Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5)

As Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 begins you're making your way to the Festival of Flowers. At the docks you'll look out to sea, to a tower looming above the dark waters with the number 34 painted on it in huge numerals. A mysterious being called the Paintress will stand and replace that number with a 33. At that moment, everyone aged 33 or older will disappear, turning to flower petals. Every year that number gets lower. You're 32. You're doomed. So you're going to join the annual expedition of people with one year left ahead of them to journey to the tower and attempt to stop it from happening again. If that doesn't grab you, it's hard to say what will. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a strange, beautiful role-playing game that blends the sweep and scope of series like Final Fantasy with turn-based combat and an interactive world map that feel like a great 90s JRPG. It's surreal, mournful and more than just a little haunting. Combat, while turn-based, asks a lot of the player, requiring you to actively shoot, dodge, parry and strike with precise timing--it essentially modernises JRPG combat by blending it with a rhythm element.