The French RPG That Beat Everyone: How Expedition 33 Became GOTY 2025 and Won Over UK Gamers

When the final envelope was opened at The Game Awards 2025, most people expected a familiar name. All year long, the conversation had revolved around heavyweights: Hades II, Death Stranding 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Hollow Knight: Silksong. Instead, the words that came out on stage belonged to a debut RPG from a French studio: “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.”

In that moment, a small team from Paris and Montpellier didn’t just win a trophy. They rewrote the story of who gets to make a Game of the Year. And for many players, it didn’t feel like an upset at all. It felt like the inevitable conclusion to a year where one game quietly, consistently meant more than anything else.

BREAKING: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins Game of the Year at #TheGameAwards.

With 9 awards, it now holds the record for the most awards in a single night, surpassing The Last of Us II in 2020. pic.twitter.com/JHqCPYrT0M

— IGN (@IGN) December 12, 2025

A French studio that refused to play safe

Sandfall Interactive did not set out to chase trends. Expedition 33 wasn’t built as a live-service platform, it didn’t ship with a battle pass, and it didn’t rely on an existing franchise. Instead, the team gambled on something that too often gets sidelined in modern AAA development: emotion.

From the first minutes, Expedition 33 wears that intention on its sleeve. Its Belle Époque-inspired world looks like a painting you can walk through. Streets and skies are brushed in light and shadow; character designs feel theatrical rather than purely “realistic”. It is recognisably an RPG, but it is also something rarer—a world that feels curated, composed and deeply personal.

That choice turned out to be its biggest weapon. Where other contenders dazzled with scale, technology or brand power, Expedition 33 asked a simpler question: How deeply can we make players care?

Why players connected with Expedition 33 instantly

Scroll through the reaction threads and a pattern appears almost immediately. People don’t just say the game is “good”. They describe it in the language usually reserved for favourite albums or beloved films:

• “One of the most beautiful games I’ve played in my entire lifetime.”
• “It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve loved a game like this.”
• “This game actually made me feel something within the first 15 minutes.”
• “This was the game that got me back into gaming.”

That level of response doesn’t come from a marketing campaign. It comes from a combination of elements that rarely align this perfectly.

1. A JRPG heart with a distinctly French soul

Expedition 33 is built on turn-based combat, party dynamics and long-form storytelling that will feel familiar to anyone raised on Final Fantasy X or Persona. But it never reads as imitation. Instead, it looks at those influences through a European lens.

The result is a game that feels like a JRPG that grew up on French cinema and art—melancholic but hopeful, fantastical but grounded in human frailty. Players talk about its world not just as a backdrop, but as a mood that lingers long after they put the controller down.

2. Combat that feels like choreography, not repetition

Turn-based systems can easily slide into autopilot. Expedition 33 fights fiercely against that. Battles lean on timing, rhythm and spectacle; they’re closer to tiny boss encounters than routine trash fights. Attacks and blocks are reactive, camera angles swing in with theatrical flair, and encounters are scripted to tell small stories of their own.

It’s here that the game begins to separate itself from some of its rivals. Where other RPGs this year offered sprawling systems and raw complexity, Expedition 33 focused on making each action feel meaningful and legible, even to those who might not usually touch the genre.

3. Performances that defined the year

A huge part of the game’s impact comes from its cast. Jennifer English’s portrayal of Maelle in particular has been singled out again and again. Players who first encountered her work in Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 suddenly realised they were watching an extraordinary run of performances across three straight Game of the Year winners.

In Expedition 33, her delivery walks a tightrope between vulnerability and resolve. When she laughs, the game breathes. When her voice breaks, entire Reddit threads spring up to talk about that one scene. It’s the kind of acting that turns cutscenes into memories.

4. A story that feels painfully human

Underneath the combat, the art and the award reels, Expedition 33 hit hardest because of what it chose to talk about: grief, cycles of violence, the weight of expectations, and the question of what we owe to those who come after us.

The phrase “For those who come after” turned into a refrain in fan discussions. People quoted it in comments, used it as captions on clips, and referenced it when describing why the ending stayed with them weeks later. For many, this wasn’t just an entertaining RPG; it was a story about trying to do something meaningful in a world that has already decided your fate.

So how did it beat everyone?

On paper, Expedition 33 should have been the underdog. It stood next to sequels from legends, cult follow-ups and big-budget revivals. Yet when the dust settled, it was the French newcomer that walked away with the biggest prize, plus a stack of other awards from major ceremonies.

The reasons say a lot about where players’ priorities really are.

It felt complete in a year of compromises

2025 was full of ambitious releases that arrived with caveats: performance issues here, unfinished systems there, or roadmaps promising that “the real game” would arrive later. Expedition 33, by contrast, landed as a fully formed experience. Polished, self-contained, and respectful of the player’s time.

When people described it as “a once-in-a-generation game where everything came together perfectly”, they were responding to that rare feeling that nothing important was missing.

It chose focus over sheer size

Some of the other contenders offered vast maps, endless side content and complex simulation. Many players loved that—and some still believe their favourite should have taken GOTY or Best RPG instead.

But Expedition 33 built its case differently. It narrowed its scope just enough to turn almost every quest, boss battle and major cutscene into something that felt intentional. It didn’t try to be everything; it tried to be unforgettable. And for a huge number of players, it succeeded.

It sparked the loudest, most emotional discussion

Not everyone agreed with the awards. Some argued fiercely that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was the better RPG, or that Silksong and others deserved more recognition. But that debate only amplified Expedition 33’s impact.

A Game of the Year winner isn’t just the “most technically impressive” release. It is the game that defines the conversation. In 2025, this was the one title people could not stop arguing about, quoting, clipping and recommending to friends who had drifted away from the hobby.

A victory that changes expectations

Expedition 33’s sweep means more than a line on an awards list. It proves that a debut title, built by a relatively small team outside the traditional power centres of the industry, can stand toe-to-toe with franchises that have dominated for years.

It proves that turn-based combat is not “old-fashioned” when handled with confidence. It proves that single-player, story-driven games still have enormous cultural weight. And it proves that there is space at the top of the industry for studios willing to be vulnerable, strange and sincere.

Most of all, it proves that players are hungry for games that feel like they were made by people, not committees.

Where to explore Expedition 33 next

Anyone who has watched the award speeches or scrolled through even a handful of reactions knows this game is going to be part of the conversation for a long time. For those curious to dive deeper, it’s worth starting with the official records and longform coverage:

• The Game Awards – Official winners and categories
• Golden Joystick Awards – Full winners list
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Background and development

And if you decide to play, the best advice from those who already finished it is simple: go in as blind as you can, wear headphones, and give the opening hours the space they deserve. The rest, according to many, will take care of itself.

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