The developers of Clair Obscur gave me an interview and some advice
We spoke about the game's finale (don't worry, there are spoiler warnings), the best Pictos, and what I can be doing better.
This story, perhaps appropriately, goes on a bit longer than you might expect, past what may feel like the conclusion.
And it ends with a surprise.
This was not by design. In my business of reporting, you can’t plan surprise endings. But it is what delightfully happened.
This story is merely an accurate account of my absurd endeavor from earlier this month, when I tried to finally play through 2025’s most acclaimed video game, the role-playing phenomenon Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, in a sudden rush.
I had a deadline: a date when I expected to have a chance to chat about Clair Obscur with some of its creators. We would perhaps discuss the game’s ending, which, in their business of making video games, they could plan for.
I will get to all of that. I will get to Thursday night, March 12, when I spoke to two of Clair Obscur’s creators, discussed the ending and got myself an in-person consultation about my characters’ builds.
But I must start this story on an airplane.
It’s Sunday, March 8 and I have downloaded Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 to the portable ROG Xbox Ally X, a Switch-looking device that can run games offered via Xbox Game Pass. At this point, I have only played a little past the prologue of Clair Obscur, back on an Xbox in my house. Cloud saving has transferred my progress to the portable. In the game, our protagonist Gustave and his sort-of sister Maelle have set out on Expedition 33, the latest annual beach landing of adventurers who hope they will be the ones to take down the distant and mysterious paintress, who somehow, magically annihilates everyone of a certain age each year.
I know I’ve given myself barely enough time to play through this game ahead of Thursday, when Clair Obscur is likely to win another pile of awards at the former Game Developers Conference (now GDC Festival of Gaming) and when I’ll be backstage with an opportunity to interview the winners.
In the weeks prior, I’ve been busy writing and reporting and, in terms of actually using a controller, playing through Resident Evils.
Just back in February, I had been backstage at a different gaming awards event, where I’d met some of the makers of Clair Obscur and where I’d not spoken to them about the game, because I had other coverage goals for my chats with the winners.
For the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 12, though, I want to talk about the games. My friend urges me on. You should try to finish Clair Obscur, he says. They haven’t spoken about the ending all that much, yet it’s all the game’s fans talk about. You gotta find out what happens, he says, even if you just have to watch a video. Perish the thought.
So I’m on United Airlines flight 1777 from EWR to SFO, comfortably seated in window seat 39A. My Ally X is in my hands, and Clair Obscur is running, well before takeoff. I’ve boarded fairly early. Soon, a man with long curly hair takes the middle seat next to me. There is still plenty of elbow room for me, and I start playing. Best I can tell, the man in the middle seat soon starts a nap.
Gustave, alongside a magically powered woman named Lune, are fighting enemies called Nevrons in dramatic turn-based fights. They reunite with red-haired Maelle. As the plane takes off and begins to cross the United States, things are going well. I’m loving the combat and the look of the game’s world.
Before my plane lands, I reach the end of Clair Obscur’s first act. Big twist! I’ve been rushing, avoiding sidequests, and, wow. I did not see that coming. I’m stunned, but I don’t think anyone on the flight notices. I make sure not to disturb the curly-haired guy next to me, who I think at this point is watching a movie?
After my flight lands, I text my friend to confirm that I have not seen Clair Obscur’s wildest turn. I have not.
I have flown to San Francisco for work. I file a newsletter and then, on Sunday evening, I go to an indie gaming showcase. Later, I play Clair Obscur well into the night.
On Monday, I have a business breakfast, a panel to cover, a panel to be on, and a business dinner. I am busy, but I am also on a mission. I return to my hotel and resume playing.
A pattern develops: I fall asleep quickly, then wake up at some strange post-midnight hour, play some more and go back to bed ahead of my morning appointments.
Tuesday is similar. I’m digging into Clair Obscur’s Act 2, which feels slower. I’m learning about a new character named Verso and am expanding my party some more. I start getting lost a lot, perhaps because I’m rushing and playing at stupid hours, or because Clair Obscur’s developers refused to include a mini-map.
On Wednesday, I’m writing about Nintendo’s Donkey Kong developers and taking notes about PlayStation fonts, but I can’t stop hearing Clair Obscur’s lovely soundtrack in my head.
I consider that what I’ve been doing is unhealthy. But the costs have been sunk and I’m going to pay them. That night, I try to get to the end of Act 2. I conk out. I wake and play on. It seems that I am nearing the game’s finale. Clair Obscur does what many RPGs do. It pulls my characters through a series of remixed battles with all the enemies I’ve encountered until this point. It builds to a showdown against a powerful boss, which I can see will lead to another, probably with multiple phases. I’ve rushed too much and am not powerful enough. I drop the game to “story” difficulty and beat these bosses.
Then, I clear it. Lengthy cutscenes play. Characters reunite. Meaningful glances are exchanged. The music swells. And okay, some very shocking things happen. The title card that announces I’m in an epilogue might as well announce that I’m in a sequel, because I can tell that, actually, there’s a whole lot of game left.
It’s 3AM on Thursday morning. I have no time left.
I look online to find out what remains. There’s an endgame, an ultimate battle and a choice of two endings. I read what they are. Wow. Even wilder. I am interested enough to want to play to that choice someday, but I need to sleep, and I’d prefer to savor the remaining sections.
On Thursday, I file another GDC dispatch, go to some panels, attend some meetings, and then hit the awards.
That night, Clair Obscur cleans up at the awards. Each time they win, members of the development team from Sandfall Interactive come backstage. Reporters in the green room are told when we can interview them and when they need to swiftly take an official trophy photo and go right back to their seat in time for the next possible win. At one point, they win an award for sound, and I find myself briefly complimenting them about the crack of Renoir’s cane.
Then Sandfall wins the big award. Game of the Year. A gaggle of developers from the game are backstage. I get the attention of Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, the game’s lead writer, and Tom Guillermin, its lead programmer.
I explain that when I saw them at a prior awards show, a month ago, I had not yet played much of Clair Obscur. But I have played most of it in the past week, I explain. I cleared Act 2 this morning at 3AM.
And I have done it so we can discuss the ending. They are some mix of amused and horrified, best I can tell.
“Nobody’s talked to us about the ending,” Svedberg-Yen says. I can tell she is joking. I also realize that, in all my manic playing, I had not thoroughly checked for if and when the developers had spkoken about the ending and what they said about it.
(At this point, I’ve been vague, but PARTIAL CLAIR OBSCUR ENDING SPOILERS NOW. I’ll also mark when the spoiler part of this piece ends.)
Act 1 of Clair Obscur concludes with a surprise character death. Act 2 ends with the revelations that the paintress was not the true enemy, that the world our Expedition lives in exists inside the painting of a boy who has died. The conflict within that world is a manifestation of his Parisian family’s struggle to mourn him. The game’s actual ending involves the player choosing to side with one of two characters, Verso or Maelle, to determine the fate of the world in the painting.
I ask Svedberg-Yen and Guillermin about their twist-filled game and why they made an adventure that keeps changing the player’s sense of what the game is even actually about.
“We actually came up with the entire concept together as a whole,” Svedberg-Yen tells me. “And it was a question of how best to unfold that story. It wasn’t like we were purposefully thinking, ‘We’re gonna hide it towards the end.’ Although, we do also love twists, from a dramatic effect perspective… Ultimately, it was about the journey of the Expedition and uncovering the truth.”
Svedberg-Yen also tells me she liked the idea of focusing on a small number of people who have dramatic effects on an entire world. “When we look at the conflicts in the world, often it boils down to individuals making choices,” she says. “And one of the things we wanted to explore in this game was: What are the costs of some of those decisions? Things that seem very large-scale have a very human cost. At the end of the day, we have to think about: ‘Whose happiness are we prioritizing?’ ‘What is the cost?’ Very rarely can we find a happily ever after.
She says they always planned for multiple endings: “From the very start, there would always be two, and they need to be understood together.”
Players keep asking about them, she says. “They want to know: ‘What is the right ending?’ There is no right ending. You have to understand them together as a duality.”
She tells me she’s heard from players who are upset, who interpret the ending as just saying the action of the game was a dream and doesn’t “matter.” But, she considers, if players are upset about the deaths of virtual characters, then don’t those dream worlds matter?
I ask both of them if Sandfall has any data about which ending people preferred. “We have no way of knowing,” Guillermin says.
Svedberg-Yen tells me she’s polled players on Instagram but assumes that there could me a skew based on platform. In one poll, with about 1,000 people responding, 54% said they’d sided with Verso, 26% with Maelle. 20% chose the poll’s joke option of a “secret Clea ending.”
Even if there’s no “correct ending,” people ask if there’s a canon one. I wondered that, too. A week later, I would check in with Svedberg-Yen about that. What if you want to make more games in this world? Or in some other way continue the story? Are you prepared to pick one? Or make accommodations in sequels (a la Mass Effect) for players who chose different endings? “We knew from the start there would be two,” she reiterated. “We know the ramifications of that, and there is NO canonical ending, full stop. That is intentional.” She had no comment about what this could mean for any future games.
(End of Clair Obscur ending spoilers)
Back there, on that Thursday night, I ask Svedberg-Yen and Guillermin a bonus question: Never mind the best ending, what is the best Picto—the best perk to have equipped on one of my characters? Which one should I have been using the most?
Guillermin mentions “roulette,” a Picto that gives you a 50/50 chance for your attacks to land for half damage or double damage.
“Roulette is really quite a lot of fun,” he says.
“Really?” I reply. I had avoided it. “I’m not a gambler.”
It is good to use, on average, he says. “It’s adding randomness to your run, which can also get a bit addicting.”
I tell him that I’d been using Pictos that give my characters extra Action Points (AP), which are spent on moves. My copy of the game is nearby, on the portable Xbox Ally X that’s in my bag.
“We can judge your build!” Guillermin says.
“If you’re into it,” I reply. “I would love for you to judge my build.”
Guillermin and Svedberg-Yen answer some other reporters’ questions. And Svedberg-Yen excuses herself from any build talk. Somehow, it seems she might have better things to do.
I boot the game up and hand Guillermin the system. He pokes through the menus.
I explain that my battle strategy is to light enemies on fire with Lune, then use their burning status to bring Maelle into her “Virtuose Stance,” where she hits harder.
Guillermin approves of this: “Burning is key in triggering many things.”
As he peers at my Pictos, he questions why he isn’t seeing one of them in my loadout. “No AP gain on parry?” he asks.
“I’m terrible at parrying,” I say. (I mean, am I? Or am I just terrible at parrying when I’m playing past midnight?)
“That makes sense,” Guillermin says. “The game is also built to accommodate people who love parrying, and people who just don’t feel like it.”
He mentions that skills that apply “defenseless” are “undervalued” by players. Noted.
He likes that I’d pushed Maelle’s luck stats high. She’s got a weapon that scales well when you put points in luck.
How was I doing overall?
“I think you will manage,” he says.
“Is there anything I can be doing better?”
He politely tells me that I was overdoing it “maybe a little bit” on Pictos that beef up my Action Points.
He also encourages me to look more closely at the stats each Picto grants my characters. The Pictos apply special powers but also can boost basic stats like health. I should look into swapping out low-level Pictos that only add low stats. He shows me that I have a “Longer Shell” Picto that has an irrelevant perk but offers really high stat boosts. He notices I have a Picto called “Painted Power” that lets me exceed the game’s initial damage limit of 9,999. We both realized that I must have just obtained it, possibly at 3AM. “Okay, let me just put it in there,” he says, as he changes one of my character’s Pictos and gives her Painted Power. This was great! The maker of the game was updating my loadout.
Stepping back, does he approve of my main battle trio of Sciel, Lune and Maelle?
He says he liked to keep Verso and Maelle in the party together and use their synergy with powers tied to “marking shots.” He’d used that strategy throughout the game.
I ask if I was missing out by not using the character Monoco. He is really strong but “harder to control at first,” Guillermin says. I conclude that I did not need the hassle.
And that is about it. I got my interview about the ending. I also got in-person gameplay tips from the lead programmer.
All that playing was worth it.
The end, right?
This story has an epilogue.
On Friday, March 13, I take one last swing through GDC and head to the airport. I decide I will do other things for the flight back: maybe watch something or do some reading. For this flight, at least, I am on a Clair Obscur break.
To get home, I am flying United again. SFO to EWR, UA 2626. I had again booked a window seat, though in a different row and on the other side of the plane. Seat 37F.
I board fairly early and settle into my seat. Soon, a man approaches to claim the middle seat. The man has long, curly hair. I recognize him right away.
In four decades of flying, I don’t think this has ever happened to me before.
I ask: You sat next to me on the flight here on Monday, right?
Yes, he says. He also seems amazed.
Had he just been to the Game Developers Conference? No. He’d been to Yosemite.
But he recognized me, too, he says. He remembers me from the first flight: “You were playing that video game.”
Item 2: In brief…
😮 Sony is raising the prices of the PlayStation 5 by at least $100, starting April 2, the company said today.
The base PS5, which launched in 2020 at $500, will now cost $650; the disc-drive-free PS5 digital, which launched at $400, is up to $600; the PS5 Pro, launched in 2024 at $700, will cost $900.
Sony had already increased PS5 prices once last year.
From today’s announcement, which confirmed price hikes globally: “We know that price changes impact our community, and after careful evaluation, we found this was a necessary step to ensure we can continue delivering innovative, high-quality gaming experiences to players worldwide.”
Just yesterday: I wrote about how rising RAM prices, which have spiked due to the AI industry’s rush for components, led to a price hike for the Nex Playground console.
🤔 Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young told shareholders during a financial update that he’s aware of criticisms of the storyline in his company’s hit new game Crimson Desert, Forbes reports.
As he is quoted in the report: “I partially empathize with the disappointment users feel regarding the story. I believe it would have been better if we could have handled it better… The development team tried to fill in the gaps in the remaining time, but ultimately, we focused on strengthening the gameplay, which is what we do best.”
Crimson Desert has sold over three million copies since its March 19 release, making it one of 2026’s breakout hits.
Item 3: The week ahead
Monday, March 30
Puzzle Spy International (PC) is released.
Tuesday, March 31
Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike (PC) and Super Meat Boy 3D (PC, console) are released.
Wednesday, April 1
The Super Mario Galaxy movie premieres.
Thursday, April 2
Octopus side-scroller Darwin’s Paradox (PC, console) and I Am Jesus Christ (PC) are released (In 2022, I previewed the latter, which is indeed a Jesus Christ simulator).
Temtem Swarm(PC, PS5), think Vampire Survivors meets Pokémon, gets its 1.0 update.
Thank you for the read! I took months to play Clair Obscur since I was playing with my partner. I remember the weeks we didn't play I would be thinking about the game constantly. So interesting to hear about your experience.
Wonderful take about your time with Clair Obscur. But Stephen, have you been back to play the epilogue, especially with your new and improved build?!