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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, and the RPG's creative director says that when it came to the finale, he wanted to give players "an impossible choice."
Be warned, huge spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and its ending lie ahead – feel free to bookmark this for later if you haven't rolled credits yet!
Once you get to the end of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you're given a big choice – one that, depending on what path you take, will give you a very different ending. Whether you side with the wishes of the painted version of Verso and allow the Dessendre family to face the reality of their grief together, or allow Maelle to stay in the fantasy world of the canvas, neither is a jolly conclusion. Speaking in an interview with YouTube creator Abhi "Behind The Voice" Jha (below), creative director Guillaume Broche reveals that both of these endings were written "at the same time."
He continues, unsurprisingly noting after creating an emotionally devastating RPG that "I like really sad stories," before adding: "So I know I didn't want any to be really really good, in a way, like you have some pros and cons in both."
The different epilogues that play out after this painful choice notably feature no dialogue, which was also a creative choice made by the team. "The fact that there is no dialogue also leaves a lot open to interpretation, and people can project what they want on the ending, and I think it's something that is really, really important," Broche explains. "But also it's something that we can only do in games, like to give a choice to the player, and it was really crucial for us to… It's an impossible choice, basically, like so complicated, there are so many layers of good and bad in both endings."
Broche also believes that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's ending allows players "to finally take things in their own hands," as it "offers them the possibility to choose how to conclude the story, you know, which is an impossible story. People who are so messed up by grief and a ton of other things that they take very wrong decisions for very good reasons."
Speaking further about the idea to include the voiceless finales, Broche adds: "It's rare in video games that you try to transmit every emotion through the acting, the music, the cinematography rather than dialogue. Especially the ending. I think it was a very bold move that could have gone completely wrong. I'm happy it did not."
