Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has been the talk of the RPG-loving town since it launched on April 24. Just last month,during a regularly-scheduled shareholders' meeting,Square Enixwas asked to comment on Sandfall Interactive’s smash success - particularly, how it might affect Square’s own creative decision-making in the years to come.
And barely two weeks ago, Naoki Yoshida - better known as Yoshi-P, and the director of MMORPG sales behemothFinal Fantasy 14(not to mention the producer for the highly action-centricFinal Fantasy 16),faced a tough questionduring an interview withAnimeNewsNetwork: whether Clair Obscur’s turn-based battle system would promote further consideration toward this more classical combat mechanic for future fare, like, oh, I don’t know, Final Fantasy 17.
A Creatively Rich Exchange Of Visions And Ideas
Fast-forward to July 24, andFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeseries co-director Naoki Hamaguchi has revealed that Square Enix’s Tokyo-based global headquarters were recently visited by none other than several of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s senior-most developers.
Hamaguchi has cited “a creatively rich exchange of visions and ideas”, which has - natch - had Final Fantasy fans all in a tizzy. FromReddittoResetEra, folks are wondering if this major meet-up is more than meets the eye. Could Sandfall Interactive be prepping a collaboration of some sort with the legendary developer ofJRPGsgalore and publisher of so much more? Might the creators of Expedition 33 be offering tips on a return to turn-based? Speculation’s gone wild.
My own take is decidedly more measured. As some of the less wide-eyed fans have duly noted, this could be none of the above. It’s snazzy in its own right that big studios would be open to learning from one another with or without any grand designs in mind. Plus, Sandfall Interactive hasn’t made Square Enix their sole scenic stop amid this tour of Japan; there were, presumably, more ‘visions and ideas’ exchanged atKojima Productions, as well.
Maybe Sandfall’s Guillaume Broche, Francois Meurisse, Tom Gullermin, and Kepler’s own Alexis Garavaryan, are making the rounds because a group of talented young individuals who have already left one heck of aGOTY-frontrunningmark on the industry simply desire to hone their craft all the more so forwhatever they’ve got lined up next.
PerhapsFinal Fantasywillgo back to its less action-oriented roots, and if so, this is a pretty stellar way to spitball some nascent ideas on how to make that happen in the 2020s. But I’d sooner bet this educational hangout session isn’t the proverbial smoking gunblade foreshadowing the next installment in my personal favourite video game franchise. Time will tell!
