How to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on macOS (2025)

With CrossOver 26.0 Preview, and the continual updates to D3DMetal (GPTK), a lot of DX 11 and DX 12 games have been able to just run. And I’ve been wanting to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on my Mac for a while now. What better time as the holiday season begins to get this working on my M2 Max Mac Studio.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2024, but Mac gamers have been left wondering if they could experience this stunning turn-based adventure. Good news: with CrossOver 26.0 Preview, it’s not only possible—it runs surprisingly well on Apple Silicon.

Crossover 26 the GOAT

CodeWeaver’s Crossover is the secret sauce that translates Windows applications, or games, to run on your Mac. CrossOver 26.0 in its preview version includes the latest D3DMetal and DXMT libraries which makes all of this works really well. The Preview version also supports DLSS which makes running latest AAA games well on a Mac.

This will cost you about $74 usually. Sometimes there are promos like Black Friday, etc so you might be able to snag it cheaper. Once you purchased and installed CrossOver, you’re ready to start.

How to install Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (GOG) on macOS using CrossOver

1. Install using the games offline installer on a new bottle

I purchased my copy from GOG, so this guide is based on that. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not listed in the applications list on CrossOver. So you will install it as an unlisted application. Select the game’s offline installer downloaded from GOG and install it to a new Windows 10 bottle.

If you bought it from Steam, install Steam from the list of applications and then just install the game from Steam.

The game will take a while to complete its installation. It will take up 41.6GB of storage space. Once the game installs successfully, just click on Exit.

If you get a task failed error, you can just Skip The Step.

Configure CrossOver Preview to play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on macOS

Remember to set the Graphics to D3DMetal and make sure to also enable DLSS, MSync and CrossOver Preview options.

That’s it. Double-click on the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the game should start up.

But wait! The game will warn you that there are issues with the graphics driver. Just ignore it by closing the dialog box or clicking on No.

The game should load without any issues on your Mac! But first up, let’s quickly configure the graphics settings to get a good gaming experience.

Patching or updating the game (GOG Guide)

I completely missed the Sandfall Interactive team’s release of the v1.5.0 Thank You update just as I began playing the game. So here’s a quick update how to patch the game on CrossOver.

1. Download the patch

Firstly, download the patch files from GOG. I had to download it from the website as the GOG Galaxy launcher hadn’t had its database updated yet. And prepare to wait a while if your internet connection isn’t fast. The patch is a 22.65 GB download.

2. Installing the patch

Select the Clair Obscur bottle on CrossOver and use the Install Application into Bottle option.

Here, do that same as with the game installation as it would be an unlisted application.

Select the v1.5.0 update installer (patch_clair_obscur_expedition_33_v1.4.0_GOG_(84973)to_v1.5.0_GOG(86968).exe) and install it to the bottle.

The GOG Patcher should run and you can start updating the game. Then you will just need to wait for it to complete. One thing to note about the GOG Patcher is that the progress bar remained stationary during the game update. This made me question whether the patch was working.  Then after eight minutes the update simply appeared as complete.

I would click on Exit to let the installation process on CrossOver to complete. I got the “Failed to refresh menu”Refreshing the menu” task failed error again. Just skip the step and you would be good.

You should see the game version to be 61339 once you start the game again.

How playable is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on macOS

My Setup

• Mac Studio M2 Max
• 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU
• 64 GB RAM
• MacOS 26.1 Tahoe

After a few quick test, I landed on the following settings for the game to run about 40+ FPS on my M2 Max Mac Studio.

Recommended Graphics Settings

• Graphic Preset: Medium
• Resolution: 1080p (I manually change the monitor resolution before starting the game to force it at this resolution)
• DLSS: Performance Mode
• Frame Generation: Off (causes screen tearing)
• VSync: On

I tried using Frame Generation and it boosted my FPS by about two times. However, it caused significant screen tearing so I decided it wasn’t worth the extra frames.  Despite the game running at over 40 FPS sometimes dipping to 30+ FPS it generally feels very smooth with no stuttering. This surprised me as I’ve played other games with similar frame rates and noticed sluggishness.

Check out my video recording of the gameplay below.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - M2 Max

Watch this video on YouTube.

Hopefully you will enjoy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on your Mac too!

So, there you have it. On the M2 Max, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is quite playable. While I’ve just started it and mostly skipped some parts to quickly capture some video for this post, the game has shown to be quite a fun play! I hope this post would show you that you can indeed enjoy the game even if you have only have a Mac 😀

Final thoughts

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 proves that Mac gaming has come a long way. While 40+ FPS isn’t console-level performance, it’s more than playable for a turn-based RPG where frame timing matters less than in action games. Have you tried running other demanding games on your Mac? Drop a comment below with your experiences! And if this guide helped you, consider sharing it with other Mac gamers.

Here’s also some other Windows games I’ve played on my Mac that might interest you.

Windows Games Playable on Mac using CrossOver and Parallels Desktop

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