Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

At completexbox we are very much community driven, and welcome guest articles, opinion pieces and reviews. This Review of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is written by the fabulous Fletch from Xbox Nation, and is the first of two reviews for this game via completexbox. It’s a fab game and we want to give you two takes

I was incredibly pleased when Sandfall Interactive sent over a review key for Clair Obscur Expedition 33 as it has easily been one of my most anticipated games since the reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase last year. I finally had the chance to delve into this beautiful looking world of Lumiere and the Continent, Figure out the Story behind the Paintress and join Expedition 33 as they ventured forth into exhilarating exploration and combat. This has easily got to be one of the most interesting and unique games of 2025 so far and it is hard to believe this is the studio’s first foray into the gaming sphere. This is a hugely ambitious title that is quite clearly going toe to toe with some of the heaviest of hitters within the Turn based space. So is this game a work of art or is it a mistake waiting to be put out of its misery, well my name is Fletcher and this is Xbox Nation and here is my review and performance analysis of Clair Obscur Expedition 33!

Story

First up, I will cover the story and what you can expect within the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I will say, there are no story spoilers here in this review, and Sandfall Interactive have put strict guidelines on what I can mention story wise within this review especially as I don’t want to spoil late game characters, bosses and more! As a bit of an overview, the city that you inhabit is called Lumiere and this is part of a vast land called the continent. In essence, there was a fracture which occurred many years ago in which a mysterious Paintress appeared and started counting down from year 100. After each year, she writes a new number on the monolith in countdown style and everyone of that age dies in what is called a gommage. Due to this happening, teams of volunteer Expeditioners with 1 year left of their life, are sent out to the Continent in the hopes of destroying the Paintress and stopping this cycle from continuing. 

That is a very brief overarching look at the story but let me tell you, the story takes many twists and turns and overall, you will be going into this game expecting one thing and coming out the other end either confused, bewildered or shocked. The game is very dark in its tone, it’s a story about family, loss, betrayal and the deeper meaning behind the paintress and this story is an incredible feat by Sandfall Interactive. This is an incredibly mature title where not only does the story bring in some evocative themes but the characters within this world are deeply centred and you can tell they are of an older age. Never have I gone into a game and come out the other end with a different perspective and every single character, NPC and boss within this world leaves an everlasting impact on your mind. There are very few games that I have ever seen as part of this industry that really nails these notes and makes you ponder what you have experienced upon closing the game or wrapping it up after the 30 hours of playtime for the main story alone. 

World and Exploration

Now, the world of Clair Obscur is vast and the continent you will be exploring has many aspects to it and environmentally, they are stunning and contain a wide variety of different biomes and art directions. The worlds here have been so expertly crafted and have so many unique aspects that you never feel tiresome or bored of seeing the same old thing. There are shifting elements in the different realms and within the enclosed play spaces, so much so that you can go back to each and there is still much for you to explore or just take in the surreal environments. There is also a ton for you to investigate and that also comes in the form of side missions, collectibles, unique environmental puzzles and so much more. The game really rewards you for exploring off the beaten path but also going back to areas once experienced, to track down a different path and take on higher leveled enemies you once could not take on.

When going around the continent on foot or via your companion known as Esquie, you will stumble across these glowing entrances. Upon finding one you want to dive into, that being for the main story or an odd shoot area, you walk up to these entrances and once entered you basically go into a sort of enclosed playspace and let me tell you, each of these sections is absolutely massive! It was like a game within a game and my mind was still blown with how many of these areas you will come across. There are no maps either inside of these massive worlds and that makes navigating them a matter of tracing your footsteps or if you are new to exploring, finding out what striking image could be sitting around the corner. 

The only negative about this exploratory element is that some areas warn you with a Danger sign which is great to give you a sort of visual queue as to when areas are way out of your level reach at the moment. However the issues arise when exploring the continent with Esquie and enemies/boss encounters are not actually presented in any level fashion or have no warning signs. I did have many instances where I would try to take on a boss thinking I could possibly battle then know, only to find out I was still not a high enough skill level and die instantly. It does get a bit frustrating as you feel like you are wasting time and I feel some sort of visual queue stating those bosses are too high level would have been welcome. I know this will be of personal preference to some of you out there, but for me it just seemed a bit tedious.

Characters

The characters within Clair Obscur really are the main draw for me and I can see many of you loving the different personality and quirks of each. Along the way, you will come across different faces which will become recruitable to your cause and others who will disperse but all have unique abilities and dialogue that they never become dull or lacklustre. Instead the voice acting, stylisation and personality of each friendly and enemy characters is so marvellously articulated that they are hard to ever leave your mind. You have the incredible Jennifer English really bringing to life the hardship and struggles of the young expeditioner called Maelle and on the other hand you have the Excellent Andy Serkis who plays the dastardly Renior. It is so hard to not to just spew out loads of insight and excellent moments that occur with each character and it’s so easy to see how much the voice talent and developers have poured their heart and souls into this project. The cutscenes themselves are utterly insane, they look ripped right out of a major blockbuster movie and the art direction and cinematic presentation is outstanding.

Combat 

As you may have seen, the big reservation for many out there has to be that the combat system is turn-based. I will say though, that whether you’re just an impatient gamer or someone who prefers more action Centric combat, your guess is as good as mine as to why many JRPGs are shying away from this format. Clair obscur Expedition 33 takes an approach where players must time button presses to boost their attacks or defenses further. You can dodge, parry or jump to avoid enemy attacks and these actions need to be mastered in order for you to survive. I will say though, a negative which I did come across was that dodging and parrying can sometimes get a bit hit or miss. I had so many instances where I would parry or dodge specifically on audio or visual cues and still get hit. It’s only a minor gripe and it didn’t happen all too often but some refinement is definitely needed.

When in battle you will have a fair few attacks at your disposal as well. Turn based is a great element within this game for that sole purpose and allows you to not only plan when and what enemy to attack or disable but also figure out what elementable abilities or skills will become effective at taking down your foes. Your regular attacks in this game can be used at any time and when used gains you Action Points, otherwise known as AP. You can also gain AP by perfectly parrying or dodging enemies when they attack you and these points can then be used for abilities or your gun. The Free Aim Gun is incredibly effective at taking down flying enemies or taking down weak points and consumes 1 AP per shot. You then have abilities and this is where the real meat of combat comes into the mix. 

Each of the characters that form your Expedition have their own set of skills that make them incredibly unique to use and also quite hard to master at the same time. You have the regular attacks and overcharge abilities of Gustave, who is your sort of straight forward attacking style character to the Shapeshifting style and versatility of the Gestral known as Monaco, who not only requires you to think about a specific combat wheel during combat to maximise his abilities but can also learn new skills by collecting dead nevron feet who you defeat in battle. There is a ton of variety here to really make the expedition party your own and there are so many combinations at your disposal at all times. To put it frankly, this game is basically a better Final Fantasy 10 in almost all aspects. 

Skills 

Following on from the combat, skills in this game are vast and vary in so many ways. I briefly touched on abilities but this is only one area of the entire skill list. You first have what are called Pictos & Lumina, these are scattered throughout the world or are acquired upon defeating enemies and bosses. You can equip up to three pictos at one time per character and these give you increases to stats and grant passive Lumina Abilities. After four battles with a specific picto it becomes mastered and the lumina abilities get unlocked.

Lumina Abilities can then be equipped to any character using Lumina Points and you can experiment with different combinations to find effective and evolving strategies.

Alongside these two, you have the traditional Weapon Upgrades and Skill Points which of course grant you better power, new abilities and so much more. Equipment does become very important here alongside the skills as they not only grant more damage but also have extra statistics and variables that can be unlocked upon levelling or using them in battle. You will have for example, a sword which does fire damage and then another that does lightning damage. It will then be up to you to interchange these before or after battles as different enemies become weakened depending on the elemental affinities. Skills are fairly straightforward though when it comes to a turn based RPG and of course these get unlocked upon fulfilling certain criteria with different characters. These can then be assigned and use different amounts of Action Points in combat. It’s all a juggling act of making sure you have the abilities that work for you and complement your play style and this is where the game succeeds massively again. It really makes you work out different combinations, strategies and so much more and there is a ton for you to dive into.

As a brief mention, attribute points do of course make an appearance and your character will gain three upon a level-ip. You can spend these to increase the associated Combat stats that further customise and refine your party. You can recoat these at any time as well using different items which are fairly frequent meaning that if you are stuck on a boss and want to take a different approach, you can do so entirely from the menus.

Performance on Xbox Series X & S 

I know one aspect that many of you will be interested in hearing is how the game performance holds up across both the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. So I spent about 50% of my time on each as I was travelling whilst playing the game so I got to experience a very large portion of the game to really give my overall thoughts and hands on with it. So the Xbox Series X first off, has a Performance and a Quality Mode, of course that means either a 60fps experience with a lower image quality or 30fps at a higher quality preset. As you can imagine this means the Series S does only come with a standardized option and that is sitting at 30fps. Frame rate wise, the game is fairly stable for the most part on both consoles however I did have some dips mainly on the Series S during very intense combat sequences or when loading into new areas for the very first time. 

Final Conclusion

For me, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 really is a stand out with the turn based RPG genre and Sandfall Interactive have really brought the mechanics up to snuff to suit modern RPG standards to rival the big hitters like final fantasy. The world is insanely detailed and absolutely gorgeous, the combat although having slight pitfalls is incredibly interesting and majorly addictive and the main highlight has to easily be the story and characters and those jaw dropping cinematics that are seen throughout the experience. I went into Clair Obscur with an open mind but thinking it was going to be a run of the mill Turn Based RPG with some good visuals. However I was absolutely blown out of the water in every single way.

This is a Turn based RPG that will truly stay with you many days, months and years after the release and I can tell this is going to be one that will change your mind if you have never been into these sort of turn based experiences. I loved my time with this game and I heavily recommended buying it or diving into it on Xbox Game Pass right now! 

So, are you going to be diving into Clair Obscur Expedition 33?