Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
So, I was skeptical about the reviews for this game and all the accolades it had been getting in 2025. It won pretty much every game award you could think of, from best music, to best characters, best story, best combat, and all from an indie dev studio based in France. A studio, mind you, that had never made anything prior to Expedition 33. My fraud antennas were tingling. While at my LGS I was talking to a friend about my suspicions that the game may be good but could potentially be an industry plant with the amount of push it was getting. One of my other friends who had played the game overheard my conversation and interjected that Expedition 33, indeed, deserved all these accolades and that actually, it was the best game of the decade! Astonished at his claims I explained my rationale behind why I think the game might be pulling the wool over on people. He was not hearing that, and double downed on his claims by offering to buy the game for me to play. You know what, fine, get me the game, I’ll play it, and we’ll see if it’s good as the awards say it is.
Off rip, Expedition 33 did not deserve all the blazonry that it received, but I did enjoy my time with it for the most part. The game is a spin on classic JRPGs. You have a party of characters that all play different roles for the group and you have an over world map where you travel from place to place. You put points into different stats such as vitality, might, and luck. You fight enemies in a turn-based style where you choose which moves you want to use. Theirs status effects, legendary weapons to collect, mimes to fight, and hidden dungeons/bosses. What Expedition 33 introduces gameplay wise that makes it stand out from its peers is its active parry system. In combat when an enemy attacks your party, you can either dodge the attack or parry it with your baguette and counter attack them. It’s all very fluid and keeps the player engaged in each moment of combat.
Not only is the combat engaging but also the story is probably where most people would say Expedition 33 chanson’s the most. Spoilers ahead, you follow a group whose mission is to stop something called the Gommage. An event that happens every year where people who are a certain age are erased from existence. You start by playing the character Gustave (who I love) and eventually end up with a full party of expeditioners to try and defeat an entity known as the paintress. It is coated in melodrama and I appreciate the way in which the story talks about grief. The pain of mourning someone you’ve already lost, the fear that comes with thinking you might lose someone you hold dear, and the numbness that comes with knowing that they will never mime, stripped shirt, beret, or baguette again?
Alright, this game is good, but man is it annoyingly French. From the Eiffel tower being front and center, to the characters cursing in French randomly, to the allusion of renaissance era painting ideologies, to the random fucking mimes littered all throughout the game. This wouldn't be such a problem for me if it didn't wears its Frenchness as a badge of honor and a flag to be proud of. Now, It’s almost a meme at this point with how many people “hate” the French, but my hatred of France has little to do with their pretentiousness or ennui. Naw, my disdain for France is rooted in something much more material. I hate France for the Resources they have stolen from Africa and the global south. How, during the Berlin Conference, them and the rest of Europe divided up Africa for resource extraction. How their current president Macaron, recently said Africans are ungrateful and that this ungratefulness is not transmissible to humans. Did this Muhfucker just insinuate that any African that is ungrateful to France is not human? This comes as no surprise, as this as how France has always seen Africa. Sub humans who they can plunder from. So, In the same way the French have stolen African art and now display it in their museums to help exude prestige, I will commandeer theirs to prop up the sentiments of those they oppress.
This game and the French are one in the same. This game tries to perform depth and meaning but ultimately ends up lecturing me on something I don’t care to hear from the French. Truly, what do they know about grief? The French have committed some of the most heinous war crimes all across Africa. Not only have they colonized several African countries, but even after these countries fought blood sweat and tears to gain their independance, they still force those countries to pay into their treasury. They still benefit from the terrible working conditions they put into place in those countries. Children in Congo mining for precious metals so that the French can enjoy their new electric cars. Men dying in Niger so that France can have the uranium it needs to power its cities. It doesn't even stop at Africa either, their oppression knows no bounds. Just look at what they did to the vietnamese and how they intentionally underdeveloped their country for land ownership. Look at what they have done to lebanon and how they expanded their imperialism through the sykes-picot agreement. I wonder what these colonized oppressed nations would say about their grief? What games, shows, or stories would they make about losing their loved ones to western expansionism? We will never know what the 3 million people killed in Algeria would have created. We will never know what the African men in Thiayore who were slaughtered by French soldiers would dream of doing. Their stories all end with France consuming their land, bodies, and culture, until there is nothing left.
In the end, The game gives you two choices. I chose to see the fall of France itself, rather than continue in a fantasy world of French exceptionalism that was created off the back of an already dead child. The real world starts when that fantasy ends, and although We may not be able to bring the deceased back, and we might not see some of our loved ones ever again, in our grief, we must face reality and continue creating a better world in their honor. A world in which Africans do not have to continuing slave away under imperialism. A world in which the resources that are extracted from the mother land are used to build her up, rather than feed into western capitalism. A world in which The west is not at the helm of so many countries economies, and forcing them into poverty for their own gain. If we can't do it for ourselves, we should do it for those who came before and…
“for those who come after”
Auto Modellista
If I played this game as a kid it probably would have had the same effect on me that Jet Set Radio Future did. Personality defining to say the least, but I didn’t play this as a kid. I played it like last year in the comfort of my bed, in my own apartment, on my own steam deck. I was emulating a bunch of games at the time and this one stood out to me because of its cel-shaded graphics and the oh so 2000s drum and bass music it was bumpin’. A dope game that is pretty challenging actually, people say the controls are bad but I like em’. They make the racing feel more tense and when you pull off some slick maneuvers it feels even more rewarding. It also has a semi in-depth simulator aspect to it when it comes to making your perfect vehicle. You can choose the engine type, what type of brakes you want to use, and if it’s naturally aspirated or turbo boosted. A fun game overall. Right up my alley, with no nostalgia necessary.
“Auto Modellista!!!”
Kingdom hearts 2
One of my favorite games ever. Very near and dear to my heart. This was the only game I had on my ps2 for a long time. I would come home everyday after middle school and sit on my large black couch with a ham sandwich and a glass of koolaid playing this all by myself until my mom came home from work. I One hundred percent am blinded by nostalgia goggles for this game. Is it good? Is it bad? I have no clue but I love it and it will always be a game I can go back to when life is kicking my pants.
"A scattered dream that's like a far off memory, a far off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up... yours and mine."
Jet Set Radio Future
A foundational game for me. This game has single handedly shaped a large chunk of my personality and the type of music I listen to. Super fun and the soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard in a game. The controls are kind of clunky but what can you expect from the first game to be released onto the xbox?
“Yeaaaaaah!! This is DJ Professor K, baby, the master of mayhem. You know what I'm sayin' bringing you another Tokyo underground pirate radio broadcast from Jet Set Radio!”
Disco Elysium
My best friend suggested this one to me and it has stood as one of the best suggestions I’ve ever been given. The art and story are wonderfully made. Our main protagonist is an amazing vehicle for the players to explore the world but also self-exploration. If you decide to play this game you should definitely sail the sea’s for it or get it from a third party because unfortunately the studio has been taken over by the corpos. I don’t want to spoil much about it so just play it! It's amazing and you won’t regret it.
“Sunrise Parabellum…”