There’s almost always a nervousness when it comes to releasing something big for the first time, especially in the media trade. We always want something we release to do incredibly well or to shock people with the quality within, but you never know how people will react before it’s in their hands. In the case of Clair Obscur Expedition 33, this unique RPG was the first for the team behind it. Sandfall Interactive put everything it had into its first game so that it would be a true standout title while also being a tribute to many of the RPGs that the team had grown up on.
As revealed by Metacritic, Clair Obscur Expedition 33 wasn’t just worth the effort; it’s one of the best-reviewed games of 2025 so far! It has a score of 92 across 50+ reviews, which makes it a contender for Game of the Year! That’s definitely not what you likely thought would happen when you saw some of the trailers for the game, right?
So, what are critics saying about the RPG? Many of them praise the team at Sandfall Interactive for being able to pull off what they did. Numerous reviews point out how beautiful the game looks and how well it plays. Some even state that this could be a model for how things go in the RPG world in the future! Guess we’ll have to wait and see if that prediction comes true.
Plenty of reviewers praised the game’s story, noting that it was “gripping” or even a “masterpiece” at times. RPGs do try hard with their stories, but not all of them land. Thus, it’s great to hear that this one, with all its high-level themes and emotionally damaged characters, was able to live up to the hype.
Another common trend in the reviews, especially amongst the many perfect scores the game got, was the statement that the entire game, from top to bottom, was brilliantly rendered and handled. The visuals, storytelling, gameplay, music, atmosphere, exploration, and more were so perfectly interwoven that you need to see them for yourself to experience them. Many of the reviews we looked at had the line “You need to play this game” or “We encourage you to check out this title,” which says quite a bit.
While there were a few negative comments, such as being “too mysterious in its own story” at times, the fact that the game got so many perfect scores and so much praise really highlights that one might just want to give this game a try and see what they think.
