Launched in April 2025 and quickly raised to the success rank of the year, Clair Obscu: Expedition 33 won fans with an engaging shift combat mixture, striking soundtrack and a dense story about pain, art and choices. Developed by a small French studio, Sandfall Interactive, the RPG stood out not only for its aesthetics, but also for its emotional depth with which themes such as loss, grief and memory.
The plot revolves around the fictional city of Lumiére, where every year people with a certain age are erased from existence by an entity called the painter. To avoid this destination, expeditions are sent to destroy it. However, what seems like an epic mission proves to be an intimate trip on the ghosts that pursue a family marked by tragedies.
The tragedy of the DESENDRE and the origin of the world within the screen
The heart of the narrative lies in the Family Dethere, a clan of artists known for their unique skills: members are painters, capable of creating living worlds within screens. The young verse, son of the couple Renoir and Aline, dies after an attack by the rival faction, the writers. Alicia, her sister, survives the fire, but is seriously injured. The loss deeply shakes the family, especially Aline, who takes refuge in the last painting painted by verse, where he had designed a new reality.
Within this screen, Aline remains, refusing to return to the real world. Renoir tries to destroy her to free her wife from illusion, but fails. It is in this process that the painter is born, the central figure of the game. The conflict between the couple inside the painting begins to what the residents of Lumiére call fracture, an event that isolates the city and marks the beginning of the annual erases, or gommage.
The conflict between creation and destruction intensifies with the presence of clones
To keep the world alive, Aline creates painted versions of her children and her husband. These clones, although artificial, have feelings and memories, but are not exempt from suffering. False Alicia, now called Maelle, joins expedition 33 without knowing its origin. Throughout the game, she recovers her identity and gains the same powers as the painter. Maelle then needs to choose between continuing to feed the world created by verse or release it.
Verse, whose fragmented soul keeps the screen alive, wishes the end of that universe, tired of existing only as a memory. The final choice of the player defines the direction of the narrative: keep the world painted alongside Maelle or delete it with verse, ending the family's grief cycle.
Two finals, two messages: attachment or overcoming
When choosing Maelle, the player preserves Lumiére. The characters return to life, the scenery is reborn and there is apparent peace. However, suffering persists. The now older verse clone plays piano before an audience, but his gaze denounces the burden of sustaining an illusion. Maelle, with a mask on her face, ignores her brother's pain. Reality is rebuilt, but at the expense of the freedom of the soul of verse.
Already when opting for verse, the world crumbles. Maelle disappears and the members of the Dethere family return to the real world. For the first time in decades, they face pain without escaping her. The verse tomb symbolizes the end of the negation cycle and the beginning of a new path, marked by conscious mourning and healing. The memory of the child is not erased, but it gets another place: off screen, in the real.
Why Clair Obscu: Expedition 33 is more than an RPG
In addition to its fluid combat system and visually stunning ambiance, Clair Obscu: Expedition 33 stands out for treating delicate themes such as the loss of loved ones, the denial of pain and the idealization of memory. The metaphor of painting, central to the narrative, reflects the human attempt to eternalize what we love, even if it imprison us to the past.
The final decision between Maelle and Verse is not only the end of a mission, but a reflection on difficult choices. Keep the ghosts alive or let them go? The game does not impose judgments, but allows the player to experience the weight of each decision.
