Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | PS5 Review

I’m a fan of JRPGs just as they are. They’re often straightforward with their progression, linear in their narrative, and deep with their characters. There’s a coziness to them that I appreciate. However, I’m occasionally dismayed that very few of these games star adult characters. As compelling as a coming of age tale is, they can become stale after a while. So when Sandfall Interactive announced Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 starring a party of characters at the end of their lives, my attention turned rapt.

Your Turn

The setup for your journey is equal parts compelling and deeply depressing. A god known as the Paintress paints a new number on a massive monolith every year, and everyone over that age evaporates into death petals. Thus, those soon to be doomed to death travel to the island of the Paintress in the hopes of eradicating her and saving the future for humanity. It’s a compelling fantasy world, full of melancholy and fleeting joys, and it pulls you in from the start. The developers have really thought out every angle of what it would mean to live in such a world, and how it would affect every decision a person might make. Is it better to have children young so you can spend more time raising them well, or is it better to show your love for your children by never having them at all?

The topics explored in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are often weighty and handled with the nuance and care they deserve. While some party members do get treated more like background members than others, they’re nonetheless interesting with compelling motivations. You’ll learn deep truths about almost every character, whether friend or foe. You come to truly know these people in a way that stunned me from a debut writing team.

My Turn

The dialogue is impeccable, delivered with top tier performances. Characters speak like real humans would, often talking over each other or showing frustration that the other person might’ve made a good point. There’s minutiae to the way people speak that makes the world completely believable, which is pretty impressive when a Paintress god is your starting point. Even the cutscene direction is frankly better than most other video games, unafraid to let scenes linger or show harrowing realities up close.

My only narrative qualm, and I want to be careful to avoid spoilers here, is that the story started to lose focus on the things that make it special near the final several hours. The ending itself is incredibly well done and thought provoking, but the topics escalated past the things that made me fall in love with the story.

Dodge

As explained at the beginning of the review, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is wholeheartedly a JRPG. Yes, it’s made in France, but it’s making no bones about the kind of turn-based RPG it wants to be. It’s such a love letter to the earlier days of the genre, it even has a classic world map. The throwback kind where your party members are represented as bigger than the actual environment around them to better showcase the lengthy journey they’re on. I suppose it’s hard to describe in text, but anybody who’s played a PS1 or PS2 JRPG will know exactly what I mean.

The world of the Paintress’ island is an intriguingly melancholic one, and the marketing has done an admirable job not showing too much off. Alongside the monsters on the islands, there are also sentient wooden creatures called Gestrals, and these little guys are a lot of fun. Each dungeon feels different from the last, and you’ll definitely feel the sense of adventure as you progress. I was disappointed in the lack of towns, however, as that’s something I really come to the genre to see. I love seeing how people live in these fantastical worlds the writers whip into reality, and I found that somewhat lacking here.

Parry

Combat is turn-based on paper, but it plays out as real-time as it could. Button presses while you attack for extra damage is nothing new to JRPGs, nor is pressing a button during an enemy turn to mitigate damage. I’ve never seen it be mandatory, though, which it absolutely is for Expedition 33.

Bosses will eradicate you in short order if you don’t learn to dodge, as dodging in this game removes all incoming damage. You have to be paying close and constant attention, too, as even regular enemies can have elongated combos you must dodge every part of. You can even try for a parry instead, which deals out massive bonus damage to offset its comparatively small reaction window. While parrying is optional for the most part, dodging is not. You can not come to this game in the hopes for a relaxing time. I really gelled with its combat demands, and I’m sure many others will too, but calling the game turn-based almost feels like a misnomer at times.

In addition to enemies keeping you on the edge of your seat, each party member plays very differently from one another. Maelle has different stances with different benefits, and specific skills can put her in certain stances. Lune is the mage of the group and every attack stows an associated elemental charge, and those charges can superpower certain attacks, meaning you might do some smaller spells at first so you can unleash a mega spell later. These are just two characters you’ll have access to, and already they have mechanics deep enough to support their own RPG.

Tomorrow Comes

The upgrade system is also great, and conjures to mind some of my favorite JRPGs. You’ll level up with attribute points as you might expect, and there’s even the mandatory skill tree, but far more intriguing is the Picto and Lumina system. Pictos are equippable traits you can assign to any character, but only three can be equipped at any given time. These vary tremendously, from 25% increased parry damage to a guaranteed self-revive once per battle. Maybe one Picto guarantees a Burn elemental status, while another has 25% increased damage against enemies afflicted with Burn. It’s easy to see the synergies between party members already.

The system goes deeper, however, as any Picto is learned as a Lumina after four combat wins once equipped. This allows any party member to equip it outside of their three Picto slots as a Lumina, as governed by Lumina Points. Which not only frees up a Picto slot to learn something new, but also means any party member can now use that ability. These aren’t limited to just one character either, as I made sure my whole party was loaded up with some basic Dodge bonuses.

For Those Who Come After

You start with only a few Lumina Points available, so your builds are restricted at lower levels. In fact, some of the better Pictos have a Lumina cost higher than you’ll have available for a long while. It puts your mind into long-term planning as you build out your characters. I’m very rarely interested in buildcrafting within RPGs, but I was pretty hooked on it for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

The main story is tightly paced, clocking in at around 25 hours, and takes several interesting twists and turns. You’ll be so compelled by this main story, it’s unlikely you’d even notice the myriad side content until after you’ve rolled credits. I don’t want to give too much away in what you’ll see once you have full map access, but I would not be shocked to learn there’s just as much endgame and side content as there is main content. Which is somewhat unfathomable coming from a 30 person studio.

We Continue

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is something increasingly rare in modern video games: a passionate piece of art given a moderate budget. It sings with soul in every design decision, and you can tell the people involved wanted to put their very best work forward. The music even stands out, and I’m pretty infamously not a music guy. If you’re the kind of person that bemoans the lack of original ideas in modern video games, you owe it to yourself to play this game promptly.

To hear me talk more about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, be sure to listen to the May 1, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 45:12 time stamp.

This review is based on a purchased copy of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on PlayStation 5. It is also available on Xbox Series X/S, Game Pass, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.