Header image for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
Header image for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
This article is in English. Untuk membaca versi Bahasa Indonesia, klik di sini.

TL;DR

For a game that has been named Game of the Year by several awards shows, the performance of this game is deeply disappointing — even a year after its release.

Notice and Specs


Notice
  • This article aims to review and share information about this game.
  • There is no intent to infringe on any copyright.
  • The copyright of any images, videos, or other media used in this article belongs to their respective owners — either the developer or publisher of this game — unless stated otherwise.
  • The author is not affiliated with the developer, publisher, or any other parties related to this game. Although I received a key to write this article, I am not affiliated with the developer, publisher, or any other parties related to this game.
  • This article is purely a review from the author's own perspective.
  • This article is based on my personal experience playing this game. Future updates or changes to the game may not be reflected in this article.
  • This article was translated from Indonesian to English with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic).
Click this box to see my PC specs.
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
  • GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB
  • RAM: Crucial DDR4-3200 2x8GB
  • SSD: TeamGroup MP44L NVMe M2 1TB
  • Monitor: Lenovo L24i-40 100 Hz and Samsung S3 S33GC 100 Hz
  • Gamepad: 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C Peach
  • Mouse: Logitech Signature M650 Rose
  • Keyboard: Logitech K380 Rose

Game Details

Details

Trailer

Check out the game's trailer below :)

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Launch Trailer

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | Launch Trailer

Credit to Kepler Interactive channel on YouTube.

Quick Review and Rating

Quick Review

A year ago, in May 2025, I received a key to play this game from Guillotine. With the massive hype surrounding it on social media and among many fellow streamers and content creators who were playing it, naturally expectations were high going in. A year ago, my journey was cut short after the first area — basically during the introduction.

2026. A year has passed. Would my journey come to an abrupt stop again?

In short: YES.

Quick Rating

Category & Scoring Details Score
1. Mechanics & Gameplay
  • Controls [10]: This game can be played with mouse and keyboard or a controller. The game recommends using a controller, so that's what I used — and it felt fine. Smooth, nothing felt awkward or clunky while playing.
  • Game Loop [8]: I... can't comment extensively on the game loop, since my playthrough was cut short after the first hour or so. In that time, all I did was go through cutscenes, exploration, dialogue, and turn-based battles with QTE (Quick Time Events). Unfortunately my journey was short, so I can't say much more about this area.
  • Difficulty [8]: My experience was limited, but... the difficulty was... reasonably challenging, I'd say. The hardest part? Timing the button press correctly for the QTEs. Beyond that, it didn't feel all that demanding.
8.7
2. Visuals & Aesthetics
  • Art Direction [7]:
    Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
    Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
    Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
    Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
    Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
    Credit to Sandfall Interactive, Kepler Interactive, embedded from Steam.
    This game uses a surreal visual style, so everything looks "real." Which is nice, supposedly — but it comes at the cost of performance that has never been smooth, even now. Honestly baffling, because even offline — not streaming, just playing without streaming — the game is still heavy. Even on medium settings; even dropped to low during stream, it's still heavy. Truly baffling... and a whole year has already gone by...
  • Optimization [1]: Honestly. Deeply dis-ap-poin-ting. Over a year, so many awards, overwhelmingly positive reviews — and the performance is still this bad? I genuinely don't know what to say anymore.

    Last year, I only managed to get through Emma's speech cutscene before we departed the first area. This year? A full year later, and my run ended at the exact same point. The stream crashed, my AMD driver crashed, and... my mood went completely sideways.

    Even offline, the problems were the same. The GPU was consistently sitting at around 90%, and the CPU was continuously above 100%. This was with FSR enabled, settings on medium — even on low. Dropping the resolution to 720p didn't help either. Switching to DirectX 11 didn't help either. With a PC that really should be capable of handling a game of this caliber... the disappointment is immense.

    I thought a year would mean things had changed — that it had been optimized. But my hopes were not met, despite a year having passed and a mountain of awards being handed out.
  • UI/UX [6]: The UI and UX are fine. The translation is readable, though occasionally subtitle text isn't legible because it's white, and some character costumes are white too. What I think becomes more of an issue is... the QTE? Sometimes the QTE indicators aren't clearly visible, making it a bit tricky to get the timing right for the required input window.
4.7
3. Story & World
  • Pacing [9]: The pacing is just right. While playing, you'll enjoy exploring, chatting with characters, battling, and so on. As a result, 90 minutes might not even feel like it's passed.
  • Characters [10]: The main character is Gustave, and over time you'll be able to switch to other characters. You'll understand how this works once you meet Sophie. Pretty handy feature!
  • Lore [8]: This is my understanding — not sure how accurate it is, since my playtime wasn't that long.

    So, on this island, the inhabitants will die as the number on a large... mountain (?) far out at sea decreases — you'll see it at the harbor. It started at... 100 or 99? I forget. And now it's reached 34. Which means residents at age 34 will "die" — turning into scattered flower petals. And now, the expedition team sets out toward that distant mountain to defeat the "Paintress" so that next year, those aged 33 and below won't meet the same fate as those before them.

    That's roughly the lore as I understand it...
  • Writing [10]: The writing is great. Easy to follow and genuinely enjoyable to read. Some terms might not be immediately obvious, but over time they're not that hard to grasp. And delightfully, this game supports Indonesian text! Ayyyy! And the translation is also good — one standout example being this newspaper headline:

    Surya nan pucat naik ke atas cakrawala kemerahan.

    From the original English: The pale sun ascends above the crimson blossom.

    Beuh.

    Whoever thought to write a newspaper headline this poetic... well, it's good. Me likey. But whoever translated this definitely reads a lot of books 🤣👍🏻
9.25
4. Audio & Music
  • Sound Design [10]: The sound design is great! During battles it sounds exciting and tense, while walking around the city it genuinely feels like being in a city. You hear dogs, people talking, piano, even what sounds like a couple getting intimate 🤣 The city feels "alive." And it felt nice!
  • Music [10]: The music is excellent! It fits the moment and the setting perfectly. When it's sad, the music is sad; when it's tense, the music is tense; when it's joyful, the music is joyful. So all good!
    • The OST album is on Spotify!

    Go ahead and listen to the OST on Spotify!

  • Voice Acting [10]: I... can't comment too far ahead, and I don't know whether it remains fully voice-acted throughout. In what I played, the game is fully voice-acted. Every character involved in a conversation has a voice actor. Even the NPC characters wandering around "chat" amongst themselves, making the world feel even more alive. Oh, and the game offers two language options: English and French. Previously I tried to be fancy and played it in French, and ended up understanding nothing 🤣 Now I play it in English and actually follow along 🤣
10
5. Replayability & Value
  • Price vs Content [6]: The price is... expensive 🥲 Very. 500K IDR. On discount, it might drop to 400K IDR. Still expensive. And given that price tag... and the terrible performance... it's deeply disappointing. For that kind of money, the expectation is naturally solid performance — on top of the stunning visuals, great writing, and excellent music and sound effects. But... if the performance alone is unstable, how is one supposed to enjoy this expensive game?
6
TOTAL SCORE xx

Gameplay Videos

Want to watch my gameplay videos? You can check them out below:

(EN/ID) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - First Impression - Gameplay (Part 1 - Departed from Lumiere) #

(EN/ID) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - First Impression - Gameplay (Part 1 - Departed from Lumiere) #

Credit to Adli_HM channel on YouTube.

#WeeklyWednesdayMukbang, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

#WeeklyWednesdayMukbang, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Credit to Adli_HM channel on YouTube.

Closing

This game's price is steep. 500,000 IDR. Compared to my own monthly expenses, that's roughly 1/4 to 1/5 of the total. Even compared to the average Indonesian salary of perhaps 2–2.5 million a month, it's still a significant chunk. Objectively expensive. And for a price that high, my expectation is naturally good, stable performance — something that can actually be enjoyed. If this were a freshly launched game still in Early Access, these kinds of issues might be more understandable. But... a year has passed, and the performance is still this bad? Deeply disappointing.

Whether I'll ever come back to play this again someday... honestly, I don't know.

That's all!
See you in another Adli's Quick Games Review :)