Hi future Expeditioners! We are Sandfall Interactive, a team of around 30 passionate developers based in Montpellier, France and we are thrilled to reveal our project to you today: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, coming to Xbox Series X|S next year and available day one with Xbox Game Pass. We poured our hearts and souls into creating the game of our dreams, so we sincerely hope you will enjoy our reveal trailer just below.
The Paintress’ Cycle of Death
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, or just Expedition 33, is a brand-new reactive turn-based RPG that will transport you to a beautiful, surrealist new world inspired by France’s La Belle Epoque — a period famous for its stunning and lavish contributions to the country’s world-renowned culture of art.
Expedition 33 opens in the city of Lumière, the last city of humanity, where everyone knows the age when they will die. Once a year, the Paintress wakes and paints a number on her Monolith. This number represents an age — the age of everyone who will soon be erased. Year by year, this number ticks down, more people die, and old age is not so old anymore.
Soon the Paintress will wake again and paints 33, condemning everyone of that age to a gentle death. But with only one year left to live, the members of Expedition 33 embark on a quest to destroy the Paintress.
The Expedition’s Hopeless Quest
You’ll play as Gustave and his fellow Expeditioners on their impossible quest to end the Paintress’ cycle of death. Your journey will take you through a vast and beautiful fantasy world, where you’ll battle deadly adversaries, befriend fabled creatures, and discover traces of the Expeditioners who came before you.
Along the way, you’ll grow your bond with your fellow Expeditioners and piece together their personal stories of heart and heartache. Together, you’ll strive to unravel the mystery of the Paintress – a desperate and seemingly hopeless undertaking that has eluded generations of Expeditioners.
Our Reactive Turn-Based Battle System
At Sandfall, we’re huge fans of turn-based RPGs, action games, and Souls-likes. For Expedition 33 we wanted to create something unique that combines the depth of a turn-based game with the thrill of executing a dodge or a perfect parry. And so was born our unique reactive turn-based battle system.
Each member of the Expedition has a distinct playstyle with their own unique mechanic. You will be able to further customize each character’s stat growth, expansive skill tree, and gear alongside a wide range of learnable passive traits, offering endless opportunities to fine-tune your preferred strategies. We can’t wait to see what crazy builds you will come up with.
But strategy alone won’t suffice. To reach the Paintress you will also need to master the defense systems. During the enemy’s turn, you can dodge, parry, or jump above enemy attacks in real time, allowing you to land devastating counterattacks. Mastering enemy patterns will ensure your victory and who knows, maybe you’ll even finish the battle without taking any damage and earn additional experience?
Additionally, the free-aim system allows you to shoot at enemies’ weak points, offering you a substantial advantage against the hardest foes or flying enemies.
We believe that whether you are an action RPG fan or a turn-based fan (or both), you will enjoy the unique combination that Expedition 33 offers. We’ve focused on creating a challenging, rewarding combat system that will make every battle an enthralling encounter.
Expedition 33 has been developed using Unreal Engine 5 to bring incredible fidelity and beautiful graphics on Xbox Series X|S. You’ll explore an enchanting realm and wander through breathtaking landscapes. From the somber, Paris-inspired city of Lumière, to the stunning Island of Visages, and to the haunting Forgotten Battlefield discovering secrets and hidden quests along the way.
We can’t wait to show you more of our debut game, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and we hope you’re excited to learn more about its world, characters, and gameplay. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be released on Xbox Series X|S in 2025 and will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass – you can wishlist the game today on the Xbox Store. We’ll be revealing more details and updates over the next few months, so be sure to follow us at @Expedition33 to stay up to date.
