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I'm a known lover of RPGs, specifically the JRPGs from which Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 derives from – so I knew I was the target audience going in. Which also meant I was expecting to go through my usual new RPG onboarding process, having to put aside a good few hours, maybe three to five across an evening, to properly settle into the game and for it to really get going. These long quests take some real investment to get immersed into the rhythm of play. But I was pleasantly surprised to find Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is actually far friendlier to short bursts than many of its peers.
Unable to find that golden evening after being sent early access code for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I was prepared to spend quite a while struggling to get into it. That wasn't the case at all. In my first session, I spent a leisurely hour playing through the prologue, which, as with all good prologues, had me hooked narratively by its end – but also proved a fine time to step away eager to return. This is a cycle that, for me, Clair Obscur – for the most part – manages to keep up. Yep, you can essentially play it like a TV show, though don't expect an episodic narrative game structure. This is battle city, baby.
Perfectly sliced
"It's all very manageable, and you're largely in control of the pacing in the dungeons."
Honestly, the bulk of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 follows a similar cadence to Final Fantasy 7 with some crucial differences that make its pacing a little easier to get into for modern audiences. There are story cutscenes, some travelling around the overworld, navigating (sometimes optional) dungeon-like environments, and doing battles with enemy mobs and bosses. We loved the balance it strikes in our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review.
The difference is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't just not have random battles – enemies wander around each environment – but it doesn't have all that many. Encounters are slick to control with their flashy menus and timing-based inputs, but more demanding than mashing a single button to cleave through weak foes.
To counteract the slightly more intense battles, though, they don't waste your time throwing hundreds at you. Each checkpoint is punctuated by only a handful on the main path, you can heal and save at each checkpoint (resting respawns enemies), or use a limited party-wide full heal that refills each encounter. It's all very manageable, and you're largely in control of the pacing in the dungeons.
Most of my sessions after the prologue fell into the range of 30-60 minutes each, with only the endings of each "act" pushing much past that, and it never felt choppy to have to dip out. Usually this was enough time to see some story scenes, talk to people at camp, and do the majority of a dungeon or at least reach a checkpoint mid-dungeon that felt like an OK stopping point.
Areas have lots of detours full of secrets to find, but nothing so demanding that you won't feel like you can pick things back after a bit of a break. Even some of the side content fits the mold nicely, early optional areas leaning shorter to poke around than main quest line zones, meaning it's easy enough to fill a shorter amount of time with some extra battling and exploring that's going to be a tad less demanding on immersion.
Pick up and play
What's more, getting back into a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 session after a little time away never has you just putting half an hour in to swat away enemies. There's always something substantial you're working towards, whether that's exploring a new and strikingly beautiful location, jumping back into the twisty, turny plot and wrangling your emotions, or tweaking your perfect and maybe slightly game-breaking equipment build.
"It wouldn't be inspired by JRPGs without an incredibly long sequence towards the end where you keep thinking you're near credits."
Which isn't to say it never stumbles from this promise (mind you, one that I am arbitrarily foisting upon the game). One particularly climatic moment has you doing one massive dungeon that retreads previous dungeon designs and takes a good couple of hours to make it through, and doesn't feel particularly exciting to explore in chunks – and is then followed by extremely long boss fights and cutscenes. Shortly after there's another similarly lengthy section which has a similarly arduous cadence.
Hey, it wouldn't be inspired by JRPGs without an incredibly long sequence towards the end where you keep thinking you're near credits. At least a couple of points could have used the rare Final Fantasy 14-type warning where it tells you a lot of cutscenes are about to happen.
But those bits towards the end are exceptions that prove the rule. For the most part, for a notorious binger like me, I was really happy to find I could get a lot out of shorter play sessions. Some days I could only manage an hour or two at max, others I could go longer, but pretty much always I was taking substantial breaks between bursts between 30-60 mins and, again, always feeling like each session had some real purpose behind it.
It's certainly not something I can say about even my favorite RPGs. Final Fantasy 7 takes a real long time to get going, with Final Fantasy 7 Remake in its entirety only getting around to adapting that first meaty chunk. Skies of Arcadia shovels you between some real grindy dungeons before you're really allowed to soar.
"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's pacing feels impeccably well-judged."
Heck, the return to sheer simplicity is one of the reasons the Atelier Marie Remake really shined for me compared to more recent (and still great) releases in that crafting RPG series. And don't get me started on Persona 5's glacial beginning. Still one of the best RPGs ever to do it, but gosh the prospect of getting through the opening takes the wind out of my sails on replay.
With a main story that took me around 25-30 hours to hit credits (with more optional bits to come), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's pacing feels impeccably well-judged. It doesn't feel like a particularly short RPG compared to its cousins, but it does feel like a really tight and well-focused one. This is an adventure everyone can go on, without having to set aside huge play sessions – and I think that's a fantastic evolution for a genre I adore.
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