Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review – Last Voyage

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on PC

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 opens with death. Every year, the Paintress paints a number on a dangerous island just barely visible from the main continent, representing the age of the demographic of people she’s going to kill. As you might’ve guessed from the title, Expedition 33‘s story kicks off with every 33-year-old person getting Thanos-snapped out of existence.

We’re quickly introduced to our main character, Gustave, who has prepared a rose for one of the people getting erased. Or gommaged, as they like to say in French. He reconnects with his ex-girlfriend, Sophie, and they share a few longing looks; there’s little need for words to express the regret they both feel over how the relationship ended.

They walk around town, looking over the people preparing to say goodbye to their loved ones. The scene ends with Sophie getting dusted, while Gustave can only look on in pain. The opening scenes are sombre, and they set the tone for the rest of the story. Sophie may be dead, but Gustave and the rest of Expedition 33 are determined to sail to the Paintress’ island. Their mission? To put a stop to the terror once and for all.

Right off the bat, kudos must be given to the overall presentation of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The voice acting is stellar, though that’s probably no surprise considering the calibre of the voice cast. As the leading character, Charlie Cox perfectly captures Gustave’s pain, while also underscoring that with a lighthearted nature. The rest of the cast more than carry their weight as well, and while I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of the overarching story by the end of it, I can’t deny that it was the voice cast that kept me invested all the way through.

The story begins in earnest after the gommage, when the Expedition sets off to the Paintress’ island. For most of Clair Obscur‘s runtime, you’ll be exploring lush environments with underwater caves, blue forests, and a smorgasbord of just stunning nature sights. While there is an overworld map that connects all of the different areas, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is largely a linear game with one main path, and maybe a couple of branches that might lead you to extra rewards.

This works well, though. I appreciated that Kepler Interactive and Sandfall Interactive were happy to keep things relatively short and succinct, clocking in at around 30 hours for the main story. This keeps the story focused, and it never feels like it’s overstaying its welcome.

Apart from the gorgeous views, the combat serves as the other major highlight here. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG through and through, but with a slight twist: you can dodge and parry in real-time, and it’s always worth doing. Enemy attacks are generally well-telegraphed — you’ll always see the moves coming, though the timing can be tricky. Dodging does exactly what it says on the box: your character moves out of the way, completely avoiding damage. Parrying successfully allows you to riposte, dealing extra damage to your foe. Eventually, you’ll be able to jump as well, and you’ll need to do so for attacks that can’t be avoided normally.

Attacking, dodging, parrying, and jumping all give you AP, which can then be expended to use character-specific skills in battle. Rather than implementing a traditional MP system you see in most RPGs, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 really wants you to engage with its real-time reaction mechanics in order to use the cool stuff. And there’s a lot of cool stuff here.

As each party member levels up, you’ll be able to spend points to unlock new skills and abilities via an extensive skill tree. Your party members all fit your usual archetypes, of course — Gustave is the all-rounder, Lune’s your mage, Maelle’s the crit-focused DPS girl, and there are a couple more fun faces that I won’t spoil here.

You can also equip Pictos on each character, which gives you a special ability. For instance, an early game Picto makes dodging a little easier — handy for folks still getting to grips with the mechanics. After winning four battles with the equipped Pictos, however, you unlock that ability, and you can unequip it and put it on another character.

That being said, build variety is fairly limited in Clair Obscur. There’s an optimal path for each character that you want to funnel them through, and not very much room for experimentation. Given the game’s relatively short runtime, though, it’s not a deal-breaker for me. This also means there isn’t that much replay value on offer here, in case that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for in your RPGs.

With the combat system being such a big selling point for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I’m happy to report that the bosses and enemy types are also varied and challenging enough to draw out its potential. Every new area I explored, I was met with interesting and new enemies who demanded varying strategies from my party. There were these little dudes with balloons who had a 99% chance of dodging melee attacks so you had to shoot them with your gun instead; there are bosses with shielding mechanics, which means that you’d have to think about how to space out your attacks and either prioritize dealing damage or breaking those shields.

The combat and boss fights are the main highlight here, but unfortunately, the same can’t necessarily be said for the story and characters. The thing about Clair Obscur is that it seems to fall victim to the mere fact that RPGs have been around for a very long time, and when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The story beats are predictable, and the characters — with the exception of Gustave and Maelle — are generally quite one-note.

Perhaps I would’ve developed a stronger attachment to them had the game been longer, but at the same time, the story likely would’ve worn out its welcome by then. After beating the main story, there’s a fair bit of optional content to get into, including super bosses and other fun post-game things, including quests and other wrap-up bits. There’s also new game plus, if you’re hankering for even more combat.

Where Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 falls short in story and character development, it more than makes up for it with excellent presentation and genuinely engaging turn-based combat. Genre fans should absolutely put this on their radar, as should players who value high-quality performances and voice acting.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on April 24 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.