While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has joined the likes of Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona in showing that games big on turn-based JRPG vibes can shift copies, its creative director feels "the prejudice against turn-based RPGs isn’t completely gone."
Speaking to Automaton, creative director Guillaume Broche and lead programmer Tom Guillermin reflect on creating a turn-based game in an age where the developers behind many of their influences have since moved on to action-based games to chase new crowds.
"I could talk about the prejudice forever (laughs)," Broche says. "Personally speaking, I think Japanese turn-based RPGs were super popular up until the Xbox 360 era. But around the time open-world games started getting more popular through gaming media, [JRPGs] started being considered 'uncool.'"
Broche then acknowledges that Clair Obscur isn't the only game fighting in the corner of turn-based JRPGs – Persona, among a few others, have been holding it down for a while now. Still, despite the success, turn-based games have a ways to go before they're truly back, per se.
"While they do still sell a large number of copies, with the Persona series as a prime example, I feel like the prejudice against turn-based RPGs isn't completely gone," he says.
Some of that is notable in Broche's own inspirations. He hasn't been shy in gushing over Final Fantasy 8, but it's notable how much the FF series has changed gameplay-wise over the years. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake project retains some active turn-based charm, though Final Fantasy 16 goes all-in on action.
Indeed, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has its own action game elements, too, though Broche insists it isn't because of the "uncool" JRPG. "It's not like we added the parry system and built such a narrative experience because we wanted to avoid our game facing prejudice," he says. "We just did it because we wanted to do it."
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