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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has just rocked up at today’s Xbox Developer Direct, offering us another look at its very Final Fantasy vibes-filled adventure about stopping an artist in Belle Époque France from doing some painting. It’s also now locked in a concrete release date of April 24, 2025.
If you’ve not been keeping up with Expedition 33, it’s an RPG with “reactive” turn based combat and is designed to be a bit of an evolution on some JRPGs you’ll probably be able to identify the moment you look at footage of it in action, if you’re big into your finals, your fantasies, and the rest of ’em.
Anyway, after being pre-announced to appear when Xbox revealed that today’s Xbox Developer Direct was coming, Expedition 33 has just shown up with some chat from developer Sandfall Interactive featuring a proper release date that narrows down the 2025 window previously given it’s launching April 24, 2025. So, stick that in your calendar.
Along with that date, there were some details about the devlopment of the game; the dev wants to focus on making a beautiful, interactive world that has the combat depth you’d find in traditional turn-based RPGs (especially those from Japan). The developers have been working on the game’s story for four years, so you know the narrative isn’t going to come in half-baked.
The heart of the story is about overcoming an existential threat, whilst overcoming loss and grief. “In a world like this, how does one stay true to themselves?” asks one of the developers, and that seems to underpin a large portion of the game. It’s about internal, and inter-personal conflict as much as it’s about combat with big monsters. So that’s… nice.
You can also team up with a playful, but also slightly religious troll. And recruit a big, inflatable mount. So it balances the silly with the serious.
Our Alex Donaldson was pretty impressed with Expedition 33 when he saw it at a preview last year, writing that it reminded him a bit of 2004’s The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, a pretty good game that played a lot like Final Fantasy 10, and Persona 5.
“I think what it’s offering is thrilling – said with the caveat that I’ve only seen hands-off footage so far – and a game like this really has to be played, and for an extended period of time, to be truly understood,” he wrote, “What I can say for sure is that my interest is now locked in. I hope the full game can live up to the lofty status of its inspirations.”
So, here’s hoping Expedition 33 can do just that, now we know for sure when it’ll be arriving April 24, 2025.
Kurt Indovina
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