A distorted Eiffel Tower, a shattered Arc de Triomphe and gutted Haussmann buildings. In the opening hours of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a metropolis in ruins reminiscent of Belle Époque Paris opens up to us. The city, named Lumière, also features characters with French-sounding names like Renoir, Lune and Gustave (a nod to Gustave Eiffel). Occasionally, they let slip words like merde and putain in the English version, voiced by renowned actors such as Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Jennifer English (Baldur's Gate 3).

"It's part of our artistic direction to constantly bring to mind that everything is of French origin," explained Guillaume Broche, president and creative director of the Montpellier-based studio Sandfall Interactive, to Le Monde. "But it wasn't even deeply thought out at the beginning," continued this former Ubisoft employee who co-founded the studio in 2020, as evidenced by a 2021 video showcasing its fantasy universe  – at that point devoid of French references.

Together with artistic director Nicholas Maxson-Francombe, an Anglo-Belgian, the pair quickly abandoned the idea of modeling their city after the Victorian style they so admired: "We found it was already well-trodden," as anyone who has played Dishonored (2012), Bloodborne (2015), or Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (2015) can attest. Keen to stand out from other role-playing and action games, the team then set their sights on a historically rare period in video games and one culturally close to the studio: the Belle Époque.

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