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DARK SECRETS: 3 | Vintage Vibes

Valve just revealed the Steam sales and events for the rest of 2026, and besides the discounts I'm looking at the Party-Based RPG Fest to help satisfy those post-Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 cravings

Prepare your wallet AND your free time

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's title of Metacritic's highest player-rated game comes under threat from seminal Nintendo DS classic Cory in the House: "The gaming industry peaked with this game. Anyone else saying otherwise is delusional"

He's officially the candidate for being number 1

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 overtakes The Last of Us 2 for the second most Game of the Year nods ever, but the J'RPG has a ways to go before beating Elden Ring's record

Sandfall Entertainment's debut is still racking up the wins

GamesRadar

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JRPG maestro behind Persona and Metaphor ReFantazio has been playing Clair Obscur Expedition 33, says "there's a lot of careful love that's gone into it" and it's "very well made"

Game recognizes game

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director praises the RPG sicko who managed to beat the most infamous boss by taking every hit without cheesing: "I tried to do it before release and I couldn't manage it"

Even the game's director was surprised someone bested Simon in a fair fight

GamesRadar

"We were a nobody company": Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 studio says it had to hire young because it had no money, but it all turned out ok because new devs "brought fresh ideas"

"It's almost impossible to hire any senior people if you don't have the money, which wasn't there at the beginning."

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs "basically did twice the work" of a more experienced team to get the hit French RPG out the door

"[The younger staff] didn't have any expectations about how a studio should be run and how a game should be made"

GamesRadar

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Before winning both indie awards at The Game Awards, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's lead said "we'd rather this category went to a smaller studio"

"I don't think we really needed this [nomination], even if it's appreciated"

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs' next game will simply focus on "what we think is cool" – "I've seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people"

"In the process you end up losing the heart of what's there"

GamesRadar

Steam Awards 2025 give Game of the Year to Hollow Knight: Silksong

It also won Best Game You Suck At, just like Black Myth: Wukong did last year.

PC Gamer

AGDQ 2026 will show Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fans how to beat the JRPG GOTY in 2 hours, sure, but I'm really here for the 70-player Super Mario 64 relay

For those who run after

GamesRadar

Famitsu asks 191 Japanese developers and celebrities their Game of the Year, and lo and behold, J'RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wins out

Ghost of Yotei, Urban Myth Demolition Center, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Mario Kart World make up the rest of the top 5

GamesRadar

PS Plus subscribers get an extra Christmas treat – play the best game of 2025 for free

The undoubted game of the year is available to play at no extra cost on PS Plus

‘It’s good to have limitations’: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's creative director says Sandfall Interactive's next game won’t on a bigger scale despite huge success

Sandfall Interactive's CEO and creative director, Guillaume Broche, has said the studio won't be expanding the scale of its next game, despite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's success, because it loves "making games more than we love managing."

TechRadar

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GamesRadar

After pushing for Arc Raiders to win GOTY over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, former FPS pro Shroud admits the J'RPG is actually pretty good after finally playing it

"It’s going to only get better," too

Windows Central

The Indie Game Awards disqualifies Expedition 33 for AI usage and puts itself in a weird position — was it a fair move or an ambiguous definition of what is acceptable?

Clair Obscur’s disqualification raises uncomfortable questions about transparency, economic pressure, and whether zero-tolerance AI rules can realistically scale.

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says the secret of the J'RPG's success is to "not care too much about the players" – "if you care about your game, it means you care about the players ultimately"

"The best way for me to care about people is to make something that is sincere"

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's controversial GOTY wins at The Indie Game Awards retracted after the RPG's use of generative AI

"When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used"

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GamesRadar

"We love making games more than we love managing": Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead says "it's good to have limitations," so the RPG studio won't "scale up" for any future projects

"It's not tempting for us"

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says the award-sweeping hit is "very different from traditional JRPGs": "Currently, in France there's a movement to make FRPGs"

Sandfall Interactive had "absolutely no intention" making a JRPG

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director says the J'RPG has "very Japanese" gameplay, which makes it possible to play "without taking a single hit": "Even if I'm told it's impossible, I want to keep trying"

Unleash the no-hit runs

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 update nerfs the "hardest boss" of Verso's Drafts - a little red lifebuoy that made a diving minigame impossibly difficult

Sandfall Entertainment is clearly having some fun

GamesRadar

A month after championing Arc Raiders for GOTY over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, former FPS pro Shroud considers quitting the game over cheaters: "I don't care"

Arc Raiders might have a cheating problem

GamesRadar

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 player boosts Maelle’s damage by over 1 billion during the game’s toughest boss with new post-update build: “The Queen of damage is back”

Friendship with Stendhal has ended, Burning Canvas is my new best friend

International Business Times UK

Gamers Push Back At Clair Obscur Winning 'Best Indie' At The Game Awards 2025

The gaming community is debating whether Clair Obscur truly qualifies as an indie game, with players questioning its funding, scope and studio backing.

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