Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 was one of the most awarded and acclaimed games of 2025. A commercial success, a critical success, with a reputation that places it among the best in history. My experience with it is mixed, and curiously I think it illustrates with striking clarity the biggest structural problem in video games: accessibility, in the broadest sense of the word.

A story that everyone should see

Clair Obscure's story is fantastic. Rich, dense, with memorable characters and an impressive narrative arc. It has a plot twist on the level of the best I've seen in any medium, emotional moments, philosophical reflections, and an artistic tension that sustains the entire game. If it were a film, it would be an obvious Oscar contender.

And that's where the problem starts.

Turn-based combat and the immersion break

Because it's a game, Clair Obscure has a turn-based battle system. You walk through a scene, approach an enemy, and transition to a specific combat screen, where you wait for the enemy's attack, attack, wait, attack, and so on. When it ends, a battle results screen appears and you return to the world.

I'm not a fan of turn-based combat. To me, that transition completely breaks immersion. You're walking through a world, getting to know that universe, and suddenly you're pulled into an entirely different logic — mechanical and strategic. At that moment you remember you're playing a game, and you stop feeling like you're living that story.

I don't have anything against that in itself. But for me, the most valuable moments in video games are precisely those where you forget you're playing a game. When you walk through a scene long enough, without interruptions, and that world starts to actually exist in your head. Turn-based combat makes that state impossible.

The environments, for their part, are stunning artistically, but labyrinthine and often confusing. Corridors that look the same, no clear direction. I got lost constantly.

The parry that wears you down

The game also uses a parry system, which in other contexts I find a brilliant mechanic. In Sekiro, for example, it works beautifully. In Clair Obscure, it ends up becoming mechanical in the negative sense: you learn an enemy's attack pattern, repeat the parry in the same windows, and the battle drags on through that predictable repetition.

The result is fatigue. You nail it, nail it, nail it, and at some point you miss out of exhaustion and take heavy damage. Boss battles are long. Easy mode widens the parry window, but doesn't eliminate the obligation to engage with combat — to think about strategies, to actively participate in something you simply don't want to be doing.

And I'm someone who doesn't do optional content when I'm not enjoying a game. If I'm not having fun, I won't do side quests, I won't grind, I won't level up just to get stronger. Games are already long enough in the main story. Anything beyond that is time I neither have nor want to spend.

The accessibility dilemma

This is the core knot. To experience an incredible story — poetic, philosophical, with unforgettable characters and one of the best plot twists ever told in video games — I'm forced to go through a combat system that simply isn't for me.

Who gets to see this story? Only people who have patience for turn-based combat, time for long battles, willingness to learn mechanics, and a taste for that style of game. That's millions of people, and the commercial success proves it. But it's a fraction of the audience that could — and should — have access to this work.

The solution I found

I bought the game on PlayStation 5, but had to play it on PC to use a trainer — modifiers that let you change game parameters. I set it so my attacks would defeat any enemy in one hit and so my character was invulnerable.

I essentially ignored the turn-based combat and went straight to what mattered: the world, the characters, the dialogue, the cutscenes, the story.

The result was a masterpiece.

Playing that way, Clair Obscure is among the best games ever made for me. One of the best stories ever told in video games. When everything is revealed, when you understand what's really happening, it's jaw-dropping. It's one of those works that reminds you what games are capable of in ways no other medium can match.

I just needed to work around the game to get there.

The problem that remains

This is the ambiguity I'm left with. It's not a critique of the design itself — turn-based combat is a legitimate choice with a large audience and a respected tradition. The problem is systemic: excellent games remain restricted to people who fit exactly the profile of someone who enjoys all their mechanics.

A film can be watched by anyone. A book too. A game has an entry barrier that is the mechanic itself, and when that mechanic isn't for you, you miss the work entirely.

Clair Obscure should be seen by everyone. The story it tells deserves that. But most people will never know what they missed.