Among the many reasons why Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been praised since its release has been its music. Composed by Lorien Testard, the soundtrack for the game covers a wide variety of genres, and often touches on some of the title’s most heartfelt moments with just the right notes to elevate the scene. As caught by Windows Central, developer Sandfall Interactive discovered Testard’s work on Soundcloud before inviting him to work on the game.
On the official website for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a page details the story of Testard, and how he came to work with Sandfall Interactive on its critically-acclaimed RPG. In the page, Testard wrote about inheriting his love of video games from his father, and spending several hours with classic titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, as well as Mario Kart and Mario Party games on the Nintendo 64.
“The most unforgettable soundtracks—like The Legend of Zelda—have an incredible ability to breathe life into a world, filling it with unique and deeply moving emotions,” wrote Testard. “The music becomes an organic part of the adventure, shaping the experience as we journey through these universes.”
He also wrote about how he spent his time honing is craft by making video game music in his free time. Each week, he would write a new track as he further refined his style of music, all while also working as a guitar teacher. During this time, he would upload his music to Soundcloud, which would eventually get discovered by game director Guillaume Broche.
“One day, I shared one of my compositions on an indie video game forum,” he wrote. “That’s when Guillaume Broche, Game Director at Sandfall Interactive, discovered my work. He reached out and asked if I would compose the soundtrack for his game.”
“That moment marked the beginning of a beautiful collaboration—one that changed my life.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released just last week on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game has also been available through PC and Xbox Game Pass. The game was developed by a team of 30 developers, and has been inspired by classics in the RPG genre like the Final Fantasy franchise.
The story of the game revolves around the titular Expedition 33, that has set out to stop the Paintress from continuing to paint new numbers every year. The numbers, ticking down from 100, essentially causes anyone of that age or older to die, leading to a slow extinction of the human race. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deals with quite a few themes, with grief and how different people tend to deal with it being one of its core themes.
For more details about the RPG, check out our review. The title has ended up being quite popular, having sold 500,000 copies on launch day alone, and quickly surpassing that by selling 1 million copies in three days. This success led to many questioning it being available through Xbox Game Pass, to which Pocketpair communications director and publishing manager John Buckley responded by saying that the subscription service has been a net positive for smaller studios.
