Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Every year the Paintress wakes, paints a number, and everyone of that age turns to smoke. This year the number is 33. That is the premise, and Sandfall makes you feel every digit of it. Expedition 33 is a small French studio's debut, and it plays like a team with nothing to lose and everything to say.
The combat is the trick. It's turn-based, but every enemy attack is a live rhythm test — dodge, parry, jump — and nailing a parry chain feels like landing a fighting-game combo inside a JRPG menu. Builds made from Pictos and Luminas get gloriously broken in the late game, which is exactly the point.
The Belle Époque art direction is unlike anything else in the genre, and Lorien Testard's score does a lot of heavy lifting. It isn't flawless: zones are fairly linear, the world map is sparse, and some boss patterns demand memorisation. None of that matters when the credits roll.
The opening of Act II reframes everything you thought the game was about — and the final choice is one of the hardest in the medium.
Kit liked
- Parry system turns turn-based into a reflex sport
- A story that earns its tears
- A contender for score of the decade
- Build-crafting gets wonderfully absurd
Kit didn't
- Linear zones, sparse overworld
- Some boss patterns need rote memorisation
- Traversal is serviceable at best
- Parrying beats dodging. Dodging is easier to learn, but parrying every hit in an enemy's combo triggers a counterattack.
- Use free-aim shots. They can hit weak points and break shields before you commit your turn.
- Keep cycling Pictos. Use one long enough and you learn it as a Lumina that any character can equip.
A turn-based RPG with the reflexes of an action game and the heart of a eulogy.Kit · Sadkitty Games · Est. 1995