CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 fixed world-building
You can stop saying that phrase at parties now
I like enjoying fantasy and sci-fi stories, but I hate starting them because it always means I’m going to have to acquaint myself with an expositional onslaught of Proper Nouns and Fake Verbs. “Did you remember the time this Proper Noun got Fake Verbed? You don’t? Well, we’ve all moved on to a new Fake Verb and it’s even worse for a different Proper Noun!” I don’t like starting my leisure time feeling like I’ve moved to a different school mid-semester, but based on how popular these genres are now, maybe I’m in the minority? The new hot French game on everyone’s lips, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, is fantasy fare, so I was anxious to start it, but I was really curious about why its reviews were raves across the board. And it turns out that the game earned those raves by completely removing the Fake Verb problem, something I didn’t know was possible. Which probably sounds silly, like when someone made the first door in history and people said “you can do that?” But this also feels like that level of a fundamental shift.
Imagine my surprise when I started up Expedition 33 and was greeted with… a normal conversation between two characters. What the hell? I was enjoying myself within moments of starting a fantasy game instead of doing Sky Calculus about fake in-world history like that lady in the meme. This couldn’t be right, there must be a horde of Fake Verbs waiting for me around the corner, I thought. Eventually the protagonist was greeted by an old flame, and yep, there was the first Fake Verb, “gommage.” Wait, upon looking it up, that word just means “to erase,” so it’s a normal word but in French? Well, that’s annoying as shit (if you use French words when there is a normal-ass translation in your language, you should be in prison), so that would count as a negative, but then again: this is an actual French game, so, fine. FINE. I’ll allow it. To count, a single kind-of Fake Verb had reared its head, and then… the characters resumed friendly banter, and it was moving and interesting. What was happening?
Why was I enjoying myself so much at the beginning of a game with monsters and an evil witch? This was a fantasy game, understanding it should feel like work. And at this point it became clear to me why it’s such a huge success: it fixed world-building. Well, the game is also fun to play and has great writing, but it fixed world-building!!!
If you’ve been to a party populated by nerdy types in the last fourteen years, you’ve likely noticed the rise in the use of ‘world-building’ at an alarming rate. It’s dropped off a bit since the great Game of Thrones-ening of the world (I just realized the show ended six years ago, which is a horrible way to learn how time works), but the phrase still lingers and seems to be here to stay, similar to COVID, and only a little less devastating to humanity.
World-building is a real phrase that’s foundational for writing fantasy and sci-fi, but most people don’t really know how to use it, and it’s usually a sign that someone doesn’t know what they’re talking about, similar to me and the word “deployed.” I nearly failed my Computer Science degree; if I say that some software has deployed, something has gone terribly, horribly wrong, and you can guarantee that I absolutely do not know what I’m talking about. And if a non-writer talks about world-building, then the story in question has done something terribly, horribly wrong. A fictional world must be fed to the audience, but it should be done in a way that is unnoticeable, which means you should not be thinking about world-building at any point. It takes a lot of work to get right, and a lot of (very successful!) fantasy and sci-fi shows do not do it well.
Expedition 33 does it well. Very well. You are fed the absolute minimum of what you need. I was introduced to a single Fake Verb (that, as we established, was less Fake and more French which is still Kind of Fake), and then the characters spent time being characters. I was gently (and yet very effectively) introduced to the story that involves an alternate Belle Époque history where a giant, unspeaking witch has killed all of humanity other than one small town, and she kills a portion of the remaining population every year. Each year, a group of people – who know their time will be up soon – heads out on a doomed mission to try and stop the witch, though they will inevitably fail, and the game has you following one of these groups. Also, because they are French, everyone is hot.
That plot description was delivered to me at an unbelievably beautiful pace. Some Fake History and Fake Nouns were introduced, but they were drip-fed, only coming in one at a time to keep me from ever being overwhelmed. Even more fascinating than this is that when those Fake Things are mentioned, they often are not expounded upon. There is no expositional aside of “as we all remember during the Great Witchy Time War Of Yesteryear, when my family abandoned me and I met you, the person I am talking to right now.” The Fake Stuff is mentioned, and the characters move on, just like real people would. They know everything they’re talking about. We do not need to know everything they are talking about. We just need to know what the relationship is of the characters and what they’re about to do. That’s it.
I’m sure someone ready to organize a focus group at a moment’s notice would lose their mind at everything I’ve said here, but the fact is that this game was made by a studio of people who trust their own taste, and it’s working. Expedition 33 sold over 3.33 (cheeky) million units in its first month of release, equal to the lifetime sales of the last Final Fantasy, and nearly double the lifetime sales of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Nintendo’s flagship RPG that occupies this same space.
I’m sure that there are people out there who will still bring up world-building at parties and use it as a justification for why some show is allowed to be bad (it’s not), or why a bad game is actually good (it’s not), or whether I have many friends (I don’t). But with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 out there in the wild, doing the work it’s doing, we can aspire to one day have our parties be world-building-free.
Oh, Good
Without a Dawn - A very short psychological-horror game about a woman seeking refuge from her constant rumination by going to an isolated cabin in the woods. I’m sure things will turn out swimmingly for her. Cued into this by the great Bathysphere newsletter, the game looks beautiful and seems like something that will reinforce what I’ve been thinking for the last few years: horror is videogames’ best genre, where you’re given more agency than in film and literature to create the most immersive experience possible. I am psyched.
finally, the Telltale Hallway* has been defeated!
The thing in every Telltale studios game where everything stops and everyone stands around in a hallway to tell you what the story is.