The team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 visited Square Enix this week, setting off instant speculation that there could be a collaboration in the pipeline.
Sandfall Interactive’s leadership, especially Guillaume Broche and François Meurisse, have always worn their Final Fantasy love on their sleeve.
Broche said he loves JRPGs like Final Fantasy and the Tales series, calling both old and new FF titles key influences. Meurisse pointed to Final Fantasy 10, 7, 8, and 9 as childhood favorites and design foundations. Their vision for turn-based combat, emotional storytelling, and party banter clearly mirrors that era of Square Enix RPGs.
So when the team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showed up at Square Enix and fans didn’t see it as a coincidence.
Fans celebrate the visit and hope for a Final Fantasy crossover
On July 24, Broche (creative director), Meurisse (producer), Tom Guillermin (art director), and Alexis Garavaryan (CEO of Kepler) were welcomed for what Square called a “creatively rich exchange of visions and ideas.”
With the studio’s FF admiration well known, fans quickly started asking the obvious question: was this just a meeting, or the start of something more?
Reactions online came fast. “Preparing for a collab to do a FF title? Final Fantasy 18?” one fan guessed.
Another wrote, “This must be such a proud moment for them! As far as I know E33 was heavily inspired by FFX.”
A popular reply summed it up: “Genuinely happy for them to be invited by their legends. More companies should do this.”
The comparisons are easy to see. Expedition 33 uses a turn-order system like Final Fantasy 10. Its emotional narrative and party interactions resemble those in Final Fantasy 15. The hand-painted art style and dreamlike worldbuilding feel similar to entries like 9 and 10. Even the music was shaped by the mood of classic Final Fantasy soundtracks.
The Sandfall team also made time to visit Kojima Productions while in Japan. Photos shared by Hideo Kojima showed the Expedition 33 creators touring the legendary developer’s studio.
Still, no collaboration has been confirmed. Neither Square Enix nor Sandfall Interactive has announced any joint project. For now, it was simply a meeting between studios.
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