Clair Obscur: Uncovering Ancient Mysteries with Modern Technology

Sandfall Interactive’s founder and creative director shared important details about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Read on to learn more details about its historical influences and gameplay innovations.

Real-world Influences and Gameplay Innovation

Inspiration Behind the Name and Narrative

Sandfall Interactive’s founder and creative director, Guillaume Broche, gave some insight into the real-world influences on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s title and narrative on July 29.

The first part of the game’s title is quite intriguing. Broche mentioned that "Clair Obscur refers to the real-world artistic and cultural movement in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He also shared, “it influenced the game’s artistic direction, and also refers to the overarching world of the game."

The meaning behind Expedition 33 is pretty straightforward. "Expedition 33 reflects the Expedition group led by the protagonist Gustave to destroy the Paintress," wherein a new expedition was sent out each year to accomplish this goal. The Paintress in this game paints a particular number on her monolith to erase everyone from that age, which Broche refers to "as the Gommage." The reveal trailer showed the main protagonist's partner dying after the Paintress painted the number 33, referring to her current age.

Broche also shared that La Horde du Contrevent inspired the game’s narrative. He described it as "a fantasy novel about a group of explorers traveling the world." "In general, stories about venturing into the unknown despite incredible risks, like the anime/manga Attack on Titan, have always been very appealing to me."

Innovating Classic Turn-based RPG

Moving forward, Broche discussed the significance of graphics in this game. "There hasn’t really been any attempt at making a turn-based RPG with high-fidelity graphics for a good while,” he said. “That left a deep hole in my gamer heart. We took it upon ourselves to make something to fill that void."

Though there were real-time turn-based RPGs in the past, like Valkyria Chronicles and Project X Zone, the game took it a step further by introducing the reactive turn-based battle system. Broche stated, "You can take time during battles to establish your strategies, but during the enemy’s turn, you will have to react in real-time to dodge, jump, or parry enemies to trigger a powerful counterattack."
Broche also revealed the inspiration behind reinventing classic turn-based RPGs. "We were inspired by action games like the Souls series, Devil May Cry, NieR, and their rewarding gameplay was something we wanted to bring into a turn-based setting."

Looking Forward

Broche provided important details about the game, providing tidbits about its lore and narrative through real-world influences. Meanwhile, the use of high-fidelity graphics and the introduction of the reactive battle system will provide players with a new twist when battling enemies. Aside from safely planning your actions between turns, you must also react to enemy attacks in real-time.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set to release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC by 2025. Though the release date is far from the horizon, Broche left a message to future players. "We’re glad to see so many fans are excited for the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33! As our first tile, we’re thrilled with the reception we’ve seen so far, and we can’t wait to show more in the lead-up to launch next year."