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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 culminates in a shocking twist ending that has unbelievably wide-ranging implications for its painted world. The story of Clair Obscur follows the titular Expedition 33, a group of warriors, researchers, engineers, and more, as they set out to destroy the mysterious entity known only as the Paintress. Stakes are personal: each member of the expedition has lost someone to the Paintress in years prior, and most of them are 32 years old – in other words, they’ll fade to dust at the end of the year, when she paints the number “33” on her Monolith.
[Warning: This article contains major story spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.]Predictably, it all comes to a head after the surviving members of the Expedition – which has recruited three new allies (Verso, Monoco, and Esquie) along the way – reach the Monolith themselves. Although their mysterious enemy, Renoir, who’s older than anyone they’ve ever seen before, stands in their way, they eventually manage to push past him and face the Paintress in pitched battle. But the battle itself – and everything that follows – is far different from what the members of Expedition 33 expected.
What Happens To Maelle & Verso In Clair Obscur?
Maelle & Alicia Explained
The first round of battle against the Paintress goes exactly as you’d expect: it’s an appropriately epic late-game RPG boss fight, with lots of difficult parry timing and hard-hitting attacks. In the final phase, however, the Paintress refuses to attack the party, and instead casts protection spells on them as they deplete what’s left of her HP. The Paintress falls, and her Monolith shatters dramatically. Maelle, Lune, and Sciel plant the flag of Expedition 33 at the site of her death, and marvel, almost in terror, at the decades of living that now stand before them.
The surviving members and recruits of Expedition 33 return to Lumière, where they’re greeted with a hero’s welcome. Maelle delivers the news of Gustave’s death to his sister Emma, and his “apprentices” – a group of children who idolized him. However, she also gifts them Gustave’s journal so they may read about the Expedition’s journey and Gustave’s sacrifice. But the celebration is interrupted when a shockwave erupts from the broken monolith. As it passes over the people of Lumière, each and every one of them turns to dust, as if they’ve undergone the Gommage.
In a flashback, Maelle then wakes up in a bed within the strange Manor the Expedition visited earlier in the game. But she’s not herself: the lower half of her face is scarred, and she’s lost the use of her voice and one of her eyes. We quickly learn that Maelle is actually an alternate version of Alicia, the masked figure who’s been appearing alongside Renoir in her nightmares throughout the game. The Manor is also markedly different, as it exists in a world more like our own.
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Maelle/Alicia goes downstairs, where she’s greeted by her sister, Clea. Clea explains the situation: they’re part of a family of Painters, magic users who can create entire worlds with the power of their creativity. Their brother, Verso, was killed while trying to save Alicia during a fire started by a rival faction of Writers. Their mother, Aline, consumed with grief, has lived her every waking moment inside a canvas of Verso’s creation: the world of Monoco, Esquie, and Lumière. The Verso that exists in the painting is a copy created by his mother out of grief.
Aline is the Paintress, but her numbers aren’t a threat – they’re a warning that Renoir, who resents her for using the canvas as a coping mechanism, is trying to destroy their world so she’s forced to leave it. Alicia and Clea hatch a plan to get their parents out of the canvas: Alicia will enter it, where she’ll be reborn as a character (Maelle) in her mother’s ongoing story. She’ll live an entire life inside the canvas, eventually growing up to defeat the Paintress and force Aline out of the painting. Meanwhile, Clea will hide the canvas where her mother can’t find it so she can’t enter again.
What Happens To Lumière & Renoir In Clair Obscur?
Disappearance & Resurrection
Maelle (now with white hair) and Verso then approach Renoir, asking him to restore the people of Lumière so Verso’s creation can live on without Aline. But Renoir refuses, believing the temptation will be too great; wherever Clea hides the canvas, her mother will inevitably find it, and throw herself back into the canvas again. So Maelle hatches her own plan: knowing that she’s a Painter, too, she’ll revive her companions with her own power. Then, the Expedition will travel around the continent gathering Chroma from fallen expeditioners, which they’ll use as a catalyst to resurrect the rest of Lumière.
Although her identity has changed since regaining her memories, Maelle still favors her in-canvas name in the game’s third act.
They do just that, creating a makeshift army to storm the besieged Lumière and force a confrontation with Renoir. At length, Maelle, Verso, and the rest of Expedition 33 defeat Renoir, forcing him out of the painting alongside Aline.
What Happens In Maelle’s Epilogue?
The Bad Ending
After defeating Renoir, Maelle and Verso appear in a strange area, implied to be the bridge between the real world and Verso’s canvas. There, a ghostly boy lies bent over a canvas on the floor. It’s strongly implied that this is Verso’s spirit, which has remained in the canvas ever since his death, laboring eternally to keep his own creation alive. Verso wants to free his spirit and destroy the canvas, while Maelle would rather keep it alive so she doesn’t have to return to her lonely life in the “real” world.
You may choose either to fight as Maelle or fight as Verso; whomever you choose will affect the epilogue you see. If you fight as Maelle, she will defeat Verso, while the canvas – and everybody in it – lives on indefinitely. As he dies, Verso expresses concern that Maelle will fall into the same unhealthy patterns as her mother.
You can always go back and load your most recent save after the final cutscene if you want to see the other ending.
The scene then cuts to Lumière, presumably sometime later. The town is crowded and busy; people line up around the block to visit Esquie. Meanwhile, Maelle and one of Gustave’s apprentices walk to the opera house. Inside, they find all their dead friends alive once again: not only Lune and Sciel, but also Gustave, Sophie, and Sciel’s husband Pierre. They take their seats and an older Verso appears on stage, where he prepares to play a piano concerto. He briefly lingers, as if his new form remembers his old regrets, before his fingers hit the keys.
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The camera then cuts to Maelle, whose face is stained with paint, much as her mother’s was when she was spending every day in the canvas. The implication is that Maelle’s victory has perpetuated the cycle of grief; although Aline has escaped the canvas, her daughter now remains trapped in it by her own obsession and grief.
What Happens In Verso’s Epilogue?
A Final Goodbye
If you decide to fight as Verso instead, he’ll defeat Maelle. As her consciousness inside the canvas fades away, he reminds her that she, like him, is a Painter – her power means she’ll never have to live a life she doesn’t want, as she can always create a new one. Verso takes a moment to say a final goodbye to Esquie and Monoco, then watches as they fade away. Sciel and Lune appear next, also fading away – they don’t speak, but they look at Verso bitterly in their final moments.
While Maelle’s epilogue switches to a more square aspect ratio in its final moments, Verso’s uses a wide horizontal point of view similar to the game’s other cutscenes.
Finally, Verso takes the painter’s hand, and the two of them gradually disappear. The canvas has been destroyed, and all of the characters we’ve come to know with it have died alongside Verso.
The scene cuts back to the “real” world, where Alicia and her family observe a moment of silence at Verso’s grave. There’s a decidedly somber mood, but the family clearly finds comfort in one another’s presence. Alicia lingers after her parents and sister leave, though, and she sees a brief apparition of Lune, Sciel, Gustave, Verso, and Maelle waving at her in the middle distance.
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Here, it’s implied that Alicia is able to find some comfort in her memories of Expedition 33, even though they’re no longer with her. Although they still grieve, Alicia and her parents are able to do so with healthier coping mechanisms, instead of immersing themselves permanently in a fantasy.
And thus Clair Obscur‘s story, a worthy contender to any Final Fantasy plot, comes to a close. If you like, you can load an earlier save to seek out some of the game’s superbosses, or even start a New Game Plus, playing through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a second time with greater knowledge of what’s to come.
9/10
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Cross-Platform Play
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No
- Cross Save
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No
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