Summary
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's main story is 30 hours long, with side content doubling that time to 60 hours.
- The game draws inspiration from JRPGs like Persona, offering turn-based combat paired with dodging and parrying mechanics.
- The title will be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, and will launch day one on Game Pass.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has revealed the amount of time it will take for players to reach the credits and to finish all of its side content, with the title's main story around 30 hours in length. A Persona-style turn-based RPG, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is part of a very busy April for Xbox, as it shares its release month with Compulsion Games' southern gothic action adventure game South of Midnight, also launching day one on Game Pass. Additionally, Xbox is bringing two of its best first-party games of the generation, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5, to PlayStation on April 16 and 29, respectively.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the more unique 2025 games in premise alone. A new IP from an all-new French development studio, Sandfall Interactive, Expedition 33 takes players on an odyssey through its Belle Époque world with the goal of stopping the Paintress, a godlike entity who, every year, Thanos-snaps everybody in the world of a certain age with the stroke of her brush. Expedition 33 is heavily inspired by the turn-based combat of JRPG franchises such as Atlus' Persona and Shin Megami Tensei. However, Sandfall is looking to make Expedition 33's combat more enticing to action game fans by giving players the ability to actively dodge and parry during combat.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Graphics Modes Revealed
The upcoming turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 reveals the graphics modes that will be available for players at launch.
A hallmark characteristic of many JRPGs are that they're incredibly lengthy, and fans now have an idea of how long Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will take to beat in comparison. PureXbox pointed out that Expedition 33's main story will take players, on average, around 30 hours to beat. Those who want to complete everything there is to do in Expedition 33 will see that number double to 60 hours.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Main Story Will Take Around 30 Hours
For a game so clearly influenced by titles like the Persona series and Atlus' most recent masterpiece Metaphor: ReFantazio, 30 hours seems quite short for Expedition 33, considering many JRPGs can easily have players crossing the 100-hour mark. For comparison, both main stories of Metaphor and Persona 3 Reload take players around 65 hours to reach the credits, and 100-105 hours for completionists. Persona 5 takes players a whopping 100 hours just for its main story alone. Still, it's important to keep in mind that Expedition 33's 30 hours is just for its story, so players who like to dabble in some of the game's side activities at their own pace are most definitely in for a longer ride, just not as long a ride as a Sega Atlus experience.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is releasing on April 24 and will be available on day one for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The game will also launch on PlayStation 5 and PC. It'll be interesting to see how much time it will take for different types of players to beat the game, and to see whether the game's shorter length will still be able to satisfy Persona and JRPG diehards.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
