CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 - THE CONTRAST BETWEEN LIGHT & DARK

CGM spoke to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's Lead Writer and Lead Game Designer to pull the curtain back on one of 2025's most anticipated RPGs.

- Chris de Hoog

DOOMSDAY CLOCKS & CONSCIOUS DECISIONS

One of our most anticipated titles of early 2025 is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a dark fantasy RPG from Sandfall Interactive and Kepler Interactive. In a world where a mysterious sorceress regularly wipes away entire generations with a simple act of magic, players lead a party of adventurers on a quest to put an end to her tyranny once and for all—and since its reveal at last summer's Xbox Games Showcase, we've been eager to join their mission.

After checking out the preview build last month, we had the chance to speak with Lead Writer and Voice & Localization Producer, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, and Lead Game Designer, Michel Nohra, via email and pull the curtain back a little more on the work of art they've been crafting.

Right from its global reveal, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has drawn gamers' attention with its unique plot hook: that a sorceress paints a number, and kills everyone of that age. Were there any particular influences that inspired the game's premise?

Jennifer Svedberg-Yen: Guillaume Broche (Creative Director) and I kicked around a lot of different concepts, but kept coming back to the idea of a woman with a giant doomsday clock. This came in part from some art references Guillaume found while brainstorming — and now that I think back, we also had in our minds a semi-gothic adversary from an early game concept (that we subsequently shelved) who was spiritually similar to the Paintress.

This was back in 2020, in the midst of COVID, so the idea of an unrelenting force wiping away groups of people was somewhat top of mind. How do you mount a resistance when you feel helpless? When everything seems inevitable? When you don't understand the enemy you're fighting, or when the enemy seems impossible to fight?