Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 raised its artistic ambitions after the success of Lies of P lit a fire under the team. Sandfall Interactive CEO and director Guillaume Broche says Round8 Studios’ Pinocchio-inspired soulslike pushed his studio to refine and elevate Expedition 33’s Belle Époque vision while the game was still in development.
Both titles draw heavily from the golden age of French art and architecture, a period rarely explored in modern games. Lies of P, which launched in 2023 and surpassed 3 million copies sold by June 2025, arrived right in the middle of Expedition 33’s production. Broche recalls being struck by how stunning Lies of P looked and realizing his team needed to “up our game” to match that level of polish.
The overlap ran deeper than broad aesthetics. Broche points to Hotel Krat, the central hub in Lies of P, and notes how closely it mirrored elements his team was building—Expedition 33 originally centered on a manor as its hub, complete with a record player, similar to the phonographs that populate Lies of P. He admits he briefly worried players might think Sandfall was copying, even though both teams had arrived at similar ideas from the same historical inspiration.
Rather than discourage him, the reception to Lies of P had the opposite effect. Broche says he poured hundreds of hours into the game after launch and felt reassured by how players embraced its art direction. For Sandfall, that positive response validated that a bold, Belle Époque-driven identity could resonate with a global audience.
Round8’s game director, Choi Ji-won, returned the compliment. He praised Expedition 33’s audacious use of French landmarks and confessed he wished his own team had leaned even harder into the era’s architecture and culture. Seeing Sandfall’s ruined Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Place de la Concorde left him with a lingering sense that they could have been bolder.
The creative exchange between the two studios highlights a growing appetite for richly stylized, historically inspired action RPGs. With one game already a hit and the other charging forward with newfound confidence, the Belle Époque is having a moment—one defined by moody grandeur, meticulous worldbuilding, and the drive to keep raising the bar.
