Overview
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG developed by the French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive, released in 2025 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series.
Story and world
Every year, an entity called the Paintress wakes up and paints a number on her monolith: every inhabitant of that age disappears. You follow Expedition 33, which sets out from the city of Lumière to try to end this cycle.
The world is rich, with lore that has clearly been crafted with care, and you can feel it. You uncover a lot of it through the audio journals left behind by the previous expeditions.
The story is very well written and you grow attached to the characters. Each of them has their own personality, some are funny, others more serious, and so on. They also all have different quirks in battle.
Gameplay
As for the combat, it reminds me of the "Mario & Luigi" series: it is turn-based, but during the enemy's turn you can dodge or parry their attacks by pressing the button at the right moment.
It is a style I really like, which keeps the turn-based principle but gives the player the ability to dodge or parry in order to take as little damage as possible, compared to classic turn-based systems.
Graphics and music
The graphics are gorgeous, and on top of that the game offers excellent French voice acting and facial expressions that convey the characters' emotions really well.
And what can I say about the soundtrack, which is incredible: you could stay on the title screen just to listen to the music, that should tell you enough.
Verdict
It thoroughly deserves its 2025 GOTY!