Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025) - Sandfall Interactive
Play Dates: Feb 05, 2026 - March 21, 2026
Playtime: ~100 hours (100% completion)
*SPOILER FREE*
This was Brent's pick for NuNuResResBoisBois, where each of us gives the other two Bois a game to play over the course of four months. Thank Goodness!
In a video game industry that feels bloated by safe bets, trend chasing, and a preference for quantity over quality, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 feels like a defiant achievement. It is a game that reminds you why I fell in love with video games in the first place, and I breathe a sigh of relief: yes, we CAN still create high art new IPs that are comprehensive in their excellence.
I play about 20 to 35 games a year, and while I’m usually reserved when a title receives this level of universal praise, this has become one of my favorite things ever made. To have an experience this profound and meaningful as an adult, rather than something I’m viewing through the hazy lens of childhood nostalgia, was completely unexpected and deeply moving. It managed to break through my defenses in a way I wasn't prepared for; I actually cried more than once during the playthrough. I was trying to remember the last time a game did that to me...and while Spiritfarer definitely got me, that almost feels like "cheating" given the subject matter. To find a narrative this resonant, I have to go all the way back to Final Fantasy IV.
The premise is hauntingly beautiful: a figure known as the Paintress wakes once a year to paint a number on a massive monolith, and anyone that age is instantly turned into flower petals and erased. We join the 68th Expedition (those aged 33) on a desperate, final trek across a continent to kill her. The narrative is a masterclass in exploring grief, trauma, and the sheer audacity of human hope. It treats these heavy concepts with a maturity and gravity that I wish more writers would study, yet it never feels like a slog. It’s lightened by genuine warmth and the bickering, lovable dynamics of the party. The voice acting brings a level of humanity to the crew that makes every interaction feel earned. I found myself so caught up in the mystery of the Gommage and the revelations about the world that I was frequently left mouth agape, staring at the screen as the layers of the plot peeled back.
The world itself is a sensory masterpiece, a surreal dream of saturated colors and implausible architecture. Every environment, from the Flying Waters to the twisted labs of the underground, feels like a character in its own right. And we as a society simply do not deserve a soundtrack this good; it skips effortlessly between classical, jazz, and techno to mirror the game's wonderful weirdness.
And the combat! Oh the combat. It plunders the genre’s best (Persona, Final Fantasy, and Paper Mario) to create a turn-based system of its own. I'm not just mashing buttons; I am reacting, dodging, and parrying with the intensity of a Soulslike. Mastering the "Picto" system and stat allocation to break the game’s mechanics is an utter thrill. By the mid-game, I had Maelle sculpted into a fencer that could stack millions of points of damage, bypassing entire boss phases through sheer preparation and execution.
While there are minor gripes (the menus can be a stylized nightmare to navigate and the lack of a compass occasionally left me wandering) they are tiny footnotes in an otherwise flawless debut. This game shows that a small, dedicated team can still plant a flag among the stars. It is an artistic statement that feels profoundly personal, a reminder that even in a cynical media climate, we can still create something that hits like a literal million hit points to the soul.
Sandfall Interactive hasn't just made a great game; they’ve made a masterpiece.
We continue.
















