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[LectureMaster]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-sized "scope and budget" might have made it worse, actually, because "not artificially padding out the game time excessively" was key to the RPG's success

It could've created "a less engaging game for our players"

www.gamesradar.com

Even with an unlimited budget, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wouldn’t have been a radically different or bigger game. We talk to creative director Guillaume Broche - AUTOMATON WEST

Interview with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche ahead of the title's major "Thank You Update."

automaton-media.com

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may not have had a big AAA budget, but according to Sandfall Interactive, that might actually be a good thing – it could be what allowed the developers to create an RPG that's genuinely engaging.

Speaking in a recent interview with Automaton, creative director Guillaume Broche confirms as much as he explains why he doesn't think the team would've wanted "unlimited" resources. "I don't think we would have wanted to radically add unnecessary content or change the overall scope of our game," admits the lead. According to Broche, the smaller scope Sandfall had to work with helped make it a fun game – one without any "padding" to waste fans' time.

"I think part of the reason some fans enjoyed their time with our game was how we tried to respect the players' time by not artificially padding out the game time excessively," says Broche. "In some ways, having a limited budget and resources is helpful to narrow down the scope of a title and distill the vision to the core elements that make it great, and maybe having unlimited scope and budget would've made it a less engaging game for our players."

The director concludes, however, "It's hard to know!" As a fan myself, I'd argue he's right – and I'm likely not alone, either. Former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a "perfect balance" of AAA ambition, AA budget, and "independent vision" earlier this year. Sandfall COO and producer François Meurisse also spoke on the topic of AAA budgets himself, saying games backed by big money don't always work.

I'm reminded of what Jon Bellamy, newly appointed CEO of RuneScape creator Jagex, said recently, too – that you can use "a tenth" of the AAA "$400 million budget" and still get "not so different results" if you do it right, citing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an example. It's safe to say Sandfall certainly did make use of its smaller (in comparison to AAA titles) scope and budget, and the devs are still hard at work, as their new major update proves.

 

[LectureMaster]

How the director left Ubi:

 

[Mister Wolf]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says AAA-sized "scope and budget" might have made it worse, actually, because "not artificially padding out the game time excessively" was key to the RPG's success

It could've created "a less engaging game for our players"

www.gamesradar.com

Even with an unlimited budget, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wouldn’t have been a radically different or bigger game. We talk to creative director Guillaume Broche - AUTOMATON WEST

Interview with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director Guillaume Broche ahead of the title's major "Thank You Update."

automaton-media.com

---

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may not have had a big AAA budget, but according to Sandfall Interactive, that might actually be a good thing – it could be what allowed the developers to create an RPG that's genuinely engaging.

Speaking in a recent interview with Automaton, creative director Guillaume Broche confirms as much as he explains why he doesn't think the team would've wanted "unlimited" resources. "I don't think we would have wanted to radically add unnecessary content or change the overall scope of our game," admits the lead. According to Broche, the smaller scope Sandfall had to work with helped make it a fun game – one without any "padding" to waste fans' time.

"I think part of the reason some fans enjoyed their time with our game was how we tried to respect the players' time by not artificially padding out the game time excessively," says Broche. "In some ways, having a limited budget and resources is helpful to narrow down the scope of a title and distill the vision to the core elements that make it great, and maybe having unlimited scope and budget would've made it a less engaging game for our players."

The director concludes, however, "It's hard to know!" As a fan myself, I'd argue he's right – and I'm likely not alone, either. Former PlayStation head Shuhei Yoshida called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a "perfect balance" of AAA ambition, AA budget, and "independent vision" earlier this year. Sandfall COO and producer François Meurisse also spoke on the topic of AAA budgets himself, saying games backed by big money don't always work.

I'm reminded of what Jon Bellamy, newly appointed CEO of RuneScape creator Jagex, said recently, too – that you can use "a tenth" of the AAA "$400 million budget" and still get "not so different results" if you do it right, citing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an example. It's safe to say Sandfall certainly did make use of its smaller (in comparison to AAA titles) scope and budget, and the devs are still hard at work, as their new major update proves.

With that major update coming that add content im glad I haven't played it yet. Let it cook just a while longer.

 

[Fbh]

INB4 the salt about E33 praise.
But yeah, the better pacing and lack of dozens of hours of mandatory padding was one of the reasons I enjoyed E33 way more than the vast majority of JRPGs coming from Japan these days. Incidentally my other favorite JRPG from recent years, Chained Echoes, also had pretty good pacing (outside of a couple too many push the ball puzzles)....and it's also not made in Japan.

It's like japan forgot the GOAT Chrono Trigger is only like 25 hours long.

 

[MagiusNecros]

The cool thing about E33 is nothing is wasted. Even optional areas have world lore tied to them so everything is worth doing.

 

[Loomy]

The cool thing about E33 is nothing is wasted. Even optional areas have world lore tied to them so everything is worth doing.

The Nevron in the cemetery that just wanted to die was a good one.

 

[Humdinger]

Well, it's a big part of why I bought it. I'm tired of the unnecessarily long open-world RPGs. I want more concise, edited experiences.

 

[Durin]

Most RPGs don't justify their playtime past 40 hours, and 30ish hours is the perfect amount of time for the genre. You get enough to build character arcs, relationships, gameplay progression, and player choices...without tons of padded grind.

Worked well enough for Mass Effect before Bioware made characters whose faces got tired.

 

[Zacfoldor]

I watched the credits roll at 101 hours.

Don't think this means the game is short.

I never had a dull moment at 100 hours and never touched NG+.

That's just how long it takes to become what I became.

The game is perfect.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Actually, the game is long, full of secrets and fun things to do. IMO its scope is on par with most AAA and with much less filler.

 

[calico]

"we tried to respect the players' time by not artificially padding out the game time excessively"

I hope they taught Square this secret technique when they visited.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I'm sure publishers and devs will learn from this and follow suit.

 

[Zephyranthes]

Games like FF7 Rebirth and Elden Ring remind me of writing essays in high school that had word count requirements. Most of the time I could fully make my point well before hitting the minimum number, so then I had to just make up a bunch of meandering fluff to fill out the rest. Some game devs - and JRPG devs like Square are probably most guilty of this - seem to think that there is some kind of unwritten rule that they must make games that are 100+ hours long. The result of this is usually a lot of boring side quests and recycled content.

As others have said, E33 isn't even a short game, but the difference is that the content is consistently compelling. The Endless Tower maybe overstays its welcome a bit, but otherwise I found that the side areas never took so long that they felt tiresome.

 

[MagiusNecros]

that they must make games that are 100+ hours long.

Problem is wanting to do the stuff that makes the game 100+ hours long and most just do it to pad out a game that serves very little purpose. I imagine if all those rewards and unlocks you had to do via Chadley were done in the actual world that contributed to lore and made sense then Rebirth would be a much better game for it instead of Virtual Simming everything from optional fights to acquiring Summons.

The best world FF ever made that was and probably still is full of self-discovery is FFXI. Vanadiel is such a well crafted world.

I think the bigger offender is more Rebirth(Minigames/Towers/Chadley) then Elden Ring but I also think the more condensed format of Dark Souls 1/2/3 lends itself to being replayed more and Elden Ring is a slow burn game you generally only play once due to how massive it is.

Similar to playing Ocarina of Time multiple times over Breath of the Wild due to sheer size. It's much worse in Tears of the Kingdom with the amount of pointless things that only exist for sake of gameplay in both Sky Islands and the Depths.

 

[Humdinger]

I'm sure publishers and devs will learn from this and follow suit.

That would be nice, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[Kronark]

I don't think length played into it too much. I easily burned another 15+ hours in act 3 doing side content and some of the story moments in there really felt like they should have been main path.

Expedition 33 worked because of it's writing, music, and performances. The gameplay was a bonus.

All the characters motivations made sense and could be empathized with. The plot wasn't driven by ignorance or misunderstandings that could be solved with a conversation, the characters had fundamental motivational differences. The final boss wasn't some stupid physical manifestation of a concept in monster form. You're not physically fighting a monster that represents Fate or Destiny (Yes I am bitter about the FF7 Remake)... Japan needs to learn to write stories again.