Last year, I had to bury 6 friends, 4 different funerals. It was one of the toughest trials I had to endure in life.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would have really helped with the grieving process had I played it much sooner, but its better late than never.


Watching the Game Awards, I was significantly disappointed that one of my favorite games did not win the prize I so wholeheartedly believe they deserved. However, alongside several other people who are discovering this title for the first time, was baffled by how many awards the game had landed. 9 awards out of 13 (really, its 11) categories. They absolutely swept the stage. I recalled seeing gameplay of E33 prior, but I simply wrote it off because it was just a Western JRPG, something I normally don't play. But how did they win so many? Clearly, they did something correct, right? I just had to jump in and see for myself what all this fanfare was about.


Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a story about grief. About what it means to lose someone whom you truly loved, and what it means to let them go and move on in life. It's level of story telling and narrative writing is a caliber long lost within the modern gaming industry.

The game throws you immediately into the world with no context whatsoever. From the start, you are strapped into the emotional rollercoaster E33 is. The lore of the world is not spoonfed to you, and things may be confusing at first. However, trust the process and flow with the game as the story unfolds. If you have an inquisitive mind and wish to understand more, discover it yourself and interact with the game. The game will reward you with tid bits of knowledge that add pieces to the puzzle, giving you a full understanding of the world it paints.

Without spoiling anything, the game truly creates a narrative masterpiece that I could not imagine being possible. Even if you think you understand the story, it will reveal an additional piece driving you to want more. Truly a masterwork in story writing.

While E33 is a turn based JRPG, the gameplay is incredibly intuitive and engaging, requiring the player to actually be present throughout the entire combat sequences. No longer do you have to rely on RNG for your attacks to land or for you to deflect attacks; you are responsible for all the damage you acquire given the game allows you to completely dodge, parry, or counter attacks as long as your skilled enough or paying attention.

Outside of combat, the mission objectives all have weight, meaning there isn't the same generic fetch quests systems plaguing other games. It genuinely feels like you're heading somewhere with purpose, and even in the more whimsical portions of the story, you are there for a reason, not just for a point A and B objective. Everything holds sustenance and purpose and the game awards you for fully exploring all avenues possible.

There's an ongoing joke that the incredible soundtrack Sandfall Interactive has composed has a game attached to it, and the joke absolutely holds it weight. The musical composition is some of the best I have experienced in my years of gaming and it just hits at the perfect moments. The crescendo leading up to a major fight, the melancholic melody during an emotional requiem, it always comes by at the perfect moment and truly pulls you in as a player. You will hype yourself up, you will cry and sob, you will feel a plethora of emotional responses given how well the music amplifies it. I believe I should mention here that the composer is someone who has never worked on a video game soundtrack and they found him through SoundCloud of all places. And his first attempt: A magnum opis for his career that will be remembered for years to come.

I understand that I may have a bit more of a personal attachment to this game given the circumstances that I experienced last year; however, that should not discredit the incredible masterpiece Sandfall Interactive has composed.

A game like this should not exist in the market we have today, but it does for some reason, all because passionate people were given the ability to create the dream they envisioned. There are no micro-transactions, no live service battle pass, no DLC gameplay content locked behind a paywall (albiet not at the moment); everything the game has to offer is available from the start. And the content you recieve for a fraction of what AAA developers are asking for their mediocre slop is truly magnificent. If anything, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should be a wake up call to both the modern day gaming player base and the corporate gaming industry. To us, we deserve much more than what they want to peddle to us as normal. And to the industry as a whole: success does not come from injecting forced idealogies and nickel-and-diming the playerbase, it comes from passion for building incredible worlds through the means of interactive media that video games are.

To Sandfall Interactive: I was wrong in doubting you. You truly deserve every single accolade you all have earned and more. I look forward to your success and hope you truly get the recognize you all deserve. Consider me a long term fan; I cannot wait to see what you have for us in the future.

From someone whom you've helped realize: truly, "tomorrow comes."

Thank you for reading.