After watching a recent hands-off demo of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which in my opinion looks like one of the most interesting new RPGs incoming in 2025, I was particularly taken by what I perceived to be the game's indebtedness to the great turn-based RPG series, Persona, and specifically its latest and greatest release, Persona 5 Royal.
From the strike first or be struck initialisation of combat in the real-time world, through the team and turn-based combat as well as monstrously unique enemy designs, and even onto the similar camera angles and slick menu animations, when I looked at Expedition 33 I saw a dark fantasy western take on a Persona game. So, being in the room with the game's Creative Director, Guillaume Broche, I naturally asked him about it.
