Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [Review]

It is surprisingly hard to start talking about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 without mentioning the many games that it took inspiration from. It has an “Action-Adventure” presentation like a modern God of War game, but also the world structure of Final Fantasy X and XIII, mixed with turn based fights with very precise QTEs and reaction times like Lost Odyssey, Legend of Dragoon and Mario & Luigi; with tight parries and dodges that you'd expect from a Dark Souls or Elden Ring boss.

What impressed me the most is how Clair Obscur is able to get all of these inspirations and implement them with a balanced nuance of genres, being mostly an RPG in the end, and still forging its own gameplay identity and world. I won't lie, though: it took me a while to love this game and finally understand it, but nonetheless, by the end, I was almost speechless.

The first act of the game is a bit too heavy on the melodrama, and it takes some time to make the characters that are relevant to the narrative to really be themselves. I failed to have real emotional feelings on the VERY emotional twists and turns that happens almost nonstop throughout the beginning of the game because of how rushed and unimportant most of the supporting cast was, that is, people outside what would be the main party.

Still, the gameplay is stellar, challenging, and somewhat difficult, but never really impossible on the main scenario. And that's true even for the first act, with memorable encounters, bosses and set pieces. The presentation is unmatched, too, gorgeous places and vistas that are always accompanied to a very good, even if a bit too self-referential, soundtrack, that covers different genres and styles but still feels like Clair Obscur – a recurring theme of this whole experience.

As the game progresses, my issues with the party, characters, and world started to disappear, as the rules of the world became clearer, and mysteries started to pile up, suddenly I found myself obsessed with what was going to happen next, as every new information felt relevant to understand what really this world is about. The second act, then, matures most of the game systems and characters in a much-needed way, and while the melodrama never really stopped, the party gets more colorful, as the world gets quirkier with very fun and memorable characters like Esquie and Monoco that even being more of the “comic relief” are clearly more knowledgeable than most of the party members about this mysterious world.

The exploration of this first two acts is very simple, but they offer some small branching paths and because the maps sometimes can be a bit overwhelming, so it may create a sense of loss of direction, the solution is often just to follow north, and eventually I'll get to the end of the corridor; it is basically the same structure of Final Fantasy X and XIII. Like X and XIII, on act 3, the game opens with lots of side content and different activities to do.

Act 3 was my favorite part of the game. Not only the story fully unwraps and the world gets not only cohesive, but diversified and special, but there are also several activities to do, be it more platforming challenges, boss rushes, side dungeons, optional bosses, light puzzles and other unique things for Act 3. Still, it is not greatly paced, and I think that some side activities from this endgame should actually be on the main scenario, or maybe the final boss could have a bit of a higher entry level, so a story minded player would feel incentivized to do more side content.

Still, almost all the content feels accessible and fun (with some exceptions), and I had a blast on an act that can be the shortest or the longest, like the games I mentioned before. There is some grinding, though, mostly if you don't want to “break” the game, but still, nothing takes too long, and I clocked about 60 hours on total doing a good chunk of side content but still with lots of things left, mostly collectables.

There are also some redundancies that I don't think that needed to be on the game, and some menus can be confusing at first with the lack of some confirmation dialogs and stuff like this. Although I enjoyed the gearing with weapons, pictos and luminas; I wasn't that keen on the spell tree, as most of the abilities are samey, and after I found one preferred tactic for a party member, I haven't found myself wanting to change to another. Still, having 6 spell slots is super nice and the weapons are pretty unique and change the way I played the game with that character.

For me, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 started as a game that made think about other games, but with time, it became its own thing, and it is amazing. The pacing is not great, not all characters are equally flashed out and the 3rd act, although being my favorite, has the same problems of the games it was inspired by, with poor pacing and somewhat low level final boss considering the amount of content that is unlocked before it. Either way, Clair Obscur, in the end, is special, unique, and fulfilling; made me think a lot and reflect about life with a killer soundtrack, pretty corridors with fantastic bosses and mobs. One of the best games of this generation and, so far, one of the best of 2025.

8.5/10