Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown
Well, there it is. Expedition 33 is the game that kept me from finishing this list until well into December, as I rushed to finish it in time - and ultimately, based on this ranking, it made that wait worth it as it's standing as my 2025 game of the year. I'm not sure how that title will hold up in the future, because there were some really amazing games this year - most notably Silksong - but Clair Obscur absolutely blew me away and kinda had to be the highest-ranked one this time.
Just listening to some of its music while writing this brought me right back to the amazing times I had playing this. If there's one opinion I'm sure is not changing, is that this is the best soundtrack of the year, and it's crazy to think it was all written by one young guy and his guitar. Lorien Testard was a gamer just like all of us, and now he gets to play at the TGA big stage and whatnot... Not gonna lie, I envy him lol.
Beyond the music, obviously this blew me away with its incredible storyline, bolstered by some of the strongest cinematography, voice acting, and mo-cap I've seen in any videogame. The narrative went so deep, with so many plot twists, it was almost a completely unrecognizable plot by the end compared to the start. I don't know that all of those twists were personally to my liking, but I cannot argue that they weren't very well-written. And while the ending impacted me really heavily, I must agree with our @UnderwaterFunktown in that some things could've been handled a little better.
And on one last grievance, I do need to say, as someone who despises genAI and its implications for modern-day society, I find it concerning that Sandfall admitted to using it during the development of Expedition 33 and gets away with it (and with tons of awards) because people just turn a blind eye when the game is good enough. Sure, the final assets in-game are all hand-made, but I wonder how much of it was reworked from artificial prompts. Some areas and backgrounds, and especially some of the color palettes, kinda give me an uncanny sense that I associate with AI stuff, but who knows, maybe that's placebo. In any case, that technology goes against a lot of Clair Obscur's entire point, so I'd hope they'd refrain from using that crap and pushing it forward, but unfortunately we know that won't happen.
Anyway, this post was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but so was the game, yeah? I definitely need more time to process my feelings on it, but for now, through its ups and downs, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is just an incredible work that blew me away in so many ways.
For those who come after.
