A former Epic Games and Capcom engineer is responsible for a key Unreal Engine plugin called 'Kawaii Physics' that's been used in lots of big name games, and he was recently very pleased to find out that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, one of the year's biggest and best games, was also made with the power of kawaii.
Independent game dev Kazuya 'Okazu' Okada's open-source physics plugin for Unreal Engine might sound cute, but it's helped many teams simulate the bouncy movement needed to really sell anime-style animation, from the way hair sways in the wind to the way fabric flaps during movement.
Kawaii Physics has been used in everything from Tekken 8 and Persona to Stellar Blade, but one of the more notable case studies has been this year's French RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which borrows more than a few ideas from prominent Japanese classics. (Thanks, Automaton!)
Okada recently spotted that developer Sandfall Interactive seemingly used his plugin to bring its debut game to life, despite it dropping months ago, thanks to a CEDEC 2025 presentation called "Technical choices and challenges to support a wide scope with a programming team of 4 and Unreal Engine," which lists Kawaii Physics next to some other tools.
"It looks like Clair Obscur Expedition 33 uses KawaiiPhysics! Thank you so much!!!" Okada recently tweeted alongside a screenshot of the presentation.
The Sandfall Interactive folks are in Japan for more than just the tech conference, though. The studio's leadership recently took a tour of Hideo Kojima's offices, before venturing out to meet Square Enix talent, including Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi.
Here are the best JRPGs if you want some more turn-based goodness.
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