Clair Obscur: Expedition 33


Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a 2025 role-playing video game developed by French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. Set in a dark fantasy Belle 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. Its turn-based mechanics feature real-time aspects such as quick time events and timed actions in combat.
The project originated in 2019 as Guillaume Broche, a Ubisoft employee who would leave the company in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to form Sandfall Interactive with friends and contacts, began establishing a core team of 30 developers that came 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, a genre they felt AAA studios had neglected. 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, and was available day one on Xbox Game Pass. The game received universal acclaim from critics for its narrative and themes, art direction, game direction, original soundtrack, gameplay and performances. By October 2025, it had sold over 5 million units. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 received numerous accolades. It became the most awarded title in The Game Awards history, winning nine of the record thirteen nominations it received at The Game Awards 2025, including the paramount Game of the Year recognition. Additionally, at the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 it won six accolades including Game of the Year, and it topped various publications' lists of best games of 2025.

Gameplay

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a third-person turn-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. 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. During enemy turns, the player can dodge, parry, or jump over attacks in real time to avoid damage. Parrying requires more precise timing than dodging but provides Ability Points and the opportunity to counterattack. A stamina system allows players to "Break" enemies, temporarily stunning them. As players progress, the game introduces new attacks and parries, including Gradient Attacks, Gradient Counters, and Gradient Skills, all of which deal significant damage. The use of gradient attacks is monitored by the party using a shared gauge. It will slowly fill up when the party uses skills in combat. 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. If the combat party is defeated, reserve characters may be called in to continue fighting. Combat ends when either side has no remaining combatants, or when the player decides to flee the battlefield when they are facing minor enemies.
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. Gustave in particular gains charge based on the amount of attacks he's done, which can be expelled, doing increased damage depending on the number of charges. Verso, on the other hand, gains "Perfection" ranks upon landing hits, parries, and how little he gets damaged; which will increase his damage output the higher his Perfection rank becomes. 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. When the party is not exploring or fighting enemies, they can rest at a camp. While playing as Verso, players can converse with other members of Expedition 33 and raise their relationship levels, unlocking new cinematics, skills and quests.
Combat encounters reward experience points, currency, and upgrades. Each time a character levels up, they gain three attribute points, which can be spent on increasing five core character stats: Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, and Luck. The abilities of the Expeditioners are further customized with equipable "Pictos" which add a variety of perks and further improve a character's stats. There are a total of 210 unique Pictos items. 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 for other Expeditioners to use. 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. As players explore, they will also collect "Chroma Catalysts", which can be used to upgrade weapons to higher levels at the camp. Higher-level weapons deal more base damage to enemies and offer additional gameplay perks.
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. Each level also has several Expedition Flags, where players can heal their party, fast travel, restock items, and allocate attribute and skill points. Resting at an Expedition Flag respawns most enemies. Levels in the game are connected by an overworld map known as "The Continent". There are a total of 14 mandatory story levels and 20+ optional ones. Eventually, the Expeditioners meet Esquie, a mythical creature who helps the party to travel across The Continent. Esquie acquires new traversal abilities as players progress, granting the ability to swim, fly, and dive underwater. These new traversal abilities are essential for players to advance the story and access optional zones. The game has multiple difficulty options and a New Game Plus mode, allowing the player to replay the game with increased difficulty while retaining all character progression from their first playthrough.
In December 2025, the game received a free content update commemorating its recent accolades. The update includes a new level containing new activities, bosses, weapons, and cosmetics.

Synopsis

Setting

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes place in a dark fantasy Belle Époque setting. 67 years prior to the events of the game, a disaster known as the "Fracture" occurred, isolating the city of Lumière from the rest of the continent. The people of Lumière have since suffered from an annual event called the "Gommage", where an entity known as "the Paintress", paints an ever-decreasing number on an enormous rock formation across the continent known as the Monolith, and all humans with an age equal to or above that number disappear. After the yearly 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. The fractured continent is populated by hostile monsters called "Nevrons", who are the primary cause of failed past expeditions, as well as the "Gestrals" and "Grandis", mostly friendly creatures who have settled across the mainland.
Members of Expedition 33 include: Gustave, a resourceful engineer with a mechanical arm; Maelle, the youngest member of the Expedition and Gustave's foster sister; Lune, a brilliant scholar and mage; and Sciel, a calm and cheerful farmer turned teacher. As the expedition traverses the mainland, they encounter various individuals, including: Renoir, a mysterious elderly man who ruthlessly hunts them upon making landfall; Verso, a stranger who keeps watch over them from afar; Monoco, a Gestral associated with Verso; and Esquie, a mythical creature who serves as their transportation across the mainland.

Plot

On the day of the Gommage, Gustave bids farewell to his 33-year-old former lover, Sophie. With only a year left to live, he joins Expedition 33. However, upon making landfall, most expeditioners are killed by Renoir. Gustave survives and locates three other survivors: Lune, Sciel, and Maelle, the last of whom was rescued by a mysterious entity known as the Curator, which aids the expeditioners. Continuing their expedition, they enlist Esquie's help while Maelle starts having visions of a masked girl. Renoir attacks again, and Gustave dies defending Maelle. Fortunately, Verso intervenes and helps the rest of the expedition to escape.
Joining the expedition, Verso reveals that Renoir is his father and that they were members of the first expedition; furthermore, the masked girl is his sister, Alicia. They all received immortality from the Paintress, thus Renoir guards her to protect his family, but Verso is tired of eternal life and wishes to kill her to end it. After recruiting Monoco, the expedition reaches Renoir's mansion to find and destroy the Paintress' heart, a being bearing a striking resemblance to the Curator, to disable a barrier protecting her. Unfortunately, the plan fails when Renoir teleports the mansion and the heart away. Lune devises a new plan: have the Curator forge a weapon to pierce the barrier from the hearts of powerful beings called Axons.
After destroying the barrier, the expedition is confronted by the Paintress' heart and taken inside the Monolith, where they defeat Renoir and the Paintress herself. Afterward, the expedition returns to Lumière as heroes. However, unbeknownst to anyone but Verso, the Curator was the true culprit behind the Gommage, and the Paintress was actually stalling him. With her protection gone, the Curator then kills Lumière's entire population, except the still-immortal Verso.
The story flashes back to the Dessendre family in early 20th-century Paris; mother Aline, father Renoir, son Verso, eldest daughter Clea, and youngest daughter Alicia. They are artists capable of creating worlds within magical paintings; Lumière resides within one such canvas, made by Verso Dessendre. However, a rival faction set fire to their mansion, resulting in Verso Dessendre’s death and Alicia Dessendre being disfigured. Overcome with grief, Aline entered her son's canvas and created copies of her family, becoming the paintress. Renoir Dessendre attempted to force her out, since extended stays inside a canvas are deadly, and their clash caused the Fracture. To shift the stalemate in her father's favor, Clea created the Nevrons and tasked her sister with aiding him. However, upon entering the canvas, Alicia Dessendre got overwhelmed by Aline's power and reincarnated as Maelle without her memories.
Back in the present, following her "death", Maelle regains her memories and revives herself. Reuniting with Verso, he comes clean about tricking the expedition to expel Aline from the canvas. She then approaches the Curator, revealed to be Renoir Dessendre, hoping that he would revive everyone. However, seeing that his daughter has chosen her life as Maelle over her true identity as Alicia Dessendre, he instead intends to erase the canvas. Disagreeing, Maelle revives the other expeditioners, and a battle ensues for control of the canvas. In the end, with Aline's reentering the canvas, Renoir Dessendre is defeated and relents before leaving with his wife.
Realizing that, just like Aline, Maelle intends to stay inside the canvas indefinitely, Verso approaches the last fragment of Verso Dessendre's soul, which maintains the world. Verso wants it to pass on, which would erase the canvas and force Maelle out, while she tries to stop him.
  • If the player sides with Maelle, the Canvas is saved, and she rebuilds Lumière and revives its people, including Gustave. However, she also recreates Verso against his will, and her health gradually declines.
  • If the player sides with Verso, he banishes Maelle and erases the canvas, along with himself and the other expeditioners in the process. Back in reality, the Dessendre family reconciles.