Published Mar 20, 2026, 1:43 PM EDT

Patricia is the former editor-in-chief of Kotaku , where she spent a decade writing and editing. Prior to that, she served as the Culture Editor at Polygon , and as a reporter at The Verge . Hernandez specializes in Pokémon TCG, Nintendo, and offbeat internet culture stories.

No one at Sandfall Interactive thought the RPG would reach a Metacritic score of 92

Expedition 33 devs bet on their review scores, but every single one of them lost

"" data-is-feature-img="true"> Image: Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive

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Nearly a year after sweeping every Game of the Year award possible and sending the gaming industry into a tizzy of self-reflection , it's hard to imagine Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as anything but a force of nature. But there was a time before the epic RPG had any accolades — a period before release where no one on the development team knew what to expect.…