The Game Awards: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserves to be Game of the Year

There's something particularly rare happening in the gaming industry with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Beyond the warm reception and sudden enthusiasm from players who didn't even have the title on their radar before release, what's truly impressive is the speed with which Sandfall Interactive's game has ascended to the pantheon of today's most respected game developers.

Their "French JRPG" challenged a genre dominated for decades by Japanese tradition and created a work that defies the standards of modern action-oriented RPGs while establishing its own formula for a "turn-based RPG," carving out its own space in the contemporary scene that, as demonstrated by the encounters between various developers and Sandfall, has been taken as an example by the industry.

In a year when Death Stranding 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and even the mythical Hollow Knight: Silksong vie for collective attention, nobody, at the beginning of 2025, expected the debuting Expedition 33 to top the list of favorites to win Game of the Year. However, when you closely observe what the game does—and how it does it—it becomes evident that there is a mark of something special, something that, from time to time, redefines what a studio can achieve in its first major work.

With the awards ceremony scheduled for December 11th, we discuss the main elements that place Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as the favorite candidate for Game of the Year at The Game Awards and the obstacles that could prevent it from winning the most coveted statuette in the video game universe.

The Aesthetic World Building

Expedition 33 is a game rich in sensory and aesthetic experience. The distorted Paris that serves as the setting for the journey dialogues with surrealism, French Gothic poetry, and European Expressionism through the Belle Époque roots, imbued with a dark elegance that permeates every angle of a world swallowed by melancholy.

The visual force of Clair Obscur's surrealism talks with the title's narrative atmosphere—the inevitable fate before Lumiere's eyes for each number drawn by the Paintress, the hostility of the creatures in a desolate yet visually stunning world, even the feeling of desolation that the various plot twists provide; everything is intensified by this world that seems about to fall apart while being incredibly gorgeous from start to finish.

It's difficult to find another GOTY contender this year that offers something similar. Death Stranding 2 certainly has its signature cinematography with a cast that would make any Hollywood blockbuster envious. Silksong maintains its meticulous design, and Kingdom Come II's main appeal lies in its historical realism, but neither game carries this kind of hybrid artistic expression that Expedition 33 provides.

Reinventing the most classic of combats

If the visuals are what capture the imagination, the combat is what keeps the player glued to the controls. And perhaps this is where Clair Obscur reveals its greatest triumph: renewing established concepts without turning them into a varnished exercise in nostalgia.

Expedition 33 adopts the foundations of turn-based JRPGs, once a trademark of titles like Final Fantasy, but reinterprets them with a modernized aesthetic, blending strategic choices with precise button presses—a mechanic that seems inherited from the classic Legend of Dragoon on PlayStation One—and a sensory appeal reminiscent of rhythm games, where knowing how to identify the precision between animation, sound, and enemy movement is the best formula for mastering combat.

Operating within the language of classic JRPGs, even if it doesn't fit within the genre's "J," and with enough innovation to displace the historical rules of famous turn-based combat systems, also proves that there is indeed a market for this style, even when several acclaimed games have moved to real-time combat.

Sandfall Interactive took on the challenge of doubling down on the system in its first release, even without having the most common aesthetic among works of this genre.

The honest narrative about a hard-to-swallow theme

Although the central plot deals with resistance in the face of a supposedly inevitable fate, the true theme of Expedition 33 is the individual's relationship with grief, one of the most complex and difficult emotions to handle in human existence.

The universe of Clair Obscur is filled with grief from the first ten minutes: the driving force that ties the player's connection to the work stems from Gustave's feeling of loss right from the start, and when things seem glorious and promising for a moment, the title doesn't shy away from reminding the player of the cruel world they inhabit—and the deeper they delve into this universe, the more they discover that the pulse of loss is what moves all the pieces, from Gustave to the Paintress.

Despite the desolate world, however, the title doesn't lack lightness. The relationships between the group carry carefully constructed humanization, making each character memorable in their own way, creating a bond with the player in every interaction. At the end of the journey, the player must make decisions whose consequences bring, even to them, the central dilemma of the plot: should one accept grief and move on with reality, or does it seem more convenient to live in the illusion of a perfect world?

Each competitor for this year's Game of the Year has its narrative merit, but none managed to be as honest and immersive about such a complex emotion while still delivering an experience that doesn't plunge the player into depression but motivates them to keep going until the very last second,

The Soundtrack

Many game fans consider Clair Obscur's soundtrack to be crucial to immersion. Sandfall demonstrates its artistic maturity with the soundtrack, which adapts to the melancholic tone of the landscapes and the epic choruses that permeate decisive confrontations.

Despite not possessing the same diverse repertoire as Death Stranding 2, the awards don't lie, and Expedition 33 captivated audiences with its songs and how they complement the overall aesthetic of the work, even winning the Best Soundtrack award at the Golden Joystick Awards.

The creative courage of a debut studio

While its competitors bring robust experience, Sandfall arrives at The Game Awards panel as a somewhat newcomer that manages to stand on equal footing with giants.

This creative freedom manifests itself in every element — from aesthetics to systems — and offers the game a unique advantage: a fresh creative perception that blends an element often neglected amidst a flood of titles that try, in some way, to resemble another or repeat some pre-established formula — creative passion.

Despite its creative strength and artistic cohesion, there are real obstacles that could compromise its chances at The Game Awards.

The Reach of Death Stranding 2 and the Weight of Hideo Kojima

The biggest challenge for Expedition 33 is called “Hideo Kojima”. Few creators possess such a consolidated aura in the industry. Death Stranding 2 needed very little to establish itself as one of the biggest titles of the year, strengthened by a superior budget, global marketing, and the accumulated expectation since the release of the first game.

Furthermore, the first Death Stranding also created its own conversation about connection, isolation, and social systems, and its sequel inherited these elements and refined them into a much more engaging and paced narrative than its predecessor, culminating in a fight almost as classic as that of a rookie in a martial arts category facing an old and experienced world-renowned fighter.

Sandfall's lack of prior legacy

While the absence of a history allowed for creative freedom, it also represents a weakness: Expedition 33 does not belong to an established lineage, while its competitors arrive on the stage with legions of fans, broader marketing campaigns, and established narrative traditions. Sandfall, however brilliant it may have been, will need to rely exclusively on the strength of its work—and only on that.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the most fascinating projects of this generation, delivering such a unified, self-aware experience that it's impossible to ignore or neglect the message its presence as a clear favorite for Game of the Year symbolizes.

Its victory will be a triumph of creativity over the industry. A recognition that there is still room for profoundly human stories and passion amidst ever-larger blockbusters.

But, regardless of the outcome, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has already achieved something no award can grant: the status of a work that influences the direction of the games market. An experience that emerges as an artistic testament to the human capacity to transform pain, beauty, and dreams into a memorable journey.

In the end, the famous phrase “for those who come after” will be its legacy. The history of this title is significant, both for all games that will follow its influence and for Sandfall Interactive's upcoming projects now that they've entered the spotlight with one of the most successful titles of the decade.

And perhaps that's precisely what makes it the perfect candidate for GOTY.