Video games usually stick to what works. You've got your gritty fantasy worlds, your neon-soaked cyberpunk streets, and your space marines shooting aliens. But every now and then, a trailer drops that makes the entire industry pause and squint at their monitors. That's exactly what happened when Sandfall Interactive showed off Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
It looks weird. It looks expensive. And honestly, it looks like nothing else currently on the release calendar.
The game is a turn-based RPG, which is already a bold choice for a high-fidelity Unreal Engine 5 project. But it’s the setting that really messes with your head. We’re talking about Belle Époque France—think late 19th-century Paris—mixed with a surrealist nightmare. There is a giant woman called the Paintress who wakes up once a year to paint a number on a monolith. Everyone of that age just... vanishes. Turns to smoke. Poof.
Right now, she’s about to paint "33." That’s where you come in.
The Weird, Beautiful World of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The term "Clair Obscur" isn't just a fancy name the developers picked because it sounded European. It’s the French translation of chiaroscuro, that dramatic lighting technique you see in paintings by Rembrandt or Caravaggio where everything is high-contrast shadows and piercing light. Sandfall Interactive is leanng into this aesthetic hard.
Most games use lighting to show you where to go. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 uses it to tell you how doomed you are.
You play as Gustave, a guy leading a desperate group of explorers on a suicide mission to kill the Paintress before she can erase the 33-year-olds. It’s a ticking clock narrative, but it's draped in lace, gold leaf, and terrifyingly large statues. The scale is genuinely unsettling. You’ll be walking through a field, and suddenly you realize the "mountain" in the distance is actually a giant, petrified hand.
It feels personal.
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Why the Combat Isn't Your Typical Menu-Slogging
If you grew up on Final Fantasy, you know the drill. You pick "Attack," you wait for a bar to fill, you watch an animation. It’s comfortable. It’s also kinda slow. Sandfall is trying to fix that by introducing "Reactive Turn-Based Combat."
Basically, it's not enough to just pick a spell. You have to stay awake.
When an enemy swings a giant, rusted blade at Gustave, you can actually parry or dodge in real-time. If you time a button press perfectly, you take zero damage or even trigger a counter-attack. It reminds me a bit of the Mario & Luigi RPGs or Sea of Stars, but scaled up to look like a $100 million blockbuster. You can even aim your shots in real-time to hit specific weak points. If a monster has a glowing core, you don't just "select" it; you aim at it.
This hybrid approach solves the biggest problem with turn-based games: the feeling that you're just a spectator. Here, if you blink, you’re dead.
The Team Behind the Madness
The voice cast is surprisingly stacked. Usually, indie or mid-sized studios (even those backed by Kepler Interactive) don't get this kind of talent. We’re talking:
- Charlie Cox (yes, Daredevil himself) as Gustave.
- Ben Starr (Clive from Final Fantasy XVI) as Richet.
- Andy Serkis (Gollum/Snoke) as Renoir.
Having Ben Starr and Charlie Cox in the same voice booth is a massive flex. It tells us that the narrative isn't just window dressing for the cool art style. They’re going for an emotional gut-punch. When you're playing a game about people who know they have maybe a few weeks left to live, the acting needs to carry that weight.
Breaking Down the Belle Époque Influence
Why France? Why the 1900s?
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The Belle Époque was a period characterized by optimism, regional peace, and scientific discoveries. It was a "Golden Age." By setting a world-ending catastrophe against this backdrop, the developers create a massive sense of irony. You are walking through the peak of human achievement while the world is literally being erased by a lady with a paintbrush.
It’s an inspired choice.
Instead of dragons, you’re fighting "Lumina"—creatures that look like they crawled out of a fever dream at the Louvre. The architecture is Haussmann-style apartments crumbling into a void. It’s beautiful, sure, but it’s deeply melancholic. You’ve got these characters wearing high-collared coats and intricate leather gear, looking like they're ready for a gala and a trench war at the same time.
What Most People Are Getting Wrong About Expedition 33
There’s a misconception floating around Reddit that this is an open-world game. It’s not.
Don't expect Elden Ring. This is a focused, narrative-driven journey. While the environments are sprawling and gorgeous, the game is structured around the "Expedition." You move forward. You explore side paths for loot and lore, but you aren't spending fifty hours clearing out map icons.
Another thing: people keep comparing it to Bloodborne. I get it. The hats, the Victorian-adjacent vibes, the darkness. But Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is much more vibrant. It uses a color palette that includes bright reds, deep blues, and shimmering golds. It’s not just "grimdark." It’s "artistic-dark."
The difficulty is also a point of contention. Because of the parry system, some fans worry it’ll be too hard for traditional RPG fans. Sandfall has been pretty vocal about the fact that while skill matters, your stats and gear still carry the day. You can't just "reflex" your way through a boss if your strategy is garbage.
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The Technical Marvel of Unreal Engine 5
We’ve seen a lot of "UE5" trailers that end up looking like stuttering messes on launch. However, the footage shown for Expedition 33 looks remarkably stable. The detail on the character models—the stitching in the fabric, the way light hits the metallic surfaces—is top-tier.
But the real star is the environment design. The game uses a lot of "impossible geometry." You might walk through a door and find yourself on a ceiling, or looking out at a sea that's actually made of clouds and floating debris. It takes the "Painting" theme literally. The world feels like it’s being rendered by an artist who is slowly losing their mind.
Actionable Steps for Players Following the Game
If you're as obsessed with this aesthetic as I am, there are a few things you should do to prep for the 2025 release.
First, brush up on your turn-based timing. If you haven't played Lies of P or Sekiro, the concept of a "Perfect Guard" might be new to you. While this isn't a Soulslike, that muscle memory for timing will definitely help with the reactive combat system here.
Second, keep an eye on the official Sandfall Interactive social channels. They’ve been dropping "Scrapbooks"—little snippets of lore that explain the world of the Paintress. Understanding the "rules" of the numbers (why 33? why not 100?) makes the stakes feel a lot higher when you actually start the game.
Finally, check your hardware. This is a current-gen exclusive (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC). If you’re still rocking a base PS4, you're going to miss out on this one. The sheer amount of particle effects and high-res textures makes it a heavy lift for older systems.
What to Watch Next
- The Reveal Trailer: Watch it again, but look at the background. There are dozens of statues that move when the camera isn't directly on them.
- The Gameplay Breakdown: Look closely at the UI. The way the menus are integrated into the "art" of the world is a masterclass in UX design.
- The Soundtrack: The music is being composed with a heavy emphasis on orchestral strings and haunting vocals. It’s meant to evoke that "Last Dance at the End of the World" feeling.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a massive gamble. It’s a new IP from a relatively new studio using a combat system that many thought was "dead" for AAA games. But honestly? That’s exactly why it’s the most exciting thing on the horizon. It’s got soul. It’s got style. And it’s got a giant lady trying to paint us out of existence.
Get ready. The Paintress is waking up.