Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Chapter One P4 – “Even Ghosts Flee the Sanctuary”

The Ancient Sanctuary doesn’t welcome it warns.

Gustave and the party enter a quiet ruin where something isn’t right. A shadowy figure flees at their approach, leading them into a confrontation with Petank, a heavily shielded boss with strange intent. What follows is a descent into memory, flame, and fate.

After besting Petank, a winding stream and a broken bridge bring them to a lone Young Boy, and further ahead death. The Nevrons are silent. And then comes the crash: a fire-weak beast named Gestral, a Robust Sakapatate, erupts from the shadows. But the real weapon is hidden within it... Karatom, bearer of Gustave’s new armament: the Sakaram.

Nothing in this place dies clean.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a 2025 turn-based role-playing game from French developer Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. Set in a hauntingly beautiful dark fantasy world inspired by the Belle Époque, the story unfolds on the isolated island of Lumière, where each year a mysterious event known as the Gommage erases all citizens whose age matches the number painted by a spectral entity known only as The Paintress.

To stop this annual erasure, the people of Lumière send forth a group of volunteers Expedition 33 on a desperate mission to slay the Paintress before another number is marked, and more lives are lost.

Gameplay blends classic turn-based combat with real-time mechanics such as timed actions and quick-time events. Players guide a party of characters from a third-person perspective, exploring richly detailed environments rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

The concept was born during the COVID-19 pandemic by Guillaume Broche, a former Ubisoft developer, who assembled a 30-person core team and a network of subcontractors to bring the vision to life. Inspired by legendary JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona, Sandfall set out to craft a high-fidelity, story-rich experience a genre they felt had been overlooked by modern AAA studios.

Released on April 24, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earned universal acclaim, selling over 3.3 million copies in just 33 days.