Clair Obscur Expedition 33 from Sandfall Interactive was a masterpiece across the board. The internet is abuzz about the small team with a modest budget that put out one of the greatest games of all time, and very possibly the best game of 2025.
This isn’t a review of the game. I’m not going to rate the boss fights or tell you for the thousandth time about the reactive combat with the dodging and parrying and the mainstream appeal that provides. Many of the talking points that are popular for this game in gaming journalism, I’m not interested in here. I want to talk about the new world Sandfall has built and why it’s exciting as both a self-contained story and a new fictional universe.
Reader Warning – Spoilers ahead from the game.
A Raw and Emotional Ride in Clair Obscur Expedition 33
First, the story of Expedition 33 is raw and emotional. Barely 10 minutes out of the prologue, the “main character” tries to kill himself and is stopped in the introduction to your first additional party member. The player at this point is still getting their bearings and has no idea what to make of everything, as the world is being constructed around them from the ground up.
What seems like an obscure (no pun intended), wacky world nothing like our own really starts to unfold quickly, and the main narrative gets flipped on its head right as the game is reaching its climax. That’s when you really start to see this world and the story for what it is, and it’s incredible. But it also cracks open the door to give you a peek, realizing you’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of what this new world and its possibilities, both narratively and mechanically, are.
That’s when I really started to get excited beyond just this one entry. There is so much uncharted territory and so many unanswered questions, and untold stories at the conclusion of the game, which still manages to put a beautiful bow on its own chapter. I can’t wait to see what they go next. The central real-world story we start to learn about here, but also the other “canvas” worlds and stories that could exist. It’s almost like Assassin’s Creed meets the Planes of Oblivion.
There’s Magic in the Air
There’s magic in Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and there’s magic within the worlds within this world. But it’s not the fire, water, wind/lightning, earth magic with sword and shield classic fare fantasy that, while fun, often lacks innovation. What they’ve set up with the characters of this new fiction is truly interesting. It’s grounded enough to have rules and boundaries that make it understandable and concrete to the player rather than “it just works however we need it to in the moment, don’t think about it”.
But it’s unique and departed enough from anything we’ve really seen before. No doubt, it is really cool and leaves us wanting to see more and learn more about it. Both from a “how do their abilities work and what can they do with them?” perspective as well as a “wanting to understand more about what role it plays and why the different types of creators are in conflict with each other in the first place” perspective. Why was the fire started that acted as the catalyst for this first game’s entire story?
Who Are the Painters in Clair Obscur Expedition 33?
The Painters exist in the real world, and the world of the game exists inside a single painting. Life exists inside this single painting. They are in conflict with the Writers. I have to imagine they have similar, but uniquely distinct, magical powers of creation. We have only heard of the Writers and don’t know what they can do.
Players don’t know why the conflict is there. We don’t know what the real world is like or what’s possible in it. Do the Painters and Writers possess any fantastical powers and abilities in their real world or only within the worlds they create? At this point, we’ve only seen a single room in the game’s real world in a prologue flashback near the game’s finale.
The Unknown
Are the Painters and the Writers the only artistic, magical entities in the real world? Are there also Musicians? Dancers? More? How do their magics differ, and how would they be expressed in a video game? Does magic exist outside the arts? Are people in this universe born with their abilities, or do they commit to them as a practiced, developing skill?
What larger web of conflict and alliance is there? What would a game look like from the perspective of one of these other groups? How about their motivations? What would the conflict between them in the real world look like? You could easily tell a prequel story, a sequel story, a parallel story, or change the perspective.
One of Many Zooes, Maybe?
We’ve basically played a whole game inside a single habitat at a zoo. We haven’t seen the other habitats, we haven’t seen the zoo itself, we haven’t left the zoo. This new Clair Obscur Expedition 33 universe, this new IP that Sandfall has created, has opened so many interesting doors and paths to explore. Each one made endlessly more exciting because they executed and delivered across the board. And because of where the first game takes place and what’s possible in this new universe.
Each new story and setting exists with almost no creative or narrative constraints from the first game and can likewise introduce no creative or narrative constraints to the next game. There’s no obligation to make characters like Esquie because Esquie is the artistic vision of Verso.
Unlimited Possibilities
A sophomore entry could have a cyberpunk theme, a post-apocalyptic theme, a horror/macabre theme, or any theme or setting that the developers’ hearts desire. It can be told from the perspective of another artistic designer or from the perspective of one of their world’s inhabitants. Seeing that power and command of creation from a powerless outside perspective. Just about any creative theme or narrative, or gameplay loop, can be done and still have it fit perfectly into this universe. And then advance the real-world portion of the overarching story by whatever degree an individual game feels the need to.
Sandfall created an incredible game. At the same time, they created an incredible universe. At the same time, they created an incredible framework for a deep, creative well to keep pulling from if they choose to. And they did all of it with beautiful writing, top-tier voice acting, exceptional music, modernized game mechanics, incredible graphics, and unbridled creative excellence.
This isn’t the first new fiction we’ve seen in video games with an interesting foundation that has a lot of interesting questions for the player and a lot of potential development of the initial concept. But a lot of times, we see this sort of stuff in games that just aren’t good. And so they’re one and done, and the potential is wasted. Sandfall has given this to us packaged in a STRONG GOTY contender. So all the seeds they’ve planted in building out this new world are in the perfect environment to grow as long as they decide to continue tending to them. I cannot wait to see what they put out next in this universe, and I think it would be criminal if they just left it as is.
Author Credit: Jacob McBride
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