Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a French-made fantasy/sci-fi RPG that earned a surprising number of fans when it first released. It sold a reported 3.3 million copies within 33 days—interesting numbers, given the 33 in the game’s title. For all of those 3s, however, that number’s meaning is rather, uh, obscure when players first dive into this game.
In the Belle Époque-inspired world of Clair Obscur, the people of a mystical little community called Lumière live under an oppressive curse. The town’s population appears young, healthy and attractive—and each is ready to pull forth a sword and give battle to any threat. But one of the reasons for their rugged youthfulness is because no one can live past a certain age in this place.
This hamlet’s collective lifespans are determined by a gigantic creature on a nearby island called the Paintress. On a yearly basis, this mysterious being paints a number on a mountainous pillar, and it prompts the Gommage. If anyone exceeds the Paintress’ ever-decreasing age limit, they disintegrate away during that event in a swirl of ash.
That’s exactly what happens to Gustave’s love, Sophie. As she falls to pieces and blows away on the same breeze that takes nearly half of the citizenry, Gustave stolidly gathers fellow members of this year’s “expedition”: a group being sent to that island-bound mountain to figure out why this is happening. And, if possible, they’ll even give battle to the Paintress and put an end to their seemingly pointless terror.
The problem is, many expeditions have taken on this quest in the past. And none have ever returned.
The gameplay of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 centers around exploration; the gathering of resources and equipment; player development of skill trees; and managing your party of allies. While a full roster of five expeditioners can be gathered, only three can be used in combat at once.
And, of course, that combat is a primary focus of play. Players engage in turn-based battles against human and fantastical enemies, accented by precise quick-timed dodging and parrying moves. Battles focus on finding and exploiting a foe’s weaknesses and small flaws.
Because you’re managing a team of expeditioners, you might expect that multiplayer or co-op gaming would be part of the interaction, but this is a single-player-only game. And you don’t need an online connection to play.
You battle huge creatures in this game of survival, and against even larger odds to save those you care about. The game world is packed with fantasy and magic and it’s visually impressive.
The well-crafted fantasy storyline also challenges gamers to consider how grief and loss might impact their lives. While some will find sorrow and life’s intense difficulties incapacitating, others persevere. They push on. Clair Obscur asks gamers to consider why that is. It asks, what gives us hope?
Ultimately, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 encourages players to embrace life and cherish the bonds of family and friends.
That said, the third-person RPG battles and story cutscenes can get intense and bloody in this M-rated game. Combat involves swords, guns and magical attacks against sometimes huge and visually threatening foes. And while the turn-based battles can be bloody, the cutscenes involving decapitations, impalements and executions can be particularly gruesome. We see spattered blood and stacked piles of corpses.
The game story also deals with some intense and potentially depressing subjects such as the death of a loved one and feelings of suicide.
There’s some sexuality in the mix. We don’t see any interactions but do hear discussions of off-screen activities. Some female characters wear revealing outfits, and players can hear moans while walking near a brothel. We also hear quite a bit of intensely foul language in both English and French.
There’s some alcohol use. And we ultimately learn that corrupting magic is at the core of why Lumière is where it is, and who its victimized inhabitants are. A choice can be made to obliterate everything.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a well-crafted RPG that packs creative battling and interesting philosophical questions in its play. But it’s also an M-rated title that doesn’t shy away from high-definition messiness.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
