The greatest expedition in history!

Reviewed by : Marzia & Mark

“Painting you an unforgettable canvas.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a JRPG inspired turn-based game, westernized to capture more eyes than your regular JRPG.

They built it in such a way that people who enjoy scenery, story and a challenge can harmonize over the blend they offer. Sandfall Interactive expands on the studio’s philosophy and ethos by saying, “We make games that we love and want to play”.Allow me to share a bit more about their team and how it came to be.

Owowow, Expedition 33… where do I even start. The moment I laid eyes upon their trailer on Steam, it was clear that this game would not only captivate me, but a much wider public. A game built with love and care by a start-up company named Sandfall Interactive, founded all the way back in 2020. They have been working with passion and dedication for 5 long years.

They have recently celebrated their 5th year anniversary, so big congrats to them!

GAME INFO

Developer

Sandfall Interactive

Publisher

Kepler Interactive

Genre

Turn-based RPG

RATING

STORY

GAMEPLAY

PERFORMANCE

Your heart will Gommage too.

Clair Obscur is heavily story-based, so I will do my best not to spoil anything for those who want to experience the whole thing first-hand.

What I do want to hint though, is how well narrated and put together the story is. It is so subtle, so serene, so straightforward, yet… not as straightforward as you might think

You start off the game as Gustave, the inventor of the Lumina Converter, gazing towards the suppressing monolith that’s been haunting Lumiere, the only sanction and hometown of survivors after the Fracture.

On the monolith, a glowing “34” sits, together with The Paintress at its ground, she who paints death. How, you may ask? The number she paints on that monolith marks the age group of people who will die.

The people of Lumiere “celebrate” this yearly occasion and call it, Gommage People fading, dissipating into multiple beautiful red petals. Only this year, it will be taking somebody you care about, your ex-lover, Sophie

This is not a game.

Their team’s ensemble is quite something. The CEO and founder of Sandfall Interactive, Guillaume Broche, used to work at Ubisoft together with the CTO and co-founder of their studio, Tom Guillermin.

Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, current Lead Writer, also joined the crew after her mixed feelings about her career in finance. The amazing OST of the game comes from a SoundCloud creator that was randomly discovered by Guillaume, Lorien Testard.

Not only them, but so many other talented people, met by chance – and yet created something beautiful. Allow me to share that beauty.

A canvas beyond words.

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Sandfall’s finest creations

I feel the need to mention Sandfall’s ensemble because it is quite something. The CEO and founder of Sandfall Interactive, Guillaume Broche, used to work at Ubisoft together with Tom Guillermin, his current business partner as CTO and co-founder. They both left Ubisoft after addressing that they were simply bored, and wanted to do something more. Adding a bit more creativity and freedom in their own project than what the big guns would allow

Moreover, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, current Lead Writer, also joined the crew after having mixed feelings about her career in finance. After a Reddit post made by Broche looking for free voice actors, they got acquainted, grew closer and Jennifer was given the chance to write the game’s story from 00.