Let’s be honest: I didn’t expect Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to mess me up like this. I went in expecting a stylish French RPG with cool visuals and moody music. You know, something artsy, beautiful, maybe a little overdramatic. But what I got was a game that, at the very end, looked me in the eye and said: Well? What kind of person are you? The person that choose Maelle or Verso?
And I wasn’t ready to answer.
Spoilers ahead everywhere !!
Verso or Maelle?
It’s the kind of final choice that stops you cold.
Not because it’s complicated mechanically. There’s no puzzle. No hidden stat. No secret dialogue tree that makes it “better.” Just a fork in the road, two characters, and one brutally personal decision.
Choose Verso, and you burn the illusion down. Choose Maelle, and you protect a world that might not be real—but feels like it is.
And people are losing their minds over it.
Why Verso Feels Like the Truth
If you picked Verso, you’re not alone. There’s something cleansing about it. Harsh, yeah—but clean.
A guy on one of the forums I follow put it like this:
“We don’t live in dreams. We live in pain. That’s what makes healing matter.”
Verso doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t lie. His path is the one where you say: enough with pretending. These painted souls aren’t real. Gustave, Sciel, Lune—they’re ghosts trapped in oil and canvas. Beautiful ones, yes. But ghosts all the same.
You pull the plug. You give Alicia, and maybe even Renoir, a shot at something real. It hurts. But it’s honest.
And let’s not forget: illusion is seductive. That’s what makes it dangerous.
Why Maelle Still Breaks Me
But then—Maelle. God.
That ending stuck with me in a different way. It’s not logical. It’s emotional. The kind of thing that lingers, like a scent you can’t quite place.
Someone I follow on X said it better than I ever could:
“If grief builds a world, and that world brings you peace, is it still wrong to live in it?”
There’s something unbearably gentle about Maelle. She doesn’t fight for truth. She fights for love. For memory. For all those faces that helped Alicia breathe again.
And maybe—just maybe—that’s okay.
It’s Not a Moral Test. It’s a Mirror.
I think what’s genius here isn’t that Clair Obscur gives you a choice. It’s that the choice reflects you.
It’s not about right or wrong. It’s about what you need. What you value.
There’s no judgment baked into the design. Just consequence.
You’re not being graded. You’re being asked: who are you, really?
I’ve talked to players who cried after picking Verso. I’ve talked to others who said they chose Maelle and haven’t touched the game since—it was too much. And worst, a friend of mine couldn’t choose an answer and immediatly shutdown his PS5.
Both responses? Totally valid.
No Gods Here. Just Players.
You could argue the Dessendre family are gods in this universe. Painters with power over life and death. But if you are a god, what kind of one do you choose to be?
A creator who cleanses? Or one who preserves?
It’s weirdly theological for a video game, but it works. Because it doesn’t force a conclusion. It just sits with you.
That’s rare. And powerful.
Buy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Now
The Game of the Year GOTY, Easy
And beyond the debate, let’s be real—Expedition 33 is a stunner. Visually. Musically. Narratively.
It sold a million copies in a weekend. Even Macron called it a triumph of French creativity. And I agree. It’s not just a game. It’s a cultural moment.
But more than anything, it’s a question dressed as a story.
A haunting one.
So What Did You Choose?
I picked Maelle. I’m still not sure it was the “right” choice. But it was the one I felt.
And maybe that’s the point.
Let me know what you picked. Or don’t. Maybe just sit with it for a while. That’s what good art does—it makes silence feel full.