An ambitious French epic inspired by 20th-century surrealist painters and the belle époque will push the turn-based RPG genre forward

In the 1990s, the turn-based RPG was unstoppable. From Pokémon to the multimillion-selling PlayStation Final Fantasy games, there was nothing cooler than vanquishing blocky beasts via drop down menus. Then came the new millennium. As computing power blossomed and western-made games rose in popularity, traditional Japanese-made RPGs slowly but surely fell out of fashion.

“What Final Fantasy was doing before – a more realistic, grounded take on the turn-based genre – now, nobody is doing that. And that’s where we want to be,” says Guillaume Broche, CEO of Sandfall Interactive and creative director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Citing 2007’s Xbox 360 classic Lost Odyssey as the last truly high-budget turn-based RPG, the ex Ubisoft employee founded a studio with a mission to move the genre forward.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox in summer 2025