Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – All playable characters

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is out now, and it’s absolutely fantastic, as we wrote in our Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review. Throughout the game, you’ll collect a ragtag group of expeditioners to help you on your journey to defeat the Paintress, and each of these playable characters has their own combat style and gimmicks, as well as a fantastic personal story. 

Since you’re going to be spending a lot of time with these characters across the course of the game, we thought we’d list out every playable character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, including a little bit of info about who they are, what they do in combat, and who voices them. 

Gustave 

Gustave is the first playable character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and he’s got quite a few tricks up his sleeve — mostly thanks to his mechanical arm. Gustave’s combat loop revolves around building up charges with his skills and unleashing them for devastating damage, which comes in quite handy (no pun intended). 

Gustave is voiced by Charlie Cox, who you might know better as Matt Murdock in Marvel’s Daredevil — the Daredevil himself. 

Lune 

Lune joins Gustave not long after the start of the expedition, and will act as your primary elemental damage dealer, as she’s essentially the mage of this game. In combat, Lune earns “stains” by using particular elemental magic – a fire stain when using fire magic, an ice stain when using ice magic – which she can then consume to deal more damage or apply status conditions when using magic of other types. Lightning spells, for example, often consume fire stains to deal more damage. 

Lune is voiced by Kirsty Rider, who portrayed Emanuela in an episode of Netflix’s The Sandman adaptation. 

Maelle 

Not long after Lune joins the party, you’ll also be introduced to Maelle, Gustave’s adoptive little sister. Her primary gimmick in combat is battle stances. Executing skills will place her in one of three stances: Offensive, which boosts damage but lowers defenses, Defensive, which increases defenses but decreases damage output, and Virtuose, which is kind of a mix of both and deals huge damage. All of her skills are augmented by one of these three stances, so you’ll juggle between different stances on consecutive turns to make the most of it. 

Maelle is voiced by Jennifer English, best known for voicing Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3 and Latenna in Elden Ring. 

Sciel 

Sciel joins the party a bit later in the game, and her combat style is one of the most complicated among the playable characters. She has two types of skills: Sun skills, which apply Fortune stacks on enemies and Sun stacks on herself, and Moon skills, which consume Fortune stacks on enemies for extra damage or buffs and give her Moon stacks. When Sciel has both Sun and Moon stacks, she’ll enter a state called Twilight, which boosts her damage output and doubles the cap of Fortune stacks. It’s confusing, and it can be tough to get her build and rhythm right, but she has the potential to deal gigantic amounts of damage if you can wrap your head around it. 

Sciel is voiced by Shala Nyx, known for her roles as Gita in The Old Guard, Farida in Cyberpunk 2077, and various characters in Baldur’s Gate 3. 

Verso 

Verso is a dark and mysterious character who joins the expedition a fair way into the game. He’s a bit of an all-rounder, with various skills based on attacking, defending, and supporting allies, but it all ties into his Ranking system. When Verso damages an enemy, executes a perfect dodge, or successfully parries an attack, his Ranking – a scale of D, C, B, A, and S at the top end – goes up which gives his skills extra boosts and buffs. If he takes damage, though, his rank will drop, so you’ll have to be on top of your dodging and parrying, or find another way to use him. Make sure you check out our guide to the best Pictos and Luminas in Expedition 33 for inspiration.

Verso is voiced by Ben Starr, best known as leading man Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy 16. 

Monoco 

Monoco, a strange and wonderful beast-like creature, is the final party member to join the expedition, and he’s also the one that needs the most work to get going. Most characters learn skills through leveling up, but Monoco learns his skills from defeating enemies while he’s in the active party. The skills he learns are usually variants of the skills those enemies use against you, and there are dozens to unlock, making him an incredibly versatile character that can fit into just about any build — if you put in the work to collect skills for him. He also has a battle gimmick of a wheel filled with different stances, much like Maelle, and each skill will shift that wheel a certain number of spaces. Every skill Monoco has access to has a buff based on the stance the wheel is on, so you’ll often have to switch things up to make the most of him. 

Monoco is voiced by Rich Keeble, who’s voiced various characters throughout games like Split Fiction, Wuthering Waves, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and more.