Expedition 33 introduces us to the city of Lumiere. The island is sufferring from a curse known as the Gommage. Once a year, an entity known as the Paintress paints a number on a rock known as the Monolith, and every
citizen of Lumiere of that number's age disappears and re considered dead. The game opens with the number 34 indicating that this has been going for atleast 66 years. To counter their curse, the humans whose age is approaching, volunteer to
head to the Paintress location in order to prevent her from drawing a new number, however no expedition return triumph. The oppening act introduces as to Gustave, a 32 years old engineer who was seem lost in thought. His friend Maelle approached
him and tells him to come to the Harbor as he has to give a flower to someone special to him. Through their interaction, we learn that today is the day of the Gommage. Once they made it to the cover Maelle leaves and Gustave meets up with Sophie,
a person he wished he spends his entire life with. The two spent the day together and Sophie finds out that Gustave joined the Expedition 33. After spending precious time together, the Paintress awakes and changes the number 34 to 33. As a result,
every person including Sophie who were t the age of 33 fade away into petals.
The same day of the Gommage, Lumiere is having a festival to honor the people of Expedition 33 who re set to sail the following day. Gustave approaches Maelle who also volunteered to join the expedition despite being too young and having more time to
live her life. Maelle expresses that she would love to join Gustave's party as he is the only home she knows. The next day, the expedition sets sail to the Paintress island where they encounter a mysterious white hair man. The expeditioners are surprise as
someone as old as him should ve died by the Gommage but before they asked questions the man began killing the expeditioners with his army of monsters. Most of the expedition was wiped out. Gustave wakes up a the solo rurvivor and proceeds to go to the
randevouz point. He fights his way though and all he sees is nothing but pure death. Gustave lost his hope and was about to ends his journey but an old friend and survivor, Lune stops him and restores hope in him. The two then continue their adventure
and try to understand the mystery of the man as well as the Painters. Their party grows bigger as they meet up with Maelle and Sciel.
The four survivors wants to see the Gommage's end as well as the Paintress and proceed on with their quest. The more they venture, the more they fight and more mysteries are revealed and answered. These clues come from messages from fallen prior expeditioners,
from NPCs who seemed to knew the Paintress and from NPCs who live outside of Lumiere.
Will the expeditioners succeed on their mission?
Will they slay the Paintress?
Who was that man and how did he survive the Gommage?
I personally enjoyed the story. The setting of the world is very interesting and very promising. The characters are the ones who steal the show. They go through alot and that changes their character which is something i appreciated. Everytime i had the option to spent time with
them i always pressed yes cause i wanted to see how do they feel and how are they changing for the good or for the worst. For example, Lune begins as a person who would always follow the protocol, however, the more she spents time with Gustave, the more she desides to act on her
own making decision based on what she believes was important. The game also does an amazing job at exposing the players to the worlds and keeps the player invested with the story. The more i was playing the game the more questions were being generated without a straight answer
atleast for that point on time. As mentioned, the main plot and the characters is something that many people will remember for a long time.
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is a turn base RPG that was heavily inspired by games such as Final Fantasy Vii, Persona 5 and in my opinion, Kingdom hearts Recoded. The players control one character whilst traversing through a level whome they can change on the fly by
tapping a button. Whilst traversing through a level the player can find things on the ground like Chroma, Pitcons, messages from fallen people and others. Some are hidden behind a small easy parkouring area where as others are hidden behind easy puzzles. Flags can also be found of former expeditioners
which the players can use to rest, fast travel to previous flags(of that area) and upgrade the players skills. NPCs can also be found walking around or standing still which whom they can interact. Friendly NPCs usually stand still waiting for the
players to interact with them where as hostile NPCs will run towards them in order to trigger a fight. Pressing a button on these Nevrons will trigger the Advantage First Strike. This means that upon triggering the fight, the players party will initiate the attack.
Uppon entering combat, the player's party of Trio will walk towards the enemy. The usual party size is usually consisting of three unless the player make changes or the story mode demands less. On the left side of the screen, the player will notice a vertical line consisting of the hero's
party and of the enemy encounter. This vertical line represents the priority order, where the player on the top is the current active player and the one below is the next in line. Ofcourse this line constantly updates based on the skills used during the current turn. For examble using a skill
which increase the speed of the party might allow a hero to have a turn twice before another one. On the bottom right, the player can see the party's portrait images with each one having a blue and a red line. The red line represents the Health bar of the individual where as the blue line represents
Action Points (AP). When targeting an enemy their name and health bar will appear top middle. On the bottom left, the player will notice three button commands that allows him to skip a turn, flee from battle(if available) and to go back on their options.
During the players turn an action menu will appear with the available options(Attack, shoot, use a technique ,use items etc). During a hero's turn, the player has to think what the best action would be that ultilizes their turn the best. Here is where the Action Points(the blue bar) can be ultilized.
The player can choose to shoot the player as many times as they have AP points and choose to normal attack. The normal attack will retrieve one AP per hit, meanning heroes whose base attack deals two hits will receive 2 AP where as a single strike hero will receive 1. Skills on the other hand, are powerfull
attacks that cost AP. The more powerfull the attack the more AP it will cost. At the same time some skills hit multiple times and use elemental forces whilst others hit less. Each skill specifies the required AP, the ammount of hits they deal, whether or not they re elementally boosted, if they re high or low damaged,
whether they re direct or AoE and all the necessary information regarding the skill. A skill is unlocked through a skill tree and can be equiped at the character. Only six skills can be equiped on a character at a time and they can be swapped out for another one outside of combat.
Each hero of the party have their own unique gimmicks that seperates them from each other. For example, Maelle's gameplay is allowing to0 swap between stances, Attack stance that deals more damage but also gets more damage herself, Defence which focusses on defence and Virtuoso which is her most powerfull stance.
Lune is a character specializing in emental magic. Each time she uses a skill she generates Elemental Stains based on the skill used, fire based skills generates a Flame staint. Some of her skills consume staints to create a secondary effect. For example, consuming a flame staints boost her lightning attack. Lune can
only have up to 4 staints. Verso's gameplay focuses on his Perfection Rank. Each time he lands a strike on the enemy, he has a rank that goes up, from E to S. The higher the rank the more damage Verso's attack become. When ever Verso gets hit, his ranking declines. Monoco on the other hand doesnt rely on skills but instead
he collects feet. By collecting the feet of the defeated enemies, Monoco can transform to them and use their move. Last but not least Sciel's gameplay is focussed on Foretell. Pretty much her skills grant her Sun/Moon charges which she can use to empower her abilities. I wont be explainning each hero's individual gimmicks
and abilities as the player should experience them by themselves.
Aside from the individual mechanicks and skills, the players can equip the players with Attributes, Pitcons and Weapons. Everytime the players level up they gain 3 attribute poiints which they can spent on the character. These attributes will increase the characters abilities such as Health, Strength, Speed, Defence and the ability to be
able to crit more often. The armor/clothing the heroes wear do not add anything to the gameplay however the weapons do. the weapons usually add power, some bonus to attributes such as +15 speed and +20 Strength. Additionally, some weapons also come with their own unique passive abilities. For example, Maelle has a sword that can swap her to Virtuoso
if she breaks an enemy shield, Verso has a blade that wont drop his Perfection rank below C. The blade can be upgraded making it relevant all the way till the end as long as you have the consumable items. Pitcons and Luminas are types of Passive abilities. Players can collect Pitcons from around the world, as rewards from a battle or by purchasing them
through the store. Each player can equip up to 3 Pitcons. Luminas are Pitcons that were used during combat and were mastered allowing more than one party member to equip it at the same time.
The Kingdom Hearts Recoded inspiration, i believe comes from the quick time events during combat. When perforimng a skill, button promps will appear on the screen. The player will have to press the button at the oerfect time which is indicated on the prompt in order to deal a critical hit. Perfecting the hit can increase the damage and the ability where as
missing it might even stop the attack. For example, Lunes lightning strike can hit 3 times instead of 7 if the player missed the attack. Gradient attacks are the "Ultimates" of the heroes which will cause severe damage when perfecting the prompts. Defence wise the players have 3 buttons to press to avoid the hits. Dodge is a button that allows
targeted player to move away from the hit saving you from the upcomming threat. Parry is the ultimate defence mechanism that allows the player to not only survive the damage but also restores AP during the enemy's turn allowing you to stack them up for your upcomming turn. Parrying a succesfull streak of hits will cause a counter attack that deals significant
damage. Combining the counter with a pitcon can also restore HP uppon triggering the counter. Gradient counter can be used to parry counter attacks. Similar to a normal parry, countering the gradient will trigger a reverse attack. Finaly, enemies can cause an attack that will have a yellow indicator which means that dodging and parrying wont work. Instead
the player will have to Jumb to avoid the hit and they can use the attack button to counter attack whilst on air.
The enemies attack a party member at random each time unless they cause an AoE. The best way to counter them is to rely on the sound of the attack than the visual. The mobs have their HP bar ontop of their heads colored red, and a yellow one representing the break bar. If the yellow line is filled the enemy will be stunned. A character that gets elemental damaged such as burn, will
have a flame symbol with a number inside representing the ammount of rounds the enemey will be burning. This number is the same for all the effects such as poison. Enemies can also have a shield barrier. In this case their bars will be greyed out and shields will appear on top. The players will have to break the shields in order to cause damage on them. Some effects may not cause
damage over time but might have an alternative effect. For example, charm will cause the party member to attack their own teammates, inverse will deplet life when being healled and curse will spawn a number which will represent the ammount of rounds the hero has before dying. These effects can be countered by using healling items, pitcons or even healing/cleansing skills. If a teammate dies,
the players can use items or skills to ressurect them. If all party members are whiped out, the player can sent their backup party members(the ones not included in the trio) to continue the battle. The back up party cannot ressurect members of the initial party and if they re also whipped then the game over screen will appear.
The player can also freelance outside of the areas in the hub world. The hubworld draws inspirations from FFVii where the party members can be seen walking in macquete version of the world. There they can enter the worlds/areas they wish to proceed and they can even go through encounters. Upon meeting up with Esquie and proceeding through the story,
the players can ride Esquie on water and eventually fly with him to other areas. Additionally, the player can also camp by pressing a button. During camp, the player can interact with the Expedition members building trust and friend levels. These friend levels are important as they can unlock more abilities on the skill tree improving the gameplay and can also expose the
player to more lore. At the camp, the player can always be reminded of their objective in case they forgot. Moreover, at camp the player can interact with an NPC( the Curator) in order to upgrade their weapon and their Luminas.
Overall, the gameplay of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 created a turn base RPG with a winning formula whose inspirations are clear and the ammount of polishness offered a great experience. If being real, the parkouring of Expedition 33 is not something special however its core gameplay which is the turn base combat with action prompts is the reason you ll enjoy the game. The combat is fun and there is a decent depth to the size of growth this model has, whether its through the skills or through the passives. The attributes and passives can be game changers and thus the player will have to spent a decent ammount of time in order to find their desired game style. At the same time, the parrying, countering and dodging is a key factor for the game. If you re the type of player who hates parrying or finds it hard Expedition may not be the game for you as there are parts were you have to go on a 10 parry streak before the same enemy takes another turn to combo you. For me combat was fun but i had my moments where i was getting triggered, howver when you get into the flow, the game will be very enjoyable. The open world doesnt have much things to find and collect howver the levels themselves do. Whether these are battles, items, pitcons or even weapons.
Upon defeating the main plot of Expedition 33 the player will load in before the final fight and re free to leave and continue exploring the world. There are many optional encounters that the player can challenge that move around the overworld. More additional bosses can be found around the levels such as the Mimes and other that you ay flee. The player can aid NPCs who they may have encountered during their expedition. Furthermore the players can take the challenge of the Endless tower. There the players can farm and grind their pitcons as they go through the challenge. Moreover, the player can spent time with the party boosting their friendship bond. Last but not least the players can travel to lands that werent part of the main expedition or lands that were added after the games initial release.
Expedition 33 looks very good. During the overworld(aka the Macquete), the game looks as if its using a lower resolution build of the map but upon entering the level everything becomes clear and high resolutioned. All the maps are very clean and have unique color palletes and atmospheres. The party has unique shilhouetes and the same can be told about the enemy variety. The weapon design is very good and
each one looks unique. There are plenty of areas that i stoppped in order to take a pic. Gameplay wise, each status effect is also visibly obvious making the debuffs/buffs visible.
Audio wise the game does a fantastic job. Plenty of songs were created that showcases its French influence. In fact some of the songs have lyricks that hint alot about the games story, they re just hidden behind french. The game has multiple tracks however not all of them are of the same quality, nevertheless the tracks are
good and some of them will be songs to play outside of the game. Gameplay wise as mentioned, the sound indicator does much better job timing the parry button than the visual signs. Overall, its a job well done.
Overall, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a very good which manage to stand out during 2025 and earn plenty of nominations and awards including Game of the Year. The plot revolves around people who suffer from the Gommage. An annoual curse that causes people of certain age to vanish. A being known as the Paintress is responsible of changing the number of the age of those who will suffer. The people whose age is close to that of
the Gommage usually volunteer to go on an expedition in hopes of defeating the Paintress and preventing her from changing numbers which may potentially stop the Gommage. Oyr party is Expedition 33 and they hope to put an end to this. However, uppon recheaing the Paintress land, more msyteries are revealed and their expedition was countered and ruined by a mysterious old man. The survivors re assemble and wish to go on with their expedition
for those who will come after(Expedition 32). Gameplay wise, the game is a turn base RPG that also includes action mechanicks such as dodging, counters, parrying and command prompts. It offers a nice variety of Passive abilities, Attributes and skill trees that can allow the player to experiment and find a style that suits their preference.
The world is interesting and very good looking with each area hiding mysteries for the players to discover. Audio wise, the game sounds very well both its tracks and its sound effects which are necessary to dodge/parry. Upon defeating the game there more lands to
discover including some that were added later one.
There isnt really something bad to tell about the game, however im pretty sure there will be people who will call it out on its platforming or its genre. All i would say is that the game is turn base RPG where parrying and dodging are key factors, if that is not your style or your type of games, then you will most likely not enjoy it, however if you do try it, know that there are difficulty options that can help you smoothen the experience.
This is a video of me platying the game. Near the end, we kept dying cause we wanted to see if we could save the kid.