Major spoilers forClair Obscur: Expedition 33within.
Sandfall Interactive’sClair Obscur: Expedition 33is one of the most notable game releases of 2025 so far.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s mix of turn-based and real-time combat mechanics, hauntingly beautiful art and sound design, and equally heartbreaking but uplifting emotional journey saw it become widely embraced and praised.Clair Obscurhas gone on to sell over 3 million copies and counting, and is currently a major contender for game of the year.
With it being such a resounding critical and commercial success, it’s natural that many are wondering where the studio will take it from here, and if there will be eitherDLC forClair Obscur: Expedition 33or a full sequel. Sandfall developers have stated that they already have “ideas in place” for future content. Wherever it takes fans next, though, one of its core conceits, the Gommage, will likely need to be included in some way. But given that the secret behind the Gommage is known, this may be a tricky task.
A Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sequel Might Need to Find a Way to Incorporate the Gommage Without Feeling Stale
The Gommage is One of Clair Obscur’s Boldest Ideas and Shocking Twists
In the lead-up toClair Obscur: Expedition 33’s release and in much of the marketing material, theconcept of the Gommagefeatured prominently. The term is French for “disappear” or “erase,” and that is precisely what happens to those affected by it in the story. At the start of the adventure, the imposing and inscrutable god-like figure of The Paintress marks a number on her giant monolith, which tells the citizens of the city of Lumiere the age of those that it will target that year. Visually, the Gommage resembles the Thanos snap from the MCU, with characters disintegrating into a dusting of flower petals as they vanish from existence. Stopping this disturbing process is the initial impetus for the titular expedition.
As the party undertakes their mission, they eventually unravel the truth behind the Gommage through their interactions with Renoir and Verso Dessendre, and coming face to face withThe Paintressherself. Their entire world is actually a magical painting, and most of the characters are fictional creations kept alive by The Paintress, revealed to be Aline Dessendre, Renoir’s wife and Verso’s mother. Aline’s grief over Verso’s death in the real world overcame her, causing her to retreat into the world of the Canvas to preserve his memory. The monolith’s number was not a threat, at least in the manner previously interpreted. It was Aline’s desperate warning that, as her powers weakened, that was the maximum age of the painted people she could continue sustaining.
Players who maximize theirrelationship level with Maellewill unlock her level 3 gradient attack called Gommage that will outright remove weaker foes from combat and otherwise deal extreme amounts of Void damage.
How a Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sequel Could Play with the Concept of the Gommage Again
As with many stories of this nature, once the audience has been shown the secret behind the curtain, it can be difficult to pull off another similar narrative device. Along with the above reveal, one major narrative hook inClair Obscur’s conclusion is the mention of thePainters' feud with the Writersin the ostensibly “real” world outside the Canvas. This conflict was the cause of the Dessendre family’s tragedy, and it seems to be ongoing. Thus, it could inform how the Gommage might return in the future.
Sandall has displayed animpressive level of creativity, and if it follows down this framework, a sequel could possibly show what the internal worlds created by Writers are like, complete with an equivalent of the Gommage. While fans might then know in advance that these are false realities, the exact depiction could be much different from what has been shown, and see the two sides entering each other’s creations, struggling to enact their own versions of the Gommage against each other within the proxy worlds.
Another way to further explore this in aClair Obscursequelmight be to split the plot between taking place in true reality and inside the other worlds, with events in one rippling across another, particularly in the case of a Gommage-like element. Either way, with it being such an intrinsic component inClair Obscur: Expedition 33, there’s plenty of interesting room to expand on this aspect, and it will be exciting to see what Sandall does with it going forward.
