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.

It’s honestly wild and mind blowing that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was made by such a small team. Not “impressive for an indie”, just impressive, period. The sheer quality of this game, from the art direction to the combat systems to the way it all just feels so cohesive, speaks volumes about what can happen when creative people aren’t buried under layers of corporate and political nonsense.

And that’s the thing. This isn’t just about a few talented devs making a cool game. It’s about what the industry could look like if we stopped making creativity run a gauntlet of approval meetings, milestones, and metrics before it can even breathe. You can feel the difference in Expedition 33. It’s personal. It’s focused. It’s weird in the best way. The team clearly had a vision and were absolutely allowed to follow it.

Honestly, Clair Obscur is the kind of game you don’t just enjoy, you root for. Because it represents something bigger. It’s a reminder that games don’t need to cost $200 million or have 400 names in the credits to be meaningful. Sometimes, they just need a team with something to say and the freedom to say it.

This is one of those games. It’s special. And it’s a little rebellious, in the best way possible.

This game is special.

Over the years I have played hundreds of games with thousands of hours of playtime and I have never been compelled to write a steam review. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is so good it's the first time I've wanted to.

The art style and story are beautiful. The combat is very engaging even considering it's turn-based nature and the music is stunning. Une vie à t'aimer is my favourite game soundtrack of all time, hands down. I can already tell I will be replaying this game multiple times.

This game really shows what kind of masterpieces can be made outside of large studio corporate oversight. 10/10, GOTY for sure. Amazing.

Exceeded everyone's expectations. This game is triple A standard, excelling every element that makes a game good.

Excellent gameplay, soundtrack, acting, story, graphics. No controversy or drama, just a clean good game with minimal bugs (if any) at launch. No predatory micro-transactions, no significant content locked behind a paywall, no battlepasses. Playable offline, controller and keyboard friendly.

This game is only a few features from being a perfect game. Still Game of the Year for me.

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.

Don't let the play time fool you. Beat everything (except the insane last optional boss) on Gamepass, bought the game and transfered my save to support the devs. It's so good I wanted to pay full price for this game because this is the kind of developers and games we need to support. In a world where games are increasingly safe and designed by comitee, Clair Obscur stands out as a peak in the genre. If you had told me years ago that in 2025 the French would create one of the best JRPGs in decades, I would have called you insane, but here we are.

I will be following these talented people with great interest and support.

Only a few hours in but I felt compelled to leave a quick review to give this game the thumbs up it so clearly deserves. It's completely blown me away and deserves all the positive attention it can get right now.

It's an extraordinarily well crafted experience, visually stunning, mechanically fresh and emotionally resonant. You can clearly see the talent behind it. I was genuinely surprised to learn that some of the developers were in fact ex-Ubisoft developers, It's incredible to see what passionate developers can create when they're free from corporate chains.

Ironically, they've well and truly outdone their former employer in every way despite only having 1/70th of the manpower available to them. The world design is breathtaking and the soundtrack is phenomenal. A true work of art and exactly the kind of innovation the industry desperately needs more of.

As you get older, you might think you've lost interest in video games, but occasionally a great game comes out and you realize the problem is the industry's, not you.

Over 90 hours later and the only thing in the game I haven't finished is reaching max level, I can confidently say this is my favorite game of the year but not just that.

Bringing back this more active turn based combat to this scale is so refreshing. I love the genre but I can see how similar it all ends up feeling, not that I mind, but this game reels you in from the first hidden encounter in the prologue all the way to the end of the main story and grueling post-game content. On expert difficulty, this is no joke but the build diversity is phenomenal. There's so many different things to choose from and some absolutely busted stuff too. I switched my builds only twice to help deal with some encounters and then ended up making all of my party so busted without fully trying just from a few changes. Each character has so much depth to just their singular gameplay systems even before figuring out synergies. I'm excited to do other playthroughs where I choose a different main lineup.

The narrative is one of the best I've experienced in a game. Thematically, everything fits together and leads to endings that are legitimately hard to choose between. The characters are well realized and so damn real, especially with their eyes and expressions, with writing to match. The game's tone is dark yet there's beautifully light and funny moments that don't feel abrupt which also helps you to immerse in this gorgeous world Sandfall have created. I did see that there's already an adaptation in the works and I think there's just no way any could fit the surrealist nature of the world and creatures that are in this game.

And the music! One of the best soundtracks in all of gaming and all of media in general. Everything's a bop and there's over eight hours of it! I especially loved the track toward the end of the prologue, the Goblu theme, Monoco and Gustave's theme, and the remixes of the main theme.

The world map is beautifully designed and with lots of secrets and encounters to find. At over 90 hours, I wasn't tired of exploring one bit. The level design is phenomenal too but some might be too large for their own good. It's not really a complaint, though. I think the design really helps instill the feeling of adventure and that's another this game is a masterclass in. It's a proper adventure to an entirely unknown place.

It could run a bit better but it runs as well as it needs to with it being a turn based game. I'm too busy being wowed by the insanity happening on screen, the character's emotions, or enjoying the music to care about any areas where the frames dip closer to 60 than not. Besides, I played on all ultra so I can hardly complain. If I turned settings down, I'm sure I'd get way more which I was usually getting anyway.

In 5, 10, 20 years, I have a feeling I'll still call this game one thing - My favorite game of all time.

My God, this game. This is what I imagine Final Fantasy would be if Square Enix had continued using turn based combat. The combat seems like the natural evolution of what modern turn based should be, it's absolutely god-tier.

If I had to describe what this game is like, I'd say it's a faithful combination of the following games:

- Classic Final Fantasy
- Persona
- Legend of Dragoon
- Sea of Stars
- Metaphor ReFantazio
- Etc

If you like any of those, you'll love this, and if you don't like turn based combat for some reason, try this anyway, because it's the most engaging turn based system I've maybe ever seen.

The visuals are GODLY, the music is DIVINE, the characters and voice acting is all top tier, and the story/world building will blow your mind.

10/10 - Exactly what I wanted !