Thoughts on Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

Everyone and their aunt have their own take on this game so why shouldn’t I? A bit late to the party though but that’s what happens with a long backlog and a toddler running around. Will try to keep the text somewhat spoiler free, if anyone is concerned.

First off, wow, what an incredible experience it was playing through Clair Obscue: Expedition 33. Fully engulfing you in a story is something that books and games do really well compared to other mediums of storytelling. Itenter a state of meditation within the fictional world your inhabiting, and Expedition 33 does that to you over and over. A wonderfully intriguing story told in a wonderful way, with a lot of new and fresh takes to storytelling so you’re never really sure where the story is gonna go.

The recognition this game has recieved is well deserved. It’s one of the more unique and polished experiences you can get from any game. The world feels fresh and exciting, not your typical fantasy, sci-fi or post-apoc setting, but something inbetween. The visual designs of the creatures and architectures evokes thought and you find yourself constantly trying to excitedly extract meaning and symbolism out of everything you see.

The story is equally fresh, there is nothing really to compare to. From the get-go you’re gripped by the raw humanity evoked from the situation the main characters find themselves in. A world that is slowly erasing an entire population out of existence one year at a time. There are no old people left and a 33 year old person is now considered an “old man”. Do you have kids? What do you tell your kids? Do you accept your fate and make the best out of the time you have? Or do you fight against it and risk losing whatever joy you still have? I think I cried three times the first couple of hours. Being a parent has made me more soft so tears come easily nowadays. The acting is spectacular! What a magnificent cast! Can’t really praise them enough, really gives you the business when it comes to emoting exactly what the story needs them too. Sure, sometimes the animations do not fully keep up with the actors, especially the facial animations, but as a fellow developer I more then can overlook that because how good everything else is.

Another crazy thing is just the size of the team that made this. This feels like a game that is made by a 100+ manpower studio but it is a small studio with little pedigree that have managed to cobble together this timeless masterpiece. No wonder a result of a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Creating something new is always tough, especially if you’re working with games in a medium-sized or larger team when everything quickly become high stakes and mistakes are expensive. It can be hard to stay true to your vision.

Now let’s celebrate the music, because hot dang it’s good! The world, the narrative, the characters, the acting, the writing and the sound effects are top tier but the soundtrack is the greatest of all time in my opinion. It has quickly become my favourite soundtrack out of every single soundtrack ever made. Firstly, it holds an incredible number of songs with varying feel, theme and genre so there is a tune for every ocassion. I also deeply appreciate that each part of the game has it’s own musical theme both for exploration, combat and character moments. It is something we tried to do with SteamWorld Quest as well. It gives each area more meaning and identity and a stronger theme. Secondly, they music is very well produced with skilled live musicians that deliver on all cylinders. Would love to go listen to this music live somewhere in Sweden. The Gothenburg opera house would be lovely, thank you. Thirdly, they are basically all bangers. In most soundtracks there are some “off songs” that I maybe might not enjoy as much as the rest and often end up creating my own curated list with only the songs I like. I don’t do that with Expedition 33, most of the time I want all of them. As a big sax lover though, the tracks “Monoco” and “Gestral Village – Golgra” holds a special place.

Now I’ve given a lot of praise, as this game deserves. The only gripe I have is with the gameplay, everything else is truly excellent. The gameplay is fins enough, even excellent if you consider JRPG standards. Unfortunately, I think the gameplay gets in the way for the rest. It most often felt like padding that was keeping me from doing what I really wanted to do, which was to continue the story and see where it would go. I often felt like both the normal battles as well as the boss battles where lacking the strong sense of theme as everything else. The limitation of the genre formula made it apparent that the mechanics could not enhance the storytelling. I would’ve liked to see a clearer connection between the different characters personality with how you played them. I would’ve liked for the bosses to have clearer connection to the biome or the story beat that they are connected to. I’m sure there are connections, it just wasn’t clear to me when I played.

The platforming parts were not for me. Challenges which includes walking on tight walkways and falling down means starting over from scratch are barely feasible in a dedicated 3D platformer. They do not belong in a game that is not a platformer first. I understand it out of a gameplay variation standpoint, but I felt it was mostly an annoyance that got in the way of my fun. Though, credit where credit is due, the three Cs (Character, Camera, Controls) are quite excellent, so nothing wrong with the game feel generally when traversing the world.

I might write more about this amazing game once I have more time to let it sink in. Now I will spend quite some time looking at story videos and analysis. Cheers!