It’s a feeling all too familiar to JRPG players. You were diligent, you left the main path whenever possible and completed every side quest. However, upon returning to the main story, you find everything is now comically easy. It’s a common problem in games where enemies don’t scale with the player, and there isn’t really a solution besides having boss mechanics that aren’t tied to numbers — something you’re unlikely to find in the genre.
I certainly felt this phenomenon during my playthrough of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, where the bosses in the main story felt noticeably easier than the bosses of side dungeons. This is one of the regrets of lead gameplay designer Michel Nohra, who opened up about one of the game’s few flaws in an interview with Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar+).
Underestimating Players
“The only thing I regret is not making it clearer that if you wanted the intended difficulty for the boss, you have to go beat it now,” Nohra explained. “Often people don’t want to finish the game, so they do all the side content before finishing it, because once the story is over, you’re usually less motivated to do the side content.”
This is an immutable fact of gaming — doing side content AFTER the game’s climactic battle or conflict resolution just doesn’t feel the same. You lose the sense that you’re preparing for one final moment, and the side content begins to feel less impactful as a result. Of course, this doesn’t include post-game content, as that often builds narratively on the outcome of the main story.
“It’s something I underestimated, which made people want a challenging end boss fight feel a bit disappointed. I don’t regret doing it in the way we did it, but [we could have] had more explanation about your choice in [Act 3].”
There are two final boss fights in Expedition 33, but neither of them is particularly challenging for players who invest time in side content.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Is The Next Baldur’s Gate 3
Sandfall Interactive has created an RPG that will soon cement itself as a modern classic.
Lead programmer Tom Guillermin believes it was humility that led Sandfall to balance the main story in the manner we see in the game.
“We weren’t sure if our game was going to be that good,” said Guillermin. “And if it’s not, people may just want to see the story, and go directly to the end of the story. So it was a surprise for us [that] people were doing every single thing there is to do in the game before going to the final dungeon. We’re happy about that, but we didn’t see it coming.”
Still, an underwhelming final challenge doesn’t undermine the splendour of the game as a whole. After all, I recall one-shotting Alduin beneath the effervescent skies of Sovngarde, and I don’t think it affected how much people loved Skyrim.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Released
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April 24, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
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Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
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Kepler Interactive
