Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Review: An Achingly Beautiful French Spin on the JRPG Formula

The Japanese RPG genre so venerates its icons, like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, that new games in its tradition replicate rather than innovate. It took a studio halfway around the world, in France, to make a JRPG that stands out of those titans' shadows -- one so starkly novel in its world and systems that it tells a story you don't want to put down. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut game from French studio Sandfall Interactive, achieves a bundle of superlatives. From the writing to the worldbuilding to the combat to the music, it's easy to find aspects that are individually excellent. But more importantly, they weave together into a cohesive and thematically potent game that tells a mature story with confidence and style, packing a certain (forgive me) je ne sais quoi that immersed me in a world of passion and loss. Expedition 33's story explores a fantasy land at the mercy of a super-powerful being, the Paintress, who has been culling humanity once a year for ge ... Read full article.