It’s not much longer of a wait for Sandfall Interactive’s gorgeous role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Launching on April 24th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC for $49.99 (and day one on Game Pass), it’s a title that many have had their eyes on since its reveal last year due to the scale, visuals, and combat.
The premise involves members of the titular expedition setting out to end a long-running curse. Let’s dive into everything else you should know about the title before launch.
Characters and All-Star Voice Cast
Expedition 33 is a varied bunch, starting with Gustave, an engineer with a mechanical arm; Maelle, his foster sister who is younger than the rest but keen to see the world outside of Lumiere; Lune, a mage who seeks to know more about the world; and Sciel, a teacher with a “dark and painful past” behind her easygoing nature. There’s also Renoir, a mysterious man seeking to save his family under any means necessary, and Verso, a mysterious outsider tracking the expedition for unknown reasons.
And while they’re appealing enough, the voice cast really sells it. On the English side, you have Charlie Cox (of Daredevil fame) voicing Gustave, Jennifer (Baldur’s Gate 3) English voicing Maelle, Ben Starr (Khazan) bringing Verso to life, and the legendary Andy Serkis as Renoir. Of course, the local cast is equally star-studded with the likes of Alexandre Gillet (the dub voice for Elijah Wood and Ryan Gosling across numerous films), Adeline Chetail (The Last of Us), Céline Melloul (Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Remake), and much more.
Unreal Engine 5 and Art Style
Despite the size of developer Sandfall Interactive, it’s leveraged Unreal Engine 5 to deliver some stunning visuals. MetaHuman is used for the character creation with cutscenes featuring motion-captured performances. World Partition drives the World Map, and Lumen allows for a certain stylistic real-time global illumination.
Turn-Based Combat
At its core, Expedition 33 is a turn-based role-playing game. You’ll encounter enemies on the field and transition to a separate screen for combat. Characters and enemies take turns attacking with a helpful order displayed on the upper left. You also have Action Points (AP) for utilizing skills, but there are several elements of action titles imbued in the combat.
For instance, characters like Gustave can freely aim ranged weapons and target weak spots, dealing more damage. Skills also have QTEs, where proper timing ensures more damage (though you can turn them off in the options).
Parrying, Dodging and Countering
Parrying, dodging, and countering are also important. These aren’t specific skills or passive benefits. When an enemy attacks, you can physically dodge or parry to avoid damage and execute a counter. If the entire team parries an attack, they all counter at once for extensive damage. And yes, FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice served as a big inspiration for this, offering more of a “skill-based” and rhythmic element to defending.
Unique Playstyles for Each Character
Despite many common systems for each character, they all have different playstyles. Maelle, for example, has three stances – Offensive for more damage taken (and received), Defensive for damage reduction and more AP received on parries and dodges, and Virtuose for inflicting 200 percent more damage. Lune inflicts Stains on enemies, and when utilizing certain skills, you can consume them to trigger different effects. You can also assign different passive traits and obtain gear for further customizing builds.
Attribute and Skill Points
As you level up, each character receives three points for upgrading attributes and one Skill Point to unlock new abilities. The former improves stats like Vitality, Might, Agility, Defense, and Luck, influencing typical things like your health, attack damage, speed, damage reduction, and critical hit rate.
Though they only start with a handful of skills, spending points in a character’s Skill Tree allows for unlocking more options. Later skills require more points to unlock, but if you don’t like your current set-up, you can consume an item to “Recoat” and essentially reset stats and skill points.
Boss Fights
Based on the preview demo that content creators and media went hands-on with, there are some pretty devious bosses to deal with. The Chromatic Abbest is one such bizarre creature that relies on ranged spells. Bourgeon is a hulking monstrosity that can inflict Exhausted, preventing characters from gaining AP, and performs extensively long combos that require alternating between dodging and parrying. Remember that these are bosses from the opening hours – who knows what other devastating challenges await?
Main Story is Over 30 Hours Long
When you look at behemoths like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, and so on, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may not appear to be a long experience. However, it still takes over 30 hours to clear the main story, which is pretty extensive (and comparable to titles like Dragon’s Dogma 2). How much of that comprises cutscenes, dialogue exchanges and so on is unknown, but it’s a meaty story regardless.
Side Content
For those who want a little bit more bang for their buck or something to take a break from the story, there’s side content, which is comparable in size to the main story. Sandfall Interactive hasn’t exactly outlined all the different activities, but they should afford more opportunities to learn about the world and its inhabitants.
Exploration
“Linearity” is a common theme among previews regarding the game’s levels. When you enter an area, it’s extensively linear, but there are different optional paths to traverse, which contain tougher enemies, loot, and even some platforming. It may vary from area to area depending on the story, but you won’t just be running from point A to point B in a corridor-like fashion.
No Mini-Maps in Levels
Unfortunately, you won’t have a mini-map to guide you through these areas. COO Francoise Meurisse told Eurogamer recently, “When there’s a mini-map, you can end up relying on it. And we want players to discover the world as the expedition does it. They don’t have a map because every previous expedition failed. So yes, sometimes it can be difficult to find their way.”
Overworld
While levels have their own layouts that you explore from a third-person perspective (with the option to switch between party members while exploring), there’s also an overworld map. It essentially links everything together, and you’ll traverse it in real time. You’ll discover shortcuts and other secrets, and while it does warn about higher-level areas, you’re free to challenge them anyway. And while there’s plenty of on-foot exploration, subsequent footage has showcased craft for traversing water and even flying through the sky, airship-style. A compass is also available for reorienting yourself more reliably.
PC Requirements
Even with how good it looks, Expedition 33’s hardware requirements aren’t too hefty for PC players. On the minimum end, you need an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, 8 GB of RAM, and either an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB, an AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT 6 GB, or an Intel Arc A380 6 GB. This is enough for 1080p/30 FPS on Low settings.
Recommended requirements include a Core i7-11700K or Ryzen 5 5600X, 16 GB RAM, an RTX 3070 8 GB or a Radeon RX 6800 XT 16 GB, which delivers 1080p/60 FPS on High settings. A solid-state drive and 55 GB installation space are also mandatory across the board.
4K and 60 FPS+ on Xbox Series X
While resolution and frame rate on consoles have yet to be revealed, the Xbox Store lists 4K Ultra HD and 60 FPS+ options, likely for the Xbox Series X (and by extension, PS5). Expedition 33 could thus feature Quality and Performance Modes for 4K/30 FPS and 60 FPS, but we need to wait for confirmation.
Difficulty Options
Despite being inspired by Sekiro, one of the most challenging games out there, Expedition 33 has various difficulty options like Easy, Normal and Hard mode. Sandfall didn’t explicitly outline all their differences, but it noted that playing on Easy means you can succeed even without being a “master dodger.” Normal is also forgiving enough, but on Hard, you need to dodge at least 50 percent of enemy attacks. The parry and dodge windows also change depending on the difficulty, further adding to the challenge.
