Buckle up: you're going to hear a lot about the opening hour of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 this week. And that's only fair, because it absolutely rips.

The Many Different Ways To Absolutely Rip

Now, when I say a video game's opening hour "absolutely rips," there are certain expectations you might conjure up in your head. You might think of games like Half-Life and BioShock Infinite, where the developers marshal all aspects of game development at their command to provide you with an immersive introduction to their world.

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Or maybe it makes you think of games like Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy 7 (original and Remake), or Uncharted 2, where you’re thrust into the thick of it with an incredibly memorable action sequence. Or you might be a more contemplative player, who looks back fondly on the tearjerker opening of The Last of Us, as Joel, Sarah, and Tommy attempt to escape the city before Sarah is killed by the military. (spoilers I guess)

Clair Obscur's opening is a fusion of a few of these approaches, but neither option fully encapsulates what it pulls off. It is an immersive introduction to a fascinating world, but that isn't the main thing that makes it special. And it is sad, like The Last of Us, but not bleak. There's a smiling-through-the-tears feeling to the intro that I can't remember ever getting from a game before. Clair Obscur is melancholy, and that's a descriptor I would rarely give to a new game. It tends to be a feeling I associate with revisiting old ones.

Clair Obscur's Happy, Sad Opening

The rest of this article contains spoilers for the first hour of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

As Clair Obscur begins, its protagonist, Gustave, stares out across the sea to a monolithic pillar with the number 34 emblazoned upon it. If you've followed the game pre-launch, you know that that number is written by a massive, mystical Paintress and that it causes everyone above that age to suddenly die. It's a terrific fantasy hook, and the opening hour allows you to live in the messy, emotional situations that emerge from knowing that death is coming for someone you love.

For Gustave, that's Sophie, his ex-girlfriend, who is preparing to face the Gommage. Though Gustave and Sophie haven't been together for some time, he seeks her out so they can spend the last hours of her life together. Someone asks Sophie if they're back together, and she says, "Maybe for now." These two people who have meant so much to each other get to spend these final bittersweet moments together.

I'm not one to cry during games. Even the games that have deeply affected me (like both TLOU games) have never made me cry. Clair Obscur didn't either, but the moment when Gustave and Sophie waited for her to fade away got me as much as anything I can ever remember playing.

Unlike the opening of The Last of Us or the scenes that hit me hardest in The Last of Us Part 2, it isn't a moment of despair. Gustave isn't destroyed by losing Sophie. Instead, seeing this person he deeply cares for pass into ash-like petals fills him with the resolve to finally change his world. He vows to defeat the Paintress so that no one will ever have to experience this type of untimely anguish again. It's sad, but hopeful. It might make you cry, but remembering those moments with Sophie will fill you with determination to make this fictional world better.

It's really, really good game writing, striking a delicate balance that even great work can struggle to nail. It reminds me of Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, movies that understand that time is fleeting and meaningful relationships can slip through your fingers if you take a different path. It's an emotion that still feels rare in games. I hope Clair Obscur is successful enough to make melancholy cool.

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