Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director speaks about the dark fantasy RPG's stunning Unreal Engine 5 graphics: 'It’s a key foundation for the studio to really look for the latest technology'

One of the games I'm most looking forward to right now in 2025 is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a unique-looking new dark fantasy RPG being created by Sandfall Interactive. This is not just because it offers a gameplay experience close to that of a classic Final Fantasy or, in combat, a Persona game, of which I am a big fan, nor that the game sports a very distinctive twisted Belle Époque aesthetic. But also because it’s using Unreal Engine 5, and that means its graphics look fantastic, with notably subtle lighting effects and incredibly detailed textures. Check out the trailer below to get a taste.

So, having recently sat down with the new RPG's creative director, Guillaume Broche, for a hands-off demonstration of the game, I decided to ask him about the studio's use of Unreal Engine 5 and what it brought to the table for the dev team.

«The production actually started six years ago on Unreal Engine 4, and we‘ve upgraded with every version that came out, and right now we are on Unreal Engine 5. We are big fans of Unreal Engine 5, because, right now, as we have told you, we are a very small team compared to the game we are making. We are a team of about 30 people. We are betting a lot on new technology to be able to achieve that, and I truly believe that five or six years ago it would have been impossible for a team of our size to make this.

»But now with the ecosystem of tech that exists, like with Unreal Engine 5, which saves us a lot of time on everything, like animation, rendering, and everything. For example, the MetaHumans (Unreal Engine 5's framework tools for creating high fidelity digital humans) that we are using for the character’s face – of course, it is 100 per cent customised, but we start from the rig to do all the facial work and everything. So it’s definitely a huge help to help us achieve that. For us, it’s a key foundation for the studio to really look for the latest technology that the other studios have."

What's interesting to me about Broche's