Teasers
The young French team at Sandfall had already made Hagen curious with the announcement trailer and increased the anticipation even further at the Xbox booth at Gamescom.
Clair Obscur – Expedition 33 is the debut project of Sandfall Interactive and stands out due to the beautiful style of the architecture in the game world, which is inspired by the Belle Epoque (circa 1870 to 1900). But the unusual scenario also exudes a lot of atmosphere in the announcement trailer: In the story-driven role-playing game, which is developed by Final Fantasy influenced, you set off with a group on a suicide mission.
In the fantasy world of Clair Obscur, humanity is threatened by the so-called Painter. Every year she paints a number on a huge pillar and all people of that age disappear on the spot. And the next number gets one step smaller again, it is a slow countdown to doom. Every year an expedition sets out to stop the Painter. Protagonist Gustave becomes the leader of Expedition 33 after his lover is one of the Painter's latest victims.
Dodge and counter despite turn-based combat system
Before I tell you what Gustave and his companions experienced during the demo, let me start with a central game mechanic: the turn-based battles. Aesthetically, Clair Obscur goes all out here too. The perspective behind the characters when selecting the action and the expanding menu are reminiscent of Persona5 think. Character models and environments are also highly detailed and nice to look at.
But there is also a lot in the pretty packaging: In addition to the life bar, each of the characters has action points that act as a mana replacement. In addition, everyone in the party has their own special mechanic. Gustave, who wields swords, fills an overload display for his prosthetic arm with his attacks, which fuels a special attack. Lune, who is part of the expeditionary force, on the other hand, collects color markings that match the elemental attacks she casts, and a third party member who appears later modifies her own character values by changing her fighting stance.
Attacks often have additional, sequential effects. For example, Gustave marks enemies with certain maneuvers, or Lune's fire attacks set enemies on fire, and there are other attacks that do more damage to marked or burning targets. But that's not all: Gustave drew a pistol in a fight and could freely aim at enemies with a crosshair – and do more damage by targeting weak points. This long-range attack did not use up his turn, instead each shot used up an action point.
As in Paper Mario – Legend of the Aeon Gate or Sea of Stars you can increase the damage of your attacks by mastering a quick-time event at the right moment. When defending against attacks, Clair Obscur goes beyond pressing a button at the right moment to block. Instead, you have the choice between two tactics: The simpler option is to dodge by pressing a button and, with the right timing, avoid damage altogether. The trickier option is the parry, where the window of time to deflect the opponent's attack is even narrower. However, if you manage a perfect parry, you are rewarded with an automatic counterattack and the counterattacker's action bar is refilled by one point. There is also an experience bonus if you win a fight without taking damage. You can even play through the entire game without losing a single life point in a fight – but the team quickly assures me that players are not expected to dodge and parry attacks like gamepad gods.
 |
| The expedition roams through surreal landscapes on its journey. |
Walking on the seabed
I did not ask the developers on site whether it is due to the influence of the painter, but in addition to the classic architecture, the game world is also strongly influenced by surreal elements. Gamescom-Demo begins with a section in the second chapter of the game that appears to be on the bottom of the sea. Air bubbles rise around Gustave and Lune, seaweeds sway in the current, small octopuses and other fish swim around, but the hero duo walks along the bottom unfazed. Soon they come across a wreck that half resembles the skeleton of a whale. Among the rubble they find two dead people who look like they've been petrified. They were members of Expedition 68, which (like all before it) never returned from the mission to kill the painter. Gustave tells us about the leader of that group and Lune comments that he really knows the stories of the expeditions inside and out.
After a short skirmish with strange monsters, both come across a door in a rock formation that opens and sucks them inside. Suddenly, both find themselves in a property that Gustave seems to recognize. He rushes off and calls out the name Maelle. In a room, he finds the girl he is looking for. Maelle is also part of the group, but they were separated beforehand. Overjoyed, Gustave hugs her and even lifts her up. The girl who has been found again does not know how she ended up there, only that a being was watching over her there. On cue, a human-like figure appears with a large hole in his head, as if the face and skull behind it had been smashed: The Curator. After a training fight against the Curator, the group is allowed to leave the property and continue exploring the seabed. The areas will open up more later and offer space for exploration, but Clair Obscur will be a fairly linear role-playing game in which you do not need to fear random fights. Enemies are visible from afar and, as in Shin Megami Tensei and persona You can make sure you make the first move by attacking an enemy while exploring with the action button.
The party puts on new equipment that they found in the villa at a flag. The appearance of the characters can be changed using skins (some of which are rewards for side quests), but in terms of equipment, only the weapons that are equipped change visually. A little later, the group stumbles upon an underwater flowerbed. Gustave picks a red flower and has a vision (or the ghost?) of a little girl. But the self-service in the garden angers a giant with a bent back on which coral grows – after the curator, the next boss fight was right here.
 |
| At the end of the demo, the group took on this boss. His companions wanted to convince Gustave to let the creature go, as it only wanted to protect a flowerbed. |
Conclusion
The JRPG influences and art design pushed Clair Obscur – Expedition 33 high up on my list of things to look forward to after it was announced at the Xbox Showcase this year. What I saw of the fights and cutscenes only made me want more.
For the first project of a new team of around 30 employees, the live performance of Clair Obscur leaves an astonishingly good impression. The history of the studio from Montpellier, which consists mainly of quite young people around 30, is also astonishing. The composer, who was found as a stroke of luck Lorien Testard is only in his mid-20s, but his epic or melancholic pieces fit the game world like a glove. The strong art design is also part of the project's great recognition value, but the art director was not involved from the beginning, he was not even part of the games industry. The team had his works on the website ArtStation (where creatives from the fields of 2D and 3D art present their portfolios) and asked about the possibility of working together. The answer was: “Of course, I wanted to change industry anyway.”
Another big attraction of the role-playing game for me is the scenario. I'm excited to discover the painter in the game and learn more about her. And because of the premise, Expedition 33 will inevitably come across all sorts of traces of the other troops before them, and it's always clear that their stories didn't end well. That offers a lot of potential for dramatic little stories – whether the story can deliver on that is another matter. I'll definitely keep a close eye on Sandfall Interactive's debut work until the planned release in 2025.