Expedition 33: Turn-Based Is Dead. Long Live Turn-Based!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is making people sit up and pay attention to the evolution of turn-based games. For those who don’t know, it’s a game inspired by classic JRPGs coming from the newly established studio Sandfall Interactive, consisting of just over 30 developers.

Since its launch on April 24th, Expedition 33 has received universal critical acclaim as one of the highest rated games of 2025 – hovering around a 92 on Metacritic with user scores averaging around 9.6 – 9.7. It’s smashed through multiple milestones within the first weekend of its release, surpassing 1 million copies sold, not even accounting for the players on Game Pass, and hitting roughly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam.

In comparison to other sales and concurrent player records, these numbers may not seem all that impressive. But within the context of what this game is as a new IP from a new studio putting turn-based gameplay front and center, it is something that absolutely should not be ignored.

Inheriting a history of hybrid combat

As I alluded to at the top, Expedition 33 is inspired by some of the greatest JRPGs ever released. Most notably, it draws from mechanics found in games like Super Mario RPG, which introduced real-time action elements into its turn-based combat framework.

For example, there are quick time events (QTEs) that enable you to deal more damage when attacking or mitigate damage when defending via timed button presses. In Expedition 33, you also have multiple options for dodging or parrying and even counterattacking against enemies.

This means that even though the gameplay is turn-based, you can’t lean back and disengage. This is very much a “lean forward” kind of game because if you are not constantly reacting in real-time, you won’t be able to avoid enemy damage and maximize your strategic potential to bolster your offense.

But while people have rightly made comparisons to the Mario RPGs or even Lost Odyssey due to Expedition 33’s core design, it’s far from the first to take a hybrid approach to combat. Other examples that come to mind for me are games like the ones from the Tokyo RPG Factory, namely I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear.

They both have real-time button press elements in their turn-based combat, alongside other influences like dual and triple techs from Chrono Trigger. Lost Sphear even has aiming and AOE abilities where you can line up different enemies or even party members to hit multiple targets at once with attacks, buffs, etc.

But it’s not just those two. There are plenty of other games, especially in the indie and AA space, that have taken real-time elements and put them into turn-based frameworks. Sea of Stars wears obvious Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger influences on its sleeve with timed button presses for enhancing attack and defense, including for dual/triple techs.

Child of Light does something really interesting with its turn-based, showing player and enemy actions scrolling in real-time along a timeline. The moves you use and when you use them determines your ability to delay and even interrupt enemy turns on the timeline.

You could even bring the Xenoblade Chronicles games into this discussion with how they automate melee attacks while leaving the player’s focus largely on managing abilities governed by cooldowns. They’ve been compared to “single player offline MMOs” and have elements of active time battle (ATB) in their DNA. This style of combat is also highly evocative of Final Fantasy XII with its gambit system – but let’s table FF for a moment.

Of course, there are the modern Trails entries like Trails through Daybreak and the upcoming Trails in the Sky remake. In these games, you initiate combat with real-time action in the field to gain the advantage before entering a turn-based battle screen (which is likewise true of Expedition 33). These Trails entries also have a similar mechanic to Lost Sphear where you can move characters and aim their attacks or spells to hit multiple targets (or conversely, expose them to AOE attacks from enemies).

In a similar vein, Metaphor Refantazio is a giant elephant in the room. Again, it’s a turn-based JRPG but you initiate combat with real-time action in the field. And in this case, if your level is 3+ higher than your enemies’, you can actually skip the transition to turn-based altogether for a faster gameplay loop. But there’s an added element of danger wherein enemies can get the drop on you if they hit you in the field first. But once you’re into the turn-based combat, it’s largely Atlus’s lauded press-turn system from the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games.

Picking up the torch to set the gaming world on fire

My current thinking is that Expedition 33 could very well be 2025’s version of Metaphor in terms of its influence and impact, but in an even more unique and significant way. Not only is it a brand-new IP, but it comes from a brand-new, untested studio.

Sure, Sandfall has several industry veterans at the helm from notable labels like Ubisoft, but bringing together a team for the first time, figuring out that collaboration, having strong management and leadership – all while bringing to life a vision that turns enough heads to gain traction on the market – that is an absolutely Herculean task that does not happen without true talent and a bit of magic.

It can be easy to forget that even the likes of Atlus wasn’t as big of a name until fairly recently. In a pre-Persona 5 world, they had their core fanbase – largely in Japan but also here in the West going back multiple decades. But in a post-Persona 5 world, their name has now been established as an automatic seal of quality and their games hit new levels of critical and commercial success.

But even then, at the pinnacle of JRPGs, you have to remember that they are mostly “niche” in terms of the size and scope of their audience when compared to gaming as a whole. Sticking with Atlus’s example, Persona 5 is one of the most significant turn-based JRPG releases in modern history. Between P5 and its re-release Royal, we know it’s sold at least 7.2+ million units. We also know that within days of its launch, Metaphor surpassed 1 million in sales.

But put those numbers against any of the mass market, mainstream releases and you’ll see what I mean. Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA – these types of games all add an extra zero to those already impressive numbers. Your average person has name brand awareness of what those games are – and most of them have never and probably will never hear of Expedition 33.

My point in bringing all this up is that I don’t want people to misconstrue what I’m saying about Expedition 33’s impact. I don’t think it’s going to change the whole industry overnight. I don’t even foresee it taking home the Keighley crown at The Game Awards, especially if GTA6 hits this year.

It’s not going to suddenly make every AAA developer realize that they need to focus on more concise experiences with development budgets that don’t spill over into the hundreds of millions. It’s not going to spark a new trend where turn-based is as popular as multiplayer FPS or (insert whatever genre you like here).

BUT what I am saying is that it has sparked a conversation – and one that critics, developers, and players within the game’s addressable market are all listening to right now. It’s got people talking about a renewed interest in turn-based in a way that has snowballed and become the zeitgeist of the moment.

It’s got people talking about a renewed interest in turn-based in a way that has snowballed and become the zeitgeist of the moment.

As I’ve already established, Expedition 33 is far from the first to take a hybrid approach to combat. Following in the recent footsteps of Metaphor, it has skyrocketed to fame as one of the highest rated games of the year and quickly achieved that 1 million sales mark – but this time coming from a freshman developer consisting of roughly three dozen core staff.

Also like Metaphor, the buzz around Expedition 33 has done one incredibly important thing: it has excited existing JRPG fans, but it has also managed to break out of that sphere and appeal to players who normally wouldn’t give a traditional turn-based game a chance.

And how it has done that comes down to a couple factors, but chief among them is one where it differs wholly from Metaphor: its aesthetic.

They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but they say that because that’s what people do. And in this case, it works in Expedition 33’s favor. The game seems to have struck gold and cracked a code that established developers like Square Enix have struggled with for years: how do we make the games that we make, but also expand and appeal to new global audiences?

In this case, that’s a return to “high fidelity” graphics for a turn-based game. As I just alluded to, Final Fantasy has long since moved its most prominent, high budget, graphically intense games over to action combat – culminating in FFXVI, a game whose combat direction was led by a former Devil May Cry dev. That’s in no way to say FFXVI is a bad game – just clearly not a turn-based one.

From the many examples of turn-based games experimenting with the formula that I gave earlier, you’ll know that the purview of turn-based has largely been left to pixel art or stylized “anime” aesthetics. And again, I’m in no way saying that’s a “bad” thing – as a matter of fact, I am personally much more likely to drool over the sexy pixels of an Octopath Traveler than pretty much any other art style.

But the point is the appeal to new audiences. The ones who don’t sit up and listen every time someone like a Falcom announces a new Ys or Trails game. The ones who maybe will notice a pixel art or indie gem here and there, but really only get excited for one or two of the biggest, blockbuster games of the year – ranging from Call of Duty and GTA to Assassin’s Creed and Spider-Man.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone discover Expedition 33 online and say, “This game looks cool – I have no idea what it is but now I want to try it” or “I usually give up on turn-based games but I can’t put this one down” and “how did they make parries feel this good in a turn-based game?”

They’re taken in by a game that dares to look the way it does while delivering a turn-based combat system that surprises them by how much real-time engagement there is, all wrapped up in a dark fantasy world brought to life by insanely detailed art direction, solid writing, and unmatched character performances.

By reaching those new players who wouldn’t usually give a turn-based JRPG a second thought, Expedition 33 is doing what established franchises like Final Fantasy have hoped to do for decades – all while honoring the classic roots of the genre and keeping those core gameplay tenets intact, picking up the torch of those who’ve already come before to evolve those systems.

It has excited existing JRPG fans, but it has also managed to break out of that sphere and appeal to players who normally wouldn’t give a traditional turn-based game a chance.

And that’s at the crux of what I mean when I say Expedition 33 has the potential to help push turn-based forward towards its next evolution. It beat the odds in a crowded market dominated by established IP and much larger developers – and that’s something that Sandfall’s peers won’t ignore.

I’m not saying that all of a sudden, FFXVII is going to be turn-based. The decision on whatever that gameplay looks like at its core would’ve already been settled on by this point. And I’m also not saying that big Japanese developers like Square have abandoned turn-based as a dead sub-genre or failed to experiment with hybrid combat systems.

Octopath Traveler and Dragon Quest are prominent franchises still holding up the banner of turn-based in Square’s stable, and of course the Final Fantasy VII Remake games are shining examples of AAA hybrid combat – albeit instead of mixing action into turn-based, it’s almost the other way around – mixing ATB/turn-based into action-led combat.

So it’s not that AAA JRPGs aren’t a part of the preservation and evolution of turn-based, but it has largely been led by the indie and AA space where experimentation is more readily facilitated because of the lower risk involved with more modest budgets and sales expectations.

And that’s what has set the stage for Expedition 33. A relatively smaller game, with a smaller budget, from a smaller team with a look and feel that draws the eye of even non-JRPG fans, inspiring them to try out this turn-based game that doesn’t let you put down the controller or start scrolling on your phone because one momentary slip and the real-time elements of battle will leave you reeling from the consequences.

But it doesn’t abandon its traditional target audience either. It has those turn-based elements, it has the party-based adventure that we all know and love – hell it even has an over world map – something that seemed to have gone the way of the dodo in modern JRPGs. By including elements like that, Sandfall shows that they love JRPGs, and because of that, they understand what players everywhere love about them too – and they found ways to bring that forward rather than leave them behind.

They made so many smart decisions with Expedition 33. Yes, they poured a ton of attention into realizing some almost stupidly detailed environments and character models. But they didn’t go chasing some unattainable scope by pushing for bigger, wider, open-er world design. They didn’t chase size at the expense of quality.

They made sure to include the things that made people fall in love with JRPGs in the first place – from that gorgeous over world map to a sexy post-battle results screen that evokes some of the style that Atlus and the Persona games are known for.

And even while creating a truly unique, apocalyptic, dark fantasy narrative, they still found balance with moments of character bonding and levity. Not only can you foster stronger relationships between your party members, but there’s literal meme culture built into the game with references to real-world memes (but I’ll let you discover those on your own).

But where does all that magic come from?

Now, I have never interacted with or interviewed the developers over at Sandfall, but something that I have heard some of the best developers in the industry talk about is this:

“Don’t worry about what games already exist and are getting the most players and making the most money. Don’t try to copy what they’ve done to recreate their success.

Instead, focus on the question of: What game do I – the developer – want to play that doesn’t already exit? What excites me to play, and how do I make that a reality? ”

Those games are the ones that lead with passion and creativity and a unique identity that makes people stop and take notice. That’s not to say it’s a guarantee everything will work out – not every idea is a good one. And even if you have a good idea, that doesn’t mean every developer is equally talented or that things can’t go wrong. Resources run dry, tools don’t work out, publishing deals fall through – and even if none of those issue crop up, it can still be next to impossible for all but the biggest developers to get their game noticed.

Something we as gamers take for granted is how much of a miracle it is when someone releases a functioning and fascinating game that cuts through the market noise and gets enough eyes on it to spark a conversation that spreads that all-important word-of-mouth so that it even reaches our virtual front door in the first place.

But circling back to the human element of this game – the talented individuals who came up with the idea for Expedition 33 and brought it to life – they are now not just the ones taking inspiration from the great games of the past. They in turn have established themselves and their game as something that their industry peers will look to and get inspired by.

That’s the spark. The latest in a long line of turn-based evolution that could set at least this corner of the industry on fire.

I’ll also pause here to say that Sandfall’s own work doesn’t end with Expedition 33. Hopefully, they’ve already got ideas of where they want to go next and how they want to improve – because while Expedition 33 is an absolutely incredible game, it’s also not without its flaws.

At the time of writing, I’m only about 25 hours into my own journey and am nowhere near ready to roll credits, so I don’t feel comfortable writing an official review of the game. But maybe I’ll circle back at a future date to discuss where I think Sandfall could improve their design going forward, especially in terms of accessibility and player quality of life. For now though, I’ll wrap it up.

Final thoughts – let’s end this with a personal story

Why did I take the time to tear myself away from playing Expedition 33 to write this article in the first place?

For those who don’t know, I’ve been writing gaming articles for about eight years now. Back when I started, my friend Moe gave me a chance as a contributor to his site, Obilisk. My first ever published review was for a game mentioned in this article – Lost Sphear. And my first big feature article – probably my biggest of all time in terms of the conversations it sparked and the hundreds of thousands of page views it garnered in its lifetime – was a post called, “The State of Turn-Based RPGs and the Future of Final Fantasy.”

In that article from January 2018, I talked about the direction of the FF franchise. At the time, FFXV was still going through its messy DLC cycle and we didn’t yet have the official gameplay reveal for FFVIIR. But in that post, I talked about how turn-based had been and would keep evolving – and even correctly predicted that FFVIIR would feature some sort of hybrid combat system.

For the better part of a decade, my journey has been inspired and led by a passion not only for turn-based JRPGs – but specifically the evolution of turn-based combat as a thriving, engaging, and exciting gameplay system that could speak to both established fans of the genre and pull in new ones too.

As a result, when Expedition 33 was first revealed at Summer Game Fest last year, I immediately sat up and started shouting. I knew, I knew it was something special. I never for one second doubted that it would be a top contender for my own personal GOTY and despite it being a totally new IP that I knew nothing about outside of a short trailer, it instantly became my most anticipated game.

And while I hoped that it could make a big splash at least with core JRPG audiences, I didn’t quite foresee just how big an impact this game could potentially have. Its reception is currently surpassing even my highest expectations – reaching far beyond what I would have dared to dream.

It won’t be one of the highest selling games of the year. It won’t fix this wounded industry suffering layoffs and bad management and ballooning budgets overnight. It won’t become a household name that even my boomer parents will recognize despite not being gamers.

But it WILL leave a lasting impact on many of the key players in this space. It will inspire other developers to make the kinds of games that excite them – even if they are smaller, turn-based experiences and not the blockbuster behemoths headlining global sales charts.

Expedition 33 is a game that sparks the kind of passion that begets even more passion. It’s a game that isn’t just a gamer’s game, but a developer’s game too. It will become that touchpoint several years down the line that other devs will point to when citing their inspirations for whatever creative new project they’ve brought to life. And while a lot of those will be indies and AA gems that I’m sure I’ll be playing and loving, I’m willing to bet a few of them will be touting the AAA banner as well.

But it’ll be a few years before we can start to trace those roots and really see the influence of Expedition 33. So for now, I’ll turn it over to you.

What do you think about all the points that I’ve raised here? Have you followed the evolution of turn-based combat like I have? Are you playing Expedition 33? Or are you just now discovering it and want to try it? I’ve told you my story, so please feel free to share yours!