How Expedition 33 Succeeds in the Mainstream Where Other JRPGs Haven’t

Have you heard of Expedition 33? Well, of course you have. As the game, which is founded in JRPG roots, has hit the mainstream in a way that many other JRPGs usually fail to do. A lot of high-profile JRPGs that have launched over the years, are game’s that I am a big fan of. Such as last year’s Atlus onslaught with games like Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, Persona 3: Reload, and Metaphor ReFantazio. All of these games reviewed well and sold well while being some of my favorite games last year. But Expedition 33 is different, for a myriad of reasons that have helped it hit the mainstream more so than these titles have.

At the time of writing this, Expedition 33, as a new IP, has amassed over 2 million copies sold in its twelve days, having the highest user score on Metacritic, and a peak concurrent player count on Steam of over 145,000 players. This is no small feat for a debut game with no recognizable IP to latch onto. Especially from a brand-new studio that started making the game just a handful of years ago. As someone who has just finished the main story of the game. There are very real and hard-to-swallow answers for its success.

The Graphics Over-Achieve

Look, I am not going to sit here and say every game needs to be photorealistic. I honestly hate how reliant a lot of big AAA games have become on it. It robs honest-to-goodness art direction and distinct visual styles similar to what you would find in most JRPGs. However, what if I said they achieved both in this game? Yes, Sandfall Interactive really took a photorealistic approach to the overall fidelity for Expedition 33. But the environments, enemies (and bosses, of course), and weapon designs have distinct styles and directions to them.

The closest I can compare this level of creativity to is, of course, Fromsoftware’s games. Such as Dark Souls and, more recently, Elden Ring. The intentionally nightmarish designs for enemies that feel grounded due to the interactivity you need to have with them are distinct. While every single area, even the overworld map, looks carefully crafted to be memorable and distinct from one location to the next.

Mixing what the average person wants from a modern game, like photorealism, and a distinct style that can speak to the hardcore JRPG gamer is so hard to pull off. But Sandfall Interactive did it for Expedition 33, and it is crazy that they pulled it off to this level. But it is not just the visuals, it is also what is most important in a video game, the gameplay.

The Combat System in Expedition 33 is Easy to Pick Up

Expedition 33 is a turn based JRPG. But what separates itself from other JRPGs in the space is the level of interactivity you have in the combat system. You do have the genre standards, like weapons, stats, passives, etc. But where the game makes itself unique is just with a few touches in the way you attack and defend. There are button prompts tied to abilities you unlock via the leveling system, but they are not too challenging to pull off either. But the game changer is the dodge and parry system.

Usually, in JRPGs, you have to equip items to mitigate elemental damage and stack stat points into evasion to survive really challenging encounters. In Expedition 33, you can control how much you get hit at the press of a button, literally. You can either dodge, which gives you a good window of opportunity to avoid getting hit, or parry attacks, which then give you counterattacks to deal more damage against enemies. Having this much control over the combat system is a major boon, even for the average non-JRPG gamer.

It Isn’t a Long Game

Every JRPG can go on for nearly, and sometimes over, a hundred hours in length. Expedition 33 opposes that idea. The game only goes on for about 25-30 hours for the main story, and none of that is spent grinding. In my experience in the game, I never felt underleveled. I always got all of the XP I needed between and at each location to continue the game. Due to the way the combat system is set up, the game feels tuned around player skill to make it through the game. Instead of getting to the highest level through hours of annoying grinding that would, again, turn off the average non-JRPG gamer.

Expedition 33 is for an (Actually) Mature Audience

Finally, no skirting around this point, Expedition 33 is rated M for Mature, and for good reasons. It’s not just because of some blood spatter or tons of swearing. Instead, the opening hour of the game (and beyond) paints some genuinely gruesome and emotionally painful moments. These moments go far beyond anything I have seen in recent JRPGs. The game does not deal with melodrama at a teenage level or weird real-life conversations. It just creates a party of people who go through horrid scenarios. You can feel their fear throughout the story, and empathize with them.

Expedition 33 does a lot of things that purely pleases the average gamer. Whether they are a JRPG fan or not, and I know a few who aren’t who got addicted to the game after trying it, the game does a lot of things right for them. Whether it is the graphics, the story, or its gameplay, something will make it all click into place and hook them. The proof is in the pudding, with its glorious accolades, sales numbers, and player counts. Sandfall Interactive made something unique that resonates with the wider world. No doubt it is a stunning achievement, done so on their first try.