RPG fans melt down over "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33-like" claim

Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 is a remake of the 2007 Chinese RPG, and fans think the new version takes cues from Expedition 33

After winning so many awards and becoming the darling of the gaming industry, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was practically destined to influence future games. You'd think that more games taking cues from a well-regarded title would be a good thing. Instead, a remake of The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 has been caught in the crossfire of online discourse.

Legend of Sword and Fairy is a long-running and iconic Chinese mythology RPG series that debuted in 1995. Now, over a decade later and a number of sequels and spinoffs, the fourth installment of the turn-based RPG series is being remade in Unreal Engine 5. A trailer for the remake is making the rounds online in Western media, in large part because some aspects of the game are reminiscent of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The fact it's a Chinese-language game has made it easy for some to belittle the RPG as nothing more than a clone.

"The original 2007 game looks like a Suikoden game and now the remake version look[s] like E33," reads one YouTube comment on a trailer upload. "Expedition 44?" another writes.

Arguably, there are notable similarities between the two games. Both are turn-based fantasy RPGs with flashy attacks and an apparent parrying system. But as Sandfall Interactive reminded people during one of its many acceptance speeches at The Game Awards, Clair Obscur is not a project that just popped out of thin air, fully formed. Clair Obscur owes a lot of what it does to Final Fantasy, which is known for its dramatic storylines, flamboyant spells, and enormous attack numbers. The Sword and Fairy series also predates Clair Obscur. If you look at gameplay of the original game that's being remade, it's evident that both Clair Obscur and Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 owe a lot to Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Most RPGs do! I can't be the only one who thinks the protagonist of the Sword and Fairy remake looks like Cloud Strife, right?

It also seems dismissive to simply chalk up negative reactions to Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 as just another iteration of Western anti-China sentiment. After all, the original Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 had a much more peculiar user interface that players navigated to make their next move, as you can see in the Let's Play above. The new version of Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 mimics specifics people associate with Expedition 33's UI, like vivacious zooms that happen as the player highlights attack options and turn order being depicted in the top left corner. People are also pointing to other aspects, like the shift away from purely turn-based combat — but realistically, that's an observable trend in RPGs in general. Even Final Fantasy keeps exploring different ways to make its action more immediately gripping.

Did Clair Obscur invent QTE minigames for attack and defense, menus that move around, or fighting fantastical creatures? Of course not. As commenters are dutifully pointing out in the comments of any upload of The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4, these are elements you can find in series as broad as Nintendo's Mario & Luigi RPGs. Still, it seems disingenuous to say there's zero Clair Obscur influence in the Sword and Fairy remake. Clair Obscur may not be the progenitor of many of its ideas, but what people are comparing here is the distinctive style in which the French RPG implements those ideas. This isn't a case of the internet comparing every JRPG imaginable to Persona 5 because that's the only game in the genre they know.

Ultimately, though, influence is the cross any popular or landmark game has to bear. Good ideas get reproduced. The best ideas become a genre into their own — just look at Vampire Survivors, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or Dark Souls. In the best cases, new games still find a way to implement existing ideas in ways unique to that experience.

But let's not kid ourselves here. The Clair Obscur-likes are coming. Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 just happens to be the first one people can point to.