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The Leftfield Surprise of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
All my favourite games rolled into one
Nobody could have predicted that a maiden title, a love-letter to Japanese roleplaying games from a french developer would be a contender for game of the year. Racking up 2m units in sales in a month, gothic RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 bucks a gaming trend towards giant, action-oriented titles by resurrecting the turn-based battles of old and clocking a runtime of just over 30 hours.
In a world heavily influenced by 19th Century France, a cataclysm has torn the land asunder. The human citizens of the Island-City of Lumiere are left to suffer at the hands of a goddess they dub The Paintress. She daubs an annual number on a stone monolith. Visible across the ocean, everyone of the age represented has one year to live, then dies. This started with those aged a hundred; now the oldest people in society are in their thirties and nobody wants to raise children.
Not ones to take things lying down, the citizens of Lumiere send an annual party across the ocean to try to end the Paintress and the deaths of the citizens. None have ever succeeded or returned. Now, it is down to the player and the volunteers of Expedition 33 (X33) to stop the Paintress, uncover the mystery of her very existence and put an end humanity’s misery.
