Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was published on April 24 courtesy of Kepler Interactive, and is already being met with success – selling half a million units on its first day and over a million units in three days. While the game’s popularity is rising in Japan too, it seems like many Japanese gamers are struggling with pronouncing and understanding the meaning of the title, which has led to them settling for “Something 33.”
While the pronunciation of the English “Expedition” might be familiar to most Japanese gamers, it’s a bit different with “Clair Obscur.” The term, coming from French, refers to the usage of strong light and dark contrasts in art, and it may not be that simple to pronounce if you’re not familiar with French, or European languages at least. Not knowing the pronunciation made it even more difficult for the Japanese players to give the title a shorter nickname – abbreviating titles in the Japanese language is very common, especially if a certain title is long/difficult to pronounce. To give an example, the manga known as KonoSuba is actually an abbreviation of its full title Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo. This is probably why Japanese gamers have decided to focus on the part of the title which is the most familiar to them – the number 33.
If you ever find yourself in Japan craving ice cream and ask a passer-by to point you to the nearest Baskin-Robbins, they may look at you weirdly at first, but they’ll let you know that the nearest “31” is just around the corner. Following the same logic, just like everybody in Japan knows Baskin-Robbins by its nickname, 31, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is starting to gain recognition by the nickname 33, or as some gamers who have completely given up on trying to pronounce the title call it – “Something 33.”
The number 33 itself is very important for the in-game universe. Each year, the entity known as The Paintress writes a number, erasing all humans whose age is greater than the number. The story begins on the year the number 33 is written, which is when the protagonists of Expedition 33 would set out on a journey to stop The Paintress and save humanity from extinction. Automaton Japan suggests that, if Clair Obscur is too difficult to pronounce, simply calling it Expedition 33 would be a good idea. That is, if the nickname “Something 33” doesn’t become set in stone by the growing Japanese fan community.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is currently available for PC (Steam, Epic), PS5 and Xbox.
