Gaming

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review: Beautifully haunting

‘For those who come after’

Published

April 23, 2025

Let’s get one thing straight. None of the words I string together will be enough to adequately describe the breadth and depth of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It is visually arresting, the combat is engaging, the characters are fleshed out, and the story will have you hooked. I can confidently say that you will come out of this experience absolutely enthralled.

But what is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33? It’s the debut game of Sandfall Interactive. They’re a team of developers from France who come from more well-known publishers but decided to band together to deliver a game that truly speaks to their sensibilities.

That sensibility is a love and reverence for JRPGs. And you’ll immediately see that influence if you care to check a few of the marketing they have already put out for the game.

Gustave, The Paintress, and Lumiere

Speaking of the game, you’re thrust into a world at the mercy of The Paintress. Year after year, she paints a number on the Monolith. The number indicates the age that will succumb to The Gommage. Think Thanos-type of being dusted away. And boy, it does not feel good.

You play as Gustave who is voiced by Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox. Gustave is a respected engineer in Lumiere and one of the key members of Expedition 33. Lumiere appears to be a piece of land that broke off away from the main content where The Paintress is.

Right before you embark on the Expedition, you immediately see Gustave suffer a loss. As do the rest of Lumiere as The Paintress erases 34, dusting away people of that age.

Expedition 33, as with the expeditions that preceded it, are mostly composed of people who only have a year to live. They embark on the journey to prevent The Gommage by slaying The Paintress.

It’s a harrowing task but one that must be taken to give hope, as Gustave says, “for those who come after.”

Visually arresting

Despite the gloomy and melancholic premise, the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 isn’t drab and devoid of color. Quite the opposite, really.

The environments are vibrant, captivating, and imaginative. You go from what appears to be a typical ‘fantasy game’ forest to an area that appears to be submerged in water with creatures floating around and proceed to a village whose populace seem to want to do nothing but fight.

In between these areas is an even more breathtaking overworld. Yes, it’s a similar kind of overworld prominent in 90s period JRPGs where you roam around until you get to the next area of interest.

This is a great evolution of the overworld present in games like Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX

In the overworld, the perspective shifts from your typical third-person view to one that’s more isometric. Encounters, however, aren’t random. You’ll see enemies lying in wait which you could either fight or avoid.

The characters also look very distinct. The art style is unique. Human but not quite photorealistic. Animated but not cartoony.

Outside of some lip-syncing issues, you’ll likely find yourself enamored with how the game looks.

Active Turn-based combat

I’ve already gone in quite some detail on combat in my preview. To reiterate and summarize, the base of the combat is turn-based. But the game adds a few wrinkles to keep you engaged. There’s a parry, dodge, and jump mechanic as response to the enemies’ attacks.

When launching your own turns, you can perform a base attack, use items, free aim, or use a skill. Free aim and skills consume action points or AP. Performing a base attack, parrying, and more lets you gain AP.

Learning each enemy type’s attack pattern to dodge or parry can be tough. But once you do, it’s extremely satisfying. The window to dodge is generous but parrying can be unforgiving. Impeccable timing is absolutely required.

Each character also has their own mechanic. Gustave is your sword and pistol weilder. Your typical damage-dealing protagonist. His mechanic is Overcharge where some of his skills and attacks build-up which then let’s him unleash a powerful attack.

The next two characters you’ll control are Lune and Maelle. Lune is your mage with the Stains mechanic while Maelle is a fencer with the Stances mechanic.

You have the usual skill tree.

Planned carefully, you can string together moves that can help set up your party members to do more damage, thus ending the encounter much more hastily.

Each skill also has QTE which plays more like a rhythm game. Time your button presses, and you will increase damage or the effect of that particular skill.

Pictos and Lumina

Then you have Pictos and Lumina. Pictos are essentially equippable items you can acquire through exploration. These items contain buffs or combat effects. If equipped after four fights, the Pictos are then ‘learned.’

Once they are learned, other characters can then have the same buffs by spending Lumina. Every Pictos has a corresponding fixed Lumina number. This lets you know which ones you can equip to a character. Each character also has a corresponding Lumina number that can be increased as you play the game.

And that’s not even all of it. Hours into the game and you’ll be introduced to more mechanics but not before you’ve already become familiar with its base concepts.

When not in full health after combat, characters will look like this in the game.

Overall, the combat is extremely layered without being overcomplicated. It will test how well you prepare and strategize as well as how good your reflexes are.

Fleshed-out characters

Cosmetic changes appear even in cutscenes. This one looks a little silly, but it fits the moment.

A common pitfall of many JRPGs are one-dimentional characters that act more like caricatures than actual characters. That is not the case with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

In the early part of the game, you barely know anything about any of the characters. You’re also just as lost and confused as they are after a major incident.

The way they react to the situation already tells you who they are as people. You see how they respond to a desperate situation, arguing over what to do but still coming across as people who still genuinely care about each other and their cause.

This is one of the more impactful early scenes that display this game’s strength in writing, voice acting, and cutscene animation.

This extends to the rest of the characters you meet along the way. What’s brilliant is it’s not all gloom and doom. Despite knowing the dangers they face and the unpredictability of their situation, they still find time for some playful banter that feels warm and not out of place.

Gustave, the team, and the rest of the characters are people who have known and experienced love, loss, joy, pain, grief, and more. You see it by how they act and interact. Which makes every emotional turn of the game even more impactful.

Gripping story

From the get go, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 already has an unusual premise. But it keeps the intrigue going as you go through the main campaign.

Lune, one of your main party members, says it best during the latter part of Act I: “The more we learn, the more questions I have.”

That’s the general feeling of the game’s story. You’re just eager to find out what happens next. And what happens next is… well, that’s for you to know on your first playthrough.

It’s a beautifully haunting tale set in a visually rich but broken world.

Should you play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33?

Until further notice, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is my Game of the Year for 2025. So, yes. It is a must-play.

The game will lure you in with its stunning visuals, grab you with its inciting incident, keep you focused during combat, endear you to its characters, and deliver gut-wrenching and awe-inspiring moments that will make you yearn for more.

Thankfully, it’s a 30–50-hour campaign with late game content that could double if you’re the completionist type.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is out on April 24. It’s available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC. It will also be available Day One on Game Pass.

Gaming

Nintendo will make it cheaper to buy digital games than physical

Physical releases will have the same price.

Published

March 26, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The days of lining up for a newly released game are well and truly over. Though some games still experience shortages in brick-and-mortar stores, such as the widely successful Pokémon Pokopia, gamers can get their titles digitally. Now, Nintendo is making digital releases more enticing by offering a tempting discount on the eShop.

Starting in May, Nintendo will start charging different prices for the physical and digital releases of first-party games. While physical releases will still have the same prices going forward, digital releases via the eShop will enjoy a discount.

The discount, of course, will likely depend on the title itself. Nintendo has already given the upcoming Yoshi and the Mysterious Book as the first example. The new platformer will cost US$ 70 from retailers. However, it will cost only US$ 60 on the digital eShop.

The company says that the new pricing scheme “simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format.” With the prices of chips skyrocketing, it’s no surprise that the physical release is more expensive than the digital one.

To be more technical about it, Nintendo has started skipping a physical game card for a while now. The physical release of Pokémon Pokopia, for example, has only a game-key card or a code to download the game. In this format, physical releases are just pretty cases you can display on your shelf.

Also, digital releases do carry the added risk of getting delisted on the whims of the developers, the publishers, or Nintendo itself. It is, however, still a cheaper option, especially in a world where getting any discount is a welcome thought.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo sues the United States

Gaming

Razer Blade 16 (2026) packs more cores, faster memory

Razer’s thinnest gaming laptop yet

Published

March 26, 2026

Rodneil Quiteles

Razer has officially unveiled the 2026 version of its Blade 16, doubling down on what it does best: squeezing high-end performance into an ultra-slim chassis.

This year’s refresh focuses on meaningful internal upgrades. That includes a new Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, faster LPDDR5X memory, and NVIDIA’s latest RTX 50 Series laptop GPUs — all while keeping the Blade 16 as the thinnest gaming laptop in Razer’s lineup.

Performance gets a serious bump

At the core of the new Blade 16 is the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, featuring 16 cores and up to 4.9GHz boost clock. Razer claims a 33% increase in core count versus the previous generation, translating to stronger performance across gaming, content creation, and AI workloads.

There’s also an integrated NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS, enabling faster on-device AI tasks like image generation and live translation.

Memory gets a notable upgrade too. The Blade 16 now supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM, which Razer positions as the fastest available in a laptop today. The result: quicker responsiveness for heavy multitasking, creative apps, and AI-assisted workflows.

On the graphics side, NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 Series (Blackwell architecture) brings DLSS 4 and enhanced AI capabilities for both gaming and creator use cases.

Display and design stay premium

Razer isn’t fixing what isn’t broken. The Blade 16 retains its signature CNC-milled aluminum chassis, measuring just 14.9mm thick and weighing around 2.14kg.

The display remains a highlight. You get a 16-inch QHD+ OLED panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, now brighter and certified for VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000. It supports full DCI-P3 coverage, Calman calibration, and NVIDIA G-SYNC, making it just as suited for creators as it is for competitive gaming.

Battery life and efficiency improve

Despite the performance gains, Razer is also pushing efficiency. Thanks to Intel’s newer architecture and system-level optimizations, the Blade 16 can hit up to 13 hours of productivity use and up to 15 hours of video playback under ideal conditions.

That’s a notable improvement for a machine in this class, especially given its slim form factor.

Connectivity and audio step up

The 2026 Blade 16 gets a future-ready connectivity suite, including Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6.0. There’s also a full set of ports, from USB-A to HDMI 2.1 and an SD card reader.

Audio gets an upgrade too. The six-speaker system now supports THX Spatial Audio+ with virtual 7.1.4 surround, aiming to deliver more immersive sound both on speakers and headphones.

Price and availability

The Razer Blade 16 configured with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (16GB VRAM) and 32GB LPDDR5X-9600MHz RAM is priced at US$3,499.99 / €3,599.99 MSRP.

It is available now, exclusively via Razer.com and select RazerStores worldwide.

Still the Blade, just sharper

At a glance, the 2026 Blade 16 doesn’t reinvent the formula. But under the hood, it pushes performance, memory speed, and efficiency forward in ways that matter.

It’s still the same idea: a no-compromise gaming laptop that looks like it belongs in a minimalist workspace — just faster, smarter, and a bit more future-proof this time around.

Accessories

Razer sharpens its competitive edge with Viper V4 Pro and Gigantus V2 Pro

Ultra-light. Ultra-tuned.

Published

March 26, 2026

GadgetMatch

Razer expands its pro-grade lineup with a lightweight mouse and a highly customizable mouse mat built for different playstyles. The Razer Viper V4 Pro focuses on speed, precision, and responsiveness, while the Razer Gigantus V2 Pro brings tailored surface options that adapt to how players move.

Lighter, faster, and built for control

The Viper V4 Pro weighs approximately 49g in Black and 50g in White, making it around nine percent lighter than its predecessor. Razer achieves this through mechanical refinements like a thinner shell and a more compact PCB, without compromising durability. The structure still feels solid in hand, even with the aggressive weight reduction.

This balance matters in competitive play. A lighter mouse reduces fatigue and allows quicker adjustments, but stability keeps movements consistent. The Viper V4 Pro aims to deliver both.

Plug in, tweak, and play instantly

Razer also streamlines setup and tuning. The optimized hemispherical dongle maintains stable connectivity while providing quick status updates through LED indicators.

Players can adjust settings without installing software using Razer Synapse Web, enabling browser-based customization. Onboard controls allow quick DPI and polling rate changes mid-match, so adjustments happen without breaking focus.

A mouse mat that adapts to your play style

The Gigantus V2 Pro evolves Razer’s mouse mat lineup by introducing five distinct speed ratings paired with corresponding foam firmness. Instead of a one-size-fits-all surface, players can now choose based on how they aim and move.

Developed with esports pros like Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Faker, and Zellsis, each variant reflects real competitive needs across different roles and playstyles.

The five surface options include:

Max Control for ultra-high friction and precise flicks
Control for consistent micro-adjustments
Balance for a mix of speed and stopping power
Speed for quicker swipes
Max Speed for the fastest possible movements

Each surface is paired with Razer’s GlideCore foam, tuned to match the friction profile. Softer variants provide more stopping power, while firmer ones prioritize speed and responsiveness.

Built for consistency across every match

Razer ensures the Gigantus V2 Pro works seamlessly with modern optical sensors. Lab testing guarantees consistent tracking, whether for fine adjustments or wide flicks.

The mat is also designed for competitive environments. It features stitched edges to prevent fraying, an anti-slip base for stability, and a rollable build that makes it easy to bring to tournaments.

A complete competitive setup

Together, the Viper V4 Pro and Gigantus V2 Pro form a cohesive setup that covers both input and surface. The mouse emphasizes low latency, precision tracking, and a shape validated by pros. The mouse mat complements it with clear, playstyle-based options.

Rather than focusing on a single standout feature, Razer builds a system. One that supports consistent performance, adapts to player preference, and helps turn practice into results when it matters most.