Well, it is officially November, and that means we are approaching The Game Awards that take place every early December. With that, I’m writing to you now on why I fully believe Expedition 33 should be the Game of the Year 2025.
The Synopsis
In April of this year, the world saw Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for the first time. It is Sandfall’s first ever game, and if this game is any indicator, they’re in for great success. Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG set in the world of Lumiere and the continent. Every year, the Paintress paints a new number on the monolith, counting down from 99. We start the game with Gustave as he meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Sophie, on the day of the gommage. The gommage is when everyone of that number the Paintress paints disappears in a flurry of rose petals.
After each gommage, an expedition sets out to defeat the Paintress, as she’s killing them all slowly. Now that they’re at 33, the people of Lumiere are disappearing faster and at younger ages. Gustave, along with many others, are on their final year before their gommage. It is his life’s greatest mission to be on the expedition to defeat her. Going along with this expedition are our main cast, Gustave, Maelle—a 16 year old girl who Gustave and his sister look after— Lune and Sciel.
Maelle has always felt like she never belonged anywhere, having moved around to many homes and wants to see the world beyond Lumiere. Lune wants to understand the world better and the different nevrons and creatures the Paintress created. Sciel’s reasons beyond defeating her are unclear in the beginning but gets explored later on.
From here on out, we leave the prologue and go into the heart of the story. I won’t dwell on the overall plot as I want to discuss all the things I adore about this game, but the story is a big part of it. My next section will have spoilers for the rest of the story so if you haven’t finished it—and I highly recommend you do—skip to the next section.
The Beautiful Story
Once the expedition lands on the mainland, they’re immediately mostly wiped out by a mysterious man. We later learn this is Renoir, and his goal is to protect his family, and by doing so, stopping expeditioners from defeating the Paintress. The main four eventually all meet up after being separated in the attack. After defeating a boss later on, Renoir appears for the first time since the attack. Gustave tries to fight him to protect Maelle, but is tragically killed in a heart-wrenching scene.
Before Renoir could move to Maelle, we are introduced to another mysterious man, who we come to learn is Verso. He defends the rest of them and joins the expedition, showing the facade of someone who also wants to defeat the Paintress. His ulterior motives are unraveled as the story progresses, and the game leaves only carefully placed bread crumbs of information. This story is so well done with foreshadowing as we first get a glimpse of Verso from Maelle’s first nightmare cutscene. At first playthrough it’s easy to miss him or if you do notice him, you’re curious who he is.
Eventually, the massive twist of the story is unraveled. Renoir, another member of his family, Alicia and Verso are family. Renoir is trying to keep his remaining family intact and fights Verso. It goes even more insane when after the expedition does kill the Paintress and return to Lumiere, everyone except Maelle and Verso disappears.
We discover they’re not ‘real’. This world isn’t real. It’s a painted world, or canvas, that the real deceased Verso created. The Paintress, Aline, whom the crew just kicked out of the Canvas, is Maelle’s —or real Alicia’s—mother. Maelle lost her memories when she arrived in the canvas, originally sent by her sister Clea, to go get their mom. In the real world, Alicia is maimed after a house fire in which Verso gave his life for her. It tore the family apart. Real Renoir was trying to save Aline but they’ve been fighting for decades in the canvas as Aline was trying to live and save what little was left of Verso. Aline was never the one erasing the people of lumiere; She was the only one saving them from Renoir, who was the one erasing them each gommage.
It’s a real doozy of a twist. It’s brilliantly done, as there’s so many hints and dialogue that lead up to this outcome. During a scene earlier where Maelle was trying to approach painted Renoir, painted Verso, in a panic, called her Alicia. He knew her true identity this whole time.
Now where does this leave Verso? Why did he want to defeat the Paintress? Ultimately, he wants to die. Because he is painted, he cannot die. He doesn’t want to live this life he’s been living for decades, not aging. Doomed to repeat this cycle of living in real Verso’s shadow. Doomed to repeat this cycle with Maelle/Alicia (For ease, I’m going to continue calling her Maelle even though her true name is Alicia.)
In the end of the game, after defeating real Renoir, he allows himself to exit the painting, skeptical that Maelle will follow. He thinks she’s dooming herself to repeat what her mother’s been doing: stuck in this painting grieving Verso and trying to keep a piece of him. Verso doesn’t want to allow this. You can end up choosing between Maelle’s side, staying in the canvas and dooming herself to die, as she can’t stay forever. Or Verso, who ejects her from the canvas, and then all of lumiere and himself ceases to exist. But the remaining Dessendre family will finally reunite in the real world. Who you choose and stand by is up to you.
The story is beautifully crafted and an emotional roller coaster. You’re heartbroken that Verso betrayed them time and time again, but you understand why. You feel for Maelle and her grief of Verso and being unwilling to return to her real self, who can’t even speak and has scars from the fire. She is unwilling to return to a world without her brother. It’s a genuinely difficult decision at the end of the game because you see both sides. Even if I believe siding with Verso is the better ending, you still leave all of Lumiere, who are sentient beings, to disappear for good.
This story alone is why I think Expedition 33 should be game of the year. But I’m not done pleading my case yet.
The Amazing Soundtrack
If the game doesn’t win GOTY, it needs to at least win Best Score and Music. The main composer for this game is French composer Lorien Testard. He did a phenomenal job composing the music, working with the art director and main writer to compile this masterpiece. With 8 hours of music on the soundtrack, it elevates the gameplay and story completely.
During cutscenes and every battle, they’re accompanied by an amazing score. When you’re playing for the very time, you’re greeted to the song “Lumiere” when you do a sweeping shot of the city. You get to listen to “Flying Waters—Goblu” while fighting nevrons in the flying waters section of the game. You can’t help but pause to appreciate the masterclass of the score. Seriously, I think the latter score is going to be my number one song of this year; it’s that good.
A fun tidbit is that when you go into the manor, you can play the piano as each character and it plays their theme in piano form. Maelle’s theme is a very interesting one and foreshadowing, but I promised not to spoil the main story beats here.
Some other favorite songs I have are the “The Manor”, “Un 33 Decembre a Paris” which the context for is devastating. Also some honorable mentions include “Ancient Sanctuary-Megabot#33”, “Monoco’s Theme” and so many more bangers. While I think Expedition 33 should be game of the year, I would not be upset if it only earns the best score. Nothing else truly compares to the diversity and gorgeous music of this game.
The Fun Gameplay and Stunning Visuals
The last thing I wanted to touch on were the incredibly engaging combat mechanics and stunning visuals. Now, despite being into games, gameplay is not always my favorite thing about a game. I love a good story first and foremost, but some games do catch my attention for being fun as well. This game is easily one of my top favorites of all time mechanics wise.
The game is a turn-based game, which may turn some people off, but it does something unique with the genre. Oftentimes, in other turn-based games, you choose an action and it’s done, but not here. You have to be engaged at all times. There are QTEs to do whenever you use a character’s skill. You have to dodge, parry or jump at just the right time to avoid damage. While parrying is more precise than dodging, you’re rewarded if you complete every parry in an enemy attack successfully. Your character does a counter attack that inflicts damage on the enemy.
There’s also a jump mechanic where once you see the visual cue, you jump, then the entire expedition performs a counter together. Later on, you even unlock a new ability called a gradient attack. Those occur in certain circumstances that deals high damage to an enemy.
I won’t dive too much into the pictos and luminas, but they’re special abilities you pick up and equip as you traverse the world that aid you in battles. They’re essential in order to give yourself the best buffs possible as enemies become more challenging.
Every character you play has their own unique fighting style. Maelle uses a rapier and is a fencer. Gustave relies on his arm and sword to charge up and use overcharge, which deals heavy damage. Lune uses elemental magic, Sciel uses cards that are fortune based, and Monoco uses a wheel that transforms him into different enemies. Verso relies on building his skill through letter rankings, D being lowest, and S being highest, and one that inflicts the most damage. To build it up, you have to avoid being hit or the ranking decreases.
Finally, the game is just plain beautiful. Some of my favorite sections visually are flying waters, yellow harvest, (an optional but fun area) stone wave cliffs, and Monoco’s station. Each area offers a unique look on the world. Whether you want a snowy mountainside, an underwater world, or beautiful autumn foliage, there’s a little taste of everything. The characters look amazing and the game runs so smoothly on my pc.
Final Thoughts
Expedition 33 was not at all on my radar until it was released. I wasn’t even intending on playing it until my partner showed me the world of Lumiere and the continent. The deep lore of the story pulled me right in and eventually I had to play it for myself. There’s so much to appreciate about this game and for being Sandfall’s very first game. I think they’ve already created a masterpiece of a game, and I’m so excited for their future as a company. It’s a game that snuck up on you and once you got hooked, you wonder why you didn’t hear about it sooner.
So, that is my bid for why Expedition 33 should be game of the year. If you haven’t picked it up yet, what are you doing reading this review? This is not one you want to miss out on.
We will find out in just a month what Game Awards will have to say about Expedition 33. Even if it doesn’t win the official award, it is game of the year in my heart and I know it is for so many others too.
