Should You Play New Game Plus In ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33'? Here's What You'll Find

Forbes

22-05-2025

Expedition 33
Sandfall
Given that it's entirely possible that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may have just become one of my favorite games of all time, it took about all of two days before I couldn't resist heading back into it for a New Game+ run. I just finished it up and if you're wondering if it's worth it, I can tell you how it goes. Spoilers follow.
The Important Things Carry Over – This means all your weapons, all your Pictos and Lumina Points, your level, your moves, your outfits and you even start with your full team (which makes some of the story points very funny). But make sure to activate them to play in that screen.
It's Faster – This is sort of a given as you know how to navigate the major levels and you know which side missions exist, so the only way things may be slower is if this time you want to 100% explore each zone if you didn't last time. One bummer here is that you do not save the ability to smash through those blue spire rocks, so you will have to find four lost Gestrals again.
Expedition 33
Sandfall
You Will Find New Things – I can almost guarantee this. I really, really hunted for extra zones in the endgame of my first playthrough, and in NG+ I found at least two more major ones. No, they were not added specifically in NG+, but giving the map another pass I am almost sure you missed things unless you were using some elaborate guide in your first run.
XP/Chroma – These are increased in NG+. XP is increased dramatically with fights giving you millions pretty early on. Getting past these fights is going to rocket you to 99 pretty quickly, albeit getting Lumina Points is a different story. Chroma is increased as well, but not as crazily.
Difficulty – This may be what you want to know, and the answer is: it depends. How strong are you going into NG+? If you simply beat the story at 50-60 and head straight in, you're going to have a tough time. That may be what you want! I was the opposite, where I went in at 99 with a ton of Lumina Points and 98% of the fights were cake, even not using Maelle nukes. It was actually fun relying on other teammates this time. I used Monoco a lot when I barely touched him before (yes, you keep all his feet).
Expedition 33
Sandfall
Simon – I will make this a separate category given that he is the hardest fight in the game. Even with all my power, he was tough. I do not have a crazy Maelle death bomb nuke build which will still one-shot him. But trying to do it a more normal way, a lesser Maelle Stendhal opener only took him to half, and my teammates were only chipping him with millions of damage per hit. It took a lot of deaths and revives and ultimately, making Verso immortal on my reserve team with a Gradient to beat him.
Loot – This is one that sort of disappointed me. With my best builds and best Pictos already set up, I was hoping I could push beyond them. But you will eventually just find 33 weapons and 33 Pictos which…will not fundamentally change your existing strong build if you want to keep that the same as 'best in class.' It frees you up for more experimenting but I hoped it would be more interesting. And I think there are only a few NG+ cosmetics like ending-dependent Gustave gear.
Story – There are no new story turns, but there are so, so many instances of foreshadowing that it's amazing to watch it unfold now that you know where this is all going. Cannot say how many times I said 'aha!' when something was hinted at that I totally missed before. Enjoy.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.