Since it was announced and revealed during the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024, Clear Obscur Expedition 33 has become the darling of J-RPG lovers, but also of the French press. And this is quite normal for this chauvinism, since behind this ambitious game and not stung from Hannetons, we find the Sandfall interactive studio, composed of only thirty employees, but especially by former Ubisoft developers who decided to embark on their own adventure. Their goal? Recover the coat of arms of Japanese RPGs of yesteryear with a turn -based system that has disappeared over the years for the benefit of real -time fights. Lost Odyssey is often quoted by the development team when they evoke clear obscure Expedition 33, but not only. Final Fantasy and Persona are also the other licenses that the French game refers. While the game is about to land in the coming months, we have also had the opportunity to get our hands on it through a demo-preview from 3 to 5 hours, according to your skill and your way of playing, and it’s time to give a first feeling. Many are already talking about masterpieces, others have outright out of the experience, even evoking a cold shower? Now our turn to give you my controller impressions in hand.
When you go to the official Sandfall Interactive studio website, you can access the team trombinoscope and realize that it is a small team. Small perhaps, but people who already have experience in the video game industry, some having worked on large franchises at Ubisoft. There are also junior developers whose first game is, but what is in common between all these people is love for role-playing games and more precisely for J-RPG. Aware that gender has trouble evolving with its time, the thinking heads of the project also had the ambition to instill modernism in these turn -based mechanics often rejected by the general public. And it is true that it feels in the first moments of the game, with this tutorial specially placed for the needs of this preview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Meta Strong
The first thing we see, it is the dynamism instilled during combat sequences, however the turn -based. Everything is done precisely to never repel the general public and conversely try to seduce it already by its truly stylized interface and with angles of view well pchushed as it should be. Some will think of Metaphor Refantazio in terms of interface and they will not be completely wrong, clear obscure Expedition 33 enormously recalls the game of Atlus in a lot of visual and contextual aspects. However, there is a real reflection on the appearance and location of key information to launch our attacks and each menu and submenus also allow us to change angles of view. It is never frozen, intelligently thought out, and particularly dynamic without its realization. There is a real science of staging that is happy to see and it is true that it changes a lot of things.
But it is not that the interface that clear obscure Expedition 33 tries to shake, there is also the gameplay and especially the actions to be taken during this turn by turn where it will be necessary to be very active too. You probably see it on these images, but as soon as an enemy attacks you, you must react accordingly to stand. Our character is capable of dodging, parry and even jumping to defend himself properly, knowing that each of these actions is subject to precise timing. A timing that depends on each attack and according to the enemy that attacks you, which means that you must remain alert permanently. Similarly, according to the defense for which you will have opted, too, the patterns and timings differ, which gives a real strategic sense in your choices. For example, making a perfect parry allows you to counterattack immediately behind, especially since the damage inflicted is quite substantial, which is suddenly a defense mechanics that we will immediately favor. But it is not only in the defense where you will have to manage these patterns, in attack, it is the same thing, since some of your attacks also ask to succeed in QTE so that the damage is substantial. In case of mismanagement of timing in these Quick Time Event, you will type a little in the void, even more if the opponent opposite has released his shield card. All of this boosts a turn -based system that really needed a swing.
Growing wand
For the rest, clear obscure Expedition 33 takes up more classic elements, with a system of action points that it is possible to make fatty according to the attacks, but also via bonuses that we will be able to add like these pictures and these luminas that we will find in the environments. Basically, each character can equip themselves with three pictures to grant him better statistics and therefore have more chance of getting out of it in front of fairly tough enemies, always numerous and that is the surprise because you never know how many enemies are when you come across them and you can quickly be overwhelmed. But the game has small subtleties which also makes it possible to take the advantage, such as the fact that a perfect dodge makes it possible to obtain an additional point of action. What should also be known is that these action points can also be spent in the skills of each character, which each has their own improvement tree. In the demo we had, there were only three characters: Gustave, Moon and Maelle, each presenting a distinct type of class. Gustave is the warrior with also thief skills, moon is the magician who levies bare feet and finally Maelle, she is a real warrior who has this capacity to change posture according to the capacities you choose. Another subtlety in the Combat system of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is the possibility of making use of a pistol which makes it possible to target the parts of the body of an enemy, and try to find your weak point, or downright blow your armor or its protective field.
In 5 hours of play, the Combat system of Clear Optons Expedition 33 shows that it is its major asset, with this desire to upset the codes. Of course, the game has transplanted ingredients here and there in already existing J-RPGs, but the title of Sandfall Interactive has managed to digest them to do something homogeneous and particularly well-brought together, it is obvious. What I found less convincing and less spectacular on the other hand, it is the structure of the game, quite head of the demo that was offered to us. The progression is indeed very linear, with areas a little more open at times to try to make us believe in a certain exploration, but it remains quite minor in real life. The lack of interaction with the environments, the actions scripted and not systemic, with sometimes decorative elements that can be climbed, others not, because it was not thought by the devs, the climb which lacks flexibility, we feel that these are light transitions to go from one area to another in a course that I found very framed. At times, Clear Obscur Expeditions 33 reminded me of the bad sides of the Open World of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth by the way…
The heyday
Regarding the visual and graphic aspect, I have read and heard that clear obscure Expeditions 33 is already one of the most beautiful games of this generation. I know that we can be overwhelmed by these emotions and that chauvinism can also play tricks, but let’s be honest, if the artistic direction is successful and hits, technically, we feel some weaknesses. In animations for example when evolving in open areas, there are differences in treatment between the characters and their stance. Gustave for example, who is none other than Robert Pattison with curly hair and a beautiful mustache, has frankly not terrible walking animations. When it runs, it’s better, but when it climbs, it’s less stylish. Luna and Maelle benefited from better treatment, however, which is not to displease me. No, where clear obscure Expeditions 33 depote, it is in its history, particularly original with this mysterious entity, painting it, capable of making a generation of people disappear from a brushstroke according to the age it will have defined. It is intriguing and it captures the interest from the start, especially the figure 33 which obviously returns to the age of Christ when he was crucified.
And then, there is also the artistic direction of the game and the choice to approach a period of history which has not been too used, the Belle Époque and the Art Deco movement that the studio mixed with fantasy and surreal paintings. There is a real work on the universe, the ultra varied environments, the dress style that works very well. It is this visual richness which gives the feeling that clear obscure Expeditions 33 sounds like an AAA when it is not at all, and it is in that that the pressure is enormous. In any case, the game of Sandfall Interactive has stung my curiosity, less which is not a follower of the turn by turn, I really appreciated the way in which it approaches a niche system to do something more digestible, more understanding and more modern especially. Now I’m waiting for the game on its structure, on its way of narrating the story, hoping that the sets are less empty than those I have traveled. Because even if we are dealing with an AA, we are still in 2025 …