Having recently checked out a hands-off demo of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which I think looks to be one of the most interesting new RPGs of 2025, I was particularly taken by how much I feel the game owes to the great turn-based RPG series Persona, and in particular its latest and greatest release, Persona 5 Royal.
From the real-time world battle initialization based on “strike first or be hit,” to the team and turn-based combat, to the monstrously unique enemy designs, to the similar camera angles and slick menu animations, when I looked at Expedition 33 I saw a dark fantasy western version of a Persona game. So when I was in the same room with the game’s creative director, Guillaume Broche, of course I asked him about it.
“Yes. We definitely don’t hide the fact that there are influences from the great Japanese genre,” Broche noted. “Actually, though, I wouldn’t say Persona is the biggest influence on what we do. I don’t hide my love of action from the era of Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10. I think a lot of the core of the game is definitely inspired by that. Not directly. It’s not like we’re taking it from the games. The game is more what I grew up with and what my creative tastes are built on. So I would say we take a lot of influence from them, but we’re not directly trying to take things from them.
“And as for Persona, yeah, we definitely looked at what they did in terms of the camera movements and the menus and how everything was created dynamically and tried to make something that felt really dynamic but also more like our own thing in some ways. Because we have a very different art style as well. We just wanted to do it our own way.”
Not only was it refreshing to hear from Broche that my gut feeling was right, but also that Expedition 33 is attempting to use such acclaimed games as the basis for its project, which feels very much like a unique Western dark fantasy take on the traditional turn-based JRPG. To get a taste of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, you can check out the recently released reveal trailer below.
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I don’t know about you, but I’m really into the look and sound of Expedition 33. There’s a palpable end-of-the-world vibe that’s very Final Fantasy, and the combat, while turn-based, actually has action elements, with attacks optimized by well-timed button presses, and dodging and parrying enemy attacks also done by button presses. It’s like a more exciting turn-based RPG where you can fight as fast or as slow as you like. Definitely a game to keep an eye on next year.
