Technologies

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Producer Talks Inspirations: FromSoftware, French Novels

At GDC 2025, the producer explains what the French studio brings to a modern JRPG, from combat to music to art and more.

Western role-playing game fans have had a handful of big releases this year already, like Avowed and the just-announced The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remaster. But gamers looking for novel RPGs trying to break the mold will have another option when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 launches on April 24 — and the game’s producer explained to me what’s in store for players.

At GDC 2025, I got to play a few early hours of Expedition 33, which was made by French studio Sandfall Interactive. With interactive turn-based battles and a sweeping story about death, combined with a gorgeous world and beautiful music, Expedition 33 seems poised to capture gamers looking for something a little different in their sweeping story-based games.

At the preview, I chatted with Sandfall Interactive co-founder and Expedition 33 producer François Meurisse about influences, combat and the art that goes into making a French studio’s take on the venerable JRPG genre.

David Lumb (CNET): This was the first time I’ve been able to get my hands on the game, and it feels so kinetic for an RPG — dynamic menus when I’m switching between windows in combat or dodging enemy attacks. What were the team’s inspirations?

François Meurisse (Sandfall Interactive): The game has some great [Japanese RPG] inspiration, like older Final Fantasies — Final Fantasy 10, for example. But also some big inspiration from more modern JRPGs like Persona 5, for example.

From Persona, we took this inspiration that every click is essential to the action, but no redundant gameplay manipulation to get to what you want to do. Every button you click triggers some camera movement. That makes it almost action-based when you see some people playing. We wanted to have this reactive turn-based feeling that mixes what makes the best out of turn-based games but with a real-time feel.

DL: I really enjoyed how interactive the battle system is. How did you balance parrying and dodging, especially for players who might not be good at either?

FM: So the defense system is quite demanding, but there are several defense options. It’s easier when you encounter a new enemy, for example, to learn their patterns and start with the dodge, which is more forgiving in terms of timing. And when you get the right timing for the perfect dodge, you can try the parry.

We’re very well balanced now, but there are many different playstyles and types of players. And we have a broad variety of equipment, different skills, different characters — so even if you do not like to parry, or if you’re not the best dodger on earth, you can equip some specific passive effects or equipment in line with your play style.

For example, I like dodges over parries, I can have passive effects giving me extra action points with dodges rather than parries. Or I can focus on specific builds to trigger some status effects on monsters and deal heavy, heavy damage and not rely too much on the defense system. And if that’s not something I’m into — the [quick-time events] on attacks — you can enable automatic QTEs in the settings.

DL: Another thing that is pretty striking about the game is the art style. In the demo, I run across this little guy in white, almost clownish look, with a stone corkscrew head. What inspired this art design?

FM: For the whole game, we had more of a Belle Epoque, Art Deco inspiration, so France from early 20th century mixed with high fantasy. That’s something that we wanted for the city at the beginning of the expedition, for the expeditionary outfits, for the manor.

Now, it’s kind of like an expedition into the wild, into an unexplored continent which is quite savage. Our art director chose different inspirations for different enemies and environments — for example, that enemy you mentioned, its references are more like clay sculptures and organic shapes.

DL: That’s a good segue — what does a French studio bring to JRPGs? What is French in the game?

FM: So definitely Lumiere [the city where the game begins and expeditions set out from], the Eiffel Tower [in it]. And yes, there’s a lot of feedback about like the French swearing, some of the names, art inspirations, some clothing patterns.

DL: I feel having the Paintress as the big villain in the end, or at least the one you’re seeking out, is a uniquely French enemy and not something we’ve seen in JRPGs so much.

FM: Yeah, maybe not. The Paintress will reveal some secrets anyway throughout the game.

DL: What else do you feel Expedition 33 brings to JRPGs that we haven’t seen before?

FM: Of course, it’s an RPG at the core, but the game also has more From Software inspiration for stuff like the defense system or even some stats system or deckbuilding inspiration for action points. We took several inspirations of what worked greatly in the games we love, but try to make it our own way with a unique art direction, unique story and unique characters.

DL: Can you tell me more about the music? The battle music especially is fantastic, I love jumping into a fight and hearing a choral element. But there’s also parts that are a little French with organs in the background.

FM: So Lorien [Testard], our composer, composed a full [original soundtrack] for the game. The OST is huge, it will be several hours long, and worked with us from the very beginning of development in 2020. He really composed music side-by-side with the creation of the game. And Alice Duport-Percier, she’s a composer and singer — she has a great voice, she’s a classical singer. And we have about 45 minutes of orchestra recordings with a French orchestra.

DL: We’re getting to the end of our time to chat, and I just wanted to focus on the game’s theme of recurring death as the age limit for surviving humans gets lower and lower every year. What’s the inspiration for that dour theme?

FM: About the countdown, I think Guillaume [Broche, Sandfall Interactive CEO and creative director] woke up one morning and though that idea could be cool. But the expedition concept, the special inspiration behind it is a French novel called La Horde du Contrevent, [in English: The Horde of Counterwind]. It wasn’t translated in other languages, but it’s a cult classic now in French, published in 2004.

It’s a great novel about a group of warriors, like an expedition of 20 or 30 people that try to find the origin of the wind in the world, which always blows from west to east. Every expedition fails, and they send a new one. We loved this idea of like trying to overcome what the best group did before you, trying to find out which point they reached in the world, how they failed and will you succeed?

DL: Okay, last question: what are you most excited for players to experience when they pick up the game for the first time?

FM: Oooh — I mean, everything, the gameplay, the world map. But personally, the story is great. I can’t wait for people to reach the end of the story, to share theories about it, to discover the fate of the characters. The story, its twists, the progression toward The Paintress — it gives me chills. Some of the voice cast [performances] made me cry. So I can’t wait to hear reactions to them.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 comes out for PC, Xbox and PS5 on April 24.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Sept. 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

I didn’t get off to a great start with today’s Mini Crossword, completely blanking on 1-Across. Thankfully, the other clues were easy, and that answer filled itself in. Need some help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Cancel on plans at the last moment
Answer: FLAKE

6A clue: Shade of light purple
Answer: LILAC

7A clue: ___ acid (protein builder)
Answer: AMINO

8A clue: Sarcastic «Yeah, sure»
Answer: IBET

9A clue: Sardonic boss on «Parks and Recreation»
Answer: RON

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Stylish panache
Answer: FLAIR

2D clue: Party game that tests how low you can go
Answer: LIMBO

3D clue: Visitor from outer space
Answer: ALIEN

4D clue: Philosopher who posed the question «What can I know?»
Answer: KANT

5D clue: Environmentally friendly prefix
Answer: ECO

Technologies

Your Old Android Isn’t Dead. These Tweaks Can Bring It Back to Life

Clear space, optimize your battery and update the basics. These quick changes can make an old Android phone feel snappier.

You don’t need the latest Android flagship to get good performance.

Thanks to longer software support from brands like Google and Samsung, older models can still run smoothly, as long as you give them a little attention. Clearing out unused apps, updating your software and tweaking a few settings can breathe new life into a device that feels sluggish. These quick fixes can help your phone last longer and save you from spending on an early upgrade.

Before you start shopping for a replacement, try a few simple adjustments. You might be surprised by how much faster your phone feels once you free up space, optimize battery use and turn off background drains.

Whether you use a Samsung Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus phone, chances are you can still improve battery life and overall speed without buying something new. Just remember that Android settings vary slightly from brand to brand, so the menus may look a little different depending on your phone.

Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Settings to improve your battery life

Living with a phone that has poor battery life can be infuriating, but there are some steps you can take to maximize each charge right from the very beginning:

1. Turn off auto screen brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness level slider to under 50%

The brighter your screen, the more battery power it uses.

To get to the setting, pull down the shortcut menu from the top of the screen and adjust the slider, if it’s there. Some phones may have a toggle for auto brightness in the shortcut panel; otherwise, you need to open the settings app and search for «brightness» to find the setting and turn it off.

2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization

These features focus on learning how you use your phone, including which apps you use and when, and then optimizing the apps and the amount of battery they use.

Some Android phones have a dedicated Battery section in the Settings app, while other phones (looking at you, Samsung) bury these settings. It’s a little different for each phone. I recommend opening your settings and searching for «battery» to find the right screen. Your phone may also have an adaptive charging setting that can monitor how quickly your phone battery charges overnight to preserve its health.

Why you should use dark mode more often

Another way to improve battery life while also helping save your eyes is to use Android’s dedicated dark mode. Any Android phone running Android 10 or newer will have a dedicated dark mode option.

According to Google, dark mode not only reduces the strain that smartphone displays cause on our eyes but also improves battery life because it takes less power to display dark backgrounds on OLED displays (used in most flagship phones) than a white background.

Depending on which version of Android your phone is running, and what company made your phone, you may have to dig around the settings app to find a dark mode. If your phone runs Android 10 or newer, you’ll be able to turn on system-wide dark mode. If it runs Android 9, don’t despair. Plenty of apps have their own dark mode option in the settings that you can use, whether or not you have Android 10.

To turn it on dark mode, open the Settings app and search for Dark Mode, Dark Theme or even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to call it). I suggest using dark mode all the time, but if you’re not sure, you can always set dark mode to automatically turn on based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, or allow it to automatically switch based on your location at sunset and sunrise.

Keep your home screen free of clutter

Planning to hit up the Google Play Store for a bunch of new Android apps? Be prepared for a lot of icon clutter on your home screen, which is where shortcuts land every time you install something.

If you don’t want that, there’s a simple way out of this: Long-press on an empty area of your home screen and tap Settings. Find the option labeled something along the lines of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and turn it off.

Presto! No more icons on the home screen when you install new apps. You can still add shortcuts by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, but they won’t appear on your home screen unless you want them to.

Read more: Best Android Phones You Can Buy in 2024

Set up Do Not Disturb so that you can better focus

If your phone routinely spends the night on your nightstand, you probably don’t want it beeping or buzzing every time there’s a call, message or Facebook alert — especially when you’re trying to sleep. Android offers a Do Not Disturb mode that will keep the phone more or less silent during designated hours. On some phones, this is referred to as the Downtime setting or even Quiet Time.

Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then look for Do Not Disturb or a similar name. If you can’t find it, search for it using the built-in search feature in your settings.

Using the feature, you can set up a range of hours when you want to turn off the digital noise. Don’t worry, any notifications you get while Do Not Disturb is turned on will still be waiting for you when you wake up. Also, you can typically make an exception that allows repeat callers and favorite contacts’ calls to go through. Turn that on. If someone is calling you in an emergency, odds are they are going to keep trying.

Always be prepared in case you lose your phone or it’s stolen

Is there anything worse than a lost or stolen phone? Only the knowledge that you could have tracked it down if you had turned on Google’s Find My Device feature.

To prepare for a successful recovery, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app and then search for Find My Device. It’s usually in the Security section of the Settings app.

If you have a Samsung device, you can use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service, which is found in Settings > Biometrics and security > Find My Mobile.

Once that’s enabled, you can head to android.com/find from any PC or mobile device and sign in to your account. Samsung users can visit findmymobile.samsung.com to find a lost phone.

If you have trouble setting any of this up, be sure to read our complete guide to finding a lost Android phone.

Assuming your phone is on and online, you should be able to see its location on a map. From there, you can make it ring, lock it, set a lock screen note to tell whoever has it how to get it back to you, or, worst-case scenario, remotely wipe the whole thing.

And always keep your phone up to date

As obvious as it may seem, a simple software update could fix bugs and other issues slowing down your Android device.

Before you download and install the latest software update, make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi, or else this won’t work.

Now, open the Settings application and type in Update. You’ll then either see Software update or System update — choose either one. Then just download the software, wait for a few minutes and install it when it’s ready. Your Android device will reboot and install the latest software update available.

There’s a lot more to learn about a new phone. Here are the best ways to boost your cell signal, and here’s a flagship phone head-to-head comparison. Plus, check out CNET’s list of the best cases for your Samsung phone. More of an Apple fan? We have tips for boosting your iPhone’s performance, too.

Technologies

Your Pixel 10 Might Have Issues With Older Wireless Chargers

You might want to try taking the case off your phone in order to successfully charge it.

When Google introduced the Pixel 10 lineup in August, it became one of the first major Android phones to receive the Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which Google calls Pixelsnap. However, users noticed issues with wireless charging on the Pixel 10 almost immediately after its release.

Some people are having trouble charging their phone with the new Pixelsnap charger, and others are having issues with older wireless chargers, including Google’s own Pixel Stands. The bulk of the problems happen when a case is on the phone — whether it has the magnet array or not.

I own both the first and second generation Pixel Stands and both will charge my Pixel 10 Pro XL without an issue if there’s no case on it. However, when I add a case to my phone, the problems begin.

I have three cases for my phone, the Mous Super Thin Clear Case, the Magnetic Slim Case Fit by Grecazo, and a no-name soft TPU case. If my phone has any of those cases on and I attempt to charge it while it’s vertical, it starts to charge and then stops after a second or two, and keeps doing that.

I can fix this for the first-generation Pixel Stand by turning the phone horizontal, but it will still charge very slowly. I can’t seem to fix it at all for the Pixel Stand 2 — vertical, horizontal, it doesn’t charge.

Not everyone has this issue

The problem doesn’t seem to be universal. CNET editor Patrick Holland said he had no issues charging the Pixel 10 Pro during his time with it.

A Google spokesperson told me the Pixel 10 lineup is not optimized for older Qi wireless charging standards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the phones won’t work with older wireless chargers.

Qi 2 is backwards-compatible with older standards, but the phone’s height and charging coil placement on both the phone and the charger are still factors. If you’re having problems, you might see if removing the case helps.

The prospect of potentially needing to replace your older wireless chargers with newer ones isn’t ideal, especially if you shelled out $80 for one or both of Google’s own Pixel Stands. Still, if you want the best wireless charging speed for your brand new Pixel 10 phone, it won’t be with wireless chargers that only support older Qi standards.