Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 was an unexpected highlight at last year's Xbox Games Showcase. I was already intrigued, and the big info dump at today's Xbox Developer Director has me downright excited, especially since it looks like French developer Sandfall Interactive is about to deliver the turn-based AAA JRPG that Square Enix refuses to make with Final Fantasy.
You'll be able to pick up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on April 24, 2025 across PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X. As you might expect from a game so heavily marketed at Xbox events, it will be available day one with Game Pass, as well.
Expedition 33 takes direct inspiration from the JRPGs its developers played in their youths, and that inspiration is plain to see in everything from the turn-based combat system to its apocalyptic plot and varied cast of characters. Maybe the most telling part is that there's a full world map here, which you explore in miniaturized form, just like in the RPGs of yore.
"Since the day I started working on this project in Unreal engine, I wanted a world map," Guillaume Broche says on the Xbox Wire. “I feel like it’s such a cool thing that has almost completely disappeared from the face of the gaming industry. Like, nobody does that anymore, and for me it was such a crucial and important part of what made the old-school JRPGs unique. It’s this sense of travelling and [indicating that] we are an expedition… and we wanted the player to feel like they’re going on a grand journey."
I'm just glad a game that looks this good and plays this old-school is coming our way in 2025. I've enjoyed most of the modern Final Fantasy games to at least some degree, but you can count me among the many who are disappointed that the series has seemingly fully abandoned turn-based combat in favor of action-based or hybrid systems.
Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida said that turn-based combat can be a poor match for graphically detailed games, but I'd argue the success of Baldur's Gate 3 suggests that's not really the case. Regardless of the direction Square Enix goes from here on out, I'm beyond excited that a game that looks as good as Expedition 33 is willing to stick with such old-school game systems.
