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!)
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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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