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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Prologue Teaches Us How To Die
How will you face the end when your time comes?
There’s a trial-by-fire aspect to the first couple of hours of Expedition 33. While the enemies have simple attacks with tells that are easy to anticipate, there still isn’t a lot of room for error. With only one or two characters, few healing and revive resources, and the ability to fully restore your team only once between checkpoints, I approached each encounter in the first map with extreme caution.
Now I’m over 20 hours in, and it’s a breeze. I’ve gotten better at combat. My team is bigger and has more resources, too. But even so, I feel like I’m way stronger than almost every enemy I encounter, including bosses, to the point where combat has become a bit trivial and boring. I accidentally overleveled my characters, and it was a lot easier to do than you’d think.
How Much Grind Is Too Much Grind?
I’m not exactly a completionist, but I do hate missing stuff. Expedition 33’s maps are filled with side paths, optional encounters, and hidden items, and I like to complete each map fully before moving onto the next. I’ve found some great weapons and Pictos – Expedition 33’s version of skills – by doing that, so I recommend exploring each zone, rather than bee-lining the main quest.
Having said that, my wandering has caused a bit of a problem. More exploring means more fighting, so I’m earning more experience than I would if I had just stayed on the main path. Because enemies respawn Dark Souls-style when you rest at a checkpoint, I’ve also ended up repeating a number of encounters, which has further boosted my character’s levels. I didn’t think this was going to be a problem, but just a little extra light exploration has had a noticeable impact on the way combat encounters play out.
And I’m not even really grinding. If you wanted to, you could clear out an entire map, rest, and then clear it out again as many times as you’d like, collecting XP from every encounter. There are tons of optional zones where you can complete side quests and hunt for items, and I haven’t visited any of them. I imagine if I were really trying to 100 percent Expedition 33, I’d already be practically invincible.
The Pros And Cons Of Getting Too Strong
While Expedition 33 is a turn-based game, timing your parries and dodges is a huge part of combat. There will be turn-based RPG fans who are turned off by this system, or don’t feel like they have the reflexes to dodge effectively, so intentionally overleveling might be valuable to them. If you’re getting your butt kicked by big guys because you can’t or don’t want to dodge, maybe spend an hour doing some extra grinding here and there and you’ll easily overpower just about everything you run into.
On the other hand, overleveling too much can take a lot of the complexity and strategy out of combat. All of the characters need to ramp up to their strongest abilities in one way or another, and if you’re one-shotting monsters with basic attacks, you’ll never really get to see their full potential. One of my favorite Lumina to use is Lune’s typhoon, which hits the entire field with a giant wave of water. To power it up, I first have to set an enemy on fire with one spell and attack another enemy with an earthy tree branch spell. That means I need three turns to get to my big typhoon attack, and most of my battles end before I can get there.
Being overleveled hasn’t ruined the game for me – not by a long shot. I love the characters, the world, and the story, and I’m still finding challenging encounters here and there. My advice to you would be not to worry about running past some enemies or skipping some side paths if you don’t feel like exploring them. It’s much more likely that you’ll get too strong rather than fall behind, and if you do have to grind, it won’t take much time at all to catch up.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Cross-Platform Play
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No
- Cross Save
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No