Lost Odyssey, Nier, and Shadow Hearts tossed in a blender with Sekiro's parry. This game is incredible, and possibly the single greatest thing to come out of France since the invention of the croissant

God this game is amazing the soundtrack is beautiful, the combat is top notch it cured my turn-based games fatigue not to mention the story is compelling. It made me wish french people were real +++ Interactable trash can? Just give it GOTY Tip: Apparently you can interact with the trashcan for a hidden surprise (>ᴗ•) !

I was hyped for this game, I saw a few pictures and 1 trailer, was told by many people not to look up too much because even seeing the party could lead to spoilers, I was told, if you love turn based RPGS you will love this. I do love turn based RPGS, but I do not love this. I have never seen a game have literally everything be perfect yet absolutely fumble the landing. The dodge and parry system can make or break your experience. If you are good at games like Sekiro or rhythm games ignore everything I said. If you play turn based games because you appreciate the slow and calculated gameplay or have bad reaction time this game will be a nightmare. I do not enjoy having a win or loss be entirely dependent on if i can press a button fast enough, this feel like a bunch of people sat in a room and said that turn based was boring and tried to make it fun. They didn't, they took away what is fun about turn based games for me. In the early stages a few missed dodges or parries will straight up kill you because the game is balanced around you basically being able to never be hit, but as you go on you can level to reduce damage, but this doesnt mean you can ignore the mechanic now, enemies will start inflicting statuses, attack down, defense down, stuns that take away your turns, marks that make you take more damage, some of their attacks chain up to 5 times making you weave dodges, parries and jumps. I could maybe understand if there was a flash or a button prompt to help you dodge, but there is none of that, or a setting to make dodging easier without setting the whole game to story mode, but there isn't. The devs realized people may not be able to do quick time events for attacks so they added an option to do them automatically, but nothing for dodges, if you cant do one you cant do the other. I sadly cant recommend this to anyone who likes a turn based game for being turn based.

I'm leaving a negative review purely so the devs can address accessibility problems with the game. I am mostly blind and lack of distinct prompts for dodging make the QTE events largely impossible for me to complete without a huge amount of dumb luck on my side. We're meant to rely on sound effects and animations, but this window doesn't feel consistent or well telegraphed to someone with a visual impairment. I can't see the enemy animations well enough to determine what their pattern or timing is meant to be. I didn't have these issues with the Mario RPGs or Lost Odyssey with their QTEs. Sandfall, you gave jumping a prompt icon so people would know when to jump vs dodge or parry, can you please add a similar prompt for dodging so that I can play the game like everyone else? Sekiro managed this mechanic, why can't you? How did this game get to the end of production and no one commented on this as an obvious problem? Mario RPG and the Paper Mario games got away with this due to insanely high levels of telegraphing and enemy attack design consistency that this game lacks. Please fix it so those of us with disabilities can have the same experience as everyone else. I see I need to add this for those who haven't played the game - there is no option in game to fully disable QTEs in spite of the devs stating that this was the case. They misrepresented the nature of the feature. There's a button to fully disable attack QTEs, which isn't required as they are prompted, but there is no option to have clearer indicators or the full disabling of the dodge/parry QTEs which are the actual problem. Jumping is fine as that already has a prompt indicator and I don't see why further prompts can't be added for the dodge/parry when jumping was deemed worthy of one (likely because there's no real distinction in the animations). Please stop spreading false information that this feature exists already in the game - it does not.

When 30 (!) French devs escape from Ubisoft to build their own game, they proved that the real issue with big studios isn’t lack of talent or heart, but horrendous corporate leadership.

not sure if it's just my mental state, but the opening 30 minutes made me ugly cry

I really wanted to recommend this game, but it proved to be impossible. The story is great, the world design is spectacular to the point where it makes many AAA game developers look lazy or inept by comparison. The soundtrack is spot on for every location and scene. And here's the caveat. Another steam user had a perfect description of the problem: "It is a turn based game, for people who hate turn based games" This is what it boils down to. The game is disguised as a turn based RPG, but it is anything but that. You can dodge or parry EVERY single attack. Every single one, even for optional "secret" bosses. The moment this mechanic was instituted, the entire game had to revolve around it by increasing its difficulty level not through strategy and planning, but through making sure that both avoiding and parrying are the only real major hurdle in the game, which is in turn down to having harder to figure out timings/animations/whatever per mob or boss, rather than any other meaningful strategy. And no, having to use the "break" meter is not a strategy. You're basically still just dodging or parrying until you get to do it. Sure, you can optimise weapon stats for more damage, or turn certain characters into tanks that take -50% damage and receive all damage by other characters, use weaknesses and certain combos and so on, but given that ALL damage can be avoided every time, makes all of this moot. Either you play this game by dodging or parrying most,or all attacks, or you're just not getting past several encounters. This is by design. If you suck at dodging and parrying, you will hate the gameplay because of it. If you are good at doding and parrying, you'll steamroll the game even if you ignore most other mechanics, and your only learning curve will really be how to adapt to the timing, regardless of whatever else you strategise on top of it. Neither of these makes for a turn based RPG - you may as well be playing Shenmue on Dreamcast back in 1999 with its event QTEs that were far harder than most games that ever followed to this very day. TLDR: Using QTEs to supplement combat is something that could find a place in turn based rpgs. Using it as the main gameplay component, means this is a different type of game. If you're looking for a dodge/parry marathon action RPG that just does it in turns, this is the game for you. If you are looking for an actual turn based rpg, this is not it

Excellent in every regard, even if you havent played the first 32 games.

Getting to play this and Oblivion Remastered in the same week is just like Barbenheimer.

So this is what falling in love at first sight feels like? Turn based combat with AAA graphics and a beautiful world to accompany that? We need more French studios not owned by Ubisoft. Fun fact: Daredevil, Shadowheart, Clive Rosfield, and Gollum are in the game.

I'm not done, but it's peak. I'm going to suck the marrow from this game's bones until nothing remains. I am now finished. It's so peak that I'm French now I finished the super boss. I have an infraction from my local police department for yelling "GIVE HIM THAT BANANA-SLAMA, MONOCO" at my monitor.

When 33 French devs escape from Ubisoft to build their own game they proved that the real issue with big studios isnt lack of talent or heart but horrendous corporate leadership.

Visually stunning, musically magical, and the turn-based combat feels like someone reinvented chess while having an emotional breakdown in a Parisian art gallery. GOTY. Imagine if Final Fantasy had an existential meltdown in a French art museum and came out as a JRPG wearing a velvet coat and whispering Camus quotes. 🎶 Music? Absolutely magical. Every note sounds like it was composed by a melancholy wizard with a wine habit. ⚔️ Combat? This isn’t turn-based. This is next-gen turn-based. It’s dodging, parrying and praying - all while looking fabulous. 🎨 Visuals? Like someone turned a museum into a fever dream and let you fight your inner demons in it. 📖 Story? I have no idea what’s happening, but it’s probably tragic and beautiful and I support it emotionally. ✨10/10. GOTY. I came for the aesthetics, stayed for the trauma, and left wearing a scarf and quoting poetry in French. 🧣 Warning: may cause sudden desire to wear turtlenecks and question the nature of beauty.

bad

Great game, but not for me. I simply don't have the reflexes to do the frame perfect inputs it requires.

Square Enix had 15 damn years to get this right — they didn't. Sandfall shows them how it's done, and does it at a fraction of the price. Absolute legends.

Decent Game, Laughable GOTY Talk

Thoughts on The Reception of the Game

In an ocean of shit, even the most mundane rock will be viewed like a diamond. Some developers of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are ex-Ubisoft developers (and everyone loves to hate Ubisoft these days), and these devs left Ubisoft because they were bored there and made a decent, no DEI, not anti-consumer game and suddenly it's a masterpiece? So let's all rate this as a 10 without finishing it so that'll give Ubisoft a lesson. What does these have to do with the quality of the game? Just look at the floods of 1, 2, 5 hour reviews on Steam calling it the GOTY. 9.7/10 User Score on Metacritic? So that means, according to players, this is the best game of all time? These days, a game just needs a strong first hour to fool everyone. Recency bias is an extremely dangerous problem right now and is killing game criticism. This is exactly why I say Metacritic and Steam reviews have no credibility anymore. This kind of shallow hype cycle lowers the standard for games every day. Finish your games. Experience them for yourself - not by watching your favorite YouTuber or streamer, then drop a 10/10 review if you still think like that. When did people forget to form their own opinions without even experiencing the whole thing? When did people’s standards get so low?

The Story - Great Promise, Bad Execution

Contains Major Spoilers The prologue instantly caught my attention with its presentation, and the characters were genuinely interesting. The dialogue felt natural, and I enjoyed seeing them interact and getting to know about Lumiere and its people. Seeing Sophie's story unfold was pretty amazing, it was well told. I liked the main character, Gustave, too. Just a normal adult trying to survive for his people. He’s strong, but also fragile in ways that made him human. Ben Starr did a great job voicing him, and honestly, so did most of the cast, especially Maelle’s VA. Overall, Act I was well told, not flawless, but it genuinely worked for me. But then Act II happens, and it falls apart fast. It’s rushed. A new major character gets introduced without proper build-up. The problem is that this new character’s relationship with the rest of the crew is rushed as hell. You can even speed-run through the persona-like conversations with them one after the other, which is a terrible idea for storytelling. Worse, the crew stops interacting naturally, which they already didn't do much in Act I. Outside of a few cutscenes before or after a boss fight, it’s like the characters forget each other exists. All the charm and dynamics I loved in Act I are just… gone. The finale of Act II tried to be shocking, but by then I was losing interest because of the bad storytelling. Then comes Act III, and that’s where it really lost me. Suddenly at the 80%- ish of the game, we learn that there’s a confusing parallel canvas world / multiverse-ish plotline. And honestly? I rolled my eyes. It’s not exactly a multiverse, but it’s a similar “worlds inside worlds” concept. Worse yet, major side characters like Lune, Sciel, and Monoko end up playing no real role. They’re irrelevant by the end. Turns out the 30+ hours you spend with these people didn’t matter because the story decides it’s actually about the Dessendre family. Oh, and that world you explored? It’s not even real. It’s a painted illusion. None of it matters beyond this one family’s drama. We get introduced to the details of that story way too late, and only for a short time. It’s honestly kind of tragic. This was a promising narrative that got butchered 3 quarters of the way through. What started as an intriguing, character-driven expedition devolved into a rushed, undercooked multiverse plotline with a bunch of wasted potential.

Graphics & Optimization - Great, But When you Can See Around

The art direction is pretty good. The graphics look decent, and some environments are genuinely beautiful… when you can actually see them. Because here’s the thing. This is another Unreal Engine 5 game with awful optimization. Performance is rough, the image quality often looks blurry and muddy, and there’s no frame generation support in 2025. The visuals aren’t sharp, and the framerate doesn’t hold up.

Gameplay & Combat - Surprisingly Good

Now, here’s what impressed me most. The turn-based combat system, clearly inspired by Persona, is actually pretty good. And honestly? I think it beats Persona’s system. Each character you recruit brings unique mechanics and abilities. Building your team and strategizing around their skills makes battles feel quite fun. The enemy variety is also impressive. Unlike most JRPGs, you don’t get stuck fighting the same monsters in the same biomes for 10+ hours. This game constantly introduces new enemy types, keeping battles fresh and forcing you to adapt your strategy.

Music - Outstanding

The music is easily the best thing about this game. There are tracks here I’ll be listening to for years. Even if I forget the story, characters, or world - the music will stay with me. Massive respect to Lorien Testard, Alice Duport-Percier, and the rest of the audio/music team at Sandfall.

Conclusion

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is obviously a work of passion and talent. It is a good game, but nothing about this game is extraordinary or something new. It’s nowhere near a GOTY candidate this year, and frankly - it’s not one I’d recommend. The reason is simple: this is a story-driven RPG, and while the premise hooked me, the story’s quality drops over time, and that was the one thing keeping me in it since the rest wasn’t particularly fresh or amazing, even though the combat was cool. In a game like this, where the narrative is supposed to be the heart of the experience, that’s not something I can overlook. That said, I’ll be keeping an eye on Sandfall Interactive, because they clearly have talent and the game turned out to be a success story. If they learn from this (I doubt it with this overhyped reception) they could deliver something special.

BRONZE MEDAL

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New development team, new dogma for the JRPG genre, new engine (UE5) that doesn't have the usual performance issues or stuttering that other games have, incredible music, satisfying and layered combat... Sold at a budget price... What is this black magic?

The fact that game is made by french devs makes it first J'RPG

---{ Graphics }--- 2025 GOTY (To me) ☑ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☑ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☐ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☑ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☑ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☑ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☑ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☑ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☑ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 ☑ 33

Turn-based combat that demands Dark Souls reflexes. If you’ve ever wanted a turn-based game that punishes hesitation and rewards panic… this is it. This game redefines “turn-based” to mean “take your turn, then immediately regret it lol