Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has made some significant waves in the gaming space. And one of those key differentiators, as explored in a new interview, is the scope of Clair Obscur compared to most big games nowadays.
In a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz, some of the heads at Kepler Interactive — the publisher of Clair Obscur developer Sandfall Interactive — talked about the success behind Expedition 33 and its place in the industry. In some ways, it’s easier to note the ways Clair Obscur is different from the usual AAA blockbuster, and one notable difference pointed out by Kepler portfolio director Matthew Handrahan is the game’s length.
“Brevity should be more of a virtue in gaming,” said Handrahan. “Something can be better by being shorter — something that’s being discussed in film at the moment. Every film seems to be two-and-a-half hours long, and I think most people are like, ‘Can they all be a bit shorter, please? Because we have other things to do with our lives.'”
Sandfall’s COO and producer François Meurisse told GI.biz that, from the beginning, the team wanted Clair Obscur to be an “intense and short” experience.
“The first length estimates of the game were closer to 20 hours for the main quest,” said Meurisse. “I think we ended up closer to 30, even 40 hours if you take a bit of time. As a player, there are so many great games out there that I want to experience, [and] what’s important to me is the level of excitement and fun I get from a game, rather than how long it is.”
Current ballpark estimates from HowLongToBeat place a main story runthrough of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at about 27 hours, with 41 hours for the Main + Sides and a completionist playthrough at about 61.5 hours. It can still be a bit longer than a short-form indie game, but still comes in at a much lower hour count than some massive AAA games, or even other long RPGs.
As Handrahan put it, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 “really respects the player’s time.” He noted that Clair Obscur doesn’t offer any “sense of bloat or extranous things that are put there just to make it larger and larger and larger.” And for Meurisse, he wondered whether there was a link between the hour count of a game and its value proposition.
“The value that players get from games does not align systematically with the length of the game,” said Meurisse. “For example, one of my favourite games of all time is Inside, which lasts about two hours, but it’s one of the most polished, and intense [experiences] — and even life changing for some people.”
In IGN’s 9/10 review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, our reviewer noted the hour count as well: “I finished the main story and a decent amount of side content in about 35 hours, and that length speaks to how Clair Obscur doesn’t waste a moment — there isn’t really any filler along the critical path and it doesn’t get bogged down in drawn-out exposition.”
There are many factors that set Clair Obscur apart from the usual gaming blockbuster, in ways that feel like a sign of the changing times in the games industry. You can read more about those factors in the full interview over at GI.biz. But it certainly seems like Clair Obscur has set an interesting precedent for big games without big bloat.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
