It doesn’t happen all that often while playing games but after four and a half hours with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I find myself with more questions than answers.
Following its reveal during last year’s Xbox Games Showcase event, this brand new RPG from French developer Sandfall Interactive quickly earned a short place on the games I was most excited for in 2025. Now after making my way through what was supposed to be a three to four hour demo, my feelings on the game have changed significantly.
Based on its trailer and the gameplay we’ve seen thus far, I really thought this was going to be a more action-oriented take on Persona 5 or even Final Fantasy. Instead, what I got was an assortment of turn-based gameplay and some Souls-like elements set against a backdrop that raised more questions than it answered.
By the end of my time with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I really wanted to keep playing. Not because I had fallen in love with its more action-based gameplay but because I still needed answers to my questions and wanted to know more about the game’s world and the Paintress waiting for me at the end of this expedition.
Thrown into the fray
Instead of letting you play the game from the beginning and being able to pick up from where you left off after release, the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 demo I played threw me right into the action from the start. Playing as the engineer Gustave, I woke up alone in a forest and was tasked with tracking down members of my expedition.
In the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a godlike being known as the Paintress paints a new number on a monolith each year. Once people reach that age, they turn to smoke and are erased for eternity. Instead of accepting their fate, a small expedition composed of those marked for death sets out each year with the aim of stopping the Paintress once and for all.
As you make your way through the varying landscapes of the continent where the Paintress resides, you quickly realize that your expedition (Expedition 33) isn’t the first and if you don’t manage to pull off the unimaginable, likely won’t be the last.
Unfortunately, the demo starts off a bit further into the game than I expected after Expedition 33 came together and set out for the continent. The only thing I did know for sure is that like past expeditions, ours had a very unsuccessful start and that many of its members were lost on the beach after disembarking.
After a bit of exploration, I came across the mage Lune and we joined forces to help Gustave find his younger foster sister Maelle who is also part of the expedition. While most of the game takes place in linear areas filled with enemies, the camera does pull back in more open areas which almost have an HD-2D look to them similar to Square Enix’s Triangle Strategy series.
The one thing that kept me going as I tried to make heads or tails of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s combat were its visuals and varied locales. Although the game’s development initially began in Unreal Engine 4, Sandfall Interactive later switched to using Unreal Engine 5 and from my experience during the demo, this choice paid off.
Whether I was walking through a forest, underwater or even an abandoned mansion, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a beautiful game through and through. The character models are quite detailed, both in-game and in cutscenes and the landscapes look just as great. In fact, it almost reminded me of playing Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (as I’ve yet to play Hellblade 2).
Even though I still have more questions than answers regarding its story, the visuals and the worldbuilding alone were enough to keep me interested in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. However, there was just one hangup for me: the combat.
A different take on turn-based combat
From the few brief clips of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s combat I saw before going into the demo, I really thought it would be closer to Persona or even Metaphor: ReFantazio. Sure, I could use my pistol to take a few shots on enemies before attacking or using a skill but that’s really where the similarities between the other games that inspired this one ended.
Sandfall Interactive describes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s combat as an “evolution of JRPG” where “real-time actions enhance the heart of turn-based combat.” This meant that unlike with other RPGs where you can take a breather between turns, I was constantly on my toes as this is a game where dodges and parries really matter. Think Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door but much faster and much less forgiving.
Likewise, instead of magic points or MP, action points are the currency of battle here. You can refill your AP gauge by doing basic attacks but to be effective during combat, you’re going to need to dodge successfully quite often to fill it back up. For instance, some of the more powerful skills I acquired during my brief playthrough take as many as six AP to pull off. By the end of my playthrough and after several deaths on the final boss, I finally figured things out.
Another thing that sets Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 apart from the JRPGs that inspired it is how items work. Yes you do have access to a few items that can be used during battle but instead of collecting them out in the field or receiving them after defeating enemies, all of your items are restocked when you reach a check point. This is similar to how your flasks are refilled in Elden Ring but as a Souls skeptic who prefers a more traditional JRPG, this really threw me off at first.
Back to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s visual flair for a minute, I absolutely love how the game handles victory screens. At the end of a battle once a killing blow has been dealt to the last enemy standing, the game pauses mid-action and you’re shown what spoils and experience you received from the encounter.
There are also battle stats at the bottom which I wrote off until I saw that my first successful win over the demo’s final boss took me 30 minutes. That is before I accidentally exited the game and took two more tries to defeat before seeing the credits roll.
Bigger foes await
During my four plus hour playthrough of the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 demo, I went up against some pretty large foes. However, while traversing the continent to reach a village, I saw a giant monster off in the distance that Lune cautioned me I should avoid at all costs.
Since every monster I saw could be fought, I’m pretty sure you’ll have a chance to go up against larger and even more powerful enemies later on in the game. Likewise, those fight stats at the bottom of the victory screen lead me to believe that this action-based RPG might end up seeing its share of speed runs.
Truth be told, I went into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 expecting to play a very different game. Maybe something along the lines of a Western Final Fantasy infused with Persona’s battle mechanics. Even though I was disappointed at first, this fast-paced, more challenging combat did eventually grow on me which is saying a lot for someone who avoids Souls-like games in favor of hundred hour-long JRPGs.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches next month on April 24 and while I dismissed the game initially during my playthrough, I have too many unanswered questions not to dive back in but for real this time. Thankfully, it’s coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one, so I’ll be able to. However, for PS5 and PC players, Sandfall Interactive has bucked the $70 trend and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been priced at a much more reasonable $50.
If you’re a fan of turn-based RPGs and Souls-likes or just want to push your console or gaming PC to its visual limits, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a beautiful game with a world that looks to be as interesting as Bioshock’s Rapture.
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