Clair Obscur Expedition 33 review: avoir le coup de foudre

A fascinating premix of nostalgia, experimentation, innovation, and committedness to a vision, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is simply a painterly changeable of genius.

Impasto is simply a method utilized successful creation whereby overgarment is layered on, heavy and textural, with capable wide that you tin usage your brushwood oregon weapon to sculpt shapes. The connection comes from the Italian for ‘dough’ oregon ‘mixture’, referring to the mode artisans would ‘knead’ oregon ‘paste’ their materials to marque the overgarment travel alive. To usage their tools to make thing that defies the two-dimensional signifier and springiness the content of thing deeper. Perhaps, even, much profound.

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is each astir art, really. The existential menace to its satellite is the mysterious paintress - a being that tin overgarment beingness successful and retired of beingness connected a whim. The collected formed of sort-of French civilians unrecorded nether the eternal menace of her whims; snatching distant lives and forming sentience from nothing. The satellite is afloat of grief, of anger, of regret, of ennui, of hopelessness. It’s grim, unforgiving, and doomed. And connected the canvas, together, it is sublime.

The impasto method comes to caput due to the fact that that’s what this role-playing crippled feels like; upstart developer Sandfall Interactive has taken the indispensable ingredients and tropes that each your favourite RPGs person been created with, and someway molded them with much texture - an avant-garde attack to the genre that puts maine successful caput of Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 10, Chrono Trigger, and (weirdly) Forspoken, each astatine once.

Ironically, fixed this obsession with creation and painting, the mode the crippled looks is really my biggest complaint: it’s got thing of the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo astir it. A stunning cutscene volition springiness mode to a ropey interactive element, wherever your quality handles similar a drifting speedboat, locked into rigid planes that belie the fluid quality of the environments. Character models sometimes look retired of this satellite - the show seizure for Daredevil’s Charlie Cox, specifically, deserves a notation - but past successful menus, your ragtag squad of expeditioners look similar a clump of mannequins modelling apparel successful a Parisian boutique.

That’s astir wherever my criticisms end, though. And I tin perfectly unrecorded with immoderate slightly-too-shiny textures and traversal stutter if I get to bask the remainder of the acquisition Clair Obscur offers. The music, the performance, the writing, the combat, the flow, the cohesive experience… it’s up determination with my favourite RPGs of each time. For a marque caller studio, that is an absurd feat. It indispensable beryllium played to beryllium believed.

Brush with greatness. | Image credit: Sandfall Interactive

So overmuch of the entreaty is successful the combat. If the satellite and the communicative is the lipid overgarment Sandfall uses to physique the foundations, the combat is the item - the brushwood strokes and weapon marks applied with adept accomplishment to bring the full happening disconnected the page. Fighting works likewise to Final Fantasy 10; a crook queue shows who attacks when, and it’s up to you to find the synergy.

Almost each non-mob conflict volition person immoderate inventive gimmick that means simply hacking distant won’t work; the crippled delights successful giving you tools and mechanics (a wont that continues into the precise extremity information of the title) that you indispensable experimentation with and pluck astatine successful bid to find retired however to progress. Every azygous playable quality has a antithetic gimmick; from a Devil May Cry-inspired stylish metre that improves erstwhile you woody harm and decreases erstwhile you instrumentality it, to a stance strategy that opens you up to much almighty moves if you creation and pirouette done a flowchart of your ain making.

They are conscionable 2 examples of unsocial mechanics. There are so galore more. And to complement each that, each azygous force onslaught tin beryllium parried oregon dodged - meaning seemingly intolerable foes tin beryllium brought to their knees if you’re skilled enough. It feels similar Square Enix has been toying with this since Final Fantasy 8 and Squall’s gunblade trigger - going astir afloat DMC by Final Fantasy 16. But, successful 1 game, Sandfall has done what Square Enix could not, and has perfected a mode to marque turn-based combat dynamic, compelling, and unique.

The entity is the limit. | Image credit: Sandfall Interactive

So galore moves volition beryllium improved by parrying oregon dodging during an force turn, but the crippled besides gives you a nudge and a wink and says ‘hey, actually, possibly you do privation to devour a large onslaught this turn’ by giving you modifying ‘pictos’ (read: passive skills) that wholly recoat your attack to battle. By mid-game, I had a bid of skills that revolved astir 1 quality auto-dying astatine the commencement of battle, coming backmost to beingness and granting buffs to the full team, and past being nigh-unstoppable if helium remained astatine 1HP. High-risk, high-reward. Clair Obscur wants to beryllium broken, and is perfectly delighted erstwhile you find a mode to unpick the threads of its analyzable tapestry. It’s RPG catnip.

You tin beauteous overmuch treble the game’s runtime by engaging with off-the-beaten-track tasks. Whether that’s a collectible hunt, exploring a weird mansion that sits retired of spot and clip similar thing consecutive from the pages of House of Leaves, oregon taking connected absurdly-conceived combat tasks against playful woody creatures made retired of paintbrushes, the crippled has a wealthiness of stuff to do. The fig of times I’d grin erstwhile I buggered disconnected somewhere, recovered immoderate charming nonsense, and thought ‘I’ll person to travel backmost to this later’ enactment maine successful caput of golden-era Final Fantasy games. Yes, really.

Sandfall besides makes bold and unpredictable communicative choices that I don’t judge your large triple-A studios would. It’s precise hard to speech astir immoderate of this without veering into spoiler territory, but fto maine conscionable accidental that Clair Obscur fires connected each cylinders from its heart-breaking opening hr close done to its revelatory climax. I request much clip and possibly different playthrough to bespeak connected the full tale, but I deliberation it’s up determination with Chrono Trigger and Nier Automata.

Recent role-playing games, like Dragon Age: The Veilguard for example, truly fell down successful the mode the formed interacted. They felt similar NPCs, not people. Interactions felt stilted, unbelievable, similar you could spot the flowchart underpinning the meshes. A large triumph successful Clair Obscur is however it wields the chemistry of its cast, brought to beingness with impeccable accomplishment by the likes of Andy Serkis, Jennifer English, Estelle Darnaul, Ben Starr, and more. Finding journals successful the satellite near by the doomed remnants of different expeditions breadcrumbs you into the depths of this forsaken satellite with texture and nuance that, frankly, puts a batch of crippled penning to shame. Your information for sniffing retired everything you tin isn’t truthful you tin get 90/90 successful your collectibles tab, but truthful you tin glean fractional motes of penetration into the world.

33rd time's the charm. | Image credit: Sandfall Interactive

I fearfulness this whitethorn beryllium a rote sentiment, but Clair Obscur Expedition 33 has made maine autumn successful emotion with RPGs again. It has reminded maine of the magic of the genre. You cognize the meme of the professional from Ratatouille eating the nutrient and being taken backmost to his childhood? That’s what Sandfall has done to maine with this bizarre, bold, beauteous game; coming to the last brag and tinkering with the intricate layers of my team’s build, I flashed backmost to the archetypal clip I approached Ultimecia’s Castle successful Final Fantasy 8 and thought ‘f**k, it’s astir over. I don’t privation it to beryllium over.’

They accidental creation is each astir eliciting an affectional reaction; if you tin bash that, each the effort expended successful creating it was worthy it. I deliberation Clair Obscur does that with aplomb. If you person ever loved role-playing games, ever, you beryllium it to yourself to play this. It has the capableness to interaction you.