Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG—a genre infamous for its hundred-plus hour world-trotting adventures. Expedition 33 manages to retain the epic feel of an adventure spanning such a demanding length while letting you complete it at around the 30-hour mark.
Coincidentally, my run of the main story closed just shy of the 33-hour mark. That was with some extras along the way and a fairly full exploration of every area I went to.
I’ve done another 20 hours since credits rolled, and still haven’t done all that I could in this playthrough, let alone investigating what New Game+ might have to offer. Something I’m sorely tempted to actually do.
In any event, fear not for spoilers in this post. I may do a full spoiler post at a later time, but in this one, I’ll steer clear, as I know a great many people are still going through the game or looking for guidance on whether to go through the game.
If that’s you — wondering whether to play, then the answer to that is a resounding yes.
Story (No Spoilers)
The gameplay is excellent — which I understand is an odd way to start the story section, but I say this so that you’ll understand the importance when I say: The story is what you’ll play for.
Don’t like turn-based games? Doesn’t matter. Play it for the story.
Don’t like parry/dodge games? Doesn’t matter. Put it on easy and play it for the story.
The story, its themes, possible interpretations and the feelings evoked are the main drivers for wanting to do a separate spoiler discussion at a later date.
But… For now, I’ll avoid all that and say only that it is a well-written story. It is a very human story. One that knows when not to pull the punches and when a little levity or even tenderness is required.
If you have even the slightest intent of ever playing this game, do yourself a favour and avoid spoilers like the plague.
It’s not that you won’t be able to see the shape of the story from near the beginning — or heck, even from the reveal trailer — but the specifics? How that shape is formed? Masterful, and worth experiencing without prior knowledge.
Crossing Turn-Based with Real Time
I don’t know how many people exist in the Venn diagram union of ‘People who Enjoy Turn-Based Games’ and ‘People who Enjoy Parry/Dodge-Based Games’, but it seems to be at least 2 million.
As that’s the number of copies sold (i.e., not including Game Pass players, where this is also available) in the first 12 days post-release.
To be fair, this intersection of ‘take all the time you want’ but also ‘Parry with precision timing or die’ has caused some consternation. Many of the complaints I’ve seen relate to this crossover, particularly from turn-based enjoyers who don’t appreciate the inclusion of real-time elements.
The real-time shows up in a couple of ways:
1) There is an active button-press element during skills.
It’s always the same button, but the timing and number of prompts vary from skill to skill.
On most skills, failing the active button sequence merely means less than maximum damage. But there are some skills flagged as ‘risky’ which have a chance of turning the damage on yourself.
If you don’t enjoy this part, the game will let you enable an option to automate the press at the right time.
2) The Evasion / Counter Mechanics
At the time of writing, there is no option to automate these. Dodge is the easier option to pull off, with about twice the opportunity window to be successful as compared to parry.
If you get a ‘Perfect Dodge’, this means you also hit the right timing for the parry, so it can be a good way to learn, particularly when encountering new enemy types.
Dodging (whether perfect or not) avoids all damage, but doesn’t allow you to return a counterattack like a parry does.
A ‘challenge’ run has now been completed that never touches any of the evasion buttons, but it sounds like this did take longer to make it through, Act 1 at least, when your characters are (relatively speaking) on the weaker side of things.
However, there is a significant difference in the damage you take while never hitting the buttons at all and ‘trying to hit them but only sometimes getting it’.
I would say definitely try engage with the evasion mechanics, and you will likely be surprised how often you pull off a clutch dodge when you really need it.
The rest of your power comes from more pure build craft, and can carry you a fair way past lacking real-time skills.
How Deep Does the Character Building Go?
Er. Quite.
- Stats – Every level gives you 3 stat points to spend across the main stats Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, Luck, which in turn drive the secondary stats of Health, Speed, Attack Power, Critical Rate and Defense (distinct from the main stat of the same name).
- Weapons – Have an element, scale from one to two main stats (in addition to Might, which always drives attack power, regardless of the weapon), and have perks that kick in at upgrade levels 5, 10 and 20.
- Pictos – Take the role of armour or gear, and have both a passive effect and a boost to secondary stats. The passive effects can be quite powerful, e.g., giving your basic attacks lifesteal, increasing your Action Point (AP) generation or powering up your critical chance against burning enemies.
- Lumina – After winning 4 battles with a Pictos equipped, the passive effect from it enters your Lumina library. Unlike Pictos, which can only be equipped to one character at a time, Lumina can be assigned to as many characters as you like. Each will need to pay the point cost associated with it, that cost depends on just how powerful the effect is.
- Active Skills – You can equip up to 6 active skills at a time on each character, with skills covering the gamut of buffs, debuffs and attacks. Each level, you gain a skill point, with skill unlocks costing between 1-10 points
I tend to focus on learning new Pictos as soon as possible even at the temporary cost of my build, cycling through new ones until they’ve had their four battles.
This gives a lot of flexibility in builds down the line, allowing skills I end up liking to be used across the board.
And occasionally, I’ve been surprised by the power of a passive skill I initially wrote off.
The range of play styles enabled by these skills is truly impressive, too. Wanna make a build that relies on a particular character dying a lot? … You can. You could even possibly use an active skill that brings their health to 1 on use. Want to instead build a solo-character powerhouse? Sure. Parry your thing? You can make stuff happen with that. Basic attacks get their time in the sun too. Heck, even the basic shots.
I have favoured a burn centric build across the team for much of my run through, although there has been the odd… time or two… where I’ve had to consider something else.
I’ve invested a lot of Lumina points into my main party at this point though, so they can equip a fair amount of stuff at once now.
Finding synergies between active skills, weapon perks and lumina is an absolute joy.
Conclusion
There is so much to this game I still haven’t spoken about.
Like the fact it has a traversable overworld map in tilt-shift style, very reminiscient of the PS1 era Final Fantasy games.
Or the fact that this is Sandfall’s first game as a development studio, and only has around 30 core members.
Or that the game has been priced well under today’s standard.
Or that it’s available on Xbox Game Pass (actually, I did mention that one, but probably bears mentioning again).
For downsides? Well- the lip sync and character motions are a bit of a mixed bag. There are some very distinct issues with it, and even things like hair movement from time to time. But then- at other times, it is transcendently good.
And honestly, the issues it does have tend to fade into the background in fairly short order.
I don’t know what’s next for Sandfall- but I can hardly wait.
