Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is drenched in Frenchness. The entirety of Sandfall’s turn-based RPG is constructed around the Belle Époque period of French history with a gorgeous aesthetic barely touched in video games.
With the game’s aesthetic so clearly rooted in the history of France, Sandfal Interactive’s lead programmer Tom Guillermin explains a lot of the game’s unique “Frenchness”, as they put it, was not entirely planned.
Talking to Polygon, the team explained that the game’s inclusion of red berets, mimes and baguette costumes came late into development with COO and producer Francois Meurisse explaining that the game’s “over the top” nature of its aesthetic was a late addition after fans were “even p*ssed” at the lack of a French language dub before release.
“Actually, we went really over the top, but in an unexpected way,” they explained with the game’s historic Baguette Trailer confirming the French dub showing the main cast in their baguette costumes in a “kind of self-joking way”.
“And this wasn’t even planned to be in the game at first,” they continued. “It was just really a joke when we’re discussing specific marketing,” later adding that “it would be harder to embrace out Frenchness even more.”
Meurisse added that the only real way to up their game would be to “put snails and frogs everywhere in the next game”.
But why is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 so unapologically French? Well, not only are the team French, but their proximity to some of the country’s most infamous locales made referencing real-life art way easier for a small team that didn’t have much of a travel budget.
“We wanted it to be in a French setting because there were some proximity with those references, obviously,” Meurisse told the outlet, adding that the artists working on the game were “pretty free about the references that they wanted to use”.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has an open heart towards its “Frenchness” in a way that’s only really seen in games coming out of Japan. There’s an unapologetic love of the culture—a gorgeous culture—and it’s not only heart-warming to see, but also impressive to behold in the beautiful final product.
