The following contains major spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is so singular in its craftsmanship and heart that it seems impossible a sequel could ever hope to succeed it. Turn-based RPG gameplay could improve in some ways, with the inventory management of pictos and lumina most desperate for an overhaul, but the story doesn’t leave a lot of room for a sequel to carry the torch unless it is wildly different. For example, a sequel to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could follow the story of another Painter family, but it would risk seeming derivative unless that family and whatever they paint were entirely unique; likewise, it could instead focus on the Writers, though it wouldn’t have the same element of surprise that the first game’s twists and turns delivered since players already know of characters’ abilities to produce vast worlds and realities and will be awaiting some suspenseful revelation.
Interestingly, this would also give Sandfall an opportunity to branch out as much as it wants, potentially adopting a new gameplay genre and narrative tone to better suit different characters’ perspectives. It’s not even guaranteed that a sequel won’t reprise Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s companion characters, despite the original game’s endings seemingly tying a knot on the Dessendre family indefinitely. If it doesn’t, and Clair Obscur’s next adventure is truly moving on from those whom players grew attached to, there is no world—real or painted—where Gustave, Maelle, Lune, Sciel, Verso, Monoco, and every charismatic, adorable NPC players meet in Lumiere and on the Continent won’t be greatly missed.
Because the themes of loss and grief are so prevalent and powerful in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it could be deceptively easy to assume that a sequel would be comparably tragic in its own way. However, this is because the game’s events take place almost entirely within a painted world that’s been fermented and wrought with emotional turmoil, tethered inseparably to the Dessendre family and how its individual members are choosing to cope with the death of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Verso.
Players know shockingly little about the real world beyond the Dessendre canvases besides the fact that Clair Obscur’s Painter and Writer factions are warring with one another, and it’d only make sense for a sequel to be equally depressing if its main characters are enduring some sort of heartache themselves.
This could well become Sandfall’s bread and butter, after all, with the expectation that each new game they develop will feature a hauntingly devastating narrative. Plus, with Clair Obscur so enveloped in its melancholy, it might be alarming if a sequel had a jarringly opposite emotional signature. That’s not to say Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is short on charming whimsy and legitimately hilarious dialogue, but the laughter and love shared between characters in the player’s party is precisely what punctuates the story’s sorrow.
The toughest pill to swallow, if or when a new Clair Obscur game is announced, may be that the first game’s titular Expedition 33—Gustave, Maelle, Lune, Sciel, Verso, and Monoco—will be absent. There doesn’t seem to be a valid means for Expedition 33 to return unless the sequel follows Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s A Life to Paint ending, which is unlikely due to the defeated and devastated nature of it as Maelle succumbs to her grief and refuses to destroy the canvas.
Otherwise, Verso’s ending has the canvas destroyed and the Dessendre family grieving peacefully, but the canvas being gone also means that Expedition 33 and all ‘living’ creatures within the world the family painted are erased—gommaged, as it were—from existence. Verso’s is technically and arguably the ‘good’ ending, yet it’s no easier to settle on because of what the player loses: the companions that they’ve fallen for and who have done nothing to deserve their fates.
Choosing between Maelle and Verso is a test to see what the player decides when they’re put in the characters’ shoes. And, anyone who had a disastrously difficult time making that choice, as they did not want to lose their beloved companions, will probably find it fairly sobering if the next Clair Obscur game doesn’t bring them back somehow.
April 24, 2025
Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Sandfall Interactive
Kepler Interactive
