Persona 6 Should Take Notes From Clair Obscur's Status…

Like most RPGs, status ailments are tantamount to player strategy in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's battle experience. The traditional use of the elements and corresponding effects, like Burn and Stun, are a vehicle for both inflicting and receiving damage, considering the player's ability to break or even stack damage on enemies, and vice versa. Where Clair Obscur takes a step further, however, is in the sheer versatility of these effects, coalescing with its greater combat systems in a way that encourages different approaches.

Through Clair Obscur's weapons, Pictos, and free aim mechanics, status ailments become not just a detriment, but in some opportunities a boon, setting a strong precedent for other RPGs to follow.

Persona 5 has been cited as one of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's chief inspirations, and for good reason. The mainline Persona series, like its SMT origins, has shown just how powerful turn-based combat can be, rewarding its gameplay both through sleek design and the depth that comes with the protagonist's wild card ability. While party members have less degree of freedom, their elemental focuses are testament to team synergy; Persona 5 Royal's technical damage is evidence of this, showing the merits of ailments and elemental damage being chained together for additional damage. Even still, ailments in the Persona series are generally relegated to base enemies, and though bosses may dish out status conditions of their own, they are, more often than not, insusceptible to the same.

Clair Obscur Passes Incredible Steam Milestone

The monumentally popular RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 surpasses a highly sought-after milestone on Steam, prompting fans to celebrate.

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By Carley Garcia

How Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Status Ailments Underscore Its Combat Nuance

Status Ailments to Encourage Team Synergy

Clair Obscur turns this notion on its head, as ailments are as applicable to boss fights as they are to lesser enemies. Moreover, status conditions take into account the deeper systems of Clair Obscur's character builds. Like Persona 5, team synergy is considered; a move like Sciel's Searing Bond, for example, applies additional Foretell if an enemy is burning, while Lune's Thermal Transfer bears a similar advantage, allowing her to regain 4 AP for meeting the same condition. Stunning an enemy is achieved only through specific moves that can break, taking into account the enemy's break gauge as well as elemental tie-ins, like Lune's Earth damage or even base attacks, should players acquire the right Pictos.

Trade-offs That Tie Into Character Builds, Movesets

Already, Clair Obscur shows consideration of how status ailments can be more than what they offer at face value, though this is amplified through its weapons approach. Each member of Clair Obscur's party can acquire a bevy of weapons that tie into certain skills or battle conditions, and perhaps the most interesting of them are the ones that inflict ailments on the wielder themselves.

Maelle's Stalum, for example, purposefully inflicts Burn onto herself, increasing her damage for each Burn stack in Clair Obscur. The trade-off is, of course, in how she takes damage, but the 10% damage buff per stack can make a considerable difference, and with a Pictos like Double Burn, this process can only quicken per turn. Powering up the weapon to level 20 allows her to heal from the ailment in Defensive Stance, tying further into her unique combat mechanic.

Sciel's Corderon scythe operates on a similar trade-off, but requires more precision and timing in battle to pull off.

Inflicting self-Curse, Sciel only has a number of turns before she automatically dies, with the timer being reset as she enters her Twilight state. This requires players to be mindful of using an attack with a Sun Charge and Moon Charge, which necessitates having enough AP to attack at least twice in the three turns she's given. Another trade-off, Sciel's damage output is increased at the cost of potential death, requiring a careful hand in which skills are utilized.

How Persona 6 Could Take Inspiration

Clair Obscur's use of the Dizzy ailment is another welcome consideration of status ailments in battle. Dizzy operates in Persona 5 Royal as an accuracy reducer, but in Clair Obscur, it ties into the free aim system, making the aiming reticle sway; often employed by floating enemies who will otherwise dodge non-projectiles, Dizzy becomes less of an automatic debuff and more tied to player skill. Though it is unclear if Persona 6 will incorporate some action elements of its own, the repurposing of Persona 5's guns into a free aim system could hold similar merits.

The same rings true for its weapons, especially with how demon transmutation has worked in past Persona and SMT games. Perhaps a weapon transmuted from a demon of the Faith Arcana could provide increased damage if the protagonist wields another Faith Persona in battle, or maybe imbue base attacks with a Light Affinity. Alternatively, a weapon for a Zio-based party member could increase their damage output at the random chance to self-inflict Stun, resulting in a similar trade-off system.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Tag Page Cover Art

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Turn-Based RPG

JRPG

Fantasy

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Systems

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%

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Released: April 24, 2025
ESRB: Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
Developer(s): Sandfall Interactive
Publisher(s): Kepler Interactive