To skip a cutscene in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 you first pause it by pressing a face button, which brings up Continue and Skip options, then hold the button shown next to Skip until the bar fills. Player guides give the default keys as F to pause and a held Escape to skip on PC, or A or X to pause and a held Menu or Options button on a controller. There is no single-press skip and no setting that skips every scene automatically. This guide covers the two-step input on PC and console, the ending credits, how to pause a scene without skipping it, what happens to cutscenes when you retry a boss, and the dialogue and retry options that patches have added since launch.
The two-step skip
The game never tells you this, which is why “can you skip cutscenes” was one of the most asked questions in the launch week. During a cinematic, press a face button: player reports and third-party guides name A on an Xbox controller, X on a DualSense, and F (the interact key) on keyboard, but in practice any main button pauses the scene. The pause overlay shows Continue and Skip, with the skip bound to a button shown in the corner of the screen.
Hold that button rather than tapping it. The skip is a hold-to-confirm so an accidental press mid-scene cannot throw away a story beat. On keyboard the hold key is Escape per player guides, and on a controller it is the Menu or Options button, but read the prompt on your own screen, because patch 1.5.0 added controller remapping and your layout may differ. Once the bar fills, the game jumps to the end of the scene and play resumes.
If the overlay does not appear, you are probably in a real-time dialogue exchange rather than a cinematic. Those are advanced line by line with the confirm button, and the autoplay option below handles them.
How to pause a cutscene without skipping
The same first press is also the pause. Press a face button, leave the overlay on Continue, and the scene waits for you. This is the answer if you need to step away mid-scene, and it also drives Photo Mode: since the Thank You Update, Photo Mode opens from the pause menu at any time, including during cutscenes, per the official patch notes. The developers’ Photo Mode blog made a point of cutscene access being on purpose, so a paused cinematic is the intended place to grab a screenshot of a facial expression.
Cutscenes and boss retries
The reason most players want the skip is a boss that starts with a cinematic. Two changes since launch make that far less painful. Patch 1.4.0 in July 2025 added a Battle Retry prompt after any defeat, so you restart the fight directly rather than reloading a save and walking back in. Patch 1.5.0 in December 2025 added Abandon Battle in the pause menu, which you can now open mid-fight, for the case where you want to change Pictos and Luminas before trying again.
Early player reports at launch said some major boss cinematics had to be watched once before the skip appeared on later attempts. We could not confirm that against any official source, and the retry prompt now drops you back into the fight in any case, so treat it as a launch-era quirk rather than a rule. If a pre-boss scene does play again, the two-step skip works on it. For the fight itself, our guides to parrying and dodging are where the retries stop.
Speeding up dialogue outside cutscenes
There is still no global skip setting for cinematics as of patch 1.5.6 (June 2026), the latest update at the time of writing, but dialogue got one. Patch 1.4.0 added Autoplay Dialogue, an optional setting that advances conversations outside cutscenes on its own; you can toggle it in Settings and during a dialogue. Combined with the hold-to-skip on cinematics, a second playthrough or a New Game Plus run moves quickly. The same patch also split the volume sliders for exploration and combat, and patch 1.5.0 added a HUD Scale setting from 80 to 120 percent, both worth a look if you are tuning the game for a replay.
Skipping the ending credits
The ending credits are a proper rolling sequence that Sandfall has revised in several patches (1.2.3, 1.3.0 and, most recently, 1.5.6, which added the Arabic localization team). We have not found an official statement on whether they can be skipped. Player guides say the same two-step input applies: press the pause button during the credits, then hold the skip button if the prompt appears. If no Skip prompt shows up, the credits play through to the end.
If you are hurrying toward the post-game or New Game Plus, the credits are the last stretch between you and it. Our saving guide explains how the game saves, and why resting at an Expedition Flag before the final fight is the habit to keep.
Should you skip at all
On a first run, we would not. The story is the reason the game won the awards it did, and the cutscenes carry reveals that recontextualise the combat. The acts and length guide gives a sense of how much of the runtime is story. On a repeat run, skip freely: nothing is gated behind watching a scene twice, and the hold-to-skip is fast once you know it exists. For more on the game, browse the Expedition 33 hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I skip cutscenes in Expedition 33? Press a face button to pause the scene, then hold the button shown next to Skip until the bar fills. It is a hold, not a tap.
Can I skip all cutscenes automatically? No. There is no global cutscene skip setting as of patch 1.5.6. Autoplay Dialogue, added in patch 1.4.0, only covers conversations outside cutscenes.
Can I pause a cutscene? Yes. The same first press pauses it; leave the overlay on Continue. Photo Mode can be opened from the pause menu during a cutscene.
Do I have to rewatch a boss cutscene after losing? Battle Retry, added in patch 1.4.0, restarts the fight directly after a defeat. If a scene does replay, the two-step skip works on it.
Can you skip the ending credits in Expedition 33? There is no official statement. Player guides say the same pause-then-hold input works on the credits; if no Skip prompt appears, they play through.