The following article contains major spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s first act.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has had a substantial impact on players: the characters, the narrative and, of course, the emotions. One of the most emotional moments in the game comes at the end of the game’s first act, when a party member is unexpectedly killed.
A major death in an RPG isn’t a new concept, but Clair Obscur spends its opening hours setting Gustave up as the protagonist. The other characters look to Gustave for leadership, he has clear motivations for solving the plot’s central conflict, and he’s voiced by Charlie Cox, a relatively big name for a ‘double a’ game.
Then, the dastardly Renoir snuffs out Gustave’s life in a moment that was supposed to be celebratory. It’s a massive moment in the game that really emphasises how ruthless the setting is, and has a clear psychological effect on the characters going forward.
On an episode ofBehind the Voice, game director Guillame Broche revealed that the decision to kill off Gustave originally came from one of the studio’s dropped projects, a game called ‘We Lost’ (nice spot,GamesRadar+). In fact, the original pitch for Gustave’s death was a joke between Broche and creative director Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, who my colleague did afantastic interviewwith earlier this year.
“What if we kill him? What if we kill the main character?” Svedberg-Yen quipped during a brainstorming session with Broche, to which he replied, “Yeah that’s a good idea. Let’s do it.”
“I think it’s very important for the themes of the game,” Broche continued. “That we invite the player to feel loss, and there’s nothing that transmits this message more than just killing off the main character.”
Broche adds that including a skill tree for Gustave added to this feeling of loss, because the player invests time in thinking about future-proofing Gustave’s build, only to have that expectation shattered in an instant. It’s a neat example of the narrative subverting the expectations fostered by gameplay.
