Expedition 33 kept its parry combat against the advice

Guillaume Broche remembers outside voices, early in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, telling the team to drop the combat. A mix of turns with dodges and parries, they were told, was for nobody: turn fans want turns, action fans want action.

The French team of about 30 people kept the system. Timed button presses inside a turn were, to them, exactly what made a fight feel alive. After the 2025 release that combination became one of the most praised parts of the game.

Broche heard that warning regularly before launch. The disputed mechanic ended up as the game’s signature, and the studio still talks to players with the next experiments in the open.