Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 gets praised by President Macron for its Frenchness
By Marco Wutz
Emmanuel Macron is no stranger to the world of games, often being among the first people to congratulate French esports athletes and teams on their victories. Sandfall Interactive, the dev behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, is now receiving the same treatment.
Responding to an Instagram post by the studio, Macron praised the developers for surpassing the milestone of a million sold copies in such a short time and becoming one of the best-rated games on Metacritic. Naturally, he poured a good deal of patriotism into the comment, ending with: “Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and all the creators of Expedition 33. You radiate French boldness and creativity.”
This praise, in turn, earned Macron the most French of emojis in a response from the developers: a baguette. So the circle closes.
It’s the beauty of video games that makes such an interaction possible: France’s head of state praising devs from his country for creating a wonderfully innovative – and he’s right, decidedly French – twist on a genre originating from Japan, played and enjoyed by people worldwide.
Be it visual choices, the way the story goes, or the general worldview it displays, the influence of French culture is distinctly felt in the RPG and it’s definitely one of the aspects making it great — but it wouldn’t be enough to make up for lackluster gameplay, which fortunately it doesn’t have to.
Will Macron ever play the game? Probably not. But it’s nice of him to show support, because it surely means a lot to the people that worked on it.