What Clair Obscur is and why it's the surprise of the year
Let's start with the basics for anyone who hasn't clocked it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the turn-based RPG from Sandfall Interactive, a tiny French studio —barely thirty people— that pulled one of the generation's games out of thin air. It launched in April 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, day one on Game Pass, and within two weeks it had already sold more than two million copies.
Its premise is gorgeous and cruel at once. Every year, a figure called the Paintress writes a number on a monolith, and everyone of that age fades away for good. When the number drops to 33, an expedition sets out to end her before the next generation's turn comes. That melancholy starting point soaks into everything. And in case there was any doubt about its stature, it swept The Game Awards 2025, taking Game of the Year and eight more prizes.
The art and music are in another league
If anything grabs you from minute one, it's how it hits your eyes and ears. Its art direction is simply stunning, a watercolor fantasy inspired by belle époque France that turns every setting into a painting. It has me smitten, and it's the kind of thing that justifies turning on the console just to wander around.
And the soundtrack is right up there. Lorien Testard delivers an operatic score, with soprano Alice Duport-Percier raising goosebumps in the big moments. It doesn't just accompany the story; it lifts it. When art and music pull together this closely, a game that's small in size becomes enormous in presence.
Turn-based combat with reflexes, easy dodges and a devilish parry
Here's what I least expected to hook me, because I have a confession. I'd never gotten on with turn-based combat. It was Baldur's Gate 3 that broke that barrier for me, and I've had a taste for it ever since. So I came to Expedition 33 without the old wall, and its combat didn't feel like a toll to pay; playing it came naturally. That detail, coming from someone reluctant about turns, says a lot.
Because its system has a twist: it's turn-based, but it asks for reflexes. Dodging is easy and you pick it up right away; the parry, on the other hand, is devilish, the kind you have to nail with perfect timing to shine. That blend of slow strategy and real-time tension is really well done, and while it doesn't reach the level of a Baldur's Gate 3, it isn't trying to, because they're different games.
Playing it as a couple, tantrums included
Another confession. I'm playing it with my partner, and it's been a small discovery. It's not a co-op game, so we take turns, one fight each, and it works a treat. We both love it, and living it as a duo adds a special layer, even if now and then a tantrum flares up when one of us sees the other making a mess of it, mostly out loud, it has to be said.
From the party I'll take Lune and Maelle, especially Lune, who's won me over. Though for the important fights I lean hard on Sciel, because she deals frightening damage. That a game gets you arguing with your partner over how to split the turns is, in its own way, the best sign that its characters and its combat genuinely matter to you.
Why a nine and not a ten
And so we reach the score, which is where it's time to be honest. Expedition 33 is a stunner and its Game of the Year is more than deserved, but I'm giving it a nine, and the reason is pure context. When I think of turn-based RPGs, my measuring stick is Baldur's Gate 3, and even though they aren't comparable —again, they're different games— I always carry that shadow. Against that benchmark, Expedition 33's world is smaller, it plays out in fewer hours and it doesn't give you as much freedom. It has freedom, mind, just not as much, and for us it's still one of the best RPGs around right now.
In other words, the nine comes from the comparison more than from any flaw of its own. And get this, because I haven't even finished it —one last boss left to fall— and I'm already crystal clear. A thirty-person studio squared up to the entire industry and won. If you like RPGs, or if turns never clicked for you before, this is the perfect place to fall for them.
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