Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director Guillaume Broche doesn’t hide that his work was heavily influenced by many classic RPGs, such as the Final Fantasy series, which he has played throughout his childhood. However, Broche’s video game journey actually began with a much older title that dates back to the Sega Genesis.
In an interview with Denfaminicogamer, Broche revealed that he often played the 1988 beat ‘em up title Altered Beast on the Sega Genesis his father bought for him. A far cry from the RPG genre, Altered Beast provides players with only three actions: punching, kicking, and jumping. While this is not something Broche confirmed himself, perhaps the simplicity of Altered Beast’s combat somehow made its way into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as the latter features combat elements such as parrying, jumping, and counterattacking – all of which are synonymous with action games.
Broche started playing more PlayStation titles afterwards, citing the Final Fantasy and Atelier franchises as influences. He has also played several action games, such as the Devil May Cry series and 2002’s Shinobi for the PlayStation 2. He admits that, despite playing video games most of his life, he hasn’t had many opportunities to get his hands on classic Nintendo consoles and titles.
Despite being born and raised in western Paris, where video games were thought of as a “form of entertainment for nerds,” Broche says he is glad that he lived in a household that owned multiple game consoles. He also shared that he is happy with how the public image of games has become more positive and widespread over the years. Thanks to YouTubers, VTubers, and the internet in general, many young French people now play games and are more familiar with them.
