You know you’ve created a great role-playing game when the makers of some of the most beloved RPGs of all time invite you to chat. This past week, the developers of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went to Tokyo to meet with some of the team behind Final Fantasy. The developers from Sandfall Interactive met developers from Square Enix to talk, exchange ideas, and presumably fan-out over each others’ games.
Guillaume Broche, Francois Meurisse, Tom Guillermin from Sandfall, and Alexis Garavaryan from Kepler, the publisher of Clair Obscur, visited the Square Enix office to meet with Naoki Hamaguchi and Ryosuke Yoshida. Hamaguchi directed Final Fantasy VII Rebirth while Yoshida directed Visions of Mana.
Hamaguchi took to Twitter to describe the meeting of the minds as a “creatively rich exchange of visions and ideas.”
Since Clair Obscur borrows much inspiration from classic RPGs, especially JRPGs, it’s a nice full-circle moment. Who knows? Perhaps Final Fantasy will take a page from Clair Obscur‘s book next. It wouldn’t be surprising, especially as those at Square Enix consider returning to their turn-based combat roots. It would be something to one day see a remake of say, Final Fantasy IX, borrowing from the dynamic turn-based combat of Clair Obscur: Expedition...
