Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a fascinating melding of Soulslike gameplay and turn-based RPGs

During my preview of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I had a fascinating realization - this is just a Soulslike in disguise! I don’t think that’s a bad thing — far from it, in fact. While I’m not really a Souls player and I think this take might bother some readers, that’s perfectly fine. After spending several hours exploring a variety of regions in Clair Obscur, I came to this realization and frankly, it only made the game more enjoyable. Sure, it’s harder than your average RPG, but it does have difficulty options.

But the real question is, what does Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 do to make it seem like a Soulslike in disguise? The game borrows a few gameplay mechanics from the genre that aren’t seen that often in traditional RPGs/JRPGs, so let’s take a look at this upcoming game.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a beautiful blend of Soulslike and more traditional RPG gameplay

It’s the little things that make Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 more like a Soulslike than a turn-based RPG. Part of it is, in fact, the difficulty. The game features a Parry and Dodge system, and yes, you better master both of them. Enemies hit very hard, and there aren’t many healing items just going around at the start of the game. You can use healing spells/abilities, but there’s a catch.

Whether it's spells or melee, you need to learn to parry if you want to survive (Image via Kepler Interactive)

It usually takes building up your resources while in combat to have access to these spells, though you start with a little bit when a battle begins. Successfully parrying an attack — even if it has multiple hits — triggers a devastating counter attack, which also builds resources, so I cannot stress enough how important learning this is. However, there are lots of different timings for spells and attacks.

The dodge just gets you out of the way, but it’s still quite useful. I found the parry to be better than just dodging, to be honest. But that’s not it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also borrows the Flask system from Soulslikes. You can fully heal your party with these flasks, and over time, you’ll gain more of them. Where do they refill though?

Naturally, at a campsite. You can only camp at certain spots while in one of the game’s massive maps, but when in the overworld, you can camp anywhere. However, camping and resting also resets all of the enemy spawns. While this is a great way to farm enemies, it can also be quite annoying when you’re in a bad place and just trying to progress.

Anytime you see one of those flags, you should consider checking your attributes, skills, and Flasks (Image via Kepler Interactive)

Finally, you also learn more skills/increase your stats only at a campsite. That makes these campsites incredibly important to your overall expedition. It’s already a decently challenging RPG on its own. But when you add these factors in, you get a traditional RPG with a tragic story, set in a beautiful world, with some features that only enhance the danger and the threat.

What I like about this is that it doesn’t feel out of place — it fits this story perfectly. It’s not thrown in just because someone really likes Bloodborne and is sad that it isn’t on PC yet.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 releases on April 24, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows. It’s easily one of the RPGs I’m most excited about in 2025. You can learn more about this title in our full preview of the upcoming RPG.