Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – A World Painted in Emotion

I consider Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to be one of the most beautiful surprises from an indie developer this year, a title that can easily stay with big names (like Final Fantasy, for example) with significantly higher budgets among the top action role-playing games. Rather than overwhelming the audience, Clair Obscur strategically tries to haunt. For instance, a half-burnt mural is haunting, evoking feelings and capturing the attention of an unspeakable yearning. Dungeons feel like memory spaces, filled with forgotten color and broken symmetry.

Each scene is an entire world, and the subtle and thoughtful lighting enhances the mood while also feeling like a painting, capturing the essence rather than clarity. Every exchange is given an added dose of warmth by the animations, most importantly, the face and hands. You feel a layer of humanity in the stillness before the words and the delicate glance.

It serves the game subtly as it mournfully weaves through the tracks, but always deserves attention. While recalling a certain theme during Gustave’s flooded quarter walk evokes a distant yet familiar echo. I stood listening. Listening not for gameplay but for sorrowful reminiscence.

The voiceover performances for the game are commendable because of their veracity. Side characters possess unrefined passionate performances, while Gustave’s VA has quiet, muted sorrow. Brazilian Portuguese players are also in for a treat as the localization is done with a lot of care. It’s not just done for accuracy, which does a disservice, as it is devoid of life.

With the game being on Game Pass, the value proposition is almost ludicrous. It’s available for as many people as possible.

The Path I’ll Walk Again

What surprises me the most is not the tears I shed. It’s not the silence I endured while the credits rolled. It’s also not the thoughts I wrestled with, pondering what I would have said to Ashen before the final chapter. It’s the fact that I desire to go back.

Some stories are for entertainment, while others are for thrill. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does much more, however. It speaks. It silently, gently, compels you to reflect on what it means to fight for something beautiful in a world fundamentally constructed on decay and endings. And that is because the game earned its place in my heart.

Sandfall Interactive has toiled on a debut that feels like a monument. And when I come back, it won’t be for trophies or alternate endings.

I will be retracing feelings.

Because this game taught me, in a world full of clamor, the importance of silence. It taught me to sit in the stillness, the hush, between battles. It taught me to recall the significance of a glance, a note, or the weight of a step.

And isn't that what art aims to achieve? Staying with us long after engaging with the art.

A Party with All the Parts—Real and Realistic

A lot of RPGs consider the other members of the party as mere tools—they are helpful during battles, but offer nothing apart from it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 takes a different and unique direction. The six companions are not mere archetypes—they are fully fleshed individuals, with competing ideals, inner struggles, and relationships that develop and at times, fall apart, over time.

The reluctant leader, Gustave, is burdened with the “Doomed Leader Syndrome”, while Elara, the medic, is pragmatic because, having confronted the realities of war, she has lost faith in miracles. Riven, the hotheaded rogue, grief-stricken, conceals his sorrow with reckless bravado. Characters unfold over time, and their interactions feel dynamic—people do not stay static in the world. Two characters that I especially enjoy are Riven and Elara. In one of the most memorable moments, over “whether they should let the dying settlement die”, the two characters lose their temper. As you would expect in the real world, their answer is not “right”—just consequential.

The believability of the story is not static, even in voice acting. Performances, even for the most mundane or trivial of acts, are so deep in emotion that they feel real. The same can be said for the Brazilian Portuguese voiceover. Instead of feeling robotic, as is the case in most dubbed RPGs, the emotion in the line is absent, the lines feel smooth, and thus, the entire performance is remarkable.

No Happy Endings—Only Meaningful Ones

Clair Obscur does not believe in neat resolutions. Some characters achieve some sort of closure, while others face despair, and some just drift without closure, their empty fates haunting.

And that’s the point. This isn’t a story about overcoming everything, as some who buy cheap PS5 games may think; it still requires a lot of resilience. The small triumphs that stand out include a fleeting chuckle in the face of overwhelming sorrow, the horrible abyss of seeming hopelessness, and the unyielding drive to push onward.

A Game That Invites You to Play Two Times

Clair Obscur stayed with me after I finished it. I was restarting the game within days, not just for a second run, but to revisit certain emotional moments I wanted to replay. While there aren’t any huge New Game Plus features or radically different endings, the story does change in depth with familiarity.

Subtle details I had previously missed gained a lot more importance while replaying. The story was hitting much harder after gaining more context. It is a type of storytelling where the emotional reward increases, not decreases, with repeat encounters.

A game so heavy in themes like grief, sacrifice, and loss of agency would normally seem overpowering. However, the balance of hope does warm between characters, providing just enough motivation to keep pushing forward. And not feeling like an obligation, but in the hope of believing there is something worth saving.

After the End: What Remains

When the credits rolled, I didn’t feel triumphant. I felt

Full. Not because I had mastered every system (though I did, eventually), or found every side quest (I hadn’t). But because Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gives you something rare: the feeling of having inhabited a world, not just played through it.

It’s easy to remember each battle within the game because the design of combat is rewarding in every way. But it’s the tone that lingers. The quiet between tenous fights. The quiet between tenous fights. The faces illuminated by fragile flames. The way Gustave leans on his blade. The way Maelle, in a cutscene later in the game, gazes towards the sky, deep in thought.

I do not want to sound nitpicky, but the game had a few imperfections. I'd like to note the absence of a few repeating tunes and a minor visual glitch on the world map. However, in terms of the game's accomplishment, these little imperfections do not matter at all.