"I didn't expect them to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16": Clair Obscur Expedition 33's Ben Starr thought "being an idiot with Balatro" would be his biggest role of 2025, not Sandfall's surprise-hit RPG

We were all a bit blindsided by the sheer success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It always looked like a great game, but to be zeitgeist-defining the way it was in 2025 took us all a bit by surprise. That includes those involved, as voice actor Ben Starr didn't expect the J'RPG to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16.

In the Game Maker's Toolkit Podcast with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Starr recalled how he thought 2025 was going to "be the year of me dressing up as a clown at the BAFTAs," but the acclaimed RPG changed his trajectory. "That's what I thought was going to be my biggest contribution to the gaming landscape, was me being an idiot with Balatro," he recalled, laughing.

"I thought I was just going to be in some really cool games. Date Everything!, Hades 2, these are indie games, I'm not in AAA video games," he says. "So I didn't expect them to have the same impact as Final Fantasy 16 had, because that's a AAA game."

Ben Starr on Acting and the State of the Games Industry | Game Maker's Notebook Podcast - YouTube

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But "the fact they had the significant impact they did" speaks "greatly to what the landscape of 2025 was." True enough, between Hades 2 and Clair Obscur, Starr was in two of the biggest, most beloved games of the whole year, the latter setting records in The Game Awards and for Game of the Year awards industry-wide.

There was some buzz and expectation for the second Hades, as Supermassive Games tends not to miss, but Expedition 33 truly was a juggernaut. Soon after release, it became clear it was striking a chord with players searching for a particular kind of role-playing game, and Starr is absolutely correct that it managed to rival the fervour of a new Final Fantasy.

We could split hairs here in that Expedition 33 is a bit larger scale than your average indie game, but publisher Kepler Interactive definitely doesn't have the reach and publicity power of Square Enix. The reaction was organic, and it continues to ripple because people are still finding and loving the game.

I'm not sure Marathon is going to have the same momentum for Starr. But maybe Fallen Fates will, whenever it arrives.

"How wrong I was" – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Ben Starr told friends to keep expectations "in check" before the RPG's launch because "this isn't going to be a smash hit"