Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 relies on Unreal Engine 5. According to the developers, the switch brought advantages, but it can also be a trap.
In about two months, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be released, one of the most exciting RPGs of the year.
The title from the French developer studio Sandfall Games, which is scheduled for release on April 24, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, uses the Unreal Engine 5, which has been criticized from time to time since its release.
Before the release, Tom Guillermin, CTO and co-founder of the studio, expressed himself in an interview with the portalCreativeBloq about the advantages and disadvantages of the engine used.
So the switch from Unreal Engine 4 to UE5 in 2022 marked a real turning point for Sandfall Games. The changeover was a “game-changer with decisive advantages”:
- According to Guillermin, the integration of Lumen for dynamic lighting and Nanite for high-resolution geometry enabled levels of detail that would be unattainable with manual methods.
- Even “metahuman” is highlighted. With UE5 technology, “photorealistic characters can be generated with little effort.”
Not everything went smoothly when switching to UE5
But the transition to Unreal Engine 5 did not go smoothly. Many UE4 plugins were incompatible, which required creative workarounds.
Sandfall art director Nicholas Maxson-Francombe, who was also interviewed, describes how existing lighting setups had to be completely revised.
“Practically everything had to be redone”; in this context, the art director explicitly states that after the switch to UE5, “caves became too dark and filters no longer worked”.
The adjustments naturally cost valuable development time.
At this point, however, Guillermin also highlights the support provided by UE5 developer Epic, which, with monthly asset packages(3D models and textures), enabled Sandfall Games to “perform above its own weight class”.
The ability to use “almost infinite polygons” through nanites or AI-supported lighting calculations was previously reserved exclusively for large studios with special engine teams, according to the Sandfall CTO.
Unreal Engine 5: The Balancing Act Between Quality and Quantity
But despite the engine’s advantages, Guillermin warns against false expectations that developers may have for both Clair Obscur and other UE5 titles:
»[The engine] can be a trap because players expect AAA quality in all areas, even in terms of scope«.
- In this context, the Sandfall CTO also explains that Clair Obscur will contain about 30 hours of gameplay. Guillemet also calls this duration “a compromise between quality and quantity”.
- The Sandfall team therefore warns against the temptation to use engine features “for their own sake”. Maxson-Francombe emphasizes: “Every effect must serve the overall vision [of the game], not the demonstration of technology”.
Overall, Guillermin sees Unreal Engine 5 as an indispensable tool for the future. Even complex implementations are made possible by good documentation and sample projects.
