Expedition 33 is "85% of the original vision," but one character deserves more

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 needs no introduction at this point, and developer Sandfall Interactive's journey through its creation has been tremendously well-documented. The stunning, surrealist adventure will live long in the memory for its gloriously executed narrative (and my clumsily executed parries). But looking back after five million copies sold, is there anything the team would have liked to have done differently? We spoke with CEO and creative director Guillaume Broche and COO Francois Meurisse to find out.

"I think that we had this discussion with the team," Broche tells us. "I think we are [at] like 85% of my original vision with the final game, which is a very impressive number compared to what usually happens in games." I first met Broche back at Gamescom 2024, where I was captivated by the sheer style of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, along with its parry system. I didn't see enough to be fully prepared for its growth into one of the best RPGs in years, but just that small glimpse really demonstrated what a firm direction the team had established.

"Even as a developer, playing the game once it was complete and finished, I felt that it exceeded what I planned as a producer - what I was expecting from it," Meurisse adds. "Throughout four or five years of production, you see a lot of separate pieces of the game and everything is still a work in progress. You don't know how players will react to it.

"Even the emotional moments, like the prologue gommage, you see it hundreds of times, you know. So you cannot even know how it feels any more," he explains. "Having this ability to have the game released, to play it in a complete way, and to see how people lived it and reacted to it, and how much they love the characters and the story and the music and everything, gave us a second wind as the developers."

Meurisse turns to address Broche specifically: "It made me realise that, I think it's 85% of your vision, but to me it's 120% of whatever I could have dreamed of as a game maker." Broche says he doesn't have "any big regrets" from the game's development, but there is one fan-favorite character he's keeping in mind for special attention.

"I would have loved to do a bit more with Esquie personally, but it's something that we might want to do later," Broche reveals. "But overall I think we are all pretty, pretty happy [with] where we ended up." Sandfall has recently announced plans for a major update, which will take us to a brand-new location with fresh enemy encounters, additional late-game boss battles, and more costumes. I certainly don't think anyone would complain if we got a bit of extra Esquie lore in there.

Have you conquered Clair Obscur's toughest trials yet? If not, we've put together the best Expedition 33 builds to help you do so, and picked out the best gaming monitor in 2025 to make sure it looks spectacular the whole way through.

What are you hoping to see from the new zone? Dive into the PCGamesN Discord and give us your best guess as to what we might discover there.

Additional reporting by Lauren Bergin for PCGamesN.