Clair Obscur Expedition 33: All party members ranked

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has taken the gaming community by storm, with its vivid art-style, high-level production, and crisp feeling parries. Launching on Xbox Game Pass, an aspect of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that hasn’t gotten the love it deserves is how excellent its party members are. It has a smaller party than some turn-based RPGs of this style, but those characters not only have incredible depth, but each character also has a unique combat mechanic. While every party member is great in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, in terms of character quality and mechanics, there is an order to their greatness. Here’s how every character stacks up in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

5

Gustave/Verso

Two men, one party slot

While Gustave and Verso don’t fully overlap in terms of abilities, they do ultimately share a single party slot on the team. As Gustave exits the story at the end of Act 1, Verso takes his place. The two share weapons and some of their combat abilities, but they do have two different mechanics. Gustave’s Overload is the simplest in the game, building power as he lands attacks to be unleashed later. Verso has a Devil May Cry combo meter, which increases its capabilities as it builds. Gustave serves as the emotional core of the story for the first act of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and his absence weighs heavily on the remaining party members, but by the final conclusion, his importance in the story wanes.

As for Verso, he becomes deeply involved in the main story, but his presence as the de facto lead character in camp feels off due to his late addition to the party. While there is a ton to love about Verso and where his character goes, he represents a narrative shift that doesn’t work as well as the first major chunk of the story.

4

Sciel

Pick a card, any card

Source: Sandfall Interactive

Sciel is an incredible character with a heartbreaking story, but the rigidity of her combat mechanics makes her a bit less interesting than some of the other party members. Her mechanic revolves around moves that add stacks of Foretell to enemies and abilities that consume those stacks to deal extra damage. To be clear, Sciel is an unmitigated powerhouse if you focus on building up her damage, but the flow of combat follows the same pattern for the majority of the game, making her one of the least interesting characters to build.

When it comes to personality and story, though, Sciel is incredible on both fronts. I won’t say it here, but it’s worth seeing all of her side story via the character moments you can have at camp. It’s both heartbreaking and enlightening about why Sciel is the way she is. For a character who is often jokey or upbeat at odd moments, Sciel has some incredible depth.

3

Monoco

The Gestral with the funky theme song

Monoco is a Gestral and the final character to join Expedition 33, coming during Act 2. While he has a fun battle mechanic, it’s one that suffers because of his late introduction, but it’s still incredible. Monoco collects feet from defeated enemies, unlocking an ability where he will transform into that enemy and one of their abilities. The problem here is the way this mechanic is restricted. Monoco can only collect the feet if he is in combat, so not only does he miss out on a bunch of enemies from the start of the game, he is extremely limited in what he can do when he first joins the party, making it pretty easy to sideline him for a new game plus playthrough.

Monoco has some strong characterization, especially around his role as a father and how Gestrals are resurrected without their memories. His story doesn’t have the same amount of depth as the other party members, but Monoco does have a fun energy that makes for a few moments of levity.

2

Lune

Less magical girl and more weapon of mass destruction

Lune is the only party member who is with you for basically the entire runtime of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and her unique battle mechanic makes her one of the more powerful party members, in addition to being the emotional rock of the team. She is the mage of the team, with nearly every elemental type at her disposal in combat, which feeds into her Stain mechanic. Every elemental move generates a Stain of different colors, which can be used to power up her next ability. More importantly, Lune can be built to not only do an incredible amount of damage, but she can also be pretty easily shaped into a tank. Those two builds aren’t mutually exclusive either, making her quite strong.

Lune is also incredibly focused and driven to defeat the Paintress and often serves as an understanding but firm voice of reason. When everyone wants to quit, Lune is the spark to keep them going, and that’s true in combat, too.

1

Maelle

Big damage numbers

If you have played more than a few hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it shouldn’t be surprising that Maelle is number one on the list. Not only is Maelle incredibly strong in combat, but she does feel like the protagonist of the game, even if you play as Gustave/Verso in camp. Maelle has unique moments in the story, especially in Act 1, where she is the only character experiencing something we see as players. In addition to that, her choice to go on the Expedition several years early speaks deeply about her character and her ability to wait around for someone else to solve her problems.

Her stance switching combat mechanic flows her between offense, defense, and 200% damage. You have to switch each turn, outside certain abilities, so you need to have a move set that allows you to flow from ability to ability. Combine her with tons of parrying-focused Pictos and Luminas, and she quickly becomes an absolute monster. Once the damage cap comes off, Maelle can hit seven and even eight-digit damage numbers, which is ridiculous.

A stacked party of characters

While five is on the low end of turn-based RPGs when it comes to party size, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does an excellent job with every character it has. Not only does every character get important story moments and deep backstories, but they all get unique combat mechanics and moves. Having a cast of characters that all play so differently really maximizes the smaller party size, making for an excellent cast of characters that makes Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 one of the best games of 2025.

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