When I first saw it at the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase, I was surprised to see a game from a French developer with the photorealism of Western RPGs and mechanical stylings of Japanese ones. Its polished, cinematic trailer gave the impression of a AAA game, even though I’d never even heard of Sandfall Interactive at the time.
Clair Obscur moved mountains. Despite its launch on the same weekend as Oblivion Remastered, it sold 500,000 copies within 24 hours and 1 million after three days. It’s still maintaining the discourse and curiosity of the games community months later–something that you’d think only a title from a more experienced studio could do. It’s all for good reason, of course–it’s a great game. We even rated it a 9/10 in our Clair Obscur review.
In many ways, its critical and commercial triumph has been encouraging. We should have a wide range of RPGs made by people from different backgrounds, and we should have more turn-based RPGs. However, Clair Obscur’s success also magnified criticisms of Japanese turn-based games, only some of which are deserved. Finally, the haters said, a turn-based RPG that is actually good–as if those don’t already exist.
It raises the question: Why do people think Clair Obscur is “better” than Japanese RPGs that feature similar stories and layered, turn-based gameplay? It may not do anything revolutionary, but somehow wrapping the same ideas into a Westernized package makes that easy to overlook.
A genre by any other name
It’s not radical to claim that turn-based RPGs, like Clair Obscur, were popularized through Japanese developers like Square Enix. So much so, in fact, that the term JRPG became synonymous with turn-based games that often featured anime-style art. However, JRPG really means just what it reads: a Japanese RPG. The term JRPG became a hot topic after FF16 director Naoki Yoshida admitted he viewed it as “a discriminatory term” when he first heard it. After all, it others Japanese RPGs from the rest of the genre.
Favoritism towards Western games shows in the sales. Persona 5, which was enough to break Persona (and, arguably, Shin Megami Tensei in general) out of cult classic status, took over three years to reach 3.2 million copies sold across PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. And yet despite its critical acclaim and connection to a larger series, it took nine years and two distinct versions of Persona 5 for the game to reach over 10 million copies sold–that’s a much slower rate than Clair Obscur.
Persona 3 Reload, the highly anticipated remake of Persona 3, sold 1 million copies in over a week, making it the fastest selling Atlus title ever released. And yet, Clair Obscur did that in just half a day. Toyo Securities estimated Final Fantasy 16 hit about 3.5 million sales in March, nearly two years after the cinematic AAA title was released. Last we heard, Clair Obscur reached 3.3 million just 33 days after its release (wild coincidence, we know).This isn’t just a turn-based RPG bias, either. Baldur’s Gate 3 sold over 2.5 million copies in early access before its official launch, and over 15 million copies total after one year. And yet, the critically acclaimed but more stylized grid-based RPG, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, sits at just over 4 million units sold–and it’s currently the best selling title in the long-running series.
Sure, it’s not all JRPGs. Elden Ring is created by Japanese developer FromSoftware and technically could be classified as a Japanese RPG, but has managed to sell over 30 million copies worldwide. Yet somehow, I don’t think it’d do as well if it forced you to play as a spiky-haired dude with a sword, or an anime babe.
Xenoblade vs. Clair Obscur
Xenoblade Chronicles 3, my 2022 Game of the Year, has a few things in common with Sandfall Interactive’s hit. The chemistry between characters, emotional cutscenes and storytelling, and highly customizable combat made it one of my favorite RPGs in recent memory, and those are all things that make Clair Obscur great, too.
Xenoblade 3 features a cast from two opposing sides, their factions locked in constant war to fuel the lifeforces of entire colonies. Each generation of soldiers “hatches” into the world as a prepubescent child and lives up to 10 Terms, with each Term roughly translating to a year of life. If you happen to survive the full 10 Terms, you’re rewarded with a ceremony that frees your soul from the cycle of rebirth. Mio, one of the main characters, is on her 10th term and nearing the end of her lifespan.
Like the premise suggests, grief over friends lost too early (like the protagonist’s childhood friend, Joran) and anxiety about the finiteness of life (like with Mio) are two main themes that Xenoblade 3 shares with Clair Obscur. It doesn’t explore these ideas through blocks of exposition, but with cinematics, starting with a lengthy opening that introduces us to our main characters. In our Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review, we praised many of the same elements that made Clair Obscur a success.
Clair Obscur’s Act 1 hooked me with its rich worldbuilding and emotional stakes right away. Gustave, our first playable character, says goodbye to his estranged sweetheart during the annual “Gommage,” the time of year when everyone of a certain age fades into smoke and petals. Clair Obscur’s is a society where death is predictable and coming closer every year. It strikes early with the reality of how short the average lifespan is, how many children are prematurely orphaned, and similar sadnesses that define life in the fictional French-inspired city of Lumiere.
These are heavy themes. It doesn’t feel like we’re playing pretend when we experience these stories of sacrifice and loss. Xenoblade 3 and similarly styled Japanese RPGs also explore these, yet seem to have a hard time getting the mainstream audience to take them seriously.
The problem with anime
Many Japanese games feature animated graphics like we see in anime, which are Japanese cartoons. Japan uses anime-style drawings for visual instructions, advertisements, and more outside of the typical children’s TV show. Japanese developers often adapt the same art style into their games, and unwittingly, attract the same xenophobia foreigners have toward anime. It may be difficult to imagine in today’s culture where anime is now cool, but old fans from the ‘90s and early 2000s remember an era where liking anime was “cringey.”
When it comes to anime-style games, the internet is quick to point out any unnecessary sexualization and overused archetypes. These criticisms aren’t limited to turn-based games, but also action RPGs, visual novels, and really anything that comes out of Japan. Despite similar issues arising in Western games, these conversations feel more intensified with Japanese titles, and ultimately give them a bad name.
Common tropes and portrayals in Japanese media are a tougher sell for western audiences that aren’t used to them. They laugh at unrealistic behavior like “anime grunts” in Final Fantasy games. (Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a big offender, enough that someone made a movie-length compilation of anime grunts just from the cutscenes.) Others question the absurdity of how often high schoolers are fighting god or fighting wars with neighboring countries. Tropes like that can work with the right implementation, and lean into the tastes of people already used to anime games and shows–but if you’re not already on board, the themes can be lost in translation.
Even Clair Obscur game director Guillaume Broche senses that there’s some kind of prejudice against Japanese RPGs. He didn’t point to a particular reason, but he addressed it in an interview with Automaton.
“Personally speaking, I think Japanese turn-based RPGs were super popular up until the Xbox 360 era. But around the time open-world games started getting more popular through gaming media, [JRPGs] started being considered ‘uncool’,” said Broche. “While they do still sell a large number of copies, with the Persona series as a prime example, I feel like the prejudice against turn-based RPGs isn’t completely gone.”
In Xenoblade 3, some characters have more out-there qualities, such as cat ears, wings, gray skin, or glowing veins–but none of these are used to fetishize them. And while you could argue that stereotypes like the hotheaded, brawny guy and calculating, studious tactician are present, they never feel particularly trite like they may in a C-grade harem anime. But, because of these quirks and the larger stigma, nobody talks about Xenoblade 3 the way they do Clair Obscur. Part of this could be Clair Obscur’s presentation, which leaned more into Western aesthetics and had the benefit of being a debut game without specific expectations. Meanwhile, Xenoblade Chronicle 3’s marketing focused on it being part of an established series, and showcased chaotic combat (not turn-based) that didn’t fully reflect the actual experience. Perhaps all these had a small hand in why it was forgotten, despite its impressive cinematics and compelling story of grief.
Japanese-inspired
In an interview with RPG Site, Sandfall Interactive co-founder and Expedition 33 producer François Meurisse spoke about his and Broche‘s shared love for JRPGs. Meurisse cited Final Fantasy X and Persona 5 as the team’s biggest influences–FFX for its story and P5 for its gameplay. It bears noting that both of these are Japanese games.
Final Fantasy X launched in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 and later came to other consoles as Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, starting with the Japan-exclusive launch for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013. Our original PS2 review gave it 9.3/10, admitting it used “typical role-playing game clichés” but also, in most cases, “cleverly avoids whatever expectations you may have for it.” (Like with Clair Obscur, Xenoblade 3 fans also draw connections between the two.)
Tidus, FFX’s protagonist, is part of a team of guardians escorting Yuna, a Summoner who can command superpowered creatures at will, on a journey to defeat the godlike being destroying their world. There’s only so much I can give away without spoilers, but FFX features similar turn-based combat and themes of sacrifice. During the mission, Tidus finds out a concerning truth that forces him to accept a major loss for the betterment of their world.
Meanwhile, Persona 5 is now considered the industry standard for turn-based games and proves that the battle system is alive and well–not just found in Clair Obscur. While the exact details differ between the games, Shin Megami Tensei and spin-offs like Persona use a turn-based system that empowers players to stack buffs and trigger combos to hit harder and faster. Atlus’ Metaphor Refantazio, which we gave a 10/0 last year in our review, also builds on this turn-based system.
The Persona series first reached “cult classic” status with Persona 3, which launched about six years after FFX in North America and overlaps with the same themes in Clair Obscur. Like Clair Obscur, Persona 3 is very much about death and is the most heavy-handed Persona game when it comes to portraying it. One of its biggest mottos is “memento mori,” the Latin phrase for “remember you will die,” and your party members summon their Personas by taking an evoker (read: pistol) to the head. That’s all without spoilers for the story, which the community still remembers as a tearjerker that challenges us to think about how we view death.
Persona 3 was the first Persona game to focus on building relationships with teammates plus potential romances, a popular enough mechanic to make it into Persona 4 and Persona 5. Clair Obscur also does this with its characters, although you can max out relationship levels with all characters without worrying about choosing one over the other. Persona 3 still attracts criticism for its pacing and repetitiveness, but the crazy thing is that’s something people are complaining about even in Clair Obscur.
For every success that takes inspiration from FFX and P5, only a few reach enough people to be as talked about as Clair Obscur, even if they receive recognition from critics, awards shows, and their cult followings. I can compare games like Scarlet Nexus, Sea of Stars, and Octopath Traveller 2 all day and still not address what seems to be the real problem: Japanese versus Western tastes.
A cultural divide in media
Clair Obscur is from France, which generally falls under the umbrella of the “West” that includes Western Europe, North America, and Australia. Its killer mimes may be foreign to me as an American, but the photorealistic, live action presentation matches what many of us are used to in the States.
Anime is becoming more popular in the U.S., but it’s still not the norm. Right now on Netflix Japan, the top 10 shows are almost exclusively anime with the exception of Their Marriage (the Japanese title “Shiawase na Kekkon” roughly translates to “Happy Marriage”). The U.S. is the opposite. Our top 10 Netflix shows are all live action except for the My Melody & Kuromi series (which is, unsurprisingly, also the one I most want to watch).
And get this—Clair Obscur is actually not selling that well in Japan. According to Gematsu, the Japanese are busy with Spike Chunsoft’s The Hundred Line: Defense Academy while we’re still arguing about which Clair Obscur ending is best. The Hundred Line Defense Academy launched on the same day as Clair Obscur and sold nearly three times the amount of copies. So there’s something to be said about the opposite, too. Japanese people like Japanese games, and Westerners like Western games.
Why Clair Obscur?
To its credit, Clair Obscur is well-worth celebrating. It gets a lot right, such as how it tastefully incorporates French aesthetics into its main city and weaves its influences through smaller means, like dialogue and cinematography pulled straight from French cinema. However, if we’re talking about the other things that made it successful–like storytelling, exploration, and combat–there are many other games that came before it that do those equally well. If anything, Clair Obscur’s biggest strength is that it takes the best features from the last decade’s best RPGs and implements them in a way that appeals to a larger crowd. But we ought to show respect for the games that came before, even if they are about cartoon orphans fighting big squids.
Clair Obscur is still one of the best games I’ve played this year. I just think we should have a more open mind toward “anime games” because they have many of the same things we love, even if they don’t have those hi-fi graphics.
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