French studio Sandfall Interactive appears to have hit the motherlode with their debut title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. As I write this review, Clair Obscur has the highest number of concurrent players on Steam that any traditional/turn-based RPG has ever achieved. Additionally, RPGFan’s own review by Zek Lu awards the game a 99 out of 100, with the sound subscore hitting a perfect 100! Additionally, the Clair Obscur soundtrack has recently topped Billboard’s “classical” and “classical crossover” album charts (source: vg247). Clearly, the musicians who worked on this game did something right.
Lead composer Lorien Testard, alongside vocalist and co-composer Alice Duport-Percier, has created over eight hours of music for Clair Obscur, presented in Laced Records’ digitally-published Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Original Soundtrack. As we enter a new era of game music production where eight-hour scores have become the new standard, I’ve developed a simple, subjective metric for evaluating the quality of such lengthy musical tomes. After listening to the entire album, do I want to hear more? Put another way: does the music overstay its welcome?
Given that I’m on my fifth full listen to this score as I pen this review, I can safely say that yes, I wanted to listen more, and no, the music does not overstay its welcome.
There are a few key ways Testard achieves this. First, his expert use of motif, both within and across the regional chapters within the soundtrack. Take a look at the tracklist. Notice how a specific title—for a character, location, or concept—has a stated base form, followed by several variations. The separate tracks across any one of these groupings, though typically containing a distinct melodic character, will re-use certain melodic or rhythmic motifs, or maintain similar instruments and effects, to help maintain a consistent feel for that section.
As an example, I turn to one of my favorites, an understated track from the end of Act I: “Stone Wave Cliffs.” Here, we find seven different musical themes. “The Whale Next to the Cliff” features plucked strings, lifted by ethereal synth voices and string ensemble. In the next track, “Missing Hope,” reversed tonal blips meet with simple percussion and well-stated, bright piano, even though the chord progression dances around a somber, minor key, much like “Whale” before it. This then builds to “Lights of the Past,” the only track in this grouping with Alice Duport-Percier’s vocals. The chord progression differs, and the melody is more sophisticated than the two previous tracks, but the instrumentation and slick effects are still there. Everything feels right, put in place perfectly for this area.
And yet, there are four more pieces in “Stone Wave Cliffs,” culminating in the boss battle theme “Lampmaster.” While Testard plays with different concepts across each track, there is no denying the way these pieces fit together. And at the same time, “Lampmaster” also holds musical ties with other boss battle themes, such as “Dualliste” from the “Forgotten Battlefield” pieces. In this case, it is Testard’s masterful use of neoclassical (or, to be more specific, neoromantic) musical expression. The chamber music setting focusing on piano, strings, and voice without having too large an ensemble, allows for greater agility and precision in each musical performance. This, for me, is a defining marker of the entire soundtrack, particularly its more epic battle and emotional (dialogue/cutscene) themes.
In writing for the strange and varied world that is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Testard did occasionally have to step outside the neoromantic framework. This helps provide some relief from the tension. Some of my favorite tracks in this regard are the jazzy character theme “Monoco” and the “Gestral Beach” mini-game musical themes, which tend to be upbeat, funky, and thoroughly modern.
But, if you’re looking for the most impressive music, it has to be the epic vocal pieces, especially those that include Victor Borba. “Une vie à t’aimer” and “Une vie à peindre” are larger-than-life epic vocal pieces mixing metal-tinged rock with the sophistication of a softer Bizet operetta. They are also quite lengthy, each track clocking in at 11 minutes.
For those seeking an English ballad instead of the usual French need look no further than Duport-Percier’s duet with voice actor Ben Starr, “Until Next Life.” It’s a shorter piece, but no less impactful. I also love these lyrics:
Old friend, you’ve traveled miles, Spinning in circles / Your blind eyes on the dial, Stripping out the colors
A man whose steps leave no trace, A man whose voice sounded like tears / A man whose memory erase, A man whose time flow off-beats
You’ll learn that all is not in vain, All that matters remains / But it’s time, to say goodbye, Until next life
(Note: the above video is a new recording separate from the OST, with Alice Duport-Percier singing solo.)
Friends, I have only begun to scratch the surface of the massive Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Original Soundtrack. Given that it is presently available through multiple streaming services, I encourage people to check this one out. There is a lovely flow through the full length of this album, with neoromantic instrumental soundscapes punctuated by heartrending vocals and the occasional genre oddball (jazz, EDM, surf rock) serving as a palette cleanse.
A final thought, for fans likening this soundtrack to some of the greats from the other side of the world (Final Fantasy VII, NieR): talent can come from anywhere, and be discovered for any purpose. Composer Lorien Testard wrote in a blog post on the Clair Obscur official site that he had been writing and posting music to a SoundCloud account for about a year, advertising it on indie game forums. Sandfall Interactive director Guillame Broche found his way to the SoundCloud account, made an offer, and here we are five years later. And once upon a time, Nobuo Uematsu took a freelance writing gig with Square just to try his hand at it, and Hironobu Sakaguchi said, “I have this fantasy RPG idea.” You never know when the right forces will collide to achieve greatness. But I am confident in saying that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the greats.
