I love a good story and good art. Please don’t take me to a poorly written movie or show. I may annoy you as I tear it apart the whole time. Sorry, to my friends who have experienced this…
So when a studio loves their craft, I can’t get enough of it. There’s something about how characters and beauty can truly touch the soul. Such has been the case with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. And for its millions of other fans, there is no surprise it won so many gaming awards, including Game of the Year. Let’s dive into why there couldn’t be a better game to win.
‘CLAIR OBSCUR – EXPEDITION 33’ has won 9 awards at #TheGameAwards, the most for any game ever
• Game of the Year
• Best RPG
• Best Narrative
• Best Art Direction
• Best Score & Music
• Best Game Direction
• Best Debut Indie Game
• Best Independent Game
• Best… pic.twitter.com/FECXjeB5B6— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) December 12, 2025
If you have somehow have missed the game that took the industry by storm this year, let me fill you in. Expedition 33 is an indie-game made by French studio Sandfall Interactive. This turn-based JRPG dark fantasy starts in the post-apocalytic Lumiere, a city thrown into the ocean 67 years ago after the Fracture.
Since then, a mysterious being known as the Paintress has wreaked havoc on humanity. Each year, she stands at her monolith and paints a number, erasing everyone older than that age. Every year that number gets one smaller. The player comes into the game on the eve of the gommage of those aged 33. Humanity is running out of time. Each year, Lumiere sends an expedition to find the Paintress and stop her slow annihilation. None have come back. As you join Expedition 33, you discover the continent is not as it seems.
Clair Obscur: Philosophy and the Questions Worth Asking
The first thing that pulled me to Expedition 33 is its premise and the themes it explores. If I’m going to give something several, several hours of my life, I want it to mean something. And this game has left me reeling, in the best possible way.
A screenshot from the trailer to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – YouTube, IGN
A quick French art lesson. “Clair Obscur” translates “light-dark,” a painting technique juxtaposing the two to more clearly see and understand them. A perfect description as the story explores such themes as love and loss. Beauty and grief. Hope and resolve when everything tells you to despair. Mortality and legacy.
When you lose your parents and everyone you love at a young age, knowing you will die even younger, it forces you to think hard about your life and choices. How do you continue when all seems lost? How do you continue with the hole left by losing those you held closest? I have never played a game that has made me think so hard about my own mortality and how to make the most of our brief existence. But these are the questions we all either face or run from, but will find us anyway.
Story and Nuance
Clair Obscur goes beyond just the themes into the story itself. One scene you are filled with as much hope as the characters, that maybe this will be the expedition to finally succeed, only to be met with another brutal reminder of how vicious the continent actually is. The characters share tender moments of friendship or a moment of light-hearted humor. I truly laughed at several moments and scenes. Then felt hit in the gut, sometimes just a scene or two later. Light and dark. Reality. Life is both beautiful and painful. And still, we continue.
A screenshot from the trailer to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showing off the game’s combat – YouTube, IGN
And this is the first thing that sets Expedition 33 apart, not just from modern games but modern storytelling. How does one explore such a gut-wrenching view of reality with hope, without becoming preachy? You let the story drive the conversation. You show reality for what it is, and let your fans decipher what message to take. Treat your audience like it is competent enough to understand what you want to say without having to spell it out for them explicitly. Wow, that is a breath of fresh air nowadays.
(Be Advised: The clip below has strong adult language)
Many have called the cutscenes absolute cinema. And the team truly does lovingly bring the characters to life with award winning voice actors and motion capture that makes the characters portray all the emotion and little idiosyncrasies of human behavior.
But the true applause goes to the story writing. Reportedly, lead writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen wrote up to four generations of backstory for each major character. You never see most of the backstory, but you feel it. Each character feels so grounded, so life-like. The dialogue feels so natural, you forget for a moment you’re actually playing a game. And you’re never quite prepared for what turn the story takes next.
Characters
There are already several who have analyzed the characters with more talent than I can, so I will simply hit the highlights. The way it portrays and respects both its male and female characters is truly refreshing.
A screenshot from the trailer to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – YouTube, IGN
The fan favorite, and my own, is Gustave. A true hero in every sense of the word, yet flawed like any of the rest of us. A man of conviction and courage. Truly the heart of the expedition. His dedication to saving his people. The tender fatherly relationship he has with his adopted sister Maelle moved me to actual tears. The best compliment I can give is he is the kind of masculine example I would want my son to aspire to. In a society that either tries to tell him that masculinity is toxic or portrays its “heroes” as hedonistic narcissists, there truly is something healing about seeing a man who sacrifices everything for a future he will likely not see.
Gustave is the kind of masculine example this generation needs.
The female characters also receive the same depth and complexity. It seems that the gaming world has oscillated between two shallow versions of femininity. Either female characters are the eye candy that look like they’re better dressed for the bedroom than the battlefield, or they’re the feminist propaganda whose perfection and powerfulness outshine their male counterparts.
Not so with Expedition 33. Each character has her own own unique strengths and blindspots. The compassionate Sciel who wants her death to count for something, even if she does not think the mission can succeed. The curious and driven Lune, whose relentless pursuit to see the mission succeed leaves her a bit cold at times. And Maelle. Oh Maelle. The orphan so uncomfortable in her society she’d rather leave with the last person she feels close to than wait for her own gommage still nine years away.
True Art
I wish I had more time to tell you simply how beautiful Expedition 33 is. The carefully crafted visuals, full of such detail as can only be given by an artist that truly loves what they do. The landscapes that truly make you stand back in awe or carry the emotional weight of the scene.
Or the award-winning music that has gone on not only a French tour but now a European tour already announced as well. The haunting vocals. The stunning variety from French Opera, to jazz, to EDM. Sometimes the music makes you want to dance while you battle. Sometimes it moves your soul in a way words can’t express.
But through and through, this is a game made by people who love what they do. A team told not to put anything in that didn’t serve the overall experience, nothing that simply tries to grab money. You mean, there’s a few people out there who make games because the love the craft, not because corporate loves making money? A company that truly loves and appreciates its fans? A game that wants to tell a such a human story and ask some of the most important questions about existence? A game that praises heroism, virtue, sacrifice, and laying one’s life down for one’s friends? A game that actually makes you want to be a better person?
A screenshot from the trailer to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – YouTube, IGN
Wow, they still make it like that? Yes, they still do. It truly is a passion project, and you can feel it through and through.
Gustave said it best. “For those who come after.”
What has been your experience playing Expedition 33? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
