The reveal trailer for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 back at the Xbox Showcase in June drummed up a lot of interest this year. Its dark world, unique plot hook, and flashy turn-based combat caught the eyes of fans of the likes of Persona and classic Final Fantasy titles. It even featured voiceover from Final Fantasy XVI’s lead, Ben Starr, who seems deservedly booked and busy this year!
Off the back of Gamescom, indie developers Sandfall Interactive just dropped a new 6 minute trailer, showing off a slightly more detailed look at a short section of the game. The latest footage teases a bit more of the combat mechanics. While the game is strictly turn-based, it features real-time elements in the form of quicktime events, requiring players to time combos to boost outgoing damage, and even to reduce incoming damage.
As a huge fan of the forever-forgotten 90s Sony RPG, The Legend of Dragoon, which featured real-time combos in the middle of attacks – and, more recently, the extremely well-received Sea of Stars – this is a feature I’m glad to see getting some love. The developers have nodded towards all of these games in some recent interviews:
“At Sandfall Interactive we all have a love for JRPGs like Final Fantasy, the Tales series, Lost Odyssey, and Persona with its awesome UI, rhythm, and dynamic camera […] We all have a lot of nostalgia and love for these kinds of games, but also want to see something fresh done with the genre.”
You might notice that the developers cited Lost Odyssey among their inspirations. In case you didn’t know, Lost Odyssey was made by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who you may just know as the ‘Father of Final Fantasy’, who was essentially the head at Square up until Final Fantasy X. One of the more interesting takeaways for me was that the developers noted a big gap in the market for games of this nature,
“There hasn’t really been any attempt at making a turn-based RPG with high-fidelity graphics for a good while […] and that left a deep hole in my gamer heart. We took it upon ourselves to make something to fill that void”
As a lifelong Final Fantasy fan, this statement hit me really hard. I am absolutely over the moon to see a new studio take a crack at high-fidelity turn-based combat in a AAA space. Yet, as much as I have enjoyed modern Final Fantasy titles, I count myself among those who desperately hope to see some sort of return to its turn-based roots in some way.
One of the problems with this idea up until now has been that it’s been difficult to imagine what that might look in a modern Final Fantasy game. While the series has always pushed forward with graphical styles, the turn-based entries all sit in somewhat outdated graphical styles, and it’s hard to see Square Enix making Final Fantasy XVII a pixel art game, whatever Yoshi-P says.
Other big developers like Atlus have very distinct visual designs with cell-shaded anime art styles, and almost every other turn-based RPG follows either the retro-style pixel art, or the cell-shaded anime art.
Even Square’s other non-Final Fantasy games follow this rule – for example Dragon Quest, with its signature designs from the late Akira Toriyama, and the much more recent Octopath Traveller going for the now-signature HD-2D pixel style.
With the exception of big RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 that don’t really sit alongside Final Fantasy, we didn’t really have a good idea of what a modern, realistic, high-budget turn-based RPG might look like.
Until now.
Seeing this game feels like a eureka moment as a Final Fantasy fan. It feels like this is what Final Fantasy should have been doing for the last decade or so.
Up until Final Fantasy X, Square were the Kings of turn-based combat that pushed the boundaries of how good games could look. Final Fantasy really was the leader in this space, especially in Japanese RPGs. There was a consistent identity and evolution in their combat, and every game tried something new, building on the successes of the past.
After that point, every mainline entry in the series has tried something completely new. XI and XIV are MMOs and obviously function very differently to the single player titles. XII had real-time combat with an AI party management system. XIII tried a hybrid style that ended up being an auto-battler that required some babysitting. XV went mostly action but felt undercooked in favour of an open world and multimedia experience that left us all wanting. XVI went fully hack-and-slash action combat and landed on mixed reviews.
Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth have traded the original’s turn-based combat for full action combat, with a unique and engaging ATB system implemented. These two games using the same system is the most consistency we’ve had in Final Fantasy in the last twenty years. Rebirth built on Remake’s combat and gave us even more options, refining what we can do and evolving it even further.
In my view, the Remake Trilogy feels like a return to form for Final Fantasy, in the sense that it is taking a modern concept of action combat and pushing the boundaries, giving a unique and satisfying identity to the games not seen anywhere else.
I just wish they had done it sooner. I wish we had seen further evolutions of what turn-based combat could be. The series has continued to push graphical fidelity and storytelling but has lagged behind in combat over the years. Where it used to be a leader and trend-setter, the last few years have felt like it has been chasing trends instead.
If the end of the trailer for Expedition 33 had the Final Fantasy XVII logo on it, it would have made complete sense – and would have felt like what we’ve been waiting for since the late 2000s Final Fantasy.
Instead, this game shows us what Final Fantasy could have been doing for so many years, and what we’ve potentially missed out on. I have to wonder where we’d be now if it had.
And, while I have enjoyed modern Final Fantasies, and respect the desire to try new things, I think what the series has needed is more consistent evolution instead of revolution. I don’t think many people count anything after Final Fantasy X as their personal ‘favourite’ in the series, besides XIV perhaps. Expedition 33 has fully taken the baton here, and looks to be the answer to many of our prayers.
The general thinking is that modern audiences are less interested in turn-based, so they have pivoted to action to keep up with trends, but I think what’s hurting Square here is that their core audience were fans of turn-based games, and they’re struggling to pull in newer fans who don’t know what “Final Fantasy” means anymore, and other games have started picking up the slack.
Another good example of this is Altus’s upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio – a new title that shares lots of elements with Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, but is taking those mechanics and trying out something new. Metaphor has even taken the classic ‘job’ systems that I have only ever really seen work well in a Final Fantasy game – which is also something Final Fantasy has dropped over the years, besides in the MMOs. The last big Final Fantasy game to have a proper job system was Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003, and even that wasn’t a true mainline entry.
I hope Square is taking note of the buzz around this game, because there is a clear desire for something new and exciting in this turn-based space.
I don’t know about you but Clair Obscur is going to be a day one purchase for me, as is Metaphor ReFantazio, and I just really hope that this game does well, and Square works hard to reclaim some of their former glory. Until then, I’d be happy to see them take the combat from Remake and Rebirth, and keep building on that for the future.
What do you think? Are you excited about Clair Obscur, Metaphor ReFantazio, or any other turn-based RPGs coming up? Let us know in the comments below!
Written By: DaveyBlahBlah
Favourite Game – Final Fantasy X || Favourite Film – Batman & Robin || Book – The Thursday Murder Club
About: I’m a gay man in his thirties with an undying love for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, so you’ll *definitely* want to check out what I have to say in between me gushing over my two cats, dog, and Lady Gaga.
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