Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Sandfall Interactive was created as a tribute to the Final Fantasy series — a game that sparked interest in turn-based RPGs and inspired many new players.
But Naoki Hamaguchi, game director of Final Fantasy 13 and one of the heads of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, believes that much of what Expedition 33 calls new has already been implemented in his trilogy.
In an interview, he commented on the enthusiastic reviews of the combat system, where the player can dodge or block attacks instead of passively waiting for the enemy's turn.
"When I saw Clair Obscur, I thought: “Okay, they did it in their game, but I remember we did the same thing back in Lightning Returns. The system is very similar”, Hamaguchi noted.
According to him, the attention to the Clair Obscur combat system is deserved — it really makes the game attractive. But he added that you should not focus only on battles, because the project has other strengths that deserve recognition.
