Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review

I know you probably loved Expedition 33 and wondering what this guy has to say about it! Well Here it is.

🔹The Good🔸 The Bad &🔻The Ugly of Expedition 33

Played on PS5, play time ~ 40 hours

🔹 The Good

🔹 Soundtrack - The soundtrack of the game is God tier! If anyone ever tells you that OST of this game is mid, never believe that person ever again. From the moment you launch the game, it captivates you with its score and never let's you go!

🔹 The visuals are breathtaking with painterly landscapes. From caves to citadels, every environment feels like a work of art, making exploration a constant delight. Every new area you come across just continued to blow my mind and made me wonder how is this game AA!?

🔹 The turn-based combat system is innovative, integrating real-time mechanics like dodging, parrying, and aiming for a dynamic feel. I love parry in a game and it was very well done, although I can see how it would be hard for some who are not into parrying.

🔹 Voice Actors in the game are some of the top class VAs in the industry. How they managed to pull such an incredible cast of Andy Serkis, Charlie Cox, Ben Starr & Jennifer English (to name a few) is beyond my imagination.

🔹 Graphical fidelity, this is where Unreal Engine 5 shined the most. The characters looked incredible and it made me question some of the AAA games( I'm looking at you Bethesda)

🔸 The Bad

🔸 The game’s difficulty spikes can be jarring(It wasn't for me because I love parry mechanics), particularly in boss fights but the parry window should be more flexible between the difficulty settings for gamers who do not play the games for intense combat.

🔸 Exploration, while visually rewarding, lacks meaningful side content. Side quests are often fetch-based and don’t match the main story’s quality, making the world feel underutilized outside the critical path.

🔸 The pacing falters in the around end of Act 2, with some chapters dragging due to repetitive enemy encounters and overly long cutscenes that disrupt the flow of gameplay.

🔸 Weapon Upgrade system - I didn't find it meaningful, as soon as I upgrade my weapons a better one dropped in the game and eventually I stopped upgrading my weapon.

🔻 The Ugly

🔻 The constant tragedy in the game felt emotionally manipulative rather than earned.

SpawnSays: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will forever be known to me as a game that made me want to try more JRPGs(a genre the eludes me). The game captures you like no other starting with its OST and doesn't let you off until the end. It's one of those games that come out maybe once or twice in a decade and reshape where the game industry is moving. This game certainly met every gamers expectation that they want from a game and made it fun( and emotional).

Based on this review, do you think you will play Expedition 33 or pass it?