If you want to know whether a game is going to stand the test of time, look at its speedrunning community. Whether or not an active and healthy challenge run community forms around a game is the best litmus test for how much staying power it has and how it will be remembered. It’s no coincidence that franchises like Mario, Dark Souls, and Metroid have survived so long and have some many passionate fans - they’re all fantastic games to speed run.

It only took me until the first battle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to recognize that it has an incredible amount of potential for a wide variety of challenge runs, and it’s no surprise that some impressive feats have already been accomplished by its budding speedrunning community. While it missed the cutoff for this summer’s Games Done Quick, I expect to see Expedition 33 become a mainstay among the world’s most hardcore gamers, and I can’t wait to see what they do with it.

Play Fast And Don’t Die

Most games are well-suited for speedrunning, and Expedition 33 is no exception. You can already find some early attempts on YouTube (speedrun.com’s leaderboard doesn’t open until a game has been out for two weeks), including this awe-inspiring 1:58:20 run by YouTuber Oh Snap. It took me 32 hours to do what this person did in under two, while also one-shotting the final boss with a level 31 Maelle on some kind of absurd build that I would never have figured out on my own.

This is just a starting point, and once the leaderboard officially opens, we can expect to see times reduce further and further until Expedition 33 is perfectly optimized - but with the randomness of critical hit damage, it may take a long time for the leaderboard to settle.

Expedition 33 speedruns are cool, but there are a lot of impressive speed runs out there. What really excites me about this game is its potential for challenge runs. Like Dark Souls, Expedition 33 is the kind of game that’s begging for dedicated fans to come up with the most absurd challenges possible, and it’s only a matter of time until we start seeing some pretty unbelievable accomplishments in this game.

Making A Hard Game Infinitely Harder

You can already find some self-imposed Expedition 33 challenges out there, and so far they’re exactly the kinds of challenges you would expect. Here’s someone taking on the hardest secret boss in the game with just Verso, only parries, and no hits. This combination of limiters - team size, no hit, and parry-only - can create thousands of different kinds of challenge runs all on its own. Once you add in low-level requirements, you’re going to start seeing some ridiculous accomplishments in this game.

And that’s just the normal stuff. Wait until people start using DDR dance pads to parry, or playing the entire game using bananas as controllers. All of the Dark Souls gimmicks can be reused for Expedition 33, even though it's a completely different kind of game in a different genre. If you’re a streamer or YouTuber who does these kinds of challenges, you should be considering Expedition 33 for your next project.

Of course, the most impressive ones will be the most original ones. Copying the Dark Souls challenge is a good starting point, but the people who come up with challenges that are unique to Expedition 33 are going to make the biggest impact. Imagine someone using motion capture to physically dodge and parry every attack, or using a different weird control scheme for each character. Maybe there’s potential for a run where you can only use each picto, skill, and weapon only once. I don’t know what kinds of wild challenges players will come up with, but I do know those players will keep Expedition 33 alive for a long, long time.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Turn-Based RPG Fantasy Systems 41 9.6/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 92/100 Critics Rec: 97% Released April 24, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence Developer(s) Sandfall Interactive Publisher(s) Kepler Interactive Engine Unreal Engine 5
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