Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is inspired by different titles, particularly paying homage to JRPGs. Read to learn more about where the game is inspired and its first character trailer reveal.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Ramping Up Towards Its Release
Building the Heritage of JRPGs
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an upcoming turn-based RPG with unique real-time mechanics that promises to give more immersion and interaction to players. At its core, the game may be reminiscent of classic JRPGs, particularly Final Fantasy games due to its mechanics and themes from which developers have drawn inspiration. During the 2025 Game Developers Conference, GamesRadar+ spoke with Expedition 33 Producer François Meurisse who talked about where the game is inspired from.
According to Meurisse, Final Fantasy 10 and earlier ones on PlayStation like Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 were some of the games that influenced Expedition 33. "Those are big childhood games for Guillaume [Broche], our game director," he said. "He wanted to have like kind of feeling that he imagined would have remained in modern Final Fantasy-like games, if they had kept doing turn-based stuff. But he mixed also lots of different inspirations. Definitely Final Fantasy and JRPGs are the preeminent gameplay heritage we have."
Although the gameplay is heavily inspired by JRPGs, Meurisse emphasized that they wanted to create their own game with their own art inspiration. He explained, "On the art style in particular, we didn't want to mimic Japanese games, making more stylized manga-like or anime-like graphics. We wanted to make some art direction that was based on our own influence. That's how we came up to do this early 20th century Belle Époque inspiration with art deco elements mixed with high fantasy. We had a few iteration on that to try to find our own uniqueness in the art, but it really helped us to build our own difference."
Other Inspirations
Other than JRPGs, Expedition 33 also draws inspiration from souls-like games, particularly Sekiro for its defense mechanics. Meurisse stated, "The defense system is more inspired by Sekiro and From Software games. It has this kind of rhythm element and a more real-time component in it. More skill-based."
Aside from that, the game also incorporates mechanics from deckbuilding games for its battle sequences. Meurisse elaborated, "For example, the idea of having action points for skills in the battles is more inspired by deckbuilding games than having the usual like magic points scores or mana in RPGs."
First Character Trailer
As the game is ramping up towards its release, Expedition 33 will introduce characters weekly. Expedition 33’s official Twitter (X) account posted on March 13 a trailer that revealed Gustave, the resourceful and dedicated engineer from Lumière. He looks to be the one to lead Expedition 33 to finish off the Paintress so she can never paint death again.
According to the trailer, Gustave wields a sword and pistol as his primary combat weapon. In the overworld, he can be seen traversing around and jumping from one point to the other. Based on the combat clips shown, Gustave deals massive damage to enemies and has multiple skills in his arsenal. However, the developers have yet to confirm anything regarding character roles and related mechanics to the game.
Clair Obscur: Expedition is set to release on April 24, 2025 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, click on our article below!
Source:
Expedition 33 Producer GamesRadar+ Interview
Expedition 33 Gustave Character Trailer
