'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33' Lead Designer Reveals Biggest Regret

It was often difficult to talk about video games in 2025 without having Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 be a part of the conversation. From its $49.99 release price tag to its underdog development story to its emotionally charged narrative, the game resonated with millions of RPG fans. Despite all that, there are some changes that developer Sandfall Interactive would make retrospectively.

In an interview with Edge/GamesRadar+, lead game designer of Expedition 33, Michel Nohra, and lead game programmer, Tom Guillermin, revealed their biggest regret making Expedition 33, and it centers on the final act of the game.

Upon reaching the final act of the game, players can proceed to the final story area of the game or elect to explore several optional areas, take on challenging bosses, and complete side quest content. It turns out that a lot more players were participating in the optional content before completing the story than was expected, which allowed players to make their characters grossly overpowered before fighting the game's final story boss.

"The only thing I regret is not making it clearer that if you want the intended difficulty for the boss, you have to go beat it now," said Nohra.

Nohra expanded on the reasoning for the design choice, saying, "Often, people don't want to finish the game, so they do all the side content before finishing it, because once the story is over, you're usually less motivated to do the side content. And that's something I underestimated, which made people that wanted a challenging end boss fight feel a bit disappointed. I don't regret doing it the way we did it, but [we could have] had more explanation about your choice [in Act 3]."

Expedition 33 was Sandfall Interactive's first game, and with the title being inspired by classic JRPGs, such as Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 10, and Lost Odyssey, it was impossible to know how well the game would resonate with modern audiences, which partially led to this design decision.

"We weren't sure if our game was going to be that good," said Guillermin. "And if it's not, people may just want to see the story, and go directly to the end of the story. So it was a surprise for us [that] people were doing every single thing there is to do in the game before going to the final dungeon. We're happy about that, but we didn't see it coming."