Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer warns against a classic game hangup: “deus ex machina” power creep that makes you wonder “why didn’t they just do this from the beginning”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s principal author Jennifer Svedberg-Yen articulated that the creators at Sandfall Interactive were meticulous in avoiding the typical pitfall of “deus ex machina” scenarios.

Deus ex machina instances, features where characters resolve insurmountable dilemmas through – surprise! – a concealed tactic you were unaware of previously, occur quite frequently in games all around (shoutout to you, Kingdom Hearts 3). However, this is especially prominent in RPGs where characters consistently grow stronger in battles, able to inflict significant damage with more and more extravagant abilities each time they advance in levels.

In a conversation with the Lits Play channel, Svedberg-Yen cautioned against allowing “power creep” to subtly infiltrate your narratives. “One aspect worth monitoring is power creep,” she mentioned. “If you fail to accurately define someone’s capabilities, do you start to encounter deus ex machina scenarios or simply think, oh, ‘then they can just fix this!’ and then you start questioning, well, ‘why didn’t they just do this from the very start?'”

“We did engage in extensive discussions regarding this,” she recounted about Expedition 33’s creation, “but I believe partly because A) it’s a game and abilities and skills are integral to gameplay, and we truly desired gameplay to have complete flexibility in how that could function. Moreover, I think the gameplay team executed a superb job.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s lead mentions the RPG faced “one of the largest remasters” with Oblivion Remastered – yet it turned out well: “I think it makes us even more deserving in a way”