Clair Obscur’s expedition mottos perfectly capture its themes

Video games are full of great quotes. Some are iconic and emotional, others meme-worthy. Polygon recently ranked the 100 best video game quotes and, despite it still being relatively new compared to other heavyweights on the list, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showed up twice. (Unfortunately, Maelle’s “PARRY IT!” didn’t make the cut.) One entry was for the expeditioners’ most notable motto, “For those who come after,” and it perfectly reflects the spirit of the game and its themes.

While Expedition 33 is a metatextual narrative heavily about grief and the creation of art, it’s also about perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds, and that theme is so often reflected in its dialogue. Expeditioners are constantly saying “tomorrow comes” and “we continue” like they’re motivational sayings spotted on signs hung up at your local gym. They need to be continually reminded to persevere because no expedition has ever succeeded in its battle against The Paintress. Dozens of expeditions have left Lumière and never returned.

An early scene that perhaps encapsulates those themes finds Gustave encountering the piled-up corpses of past expeditions. It’s immediately after his expedition is wiped out upon landing on The Continent, and he realizes that they were doomed from the start. Devastated, he puts a gun to his head.

Fellow expedition survivor Lune, whom players meet in the game’s prologue, arrives just in time to save Gustave. Filled with despair, Gustave argues it’s only a matter of time before they end up dead like the expeditioners around them. “This is not a foregone conclusion,” Lune says. “‘When one falls, we continue.’” She sets the tone for the rest of the game.

With just a few words — and the arrival of a Nevron to fight — Lune snaps Gustave back into focusing on the task at hand. They have a job to do, regardless of if they’re the last two standing (at the time). Esquie may be the emotional rock of the group, but Lune is the fearless leader, and that’s never more clear than when she has to spur Gustave on to persevere.

She throws the oath back at Gustave later on, when he wants to prioritize keeping Maelle alive over the mission to take down The Paintress. “When one falls, not if,” she exclaims. There’s an acceptance of finality permeating through her dialogue; Lune knows she’s not long for this realm, and that acceptance in the face of death helps her focus on the mission. It also helps her place others above herself as she knows nothing is more important than persevering in the fight against The Paintress.

The theme of soldiering on pairs well with Expedition 33’s focus on grief. To live with grief is to persevere, and that’s reflected well in how the expedition carries on when (“not if”) Gustave falls at the end of Act One. Maelle, Lune, and the rest must push forward through the tragedy because “those who come after” are counting on them.

Expedition 33’s mottos also apply to the players. Though it does have a very FromSoftware “You Died”-coded message after your party is downed (“Expedition Failed”), you are given the option to send in your reserve duo. Just like how the expedition carries on no matter who it loses, you must carry on even when your A-team falters — and the game features plenty of boss battles they’ll falter against. Sending in my backups helps reset my focus when continuing the fight, like how hearing “we continue” helps reset Gustave’s.

Poor Gustave didn’t get to make it to the end and battle against The Paintress, but his fellow expeditioners — and the player — carried on and persevered in his stead.