Game of the Year winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a gorgeous homage to classic JRPGs with the studio even managing to make its final boss ridiculously underpowered if players engage in all of its side content.
Specifically inspired by Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has caught the attention of many developers that originally inspired it.
In an interview with GamerBraves, Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi, who worked on Final Fantasy XII XIII and others, praised Clair Obscur developer Sandfall Interactive for its dedication to providing a “diverse” game experience within the turn-based RPG genre.
In the video interview, around 14-minutes in, Hamaguchi explains that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake team “have a very good relation” with the team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 saying they have a “mutually respectful relationship”.
“When I talked with them, a very interesting story came up,” the director said. “He [game director Guillaume Broche] started in Ubi[soft], so when he was in Ubi[soft] and the development budget got bigger, he thought to himself how he could make something more unique but with a maybe smaller, more compact budget or team.”
“It is not A or B, it’s A and B, and it’s important that people have that choice.”
Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi
Hamaguchi explains that the game’s success has caused a shift in “public opinion” with many gamers saying “AA games are better than AAA games” or “action games are better than turn-based games”. However, the director believes that the true positive of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is that it proves diversity of genre, scale and more can still exist in the modern games industry.
“When you go into the either/or [of] these simple choices, you make one choice, you get rid of the other,” he explained. “You shouldn’t make decisions like that, tossing out one for the other and saying one is better than the other, just giving an ultimatum.
“When we [myself and Guillaume] were talking, we were like games are meant to be diverse. So, rather than saying Clair Obscur or Final Fantasy, why not Clair Obscur and Final Fantasy? Both action games and turn-based games should evolve for the better and between the two of us, we were discussing this feeling is something we really need to get out to the fans.”
Hamaguchi explained that himself and Guillaume have decided that it’s not about simply telling fans what is better, but by “doing and making these games” so that people realise both options are not only viable, but fantastic in their own ways.
“It is not A or B, it’s A and B, and it’s important that people have that choice,” the director said.
While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a fantastic turn-based RPG, there’s no guarantee that Sandfall will make another turn-based RPG for its next title.
“We want to make stories like an art house, making crazy projects because we want to make them, and that’s the philosophy we want to stick by – especially now because we have so much attention and so much love from the players,” the game’s director told PCGamesN last year. “We really don’t want to betray that and just do stupid stuff. We know now how to make games that are good with a smaller team and a really strong vision, and that’s what we want to do again.”
