Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 had me in tears

REVIEW: A meaningful, fully realised game about grief. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Clair Obscura is very clearly a French game.

Grief is a dicey topic to tackle in a video game. Unlike many other mediums, you have the space, visuals and performances to tease out ideas and explore to a rich and meaningful conclusion.

Yet, many role-playing games (RPG) that explore this concept often start strong but falter at the final hurdle. There's a lingering tendency in games writing to end on a positive note even amid grim subject matter, forcing a silver lining when there just isn't one. After all, it's a game. You are there to have fun, not to feel.

Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 dares to be a bit different here, and embrace its subject matter. The ending that I chose -- there are two of them -- had me in tears. Not because it was especially sad, but because it was real. As one of many who's experienced personal grief, it's a concept that I'm incredibly critical of in video game storytelling. So many games get it wrong.

Thanks to strong writing and a willingness to explore the concept in its entirety, delving into adjacent themes such as escapism, acceptance and survivor's guilt, I can safely say that Expedition 33 nails its subject matter. It's a credit to Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, the lead writer, and her team for not letting gameplay get in the way of a good story, but rather complement robust mechanics and intricate world-building. I'll save spoiling the game's story for another piece.

Luckily, this is just the tip of the iceberg with this incredible game.

There’s plenty of visual spectacle in Expedition 33.

Dubbed an 'AA' title, Expedition 33 charts a new course for the gaming industry. It was developed with a smaller team and more dedicated scope compared to most role-playing games. But this title did not feel cheap or lower budget. With my playthrough coming in at around 40 hours, nor did it feel short or like I wasted time.

At its core, Expedition 33 is a story-driven game with a turn-based combat system. Its closest comparison is Final Fantasy X, however its world feels similar to the dystopian look and feel of Final Fantasy XIII-3, Lightning Returns, or perhaps even the 2018 film Annihilation.

A story that presents like a layered canvas

Even towards the end, you never quite know where the story will go next.

The game is set in a reality where a city called Lumiere -- an echo of Paris -- has been cut off from the rest of civilisation. Each year, the Paintress, a mythical being who sits at the far opposite end of the world, paints a number on a giant stone monolith. It's a form of countdown. Those older than the number displayed disintegrate. The city has existed in this state for almost a century, launching desperate expeditions to stop the Paintress from erasing humanity out of existence. It's an unmistakably French world, centred on music, art and poetry. This bleeds into the character, enemy and the over world design.

The game follows the story of Expedition 33. It's not the 33rd Expedition, but rather mainly consists of those aged 32 who are set to be erased the following year. They set off to succeed where others had failed. It's a story brimming with an undercurrent of hope that quickly turns to desperation as soon as the group leaves Lumiere.

What ensues is a tale of intrigue, as the party slowly learns that all is not what it seems with their world. This culminates with a huge plot twist partway through the game, and a final decision around the fate of the world that challenges the player's personal philosophies. The story itself is like a canvas painting, providing you with an outline at first, then applying narrative in layers until you, the player, finally see the full picture. In doing so, it morphs your perception of its leading characters unlike any game I've played.

Unique landscapes also pepper the world, as the characters progress from one area to the next making their way to the Paintress You venture lush red forests, frozen-over train stations and a giant stone amphitheatre home to a giant solemn ballet dancer foe. Creativity abounds. Flying Waters, an early underwater-themed area, is an absolute standout. It's visually stunning and unique, accompanied by a beautiful combat score that grows richer as battles progress. It’s one of many tracks that follows this pattern of adding intrigue the longer it plays.

A new high for turn-based combat

Each character comes bundled with their own unique mechanics for combat.

On that, Expedition 33 sets a new bar for turn-based combat mechanics. A smart user interface keeps combat snappy and moving at a fast pace, limiting your time in menus on your turn.

Perhaps borrowing from Nintendo's Mario RPG series, a parry and dodging system keeps you on your toes as the enemy takes their turn. Timing your parries correctly can result in a swift and powerful counterattack, decisively ending battles. The execution of this mechanic keeps boss battles and other hard encounters from feeling unfair. Expedition 33 also errs on the side of presenting you with fewer encounters overall than other similar RPGs, but making each of them more meaningful. It's a welcome change.

This is melded together with a checkpoint system reminiscent of Dark Souls, where resting at a flag planted by a prior expedition comes at the cost of enemies respawning. Similar to those games, healing items are limited but replenish every time you rest. It's a fantastic solution for the inventory bloat that usually accompanies these games.

Battle turn quite epic towards the end of the game.

Expedition 33 is also underpinned by a rich upgrade, gear and stat system. Your abilities in combat are dictated by passive buffs called Pictos that you find in the world and through defeating enemies. Equip a Picto and win four battles, and you can then port its ability to any other character without needing to equip it. It's an interesting system that feels complex at first. But as you move towards the game's third act it becomes incredibly rich and interesting, allowing you to create characters that destroy all enemies in a single turn. With hundreds of Pictos though, you'll spend a fair bit of time in menus maximising your characters' builds.

It’s key weakness: Finding where to go

The game’s over world. Plenty of options, but not a lot of guidance.

You'll need to, as Expedition 33 is no pushover of a game. Enemies can easily decimate an unprepared or under-levelled party. One foible here's no way to tell whether an enemy will outright annihilate your party ahead of facing them. The game auto-saves after every encounter, so dying is no big deal. But running into enemies just to see if you are strong enough to face them can be annoying.

This weakness pervades the third act of the game, where it opens right up. While the freedom to tackle the final act in any order is appreciated, some additional guidance would have been welcome. The game merely indicates when areas are above your level with a small "danger" badge, but a clearer guide would be more helpful.

Some labyrinthine areas of the game also beg for some form of minimap. There's no navigational assistance in the areas of Expedition 33 and the game suffers for it. Your best resource become online guides, where others have already done the trial and error and have figured out where to go. This feels like an oversight in an otherwise cohesive package, where just a little more developer direction would help players experience all of what the game has to offer.

The only other fault comes from the game's cutscenes. In my playthrough on the PS5 Pro, lip-syncing was a little off, enough to initially distract you from the matter at hand. But if that's the trade-off, a flaw as a result of a lower budget, then it's more than acceptable. Especially when the overall voice acting quality compensates for it, and you consider this game's $70 AUD price tag.

It's been a while since a game has left me with as many thoughts and feelings as Expedition 33. One that I feel like this review – despite its ballooning word count – doesn't do justice to. All I can say is that if you have any remote interest in role-playing or story-based games, this is a must-play. If combat is too tough, just set the game to easy mode. And use an online guide to get around if you are lost.

Expedition 33's writing may not hit you in the same way it affected me, that's deeply personal. But it's a story that will give you pause and force reflection.

It's art.

Reviewed on: Playstation 5 Pro

Worth trying if you like: Older Final Fantasy games, The Last of Us, Paper Mario.

Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft Windows