While French studio Sandfall Interactive had revealed some of its inspirations behind the gameplay of upcoming turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 earlier this month, it turns out that the inspirations go even deeper. Speaking to Giant Bomb, creative director Guillaume Broche has revealed that, among other things, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was also inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli.
When asked about the studio behind inspired by Japanese culture and its media, Broche revealed that the studio had seen Studio Ghibli’s movies “probably 25 times.” Broche also said that that the game’s composer, Lorien Testard, was also inspired by the music from the movies like Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service, which was composed by Joe Hisaishi.
When it comes to the art style of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Broche also spoke about how the developers wanted to capture the sense of adventure and wonder that is often present in the works of Studio Ghibli. He brings up movies like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle as examples of the sense of wonder that the studio is going for.
“Our director is not huge on Japanese culture, so every time we discuss this it’s like he brings his own, more Western influence,” said Broche. “And I try to bring him more like Eastern influences, and it creates like this kind of weird mix that we have.”
Sandfall Interactive co-founder and game producer François Meurisse previously spoke about some of the gameplay inspirations for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Among many other things, the RPG is seemingly inspired by games like the classic turn-based Final Fantasy, with Meurisse specifically naming Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 and 10. There are also influences from Sekiro: Shadow’s Die Twice, especially when it comes to defensive options since players will be able to parry attacks with properly-timed button presses.
“Those are big childhood games for Guillaume [Broche], our game director,” Meurisse said, talking about Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, and 10. “He wanted to have like kind of feeling that he imagined would have remained in modern Final Fantasy-like games, if they had kept doing turn-based stuff. But he mixed also lots of different inspirations. Definitely Final Fantasy and JRPGs are the preeminent gameplay heritage we have. The defense system is more inspired by Sekiro and From Software games. It has this kind of rhythm element and a more real-time component in it. More skill-based.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is slated for release on April 24. The game will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. It is turning out to be a highly-anticipated title, with the studio revealing that it had crossed the one million wishlists milestone earlier today.
The release date of the game is also more or less set in stone at this point, since the studio had announced just last week that it had gone gold. For more details about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, check out one of its more recent character trailers that focused on the mage Lune.
