Expedition 33 Is a Stunning RPG That Feels Both Classic & Innovative All at Once

I beat Expedition 33 a week and a half ago, and since then, I’ve been thinking about the game every single day, even almost every single hour. I’ve been agonizing over how I feel about story choices and the ending. That, to me, is the mark of something truly revolutionary.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the most remarkable achievements I’ve seen in video games in the last decade — a stunning debut from a new studio that both harnesses the spirit of classic JRPGs and pushes forward in a bold new direction that is utterly steeped in French culture and art, specifically what’s known as the Belle Époque that started in 1871. But even more than that, Expedition 33 feels like an indictment of the way RPGs have developed — how the genre has relegated turn-based games and classic elements to nostalgic throwbacks. It proves that those “classic” elements can still be fresh when used effectively, that there’s a place for high-quality turn-based games with innovative mechanics, stunning performances, and unflinchingly bold storytelling. Expedition 33 is a modern-day masterpiece.

Into the Unknown

Expedition 33 draws clear inspiration from a handful of different games, namely the likes of Final Fantasy, Lost Odyssey, and NieR. And while those inspirations shine through as clear as day, the game quickly carves out its own unique identity. A major proponent of that identity is its jaw-dropping visual style and tightly paced story, grabbing you from the opening hour and never letting go.

The world of Expedition 33 is a dark fantasy setting based on the Belle Époque of France (1871-1914). Roughly translating to “Beautiful Era,” it was defined by a sense of optimism and technological innovation, with a distinct architectural style. You can see this style in every facet of the game, giving Expedition 33 a markedly unique visual aesthetic that oftentimes deliberately clashes with the surprisingly grim and oppressive story.

Years ago, a cataclysmic event called The Fracture broke the world, and the only remaining humans now live in Lumiere City. When The Fracture happened, a godlike being known as The Paintress appeared, as well as an imposing monolith. Each year, The Paintress awakens and paints a new number on the monolith, and everyone that age disappears into nothingness. Lumier sends out a new “Expedition” each year to try and eliminate the Paintress, but one by one they all fail. Now, the number has counted down over decades, and a young inventor named Gustave, his sister Maelle, and a handful of others are sent on the suicide mission known as Expedition 33.

Every Expedition has to cross a vast ocean to land on The Continent, a huge landmass that humanity practically knows nothing about. That creates a core mystery for both the character in the game and the player themself — and that conundrum is at the heart of everything the narrative does. Expedition 33 has a gripping story filled with phenomenally written characters. All of this is presented in a mostly linear RPG fashion, where you make your way through hand-designed areas and progress the story, all of which are linked together by an overworld map. While narrative is clearly the big focus, the way it weaves in with the gameplay systems is impeccable (which we’ll get to in a bit).

This is a game with a story to tell and messages to impart. More than anything, Expedition 33 is a treatise on grief — it can unexpectedly mold our lives and turn us into different people — and ultimately if it’s truly possible to move on. The game communicates these themes on both an immediate level and in the overarching narrative. But it’s hard to talk about specifics without major spoilers, as Expedition 33 is a game that had my jaw on the floor with some of the places it goes and of the major narrative swings it takes. There are twists and moments here that are meant to feel unsatisfying and heartbreaking in a way. Tying in with that overall theme, Expedition 33 wants you to sit with your grief for this story itself, thinking about that on a larger scale. It’s a masterfully told tale that, despite the oppressive themes, still finds a way to be humorous and hopeful.

While there are some narrative choices later on that I don’t wholly agree with, as I said at the start, I’ve sat with this story for days. I’ve turned what happened over and over in my mind, coming around on a lot of things the further I got from the experience. But even moments with weak writing aren’t generally a problem because of the game’s biggest strength: its performances.

Expedition 33 has some of the strongest performances I’ve ever seen in a video game — both in terms of sheer voice acting and impeccable facial and motion capture. Two years ago, Baldur’s Gate 3 received widespread acclaim for its performance, and I’d even put Expedition 33 above that. At every single opportunity, this cast takes a good story and turns it into something truly unforgettable, adding a kind of high-art stage play feel that only bolsters the game’s fantastical feel. I think a big part of this is because it almost feels like the characters were written for these specific actors. The kind and quiet Gustave is played perfectly by Charlie Cox, with the actor’s infectious smile breathing personality into the character. Jennifer English plays Maelle with a harrowing sense of vulnerability that you can practically see behind her eyes. Kirsty Rider’s Lune exudes confidence, with an underlying vulnerability. In every way, it feels like this game’s performances set a new bar for video games in general, not just RPGs. And it’s even more remarkable that this is tied to a “classic” RPG where the mechanics shine just as bright.

Beating the Odds

As much as I can endlessly compliment Expedition 33’s story, remarkably, its gameplay systems feel just as fresh and evocative. The format of the game is what you’ve seen before in games like Lost Odyssey or Final Fantasy, but Expedition 33 perfectly gets what makes those experiences special.

The real star of the show here is the turn-based combat, a remarkably intuitive system that holds a remarkable amount of depth. Expedition 33 feels like the ultimate realization of what games like the Legend of Dragoon tried to do, a timing-based system that fuses action combat with turn-based. While there have been some admirable attempts at doing this, none have felt quite as viscerally satisfying as Expedition 33.

The basics are the same as most turn-based games: Your characters and the enemy take turns based on speed. Every character has their own unique set of skills and attacks, and each skill requires a timing input. But on top of that, you have a variety of timing-based defensive options, starting with parries and dodges. Dodging enemy attacks is easier, but parrying lets you do a counterattack. Every single enemy in the game has its own unique attack patterns to combat, so every battle isn’t just you tactically deciding commands, but also interactively engaging by timing your attacks and your defensive options. As you progress through the game, Expedition 33 introduces even more timing-based ideas, like jumping to avoid sweeping attacks and Gradient Counters to block special attacks.

The crux is that every battle in Expedition 33 isn’t just a passive turn-based affair but something you need to be actively engaged with at all times. The combat system is consistently demanding, in both boss battles and regular battles — so if you’re looking for a passive affair, you’re not going to find it here. Occasionally, the timing windows on enemy attacks can be hard to discrete, but overall the whole timing system works impeccably well.

But that’s just the basis of combat, and Expedition 33 layers in a ton more complexity. Every single character has their own unique gimmick that makes them drastically different in battle, adding to the strategy of party composition. For example, Maelle has three different stances she switches among by using attacks, boosting her attack, defence, and other stats. Meanwhile, Monaco is essentially like a Final Fantasy Blue Mage that unlocks attacks by collecting the enemy’s feet (yes, really) and beating them in battle. His unique gimmick is a Beast Wheel that goes between different archetypes, and if you use an attack of the same archetype, it gets a boost.

These unique elements add meaningful variety to the combat system, and are then complemented by Pictos, skills you’ll collect through battle and exploration. Each character can equip three at a time. But it also works similarly to Final Fantasy IX’s skill system, where after enough battles, a character will learn the skill on a Picto — thus unlocking it for the entire party. As a character’s level, they earn ability points, and you can also find items to increase the points a character has.

This whole system is definitely complicated and not really explained very well in-game, but it holds fantastic depth that lets you break the combat system wide open — especially in the endgame. While there is some learning required, the Picto system holds phenomenal depth that truly lets you build each character in a variety of ways, allowing for an array of different party strategies and builds. I cannot overstate how good it feels to be able to break this combat system. Later in the game, my characters could take two turns at once, heal every turn, and cause millions of damage with a single hit.

It’s genuinely impressive how the combat doesn’t just feel good on a core level but meaningfully grows in leaps and bounds across the experience — completely in lockstep with the growing complexity of the narrative. But another part of what makes this work is a good sense of pacing, when to double down on narrative or gameplay, and the sheer variety of the areas you visit.

Each and every area in the game looks and feels thematically distinct — from a stunning underwater forest to the city of the bizarre little creatures known as Gestrals, where they opine on the value of one-on-one combat and philosophy. While they’re mostly linear, there is some room for exploration in terms of optional treasure and bosses.

But there’s a trick there, as Expedition 33 does have a large exploration component; it’s just layered into the world map itself and back-loaded into the latter half of the game. In the game’s third act, you unlock the ability to fly with the bizarre creature Esquie, who functions as both your airship and a lovable companion that’s happy to give out hugs.

There are dozens of optional areas to visit and secrets to uncover across the world, and once you unlock the ability to fly, it’s legitimately like there’s a whole other game packed in — a generous endgame filled with truly challenging superbosses and crucial combat skills to discover. I was legitimately blown away by how much optional content there is to uncover and how almost all of it felt engaging in some way. Superbosses put some fascinating spins on the core combat, and a handful of the optional dungeons genuinely contribute to the main narrative in compelling ways, wrapping up some lingering plotlines.

Painting a Picture

Expedition 33 is truly an example where every single element of a game works in concert to add up to one impeccable vision. Nothing in this game is superfluous in any way; it’s all tuned to a tight 60-hour runtime, where nearly every hour contains something compelling. From its gorgeous emotional soundtrack to its thrilling combat, it’s hard to believe this is a game created by a brand-new studio. If I didn’t know better and you told me this was made by an established studio like Square Enix, I’d believe it.

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that sat with me this much, a game where I ate up every optional battle and dungeon and couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about the story. The wonder I felt playing games like Final Fantasy 7 or Wild Arms as a child is fully harnessed here, but given a cutting modern edge.

In a lot of ways, Expedition 33 plays almost like an alternate history game, where RPGs didn’t become hyperfocused on realism and stuck to advancing classic features that are evocative of ideas, rather than realistic.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn’t just a great RPG, it’s a generational one — and picture proof of the power of how a team’s clear passion, when used just right, can be used to create something transcendent.

10/10

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches April 24 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Inverse reviewed the PC version.

INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.