
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 developer Sandfall Interactive took a bit of a tour through Japan in the aftermath of the game’s release, sitting down to chat with several games veterans, with a particular emphasis on the lead creators of the RPGs that inspired the team. One of those veterans was Katsura Hashino, known for his work leading multiple entries in the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, and most recently as chief of the new Atlus group, Studio Zero, and its debut title Metaphor: ReFantazio. Hashino met Sandfall and played Clair Obscur himself, and had no shortage of praise for the game.
Speaking with Game Informer, Hashino says, “I actually had a chance to meet the team that created this game because they were visiting Japan. It was great meeting them. They gave me a copy of the game and I’ve been playing through it. I haven’t gotten to the end, so it’s hard to comment on it just yet, but of what I’ve seen, I’ve noticed there’s a lot of careful love that’s gone into it. It’s very well made and crafted very deeply.
As interviewer Brian Shea noted, some RPG fans drew comparisons between Metaphor: ReFantazio and Clair Obscur, noting – and I’m holding back spoilers here – similarities in worldbuilding foundations and their handling of anxiety and grief.
Hashino has been sizing up the state and future of JRPGs, saying last year that while he isn’t currently majorly involved in Persona, he does have ambitious plans to reinvent the “structure and presentation” of the genre with what he calls “JRPG 3.0.” Clair Obscur was a gateway to JRPGs for a lot of people – at times, mistakenly hailed as the savior of a genre that didn’t need saving – while the series Hashino’s worked on have been pillars of the genre for decades. He’s long specialized in a certain type of game, with even Metaphor clearly sharing DNA. It’ll be interesting to see how much of that he carries forward in his next project.
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