It must be said that few games generate a true consensus between the opinions of the press and those of players. This is what makes the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 all the more impressive, as it currently sits at the top of 2025 releases on Metacritic, with a nice 92 from the media and an extraordinary 9.7 from the public. However, like any work, Sandfall Interactive's title is not perfect. And the studio is now coming back to a choice that has somewhat bothered some players.
The absence of a mini-map in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 explained
Indeed, between two rave reviews, some did not fail to share their disappointment about the absence of a mini-map during exploration. Having become an essential element in many games, it would not have been too much in a title as rich and labyrinthine as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, in the eyes of some players. However, as Guillaume Broche explained in an interview for Dropped Frames, this is a decision he fully assumed. And he absolutely doesn't regret it.
"It makes things boring" justified the Sandfall boss during the talk show broadcast on Twitch. "When I played Final Fantasy 10, I only looked at the mini-map. I didn't enjoy the environments. I don't remember the level design, I just remember the maps." And that's precisely what he wanted to avoid reproducing with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Especially since, as he confessed, he himself can't help but have his eyes glued to it when there's one, even if its presence bothers him.
By opting for the absence of a mini-map in the game, Broche has ensured that players can focus on their exploration itself, without being blindly guided by icons or visual cues. And this, according to him, is what makes discovering the world of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 so immersive and organic. This is what allows the public to better notice, and especially appreciate, all the work done by the teams on the construction of the environments. Their constitution, their secrets, their beauty.
The beauty of RPGs according to Guillaume Broche
And for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 players who would retort that this frustrates them because they don't like missing things in their games, the creator answers them: "Yes, you will miss stuff. Yes, you're not going to find every secret passage. But that's the beauty of RPGs: missing things." He then adds: "When you stop the game and you're like, 'Oh, maybe I should have taken that little passage I saw before, maybe there was something there,' that's when you remember the whole game, all the level design, etc. And it makes exploring so much better." The words are spoken.
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