Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review: The RPG That Rewrote 2025

Introduction

I have written a lot of RPG reviews in my career, and I have rarely felt the need to start one with a warning. Here it is: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is going to be the game by which your favorite RPG gets measured for the next five years. Sandfall Interactive – a 30-person studio out of Montpellier that did not exist six years ago – shipped a turn-based RPG in April 2025 that went on to sell five million copies, win nine Game Awards (the most in the event's history), and score a 92 on Metacritic with 98% of critics recommending it. I went in skeptical. I came out convinced this is the most important RPG release since Persona 5.

Gameplay & Mechanics

The combat is what will sell you inside the first 30 minutes. Expedition 33 is nominally turn-based – you pick actions from a menu, characters take turns, damage resolves – but Sandfall layered a complete real-time reaction system on top that fundamentally changes how you engage with every fight. When an enemy attacks, you can parry with a perfectly timed button press, dodge with a different input, or jump over area attacks using yet another. Miss the read and you eat the full hit. Nail it and you trigger counters, free turns, and chain reactions that feel like rhythm game perfection.

This means every single encounter, including the trash mobs, demands your attention. I cannot remember the last RPG where I did not zone out during regular combat. Expedition 33 is the first. By hour 10 I was doing no-hit runs against fodder enemies just to chain counters. By hour 30 I was parrying the final boss's 14-hit combo on reflex.

On top of that sits the Picto system – passive ability slots that unlock permanent stat and skill bonuses after you master them in a set number of battles. It is classic job-system DNA lifted from Final Fantasy V and IX, but the design space Sandfall opens up is enormous. Build Gustave into a glass cannon who one-shots bosses through crit stacking. Turn Maelle into a stance-dancing duelist who buffs the party every time she swaps forms. Turn Sciel into a sun/moon card-drawing support who controls the entire battlefield's state. Every party composition I tried felt viable and distinct.

Graphics & Performance

Visually, Expedition 33 operates in a league its budget has no business operating in. The Belle Epoque Paris aesthetic – think Monet, Klimt, art nouveau architecture, oil-paint brushstrokes as environmental effects – is one of the most cohesive art directions I have ever seen in a video game. Entire zones are built around impressionist color palettes. Character designs feel drawn rather than modeled. The Paintress herself, the godlike antagonist whose monolithic number counts down the lifespan of an entire civilization, is pure iconography.

Unreal Engine 5 does most of the heavy lifting, and Sandfall clearly prioritized fidelity over framerate. On PS5 Pro with the visual mode, the game runs at a locked 30fps with genuinely striking lighting. Performance mode holds 60 most of the time but drops into the 40s during boss cinematics and dense particle encounters. PC with DLSS on an RTX 4070 holds a clean 60fps at high settings. Xbox Series X performs similarly to PS5 Pro. It is not the most polished performance profile of the year, but the art direction makes up for every frame you lose.

Story & Narrative

This is the section where I have to dance around spoilers, and it is hard because the story is the best part. The premise is this: every year, a godlike figure called the Paintress adds a number to a monolith. Every person of that age or older dissolves into petals. The current number is 33. Expedition 33 is the latest group of volunteers sent across the sea to kill her before next year's gommage claims everyone who is 32. They have never come back. Nobody has, in a century.

That is the setup. What Sandfall does with it over 40-60 hours is where the game graduates from great to generational. There are two narrative turns, one in Act 2 and one in Act 3, that recontextualize the entire journey in ways I genuinely did not see coming. I teared up. Twice. In a turn-based RPG. The writing respects your intelligence, trusts its own pacing, and commits to its emotional beats without flinching. The voice acting in both English and French is uniformly excellent – Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Kirsty Rider, and Ben Starr deliver career-defining performances.

Audio & Soundtrack

Lorien Testard's score is the best video game soundtrack of 2025 and honestly one of the best of the decade. Huge claim, I know. But the orchestral-choral arrangements that accompany major boss fights – particularly the Act 2 midpoint battle that I will not name – hit with the kind of emotional force normally reserved for cinema. There is a recurring choral motif that is woven through the entire runtime and pays off in the final hours in a way that gave me full-body chills. Sandfall did not just commission music; they built the game around a cohesive musical identity.

Sound design is equally attentive. Every parry has a unique crack. Every Picto equip has a distinct chime. The sound of the Paintress's brush is somehow terrifying. These are small touches that reward playing with headphones on.

Value & Replayability

At $49.99 – yes, this is not even a $70 game – Expedition 33 is one of the most egregiously undervalued releases of the year. The main story runs 40-60 hours depending on how much optional content you engage with. There is a full postgame with endgame bosses that test your mastery of the combat system. New Game Plus carries your Pictos forward and opens up new dialogue paths. I have put 75 hours in and I am still finding party compositions I want to try.

Five million copies sold by October 2025 tells you everything about how the word of mouth on this game has moved. The 98% positive Steam rating from over 100,000 reviews is the real metric, though. People who play this game tell everyone they know to play it.

Final Verdict

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the rare release where every single department fires at peak output. Combat is revolutionary. Art direction is untouchable. Narrative is generational. Music is best-in-class. The performance is the only department I would ding, and even that is forgivable given the visual ambition. Sandfall Interactive delivered the RPG of the decade as their first game, and they did it for $50 while competing against studios with a hundred times their budget.

I am giving Expedition 33 a 10/10 without hesitation. If you have even a passing interest in RPGs, turn-based combat, or games as an art form, this is essential. If you skipped it because it looked niche, let this review be the nudge. You will not regret the 60 hours.

Buy if: You love JRPGs, turn-based combat, gorgeous art, unforgettable soundtracks, or stories that respect your intelligence. This is a cannot-miss purchase at $49.99.

Skip if: You fundamentally dislike turn-based combat systems or reflex-based input timing. Everyone else should buy this immediately.