Initial Thoughts – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

The biggest Game of the Year winner of 2025, across the industry. I absolutely had to get stuck into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

A French-made JRPG that swept-up at the game awards. To say I’m intrigued is an understatement. Plus, after finishing Final Fantasy VII Remake, and getting into Final Fantasy X last year. I’m on a JRPG kick.

The real question is, can a game live up to this much hype from the outside? I’m approaching Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with an open mind, but it’s hard to keep that skeptical part of my brain quiet.

At just over 12 hours in, it feels like a good time to make a initial assessment!

The good stuff

There’s no denying that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is doing a lot of great stuff. It’s a really fresh, modern take on the standard JRPG format. Keeping core elements like turn-based combat and levelling up characters and abilities.

There’s even a world map to travel across to get to your next destination.

Camping reminds me very much of Baldur’s Gate 3, using the camp as an opportunity to talk with your expedition party and others that have joined along the way. With moment for character building and chance to upgrade stuff. It’s a lovely reprieve in-between main areas you visit for the main story.

All of the characters are wonderfully realised. With excellent voice acting, dialogue and even motion capture. All tied-in with a striking and strong aesthetic that just adds French flair at every opportunity.

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 music is joyous, and having a score like this really pulls you into the world.

Combat, whilst traditional at it’s core. Is modern and fun. I love a turn-based system anyway, but combined with what you could consider an “active” defence phase. You’re always on your toes. In stead of just waiting for the enemy to take their turn to attack, and hope for the best. You can dodge, parry or jump as the attacks come in. Wonderfully animated to telegraph what’s coming, and you have to react with precise timing. It’s fun, it’s cleve, and getting that parry and counter attack is one of the best feeling mechanics in modern gaming.

This is all tied together with a story that’s starting to really shape-up. I’d initially struggled to engage with it, largel because the pace feels quite fast at the beginning. but after hitting the end of Act 1. I’m more invested than I expected. The characters feel real, the stakes feel significant, and the world feels truly realised.

The not so good stuff

All the above said. I’m still not sure I’ve found what makes it “click” for everyone. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does pretty much everything well, or amazingly. But I feel like my expectations have been set for something ground breaking and it’s not there yet.

It’s early doors, and my only gripe is “I don’t love it like everyone else”. So I suspect that it’ll come, and when everything else is so solid, it feels weird to have any complaint sor issues.

I will say that I’m struggling to get it to look amazing. Running it all on ultra on PC, the character hair is distracting. I’m positive this is my own issue, but so far have found no good way to resolve it. Keeping it nice and tight at 1080p and 60fps, the performance is solid. Movement and reactions feel natural, but the hair looks crap, and all of these people have long hair.

Not the end of the world, by any stretch, but there must be something I can do.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actually runs reasonably well on the Steam Deck, too. I can’t quite believe it, but here we are. Locked at 40 frames per second, and quality derived from AMD FSR. It mostly looks great, and plays really well. The hair is even worse here, but I can accept it on a small screen.

So far

There’s plenty to go at and plenty of time. So it will hopefully click. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does pretty much everything right, so I’m not even sure how to do a full 3-piece review process.

Something is going to have to go drastically wrong for me to not finish it. But I cannot, for the life of me, see what all the fuss is about.

If we’re talking game of the year, it doesn’t really hold a candle to our winner Ghost of Yotei. Still, until I see it through to the end, who knows?

For anyone keeping track, yes, I’m still playing through Death Stranding 2 as well. But that’s taken a back seat whilst I focus on this.

All in good time.