I’ve been questioning why everybody appears so hyped on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It’s the debut recreation from Sandfall Interactive, an impartial French studio with fewer than 30 workers, and it’s attracted huge partnerships in video video games and movie over the previous 5 years. Expedition 33 has a high-profile , together with Andy Serkis, Charlie Cox, Shala Nyx and Jennifer English. It acquired an , it was picked up by Pacific Drive writer Kepler Interactive in 2023, and it was of Xbox’s first showcase of 2025. Regardless that the sport isn’t out till April, Story Kitchen has already signed on to show it right into a .
On the very least, Expedition 33 has appeared like a straightforward recreation to fall in love with.
After enjoying simply over three hours of Expedition 33, I perceive all of it — the hype, the fast love and the quiet pleasure generated by the sport’s writing, appearing, world and mechanics. Expedition 33 is modern and completely beautiful.
Expedition 33 appears like a status drama set in a surreal, barely gothic 3D panorama. Tonally it’s drenched in melodrama, and visually it’s paying homage to Sport of Thrones, however with Belle Époque stylings and mountains of diabolical magic. The realm of Lumière has been consumed by a strong being referred to as the Paintress — she paints a brand new quantity on the tower every year and all individuals of that age immediately die. She’s been counting down for greater than half a century, killing the oldest residents first, and she or he’s simply painted the quantity 33. The individuals of Lumière ship out annual expeditions to cease the Paintress, however to date, they’ve all been met with demise. The heroes of expedition 33 have one yr to dwell.
Once we meet Gustave within the preview, issues aren’t going effectively for expedition 33. His get together has been ambushed by a mysterious white-haired man — somebody so previous that he shouldn’t be capable to exist on this world — and Gustave is alone. Gustave has a magical robotic arm and a really French moustache, and he units off by way of lush forests and darkish, moist caves to trace down different survivors. He does discover some, however solely after he practically kills himself in despair. Lune, a strong-willed and scholarly mage, seems simply in time to save lots of Gustave from himself, and collectively they meet up with Maelle, Gustave’s introverted however highly effective foster sister.
Your get together helps six playable characters within the full recreation, however the preview focuses on these three. The prestige-drama vibes stem from their interactions, and notably their persona clashes. In a single cutscene, Lune and Gustave discover themselves sitting round a campfire on a starry evening, screaming at one another concerning the ethics of utilitarianism. Between tirades, Gustave screams, “Fuck the mission!”
Finally their depth subsides and the dialog returns to a tentatively amicable house. On the finish of the scene, the shot pans to Lune, who smirks and says, “Fuck the mission? Actually?”
Gustave sheepishly responds, “Sorry.” And out of the blue, I’m deeply invested within the relationship between Lune and Gustave, but in addition Maelle and the entire associates they’ve come to save lots of. It doesn’t damage that these cutscenes are really attractive, with real looking pores and skin textures and dust smudges in close-up photographs, and exquisite performances by all actors.
From cutscenes to fight, Expedition 33 is radiant.
Environments within the preview develop extra surreal as Gustave, Lune and Maelle journey nearer to the Paintress, who’s hidden herself throughout deep seas and expansive land plenty. They journey by way of uncooked areas shattered by magic, boulders hovering in mid-air and ornate buildings haphazardly embedded in odd locations, damaged and inhospitable. Anthropomorphized rock enemies roam the lands and there are bits of chroma — forex, basically — to seek out, and a few upgrades hidden off the linear path. We’re not speaking Avowed ranges of shinies, however a minimal sense of curiosity is certainly rewarded.
When exploring, you possibly can swap amongst get together members with out breaking stride, and Lune emerged as my clear favourite. As an alternative of working, Lune speed-hovers just a few inches above the bottom, and embodying her is like hovering by way of a dream. Operating (or hovering actually quick) feels nice within the recreation, and so does the grapple system that flings you throughout gaps and up buildings. There are additionally climbable handholds and ropes of sunshine that act as elevators, and all of it really works a deal with.
The sport’s dreamlike feeling solely crystallizes in Flying Waters, a area that appears and behaves as if it’s on the backside of the ocean — bubbles, shipwrecks, whales and all — however with no drop of water to be discovered. You breathe, stroll, run and leap as regular right here, however there are colleges of fish swimming by way of the air and the waterline is seen excessive above you. It’s splendidly trippy.
I may spend the remainder of this preview simply gushing about Expedition 33’s fabulous environments, characters and enemies, or its top-notch writing, music and graphics — however let’s speak fight.
Expedition 33 is a turn-based recreation with clear JRPG influences, but it surely provides a twist to the normal battle system: quick-time prompts. Your get together members have the power to make use of an merchandise, deploy a particular talent, or plain-old assault, plus they’ve a Free Purpose transfer that may snipe enemy weak factors earlier than a full strike. There are elemental weapons to equip and improve, and every character runs on a definite battle mechanic. Gustave has an overcharge system that powers up his robotic arm for a particular transfer, Lune makes use of elemental stains to stack particular harm, and Maelle switches amongst three fencing stances. Balancing therapeutic, buffs, defensive strikes and assaults is a fragile dance in Expedition 33, and the preview actually began to sing as soon as I had all three members properly leveled up, kitted out and slinging numerous forms of elemental harm.
In contrast to conventional turn-based play, there are real-time prompts embedded in your talent assaults, and executing these delivers bonus harm and results. The Ultimate Fantasy collection has toyed with this concept to combined success, however in Expedition 33 it’s a essential, finely tuned system, and I really like the stress it creates. Fast-time parts infuse the acquainted turn-based loop with a twitchy sort of readability, including just a few additional dopamine hits to the basic press-and-wait rhythm. Every QTE immediate is difficult with out being punishing, and it’s not simply offensive strikes that get the real-time remedy. Dodging, parrying and leaping are important abilities in Expedition 33, and these mechanics demand your consideration with each enemy flip.
Briefly, no, you gained’t be capable to set the controller down throughout fight in Expedition 33. And, sure, I’m completely right here for it.
Perhaps it’s as a result of every character strikes a dramatic pose at any time when it’s their flip, however fight has a definite Persona aptitude (and it is a great point in my e-book). In the meantime, the sport’s soundtrack has echoes of Nier: Automata and Tetris: Impact, and altogether, even boss battles could be a little bit of an emotional expertise.
Within the curiosity of retaining this preview underneath 3,000 phrases, I’m not going to get into the specifics of improve bushes and useful resource sorts, however I’ll say that I discovered these techniques to be purposeful and responsive. I used to be happy with how typically my get together leveled up, there have been ample traits to tweak for every character, and the results of my stat manipulation have been instantly obvious in fight. Relaxation assured, Expedition 33 is an RPG.
Although that is simply primarily based on a preview, Expedition 33 appears extremely polished. Not solely does it play seamlessly on a macro stage, but it surely additionally will get the smallest particulars proper, together with voice-acted reminiscences, haptic suggestions that kicks in when a grapple level is in vary, an opaque textual content field that’s each readable and seamlessly built-in into each scene, and the power to place a rose in Gustave’s hair, even in cutscenes. Your complete preview is spectacular.
That mentioned, I ponder whether Expedition 33 is too spectacular, technically talking. I performed the preview at a steady 1080p/60 on a gaming PC with an RTX 4070 Tremendous, and I didn’t encounter any points, however locking to 60 fps at 1440p was past my setup. This appears like a recreation that’s going to interrupt a variety of hearts and PC elements. And it’s not simply PC — I’m curious to see how Expedition 33 will run on any console that isn’t a PlayStation 5 Professional.
However, that’s a consideration for assessment time. The preview for Expedition 33 illuminates why Sandfall Interactive has acquired a lot pre-launch consideration and help. Expedition 33 consists of lovely contradictions: It’s a JRPG but it surely comes from a Western studio. It’s a fantasy RPG constructed exterior the restrictions of Dungeons & Dragons rulesets. I’s an indie recreation that appears, sounds and feels AAA. Most of all, Expedition 33 is refreshing.
Expedition 33 is because of hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X/S on April 24.