Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

1 May 2025

👍 Recommended (61.3 hrs on record)

What a pleasant surprise. Sandfall, a new French studio is now releasing a bona fide JRPG set in a wildly imaginative world as their debut game.

The game borrows from many Japanese games that have come before it -- I see a lot of Final Fantasy X and XIII in the world-building and level design, Persona 5 in the turn-based combat system spiced up with dodges, parries and jumps from Sekiro out of all places. Despite strong influences and some clear homages the game doesn't feel the least bit derivative -- this is an original work of art. The Belle Époque motif works really well and feels rather fresh.

The soundtrack by Lorien Testard and Alice Duport-Percier deserves a special mention -- it's just one banger after another, beautiful French soprano & choir accompanied by strings and piano. I stopped advancing just to hear the rest of the song quite a few times. The way the music is woven into the story and characters feels extremely well done. There are even multiple different battle themes per area. The voice cast is also amazingly stacked, with Jennifer English (Shadowheart from BG3), Charlie Cox (Daredevil) & Ben Starr (Clive from FFXVI) in the lead roles.

It's honestly unbelievable that this is the debut game of a studio staffed by only around 30 people. The game doesn't feel at all like it was made by such a tiny team! Compare that to the 4000+ people working on GTA VI right now. It's an amazing showcase of what a skilled team can do with Unreal Engine 5. It's striking how strong impression the game leaves in every area of its presentation.

As I'm very close to 100% completion while writing this review, I can confidently say that this will be my Game of the Year 2025. In this world where AAA budgets have gotten completely out of hand and both developers and players suffer, it's a shining beacon of hope for more tight and focused AA-sized teams being able to deliver their completely uncompromised artistic vision.

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