Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG from Sandfall Interactive, a French studio with a core team of about 30 people. Co-founder and director Guillaume Broche started the project in 2019 while still working at Ubisoft. Kepler Interactive published it on 24 April 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Game Pass on day one. It is single-player only.
Every year a being called the Paintress wakes and paints a number on her Monolith. Everyone of that age or older then vanishes in the Gommage, and the number goes down each year. The game follows Expedition 33: people who have just turned 33 and have one year to destroy her before she paints "33". The art direction is a realistic, painterly dark fantasy built in Unreal Engine 5 and inspired by Belle Époque France.
The game won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025. Its nine wins from thirteen nominations are a record for the show. It also won Best Game at the BAFTA Games Awards and Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E. Awards, and sales passed 8 million by April 2026.
Pick actions on a visible turn-order timeline, then defend in real time on the enemy's turn: dodge (wider window), parry (tighter window, restores 1 AP) or jump when prompted. Parry every hit of an attack and you counter the last one.
Damage fills an enemy's Break bar under its health. Once the bar is full, a skill marked "Can Break" stuns the enemy: it loses its turn and takes extra damage.
Gustave's Overcharge, Lune's elemental Stains, Maelle's Stances, Sciel's Foretell and Sun/Moon charges, and Monoco, who learns enemy skills. Three are active in each battle.
Each character equips up to three Pictos. Win four battles with one equipped and its passive becomes a Lumina, which you can then use with Lumina points.
There is no paid DLC. The free "Thank You" update (v1.5.0) arrived in December 2025. It added Verso's Drafts, a new area next to Lumière that opens in Act III, new end-game bosses including fights in the Endless Tower, costumes, Photo Mode, saved Lumina sets and seven more languages. Patch 1.3.0 (June 2025) eased Story difficulty and added challenge modifiers. New Game+ has been in the game since launch.
Start with the Clair Obscur beginner's guide, which covers difficulty modes, defence timing, Break and builds. The walkthrough & boss guide follows the story route.
Release facts, mechanics and boss details on this page were checked against these sources on 12 October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.