Expedition 33’s Platinum Trophy Is a Gruelling Journey, And I’m Loving Every Second Of It

You don’t need me to tell you that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a great game. The winner of nine Game Awards, six Golden Joysticks, and the number one spot on Game Rant’s own Top 10 Games of 2025 list, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has already had its praises sung by the entire gaming industry. But even Clair Obscur‘s biggest fans will admit it isn’t a flawless game.

Some awkward platforming mechanics, a somewhat convoluted Pictos system, and a sharp endgame difficulty spike are all valid criticisms to be levied at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. But while I personally found that those issues were quickly overshadowed by the game’s excellent writing, first-class performances, riveting combat, and engrossing narrative, the journey to obtain Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s Platinum Trophy is a much harder pill to swallow; at least it would be if I weren’t still absolutely infatuated.

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Platinum Trophy Is a Difficult Grind on Paper

Missable Trophies Usually Lead to a Miserable Experience

The life of a casual trophy hunter is a surprisingly relaxing one. While I love the satisfying ‘ding’ of the PlayStation trophy notification, it rarely compels me to channel all of my free time into playing just one game for tens or even hundreds of hours, especially if I’m not having fun to begin with. When I’m setting out on a Platinum Trophy journey, it’s almost always a game that I know for a fact I’ll love, and it’s often a game that has no more than a 3/10 difficulty rating on a site like PowerPyx or PSNProfiles.

This usually means that I steer clear of any Platinums that require online trophies, and more often than not, I avoid games with “missable” trophies like the plague. While I find online-related trophies to be usually quite an unpredictable grind, missable trophies tend to add an underlying layer of stress to my playthrough that I just can’t shake off. No matter how engaged I am in a game’s story or moment-to-moment gameplay, I’m almost certainly thinking about that instead of whatever’s going on on-screen if there’s a missable trophy on the list. All that’s to say, it’s completely unlike me to go for the Platinum Trophy for a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Platinum Trophy Asks a Lot of Players

Given a 5/10 difficulty rating on PSNProfiles, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s trophy list has multiple missable trophies, one of which is tied to one of the game’s many collectible types, and the rest revolve around side activities that can be easily missed or failed if players don’t know what they’re looking for. Given the incremental nature of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s open world, where many side locations are best tackled in a specific order due to scaling difficulty, using a trophy guide/roadmap is heavily encouraged to make sure you don’t miss anything.

On top of that, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also features some extremely difficult endgame challenges that must be beaten to earn the coveted Platinum Trophy. Along with now-infamous boss fights like Clea and Simon, Clair Obscur features the “Endless Tower,” which offers a relentless gauntlet of increasingly difficult adversaries that ultimately ends with an absurdly difficult duo boss fight. While players can drop the game’s difficulty to help them tank a few more hits, it isn’t going to save them from Clair Obscur‘s deadliest foes. The only thing that will get them through alive is the R1 button.

The Most Difficult Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Trophies To Get:

• Professional – Defeat a boss without taking any damage
• Peace at Last – Defeat Simon
• Clea – Defeat Clea
• Endless – Reach the top of the Endless Tower
• Gestral Games – Win all of the Gestral games
• Aiding The Enemy – Finish all White Nevron side quests
• Follow The Trail – Find all Expedition Journals
• Survivor – Reach level 99

In Spite of The Grind, I’m Loving My Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Platinum Journey

Image via Sandfall Interactive

On paper, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is exactly the type of game I avoid when it comes to trophy hunting, but I’ve never been happier working towards a Platinum. For a bit of context, I first played Clair Obscur a few months after it came out, and I immediately fell head over heels in love with it, far more than I ever thought I would. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of turn-based RPGs and build optimization has never really been my thing, but practically every aspect of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 kept me hooked from beginning to end.

Flash forward to November 2025 when end-of-year conversations were starting to happen across the gaming industry, and of course, Clair Obscur began to pop up everywhere. In December, I finally decided to scratch an itch I’d had for months. I bought a copy of Clair Obscur for the PS5 (I originally played it on Xbox Game Pass), I opened up an incredibly useful PowerPyx step-by-step trophy guide, and I set off on my Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Platinum Trophy journey, my second playthrough of the revered RPG.

The return journey did not disappoint. The combat felt even smoother than in my first playthrough, the Pictos system felt much more rewarding from the get-go as I already understood its somewhat confusing ins and outs, and the narrative is filled with moments and lines of dialogue that reward players for returning after they’ve experienced all the game’s brilliant twists and turns.

I leisurely made my way through Clair Obscur during the holiday season. Though it was undeniably a little tedious to have to keep checking the trophy guide every time I reached a new Expedition Flag, it really didn’t affect my enjoyment at all in the grand scheme of things. If anything, having a guide with me at all times and slowly checking it off bit by bit made me feel like I was finally getting to see absolutely everything Clair Obscur has to offer.

As of this writing, I’m a stone’s throw away from obtaining Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s Platinum Trophy. I’ve just defeated Clea, I’m almost at the top of the Endless Tower, and I’m standing outside of Simon’s boss room. I know that these remaining challenges are going to be harder than anything I’ve faced yet, but I’m not intimidated. Instead, it’s a bittersweet feeling filling my chest. It feels great to have almost achieved 100% on what’s now officially one of my favorite video games of all time, but I don’t think I’m ready for it all to be over just yet.

I think I can hear that New Game + mode calling me, and it sounds suspiciously like a mythical, flying, living wine dispenser screaming “wheeeeeee.”

Released

April 24, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Developer(s)

Sandfall Interactive

Publisher(s)

Kepler Interactive