An official Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Expedition Journal art book has reportedly been seized by the Iraqi government over a gaffe that had customs agents mistaking it for a “possibly ancient” text. While heaps of praise have been lauded upon Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for its artwork’s unique visual style and historical authenticity, the alleged customs seizure is drawing a lot of laughs from its community, with the government agency perceived as completely out-of-touch with modern pop culture.
Considered by many to be the best game of 2025, Sandfall Interactive and Kepler Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine trophies at The Game Awards 2025, including the awards for Game of the Year and Best Art Direction. Its awards certainly don’t stop at that one single show, and focusing only on the ones centered around its visual style, it’s also taken home Best Visual Style at the Golden Joystick Awards and has nominations for art direction, design, cinematics, and visual art at upcoming awards shows that include the 29th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the 24th Game Audio Network Guild Awards, and the 26th Game Developers Choice Awards.
It’s Official: Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Has Beaten Elden Ring
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s dizzying success continues, as the game manages to overtake FromSoftware’s open world epic Elden Ring.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Artwork is So Good it’s Been Mistaken for an Ancient Text
But for one fan, the beautiful artwork of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has led to a run-in with Iraqi customs, who have reportedly seized an accompanying art book packaged with a copy of the game, believing that it may be an arcane text that belongs in a museum. As shared on Reddit by user Ahmed15252, Iraqi customs opened his copy of the game and removed the 48-page hardcover art book, sending it off to a national museum and technical committee to determine its authenticity as an ancient artifact. He included redacted images of what appear to be written correspondence from the Iraqi government’s Ministry of Culture, which explains that the parcel contained “an art book with drawings of monetary value,” and stating that the book will be sent off for official examination.
Fit the 9 games into the grid.
The art book in question came packaged with the Monolith Set of the game, which also includes a hand-painted Monolith Music Box Statuette and empty steelbook case featuring Maelle and Gustave on the cover. None of these items, or the game itself, appear to have been seized by customs, with the art book being the sole piece of the set that the customer has not yet received. For reference’s sake, this is the same steelbook and art book that can be found in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s Lumeiere Edition.
Fans of the game, many of whom have received the same art book, have been flabbergasted by the situation for a number of reasons. Pointing out just a few obvious details, fans have noted that the cover of the book is printed in modern English, it’s bound using present-day techniques, the pages are glossy, and the book contains a legal page that lists the copyright information and publication date. “I suspect the customs department will be getting laughed at by some museum heads shortly, and hopefully told not to bother them with stupid things in the future,” one commenter wrote. Additionally, considering that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s official release date was a little under 10 months ago, its accompanying art book couldn’t be defined as an ancient text, though some fans have theories about ulterior motives, including possible scanning for prohibited contents or a customs agent just really wanting to read it.
For his part in the matter, the affected customer seems to be taking it all in stride, finding humor in the situation and seeing the apparent mistake as a celebration of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s visuals and graphics. “10/10 experience will definitely accidentally import history again,” a portion of his post reads. Although he has been waiting at least seven months for the special edition of the game to arrive, he plans to just “laugh it off” and expects that it will take no more than two weeks for the national museum and the committee to make their determination, and he anticipates that the art book will reach its intended destination in the near future.
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
