It would be naive to say that turned-based RPGs are not very popular in this day and age. There is certainly a dedicated player-base who love them but it is fair to say that they are not necessarily something the casual gamer would pick up. When Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year at the Game Awards in 2023, discourse online was all over the place because it was a turn-based game. Those desperately wanting Spider-Man 2 to win (having probably played no other releases) slated it for being just a boring and pedestrian experience compared to their superhero slam-fest. However games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Yakuza: Like a Dragon are turn-based but uncontroversially thought to be excellent video games by those properly in the gaming space. It is baffling to see such disdain for turn-based games when some of the great founding RPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest were made this way. This brings us to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which is the latest, for some reason controversially, turn-based RPG to release. Clearly inspired by JRPG greats, as well as having some modern twists, this is one of the finest of its kind and one of the best games I have had the pleasure of playing.

The game places you in a fantasy land, portrayed as a shadowy inverse of the peaceful belle époque France. There is the shattered city of Lumiére which is loomed over by a bent and broken looking Eiffel Tower. The world is broken and the residents livelihoods aren’t much better, particularly due to their lives’ increasing brevity. Looking to the horizon there is a huge monolith and at the base of it sits the Paintress. Every year, she paints a number and anyone of that age dies. The number decreases year by year in a ceremony known as the Gommage where everybody who is due to die will say goodbye to their loved ones and disappear. And so come the expeditions because as a reaction to the Gommage every year, a group of those who may be close to death or do not feel like they belong in Lumiére set off into the broken continent. Their goal, and by default yours too, is to get to the Monolith and defeat the Paintress so that she may not paint death again.

Now if a picture has not been painted already for how visceral and engaging this world and story is, it just keeps going once you get to the continent to actually start your expedition. The writing in this game is simply outstanding and encapsulates that French charm of being haunting and tragic, yet endlessly hopeful and beautiful. The premise and setting already convey that and throughout is this a thoroughly layered story about grief, family and confrontation of reality. The thing that really immerses you in this story is the characters though and that is no small part due to the excellent all-star voice cast. From those prominent in the industry currently like Ben Starr (Verso) and Jennifer English (Maelle), to proper on-screen stars like Charlie Cox (Gustave) and Andy Serkis (Renoir), there is no weak link here. It would be a travesty to spoil anything about their personal journeys so you simply must experience it for yourself. Reminiscent of the great RPG character casts like in Mass Effect or Dragon Age, everyone is loveable in their own ways.Whatever you do, do not forget to speak to them at any given moment back at camp because their personal and more intimate feelings conveyed in these conversation make the perfect backdrops for this overall wonderful story.

As far as an actual RPG goes, the mechanics are crisply polished and not too overcomplicated but still deep enough to sink your teeth into. Each character has their own completely different set of skills to use in battle surrounding their own core mechanic. For example, Lune is the mage and her skills generate elemental stains on use. These stains can be used to amplify her future attacks so it becomes a matter of thinking ahead, perhaps doing a weaker attack to generate a stain for a devastating blow. Maelle has a stance system where she can be stanceless, defensive, offensive or virtuose. Each of these stances come from using attacks and similarly you are having to plan which stance to be in, potentially for an enemy attack or your own. This is but two of the overall six playable characters and every single one has their own system like this. Skills are actioned by Action Points (AP) and this can be generated by timing parries just right or by setting modifiers known as Pictos that award them for other things like even just getting hit. As well as just the standard RPG levelling up attributes, these pictos can grant massive boosts to your stats and allow for deep build variation. These attributes also affect your weapon too which you can upgrade and get modifiers from too. It alll sounds daunting and a lot but Expedition 33 manages to pace its flow of information incredibly well and you get the hang of it very quickly. As said, there is so many possibilities for builds because of all the Pictos to find but also things like weapon elements and how they can combine with your skills. It all gels together so smoothly and even without the story, its a joy to just play as well.

The open-world you have to roam around in is called ‘The Continent’ and its overworld portrayal is obviously an homage to older JRPGs with its miniature like format. The actual areas and dungeons you go into are somehow even more beautiful than the map. There are some of the most absurdly good looking backdrops here and the art design is comfortably out of this world. Creatures you encounter all look unique and work for the respective levels they are apart of. Outside of how things look from an art perspective, the graphical fidelity is just on another level. How a team of around 30 main developers made this is immeasurable talent and they should be so proud of what they made. What’s more is how much of it they actually did make. Even after the main story, I have managed to sink at least an extra 10 hours just exploring some of the endgame zones and fighting bosses. I expect to continue until I beat it all and that just goes to show how exceptional this complete package is.

Games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 do not come round very often. An immersive world, gripping story and excellent combat and world design make this game truly special. There was a lot of worry when the Oblivion Remaster shadowdropped two days before this released that it would be overtaken by people playing that instead. However, it seems like people have found their way to this game and are realising how monumental of an experience this is. It is a brilliant win for the industry too with a relatively small team delivering such a titanic hit. The price is low at around £40 and its even on Game Pass so everything has been done to make this reach as many people as possible. And so it should because this is comfortably sitting in my Game of the Year spot so far and it would take something ridiculous to overtake this for me. This will no doubt be put into the RPG hall of fame and I strongly encourage anyone not to skip this. You would be doing yourself a massive disservice.