Overall Score: 9.2/10

I was interested in this game since its very first teaser, I just knew that it would be great and it truly was.

The combat is excellent, though it's turn based it's more focused on skill rather than strategies, as it heavily relies on parries, which btw feel great. Pulling off that counter after all the parries never felt less exciting. The world was pretty well made, at first I didn't like how the full world worked, but after getting Esque, I loved it. It really reminded me of og final fantasy games in this aspect. Bosses were pretty good. My favourites were the paintress, sirene, who was mesmerising, visages, who were pretty cool and finally Alicia. Clea would probably be here as well,but I'm underlevelled and not in the mood to grind enough to clear the flying manor. One thing I didn't like was at the end of act 2 in the monolith how all these areas were reused, it really tired me out there. Nonetheless, I easily consider this the best turn based combat I've experienced in a game. The areas are picturesque and well designed and enemies feel good.

The story is very creative and unique. The world is plagued by some short of curse, after a big event called the Fracture, which happened 67 years ago. Since then every year people lose one year of their life span and they ''gommage'' when they reach the age marked by the monolith. The one behind this is some being called the paintress. Every year expeditions set sail from Lumiere to face her and free themselves from that curse. Pretty cool concept if you ask me. The game takes place when the number marked by the monolith is 33, so when the expedition 33 goes to face the paintress. We are introduced to a pretty charismatic man called Gustave, a charismatic woman called Sophie, who he was in a relationship with and will Gommage in that day. The intro hits hard , with the scenes ,its acting and music, I actually teared up and this was the only time I did in the game. Then the expedition starts. Everyone is killed almost instantly upon arriving in the island by a weird man, who looks like an expeditioner. Gustave survives and finds a few other members, Luca , Sciel and the girl he and his sister adopted Maelle. They meet the godlike entity Esque along the way who is really fun and his friend Francois (Franfran),who is a less happy version of him. They explore the place together trying to get to the monolith until later that man appears again and kills Gustave. I think his death happened sooner than it should have, but it was still pretty good. Then another man called Verso appeared and drove the mysterious man call called Renoir away. He joins the group and as we learn he and Renoir were members of Expedition 0 and that he is his son. Then the journey to the monolith to defeat the paintress continues. Another great character joins the crew along the way Monoco, who is a gestral. They kill 2 axons 2 extremely strong nevrons to get a weapon that will give them access to the monolith. They do and fight the paintress. They return to Lumiere and celebrate, but honestly something felt fishy, then suddenly everybody starts to gommage. Only Verso, Maelle, Esque and Monoco remain. Maelle remembers what's really up. She is not really part of this world,but belongs to the family of painters, she is the daughter of the paintress and of Renoir. Verso knew all that as he is the painting of the actual Verso, who was her brother who died in a house flame caused by another faction called the Writers and wanted to free his mother from the painting as it was slowly killing her. Then the journey to defeat Renoir starts. Maelle (Alicia) wants to stay in the painting and bring back the dead, but Renoir wants to get her out of here ,cause it's dangerous and wants to destroy the painting as it draws his wife in, due to the fact that it was her way to cope with her son's death, as it was his only painting. We learn stuff thorough the journey, like why Sciel is afraid of the water, because she almost drowned herself, when her husband died, but she was saved by Esque. Another cool one was that Monoco was originally raised by Noco and he wanted to repay him, which is why he was guarding him, but Noco died multiple times, so he was always starting over, while losing a piece of himself. I also liked the quest about the painted Alicia, which showed Verso in a weak state, because he didn't have the chance to say goodbye, but what really struck hard was Verso accepting that he could have saved Gustave, but didn't because he was afraid that Maelle wouldn't want to defeat the paintress if she learnt the truth, while Gustave was alive. Then the ending comes Renoir is defeated. Maelle promises to not permanently stay, but she lies and he knows it as well, it was sweet when he said that he will keep her room's light on. Then Verso tries to stop what remains of the original Verso from painting, but Maelle confronts him, because she wants to save the painting. The two fight, Verso to free himself and Maelle from this illusion of reality and Maelle to protect the world she loves so much. I chose Maelle ,honestly because I wanted to see Gustave again so much, it was painful seeing Verso's final moments. I was so happy to see Gustave again though, but it pained me seeing Verso playing the piano so painfully. The other ending is also cool, in which we see the family accepting Verso's death and holding the funeral. The characters are fantastic and the acting is phenomenal. My favourites were Gustave, Maelle , Esque (best boy), Verso, Monoco (he is so funny bless him) and Sciel. I didn't like Luce as much, she felt boring. The world building is fantastic. The Gestrals and their silly nature, the weird Nevrons and the imposing Axons. I wasn't a big fan of the direction the story took after act 2 with the painters and the family. I preferred the whole fighting against impossible odds with everything at stake. I also didn't like how the other characters aside from Maelle and Verso were kinda benched in act 3 and aside from their side quests, they almost didn't feel human anymore.

All in all, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is definitely one of the best games I've ever played, even though it won't get in my top 10,. It's very fresh and unique in everything it does and I can't wait to see what Sandfall will cook next.

it won game of the year for a reason.