Watch: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-size might have made it worse

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A man looking straight ahead during one of the best Xbox Series X games, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-sized "scope and budget" might have made it worse, actually, because "not artificially padding out the game time excessively" was key to the RPG's success

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Gustave in a French-inspired outfit

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio is "just the right size" for a "full-priced turn-based RPG," so don't expect its success to lead to AAA ambitions: "I'd prefer working as a small team"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 screenshot of Verso, a man with black hair with white streaks running through his fringe

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director wants the French RPG to be open to interpretation, but thinks "we failed as writers" if you don't connect to its cast as humans

Screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showing a number of characters stood together, a gloomy sky ahead of them.

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's outsourcing allowed the RPG's in-house team to stay "very focused on building that core," speculates former Dragon Age dev: "Everyone was able to synergize together"

A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, showing a man named Verso covered in dirt and blood, looking into the camera.

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says the hit French JRPG is just "one of the stories that we want to tell in this franchise," but thinks "the only way" to succeed "is to ignore the first game completely"

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio's next game won't necessarily be an RPG: "We don't want to be constrained by story, art style or gameplay"

RPGs Baldur's Gate 3 performance director praises Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for being a "beautiful" RPG "that 100% knows what it is"

A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showing Maelle fighting an enemy.

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer warns against a classic game hangup: "deus ex machina" power creep that makes you wonder "why didn't they just do this from the beginning"

JRPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs denied DLC plans, but now the French JRPG's director admits that may have changed: "We may be cooking"

A screenshot of the upcoming PS5 game, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is getting a whole new location, extra late-game bosses, and more to celebrate the French JRPG hitting 5 million copies sold: "We hope the update we're working on will act as a 'thank you'"

Games Ex PlayStation boss believes developers are tired of "doing the same thing for so long" and welcomes a new era of "AA gaming, with a wide variety of content and games" like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was inspired by JRPG greats like Final Fantasy, but its director loves gaming because of an old-school 1988 beat 'em up

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's gut-wrenching early twist started as a joke from an abandoned game, but the director greenlit it immediately: "I think it's very important for the themes"

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leaves CD Projekt Red co-CEO "absolutely blown away," even if he has "sadly" not beaten the French JRPG's toughest challenge

RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads follow up meeting their JRPG idols at Square Enix to exchange "visions and ideas" with praise from another genre icon over dinner: "My favorite game"

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-size might have made it worse

Creative director Guillaume Broche explained that, "I don't think we would have wanted to radically add unnecessary content or change the overall scope of our game,"

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-size might have made it worse

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