Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gave me a feeling I thought I'd lost

When video games truly reach their artistic zenith

I’ve recently completed Expedition 33, got the platinum, and loved every minute of it. For those that aren’t aware, it’s a JRPG very much in the style of older Final Fantasy games, think Final Fantasy ten, but with some active input by the player.

There’s a million reviews out there, and they are all glowing, so I won’t waste your time by talking through how good the game is - you can go to anyplace there are gamers and hear recommendations just by passing through.

What I do want to talk about though, is how the game made me feel. When I was younger (and by that I mean a teenager) I embraced gaming very deeply. It wasn’t just a surface level thing for me, it wasn’t a pastime that I did just as a hobby or to kill a few hours, but a proper art form that I delved into.

Whilst I have generally kept up that sentiment over the years, and I still think about games in that same way, there was one particular feeling I lost - the bedtime thoughts. What I mean by that, is that when an event or story really gets to you, it invades your thoughts as you are going to sleep without you actively thinking of it.

I don’t mean invading your thoughts in a nagging way, that you really want to play it or you’re thinking up some new strategy. I mean on a deeper level, something about the story and the journey touched you, and your subconscious wants to handle it. It wants to bring it up to the surface and let you handle those emotions, let you work it through and figure out where you stand.

The last time I can remember that happening to me, was following Metal Gear Solid 4. Yes, I understand that a lot of gamers nowadays think the story beats in Metal Gear are a little convoluted and perhaps think they are deeper than they are, but for my teenage brain, it really resonated. Long into the night, those thoughts about nanomachines and what it meant to be a hero persisted, battling their philosophical points away.

It hadn’t really happened since, until, Expedition 33. I don’t want to spoil the games narrative for anyone - I really don’t - but following completing the game, it was late at night, and I went to bed. But I didn’t sleep too much. The thoughts came. The philosophy of it all raged within me.

I am really thankful this game has come along. True art? I think so.