Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a European love letter to Japanese J-RPGs

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the first work of the French developer Sandfall Interactive, is a well-written, story-driven game that will excite and entertain you. It is not a triple A but not an indie from a small development studio either. It is a Japanese role-playing game in soul, which in the game mechanics will remind you of Final Fantasy and Persona but with a care for characters and history with a finally European depth. A few hours will be enough to enter a story that is never banal, with twists and an artistic direction that has not been seen for a long time.

Set in a dark fantasy world inspired by the French Belle Époque, the game follows Gustave, Maelle, Lune and other members of Expedition 33 as they embark on a mission to stop the Painter, a godlike figure who annually erases people from reality when they reach a specific age, in an event known as “Gommage.”

It is not without its flaws. A few oversights and some technical errors. Clair Obscur is not necessarily challenging in the traditional sense of the term, but it can be punishing when you miss a dodge. It is a first work but precisely because it is a first work it is to be applauded. The team is of veterans and it shows.

It's not just a nice narrative game of the kind that video game journalists love so much. The combat system combines turn-based mechanics with real-time actions and is a declaration of love for Japanese JRPGs. In fact, let's say that the entire game is a tribute to a genre. Forty hours flow by with pleasure without too many repetitions and with a plot full of twists. Finally a creative reboot and not the usual remake of things already seen. The game has received wide critical acclaim, with high scores on platforms such as Metacritic and OpenCritic, and has sold over a million copies in the first three days of its launch.