{"id":2098725,"date":"2026-08-18T08:29:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2098725"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:29:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:29:46","slug":"shuhei-yoshida-told-expedition-33-studio-to-avoid-terms-like-turn-based-rpg-because-it-may-cause-people-to-overlook-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2098725","title":{"rendered":"Shuhei Yoshida told Expedition 33 studio to avoid terms like &#8216;turn-based RPG&#8217; because it may cause people to &#8220;overlook&#8221; the game"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/clair-obscur-expedition-33\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">Shuhei Yoshida told Expedition 33 studio to avoid terms like &#8216;turn-based RPG&#8217; because it may cause people to &#8220;overlook&#8221; the game<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">You&#8217;ve got Maelle.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Clair-Obscur_-Expedition-33_20250412215558.png?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Close up of three female characters bathed in golden light in Expedition 33\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Clair-Obscur_-Expedition-33_20250412215558.png\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Sandfall \/ Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Sherif Saed avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"IMG_1950_Uy1XomJ.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1638\" height=\"1346\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/sherif-saed\">Sherif Saed<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Senior Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\n<p>Published on   <time datetime=\"2026-08-18T08:29:46+00:00\" data-auto-time-zone=\"true\" data-year=\"numeric\" data-month=\"short\" data-day=\"numeric\" data-hour=\"numeric\" data-minute=\"numeric\">Aug. 18, 2026, 8:29 a.m.<\/time>\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"def82ef3-785d-458c-97e8-e94ccb370f05\" data-name=\"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\" title=\"Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33\"><br \/>\n  Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>One of the reasons <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/clair-obscur-expedition-33\">Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/former-ubisoft-devs-unveil-stylish-turn-based-fantasy-rpg-clair-obscur-expedition-33\">stood out so much in early footage<\/a> was how action-packed its combat looked, despite being a turn-based RPG. But while developer Sandfall Interactive has described the game as a turn-based RPG &#8211; and reinvigorated the genre, to some degree &#8211; not everyone was happy with that approach.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed at the Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 over the weekend that he warned Expedition 33 developers not to give the game that label (via <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shuhei-yoshida-advised-expedition-33-developers-not-to-call-it-a-turn-based-rpg-due-to-negative-jrpg-stigma-at-the-time\/\">Automaton<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Yoshida was impressed by the game&#8217;s combat, likening it to The Legend of Dragoon&#8217;s, a game he was the producer of. However, his advice was for the team to pick a different term to describe the game, since he believed &#8216;turn-based RPG&#8217; is an outdated term to some players, who could end up dismissing the game as a result.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s incredibly well-made, but it would be better not to call it a turn-based RPG. That alone might cause players to overlook it,&#8221; Yoshida said, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.4gamer.net\/games\/991\/G999104\/20260815016\/\">4Gamer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yoshida, who worked as an advisor to publishers and developers around the time of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-legend-shuhei-yoshida-announces-retirement\">departure from PlayStation in 2025<\/a>, revealed the anecdote in a panel aimed at helping indie developers pick the right publisher for their games and making a convincing pitch. As part of his consulting work, he worked with Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive, where he got to play a demo of the game two years before its launch.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"clair obscur expedition 33 maelle with short hair in flying waters\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-maelle-with-short-hair-in-flying-waters.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"clair obscur expedition 33 maelle with short hair in flying waters\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"clair-obscur-expedition-33-maelle-with-short-hair-in-flying-waters.jpg\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer\/Sandfall Interactive<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to the report, Kepler and Sandfall took his advice, using the more modern &#8216;reactive turn-based battles&#8217; term to describe the game&#8217;s combat instead. As anyone who played the game will attest, Expedition 33&#8217;s brand of turn-based combat, which melds real-time mechanics like parrying and dodging with traditional turn orders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33s-fresh-take-on-rpg-traditions-could-revitalise-the-genre\">became one of the strongest and most-lauded aspects of the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how much you think Yoshida&#8217;s advice helped, the success of the game is hard to deny. Expedition 33 initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-reaches-a-fitting-sales-milestone\">managed to sell a fitting 3.3 million copies in its first month<\/a>, before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-will-receive-new-update-with-a-bit-of-whee-and-a-bit-of-whoo-as-studio-celebrates-new-sales-milestone\">bumping that to 5.5 million copies<\/a> by October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also been one of the highest-rated games of 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-is-game-of-the-year-but-what-about-everything-else-here-are-the-winners-of-the-2025-game-awards\">winning multiple honours at The Game Awards<\/a> that year, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-50-best-games-of-2025-ranked\">ending up at number two on Eurogamer&#8217;s list of the 50 best games of 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>One of the reasons <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/clair-obscur-expedition-33\">Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/former-ubisoft-devs-unveil-stylish-turn-based-fantasy-rpg-clair-obscur-expedition-33\">stood out so much in early footage<\/a> was how action-packed its combat looked, despite being a turn-based RPG. But while developer Sandfall Interactive has described the game as a turn-based RPG &#8211; and reinvigorated the genre, to some degree &#8211; not everyone was happy with that approach.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida revealed at the Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026 over the weekend that he warned Expedition 33 developers not to give the game that label (via <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/shuhei-yoshida-advised-expedition-33-developers-not-to-call-it-a-turn-based-rpg-due-to-negative-jrpg-stigma-at-the-time\/\">Automaton<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Yoshida was impressed by the game&#8217;s combat, likening it to The Legend of Dragoon&#8217;s, a game he was the producer of. However, his advice was for the team to pick a different term to describe the game, since he believed &#8216;turn-based RPG&#8217; is an outdated term to some players, who could end up dismissing the game as a result.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s incredibly well-made, but it would be better not to call it a turn-based RPG. That alone might cause players to overlook it,&#8221; Yoshida said, as reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.4gamer.net\/games\/991\/G999104\/20260815016\/\">4Gamer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yoshida, who worked as an advisor to publishers and developers around the time of his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/playstation-legend-shuhei-yoshida-announces-retirement\">departure from PlayStation in 2025<\/a>, revealed the anecdote in a panel aimed at helping indie developers pick the right publisher for their games and making a convincing pitch. As part of his consulting work, he worked with Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive, where he got to play a demo of the game two years before its launch.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"clair obscur expedition 33 maelle with short hair in flying waters\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-maelle-with-short-hair-in-flying-waters.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"clair obscur expedition 33 maelle with short hair in flying waters\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-lightbox data-uri=\"clair-obscur-expedition-33-maelle-with-short-hair-in-flying-waters.jpg\" height=\"1080\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1.7777777777777777\" width=\"1920\"><figcaption><span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer\/Sandfall Interactive<\/cite><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to the report, Kepler and Sandfall took his advice, using the more modern &#8216;reactive turn-based battles&#8217; term to describe the game&#8217;s combat instead. As anyone who played the game will attest, Expedition 33&#8217;s brand of turn-based combat, which melds real-time mechanics like parrying and dodging with traditional turn orders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33s-fresh-take-on-rpg-traditions-could-revitalise-the-genre\">became one of the strongest and most-lauded aspects of the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how much you think Yoshida&#8217;s advice helped, the success of the game is hard to deny. Expedition 33 initially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-reaches-a-fitting-sales-milestone\">managed to sell a fitting 3.3 million copies in its first month<\/a>, before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-expedition-33-will-receive-new-update-with-a-bit-of-whee-and-a-bit-of-whoo-as-studio-celebrates-new-sales-milestone\">bumping that to 5.5 million copies<\/a> by October 2025.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also been one of the highest-rated games of 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/clair-obscur-is-game-of-the-year-but-what-about-everything-else-here-are-the-winners-of-the-2025-game-awards\">winning multiple honours at The Game Awards<\/a> that year, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-50-best-games-of-2025-ranked\">ending up at number two on Eurogamer&#8217;s list of the 50 best games of 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Shuhei Yoshida told Expedition 33 studio to avoid terms like &#8216;turn-based RPG&#8217; because it may cause people to &#8220;overlook&#8221; the game You&#8217;ve got Maelle. Image credit: Sandfall \/ Eurogamer News by Sherif Saed Senior Contributor Published on Aug. 18, 2026, 8:29 a.m. Follow Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 One of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2098725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2098725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2098725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2098725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2098725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}