It's been said on several occasions that the JRPG-inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been inspired by the genre's finest – Final Fantasy, Persona, you name it. However, creative director Guillaume Broche has revealed some of the game's more lesser-known inspirations, and one of them essentially validates a theory I had about the game's combat.
Speaking to DenfaminicoGamer, Broche reaffirms his love of greats like Final Fantasy and Persona while also revealing he was inspired by the Atelier series, Suikoden, Lost Odyssey, and Shadow Hearts.
It would be the latter that caught my attention. The first Shadow Hearts game was released in 2001 for the PS2, a sort of continuation of a 1999 JRPG called Koudelka. Shadow Hearts immediately sticks out for its gothic vibe and real-world setting, taking place across Asia and Europe as the world becomes engulfed in World War I.
What plenty remember Shadow Hearts for, though, is the combat system, or one quirk to be more specific. It's a turn-based JRPG, and we love that, though you've also got something called the Judgement Ring. Once you decide to attack, a ring appears that requires you to synchronize a button press with when a line passes through a colored zone. If you're handy with timing, you can score more damage if the line is in the smaller critical area of that colored zone, but, equally, you can also miss an attack if your timing is well off.
That should sound familiar if you've played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as the J'RPG employs a similar system if you're using one of the game's flashier attacks. While there's no given chance to land a critical like you could in Shadow Hearts, timing your button presses correctly in Clair Obscur does level up the impact of a spell.
Knowing Broche is a huge JPRG head, I assumed that facet of Clair Obscur's battle system was a nod to Shadow Hearts, but didn't really have anything other than vibes to go off until a tweet about his inspirations came across my desk. I should add that Broche doesn't actually delve into how Shadow Hearts inspired him during that interview, but I feel more certain than ever that I know how.
We're unlikely to get another Shadow Hearts, though some of its original devs are trying their best with a spiritual successor.
