows for countering, which can dictate who wins the battle.
Skill attacks use AP and are required to pull off moves. New skill attacks can be learned thanks to the Skill Tree in the game. More passive effects exist known as Pictos as each character can have three. What’s cool is that once these reach a certain level, they can be added to any character. The limit of Pictos is tied to Lumina, which can be upgraded to allow the sharing of more Pictos. These are unlocked around the world and from enemies. Weapons can also be upgraded, but players must return to camp and this is a hassle. Costmetic items can be upgraded too, but at some point this location just couldn’t be found as it’s not at camp. Relationships are built with others later in the game to unlock new Gradient Attacks. Fast Travel does not provide the option to go to camp, but rather just to the beginning of the area and there’s normally a mile hike to the actual exit. It’s just un-needed downtime plus enemies respawn and it’s annoying when you just want to upgrade weapons.
Quicktime Events are the name of the game here, which does add something more to just pressing a button to execute a move. These are precise and difficult to pull off thanks to the camera work in the background. There are a lot of mind tricks in combat inExpedition 33and most of that comes to countering. Much like not having a map, the countering can get frustrating. Once you get an enemy’s process down, they disappear in the game only to reappear later. It’s a lot of trial and error, but countering is important as this can inflict massive damage not normally given out. While it can be frustrating, the sense of accomplishment and feeling the momentum swing in a battle is wonderful. These moments are what make this game. Simple gameplay mechanics yet challenging and satisfying in action.
The New Technical Benchmark
For a smaller studio like SandFall Interactive,Expedition 33boasts a lot of visuals and audio technology. The game runs on the Unreal Engine 5 and the traditional issues that have come with this game are here. The game was reviewed on PC, so there’s no way of telling what the console performance is. The PC that this was reviewed on does include a new NVIDIA RTX 5080 GPU and an Intel i7-12700K processor with 128 GB DDR5 RAM. Simply put,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33is one of the most beautiful games ever made. The world, the character models, the motion capture even when speaking, basically every bit of visual detail is a technical benchmark.
There’s no ray tracing option and frankly there aren’t any systems that could handle that with what this game engine includes. Framerates are all over the place, but they are consistent with the area you are in. If there’s a lot going on, even at 4K and DLSS Quality, you’re getting 50-60 FPS. Going to 1440p will get around 70-80 FPS with everything maxed out. DLAA is an option and at its most demanding and on this option, hitting in the upper 30s. TAA and Intel XeSS are the other two options. If there’s a lot of foliage, this gets quite the drop. There are times that the framerate would hit 110-120 FPS in 4K in areas and really this just comes down to optimization.
The world, the character models, the motion capture even when speaking, basically every bit of visual detail is a technical benchmark.
Object pop-in occurs when at a distance as well. The biggest hit in frame rate seems to come during battle, which is unfortunate due to the requirement of Quicktime Events. This will mess up the timing and your eyes. It got to the point where taking audio cues to perform counters proved to be a better choice. Cutscenes are capped at 30 FPS but use the in-game engine. The most noticeable artifacts come from the hair physics as hair shimmers no matter the graphical option selected. This type of game allows for this as it’s more cinematic outside the Quicktime Events.
The soundtrack is going to hit you in your feels as it sets the tone for the world. You’re going to be piano and violin’d out by the time your done. The soundtrack is elegant and beyond fitting for this world. Vocal harmonies complete the trifecta of sadness in this deathly beautiful environment. The voice acting features everyone with a British accent in a French world, although French dialogue can be selected. The slew of voice actors for both languages is deep. The audio quality and voice acting are simply award-winning on more than just a video game scale. This game could easily just be a movie.
Closing Comments:
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33is a cinematic RPG experience that showcases both visual and audio prowess. The tone is depressing, but is countered by the beauty of this world and the hope from its characters to succeed on their mission. The combat is engaging enough as it relies on Quicktime Events and a parry system to keep players engaged. This is a solid leap in this turn-based RPG genre that normally would get stale due to the repetition of combat. The overall experience is a slow burn, but comes alive once reaching the halfway point. The main narrative comes in at thirty hours and there’s some other content that can clock in at sixty, but a lot of this feels like dead air time because the world is rather empty and there are times where you’re walking for the sake of walking. If you’re a fan of turn-based RPGs or this type of lore, it would be hard to pass this up for a playthrough.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Version Reviewed: PC
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a ground-breaking turn-based RPG with unique real-time mechanics, making battles more immersive and addictive than ever. Explore a fantasy world inspired by Belle Époque France in which you battle devastating enemies.In this evolution of JRPGs, real-time actions enhance the heart of turn-based combat. Craft unique builds for your Expeditioners that fit your playstyle via gear, stats, skills, and character synergies. Open an active dimension in combat - dodge, parry, and counter in real time, chain combos by mastering attack rhythms, and target enemy weak points using a free aim system.With only one year left to live, join Gustave, Maelle, and their fellow Expeditioners as they embark upon a desperate quest to break the Paintress’ cycle of death. Follow the trail of previous expeditions and discover their fate. Get to know the members of Expedition 33 as they learn to work together against impossible odds.Explore an enchanting realm populated by surreal adversaries. Wander through breathtaking landscapes, from the Island of Visages to the Forgotten Battlefield, discovering secrets and hidden quests along the way. Find allies of fortune in creatures of legend and recruit special companions, access new travel methods and discover secret areas in the World Map.
