Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I went into Expedition 33 expecting a turn-based game that would test my patience, and the opposite happened. Combat is turn-based, but you dodge and parry in real time, so your hands stay busy between menu choices. Pictos and Lumina give you build choices without the skill-tree sprawl I have stopped having time for. On my S95F the painted skies and Belle Époque streets of Lumière looked outstanding, though a good chunk of that is the display. The story of a doomed expedition earns its weight. Parry timing can frustrate players who want pure menu combat.

I would not have picked this one up if I had to pay for it. A turn-based fantasy about a doomed expedition sounded like a gamble at full price, and Game Pass removed the gamble. Within the first few hours I understood the fuss. The battles are turn-based but you dodge and parry in real time, so you never get to zone out, and the art direction makes every area look like a painting you are allowed to walk around in. It does not have the broad pull of the racer above it, since it asks you to like RPGs at least a little. If that describes you, install it tonight.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came out of nowhere in 2025 and turned out to be one of the best turn-based RPGs in years. The battles look old-school on paper, take turns, pick abilities, but every attack asks you to time a dodge or a parry, which turns what could be a passive menu-scroll into something you actually have to pay attention to. I went in expecting a curiosity and stayed because the combat kept demanding better reflexes as the story got darker. The art direction, all faded Belle Époque decay, gives it a mood none of the bigger-budget entries on this list match. It's shorter than most RPGs here, which some readers will count as a downside. I count that as a reason to finish it.

Clair Obscur came out of nowhere and landed with enough weight to make several top-10 conversations look incomplete. The art direction is striking, the turn-based combat has a timing-based action layer that keeps fights from feeling passive, and the tone is genuinely dramatic without tipping into self-parody. It sits here rather than in the main ten because the list above it is dense with games that have longer track records and broader audiences. But this is one of the most interesting RPGs on PS5 right now, and if the aesthetic pulls you in, the substance is there to back it up.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the most exciting new RPG of 2025 and it probably belongs on a future version of this list at a higher rank once the community has spent more time with it on Deck. The turn-based combat has a real identity, the art direction is striking, and the party progression rewards the kind of long-session investment that suits an RPG. It sits here rather than in the top ten because it is a heavier production that works the hardware harder and the Deck playability is not quite as frictionless as the established picks. Give it time. This one is going to age well on the platform.