There seems to be a disconnect between me and the current discourse surrounding Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I like the game quite a bit, but although I find it to be a good example of a turn-based RPG, it hasn’t changed my life. It’s good! Great, even. But there seems to be a prevailing message being parroted back and forth between people who really like the game that it somehow has ‘saved’ turn-based RPGs.
I’ve seen this idea discussed a lot over the past week on social media and in more traditional gaming publications, but each time I do, I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality where the last 20 years of gaming never happened.
“Turn-based RPGs should make a comeback”? Where have you been? They never left.
Wait, Who Even Are You?
It’s kind of difficult to know where to start when debunking a claim that’s just flat-out untrue. Allow me to list off a handful of great turn-based games released over the last two years or so: Metaphor: ReFantazio, Baldur’s Gate 3, Persona 3 Reload, Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dragon Quest 3: HD-2D Remake, Fire Emblem Engage, Sea of Stars, Honkai Star Rail, Octopath Traveler 2, Unicorn Overlord, Super Mario RPG, the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake — the list goes on, and on, and on.
In fact, there are so many excellent turn-based RPGs from the last few years that I’m certain my list must be missing something big (feel free to let me know in the comments if you’ve thought of one I didn’t).
My point here is clear. There has been no shortage of excellent turn-based RPGs in the last few years, and people who think the genre has disappeared simply haven’t been paying attention. It hasn’t. Turn-based RPGs have been among the most popular games of each year, and there’s usually at least one nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards. I don’t need to remind you that Baldur’s Gate 3 swept at the 2023 Game Awards. If you think the genre has fallen into obscurity, you just haven’t been paying attention.
Just Say What You Want To Say
The most frustrating part about the discourse is that it’s completely fine to have not been playing turn-based games until something like Clair Obscur came along. It’s a great game that reviewed extremely well, and if you weren’t paying attention to the turn-based space, it might seem like it came out of nowhere. Those sorts of games are really fun to play because they take you by surprise, but it seems like Clair Obscur has broken out of the RPG niche and into the mainstream which means people who don’t normally play RPGs are talking about it.
Since that seems to be the case, we now have people who don’t play turn-based games making these big sweeping statements about the state of turn-based games and how there haven’t been any successful turn-based RPGs since Final Fantasy started implementing more active-time combat elements in 2006.
It feels like the reason these big statements are being made is because mild takes don’t garner the same attention as extreme ones. It’s a lot more impactful to say ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has revived a dead genre’ than to say ‘I haven’t played a turn-based game since Final Fantasy 10 in 2001 and I’m really liking Clair Obscur!’ The first statement might be true, but the other statement is far more retweetable.
I wish people would just be upfront about their relationship to a game and its place in the industry. It’s fine to not be a turn-based expert, but it would be a lot easier to talk about games in a nuanced way if people just owned up to that.
Square Enix Isn’t ‘Gaslighting’ Anyone
The other big take about Clair Obscur that’s been shared a lot has been that Expedition 33’s success proves that Square Enix is wrong about modern audiences not being interested in turn-based games – that the company has been ‘gaslighting’ audiences into thinking that they want real-time action games like Final Fantasy 16 and not turn-based RPGs.
First of all, a company can’t ‘gaslight’ you into thinking anything. You’re misunderstanding what gaslighting is. Second, multiple things can be true at once. It’s not a secret that Square Enix has some pretty lofty sales expectations that few of its published games seem to be able to meet. While Clair Obscur has been successful for a small team, that success looks completely different when viewing it through the lens of being a major publisher.
Square Enix has seen incredible success with its smaller turn-based titles in games like Bravely Default, Triangle Strategy, Life A Live, and Octopath Traveler, so the company understands that there’s a market for the genre, it just has to find the right balance for its flagship series. Final Fantasy has been trying things out for a while and strayed away from traditional turn-based games, but that doesn’t mean the company is trying to trick people into thinking that they don’t like the genre when the company has given audiences some of the best turn-based RPGs in recent years.
At the end of the day, I understand that my irritation stems from reading takes from people who have no business having takes on RPGs, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying to see these same ideas echoed over and over again. Well, listen up everyone, if you look to your left you’ll see that it’s my turn in the turn order and I’m using it to dispel the bad takes from Twitter. If you liked Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, go play Metaphor. Or Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Or any of the many titles I listed above. Don’t listen to the detractors, there are plenty of turn-based RPGs to go around.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
