There are only so many ways a game can begin, or so I thought. I’ve seen so many beginnings they’ve all begun to merge into one, and because of it, they’ve begun to collectively fade from view. A game will begin and a loved one will be taken, and then I’ll probably utter a vow of revenge and set about trying to realise it. Something like that. Honestly, I’ve stopped paying much attention. I don’t know who the characters are at the beginning, or the places we’re in, so I let myself be swept along until things start to make sense, to sink in, and sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
But with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 it’s been different. For the first time in a long time, I’ve paid attention from the start, and this strong hook, I think, is one of the secrets of its success.
A lot comes from the set-up’s originality. In Clair Obscur, the story goes that every year, an entire age-range of people are wiped out by an entity known as the Paintress, for no apparent, discernible reason. The age-range in question is defined by the number on a giant tower out at sea. Every year, at exactly the same time, the colossal, long-haired Paintress unfolds from a seated position to magically reduce the number by one. And this is the crucial bit: when the Paintress does so, everyone of that age or older will disappear – die, in other words. Turn into flower petals and float away.
Clair Obscur begins with you in the middle of this. You, as Gustave – a character who bears an uncanny resemblance to the perfect-faced actor Robert Pattinson – make your way to the docks of Lumiére for the festival of flowers there. You don’t know what the festival is about at this point, but you can tell by Gustave’s sombre mood that something is amiss. Sure enough, the more of the city you see, and the more people you meet there, the more certain you become that something bad is about to occur.