Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the more fascinating upcoming role-playing games, presenting high-quality, polished visuals with stylish turn-based combat that many have since compared to the Persona series. However, the RPG will apparently let players parry during combat, which sounds bizarre considering its turn-based mechanics, though the creative director of the game has offered an explanation why – and it has to do with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
In an interview with Edge Magazine (issue 404), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche talked a bit about Sekiro and how it influenced the development of his RPG. Particularly, Broche spoke about the parrying mechanics from From Software’s action-adventure game. “I wanted to do a turn-based game, but I was also kind of burnt out by turn-based games, so I wanted to make something that felt fresh”, he stated. “I was playing Sekiro on the side, and I was like, ‘I love parrying. Why can’t I parry in my game?'”
“It was a case of, if nobody is going to do it, I will do it,” he added. “And I tried to make it more engaging for people who don’t necessarily like turn-based combat, while keeping the strategic core.”
Broche also said players will want to focus on attack animations as they’ll not only be able to parry incoming blows but jump over attacks later in the game, stating, “It is possible to dodge, parry and, later in the game, jump over any enemy attack in Expedition 33. It gives a completely different feeling to turn-based combat when you have to read the animations.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 also features a stacked cast of voice actors which include Andy Serkis, Charlie Cox, Ben Starr (who voiced Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy XVI) and Jennifer English (who voiced Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3). The game currently doesn’t have a release date but it’s expected to launch in early 2025.
Source: Edge (via GamesRadar)
