WARNING: Early Spoilers for Clair Obscur Gommage prologue follow.
Scene-setting openings in RPGs come in a variety of flavors. There’s epic spectacle with world-ending doom crashing through the peace. Or you could be a fresh-faced kid stumbling into danger on your first big adventure. Maybe an early clash between rivals. Or perhaps you want to bum everyone out in the first 30 minutes with a real downer of an opener.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deals with some of these, but mostly the last one. The premise of the game is that an entity known as The Paintress appeared many years ago, and every year, she conjures a number that leads to death, a lot of death. At some point, people figured out that the number was a countdown that offed anyone of a certain age, and they attempted to send expeditions to take down The Paintress.
The problem is that expeditions aren’t successful, and almost nobody survives them. We join the story at a point where humanity is increasingly resigned to oblivion, and there are now festivals (Gommage, which fittingly means to erase or scrub out) for the painting of a new number so that friends and loved ones can say their goodbyes to the latest doomed selection. Then, after that mass cull, a new expedition sets off to try and make next year a non-event for The Paintress.
We have little context for all this going in beyond what the plot summary tells us. Still, the opening plays out in such a way that a creeping realization of what’s going on washes over us, and we are set to witness one of the most beautifully melancholy openings to an RPG.
The Farewell
Upon meeting Gustave and his young charge Maelle, it feels like a graduation day (in a rather morbid sense, it is) instead of a funeral/bon voyage combo as they talk about getting ready and the awkward situation Gustave faces in seeing his ex, Sophie. After some obligatory tutorial sparring to get us used to combat later, the pair head to the festival and Gustave meets Sophie. The fine performances of Charlie Cox and Billie Fulford-Brown as Gustave and Sophie, respectively, allow us to feel a gamut of emotions as we learn more about what’s about to happen to them.
Gustave is set to go on the next expedition and Sophie is due to be one of those painted out of existence. Given the outcome of most expeditions, they both understand their time is almost up, and as they wander to the harborside to join all the others affected by this year’s morbid crop, they reminisce, sharing fond memories, regrets, and fears as the final moments draw near.
Wandering through the city of Lumiere, the pair interacts with a host of people who have had an impact on their lives. There’s no tears, no gnashing of teeth, just sadness, regret, and the sharing of memories. people aren’t even shy of asking favors of the doomed Sophie, and she shows no signs of ill will at being asked to assist others when already burdened with the weight of her imminent fate.
It’s a really effective emotional gauntlet, because by the time we do get to the harborside and the cutscene kicks in, the impact is substantial.
The always excellent score from Lorien Testard backs a gut-punching scene as we see people sharing their last moments before the fated few fade away. As this group is in their 30s, and all older people have already been lost to previous years of The Paintress’s destructive art, this leaves many younger people to become orphans. Some for the first time, and others, having found new families under relatives, are experiencing this for the second or third time. The scene makes the scope and long-term consequences of what’s happening apparent. If the expeditions continue to be unsuccessful, then more people will die, younger and younger until there’s nobody old enough to fight, and humanity’s extinction is truly decided.
And so now, a grief-stricken Gustave, full of regret and fear, must face his apparent demise head-on, and both character and player are weighed down by the stakes of what must be done.
It won’t be the last moment of defeated despair for Gustave and the other, largely reluctant, members of Expedition 33. Still, this downbeat, bittersweet introduction to the world of Clair Obscur is the perfect way to build hope for living and fighting to live beyond fate.
