Just when I thought I couldn’t get more excited for stunning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, new information revealed during today’s Xbox Developer Direct set my hype to new heights.
When it was first revealed last year, I was instantly excited about the game. It’s a turn-based RPG with real-time battle mechanics, a stunning visual style, and star-studded voice cast that includes Charlie Cox, Jennifer English, Andy Serkis, and Ben Starr. But after today’s presentation, the 1990s Final Fantasy fan in me is so much more excited because Sandfall Interactive revealed that Expedition 33 will utilize a world map. No, not just a map of the world, but a fully explorable overworld that you can travel through and interact with to go from area to area.
The overworld was commonplace in older games, first introduced to me in Final Fantasy VIII as a young boy. When leaving towns or cities, the camera would pull out and show you the vast world map with a mini version of your character able to run around and explore. In the world map, you could fight enemies that appeared at random in different areas, find secrets and quests, and battle some of the harder bosses available in the whole game.
Expedition 33 will be similar, all with a fluffy, pillow-like mount named Esquie who has abilities to be unlocked, like flying to get from one area to the other more quickly. For Final Fantasy players, this would be the equivalent of gaining access to the airship that allows you to fly around the overworld with ease. But Expedition 33’s world map looks glorious, detailed, and fully fleshed out. You can see it at the 1:02:48 mark in the VOD of the Developer Direct.
I can easily see myself wasting hours exploring the different regions of Expedition 33’s world, hunting down enemies, leveling up my party, and just getting lost in the environment that Sandfall Interactive has spent years crafting.
In the Direct, Sandfall said that there are “a lot of side paths and entire hidden levels” to be found in the world map, which looks quite large in the short snippets shown. This is a lost art form in many games these days, but I hope that this will bring back the sense of wonderment and exploration that I remember growing up on in the 90s when my love for RPGs was born.
Sandfall Interactive also announced a release date for the studio’s first, impressive-looking title. And thankfully, the wait is not too long, as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will launch in just a few months for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PC, and Game Pass on April 24.
Published: Jan 23, 2025 03:42 pm