As the most award-winning video game of 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is now an industry darling. While its own devs didn’t expect the turn-based RPG to be this beloved, Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino explains that it succeeds because it’s completely unafraid of what it is.
Hashino is such a big fan of Sandfall’s debut RPG that the director has arranged a Steam bundle that combines both Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and his latest JRPG Metaphor: Refantazio. Available right now, the bundle pairs the two games together with a handy 10% overall discount for anyone who hasn’t picked them up yet.
In a press release sent to journalist, Hashino expressed his love for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, although this is not the first time the iconic JRPG developer has proclaimed his adoration of the French turn-based adventure.
“I am very pleased to hear that a Steam bundle will be released with Expedition 33, a title that has received high praise around the world,” he said. “Expedition 33 is a work that conveys a deep understanding of and sincere dedication to the JRPG genre, crafted with great care down to the finest details. As someone who also creates RPGs, I found it to be truly inspiring.”
While JRPGs used to be largely criticised by Western audiences in the mid-2000s to mid-2010s, Hoshino is pleased to see the genre finally expand outside of Japan. “I am genuinely delighted to see Japanese-style RPGs being born and embraced, not only from Japanese-based studios like ours, but other places around the world through diverse creative approaches,” he said.
The release of this bundle comes almost exactly two months after the Persona 5 director started playing Sandfall’s game. In a (paywalled) interview with Game Informer, Hashino revealed that the developers gave him a copy of the game and, even in the title’s early hours, they “noticed there’s a lot of careful love that’s gone into it. It’s very well made and crafted very deeply.”
With Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 now finished, although a Nintendo Switch 2 port is seemingly on the way, Sandfall is already getting set to work on their next title. Right now, nothing has been revealed about the upcoming title, but the team has teased that it may not be another turn-based RPG.
On the Persona side, Hoshino is currently working on both the remake of Persona 4 as well as the very secretive Persona 6. No release date has been confirmed for either title.
