After watching a recent hands-off demo of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which in my opinion looks like one of the most interesting new RPGs incoming in 2025, I was particularly taken by what I perceived to be the game's indebtedness to the great turn-based RPG series, Persona, and specifically its latest and greatest release, Persona 5 Royal.
From the strike first or be struck initialisation of combat in the real-time world, through the team and turn-based combat as well as monstrously unique enemy designs, and even onto the similar camera angles and slick menu animations, when I looked at Expedition 33 I saw a dark fantasy western take on a Persona game. So, being in the room with the game's Creative Director, Guillaume Broche, I naturally asked him about it.
"Yeah. We are definitely not hiding that there are influences from the big Japanese genre," Broche noted. "Actually, [though], I wouldn’t say that Persona is the biggest influence on what we do. I don’t hide my love of action for the Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10 era. I think a lot of the core of the game definitely takes inspiration from that. Not directly. It’s not like we take it from the games. The game is more like [what] I grew up with, and kind of built my creative tastes on. So I would say we take a lot of influence from them but not directly trying to pick things from them.
"And on the Persona side, yeah, we definitely took a look at what they were doing in terms of the camera movements, and the menus, and how everything has been created dynamically, and trying to do something that really feels dynamic, but is also more like our own thing, in a way. Because, also, we have a very different art style. We just wanted to do it our own way."
It was not only refreshing to hear from Broche that my gut feeling was correct, but also that Expedition 33 is looking to use such acclaimed games as a base for what its doing, which very much feels like a unique western dark fantasy take on the traditional turn-based JRPG. To get a flavour for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 then you can check out the recently released reveal trailer below.
I don't know about you, but I'm really digging the look and tone of Expedition 33. There's a palpable 'end of days' vibe, which is very Final Fantasy, and the combat, while turn-based, actually has action elements to it, with attacks being optimised with well-timed button presses, as well as dodges and parries of enemy attacks executed with button presses, too. It's like a more engaging turn-based RPG, where you can fight as fast or as slow as you want. Definitely a game to keep an eye on as we progress into next year.
