Clair Obscur: Expedition 33[b] is a 2025 role-playing video game developed by French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. Taking place in a dark fantasyBelle Époque setting, the game follows the volunteers of Expedition 33 as they set out to destroy the Paintress, a being causing the yearly Gommage, which erases those at or above an ever-decreasing age. In the game, the player controls a party of characters from a third-person perspective, exploring areas and engaging in combat. Coupled with its turn-based mechanics are real-time aspects such as quick time events and timed actions in combat.
The project originated in 2019 with Guillaume Broche, a Ubisoft employee; Broche would leave the company the following year during the COVID-19 pandemic to form Sandfall by reaching out to friends and contacts, steadily establishing a 30-person core team whose endeavor would come to be supported by various production partners. Inspired by Japanese RPGs that shaped their youth such as the Final Fantasy and Persona series, the developers at Sandfall sought to create a high-fidelity turn-based role-playing game, which they felt was neglected by AAA studios. Development began with Unreal Engine 4 and later switched to Unreal Engine 5, providing rendering improvements.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S on 24 April 2025, as well as available from day one on Xbox Game Pass. The game received universal acclaim from critics for its narrative, art direction, game direction, original soundtrack, gameplay and voice acting. By October 2025, it had sold over 5 million units. The game became the most nominated game of all time at The Game Awards that year, having received 12 nominations across 10 categories. Expedition 33 and Sandfall won all 7 of the awards they were nominated for at the 2025 Golden Joystick Awards, including the 2025 Game of the Year award; thus tying Baldur's Gate 3 and its developer Larian Studios for the number of awards won in the event's history as well as breaking the record of awards won by a debut title.
Gameplay
In this screenshot, Lune, Gustave, and Maelle are fighting against an enemy. On each turn, players can perform a basic melee attack, consume an item, use action points to shoot an enemy or use a skill.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a third-personturn-based role-playing game with real-time elements. The player controls a party of Expeditioners exploring a fantasy world. On their turns, players select whether to use an item, perform a melee attack to gain Ability Points, or spend accumulated Ability Points to use ranged attacks or Skills.[3] Ranged attacks are aimed freely, similar to a third-person shooter. When using a Skill, a quick time event can be completed for improved effects.[4] During enemy turns, the player can dodge, parry, or jump over attacks in real time to avoid damage.[5] Parrying requires more precise timing than dodging but provides Ability Points and the opportunity to counterattack.[6] A stamina system allows players to "Break" enemies, temporarily stunning them.[7] As players progress, the game introduces new attacks and parries, including Gradient Attacks, Gradient Counters, and Gradient Skills, all of which deal devastating damage. The use of gradient attacks is monitored by a gauge shared by the party. It will slowly fill up when the party uses skills in combat.[8] The Expeditioners and enemies can also apply various status effects on each other, boosting or impairing either side's combat efficiency. Some enemies have weak points that can be targeted, or may be vulnerable to certain elemental attacks.[9] If the combat party is defeated, reserve characters may be called in to continue fighting. Combat ends when either side has no remaining combatants,[6] or when the player decides to flee the battlefield when they are facing minor enemies.[10]
The game features six playable characters, with each having unique skill trees, weapons and gameplay mechanics. The mage Lune's Skills generate elemental "Stains", which can be spent to enhance her Skills. The fencer Maelle switches between Stances which alter her Skills, damage and defense. The scythe-wielding warrior Sciel can use a set of magical cards to apply and stack "Foretell" to enemies, and then consume them to inflict maximum damage on enemies. Gustave and Verso deal more damage to enemies the more they attack them. Verso, in particular, gains "Perfection" ranks upon landing hits, and has increased damage output when he reaches a high Perfection rank. The Gestral Monoco can transform into enemies and use their abilities against them. Some of his abilities are further enhanced by his "Bestial Wheel", which spins whenever Monoco uses his abilities.[11] When the party is not exploring or fighting enemies, they can rest at a camp. Assuming control of Verso, players can converse with other members of Expedition 33 and raise their relationship levels, unlocking new cinematics, skills and quests.[12]
Combat encounters reward experience points, currency and upgrades. Each time a character levels up, they will gain three attribute points, which can be spent on increasing five core character stats: Vitality (maximum health), Might (attack power), Agility (frequency of attack), Defense (damage reduction), and Luck (critical rate).[13] The abilities of the Expeditioners are further customized with equipable "Pictos" which add a variety of perks and further improve a character's stats. Each character can equip three Pictos at a time. Players can master the use of Pictos after using it in combat four times, unlocking its passive bonuses (known as Luminas) for other Expeditioners to use.[14] Each character also has Lumina Points, which dictate how many Luminas they can equip at a time. As players level up, their maximum Lumina Points will increase, and players can also find additional Lumina Points as collectibles during exploration.[15] As players explore, they will also collect "Chroma Catalysts", which can be used to upgrade weapons to higher levels at the camp.[16] Higher-level weapons deal more base damage to enemies and offer additional gameplay perks.[17]
While the game is set in linear levels, players can explore off the beaten path where they will find hidden resources, side quests, collectibles, character outfits, Gestral merchants, and optional bosses.[18] Each level also has several Expedition Flags, where players heal their party, fast travel, restock items, and allocate attribute and skill points. Resting at an Expedition Flag respawns most enemies.[14] Levels in the game are connected by an overworld map known as "The Continent".[19] Eventually, the Expeditioners will meet Esquie, a mythical creature who helps the party to travel across the Continent. Esquie will acquire new transversal abilities as players progress, allowing it to swim, fly, and dive underwater.[18] These new traversal abilities are essential for players to advance the story and access optional zones. The game has multiple difficulty options[20] and a New Game Plus mode, allowing the player to replay the game with more difficult battles while retaining all character progression from their first playthrough.[21]
Synopsis
Premise
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes place in a dark fantasyBelle Époque setting. Every year for the past 67 years, the people of the isolated island of Lumière have suffered an event called the "Gommage",[c] where an entity, known as "the Paintress" (voiced in English by Tracy Wiles), paints an ever-decreasing number on a rock formation known as the Monolith, and all humans with an age equal to or above that number disappear. Every year after the Gommage, Lumière sends an expedition of volunteers to head to the mainland in an effort to slay the Paintress before she can paint a new number. Expedition 33 is the latest to set out.[23][24]
Members of Expedition 33 include: Gustave (voiced in English by Charlie Cox), a resourceful engineer with a mechanical arm; Maelle (by Jennifer English), the youngest member of the Expedition and Gustave's foster sister; Lune (by Kirsty Rider), a brilliant scholar and mage; and Sciel (by Shala Nyx), a calm and cheerful warrior. As the expedition traverses the mainland, they encounter various individuals, including: Renoir (voiced in English by Andy Serkis), an old man driven by a ruthless determination; Verso (by Ben Starr), a mysterious stranger who keeps watch of the Expedition; Monoco (by Rich Keeble), one of the construct-like Gestrals who lives in the mainland and is associated with Verso; and Esquie (by Maxence Cazorla), a local mythical creature also living in the mainland.[25][26][27][28][29]
Plot
On the day of the Gommage, 32-year-old Gustave bids farewell to his former lover, Sophie, who has turned 33 and perishes along with everyone else of the same age. With only a year left to live, he joins Expedition 33 in hopes of slaying the Paintress. The expedition meets catastrophe shortly after making landfall, when they are nearly wiped out by an old, white-haired man leading an army of monsters. After surviving the attack, Gustave manages to locate three other survivors: Lune, Sciel, and his foster sister Maelle. They also receive aid from a mysterious entity known as the Curator, who Maelle is able to communicate with. Maelle begins receiving visions of the white-haired man and a masked girl; they blame her for an unknown disaster. The party enlists the aid of the mythical creature Esquie in order to cross another sea to reach the Paintress. The white-haired man attacks again before they can set off, and Gustave dies defending Maelle. A man named Verso intervenes and helps the rest of the Expedition to escape.
Verso catches up with the party, explaining that he is a surviving member of the very first expedition, and that the white-haired man is Renoir, their commander. Both stopped aging upon arrival on the continent. He asserts that Renoir has come to believe his immortality was granted by the Paintress and wishes to protect her at all costs. Verso, meanwhile, has grown tired of his immortality and joins the party. After crossing the sea and paying their respects to Gustave, the Expedition recruits Verso's friend, Monoco.
The expedition reaches Renoir's mansion in Old Lumière in search of the Paintress' heart, which they need to destroy to disable the barrier protecting her. Verso admits that he is, in fact, Renoir's son, and the masked girl in Maelle's dreams is his sister, Alicia. After a battle, Renoir teleports the mansion and the heart away, thwarting Verso's plan. Lune suggests that they instead forge a powerful weapon from the hearts of highly dangerous ancient beings known as the Axons, which they use to pierce the barrier. The party enters the Monolith afterwards, killing Renoir along the way. They confront the Paintress, revealed to be Verso's mother, Aline, and manage to kill her, erasing the number on the Monolith. The expedition returns to Lumière as heroes. Verso reads a letter from Alicia, revealing that Aline was trying to stall the Curator, who is in fact responsible for the Gommage, and the number on the Monolith was a warning to those about to die. Without Aline's protection, the entire population of Lumière vanishes, except for Verso.
In a flashback to the outside reality in early 20th-century Paris, it is revealed that the real Alicia, Verso, Aline, and Renoir are all Painters of the Dessendre family, magic users possessing the ability to create and inhabit worlds within magical Canvases. The real Verso died saving Alicia from a fire, but Alicia was left disfigured, half-blind and mute as a result. Grieving the death of her son, the real Aline entered Verso's Canvas, which contains Lumière and "painted" copies of Verso, Alicia, and Renoir. The real Renoir - manifesting within the Canvas as the Curator - seeks to destroy the Canvas for Aline to move on and bring her home, but against her powers he is only to achieve it gradually with the Gommage. Frustrated by the stalemate, Alicia's older sister Clea advises her to enter the Canvas and destroy it so their family can focus on their war with a rival faction, the Writers, who had previously manipulated Alicia and were responsible for the fire and Verso's death. Alicia obliges, but is reborn as Maelle after being overwhelmed by Aline's power.
With Maelle's "death", Alicia regains her memories and awakens in what remains of Lumière. She reunites with the painted Verso, who had been trying to expel Aline from the Canvas to end his immortality. Wanting to protect the Canvas world, Alicia uses her newly discovered Painter powers to revive the Expedition and battles her father for control. Optionally, Alicia can defeat her painted copy, prompting Verso to confess he let Gustave die to motivate Alicia to defeat Aline. After a final confrontation, Renoir explains that, as precious as the Canvas is to him and his family, destroying it is the only way to bring Aline and Alicia back to the real world so they can finally end the cycle of grief and move forward. Renoir nearly gains the upper hand in the ensuing battle, but true to his fears, Aline manages to locate the Canvas and aids the expedition against him. Weakened, Renoir relents and promises to "leave the lights on" for Alicia's eventual return, exiting the Canvas alongside Aline.
Disturbed by Aline's return, and realizing that Alicia does not plan to leave the Canvas and will eventually die due to her prolonged stay, Verso reaches out to the last remnant of the real Verso's soul, attempting to remove it and thus destroy the Canvas. Alicia interjects, insisting that she would have a better life within the Canvas and ashamed of her mistakes in the real world. The ending diverges based on the character the player chooses to play as in the final battle between the two:[30]
If the player chooses Alicia, she follows through with her wish to permanently live in the Canvas. She rebuilds Lumière and revives its people, including Gustave, Sophie, and a reluctant Verso. One day, Alicia attends Verso's concert alongside her friends. Before performing, Verso notices Alicia showing signs of decline, as Aline did.
If the player chooses Verso, he banishes Alicia and removes the remaining piece of the real Verso's soul, destroying the Canvas and everything in it. Back in reality, the Dessendre family come to terms with their son's death and appear to have reconciled with each other. Alicia envisions Maelle, Verso, Gustave and her friends waving farewell to her before they all vanish.
Development
The ideas behind Expedition 33 originated in 2019 with Guillaume Broche, an employee of Ubisoft, not long before the COVID-19 pandemic;[31] soon turning into a passion project inspired by his childhood favorites, most notably the Final Fantasy series.[32] He sent out some requests for help to craft a demo to a group of other developers he knew as well as requests on Reddit in April 2020 looking for voice actors for said demo. In order to focus on his project full-time, Broche would leave Ubisoft that year and form Sandfall Interactive, alongside François Meurisse, an old friend, and fellow Ubisoft developer Tom Guillermin. The three co-founders would soon be joined by Lorien Testard, Nicholas Maxson-Francombe and Jennifer Svedberg-Yen; the six forming the kick-off team.[32][31] Lorien Testard, the composer, was discovered by Broche through a post on a French indie video game forum where he linked a track from his SoundCloud page.[33][32][34] Maxson-Francombe, the game's art director, was discovered and recruited off ArtStation by Broche. Svedberg-Yen, one of the voice actors who had stumbled upon Broche's Reddit post and was cast for the original demo, gained a more prominent role as development progressed, becoming the game's lead writer.[32]
After inking a partnership with Kepler Interactive, which was officially announced in early 2023, and securing funding from said publisher, Sandfall grew into a studio of about thirty developers, three of whom—including Broche and Guillermin—were former Ubisoft developers.[35][36][37][26][24][27] The funding also allowed Sandfall to expand the manpower contributing to the project beyond this core team, having outsourced gameplay combat animation to a team of eight South Korean freelance animators and quality assurance (QA) to a few dozen QA testers from the firm QLOC, as well as receiving porting assistance from a half-dozen developers from Ebb Software. The studio also hired a couple of performance capture artists; brought in musicians for the soundtrack recording sessions; contracted with translators from Riotloc for language localization; and partnered with Side UK and Studio Anatole as to voice casting and production in English and French respectively.[36][38] Finally, the partnership with Kepler Interactive enabled Sandfall to pay for noted professional voice actors, including Charlie Cox, Andy Serkis and Ben Starr.[32][34] Cox has jokingly stated he was in the studio for barely four hours to record his lines and felt like a fraud over being lauded for his performance; though Svedberg-Yen clarified on her Instagram account that the task had taken around 8 hours, and praised his professionalism and efficiency.[39]
Broche stated that the purpose of Expedition 33 was to create a high fidelity turn-based RPG, which he felt had been neglected by AAA game developers.[23] Besides Final Fantasy, Expedition 33 took inspiration from other Japanese role-playing games, including the Persona series;[40] Broche notably praised Persona 5 for its user interface and use of camera work during battles, "making it feel like you're watching a movie".[41] Broche also considered Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, JRPGs developed for Microsoft's drive to help market the Xbox consoles in Japan, as an influence, particularly their use of quick time events during combat.[42] According to producer François Meurisse, the game drew inspiration from SquareSoft's Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X in particular, while the dodge and parry mechanics were influenced by FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.[43]
Development initially began under the codename "Project W",[44] and was first known as We Lost around the time that Broche sought help on Reddit. The initial demo showcased a steampunk setting inspired by Victorian era England, with more science fiction elements, including zombies and aliens. About six months into this approach, potential investors suggested that Broche should "think bigger" and ponder what he would want to do if they weren't restricted by their limited resources. This led him to reset the entire story, opting for the Belle Époque—a period the French team was naturally well acquainted with and which they deemed to be a more distinctive setting—as well as taking inspiration from the Art Deco movement often associated with the era for the visual world design.[45] The new narrative was based on a painting Broche admired, which led him to think of a giantess and a doomsday clock, while also taking some inspiration from the French fantasy novel La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio. The latter featured a horde of men, trained since childhood, undertaking an odyssey to reach the mythical "Extrême-Amont", the source of all winds.[46] Broche's premise was then associated with a short story unrelated to the project Svedberg-Yen had written on her own for fun, in which a painter capable of traveling through her own works got lost in one, prompting her daughter's endeavor to save her.[47][48]
Svedberg-Yen stated one of the game's core themes, the loss of loved ones, originates with Broche's mother and represented the "final piece". As the two were stuck on the draft, Broche asked his mother what would be the worst thing that could happen to her; she answered the loss of any of her children would be. This notably became the foundation for Aline's character and became the catalyst for her decision to dwell in what Svedberg-Yen and Broche subsequently conceived as her departed son's canvas.[49][50] While other aspects of the narrative were crafted as the game progressed, Svedberg-Yen asserted that the ending of Act I, featuring the death of Gustave, was something she and Broche had set early on, as part of the emotional journey they wanted for the characters.[50] The team kept some of the characters they had already envisioned in We Lost, such as Maelle and Lune, but their design and characterization were reassessed accordingly. The characters Noco and Monoco derive their names from the Swedish energy drink Nocco. Broche and Guillermin met during their stint at a subsidiary of Ubisoft in Malmö, Sweden, where a refrigerator was reportedly filled with the beverage. The studio's dog, Monoco, who's credited as Sandfall's "Happiness Manager" on the studio's website, is named after the character;[51] meanwhile, Svedberg-Yen's own dog, Trunks, was an inspiration for the latter's character design, notably his mop-like hair style.[52]
Development began with Unreal Engine 4, switching to Unreal Engine 5 due to its improvements in rendering and animation.[24][27] The engine's Nanite and Lumen features allowed for higher-fidelity assets and more-realistic lighting, respectively.[53] The adoption of Lumen necessitated reworking the lighting for most environments.[53] Additionally, UE5 had more support for character creation—an advantage over Reallusion's Character Creator, previously being used in this regard.[53] Sandfall relied on ready-made assets for background objects such as rocks, enabling them to focus on creating "hero assets", i.e., large-scale assets that make an impression on the viewer.[53] Broche credits the development of the game to the simplicity of modern engines.[32]
Broche has expressed the studio aims to develop sequels or games similar in spirit, confirming Clair Obscur is the name of an intended franchise and Expedition 33 one of its titles; though he was unsure whether these would narratively continue from Expedition 33.[57]
Film adaptation
In January 2025, Story Kitchen announced a live-action adaptation of the game with developer Sandfall Interactive.[58]
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[59][60][61] This sentiment was also echoed by the users, with the game attaining one of the highest Metacritic userscore ratings of all time as of May 2025.[80][81]OpenCritic reported a top critic average score of 92% across all platforms, with 97% of critics recommending the game.[62] On Steam, it reached an "Overwhelmingly positive" review score, with 95% of the more than 100,000 users who rated the game on the digital distribution service after acquiring it leaving a favorable feedback.[82][83] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu each awarded the game a score of 9 out of 10, for a total score of 36 out of 40.[66]
Expedition 33's art direction and visual world design were praised by reviewers.[65][71][84]Edge described them as "dreamily intoxicating",[64] a sentiment echoed by Richard Wakeling of GameSpot, who nonetheless criticized the world for being "mechanically uninteresting [...] to explore".[68] Additional criticism was directed at the absence of a mini-map, which can lead to occasional disorientation.[67][65][73][69]
The story received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the voice acting, which was noted for bringing the characters to life and effectively supporting the narrative.[68][79][73]IGN's Michael Higham commended the game for the way it "frames mortality, grief, and the small moments of joy we find".[71] Liam Croft of Push Square noted that "every cutscene remains gripping, with an already intriguing plot heightened by [...] excellent voice acting".[74]
Reviewers were impressed by the soundtrack and particularly praised its adaptability.[68][65][71]Game Informer's Kyle Hilliard highlighted the contrast between the "somber piano music and haunting vocals", which underscore the characters' emotional experiences, and the combat themes that "bring the energy back up at precisely the right moment".[67]Edge described the score as immense and "operatic".[64]
The gameplay was praised for its modern approach to traditional Japanese-style turn-based combat.[68][67][79] Malindy Hetfeld of The Guardian noted that "a successful counter felt deeply satisfying every time".[78] Ed Nightingale of Eurogamer further highlighted the variety in character fighting styles, each one introducing "a new system to learn", as well as the extensive options for character customization.[65] Josh Brown for PCGamesN described the game as a "hyper-stimulating take on a genre once deemed too slow and stale for the HD era".[73]
Expedition 33 was thus regarded as a major success by reviewers despite the minor shortcomings highlighted. Edge underlined that the ability to undertake side quests could lead to the player being overleveled and cause subsequent boss fights to be much less challenging and gratifying, but asserted it was "imprudent" to suggest an alteration to what they felt was a "masterpiece".[64] Wakeling criticized the underwhelming exploration and small quality-of-life issues, but concluded that "these missteps aren't enough to significantly detract from a game with all the makings of an RPG classic".[68]
High-profile developers, including Hideo Kojima, Neil Druckmann and Ken Levine, have voiced praise for Expedition 33, whether for the flexibility demonstrated by the small development team, the game's story, or the ability to achieve a product of great quality while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive monetization that can plague games developed and/or published by established AAA companies.[85][86][87]
Sales
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 500,000 copies within 24 hours after its release on 24 April 2025, 1 million copies within 3 days,[88] 2 million copies within 12 days[89] and 3.3 million copies within 33 days.[90] By October 2025, the game had sold over 5 million copies worldwide. To mark the milestone, the developers announced a free content update featuring a new location, additional late-game bosses, new character costumes, and expanded language support.[91]
Upon the team's announcement across various social media platforms the game had reached the 1 million sales milestone, the French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, in a comment on the related Instagram post, congratulated the studio on the achievement and highlighted the game's success as "a shining example of French audacity and creativity".[92]Michaël Delafosse, the mayor of Montpellier, where the studio is based, also commended the team for their accomplishment in late May in a LinkedIn post, stating it will be "a reference in the international history of video games".[93]
The game's soundtrack reached the top spot on Billboard's Classical Albums Chart as well as Classical Crossover Albums Chart during the first week of May 2025, maintaining the No. 1 position for six consecutive weeks.[94][95][96] In early October 2025, it was announced that within the 5 months since the game's release, the soundtrack had amassed over 333 million track streams across digital music platforms; had spent over 10 weeks at No. 1 on the two Billboard charts aforementioned; and had reached No. 1 on iTunes Top 100 Albums Chart in nine countries.[97][98][99]
Accolades
Among its accolades, Expedition 33 was nominated for twelve awards at The Game Awards 2025, the highest amount of nominations received by a single game in the event's history to date.[100]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
