Understanding the Hype Machine
It’s been more than two weeks since the release of successful Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has managed to sell over 2M copies as of writing this article. While there’s definitely a strong grassroots following behind it, there also seem to be some artificial factors at play that I think are worth pointing out—things that might help explain part of the game’s success and hype.
We’re going into a bit of an esoteric rabbit hole here, but before that, it’s important to lay out what was happening in the gaming industry prior. This year had a big focus on large gaming companies conducting layoffs, which can be tied to a few key factors—inflation, post-COVID market conditions, and, most importantly, rising development costs. This last point has been a hot topic among gamers and journalists.
Then came Sandfall Interactive with their first title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which was used as a narrative against big budgets and massive studios with large teams. Not only did it challenge game pricing, but it also questioned the justification for smaller development teams (Sandfall has 30 in-house devs, but the game’s credits list over 300 contributors). Now, is a half-decent game and a well-timed narrative like this enough to generate this much PR from the user base and media? I think not… and that’s why we need to talk about the dubious connections here.”
Hidden Meanings Behind The Name
This game’s name is quite peculiar—it starts with a French word, followed by an English word, and then a number. In hindsight, you’d think it would make more sense to call the game simply Clair Obscur or Expedition 33. Why does it need to be so overtly long? And why couldn’t they go with either a fully English or fully French title? Outside of my esoteric reasoning, I can’t see any logical justification for such a convoluted name.
(There will be some minor spoilers about the game from now on…)
“Expedition 33” refers to the in-game group you play as, with the number 33 representing the latest expedition attempting to stop the Paintress. The expeditions are counted in descending order, like so
- Expedition Zero
- Expedition 100
- Expedition 99
- Expedition 98 etc.
From a lore perspective, the game could have realistically chosen any number between 100 and 17 (though it could theoretically be lower, we’ll use 17 as our baseline). The countdown could have even started from 150 or 200, but 100 makes for a clean, round starting point. This makes the choice of 33 statistically interesting – with 84 possible numbers (100-17+1), the probability of specifically selecting 33 is just 1.18%. This improbability strengthens my theory that 33 was deliberately chosen for a specific reason.
Occult & Masonic Meaning Behind Number 33
The number 33 is a very special number in certain occult groups and probably the most oldest form of usage is within Numerology (also known as Arithmancy). In numerology we have these things that we refer as “lifepaths” which are something that you count using your full birthday and in majority of situations you will be assigned a number from 1 to 9, but in some rare instances you might get what is called master numbers that are 11, 22 and you guessed it 33.
Mathematically getting master numbers is hard as a lifepath to demonstrate the odds of this here is a rough calculation based on current dates (these obviously fluctuate based on the year)
| Life Path Type | Possible Numbers | Approximate Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Regular Life Paths | 1–9 | ~89–93% combined |
| Master Number 11 | 11 | ~2–3% |
| Master Number 22 | 22 | ~1% |
| Master Number 33 | 33 | <0.1% (very rare) |
Based on my own calculations the next person that has possibility of being born Lifepath 33 is going to be born February 7th, 2029 by earliest, so there can be multiple years in a row where you don’t have a single Lifepath 33 being born. This should give you the idea how special it is to be Lifepath 33 and why such scarcity is giving so much value for this number under numerology.
The people born as Master Number 33 are associated as “The Master Teacher” and also are considered as Spiritually most evolved, so this number has heavy emphasis on spirituality. There are other traits that are associated with this which include altruism, creative expression and empathy.
Masonic Themes & Connections
Explaining Numerology was essential component for you to understand more about Freemasons especially the most known sect of masons known as the Scottish Rite.
What sets them apart is their degree system, which ranges from 4 up to—you guessed it—33. Freemasons hold that the number 33 symbolizes spiritual maturity and esoteric wisdom. Among their beliefs is that Jesus Christ died at age 33, which partially explains why this number represents their organization’s highest attainable degree (one that very few members actually achieve).
Masons demonstrate an undeniable fixation with this number. Their headquarters and lodges are frequently situated on streets or in districts numbered 33. Some even incorporate the number into personal details like license plates (members may deliberately request it from various services). Without repeating myself, it’s essential to recognize that 33 is quintessentially Masonic—a core symbol of their order, alongside other iconic imagery whatever that is G or the compasses.
Sandfall Interactive’s Masonic Connections
After Sandfall managed to sell over million copies for Expedition 33 the current president of France Emmanuel Macron decided to make a post about the achievement of this game in his instagram. What makes this thing very sus to me is the fact that, Macron didn’t make similar posts when Ubisoft (French gaming company) was selling millions of copies of their games – so it came to me as intentional to highlight this specific game.
In his post he also could have just called it “Clair Obscur” or the full name, but he intentionally chose just to call it Expedition 33 only and the original post was in French and his primary audience is french, so this would have made more sense to me. This gets to my 2nd point which is that Macron has visited at least twice in a French Masonic lodge once as President and once as Financial minister.
Let’s be absolutely honest here, you don’t visit masonic lodges unless you’re taking orders from masons or you are part of them. It’s totally plausible that the masons wanted Macron to promote this game and wanted him to drop a public post about this title. We also have to understand that France is currently worlds 5th largest place for Freemason members and hosts over 1,400 lodges — one of those lodges existing in Montpellier the same city where Sandfall Interactive is located.
I’m not necessarily saying or believing that Sandfall Interactive are “Masons”, but their publishers or lead members might be. Sometimes high ranking masons will ask entry level masons or other people to do odd requests and tasks for them — without knowing that the request has something to do with the masonry or occultism (this is most likely case with Sandfall in my opinion).
It could be a totally coincidence but if you go into Google maps and look at the Sandfall Interactive studio house and then look exactly across the street from the office door you can see that the house on opposite side is numbered 33 as well. This is mostly a funny sidenote and nothing serious! (maybe)
Masonic Meaning Behind The Word Clair Obscur
Clair Obscur is a French word that translates to “Light/Dark,” and I can see why the game wasn’t called LightDark: Expedition 33. That being said, Light and Dark is another prominent Masonic theme. However, to be fair, we also see this duality in Taoism, fantasy genres, and even biblical subjects (e.g., the fight between light and darkness).
- It reflects moral dualism, where the initiate is taught that life contains both trials and triumphs, and wisdom comes from navigating between the two.
- The floor serves as a metaphor for the material world, contrasting with the spiritual aspirations represented by the inner chambers of the lodge.
This motif draws from Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and Gnostic traditions, which emphasize:
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The need to reconcile opposites to achieve enlightenment.
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The idea that light cannot exist without darkness, and vice versa — a key Masonic lesson.
So if you actually go to most masonic lodges the flooring always looks like chessboard, because its meant to represent the light and dark and the things described above. Based on my playthrough I wasn’t able to find any checkerboard floors in the game, unless there were some in Lumiere or other location I passed by.
In the visual presentation of the game, you’re obviously going to see a lot of Light and Darkness effects. One thing you might have missed is that Sciel’s abilities are exclusively Dark-elemental, while Verso primarily uses Light-elemental attacks. These two also appear to have a potential romance arc in the game, symbolizing the duality of light and dark.
- The Masonic Symbol G is also starting letter of our protagonist who is GUSTAV, who is 33 years old in the game and coincidentally a teacher too for children. You can’t make this shit up can you?
Sure, some of these elements could be brushed off as coincidences—many games play around with light and dark themes—but seeing multiple Masonic motifs raises concern. The reason Freemasons have such a negative reputation in Europe, especially, is because they are seen as actively trying to dismantle the Catholic Church and Christianity. Thematically, Expedition 33 is about “killing God = The Paintress”—which fits into the Masonic narratives they are might be promoting.
It’s true the game could have also featured Satanic and other demonic elements, alongside hardcore atheism, to align more closely with that Masonic vision. But perhaps that would’ve been too on-the-nose—and as a somewhat secretive society, they may not want everyone to know what they’re doing.
Where is the Money Coming from?
Lastly, I want to discuss a particularly suspicious element—namely the “movie deal” that was announced by Variety on January 30, 2025, just six months after the first trailer premiered during Sony’s State of Play. Keep in mind, Variety didn’t publish this story the moment the deal between Sandfall and Story Kitchen was made, so it’s likely the agreement occurred either just before or shortly after the game’s trailer was released.
This is virtually unprecedented in gaming history—there has never been a movie announced for a game that hasn’t even been released yet. The people behind Story Kitchen are predominantly of Jewish background, and while some Jewish individuals have historically been Freemasons as there is Anti-Christian alignment between these groups. I’m not saying this is the case here exactly, but both jews and masons are extremely rich people and capital for a movie could only come from them as they are only people willing to pay money for pushing the agenda.
My personal conclusion is that there are masonic people behind the curtain who funded this game and used their connections to promote it and hook up a movie deal based on a single trailer or already established masonic/Jewish connections. We have to be wary about these types of connections, but I am certain we will know lot more in near future.
