Expedition 33 is a painting come to life and I love it

My absolute number one favourite game is Pokémon HeartGold. Aside from Pokémon Blue and Red, I’ve played every iteration of these titles. Many don’t realize that these main series Pokémon games fall in the Japanese role-playing game genre, better known as “JRPG.” Despite my love for this series of titles, I haven’t really found any other JRPG that I’ve liked. I’ve tried the likes of Final Fantasy and Persona and they never really clicked. And while I liked Metaphor ReFantazio, it didn’t have much staying power for me; that game is damn long.

However, I fell in love with Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and after finishing the main story, I can say it’s now among one of my favourite games.

Despite its JRPG mechanics, I really got into the title, which is surprising. I don’t seem to vibe a lot with turn-based combat; I hate managing teams of characters, and games with too much complexity cause me to lose interest. However, Clair Obscur does a lot of these features in a way that kept my interest in its roughly 30-hour main storyline. (Speaking of that, a lot of JRPGs are far too long, I remember thinking I was about 35 hours into Metaphor: ReFantazio and barely got anywhere in the game.)

Additionally, Clair Obscur‘s story had enough twists and turns to keep me interested and wanting to learn more. I absolutely fell in love with the narrative and was dying to know how it ended. I thought it kept getting better and better throughout its 30 hours, and it was even quite inspiring for someone who dreams of one day writing a book.

However, the combat mechanics of this game is what really grabbed my attention. It might be turn-based, but there’s also a dodging and parrying system. This seemed so simple, but I fell in love with the system. Your parries needed to be incredibly precise, and if you parried every hit during an enemy’s attack, there was a satisfying counterattack performed by your character. Among my favourite games are Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Lies of P and Dark Souls 3, and in these Soulslike titles, your character faces excruciatingly difficult bosses.

I’m not naturally talented at fighting these bosses, as I’m that type of person who needs to fight 90 per cent of these bosses at least once or twice (or 50 times) to understand their combat styles so I can get those perfect dodges, counters and know when to strike. Expedition 33’s combat reminded me of these Soulslike titles. I needed to fight many enemies and bosses once or twice so I could perfectly time my parries. And when I fought some of them without getting hit once, it was incredibly satisfying, especially when the attack hit my whole team, and the group counterattack felt flashy and cool.

The audio and visual design are also standout features, making both the combat and the overall game incredibly enjoyable. I’m a sucker for good visuals, and Sandfall Interactive made an especially beautiful game. From the variety of enemies, flashy moves and even how your character animates, my eyes were glued to the screen, and my ears to the speakers. Counterattacks, especially the powerful contextual Gradient Counters, had such impactful audio cues, and the music throughout the game was lovely and distinctly French. Even dialogue was fun to listen to, especially when a character slipped in French cusses, and as someone who took French Immersion throughout his schooling, it was fun to hear the mix of a bit of non-Quebecois French.

And the voice acting is superb; Jennifer English (Baldur’s Gate 3), Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings), Charlie Cox (Marvel’s Daredevil) and the rest of the cast did such amazing jobs, and I could listen to Ben Starr’s (Final Fantasy XVI) voice every day. Like, c’mon, the dude has such a hot voice. And I spent a good amount of time wondering why they made Charlie Cox and Ben Starr’s characters so attractive. It was worth noting that some weird smoothing happened during some scenes. This could be off-putting to some, but at the same time, it added its charm. I could be biased because I fell in love with this game, but in my eyes, it made the game look like strokes of a painting.

Other elements of the game I enjoyed were just getting to know these characters, and there were optional but rewarding experiences you can have with each of the characters whenever you were at camp. And while I’m not a huge fan of managing characters, the fact that there were only five characters you had to play around with made it more bearable than some other JRPGs and even RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3. I also thought the Lumina and Picto system, which give your characters passive abilities, was easy to figure out and wasn’t that complicated and could really change how you play each character. Even their weapons often had passive abilities that added another sense of depth, like Verso’s Dualiso that look like badass purple dual lightsabers and allow him to perform extra base attacks each turn. My Verso never ran out of skill points, and I was always using his top-level moves.

Each of their characters has their skill trees as well, which even made levelling up a little more interesting. And one of the characters, a creature known as a Gestral named Monoco, could learn moves from defeated enemies by collecting their feet, which was honestly the silliest thing I’ve ever heard, but also super cool as he transforms into previous enemies during battle. I liked that each of the characters had little combat specializations, like Verso starting each battle at D rank and throughout the battle, which increases depending on the moves you use. On top of that, certain skills have different abilities depending on your rank.

I don’t think Expedition 33 is the best game in this category, but all these elements, especially the engaging combat, had me falling in love with the title. This game isn’t unique in these elements. Metaphor: ReFantazio sounds and looks amazing. I’ve heard that Final Fantasy VII has one of the best stories ever in a video game, and Canada’s Sea of Stars has parrying-like mechanics. However, I think the combination of all of these aspects packaged in a 30-hour campaign made me fall in love with Expedition 33.

It’s also a little cheaper than regular full-price games, which is always really nice, especially during this economic climate.

Image Credit: Sandfall Interactive