Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has become one of my favorite turn-based RPGs, but a development in Act 3 nearly made me lose interest.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33caught my eye when it was first unveiled at the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase and became one of my most-anticipated games. Still, I didn’t expect to like it nearly as much as I did, with the game now standing as one of my favorites of the year and potentially one of my favorite games of all time.
But while I have had an incredible time playingClair Obscur: Expedition 33, it does have one glaring flaw that has kept me from ranking it higher among my favorite games. My issue pops up at the end of Act 2, with the problem coloring the events ofAct 3. Be warned thatMAJOR SPOILERSfollow forClair Obscur: Expedition 33, so please finish the game before reading on.
WARNING: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Spoilers FollowSome have said they don’t like Act 3 inClair Obscurbecause of the increased difficulty, and they feel overwhelmed with places to go. Indeed, by Act 3Esquie has the ability to flyand players are able to reach all kinds of new places that were previously inaccessible. Many of these areas are filled with super-tough enemies, and I can understand how some players may feel a bit directionless while trying to figure out what to do before moving forward with the main goal of defeating Renoir. They go to one place, hit a roadblock that’s even more challenging than the final Renoir boss fight, go somewhere else, run into similar issues, and so on.
A common issue with RPGs is finding yourself in a situation where you are simply not high enough level to win. If the math doesn’t work and you don’t have some genius builds set-up, you more or lesshaveto grind to higher levels to succeed. This is not the case forClair Obscur. Thanks tothe wayClair Obscur’s combat system works, where players can dodge or parry the vast majority of enemy attacks, it’s always possible to out-skill any situation. Battles might take a while, but if you master the dodging and parrying, you may eventually succeed.
Because of this, I don’t really take umbrage with the sudden difficulty spike inClair ObscurAct 3. My problem is with the story. Up to Act 3,Clair Obscur’s story is an all-timer. It starts with an emotional Thanos snap, builds upbig bad Renoirby having him and some monsters decimate most of the titular Expedition 33 as soon as they make landfall, and then brutally kills off the supposed main character Gustave before it even reaches the halfway point.Clair Obscur’s shocking story developments left me feeling like literally anything could happen, which is something I rarely experience in a game story. From its prologue through the first two acts, the game presented a breathtakingly beautiful and epic fantasy world with dizzyingly high stakes, and likable characters brought to life through brilliant performances, but the big plot twist undermines what came before.
Clair Obscur’s World Isn’t ‘Real,’ And That Hurts the Story’s Emotional Impact
The gist of it is that the world players have been exploring inClair Obscurisn’t “real.” It’s a Canvas containing the “painted” versions of real-world people and others that do not seem to have real-world equivalents. I understand that the events of the game are still “real” to the characters living in the Canvas, but it still seriously hurts my investment in everything that has happened up to that point. It retroactively makesheartbreaking events like the Gommageand Gustave putting a gun to his own head while surrounded by piles of dead Expeditioners mean a lot less. Stripped down, it’s basically yet another multiverse story, which is a tired trope that robs things of their emotional weight.
But even though I did not likeClair Obscur’s big twist, it’s still a Game of the Year frontrunner for me alongsideBlue PrinceandSplit Fiction. I was completely enthralled by the story for the first two acts, and the gameplay never stopped being fun. I am completely hooked on the game well after finishing its main story and look forward to getting 100% completion, though finding thejournals of past Expeditionswas a lot more interesting before I knew that none of it was “real.”
