Please Don't Let Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ridiculous Title Stop You From Playing This Incredible Game

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Eric Switzer

Published Apr 23, 2025

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I’m not on Sandfall Interactive’s marketing team, but if I were, I never would have✨ let them name their debut game . It’s a hard name to remember and an easy one to forget. It’s distinctly RPG-coded in a way that makes Expedition 33 sound like ‘just another one of those games’ when in reality, it’s anything but.

The main characters of Clair Obscur Expedition 33 standing together with a label that reads TheGamer Five Stars Review.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Review - 🔜A Very Be🎉lle Époque

I suspected Eurojank, I received Euroexcellence.

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Despite 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:critical acclaim and launching on Game Pass, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is going to have to fight an uphill battle solely based on its unimpres🦂sive name. That’s a shame because it’s one of the most impressive games ever made by a new indie studio, and one that even turn-based RPG skeptics (myself included) would love. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, you shouldn’t judge a game by its title.

What’s In A Name?

The entire party in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

There are plenty of fantastic games with lousy titles, especially in the RPG genre. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metaphor: Refantazio was a Game of the Year nominee at The Game Awards last year, and no one who has played it can tell you for certain what the title means (or how to pronounce it). Everyone likes to pick on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but that’s probably not even Square Enix’s worst title. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Triangle Strategy, anyone?

I’m not just picking on Japanese games. One of the most successful PC shooters of all time is called 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which then was renamed PUBG: Battlegrounds. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds. What about Balatro, a title which ? 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Immortal Fenyx Rising is a title so bad that it’s at least partially responsible for making a pretty decent open-world game bomb. I just don’t want the same thing to happen to Clair Obscur: Expedition🎉 33.

A Pretentious Name For A Grounded Game

Renoir and Aline comfort one another at the end of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Before we move on, let’s break down the title. ‘Clair Obscur’ is the French translation for tꦿhe Italian word chiaroscuro (I beg you stay with me), which is a term used in art to describe work that emphasizes contrast between light and dark. The term is often used to refer to the style of Noir films from the 1940s and ‘50s, but it has been used to describe art dating all the way back to the Renaissance and was later used to describe the work of Rembrandt and Caravaggio.

If you haven’t studied art history, you likely wouldn’t be familiar with the term. That doesn’t automatically make it a bad title, but it’s not a good start. It’s a French word mea𝄹nt to be pronounced with a French accent, which makes it sound awkward coming out of my ignorant American mouth. We’ll call that strike two.

The biggest problem with this title isn’t the actual words but the fact that it presupposes the entire f🌱ranchise that could one day follow this initial entry, Expedition 33. It’s not a good idea to build the promise of a series into an untested IP, and we’ve seen enough flopped franchise-starters to know not to trust such things anyway. Kingdoms of Amalur, anyone?

We’re already at three strikes, but it has to be mentioned that Clair Obscur isn’t even necessarily an appropriate title for this fantasy universe. Belle Époque would have been a better title; it’s equally French, but at least it would accurately describe the turn-of-the-century period and style of the world. Clair Obscur, in the co🥃ntext of the game, can only be understood in terms of its connection to light and dark as thematic concepts, which is ultimately a pretty tired way to approach themes in a 🐼video game.

Expedition 33 Is Marginally Better On Its Own

Gustave and Sophie watch as the Paintress changes the number on the Monolith to 33 in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Expedition 33 isn’t a great title either, and it's easily confused with other games (33 Immortals, anyone?), but at least it’s an appropriate name for this game. Expedition 33 takes place in a world where a god-like being called the Paintress paints a number on her monolith that causes everyone who is that age to die. Every year, she paints a lower number, and every year, an expedition of trained fighters sacrifice themselves to try to stop her. The ritual started with a cataclysm called the Fracture 67 years ago, and as the Paintress changes the number to 33, the 33💫rd expedition to kill her takes off.

It’s a descriptive title, but not a very evocative one unless you’re already familiar with the premise (not as evocativ♔e as 33 Immortals anyway). If this series were to continue, you shouldn’t expect the next one to be Expedition 34, and in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Expedition 33 replaced Clair Obscur as the series title, a la Hellblade and Senua’s Saga.

I don’t necessarily have a better title in mind. 📖I would be happier wit♒h Belle Époque or Age of Beauty, as I mentioned before, but that’s still not the kind of attention-grabbing name a game like this needs. The video game market has never been so saturated and competitive, so when launching a new IP from a brand new studio and a young publisher, you need to use every advantage you can find.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a title that exudes confiden෴ce, but it doesn’t give people the right expectation for what to expec💯t from this game. This game is a lightning bolt fired into the center of a rock golem to make it explode into rubble, while its title makes it sound like a class you slept through in college.