Clair Obscur was inspired by a lot of JRPGs from the late 90s and early 2000s, like Final Fantasy 10, Lost Odyssey, and The Legend of Dragoon, with the game’s director, Guillaume Broche, recently calling Persona 5 “the best game in the world.” The game doesn’t do much “new,” but the way it combines elements of so many great titles together to create something wholly powerful is almost unprecedented. I have played every Final Fantasy game, and while I don’t think Square Enix should copy Clair Obscur fully, there’s one massive thing Clair Obscur does better than any FF title.
Expedition 33 Gives Consistently Useful Items
You Don’t Get Potions 30 Hours In, Unlike FF
Clair Obscur manages to give its players 30 hours (or up to 60-ish for 100% completion) of straight game with no time wasted. There are no pointless fetch quests. The areas have some interesting side paths and are a visual treat, but none of them outstay their welcome, and probably best of all, the game’s exploration of those areas is consistently rewarded from the prologue all the way until the credits roll.
Who needs to loot a chest with two hi-potions when you have access to powerful white magic heals or megalixers?
Clair Obscur rewards players for exploration with meaningful rewards that are always useful. In contrast, almost every Final Fantasy has quite a few near-useless items that can be picked up from anywhere from the start of the game to its challenging post-game content. Personally, outside the beginning areas in Final Fantasy games, I hardly ever found myself looking at any items I picked up. Who needs to loot a chest with two hi-potions when you have access to powerful white magic heals or megalixers?
Expedition 33‘s rewarding exploration reminds me more of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Elden Ring than Final Fantasy. While the “item system” of Expedition 33 is limited to just three items, they’re all useful, too, and see consistent upgrades throughout the game. Everything in Expedition 33 feels like it has a place, unlike several questionable items that feel like they’re there just to fill up game space in most Final Fantasy games.
Final Fantasy Could Learn From Expedition 33
Inspirations For The Games That Come After
Final Fantasy has struggled with its identity. FF16 and FF7 Rebirth both underperformed, according to Square Enix. While there are several factors for that, including the PlayStation 5 console exclusivity for their launches, Square Enix might need to take inspiration from Clair Obscur in the future for how it approaches items and provides a more rewarding experience, if exploration is a big part of future games. Final Fantasy should still do something new with that inspiration and not just try to emulate Clair Obscur‘s formula, but Clair Obscur is a perfect example of how to do exploration and items correctly.
FF16 actually had a good approach to items, in my opinion, but the game’s lack of consistent difficulty made them almost obsolete. FF7 Rebirth‘s items can be useful in a pinch, but much like other games in the series, they get pushed to the side halfway through. The game’s hard mode disables items entirely. As a New Game Plus mode, Hard Mode players have also already experienced most, if not all, that the game has to offer, leading to less emphasis on exploration and no access to items at all despite them being littered across the game.
Clair Obscur took a lot of great aspects from the Final Fantasy series and created a new identity with them and other great JRPGs. Final Fantasy is in a sort of “soul-searching” phase right now, at least with the mainline series. Hopefully, after the massive success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Final Fantasy comes full circle and takes inspiration from its approach to items and their usefulness to do something special in its next game.
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