Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based role-playing video game (RPG) set in a fantasy world inspired by Belle Époque France. Developed by the French studio Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive, the game was released on April 24, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. The game's premise revolves around a grim annual event. Each year, a mysterious being known as the Paintress awakens and paints a number on her monolith. Anyone of that age turns to smoke and vanishes in an event called the "Gommage." This cursed number decreases with each passing year, leading to more people being erased. The story follows Expedition 33, the latest group of volunteers from the isolated island of Lumière, who embark on a desperate, possibly final, mission to destroy the Paintress and end her cycle of death before she paints "33". Players lead this expedition, following the trails of previous, unsuccessful expeditions and uncovering their fates. Gameplay in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a blend of traditional turn-based JRPG mechanics with real-time actions. Players control a party of characters from a third-person perspective, exploring the world and engaging in combat. While combat is turn-based, it incorporates real-time elements such as dodging, parrying, and countering attacks, as well as mastering attack rhythms to chain combos and a free-aim system for targeting enemy weak points. These real-time actions aim to make battles more immersive. Players can craft unique builds for their "Expeditioners" through gear, stats, skills, and character synergies. The game features six playable characters, each with unique skill trees, weapons, and gameplay mechanics. For example, the mage Lune generates elemental "Stains" to enhance her skills, while the fencer Maelle can switch stances to alter her abilities. If the main combat party is defeated, reserve characters can be brought in to continue the fight. The game offers adjustable difficulty settings: Story, Expeditioner (normal), and Expert. While the game features large explorable areas, it is not strictly open-world, with gameplay progressing through linear levels. The development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began around 2020, with the initial idea conceived by Guillaume Broche, then an employee at Ubisoft, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired by JRPGs like the Final Fantasy and Persona series, Broche aimed to create a high-fidelity turn-based RPG, a genre he felt was neglected by AAA developers. After creating a demo with the help of other developers, Broche secured funding from Kepler Interactive and formed Sandfall Interactive with a core team of about thirty people. The game was initially developed using Unreal Engine 4 and later transitioned to Unreal Engine 5. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has received critical acclaim and achieved significant commercial success, selling 3.3 million units as of May 27, 2025. The game's success has been seen as a positive sign for mid-sized games with unique visions in a challenging market. Reviewers have praised its bold mechanics, emotional depth, and unique art style. The developers intentionally designed the game to be a relatively short and intense experience, with the main quest estimated to be around 20 hours, aiming to respect the player's time. A live-action adaptation of the game was announced in January 2025 by Story Kitchen in collaboration with Sandfall Interactive.