At the beginning of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, there's a conversation that's stuck in my mind. A pair of ex-lovers discuss why they split up: one wanted children, the other didn't. It's the kind of human question that turns a fantasy story, no matter how surreal, into something many can relate to. 🤔❤️

And Clair Obscur is undoubtedly a surreal and profound game, obsessed with the idea of death. Every year, The Painter, sitting atop a colossal monolith, paints a number that condemns everyone of that age to death. Annual expeditions are sent out to defeat her, but it is a seemingly impossible task.

Death—in this world of painterly terms and sensitive brushes—is inevitable, which makes the question of having children a pertinent choice. Is it selfish not to want to replenish humanity, or is it selfish to bring children into such a world? And before death reaches us all, what legacy will you leave behind? Perhaps a child, a painting, or—in the case of French studio Sandfall Interactive—a video game. 🎨💀

Clair Obscur joins a long heritage of Japanese-style RPGs, with clear influences from titles like Final Fantasy, Persona, and FromSoftware's Dark Souls games. Its use of turn-based combat and interactive map recall Squaresoft's '90s glory days, while its stat bonuses and focus on parrying are pure Soulsborne. However, as an amalgamation of all this—with a healthy dose of French authenticity—Clair Obscur gives a subtle nod to the past while maintaining its own unique identity. 🌍✨

Expectations need to be set, though. It may look and feel like a modern epic, with its fantastical environments and expressive characters, but it's also an ambitious game from a team of just 30 people, making it smaller in scope than one might imagine. This may be disappointing, but it allows the team to focus on what they do best, ensuring there's substance beyond style. This is an indie game in AAA trappings; or a small, intricate painting in a very elegant frame. 🖼️💎

Truly, this is a stunning work of art. It's a world consumed by a disturbing melancholy, but also by beauty and wonder, as it dips a brush firmly into the surreal to match its strange narrative. Sun-drenched forest paths give way to shimmering underwater landscapes with whales soaring above; lost Belle Époque cities and civilizations lead to abstract ship graveyards teeming with gothic knights from a FromSoftware nightmare.

And the visuals are complemented by a melancholic soundtrack that transforms from soft strings and piano songs to synths and rock guitars in the heat of combat. A little more levity wouldn't hurt, as the game as a whole is consistently gloomy, and even the most colorful areas remain autumnal. Despite its name, Clair Obscur is more shadow than light. ☀️🌑

The world map is particularly impressive, visually modernizing an archaic design. Where, for example, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth transformed the flat textures of the original PS1 world map into a fully open world, Clair Obscur presents a more traditional map to explore, with separate dungeons (and the occasional town), but with a stunning facelift.

The world map exemplifies the studio's approach to the game as a whole: taking the smaller scope of older game design and enriching it for a modern audience. And once it finally opens up and you're given complete freedom to discover its secrets, there's also surprising depth; the endgame is filled with additional dungeons and super-difficult bosses. Just don't expect a sprawling world and a huge variety of playstyles and minigames like in the game's contemporaries; instead, combat is your only meaningful interaction with the world. ⚔️🗺️

Dungeon exploration suffers as a result, lacking variety. This is where the game feels most disappointing: sure, the environments look pretty, but progress is linear beyond a few side paths. As in Dark Souls, progression is achieved through checkpoints (here flags, rather than bonfires) that replenish limited health flasks and respawn enemies. However, while each area is visually distinctive, exploration becomes repetitive throughout the game, with level design consisting of simple paths to follow.

The lack of a minimap is also a curious decision. On the one hand, its omission leads to frustrating disorientation, especially in the more advanced labyrinths. On the other hand, its inclusion could have highlighted how limited each area truly is. Of all the Final Fantasy games it has inspired, Clair Obscur often feels most like Final Fantasy 13, with its beautiful but linear progression. At its most basic, the game is a monotonous combat ordeal that left me longing for a proper dungeon-crawling puzzler. 🧩⛓️

Thankfully, while combat is the game's highlight, it's absolutely sublime and varied enough to carry the entire experience. For those craving a modernized take on traditional Japanese-style turn-based combat, Clair Obscur is for you. Its stylized battle interface takes inspiration from Persona, while its action elements are a natural evolution of Super Mario RPG and the more recent Sea of Stars. Players aren't passive during combat, but must attack, dodge, shoot, and parry with well-timed button mashing, alongside the usual elemental affinities and spectacular abilities. 🎮✨

That's to say, Clair Obscur is, essentially, a rhythm game. And it certainly takes time to adjust to its tempo. Dodging requires more flexible timing than parrying, but the latter is just as satisfying as in Sekiro once you get the rhythm right. Enemy combos require each attack to be parried in succession, meaning each round of enemy hits is like a dance pattern to learn.

It's not completely you need to beat the game (and it can be automated for accessibility), but the parry is so powerful – and it feels so It's fine when the sound effects boom and the action slows down – which is a defining part of the game, especially during more challenging encounters. 🕺⚔️

But that's just the beginning. Clair Obscur's combat system is multi-layered. Each character in the party has their own distinct fighting method—not just a different weapon, but a new system to learn. Take the magical Lune: her elemental spells leave behind "taints" that are absorbed by other spells to increase their power, leading to rewarding sequences of ice-fire-lightning-earth spells, if you manage to time them correctly.

Maelle alternates between offensive and defensive stances with each swing of her sword; while Sciel uses cards to build Prediction on absorbed enemies for multiple effects, balancing her Sun and Moon Scythe abilities to enter a vicious Twilight Mode. Each character excels at their combat style rather than their personality, and regularly switching between characters prevents combat from feeling monotonous, while new abilities are learned on a skill tree to further fine-tune playstyles. I just wish it was possible to switch characters mid-battle, like in Final Fantasy 10, so they could be used more equitably. 🔄⚔️

And there's more! Characters collect numerous weapons, each with elemental affinities and additional bonuses, once they're leveled up. Furthermore, these weapons have attribute scaling with certain character stats, just like in Dark Souls; for example, one weapon might provide an attack boost based on a character's Speed stat, while another might provide an attack boost based on Luck or Vitality. It's a clever way to ensure characters can be customized to their playstyle, with each new piece of equipment being a viable option, rather than simply going for the newest, strongest weapon. ⚒️💪

Then there are Picts, Clair Obscur’s other layer of customization that works similarly to Final Fantasy 9’s Skills. Picts are found scattered throughout the world or obtained after enemy encounters. These provide either a stat boost or some kind of buff: replenishing health with a parry, for example, or providing extra skill points in a perfectly timed slalom. Players can equip three Picts at a time, but after four battles, the effects are permanently learned and can be equipped by any character. There are dozens of Picts to find, and as characters grow, they can stack multiple learned skills—it’s an incredibly empowering system. 💖📜

If all of this seems overly complex, know that the game introduces these options piecemeal, with the endgame providing enough challenges to experiment with (or reconfigure) your character builds. My only complaint is that the menus seem designed for mouse and cursor rather than a controller, and can be confusing to navigate, creating a slightly laborious layer for customization. Still, Clair Obscur's combat is ideal for RPG players whose passion for experimenting with skill swapping coincides with a love of musical rhythm (that's me, hi!). 🎵🚀

Of course, the best RPGs are those that combine mechanical depth and narrative. Clair Obscur's plot sensitively addresses the traumatic themes of death and grief, but it's also complex and impressionistic, like a colorful mess that slowly takes shape the further you step. Its dreamlike, fantastical quality eventually evolves into a more human family drama with relatable questions (the aforementioned children, for example), while collectible journals offer additional snippets of lore, and characters chat through small campfire interactions.

Much of this happens in the endgame, where it focuses on both character moments and challenging combat that tie everything together beautifully. I just wish it spent less time in the beginning enjoying the mystery and explained its key plot points a little more quickly. There's enough intrigue to keep you engaged, but early on, the combat intrigued me more than the plot. 📚🔍

So, the main problem is the pacing. It's as if the writers were so concerned with telling the story subtly before its exciting plot twists that they were afraid to give anything away. The dialogue, as a result, feels too fragmented and lacks conversational flow, as if the characters knew details that hadn't yet been explained.

For much of the story, I felt like an outsider, as frustrated as I was fascinated. I eventually warmed to the characters thanks to heartfelt performances from actors like Ben Starr and Jennifer English, but the characterization is sketchy, and beyond the combat styles, the group isn't as iconic as those from the Final Fantasy games that Clair Obscur seeks to emulate. 🤷‍♂️💔

But then you're back in battle, not against a terrifying creature, but against a French mime after he's dressed the characters in a striped costume called a Baguette. Outside of the main plot, there's a wonderfully ridiculous—and self-deprecating—ness to Clair Obscur that, along with its exceptional art direction and unique battle mechanics, ensures the game feels distinct.

It's an ambitious but impressive debut from the studio that, despite a somewhat fanciful narrative, is a profound exploration of grief and the power of art. And while the development team has chosen to focus on certain areas at the expense of others, where it succeeds it truly shines. Clair Obscur may be a painting with a limited color palette, but the result is a bold and striking vision. 🎭🌈