Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Preview

Since it was shown off at the Xbox showcase, I’ve been curious about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’m by no means a huge turn-based RPG guy, but with the right mechanical twists, I can be convinced, and this looked as though it had the exact twists I was looking for. After being given the chance to play a three-hour preview build, I’m no longer curious; I’m enamoured.

From launching the game I already had a good feeling about Clair Obscur: the menus, opening cutscenes and general presentation were fantastic and set the tone well. This carried through my entire experience: locations, characters, and enemies were all visually stunning, and the art direction is nothing to scoff at either. The Belle Époque inspiration is clear and works incredibly well, from the characters and the outfits to the more quirky elements, such as the Gestrals, a race of beings who enjoy the thrill of battle. In the preview, we meet Noco, a Gestral merchant who looks somewhat like a sentient paintbrush. The design is wonderfully charming, and I was grinning ear to ear when he showed up. Beyond the visuals, the music and sound design were stunning; I got sidetracked multiple times throughout my journey and slowed down to take in the sights, and the music complimented this perfectly. The peaceful ambience of the world combined with the beautiful visuals makes for a feeling many RPGs fail to reach, but Clair Obscur hit the nail on the head with its atmosphere.

While the story was relatively light in the preview, it worked well to introduce the tone, some of the main characters, and story beats. The preview starts with Gustave, a member of Expedition 33, who was sent to destroy the Paintress. Each year, the Paintress paints a cursed number on her monolith, killing everyone at that age. Upon arrival, however, a mysterious old man manages to effortlessly kill the majority of Expedition 33 and leaves Gustave injured, with the preview picking up after the attack. Gustave meets up with Lune and Maelle, other surviving members of Expedition 33, and their interactions feel genuine. There’s a nice depth to these characters; they have clearly defined personality traits and ideals, which occasionally clash. Throughout the demo, we see Gustave and Lune argue about how to proceed, and things get pretty heated. It’s clear they care for each other as friends and comrades, but it does a good job of showcasing the effects of stress and trauma on people, which is helped by the solid vocal performances.

There’s an interesting mystery at play here, too: the preview introduces you to a seemingly friendly Nevron (the main enemy race), but he’s surrounded by the corpses of a previous Expedition. He asks for light, and upon bringing him flammable resin which can be used to light his torch, you’re given a small gift from him. After talking to him again, I was given the option to attack him. I didn’t take this option personally, but I’m curious to see if there are any other options like this and how they affect the game. There’s more to this world than meets the eye, and I’m interested to see how it develops.

The gameplay was where my biggest uncertainties stood initially, but I can happily say that any concerns I had have passed. At its core, it’s a traditional turn-based RPG with an emphasis on real-time mechanics to spice up combat. There’s a lot of the usual stuff here: characters have basic attacks, skills (abilities with unique effects), and items that can be used, while enemies have the same. They also have a Break Bar, a bar which fills as they take damage, and once full, the enemy can be hit with an ability that inflicts Break, dealing massive damage and stunning them for a turn. Combat has a flow that I utterly love: each skill (special abilities with unique effects) has some basic quick-time events, similar to Sea of Stars or the Paper Mario series. On top of these, each character has a basic ranged attack that can be aimed freely to target specific weak spots, which change depending on the enemy, along with three unique defensive mechanics: Parry, Dodge and Jump. Parry seems arguably the most useful, as pressing the button in time with an enemy attack negates all damage and grants a counter-attack if all attacks in a sequence were parried perfectly. Dodging is similar, allowing the player to avoid all damage, with a more generous timing window but no counter-attack. Finally, Jump is used in specific instances to avoid attacks that specifically call for it as a defensive mechanic, which also allows for a follow-up attack.

Each character also has its own unique mechanic, defining a specific playstyle. Gustave has a Skill called Overcharge, which deals scaling damage depending on the amount of Charge he accrues through dealing damage, Parrying, and using certain Skills. Lune obtains Stains from casting her Skills, which are then consumed by others for improved effects, such as higher damage or more status effects. Maelle was my favourite of the three, and she utilises multiple different stances, which she switches between upon use of Skills. Each stance has unique effects: Offensive Stance increases her damage dealt, along with damage taken; Defensive Stance reduces the damage she takes and gives her AP upon a successful Dodge or Parry; and Virtuose Stance massively increases the damage she deals but is somewhat harder to enter. All of these unique mechanics allow for interesting combos and interplay between the Party members. Everyone feels unique and has a place within the party but it never feels like they’re relegated to a specific role directly.

Defence is surprisingly engaging: enemies have very clear tells for when to Parry or Dodge, but learning them and getting the timing down consistently isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but it makes battles far more engaging, even against simpler foes. Initially, I found myself entirely neglecting Dodge; I figured it was far more valuable to learn to Parry perfectly for the greater reward. Shortly after, I found the Dodger Pictos, which changed my views entirely. Pictos are items that can be equipped, giving the player stat boosts and unique passive skills. In this instance, the Dodger Pictos gave the character “1 AP on Perfect Dodge”, AP being the resource spent to use Skills. Along with these, you’re able to spend a character's Lumina points to equip the skills from other Pictos, without the stat boosts. This was when I realised that the mechanics of this game have so much more utility and value beyond their effects at face value, which makes me excited about the potential for buildcrafting with each character and how that would affect the gameplay.

Between the main portions of the game, there’s an overworld map similar in function to those seen in many other RPGs. While I wasn’t blown away by it, it’s visually appealing but isn’t as gripping as any of the main areas. However, during an interview with the developers, they mentioned there will be a lot of secrets hidden around, so I have a good feeling that the problems I have are due to the early game and its limited use, rather than a flaw with the map system itself.

I have a minor gripe with some of the character progression in concept, but I’m unsure if it’ll be a problem in the full game. As you level up, you gain three Attribute points and a Skill point. Attribute points are spent increasing each character's Attributes, which affect different things such as health, damage, and critical hit chance. Skill points are spent in a traditional skill tree unique to each character, which unlocks new Skills for use in combat. Each character can get unique weapons with different effects and that scale with different Attributes. The last part is where I have issues: I found a few weapons throughout the preview, and while levelling, I focussed on the stats of the weapons I was using at the time. As I progressed and found more weapons with seemingly incredibly strong effects, I switched to those, which changed the stats I would need to prioritise and somewhat invalidated my previous stat allocation. In combat, it never seemed to be a problem, but I’m uncertain how it’ll impact the later parts of the game.

The Skill trees seemed well fleshed out, but not bloated, allowing for each character to have a defined playstyle, in line with their previously mentioned mechanics, but with some flexibility to make unique builds. Maelle could just as easily become a glass cannon as she could a tankier support character. This is further enhanced by the Pictos system, along with the Lumina system. There are a lot of Pictos and only three slots for each character, meaning you’ll have to rely on the Lumina system alongside it to flesh out the characters. These effects aren’t insignificant either, even in the early game where build diversity is arguably at its lowest. I found myself having to think about who should use which Pictos and who could afford to use them as Lumina instead.

As a short aside, I was surprised to see the performance was incredibly solid, especially for a pre-release build. Due to the current state of gaming, I was concerned there’d be some performance issues, but aside from some sporadic hiccups, primarily during cutscenes, it ran well.

Overall, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has done nothing but impress me. The story, characters, world, and combat have all got me hooked, and it’s become one of my most anticipated games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be released on the 24th of April 2025, and is one I would highly recommend keeping an eye on!