Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is Sekiro Meets Belle Époque Meets JRPG

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an exciting upcoming game that draws inspiration from various sources, particularly paying homage to the rich heritage of JRPGs. This article delves into the game's inspirations and highlights the first character trailer reveal.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Ramping Up Towards Its Release

Building the Heritage of JRPGs

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an eagerly anticipated turn-based RPG that incorporates unique real-time mechanics, promising a more immersive and interactive experience for players. The game's core is deeply rooted in the traditions of classic JRPGs, with particular nods to the Final Fantasy series due to its mechanics and thematic elements. During the 2025 Game Developers Conference, GamesRadar+ had the opportunity to speak with Expedition 33's Producer, François Meurisse, who shed light on the game's inspirations.

Meurisse revealed that the game draws heavily from Final Fantasy titles, specifically Final Fantasy 10 and the earlier PlayStation games like Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9. "Those are big childhood games for Guillaume [Broche], our game director," he noted. "He wanted to capture the feeling he imagined would have remained in modern Final Fantasy-like games, if they had kept doing turn-based stuff. But he also mixed in lots of different inspirations. Definitely, Final Fantasy and JRPGs are the preeminent gameplay heritage we have."

While the gameplay is heavily inspired by JRPGs, Meurisse emphasized the team's desire to create a unique game with its own artistic identity. 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 an art direction that was based on our own influence. That's how we came up with this early 20th century Belle Époque inspiration with art deco elements mixed with high fantasy. We had a few iterations on that to try to find our own uniqueness in the art, but it really helped us to build our own difference."

Other Inspirations

In addition to JRPGs, Expedition 33 also takes 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."

Furthermore, the game incorporates mechanics from deckbuilding games into 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 weapons. In the overworld, he can be seen traversing around and jumping from one point to another. 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 in the game.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 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!