3.5/5 ★ – mandatrous10's review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

If you want to know if Expedition 33 is a good game, then the answer is simply yes, especially as the first outing for a small new studio. But for me it doesn't achieve this feat without several cracks showing along the way. Spoilers from here on out. Starting with the gameplay, I was resistant to it, but was eventually won over. As a turn based rpg fan, I play them bc my reflexes suck. Just dodging was an achievement I couldn't always pull off, and there were many times I had to put the controller down and walk away for the night. However whenever I came back, I always found myself able to overcome it the second time. Plus the general loop of combat made up for it. Rather than focusing on resource management for a long period of time, the focus was keeping momentum, each character had unique ways of unleashing their strongest abilities so dodging and parrying was not only essential to staying alive, but because you really didn't want to take a turn just to stop and heal when you could be doing over 100,000 damage The dungeons also left me conflicted bc as pretty as they might be, there were neither many memorable landmarks or a map to help guide you. While you could usually find the main path easily enough, this is a game where it genuinely pays off to find the treasures off the hidden path. There are so many genuinely helpful pictos I came across randomly that despite my grievances I always choose to get lost over potentially missing goodies. Still even if the developers were committed to not having a mini map, even having a map that slowly filled in and we had to actively open such as the world map would keep the tone consistent while being more user friendly So like despite all the stuff set up against me, when the gameplay was going, it was really going. If every turn based rpg was like this, I'd give up on the genre, but I'd definitely play more if this was to become a series Story-wise, my thoughts are similarly torn. Unlike most ppl, I've played Xenoblade Chronicles 3 so the prologue wasn't all that emotional. In general, JRPGs often have these melancholy, existential premises, so I was waiting for the conflict to get more personal. This made Act 1 a drag for me. Nothing about Gustave's struggle is unique from anyone else's on the expedition and outside of his relationship with Maelle, there wasn't much to grab onto. Lune and Sciel feel like coworkers at best, with little introduction given. I've seen ppl say this game cuts out a lot of filler, but when we have dungeon after dungeon with little more learned about the cast or any changes in their behavior, then you're just making the pacing drag more bc you're cutting the stuff I actually like This gets better in Act 2 when the one on one conversations are expanded. The dialogue is expressive and full of personality. This was where I really came to enjoy the cast; however, that doesn't make up for the main plot being surprisingly bare. It felt like I was only allowed to appreciate one side of the game at one time, with most of the main plot being dedicated to wistfully staring in the distance or genre typical cryptic mystery box stuff I just had to wait to be explained When we got the Act 2 twist, I was super pumped, Maelle's connection was super obvious but I never expected Verso's suicide mission to be less altruistic than it seemed. This was a mystery that paid off and actually made sense so kudos to that. Getting the family backstory was the personal itch I had been waiting for, and Renoir is very compelling especially as he is trying to stop Aline from a place of experience However I wish some of these personal plotlines had been seeded a bit sooner. Lots of ppl talk about the disconnect between wanting to save this place then being asked to destroy it, I didn't feel any conflict bc of that lack of emotional attachment early on but I feel like that isn't a good thing. In general it just doesn't know how to approach the thorny question of if these ppl are sentient or not and like the moral dilemma of that. I also think it needed to be better set up that coexistence was impossible, bc it isn't until we're told Maelle can't be trusted to leave the canvas that it crossed my mind. Outside of Aline, we don't get it hammered home that like this is inherently an addicting force. And Aline even showing up for the final fight suggests that yeah there is no way to stop an addict from going back. I think if Maelle got to make the final choice, this could still be a decent climax. But if the player doesn't want to enable Maelle's suicide our only option is to put her down bc women are unable to ever indulge in escapism healthily and have to be put in their place by men (which I doubt is an intentional message, but the fact Maelle is defined by how others dismiss her makes that ending leave a bad taste in my mouth in a way that the developers probably didn't want) All in all, I can see why for those who can't connect with the anime aesthetic of most turn based RPGs, this would rock their worlds. But for me, it is a fun, competent, but not groundbreaking venture. I still think other fans should play it and I look forward to Sandfall's future work, but I just hope they don't feel constrained by this success to have to deliver the exact same thing again. I wouldn't be this nitpicky if I wasn't confident in their ability to continue on. TLDR: watch Kyousougiga if like stories about dysfunctional families in painted worlds