Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Interview - Celebrating turn-based games and classic RPG influences in making something new
Every year, RPG Site does both a staff vote and a reader poll in selecting our most anticipated games of the year. By nature, usually, these are games from fan-favorite franchises or games from well-respected developers. Very rarely do debut games from new studios make the list, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 managed to chart on both. From a debut trailer that made us go "wow what is that?" to an exceptionally positive preview, this RPG is one of the most interesting this year.
At GDC 2025, RPG Site had a chance to sit down with Sandfall Interactive producer Francois Meurisse to discuss one of the most anticipated RPGs of the year, as well as the combination of French influences & Japanese inspirations.
RPG Site: First, can you introduce yourself and the game, generally?
Francois Meurisse: I'm Francois Meurisse. I'm a co-founder of Sandfall Interactive, and I'm the producer of Expedition 33. Expedition 33 is a reactive, turn-based RPG, set to release on April 24 on Xbox, PS5, and Steam. It is the first game for Sandfall Interactive; we are a team of about 30 people based in France.
Francois Meurisse: I'm Francois Meurisse. I'm a co-founder of Sandfall Interactive, and I'm the producer of Expedition 33. Expedition 33 is a reactive, turn-based RPG, set to release on April 24 on Xbox, PS5, and Steam. It is the first game for Sandfall Interactive; we are a team of about 30 people based in France.
RPG Site: Previews for this game just recently came out. What's your takeaway from the response so far? It seemed to me that many of the previews were glowing and positive.
Francois Meurisse: It's definitely reassuring, you know. Especially when we are so close to launch - it's great news to see. It's a significant part of the game, and you cannot cheat a preview, because it's basically a part of the final game. The feedback has been super positive. It's really given us one final adrenaline shot to, you know, to polish the game the most we can for release.
Francois Meurisse: It's definitely reassuring, you know. Especially when we are so close to launch - it's great news to see. It's a significant part of the game, and you cannot cheat a preview, because it's basically a part of the final game. The feedback has been super positive. It's really given us one final adrenaline shot to, you know, to polish the game the most we can for release.
RPG Site: When you started making this game, were you expecting anywhere close to this level of anticipation for it?
Francois Meurisse: The story behind it is, at first, that it was a solo project from Guillaume Broche, our game director. In early 2019, he was working at another company that was more on the producing and creative side, and he wasn't even a dev in the first place. So in early 2019, he opened Unreal Engine and tried to learn how it works. He saved the file name, like, Sample.uproject, and that's actually the same file that the game will ship on.
At that time, he wasn't expecting anything to become like what it eventually became. But after spending some time working on it, more people came to work together on the project, which became a team and a company. It grew bigger and bigger. When Guillaume told me about the project in 2020, I was expecting a release a year after, with a team of maybe five people. It's quite a fun story, how the project became a huge project for a new studio, but the vision was quite clear still from early on. We're really grateful, super happy, and proud to see what it has become today.
Francois Meurisse: The story behind it is, at first, that it was a solo project from Guillaume Broche, our game director. In early 2019, he was working at another company that was more on the producing and creative side, and he wasn't even a dev in the first place. So in early 2019, he opened Unreal Engine and tried to learn how it works. He saved the file name, like, Sample.uproject, and that's actually the same file that the game will ship on.
At that time, he wasn't expecting anything to become like what it eventually became. But after spending some time working on it, more people came to work together on the project, which became a team and a company. It grew bigger and bigger. When Guillaume told me about the project in 2020, I was expecting a release a year after, with a team of maybe five people. It's quite a fun story, how the project became a huge project for a new studio, but the vision was quite clear still from early on. We're really grateful, super happy, and proud to see what it has become today.
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RPG Site: You have probably gotten this question before, but can you explain what the term 'Clair Obscur' means? I think a lot of people might not realize the connotation and find it simply foreign.
Francois Meurisse: I mean, day to day, we call the game 'Expedition 33', which is quite...
RPG Site: I think that's very evocative.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, evocative. Clair Obscur is the name for the bigger IP, because we've already imagined a linked universe, maybe a later game. Clair Obscur itself is a reference to a painting technique in Italy, chiaroscuro, which is a way to paint with contrast between light and dark. Of course, this has a deeper meaning in the story of the game and maybe future games as well.
Francois Meurisse: I mean, day to day, we call the game 'Expedition 33', which is quite...
RPG Site: I think that's very evocative.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, evocative. Clair Obscur is the name for the bigger IP, because we've already imagined a linked universe, maybe a later game. Clair Obscur itself is a reference to a painting technique in Italy, chiaroscuro, which is a way to paint with contrast between light and dark. Of course, this has a deeper meaning in the story of the game and maybe future games as well.
RPG Site: The battle system seems to be a turn-based system with some real-time elements to it. Can you broadly explain the philosophy behind designing your battle system in this way? Also, can you adjust those reactivity settings in terms of accessibility?
Francois Meurisse: First, the game has a strong JRPG gameplay inspiration. It was conceived as a turn-based game from the beginning, influenced by Final Fantasy VIII, IX, and X in particular. Around the first iteration of the game, the game director was playing Sekiro at the same time, and he thought that the feeling of dodges and parries felt so good in From Software games, that's when we started to implement a more reactive, turn-based system in our own game. It has become a core component, especially to the defense system of the gameplay, and we began iterating on that to find the right balance. One thing that can be frustrating in classic full turn-based games is that when it's your turn for defense, you usually cannot do anything and just take damage.
There are many different builds, too. I'm not talking about settings, but like, core gameplay builds. You can build your character, for example, if you're bad at parrying but good at dodges, you can build your characters and your equipment, to have loads of bonuses linked to the parrying, dodges, or even to other kinds of capabilities. So yeah, with equipment, skills, and even the characters you prefer, you can fit your own play style.
Plus there are some settings. There are three difficulty settings in the game. You can also disable the attack QTEs if you want. With both the game settings and how you build your characters, every kind of player should be able to find their way.
Francois Meurisse: First, the game has a strong JRPG gameplay inspiration. It was conceived as a turn-based game from the beginning, influenced by Final Fantasy VIII, IX, and X in particular. Around the first iteration of the game, the game director was playing Sekiro at the same time, and he thought that the feeling of dodges and parries felt so good in From Software games, that's when we started to implement a more reactive, turn-based system in our own game. It has become a core component, especially to the defense system of the gameplay, and we began iterating on that to find the right balance. One thing that can be frustrating in classic full turn-based games is that when it's your turn for defense, you usually cannot do anything and just take damage.
There are many different builds, too. I'm not talking about settings, but like, core gameplay builds. You can build your character, for example, if you're bad at parrying but good at dodges, you can build your characters and your equipment, to have loads of bonuses linked to the parrying, dodges, or even to other kinds of capabilities. So yeah, with equipment, skills, and even the characters you prefer, you can fit your own play style.
Plus there are some settings. There are three difficulty settings in the game. You can also disable the attack QTEs if you want. With both the game settings and how you build your characters, every kind of player should be able to find their way.
RPG Site: One of our writers is curious, are you doing anything with the PlayStation 5 haptics on the controller at all?
Francois Meurisse: No, it's not planned yet.
Francois Meurisse: No, it's not planned yet.
RPG Site: I'm going to assume you're an RPG fan. Do you have a favorite RPG that you're fond of, that's an inspiration to you?
Francois Meurisse: I can answer both for myself and for Guillaume, the game director who is the original vision for this project. It's funny, because we don't have the same inspirations at all, nor the same references. So for example, when he came up with the reactive turn-based stuff, I was like, "Okay, you have to try Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door." It has these kinds of dodge-timing sequences, and it is actually one of my favorite games. And I'm a big fan of older RPGs as well. Chrono Trigger of course is one of my all-time favorites. I love Earthbound as well, and more recent indie ones like Undertale and stuff like that.
But for the game director, he grew up with Final Fantasy games, you know. I think his favorite is Final Fantasy VIII. When I came on the project, he gave me two games to catch up: Final Fantasy X and Persona 5. I loved both of them. Definitely, I think Final Fantasy X is a masterpiece and a big inspiration for us, specifically on the party, pacing, narrative, and stuff like that, and Persona 5 is a big inspiration for the UI and how dynamic the battles are; you don't get bored playing Persona because it's fast and fun.
Francois Meurisse: I can answer both for myself and for Guillaume, the game director who is the original vision for this project. It's funny, because we don't have the same inspirations at all, nor the same references. So for example, when he came up with the reactive turn-based stuff, I was like, "Okay, you have to try Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door." It has these kinds of dodge-timing sequences, and it is actually one of my favorite games. And I'm a big fan of older RPGs as well. Chrono Trigger of course is one of my all-time favorites. I love Earthbound as well, and more recent indie ones like Undertale and stuff like that.
But for the game director, he grew up with Final Fantasy games, you know. I think his favorite is Final Fantasy VIII. When I came on the project, he gave me two games to catch up: Final Fantasy X and Persona 5. I loved both of them. Definitely, I think Final Fantasy X is a masterpiece and a big inspiration for us, specifically on the party, pacing, narrative, and stuff like that, and Persona 5 is a big inspiration for the UI and how dynamic the battles are; you don't get bored playing Persona because it's fast and fun.
RPG Site: Are there plans to make the game Steam Deck Compatible at launch?
Francois Meurisse: We're working on it. I can't promise it for launch, but we're working on it.
RPG Site: The preview build that media played recently - is that going to be available as a demo publicly any time soon?
Francois Meurisse: It's not planned for the moment, not yet. There are still some discussions.
RPG Site: Maybe later?
Francois Meurisse: Maybe.
Francois Meurisse: We're working on it. I can't promise it for launch, but we're working on it.
RPG Site: The preview build that media played recently - is that going to be available as a demo publicly any time soon?
Francois Meurisse: It's not planned for the moment, not yet. There are still some discussions.
RPG Site: Maybe later?
Francois Meurisse: Maybe.
RPG Site: We cover RPGs all across the spectrum, of course, right? Japanese RPGs, western RPGs, I like all of them, and it's cool to see this combination of French influences and Japanese inspirations together.
Francois Meurisse: I was in Japan two weeks ago, and I was really pleased to see that we have some interest there too - from the press and some interviews. We'll have a physical release in Japan as well, with Sega on that one.
RPG Site: That has to feel incredible to be inspired by Persona, and then have Sega publishing your game in the region.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, exactly. It feels really good to release in Japan and have a physical version.
Francois Meurisse: I was in Japan two weeks ago, and I was really pleased to see that we have some interest there too - from the press and some interviews. We'll have a physical release in Japan as well, with Sega on that one.
RPG Site: That has to feel incredible to be inspired by Persona, and then have Sega publishing your game in the region.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, exactly. It feels really good to release in Japan and have a physical version.
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RPG Site: Voice languages. It has French and English?
Francois Meurisse: Yeah.
RPG Site: No Japanese?
Francois Meurisse: No. Also, the lip sync is based on the English audio.
RPG Site: I think it's cool that you were able to have both English and French voices. I've played some French RPGs that only include English audio. Even games like Steelrising, an RPG set in France and developed by a French studio, didn't have a French language option. Even coming from a French developer, that's not always given. So I think it's cool you were able to do that.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, it was important for us to include French dubbing, given the setting of the game and the origin of the studio.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah.
RPG Site: No Japanese?
Francois Meurisse: No. Also, the lip sync is based on the English audio.
RPG Site: I think it's cool that you were able to have both English and French voices. I've played some French RPGs that only include English audio. Even games like Steelrising, an RPG set in France and developed by a French studio, didn't have a French language option. Even coming from a French developer, that's not always given. So I think it's cool you were able to do that.
Francois Meurisse: Yeah, it was important for us to include French dubbing, given the setting of the game and the origin of the studio.
RPG Site: How is it like working with publisher Kepler Interactive?
Francois Meurisse: We have very strong mutual trust. They've really believed in the game from the very beginning. The trust is there; they're easy to work with. We participate together in every big decision, even if it's not a contract requirement. So, we work on mutual trust and collaboration.
Francois Meurisse: We have very strong mutual trust. They've really believed in the game from the very beginning. The trust is there; they're easy to work with. We participate together in every big decision, even if it's not a contract requirement. So, we work on mutual trust and collaboration.
RPG Site: After the game ships next month. What are your plans for future support? Any plans for DLC? Preparing for updates based on feedback or bugs?
Francois Meurisse: It's a bit too early to tell. We have an internal roadmap ready to set aside some additional time to do some extra polish if we can.
RPG Site: Right now you're working towards shipping the game in the final stretch.
Francois Meurisse: Exactly, we're focusing on the final stretch right now, but we already have really exciting ideas about the next game.
RPG Site: Oh, next you're already thinking about the next game.
Francois Meurisse: Indeed.
RPG Site: Thank you so much for your time.
Francois Meurisse: It's a bit too early to tell. We have an internal roadmap ready to set aside some additional time to do some extra polish if we can.
RPG Site: Right now you're working towards shipping the game in the final stretch.
Francois Meurisse: Exactly, we're focusing on the final stretch right now, but we already have really exciting ideas about the next game.
RPG Site: Oh, next you're already thinking about the next game.
Francois Meurisse: Indeed.
RPG Site: Thank you so much for your time.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is set to release on April 24 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).