Intergalactic Should Chart the Same Course as Clair Obscur…

The following contains minor story spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a wholly wild and unpredictable ride that maintains suspense and intrigue for three acts and two epilogues. One of its best worldbuilding choices is not playing its hand or explaining too much about Lumiere and Fracture lore too soon, allowing players to immerse themselves in the portrait that’s been painted, both literally and figuratively. The humble yet somber prologue of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 marinates in melancholia with a pinch of hope afforded to the next expeditioners preparing to set sail to the fantastical Continent’s mainland, and it’s here that players learn precisely how far previous Expeditions got.

Meanwhile, Naughty Dog’s upcoming sci-fi IP, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, has protagonist Jordan A. Mun crash-land on Sempiria, a planet where nobody has been heard from in over 600 years. If Intergalactic turns out to be an inadvertent expedition of Jordan’s in order to learn about what happened to the Sempirians and flee from the planet, it would be exhilarating if it exercised a comparable collection of journal entries or audio logs, let alone corpses and other means of environmental storytelling, to add tissue to the bones of exploration like in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

How The Last of Us’ Seraphites May Be Training Wheels for Intergalactic’s Sempirians

A big parallel between faith and religion in The Last of Us and Intergalactic could tether the former's Seraphites to the latter's Sempirians.

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By Jared Stewart

Clair Obscur’s Journals are All That’s Left of Previous Expeditions

Clair Obscur’s Expedition 33 follows in the footsteps (and handholds used to scale rock faces) of previous expeditioners and discovers these expeditioners’ journals to discern what their adventures or misfortunes were like. None of these audio logs are exceptionally pertinent to the story aside from ones labeled with a name or the entry from Expedition 34, wherein Expedition 33 comes to the revelation that Clair Obscur’s Verso is Renoir’s son, but they go beyond what mere audio logs accomplish as collectibles.

Journals are presented as a grid of numbered squares, with each newly discovered entry satisfyingly marked amid all those yet to be listened to and read.

Journal entries from previous Expeditions are a diverse palette of humor, desperation, melancholy, and perseverance depending on the context of the expeditioner’s batch and whereabouts; for example:

Expedition 65’s Aurelien reflecting on meeting the Grandis and learning about nevron invasion of their lands.
Expedition 56’s Lisette irately documenting how she had apparently captured, who would fit the description of the greyscale, painted Alicia.
Expedition 45’s Cassandra had her legs crushed by a cavern’s Giant Sapling walls, while her company was all crushed to death.
A Fracture survivor named Melanie’s account of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Old Lumiere while everyone frantically awaits the Brigadier’s overdue return.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s Sempiria Could Be Littered with Environmental Storytelling

Intergalactic’s deep-space, ‘intergalactic’ sci-fi lends itself to virtually any storytelling imaginable. Everything about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s story is presently an inexplicable mystery, and anything is possible; for example, the Sempirians might’ve been alive this entire time, all lifeforms might’ve somehow transformed into machine-like creatures like the one Jordan battles, and so on. Like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it may be impossible to predict precisely how elaborate or layered the narrative is in The Heretic Prophet, but particularly since so few details are available anyway.

Journal entries from previous Expeditions are a diverse palette of humor, desperation, melancholy, and perseverance.

Still, if its chosen route has Jordan uncovering a sinister religious plot, for instance, it would be fascinating to learn about it in the same way that Expedition 33 drip-feeds sparse, abridged information about the Clair Obscur expeditioners who came before Gustave, Maelle, Lune, and Sciel, even if such details aren’t terribly vital to the overarching narrative. It would also be neat if Jordan runs into other people who crash-landed on Sempiria and have yet to ascertain a way back into space, potentially allowing for even more journals to collect if such an endeavor left them stranded there until they perished.

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Turn-Based RPG

JRPG

Fantasy

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%

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Released: April 24, 2025
ESRB: Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s): Sandfall Interactive
Publisher(s): Kepler Interactive