5/5 ★ – docsleeps's review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

I finished Clair Obscur Expedition 33 yesterday, I wasn't expecting that. I thought it would grab me just because of the voice actors, but this is 100% one of the best games ever. Voice actors like Ben Starr (FF16), Jennifer English (BG3) and especially Andy Serkis (LOTR, ANDOR) were absolutely smashing. Besides BG3, they are definitely my favorite cast of voice actors ever. The soundtrack is second to none; you could probably argue with BG3 or Elden Ring and Clair is definitely on the same level as those. And that's even though the composer was hired from Soundcloud. The story completely blew me away, one of the best ever. The character dynamics, the world, everything works together perfectly. The characters are extremely realistically written and nothing seems forced or artificial. The writer was recruited from Reddit, by the way, where two insane talents were discovered. You can predict what will happen next, but you still notice, especially in retrospect, that everything was planned from the start and executed perfectly. The combat system is the best turn-based combat has ever done. It's so incredibly satisfying to make matches. It's incredibly motivating, and the expandable pictos offer almost endless possibilities for building characters. The facial expressions aren't perfect, but the game had a budget of under 30 million and grossed over 50 million in the first three days. I'm extremely happy that the game is so successful. Definitely one of the best games ever and easily in my top 5. And thus my GOTY.