Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Chapter Two P14 — "The truth behind the Paintress"

We finally confront the Paintress, only to learn she is Aline , Verso’s mother. Her death erases the Monolith’s number, but victory turns hollow. A letter from Alicia reveals the devastating truth: Aline was stalling the real Renoir, the true architect of the Gommage. Without her protection, all of Lumière vanishes, leaving only Verso behind. A chilling revelation that reshapes everything we thought we knew.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a 2025 turn-based role-playing game from French developer Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive. Set in a hauntingly beautiful dark fantasy world inspired by the Belle Époque, the story unfolds on the isolated island of Lumière, where each year a mysterious event known as the Gommage erases all citizens whose age matches the number painted by a spectral entity known only as The Paintress.

To stop this annual erasure, the people of Lumière send forth a group of volunteers Expedition 33 on a desperate mission to slay the Paintress before another number is marked, and more lives are lost.

Gameplay blends classic turn-based combat with real-time mechanics such as timed actions and quick-time events. Players guide a party of characters from a third-person perspective, exploring richly detailed environments rendered in Unreal Engine 5.

The concept was born during the COVID-19 pandemic by Guillaume Broche, a former Ubisoft developer, who assembled a 30-person core team and a network of subcontractors to bring the vision to life. Inspired by legendary JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Persona, Sandfall set out to craft a high-fidelity, story-rich experience a genre they felt had been overlooked by modern AAA studios.

Released on April 24, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earned universal acclaim, selling over 3.3 million copies in just 33 days.