- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is coming on April 24, 2025
- The Xbox Developer Direct revealed a massive, explorable world map
- The map will be littered with secrets and optional bosses to find
We have a lot more information to come Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 thanks to its lengthy appearance at the Xbox Developer Direct on January 23rd. This includes a closer look at combat, characters and a fully explorable 3D world map.
A new official Xbox Wire post goes into more detail about the upcoming turn-based RPG, which is French developer Sandfall Interactive’s debut project. The post contains information about a feature that caught my eye the most – a massive overworld that players are able to explore similar to classics like Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and The Secret of Mana.
“Since the day I started working on this project in the Unreal engine, I wanted a world map,” said creative director Guillaume Broche. “I feel like it’s such a cool thing that has almost completely disappeared from the face of the gaming industry. Nobody does that anymore, and to me it was such a crucial and important part of what made the old JRPGs unique.”
Broche went on to describe the world map as “very large” and will be dotted with “hidden bosses” and “tons of secrets.” From the glimpses we’ve seen, the world map also looks absolutely fantastic, presenting a fractured world with the eerily crooked Eiffel Tower as its centerpiece.
Broche also spoke about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s turn-based combat. In particular, its context-sensitive attack and parry prompts, not too dissimilar to those seen in the Xbox 360 classic Lost Odyssey.
It looks like the game will be quite challenging, but Broche emphasized that there will be different levels of difficulty. He also encouraged players to experiment with different character builds and combos, both of which seem to be a big focus. Broche hopes players will “break the game because it’s made for it!”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be released on April 24 for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS5 and PC. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass on release day.
