The following contains spoilers forClair Obscur: Expedition 33andSeverance.
At first glance, Sandfall Interactive’s debut RPGClair Obscur: Expedition 33may seem to be just another JRPG-like with a weird premise and story that seems fairly straightforward. InClair Obscur: Expedition 33, players set off on a journey to destroy a powerful entity who is threatening the world, and its story is filled with emotional highs and lows, memorable characters, and engaging gameplay all backed by an unforgettable soundtrack. However, asClair Obscur: Expedition 33’s story progresses, it becomes clear that this isn’t just a run-of-the-mill experience, just like an Apple TV series it happens to share a lot in common with.
Apple TV has had some excellent series here recently, fromThe StudiotoDope ThieftoYour Friends and Neighbors. It could be argued, though, that none of these series holds a candle toSeverance— a sci-fi psychological thriller with a provocative message about work-life balance, personal loss, grief, and love. It is currently one of thetop-rated shows on Apple TV, and now Sandfall Interactive has come along withClair Obscur: Expedition 33, an RPG that shares a lot of the same themes withSeverance.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has a Lot in Common With Severance
Severance Primarily Revolves Around a Man Who Wanted to Escape His Grief
One ofSeverance’s core themes revolves around its lead character,Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott), who began working in the Severed division of a company called Lumon after his wife was killed in a car accident. Unable to deal with the loss, Mark underwent the Severance procedure with Lumon, which involves implanting a microchip into an employee’s brain that effectively divides their consciousness into two distinct identities: Innie and Outie. The chip functions by interacting with the brain’s wave patterns to create a barrier between these two identities, ensuring that each one exists independently without awareness of the other.
Not every person inSeveranceunderwent the Severance procedure in response to personal trauma, but Mark Scout’s journey is undoubtedly the central focus of the narrative.
While at work, Mark is his Innie — a persona that exists solely within the workplace, having no memories or knowledge of his life outside Lumon. This allows him to shut off his brain, in a sense, for a significant portion of the day in an effort to temporarily forget about his deceased wife and better pass the time. Of course, this only prolongs the grieving process for Outie Mark, despite Innie Mark having no recollection of his wife’s death.Severance’s ability to gradually reveal these truths and how they evolve over time has been a major part of its success, and nowClair Obscur: Expedition 33’s storyhas gone in a similar direction.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s World Is Bound by Grief
LikeSeverance,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has excellent pacing, doling out revelatory plot threads at a decent rate and keeping players on the edge of their seats wanting more. Eventually, it is revealed that theworld ofClair Obscur: Expedition 33is actually an artificial world that was painted onto a canvas in the real world by Verso, as he is a Painter in the real world who can paint anything on a canvas and see it brought to life within the canvas itself. Unfortunately, after Verso died in a tragic fire, Aline Dessendre, his mother and the one called the “Paintress” in the game, was unable to cope with his death. She then entered Verso’s canvas, reshaped it, and found a way to immortalize her son’s memory so she would never have to deal with the pain of his loss.
One ofSeverance’s core themes revolves around its lead character,Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott), who began working in the Severed division of a company called Lumon after his wife was killed in a car accident.
In the same way thatSeveranceuses sci-fi toexplore personal traumaand the psychology of grief,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33uses fantasy to do the very same. Aline’s manipulation of Verso’s painted world is only a fragile illusion meant to protect her from reality, a coping mechanism that lets her cling to a version of her son she can no longer reach. Just as Mark severs his memories to survive each day without his wife, Aline rewrites the world to avoid facing what she’s lost. And, likeSeverance,Clair Obscur: Expedition 33slowly unravels that illusion until both the characters and the audience are forced to confront the pain they tried to bury.
