Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (24th April 2025)

[Julius]

Another one without a thread despite being announced a while back – but no more! 

A French JRPG could be so interesting - if nothing else the seemingly ever-present accordion in the trailers will be - though some of those menu screens...yikes, seems like a lot to take in! 

Love the airship solution and world map in particular 

Edited April 23 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Reviews for this dropped today and I'm kinda blown away by them. It's a game that wasn't really on my radar (Julius mentioned it a couple of times) but it's looking to be the real deal. Happy to see it's launching at a reasonable price as well. I may have to pick this up sooner rather than later.

[Julius]

6 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Reviews for this dropped today and I'm kinda blown away by them. It's a game that wasn't really on my radar (Julius mentioned it a couple of times) but it's looking to be the real deal. Happy to see it's launching at a reasonable price as well. I may have to pick this up sooner rather than later.

I'd honestly completely forgotten I'd already made this thread and had been thinking of making one to highlight the game's great review scores, so I'm glad you bumped it  

Yeah, honestly, from what we'd seen and the impressions I'd listened to I was expecting it to be solid; not that I put too much stock into review aggregates, but I was thinking probably high 70s to low 80s Metacritic and the like.

So the fact that it's currently at 90+ on both Metacritic and Opencritic I think has understandably caught everyone off guard:

I think Xbox had a marketing deal for this, too, and it's also on Game Pass, which makes the curation issue I've mentioned before that they have even more confusing. Sending out an Oblivion remaster as a shadow-drop a few days ahead of this is WILD. 

Anyways, man, I've picked up a few games already this month, but I might need to pick this one up out of principle sooner rather than later. Like you say H-o-T, it's very fairly priced (<£40 some places!), and it has a physical release, too. 

If it's as good as these reviews seem to be suggesting – Square Enix, I hope you're watching! 

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Julius said:

 I think Xbox had a marketing deal for this, too, and it's also on Game Pass, which makes the curation issue I've mentioned before that they have even more confusing. Sending out an Oblivion remaster as a shadow-drop a few days ahead of this is WILD. 

Yeah, many are annoyed by this and I can see why. MS paid for the Game Pass release and then completely overshadow it by releasing a remastered version of Oblivion, one of the most beloved games out there (I hated it 😛). I can't imagine the developers of this being happy at all. 

[Julius]

This is dumb as heck

But it made me chuckle 

[Julius]

500k copies sold already: 

I'm sure it'll continue to sell as the year goes on, too. Still got to add a copy of my own to the tally! 

[Hero-of-Time]

I've done my part.

Not sure when I'll get around to playing it but this is the type of game I want to support. New IP that is made brand a new studio, reviews stupidly well and launches at price that is reasonable. More of this, please.

[Julius]

1 million units in 3 days now: 

Good stuff! 

[Hero-of-Time]

I'm very eager to get started on it but I'm in the middle of playing other stuff and there are one or two games leaving PS+ next month that I wouldn't mind trying to get through as well. I need more time. 

[Nolan]

I’m one of those chuds playing in on gamepass lol. Enjoying it so far, lots to like I think. 

[Julius]

Only heard good things about this game's performance and visuals, and DF's tech analysis seems to back it up:

Quote

Yes, Sandfall Interactive's beautiful RPG really is as good as everyone says it is. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 delivers a remarkable experience and does so with an accomplished use of Unreal Engine 5 and all of its cutting-edge features. Oliver delivers the verdict on each and every console version of the game and while there are some noticeable cutbacks on Series S, the game looks and runs very well on every other system.

Really shows that it's on the devs to optimise and ensure UE5 runs well, doesn't seem anywhere near as forgiving an engine as UE4 appeared to be. 

[Nolan]

Been really enjoying this. At a minimum it’s all around solid (but really I think it’s higher than that) but really it reminds me of some of the more obscure (heh) PS360 era RPGs that were trying to be unique but just lacked enough polish, focus or even just buzz. (The Last Remnant and Resonance of Fate both come to mind) 

[Julius]

Stuck in that spot where I'm coming up to the end of the game I'm currently playing, thinking of picking up and playing this, but knowing I've still got the tail end of Infinite Wealth to get back to for my turn-based fill...

time to install FIFA I guess

[Hero-of-Time]

Here's a nice little article from BBC about how the game came to be.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c078j5gd71ro

[Hero-of-Time]

Yesterday evening, I finally got around to starting the game and I'm having a great time on it. 

The opening of the game doesn't disappoint and nor does it drags it's heels with the narrative. It gets straight to the point and you immediately get a feel for what's going on in the world you're about to journey in.

With the main point on the story being about timed death, it was interesting to see a conversation in this that mimics one I had at work not too long ago. There's a guy you meet in the town very early on who says he doesn't mind knowing when he is gonna die and that it gives him time to prepare. This is the conversation we had at work (Logan's Run was brought up), with a couple agreeing with me in that they would like to know when their number is up. I mean, what's the point of working or paying into a pension fund if you are going to die soon? I found it neat that this kind of discussion was in the game.

I LOVE that you get to play as a party mostly made up of adults. Look, I love anime JRPGs and the next fan but as a 42 year old gamer, it makes a nice change to be playing as a bunch of adults for a change, especially when they are designed and wrote as well as these ones.

I'm loving the battle system. There are lots of timed attacks and defensive dodges/parries to pull off. It's like playing a grown up version of the Mario and Luigi series, which I suppose is what Lost Odyssey's battle system was back on the 360. You can encounter stronger optional bosses by going off the main path and the system allows you to take these on well before you should. I've beaten a couple that I probably shouldn't have fought yet purely because I got the timings right and was able to dodge or parry the boss attacks. It's all very satisfying.

I was happy to see that you can grind exp. There are flags that you find that are from previous expeditions. Like the Dark Souls bonfires, resting at these will respawn enemies. I found one that was near to a group of strong enemies and just kept running back and forth to power up my team. Again, if you're good with parries, you will end the battle not being hit and this dishes out more exp.

The game really feels like a mixture of Final Fantasy, Dark Souls and Lost Odyssey, which a fantastic mix in my eyes. According to my PS5, I'm 20% of the way through the story and so far it's very much been worthy of the high scores it received.

[Hero-of-Time]

Act I of III has been wrapped up. Man, this game is so good. Some of the boss fights have been awesome and really tense, with special mechanics been thrown at you one after the other.

I'm gutted I'm back at work tomorrow. It's one of those games where the world just sucks you in and you want to keep playing.

Major story spoilers for the end of act I

Spoiler

I'm absolutely gutted Gustave has been killed off. I didn't see it coming at all. Dude was heart and soul of the team.

Verso (his replacement) looks pretty cool though but I'm still hoping Gustave comes back via some weird shenanigans.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Took a few snaps on my journey to highlight how gorgeous the game is.

I came across this painting while exploring a mansion and I can only assume its the development team.

[Julius]

Over 2 million copies sold now...

Curious to see how quickly they look to get this on Switch 2, where it would surely do gangbusters. 

[Hero-of-Time]

25 minutes ago, Julius said:

Over 2 million copies sold now...

Curious to see how quickly they look to get this on Switch 2, where it would surely do gangbusters. 

The thing would be selling more if people could find it. A few countries have run out of stock of the physical copies. 

The word of mouth has done its job with this game and it's well deserved.

[Happenstance]

@Hero-of-Time how much reading/text is in the game? I’ve had to drop a few lately that are a bit too text heavy in the story or menus for my eyes so I do t want to buy this just yet if it’s another I’d have to put to the side for a while.

[Julius]

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The thing would be selling more if people could find it. A few countries have run out of stock of the physical copies. 

I've actually delayed my purchase of it for now because it's sold out most places, and the places that do have it are much more keen to keep closer to RRP.

I mean, probably only until my next payday and it's not like I haven't got other games to play in the meantime, but still 

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The word of mouth has done its job with this game and it's well deserved.

100%! Loved reading your impressions by the way, thanks for sharing as always, think my current plan will be to get to this over the summer 

I'm really curious to know how they feel about the Game Pass deal now given that the game is popping off. Those funds might've helped them get over the line or extend their development timeline out further to avoid crunch (conjecture on my part), but on the other hand, there's the Oblivion shadow-drop they had to contend with on Xbox (also going straight to Game Pass), and the potential sales they didn't get on Xbox through the game being available on Game Pass. It seems like the game would've sold well enough there anyways, but then again, Xbox isn't exactly known for having JRPGs and other turn-based games go flying off the shelves (even the Baldur's Gate III launch was neutered on Xbox due to the delays), so I imagine that all factored into their risk analysis and projections for the game. 

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 and all that, I'm not sure that in Sandfall's wildest dreams they'd be in this position. But still, I'd love to be a fly on the wall as they're figuring out where they want to go from here – does potential DLC go to Game Pass too? Do they bother with DLC, or just go to the next game? Will it be a sequel or a bit of a prime Square/Enix situation where they just want to start up new IP or spiritual successors, do they even want to build off this or do something different?

Really exciting to see where they go from here, and I brought it up in the Final Fantasy thread ahead of this launching, but given its success now, I'm curious to see if and how Square Enix react! 

Edited May 6 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

6 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

@Hero-of-Time how much reading/text is in the game? I’ve had to drop a few lately that are a bit too text heavy in the story or menus for my eyes so I do t want to buy this just yet if it’s another I’d have to put to the side for a while.

Most of the game is voice acted. Past expedition journal entries are also voiced.

You may be in the menu a few times though to change equipment and special moves though.

[Happenstance]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Most of the game is voice acted. Past expedition journal entries are also voiced.

You may be in the menu a few times though to change equipment and special moves though.

Thanks. Might find a video of someone playing and if it doesn’t seem to bad then give it a purchase. 

[Happenstance]

Yeah unfortunately after watching a video I think I will have to wait on this one until my eye is a bit better. Lots of text in the battle system and upgrades menus etc, some quite small so I would definitely struggle.

[Hero-of-Time]

I've not pushed on much with the narrative on account of coming across a decent levelling spot. There's an optional arena where you can fight the same battles over and over again. Once I got the timing down on the hardest fight, I was coming away with 30k experience in a minute. I stuck around there for a while and went from level 20 to 35. Lovely stuff.

I see there are some kind of Persona type relationships/bonds in this. When at the campsite I've now got the option to talk to characters and get some backstory on them. This builds up a relationship level. I've no idea what this does yet though.