Kepler Interactive and Sandfall Interactive brought Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, their upcoming RPG, to GDC. I played the game’s opening chapter and got to meet some of the game’s roster of playable characters, learnt more about its France-inspired setting, and tried my hand at its unique approach to combat.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set in a fictional world inspired by France’s Belle Époque era and follows a group of adventurers looking to stop a being called the Paintress. She’s a harbinger of death, ending the lives of countless people when she annually emerges and paints a number. The next number she’ll paint is 33, which would instantly kill everyone of that age. Expedition 33 is the mission to prevent the Paintress before she can conduct the latest round of mass death.
Source: Kepler Interactive
It’s a surreal premise, and Clair Obscur stays true to it with its world and creature design. The lands are filled with strange-looking plants, destroyed buildings, and floating terrain. It’s not a world that feels “lived in,” but one that seems like it was violently rummaged through.
The first character I played was Gustave, an engineer whose life has mostly been spent improving the defenses of his city. I was later joined by Lune, a scholarly type who seeks to learn everything there is to know about the Paintress in order to defeat her.
The backgrounds of both characters directly influenced their unique combat abilities. Gustave wields a melee weapon and a gun, which can be freely aimed at an enemy and fired at the cost of Action Points (AP). Targets have weak spots that can be hit for additional damage. Lune wields magic, casting fire, ice, and other elements to deal damage and inflict foes with status effects. I hit a boss with a fire attack and they became burned, taking additional damage each round.
Source: Kepler Interactive
Where Expedition 33 really looks to shake up its gameplay is in its marriage of turn-based and real-time combat elements. Battles are instanced encounters in which both sides take turns selecting attacks, abilities, and items. However, real-time elements come into play when using certain attacks and receiving damage. There was a meter that appeared during the animations for Gustave and Lune, and pressing the A button when it reached a specific zone would trigger a “perfect” and deal extra damage.
On defense, players can use RB to parry incoming attacks and B to dodge. These are both timing based skills, and mastering them can yield a strong defense and some added bonuses. For example, if an enemy attempts a string of physical attacks and you manage to parry all of them, your character will unleash a counterattack, allowing them to deal damage outside of their turn.
Source: Kepler Interactive
This blending of mechanics presents a unique challenge, as a middling strategy can prove brilliant with proper button timing, and you can salvage a seemingly doomed encounter with some timely parries. However, that also means that proper planning and decision-making won’t always be enough to get you across the finish line. You’ll need to become intimately familiar with both sides of Clair Obscur’s combat in order to best its greatest challenges.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 initially caught our eyes with its dazzling combat UI, which immediately drew comparisons to ATLUS’ work on the Persona series. The injection of real-time elements will do enough to separate it from those games, and the story premise has me curious to see just how bizarre this expedition will get.
This preview is based on an early build played at the ID @ Xbox event at GDC 2025. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on April 24, 2025, for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.
-
Shacknews
replyDonovan Erskine posted a new article, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 blends turn-based and real-time combat to improve immersion
