Diving into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is what I like to call a once-in-a-lifetime treat where somehow the last thing you would ever expect to happen, suddenly does and it blows your expectations in the most insane ways possible.
A Western-developed Turn Based RPG with JRPG-styled direction, while also having an all-out visual presentation you only see in even the most well-celebrated AAA budgeted games.
This is a preview coupled with a supplemental video preview. You can watch the video preview or read the full preview below:
Wandering around the world for several hours while I played, I kept wanting more. Seeing the landscape and scenery as I traveled did just as much explaining to the story as the two characters when they spoke.
Remains of previous expedition members are found dead and defeated, with a very clear telling of how they fell during their adventure.
It’s not quite like the way it’s done in the likes of a Soulslike game, but in a much more set-piece visual way to convey what lay in their way. Exploring the lands itself is very rewarding aside from gleaning lore or the fate of past expeditions, but I also kept running into all sorts of fantastic rewards and upgrades to assist me in my travels.
One such type of item known as “Pictos” always seemed to get me excited upon their discovery as they quickly made me think of Lost Odyssey’s skill system where it is possible to learn and share abilities through the use of them.
The overall tone of the game felt somewhat reminiscent of Lost Odyssey. I attribute this to the more serious and mature elements and beauty of the game’s art direction.
What captivated me the most in my travels as our hero Gustave was the combat system. Sandfall Interactive has managed to create a perfect blend of strategy, timing, and the need to study your opponent carefully.
Though the combat is primarily turn-based, there are out-of-the-box mechanics such as executing your special actions with precise timing to maximize their output.
What makes this even more spicier, is that during an enemy’s attack, and from what it seems, it’s possible to avoid every attack that goes your way with proper execution of a dodge or a parry. Dodging is the safer choice, but performing a successful parry will reward you with a very nasty and powerful counterattack.
Landing these got me jumping out of my computer chair and seeing Gustave and Lune work together to perform a counterattack in tandem. This could happen if you successfully parry an AOE attack, making the process even more rewarding.
If there is anything however I could detract from, would have to be some of the settings choices given to the player at no expense of the adventure. One such option allows the player to always perfectly and successfully perform timed actions for their skills. While it doesn’t work on Parrying and Dodging, I find this to show a lack of confidence in the game’s timing feature.
There is no trade-off to selecting any of the three difficult options which are easy, normal, and Hard. I hope Sandfall Interactive to consider a possible incentive to play on hard, or possibly make it so selecting hard locks you in the difficulty permanently or lowering it too easy or normal locks you out from toggling it back up to hard.
Including this would eliminate the frustration of staying on a harder difficulty without lowering it and breaking the immersion for those who want a challenge!
Before my first footstep into the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, having only known about it from its initial reveal a while back, I knew this was going to shape up into being one of the greatest experiences I would have since possibly the PS2 of turn-based RPG’s.
After experiencing what I have seen thus far, my confidence in that statement has only been reinforced a hundredfold. The Release for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can’t come any sooner, those who have been craving for a true Genre Defining Turn-based RPG are in for a real treat.
