Technically, while the Steam tag says the game is turn-based, the description says it is "turn-based RPG with real-time mechanics". In practice, it is turn-based with what is known under the name of "Quick Time Events", QTE: You get a prompt on screen, and need to press the corresponding key or button within a short time window. That, in itself, still doesn't tell you much. To measure the impact, we need to know how important it is to get that button press right, and how long the time window is in which the button press counts as being done right. Sadly, in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 those Quick Time Events are used (among other things) to parry and dodge attacks from enemies that can one-shot you, and the time window is short on the easiest difficulty, and very short on normal. In other words, if you have a perfect strategy and tactics for turn-based combat, it is still likely that you will lose that fight because you pressed a button a fraction of a second too late and the monster just killed you with a single hit. Aggravating that situation is that at release the game isn't very optimized yet, so there is lag, and that affects the timing of when you have to press the button. People report getting visuals of having dodged an attack, and then still getting full damage and dying.

While I don't like button-mashing games, I do think that there is a place for them. Some people like Souls-like games, Elden Ring was a huge success. But combining this with a turn-based combat mechanic is extremely weird. Imagine a game of chess in which the game board sometimes with only a very short announcement launches one of your game pieces into the air, and you lose the game if you don't catch it. It is easy to see how a regular chess grandmaster might totally fail at that version of the game, while somebody who is very good at dexterity and reaction-time based games still could find the chess part unpleasant. Chess and Guitar Hero might both be very good games, but they simply don't mix very well, because they demand very different skill sets.

I am extremely bad at Quick Time Event games. I wasn't even good at them when I was young, and there is ample scientific evidence that reaction time gets slower with age. I am usually good a turn-based combat, but my reaction time just lets me down here, and I don't think I will be able to play this. At best, I would be able to play in "story mode", but while that is said to make the Quick Time Events a bit easier, it also makes turn-based combat in general a lot easier, which I don't think I would enjoy when too simple.

In terms of accessibility policy, this is really stupid. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 *also* uses Quick Time Events to enhance attacks, think "press button at the right time to achieve a critical hit". And in the "Accessibility" options, you can turn that off and make it auto-succeed. But, as the game says, "Automatic QTE does not affect QTEs during enemy attacks (Dodge and Parry, for example)." Why would you have an accessibility option that only affects the less important added damage part, but doesn't work on the part where slow players get one-shotted? That is like having a colorblind mode that doesn't work during color-based puzzles.

According to some review aggregator sites, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the best game released in 2025 so far. I am upset that their weird accessibility options exclude slow and old players from enjoying this.