(screen shot taken during game play)
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released on April 24, 2025. Why did I wait almost a year after its release date to start playing? This game, so far, has kept me immersed in the story line, and has helped me refresh my French. I learned the French language growing up due to my French heritage from my mom’s side of our family. Over the years, I developed a love for all things French, including gaming.
The turn-based style game had a cadence to the attacks. The simple counts of when to dodge or parry are easy enough for any one to catch on and enjoy. As you move forward in the game, the attackers become more difficult, of course. But once you figure out their “counts” when they attack, the game still holds a simple and effective amount of enjoyment for the gamer.
At the beginning of the game, there is not much combat. Most of the first half is setting up the story through dialogue between you (Gustave) and the other opening act characters. As you move further into the game you can switch out characters as well, and use all of them when in combat. However, once you do make it to combat, your opponents are rather…interesting. My personal favorite are the Gestrals. These silly little-wooden-goblin-paint brush type looking things who love to fight bring some light hearted combat to the dark theme of the game. Their goofy personalities give a sense of relief for a brief moment.
(screen shot taken during game play right before Gestral Village)
Another quirky and fun creature I enjoyed was Esquie. The fight to achieve his mount, however, not so much fun. Esquie is a overpowred, lengendary, and somewhat lazy NPC who is known as the most powerful being in the world of Lumiere. This cheerful, magical creature can swim, fly and destroy obstacles. Once you beat the rather annoying ice turtle in Esquie’s cave, you can then mount Esquie when you are venturing throughout your map.
(screen shots taken during game play)
Some other villainous creatures I struggled to win in combat the first time. For example, this fucking Goblu mother fucker with his flower powers…(I have a theory he is not actually evil, though, and that he is being controlled by an outside insidious force).
(screen shot taken during game play)
This one took me a while to overcome. Using Gustave’s gun ability to aim at the creature’s weak spot only works so many times and not every opponent is the same. It’s about knowing your team’s abilities and attacks inside and out, and figuring out each creature’s weakness. I did not realize this until I began failing with Goblu multiple times in a row. While some fights are frustrating for me personally, at the end of the day, I do still thoroughly enjoy the hell out of this game.
Other moments in the game so far that I have found interesting and are one hundred percent covered in foreshadowing are Maelle’s nightmares.
(screen shots taken in gameplay)
Maelle’s nightmares are fragmented phantasms that allude to past events and future calamities, often involving the main antagonists and the fate of her companions. There are premonitions of future events, such as her eventual confrontation with Verso and the death of Gustav (I’m not ready to watch my boy die), and encounters with Renoir and his daughter Alicia, where Renoir condemns Maelle for the events that have transpired. This leaves me (and probably any other gamer) question just who Maelle really is. I love a good back story but I love finding it out along the way even better.
Currently, I am in the beginning journey of the Stone Wave Cliffs quest.
(screen shots taken during game play)
This part of the game is proving to be more challenging than the other quest I seemed to have gotten through rather quickly (other than Goblu at the end of Flying Waters). The rock/crystal like creature you see in the screen shot above was not the worst villian, but all the villians right after it were rigorous.
My current stopping point is at another part of the Manor we first see in Flying Waters. The one in the Stone Wall Cliffs is guarded by a dark creature (I do not remember its name), but the combat surprised me by being super easy to surpass. I am currently inside the Manor living my best safe-from-villians at the moment life.