The “Grey” Ending: Persona 5 Royal and Expedition 33

I recently beat my most anticipated game of 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It was just what I wanted – turn-based combat in an original fantasy setting with new mechanics, characters, and story. It was also many things I didn’t expect; it was violent and bleak – a world I was invested in, but scared to find out more about. As I decided the fate of the Canvas, and the credits rolled, a thought crossed my mind that I didn’t expect at all.

Wow, this reminds me of the ending of P5R.

[Spoilers for Persona 5 Royal and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33]

The player is left with a choice at the end of Persona 5 Royal – live in a utopian world without free will or return to a world of pain and suffering but be in control. There are a lot of other factors too; pick free will and Akechi, Haru’s Dad, Futaba’s Mom and Makoto’s Dad die again. Ann loses Shiho and Ryuuji loses his team for a second time. And Morgana remains a cat? The utopian world definitely looks better from the outside. Everyone is there, everything is right. You’re supposed to be happy.

I chose free will, pushing everyone’s parents back to their deaths. I had no doubts about it either; I wanted to control my life. How do you know happiness without sadness? Joy without pain? Suffering is underrated in society. How would you feel fulfilled without knowing what loss is? When you enact your choice and “wake” your friends up, they thank you. They agree with the choice you make, which helps support the idea that you picked the “good ending” in this scenario. 

If you choose to stay locked in Maruki’s perfect world, the game ends with no explanation, besides a disappointed Akechi and an eerie epilogue. The credits are skewed and the images are distorted. The music is just a bit off. P5R has a “grey” ending – it lets the player decide its outcome based on their own morality – but it still educates the player know which ending the devs feel is inherently “wrong.” Tts off-putting feel and lack of story/character closure speaks volumes. Clair Obscur does not give you that luxury. 

In Clair Obscur, you get to choose to live in the fake world of the Canvas forever or burn it all down and accept a painful reality. You pick your ending and you live with it; there is no connotation of right and wrong. And, with each option leaving the characters in disarray, they both feel truly morally “grey” in their framing and result.

For me, it was a way harder choice than P5R’s. I understood Maruki but still couldn’t morally side with him. In Clair Obscur, I felt I could've easily picked either side. Why would Maelle want to return to her life as Alicia, where she is mute and scarred living with a chaotic family that rarely supports her while she searches for the love of her brother? Meanwhile, Verso pleads to be taken out of his misery, for his cycle of immortality to end at the will of his family, so he can finally rest. I grew to love both these characters over the 45 hour run. The thought of fighting the other was off-putting; I didn’t want either to suffer. It was a sign of good character writing – even though it was impossible, I wanted both sides to win.

In the end, I stuck with the same choice I made in P5R. I chose reality, throwing away my cherished comrades to return to a family who may or may not love me. I couldn’t watch Verso suffer any longer. And yet, I was still disappointed by the conclusion. At the funeral, no one acted like they were going to try to make a change. I wasn’t expecting them to move on (how could you move on completely from the loss of a brother or son?), but I still wanted Alicia or someone in the family to show a sign of hope, that they were going to continue to try to live their lives. In the end, all they did was cry. The credits rolled. I was upset. This isn’t a good ending. Was Maelle’s the “good” ending I was actually hoping for against my best judgement?

I went back and played Maelle’s ending to see if I had made the wrong choice out of curiosity. In my opinion, her ending is an actual nightmare. Everyone remains in the Canvas knowing it is a lie and, while the Expeditioners return to their happy lives, Maelle continues to exist knowing that nothing is real, knowing she is forcing Verso to carry on with his tortured life despite begging her to let him go, knowing that she abandoned her family to become the god of a Canvas to entrap her brother’s soul. I hated it. I wanted out of it immediately. While Verso’s ending felt tragic, Maelle’s felt cruel and punishing. There was no hope at the end of either which wrung my soul dry. But in the end, I think that was the point.

Unlike P5R, there are no right choices in Clair Obscur. There are no right ways to deal with grief, no correct paths to overcoming death. This game makes you sit with that sorrow intimately in both of its endings. I wasn’t happy at the end of Clair Obscur but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be.  It was a great game. The melancholy is a refreshing twist compared to other games I played recently. It is grounded in reality and strong writing. I hope more people give the game a try, even if all they hear about it is grief. The “grey” ending leaves a strong impact and it will be an experience you will remember for a very long time.